CHANNEL 9 THE TODAY SHOW
E&OE TRANSCRIPT | SUBJECT/S: Vaccine rollout; Aged Care; the right to feel safe working at Parliament.
KARL STEFANOVIC, HOST: The report card from the first week of our National Vaccine rollout is in and it doesn’t look good. Elderly patients given four times the normal dose. Targets for giving the jab to aged care homes already falling chronically behind schedule. And the blame game starting. State leaders complaining it’s all the PM’s fault. Let’s discuss with Minister for Home Affairs, Peter Dutton in Brisbane, and Deputy Opposition Leader Richard Marles in Melbourne. Good morning, gents. Nice to see you this morning.
PETER DUTTON, MINISTER FOR HOME AFFAIRS: Good morning, Karl.
RICHARD MARLES, DEPUTY LEADER OF THE AUSTRALIAN LABOR PARTY: Morning, Karl.
STEFANOVIC: Pete, to you first. If you can’t get aged care right, how’s the general public rollout for the vaccine going to go?
DUTTON: Karl, I think people should calm down a little bit. When you look at the numbers, the logistics and what’s involved here in this rollout, I think the first most important point is that the vaccine, we’ve now demonstrated practically, obviously, to be safe, and people should be reassured by that. So have a conversation with your doctor about when you will be eligible. Most important thing is to continue the rollout. People snipe from the sidelines. It’s pretty rich, I’ve got to say for some of these Premiers who through thick and thin the Prime Minister’s backed during the course of COVID, even when they’ve made some stupid decisions about border closures. And now, of course, you’ve got them playing politics so says more about them than it does us, I suspect .
STEFANOVIC: Richard, it’s mainly the Labor Premiers, of course.
MARLES: I don’t know what to say.
DUTTON: You defend Dan Andrews. You defend Dan Andrews.
MARLES: You said the Prime Minister was supporting the Premiers while you give’em a slap- all in the one sentence! I mean it says everything about 2020.
STEFANOVIC: He’s gifted.
MARLES: He is gifted – it’s extraordinary. Look, I – first I completely agree with Peter that the vaccine is safe. And that’s the starting point here. And it’s gone through all the approvals. And people should have a sense of confidence about taking the vaccine. And it’s really important that people do get vaccinated when their turn comes along. I do find it surprising that we’ve seen the bungles that we have in the first week. I don’t really understand how you could have a situation where a doctor hasn’t done the training, and is administering the vaccine. And, you know, the rollout in relation to nursing homes has not been at the rate that was being expected. The government has said that it will vaccinate four million people through March, you know, we very much hope that happens. And we want to support them in doing that. But it’s for the Government now to give a sense of confidence to the Australian people that this vaccine rollout is going to happen, you know, in an orderly and effective way.
STEFANOVIC: Richard and Pete, what I really worry about in this country is the way that we treat our citizens in aged care. It’s appalling. And this happening to them this week is a reminder, there’s another report out today. Pete it needs to be fixed.
DUTTON: Absolutely does Karl and that’s why we’ve got a Royal Commission and the recommendations aren’t far off. And, and we’ve obviously been speaking a lot about ways in which we can roll out support to our aged care facilities in a more efficient way. There’s more and more money going in each year. So there’s not a reluctance to invest into this space. People should live with dignity. People have – it’s more complex of course now, Karl because people are living longer with dementia- people were, a generation ago, dying of heart disease or hypertension, etcetera, before they had the onset of Alzheimer’s or dementia. So people are staying at home longer, people want that care in home and those that are going into aged care in many cases are more acute in terms of the needs, and we’d need to do more. There’s no question about that. The Prime Minister has been very clear and we’ll do that.
