Subjects: Coronavirus; 5G network; Bridget McKenzie
EO&E
KARL STEFANOVIC:
For more, we're joined by Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton and Deputy Opposition Leader Richard Marles. Nice to see you both.
PETER DUTTON:
Morning.
RICHARD MARLES:
Morning to you.
KARL STEFANOVIC:
Let's go straight to this World Health Organization. They're elevating things Peter this morning. How does that change our Government's response? How does it change how we move forward right now?
PETER DUTTON:
Well Karl, obviously we've had the National Crisis Coordination Centre established now for a long period of time and that is led by Health. So all of the information that we get from the Chief Medical Officer of Australia. He meets daily with the medical officers from each of the states and territories. They'll look at the international advice and evidence out of the WHO, out of their counterparts in China etc. They're working very closely – obviously with labs, looking at ways in which our scientists here can contribute to some sort of an outcome here as well. But look, this is a very serious issue and the Government's treating it as such, but we're doing it in a calm way as you'd appreciate.
ALLISON LANGDON:
I mean this is only the fifth time that the World Health Organization has declared an international emergency like this. They didn't do it with SARS. The last time was the Ebola outbreak. Do we now need to be looking at closing our borders to China, shutting down all flights?
RICHARD MARLES:
Well I think we do have to go about this in a calm way and we need to be taking the best medical advice and really that's what's going to lead the decision making here. Obviously, this has to be above politics, this can't be about Scott Morrison making decisions in his bubble.
Whatever is the medical advice is what we should be following. But I think there is – it is really important that the Government is explaining to the Australian people the decisions that it's making. If Christmas Island is what should be used, fair enough, but there's got to be an explanation to that community about how it's going to work, the logistics, the cost. These are really important measures.
KARL STEFANOVIC:
The issue I think – and we're starting to see it more and more – is that we're saying that we're following World Health Organization – oh sorry, world medical procedures, but some governments are moving in a much faster way. We've seen Hong Kong in the last 24 hours close its borders to mainland China. That's significant. When do we as a nation go okay, we're going to protect ourselves at all costs here, we're going to do things like shut down flights, we're going to make those very difficult but very necessary moves?
PETER DUTTON:
Well Karl, in Australia at the moment we've got nine confirmed cases. I mean it's a very serious situation, but if you look at the health outcomes with people who have contracted Ebola for example, there's a much higher death rate. It was a very difficult issue to deal with. We aren't seeing the people to people transmissions in countries like Australia so…
ALLISON LANGDON:
…but America has just had a confirmed human to human transmission.
KARL STEFANOVIC:
It's only a matter of time.
PETER DUTTON:
As you'd expect in our country, as was pointed out before, the Chief Medical Officer provides that advice. We're not taking flights from Wuhan and if we need to take further steps beyond that, we will.
KARL STEFANOVIC:
But you're taking them from – you've taken them from Guangzhou and other provinces where it's pretty prevalent, this Coronavirus, and they're coming in every day. And I wonder at what point you go okay, we live in an island country, there's the only one way it can get in unless it's on a boat as well.
PETER DUTTON:
Well and this is the difference of course with Hong Kong that share a land border and obviously significant, you know, people transfers every day. So they're in a very different situation than an island nation like ours.
I just think we've looked at all of those steps. We have contingencies ready to go if we make additional decisions about what we should do to provide further protections and that's what we've done so far and what we'll keep doing. As Richard says, we've got to rely on the medical advice. It's not just what's happening internationally, but we are recognised as one of the most advanced countries in the world in terms of our preparedness to respond to a crisis like this.
ALLISON LANGDON:
So the Australians that are currently stranded in Wuhan, you're trying to get approval from the Chinese authorities…
PETER DUTTON:
…yes we are.
ALLISON LANGDON:
…to get them out?
PETER DUTTON:
Yes.
ALLISON LANGDON:
When do you think is that likely to happen and how soon could those evacuations take place?
PETER DUTTON:
Well DFAT's been in conversation with the people. So there are roughly about 600 or so Australian citizens who have registered with DFAT. Now, some of them will want to come, some of them will decide to stay with family.
KARL STEFANOVIC:
…not many are going to want to go to Christmas Island.
PETER DUTTON:
Well some will decide because they've got business interests there that they'll stay and ride it out. I mean there'll be different conversations taking place right now, but there needs to be clearance from the Chinese authorities and DFAT's in discussions with Qantas and obviously the Chinese Government at the moment.
KARL STEFANOVIC:
How does it even work logistically? I mean we've heard, Ally and I have both heard independently that it's difficult to land a 737 or a 747 on Christmas Island. You go somewhere else and you stop there and then you go on to Christmas Island?
PETER DUTTON:
Well Karl obviously there's, you know, depending on the numbers that come out as to what aircraft is used. So one of the options for us is to base people at, for example, Learmonth or in Darwin at the RAAF base and we would transfer people and shuttle them to Christmas Island. So all of that logistical stuff is not extraordinary and that’s being dealt with…
RICHARD MARLES:
….I think there does need to be a full explanation here to the Australian people. And also, you know, what medical care is going to be provided there, what medical services can be deployed on Christmas Island? These are all the questions that have got to be answered by the Government. I mean you've got bodies like the AMA out there raising questions about this.
