TRANSCRIPT: PARLIAMENT HOUSE DOORSTOP, 15 February 2021

7:23AM

E&OE

Subjects: Coronavirus Vaccine, Regional Employment, Aged Care;

MICHAEL McCORMACK

Well, we are just days away from the first vaccine roll-out and this is an important step in the pathway back to some sort of normality, some sort of pre-COVID normality. It’s taken a long time, of course, Australia has been the envy of the world with the outcomes that we’ve been able achieve through health and indeed, through the economic decisions that the Government has made. We’ve done very, very well. Yes, we mourn for those 909 people who’ve lost their lives and we’ll continue to do that. It seems a long time ago – March 1 last year when James Kwan in Perth was the first person to die from COVID-19. But considering where we are with the rest of the world, we’ve done very, very well. And that’s on the back of taking the best possible medical advice the whole way through – through Brendan Murphy, through Paul Kelly, through the Australian Health Protection Principal Committee, we’ve done very, very well and we’ll continue to do so. I thank Australians for what they’ve done thus far, making sure that they social distance, making sure that they quarantine when asked to do so, self-isolation, wearing masks, all those sorts of things. It’s been a difficult time. It’s been a very difficult time for business. It’s been a very difficult time for all concerned but we thank Australians for their magnificent efforts.

We thank the truckies for being able to get all the products, all the goods, all our food right across the nation. And, of course, truckies again are going to play a part in the roll-out of the vaccines. Certainly when it comes to Pfizer we’ve secured 80,000 as the first plane load of vaccines. I looked and toured the facility yesterday in Western Sydney. DHL has a national network. They’re going to make sure that the Pfizer vaccine, first deliveries – we’ve got three million in the first shipments of this. We’ve secured 20 million Pfizer vaccine doses. We’ve secured 150 million doses all up and of course the Therapeutic Goods Administration will be making certain decisions around Novavax and AstraZeneca in coming days.

So it’s an important time. It’s a critical time. Those vaccines, those Pfizer vaccines need to be kept, need to be stored at -70˚C and the facility that I toured yesterday does just that. We’ve already invested and committed $1.9 billion towards the initial phase out, towards the initial roll-out of the vaccines and we’ll do whatever is necessary to make sure that we get these vaccines to each and every far-flung corner of this nation.

It’s a big country. This is a massive logistics exercise but, as I say, it’s the first stage in this roll-out, the first stage, the first few days towards some sort of normality and we thank DHL. We thank everybody who’s going to be involved in this. Certainly, I know the frontline medical personnel who will receive the jab first along with aged care residents and aged care workers, they will be lining up. And I urge and encourage Australians when the opportunity arises for them to also do that, to very much get that jab so that they can protect themselves and protect others as well.

JOURNALIST

Do you believe Victoria’s lockdown state-wide has been proportionate or is it on overreaction?

MICHAEL McCORMACK

I’m not going to criticise Daniel Andrews. I’m not going to stand here and point the accusatory finger and say he’s doing the wrong thing, because he is doing what he thinks is best for his State. But it’s very, very difficult when you live at a place like Mildura. Haven’t had a COVID case. Many hundreds of kilometres from the capital of the State and you’re a farmer and you’ve got to put a mask on to go outside and check your stock. I mean, that is a bit of a nonsense. It is very difficult, I appreciate that Daniel Andrews is making decisions based on his CMO as to what he thinks is right for Victoria. But, again, it’s hard when you are in regional Victoria. It’s on again, off again. Very, very difficult. But these are difficult times. And I appreciate that people have jurisdictional responsibility and ultimately we’ll all be held to account for the decisions we take and make and I just understand for regional Victorian it is so hard.

JOURNALIST

It’s clear now that JobSeeker won’t return to $40 a day. Do you concede that that would have been too low?

MICHAEL McCORMACK

Well, I’m not going to speculate. I mean, there’s been a lot of speculation about JobSeeker. But I come for regional Australia – 54,000 jobs identified by Regional Australia Institute right now out in the bush and they’re not just fruit picking. They’re not just working in a meat processing plant. They’re good, well-paying jobs. And, of course, if you pick fruit and work in a meat processing plant, you know, there’s good pay available there too. But there are jobs in all sorts of endeavours and interests right across regional Australia right now going begging because they just can’t find workers. And so I appreciate, too, that for every job seeker, they might not have the means to just get up and move to a region, move to a country centre. But let me tell you, that 7,782 Sydneysiders in the December quarter took that choice, took that option to move to a regional centre. And they’re going to love it. Because regional centres are big enough in which to get a good cup of coffee and they’re small enough to still care. So there are jobs out there. They’re going begging at the moment. So I urge and encourage all Australians to think country, to think rural and regional. Great job, fantastic communities and there’s the prospect there that you’ll change your life. It might not be your forever job, but it is a job and having a job is better than not having one.

JOURNALIST

What about streamlining some of the supplemental payments for JobSeeker? Is that on the table?

MICHAEL McCORMACK

Well, again, I’m not going to speculate on speculation. I know there’s been all sorts of discussion about what we need to do and what we don’t need to do. But JobKeeper and JobSeeker, we always said are temporary, scalable and targeted. They are. They helped support the economy in these challenging and unique times. We’ve done well on an economic front. We’ve done well on a health front. And we’ll continue to strive to do our best to serve Australians, as we always have, and to make sure that we get those economic outcomes. It’s very hard if you’re running a business. You know, a lot of people don’t know what it’s like. Certainly nobody on the Labor side does. The only small business they ever looked at was a big business when they took over Government and they turned it into a small business or a business that they ran a picket line out the front of. They don’t understand business. Liberals and Nationals do. We know how difficult it is to run a business. I’ve run one myself for eight years. It’s difficult. It’s hard to make sure that you not only support your own interests but to support those workers who work for you. And it’s not easy when you’ve got Premiers changing the rules from one day to the next and closing borders from one day to the next. It is very, very difficult. The uncertainty and the inconsistency is so hard. But we’ll continue as a Federal Government to support business. We’ll continue to provide lower taxes. We’ll continue to make sure that we’ve got that support for not just business for also for workers.

JOURNALIST

On aged care, why can’t the Government end the very lengthy waiting list for people waiting for a home care package?

MICHAEL McCORMACK

Well, we’re putting in place more home care packages all the time. We’ve got a record number of home care packages available and we keep increasing the number of home care packages available. Again, we’ve got a royal commission making certain recommendations and we’ll certainly look at those recommendations and we’ll certainly do what we can to support the sector. We’ve got an ageing population. We want to make sure that we’ve got the best available support for those people who, you know, the only difference between those people in an aged care centre and us is they got here first. They were born before we were. So we want to make sure – they’ve done the right thing by Australia. They’ve done the right thing by our nation. Many of them have served our nation in times of military crisis. And so we owe it to them to give them the best possible care and support. And that’s what we’ll do. Thank you.

ENDS 7:31AM