STEFANOVIC: Okay. It’s a shocking question to be asking in 2021 that; what woman would want to work in our national parliament? A survey reveals sexual harassment and bullying is rife. Two thirds of staffers too worried about their careers to report abuse. And the Australian Federal Police writing to the Prime Minister to remind him that all abuse and criminal activity happening within parliament has to be reported. In a strongly worded letter, the AFP Commissioner says this, ‘I cannot state strongly enough the importance of timely referrals of allegations of criminal conduct. Any delay in reporting can result in the loss of key evidence. It also has the very real potential to compromise the rights of victims.’ Make no mistake about it, the AFP letter was a massive shot across the PM’s bow. Pete,the Prime Minister wants to know when something happens now. Wow! Hello?
DUTTON: Karl, honestly, the interpretation of this letter is quite remarkable. I sat down with the Police Commissioner during the week and talked about this letter. I’ve read the letter. The letter is a very clear direction to the parliament that if you have a complaint to make, if you’ve received a complaint, if you know somebody that needs to make a complaint, refer it to the AFP. That’s exactly what happened in relation to this matter. And obviously for Brittany’s own reasons, for good reasons, she’s decided that she wouldn’t make a formal- or official complaint to the Federal Police until Wednesday of this week. And the police can’t start that investigation until there is that complaint made by the complainant. And I think all the Commissioner was doing, what he was seeking to do, I know from having spoken to him, was to make sure that people knew of the process, that if other people come forward as a result of the publicity around this case, here’s the hotline that you call – get in contact with the Federal Police. He doesn’t want to read about it in the media. He doesn’t want to see a trial in one of these matters in 12 months time where there is a compromise of a verdict or where a judge makes a judgment that an accused of an horrendous crime, like rape, can’t be convicted because of an unfair trial because of media attention. They were the points that he was trying to make. And we should be very clear about it.
STEFANOVIC: Do you regret saying, ‘he said, she said’, yesterday?
DUTTON: I – look Karl, yesterday I tried to make the point that we have to have a rule of law apply here in relation to these cases, and I’ve been an investigator in relation to sexual offences. I’ve locked people up for rape. I have made it my priority in public life, to be honest and I feel very passionately about this. To protect women and children, I have cancelled visas of paedophiles. The Labor Party has criticized me for being too hard in relation to these matters. I don’t see any more important task for me than to protect women and children in this job. And I do it every day. So the point I was making was that in relation to these cases, the police will hear different accounts, they will hear evidence from different people. They will distil all of that, and they will decide whether or not a prosecution needs to take place. That’s not to detract from a victim, not to detract from the seriousness of this matter. I find the sexual assault of women, sexual harassment in the workplace, one of the most abhorrent acts that a man could ever perform or undertake. And I’ve been very clear about my views on that over a long period of time. I’m not going to be lectured by the Labor Party, who have played politics with this issue for the last two weeks.
STEFANOVIC: Richard, the Coalition and Peter himself has rightly copped it – or wrongly. It’s a good thing sexual harassment never happens in the Labor Party?
MARLES: No one’s making that claim, Karl. I mean, I think what we’ve seen in Parliament House is an indictment on all of us. And I’ve been saying that, we’ve all been saying that from the get go. I actually don’t think this is a partisan issue at all. I think this is an issue about the workplace in politics, and particularly the workplace in Parliament House and making sure that the privilege that goes with working in Parliament House is not a license to bad behaviour, but is in fact the opposite. It’s a call to Parliament being what should be the model workplace in the country. And that’s what we’ve got to strive towards. I mean, I did think that the letter from the AFP was pretty extraordinary, and that there was felt a need to have that letter written. I’d also make the point; it’s not just reporting the crime- that’s obviously critically important as a first step, but it’s people being supported throughout that process. And ultimately, you know, that’s what Brittany Higgins is saying that she felt she didn’t have in relation to her circumstances. And the starting point in all of this is that we’ve got to deal with these questions openly and honestly, and frankly, that’s not what’s been occurring from either the Prime Minister or from the Prime Minister in respect of his Office.
STEFANOVIC: There’s a lot of eyes on Parliament House and how he navigates through this. All the very best and let’s hope it’s done. So thank you for your time, gentlemen. Appreciate it.
ENDS