KARL STEFANOVIC:
You don't mind them going to Christmas Island, or would you do something else?
RICHARD MARLES:
Well I think ultimately it's a matter of taking the best medical advice and if that's what the medical advice to this Government is then fair enough but…
KARL STEFANOVIC:
…Senator McCarthy was on our show earlier and she said, she went so far as to say that they weren't consulted about Christmas Island and the Christmas Island residents and they've got every right to be concerned about their health. Would you say categorically, okay, you know what, let's not take them to Christmas Island?
RICHARD MARLES:
I think you've got to take the advice from the medical advisors, but people on Christmas Island have got rights as well. There needs to be a proper explanation to them about how it's going to work and what impact, if any, there is on their health.
But I think how the logistics of this is going to work, what the cost for those involved is going to work, like how much are you going to be expected to pay to do this? All of these are questions which are for the Government to explain to the Australian people very clearly.
ALLISON LANGDON:
Is there a precedent for making Australians pay for their rescue?
PETER DUTTON:
Yes there is. So DFAT's done a number of uplifts over the years and there has been a payment made and that's consistent with other countries as well.
So the United States I think lifted about 157 people out of the province. Predominantly they were, as I understand it, the consular staff as they had quite a big presence there. Now, they've gone to Anchorage and so their isolation, if you like, is in Alaska.
And we're taking a decision that we don't have a hospital that we can find 600 beds in. We're not emptying one of our hospitals, we want to provide an isolation. And there's a lot of, you know, politicking going on with the Mayor on Christmas Island, but he always has right. But this is a Commonwealth asset, people will be isolated there. There's a declaration made under the Biosecurity Act which keeps those people in situ for up to 14 days. And to Richard's point before, the medical advice might be that there's a clearance within 10 days or whatever it might be and we will rely on that.
KARL STEFANOVIC:
Okay just in relation to businesses. I've got a number of friends who run businesses that are in China, they have manufacturing there, they're producing there and they’re going to have significant issues. And there are big businesses all around the world who are going to have some significant issues out of this. Have you looked at yet the possibility of providing financial support for businesses, or is it just up to them?
PETER DUTTON:
I don't think we're at that stage, but we're particularly concerned about the tourism industry off the back of the bushfires, but what compounding impact this might have as well. So all of that's factored into the discussions we have.
KARL STEFANOVIC:
Okay one final one too, just in relation to the Huawei, they want to end that 5G ban. The UK's lifted. Are you going to have a look at it even though there are some security implications?
PETER DUTTON:
No we're not. The Government's made a decision based on the advice from ASIO, Australian Signals Directorate….
KARL STEFANOVIC:
…Ever? But ever?
PETER DUTTON:
They are a high risk vendor, we've been very clear about it. The United States has made the same decision. And we believe it's in our country's best interest not to have our telecommunications network compromised.
KARL STEFANOVIC:
Richard?
RICHARD MARLES:
It's the right decision.
KARL STEFANOVIC:
Okay.
ALLISON LANGDON:
And if we've got time. No one's telling us to be quiet yet.
KARL STEFANOVIC:
No they're not.
ALLISON LANGDON:
Bridget McKenzie. I mean we just heard in the paper today that the Deputy Prime Minister's son, three funding applications were rejected, he still received the money. And you've now got the Prime Minister saying that some of these funding projects that missed out, they'll look at funding them. Is that an admission that the Minister did get it wrong?
PETER DUTTON:
Ally, I think the Prime Minister's got a process in place now, wait for that. I don't know the details of the Deputy Prime Minister's son or the application or anything of that. So I think wait for the independent umpire to come back and that's the right process.
KARL STEFANOVIC:
Richard?
RICHARD MARLES:
Well they haven't been listening to the independent umpire from day one here. Most of the recommendations of Sports Australia were ignored. What's really clear now is the Prime Minister and his office are up to his neck in it, I mean they're right in the centre of it. They're not going to cut Bridget McKenzie loose because they're scared that if they cut her loose she's going to sink the entire ship. Now that's the issue that they've now got.
KARL STEFANOVIC:
Are you going to give back the money that was given to the sporting club in your electorate?
RICHARD MARLES:
Give back the money that was given?
KARL STEFANOVIC:
If your that aggrieved by the where the money went and everything?
RICHARD MARLES:
There's not a question about the worthiness of community sport, but we're talking about here …
KARL STEFANOVIC:
…It's the balance here isn't it?
PETER DUTTON:
I think that's a no.
RICHARD MARLES:
No, no. There's a finite amount of resources and it's the basis upon which they're distributed and they should be distributed on merit, not on the basis of politics, but that's what this mob have been doing.
KARL STEFANOVIC:
Okay. Thank you guys, really appreciate it. Some heavy stuff.
PETER DUTTON:
Thank you.
RICHARD MARLES:
Thanks.