Radio interview – ABC Melbourne mornings with Virginia Trioli
VIRGINIA TRIOLI, HOST: Prime Minister, good morning, how are you?
ANTHONY ALBANESE, PRIME MINISTER: Good morning, Virginia. Well, not 100 per cent, obviously, but I’m doing okay. One of my staff tested positive for COVID, so I did a RAT yesterday morning and it was negative, then I did another RAT, that was negative again. Then I started to feel a little bit of a tickle in my throat so I did what the advice is and went and got a PCR and unfortunately, it has come up positive. So I’m isolating while I have symptoms, which is what the health advice is and have been in touch with my doctor as well to continue to get advice and to get better, hopefully sooner, as soon as possible.
TRIOLI: Will you be able to use antiviral medication?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, at this stage I haven’t. I’m just drinking lots of water at this stage is the tip, and some combination of Nuromol I’m on at the moment to be frank. That mix of ibuprofen and paracetamol just to deal with some of the symptoms.
TRIOLI: So today is your proof of life interview then, Prime Minister?
PRIME MINISTER: Something like that Virginia. But it’s always good to take the opportunity to have a chat. And, you know, I’m no different from anyone else. COVID continues to be out there, we have to be as careful as possible. But, you know, it does happen, that people do contract it. I’ve contracted it for the second time. The good news is for me is that the advice from my doctor is, given I’ve had four shots now and it’s the second time I’ve contracted COVID my immunity and the response should be quite high. And therefore he’s expecting that my symptoms will be much more reduced than they were the first time I contracted it which was of course in the middle of an election campaign. So fortunately, we’re through Parliament. Last week, we had a very busy week last week. And if there was going to be a timing to get it, it’s better I guess, to have it while Parliament’s not sitting.
TRIOLI: I suppose so. Although it does mean, doesn’t it, that Australians might have to wait even longer to get energy payment relief, because…
PRIME MINISTER: No, it doesn’t.
TRIOLI: But National Cabinet is going to be delayed. Is that right?
PRIME MINISTER: Yeah, National Cabinet will be on Friday. But the idea that you make a decision, and it has an impact immediately on prices is not right, of course. The default market offer that will occur is expected to be in February, so what we’re looking at is trying to act before Christmas, which is what we said we would do, so that there’s no actual delay in anything except the formal meeting that will take place now on Friday. We had to make a call pretty quickly. The positive test came through at five o’clock last night. By definition Perth’s a long way away. And people had bookings, Premiers and Chief Ministers to come to Sydney, they were due to have dinner here tomorrow night. I was due to give the Bradfield Oration today at Barangaroo at lunchtime, and I had a busy schedule today that I’m getting representation on so we had to make that call pretty quickly.
TRIOLI: I get that, but I guess I did want to ask you without being too unkind given that you’re unwell. If you’re able to speak to me on the radio today, then as people were urging you it might then have been possible to at least hold that really important National Cabinet meeting Wednesday virtually.
PRIME MINISTER: We will hold it on Friday virtually. The impact, apart from people who want to speculate in the media is zero between whether we hold it on Wednesday or Friday. We had to make a call immediately for the convenience of everyone. So we’ll be able to establish it. People have diaries, you’re talking about eight Premiers and Chief Ministers and myself. So there’s nine primary people, but also heads of department etc, participating. It does take a little bit of time to put this together. We’ll put together the meeting for Friday, and that will have no impact on any price or on any decisions which are made that we’ll be dealing with.
TRIOLI: What will have an impact, though, is the fact that the states and a couple of them, as we all well know, are pushing back very strongly against the price cap that you want to talk about. But you’re yet to tell the states formally, just how that price cap will work. When are they going to get the details on that, so that National Cabinet when it’s held on Friday, can actually be meaningful in terms of achieving an outcome one way or another?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, with respect to them, Virginia, you’ve got to draw a distinction between what Premiers and some states say in public in order to promote their own position and what is actually happening. And what’s been happening is very constructive dialogue. People have been given a whole lot of detail about what is proposed. People have also been given the legal advice. Bureaucrats have been working this through for four weeks. I’ve had discussions with the Premiers over the weekend, and again yesterday, and last week. So these things are being worked through constructively. And I’ll continue to work through with them in a positive fashion.
TRIOLI: One energy analysts to whom we spoke last week, Prime Minister, was making the point to us that in the case of New South Wales and Queensland, pushing very hard against the price cap because of the cost to them. And the cost to their state coffers, said it was a windfall profit that they were never expecting to get in the first place because of high international prices for the resources that they’re lucky enough to have. And they thought it was a bit rich that they were jumping up and down about that, what’s your view?
PRIME MINISTER: I’ll leave the commentators to commentate. But…
TRIOLI: It is a windfall amount, a windfall amount of revenue that they never anticipated.
PRIME MINISTER: Of course that’s correct, Virginia. Just as some of the companies are making windfall profits. What we need to do is to deal with the challenge, which is there for both companies, but also for households. We need to deal with that, and we have a common interest in doing it. Which is why the discussions that I’m having are not reflected in the media coverage which is there. State Premiers all know that there is real pressure on manufacturing industry, that there’s pressure on households. And they know that they have an interest in ensuring that some of that pressure is alleviated. And we’re working together cooperatively. I am very confident that we’ll be able to work these issues through with a bit of goodwill. And that’s what we’re doing. And that’s what I hope continues in the lead up to Friday and beyond.
TRIOLI: I know I can’t keep you very long because of course, you are unwell. But, just a couple of quick questions if I can, because, as I’m sure you’re aware, Melbourne and Victoria has gone through a really hard 24 hours. The Royal Children’s Hospital made the unprecedented call of saying, if your child really isn’t that well, please don’t come here, the waiting time, the longest waiting time overnight is going to be 12 hours. And this is part and parcel of a GP, a primary care system that as the Grattan Institute described it yesterday, funded by a broken model, people not able to get in to see GPs, they can’t get an appointment. And also GPs themselves saying that their practices, so many of them are not financially sustainable. Are you going to commit to having a complete review of the primary care medical system here in Australia to actually make it, put it on a firmer footing and make it so that it doesn’t spill over into our emergency rooms as it has been doing for years now?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, the first thing I’d say, Virginia, is I have incredible sympathy for any parent with a sick child. We’ve all been through it. As parents, and that can be a very traumatic time, and my heart goes out to people who are going through that. We know that there is real pressure on our healthcare system. And we know that part of that is problems with primary health care. That’s why we, during the election campaign, promised to work with states and territories. I had a chat with Daniel Andrews yesterday, in the lead up to what I thought would be the National Cabinet meeting on Wednesday, he continues to be a strong advocate for reform of the health system. The fact is that too many people are turning up to various emergency departments not due to any fault of their own, but because there aren’t alternatives for them. That’s why we, during the election campaign, committed to urgent care clinics that would provide bulk billing services for urgent care. Things like a kid with a broken arm or a child who needs assistance and doesn’t really need to be in an emergency department of the local hospital. That’s why we provided along with the AMA and the Royal Australian College of GPs, a program of commitment of $250 million a year to improve primary health care around the country. That’s why as well, through the National Cabinet process, we’ll receive a report on Friday. Again, all of the heads of the various Premiers departments, first Minister’s departments are all working together on how we can take pressure off the hospital system, how we can get a more integrated healthcare system going forward. That’s ongoing work. You can’t solve that in a week or a month or even six months. But it is something that we’re committed to providing real solutions on.
TRIOLI: Okay. And just quickly. And finally, if I can ask you, Prime Minister, do you know when your Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus, will be able to fix that anomaly in the federal legislation that prevents people who are able to, are in a position where they should be able to access voluntary assisted dying legislation here in Victoria, to use telehealth to speak to their doctors and to speak to their specialists because they’re legally not able to right now. Is that a problem anomaly that’s going to be fixed soon by the Attorney-General?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, those issues are, of course, not quite that simple. They’re quite complex. We need to make sure that protections are also always in place for the use of voluntary assisted dying legislation, which is different, differs across the states and territories of course. But my understanding is that the state and territory law officers are working through those issues.
TRIOLI: With the Commonwealth?
PRIME MINISTER: Yes.
TRIOLI: Because it’s fundamentally Commonwealth law. We hope that happens soon. We heard a heartbreaking story about that this morning. But Prime Minister, I’m glad we could talk to you today, and get well soon.
PRIME MINISTER: Thanks very much, Virginia.