TANYA PLIBERSEK MP
SHADOW MINISTER FOR EDUCATION
SHADOW MINISTER FOR WOMEN
MEMBER FOR SYDNEY
E&OE TRANSCRIPT
TELEVISION INTERVIEW
SKY NEWS FIRST EDITION WITH PETER STEFANOVIC
TUESDAY, 17 AUGUST 2021
SUBJECTS: Lockdowns; Vaccination targets; Universities accord; Afghanistan.
PETER STEFANOVIC, HOST: Joining me live now is the Shadow Minister for Education and Women, Tanya Plibersek. Tanya, good to see you this morning. Thanks for your time, as always. We will start with the lockdown which is being extended. It's more and more widespread. Melbourne says it's got no option to go into lockdown. Sydney's further toughened things, ACT and NT - it's all in lockdown. All the right calls in your opinion?
TANYA PLIBERSEK, SHADOW MINISTER FOR EDUCATION, SHADOW MINISTER FOR WOMEN: Well we see how easily this virus spreads and we see that, just as you said a minute ago, it's so often amongst children and young people - the Delta virus, the Delta variant. So, of course, we need to stay home. If we don't have a valid reason to be out, we need to stay home. We also know that one of the reasons that this is hitting us so hard, is because we've been so slow in Australia with the vaccine rollout. The federal government did not make enough deals with enough companies to get enough jabs in people's arms, and we're paying the price for that in so many different ways right now.
STEFANOVIC: You've got teachers now in schools that are being fast-tracked towards getting the jabs, but do you believe it needs to become mandatory? Has it got to go beyond that?
PLIBERSEK: Before we start talking about making things mandatory, how about we get enough supply to the people who are desperate to be vaccinated? There are people, as you say teachers, who would love to be vaccinated: aged care workers, disability workers, still not vaccinated. Vulnerable people in disability homes who would love to be vaccinated that are still not vaccinated. So before we start talking about whether things should be mandatory, how about the Federal government actually makes sure that we've got enough vaccine in Australia to vaccinate the people who want to be vaccinated. On the additional question about whether we talk about mandatory vaccines down the track. There are places where I would really worry about staff or residents not being vaccinated. My mother-in-law's in an aged care facility, I'd be pretty worried if people who are unvaccinated were looking after her. So we will need to have that conversation. But let's start with the 'where are the vaccines for the people who want them?' conversation.
STEFANOVIC: And what and what about lockdowns and stricter lockdowns. Do you believe that Gladys Berejiklian was too slow?
PLIBERSEK: I don't think you can look at the daily numbers in New South Wales at the moment and think that we got it all right. We are close to 500 a day now. The Premier herself has said we could top 1,000 a day. We're in the middle of a very serious time for New South Wales now, and that's why it's so important that people do follow the rules, that they stay away from others and behave as though you've got COVID, behave as though someone else might have COVID and keep your distance. Stay home if you possibly can and get vaccinated as soon as you possibly can.
STEFANOVIC: Mark McGowan had told my colleague Andrew Clennell on the weekend that he still wants to go towards COVID 0, even after vaccine targets are reached. Even upwards of 70, 80 per cent vaccine targets are reached. Is that something that you would support? Do you agree with that, or is COVID 0 a fallacy?
PLIBERSEK: I really do think we need to take the advice of our epidemiologists, our medical experts, our scientists on whether that's possible, and what the impact on society and the economy will be in setting those sorts of targets. But at the moment, Western Australia has - I mean life's much more normal in WA than it is in New South Wales at the moment, so I guess they're doing something right.
STEFANOVIC: Okay, so you would support that going beyond?
PLIBERSEK: I'm not going to make it up as I go along. All the way along, all the way along, we have been saying very clearly that we need to take the advice of medical experts, scientists, epidemiologists and others about what is possible and the cost of setting those sorts of targets. But what we're all desperate for, and what we're particularly desperate for here in New South Wales, is life something a bit like what it used to be like where you can actually go to the beach, and go to the pub, and meet up with your friends. That won't happen until we have much higher rates of vaccination and it's going to take some time of missing out on all of that stuff. It's going to take some time of keeping our distance from other one another and staying home.
STEFANOVIC: So do you believe that there will have to be lockdowns and you would support them, even after we have 70, 80 per cent vaccination targets? Even though those targets are reached?
PLIBERSEK: Pete, there is no point in asking what I think, 'what's the vibe? how am I feeling about this?' What matters is what the evidence says, and we need to take the advice of people who spend years studying the way that viruses spread. I'm not going to just make this stuff up in the park in Rosebery and tell you my opinion. What matters is what the evidence tells us is safe. What will have the smallest impact on our society, on our economy? And keeping virus numbers low - I mean, it's not just good for our health, it's not just good for us in terms of being able to get out and about, it's also good for the economy. If you look at countries that have let it rip, that have opened up too soon and the impact is disastrous on people's health and also on their economies.
STEFANOVIC: Just on your speech last night Tanya, you gave a speech on a plan to establish a University Accord. What is your hope that that would achieve that's not in place already?
PLIBERSEK: Certainty, some certainty. We've got kids who have had the year from hell this year - who have had their learning disrupted. They had a terrible Year 11, their Year 12 has been all over the place. In New South Wales, they're sitting the trial HSC, they're going to have their HSC in a few weeks' time. VCE in Victoria, other final exams right around Australia. Why shouldn't we give those kids some hope that if they study hard and they try hard, there'll be a place that university for them or a place at TAFE, or a job at the end of it? These kids need hope and they need certainty, and universities themselves need some certainty as well. We've lost billions of dollars from universities, about 30,000 job losses so far, whole courses cut, whole departments cut. That's not just bad for university staff, it's not just bad for the businesses that rely on universities, it's also bad for those kids who need a bit of hope and certainty for the future. And what we've seen in recent times is sudden cuts, funding level changes, course fee changes, departments falling over. We can't have a university sector like that. We need a university sector that teaches Australians for the jobs that we know will be there. We've got skills shortages in some areas already and they've been there, in many cases, for years. We need universities that will train Australians to do that work. We need universities that have the research funding necessary to do the research that will discover and invent new ways of doing things: new devices, new medicines, new medical breakthroughs that will create the jobs in the industries for Australia for the future.
STEFANOVIC: Okay, and just a final one before we go, as Shadow Minister for Women, Joe Biden had said this morning - defended his position to pull out of Afghanistan. What are your concerns going forward, particularly for girls, particularly for women in Afghanistan?
PLIBERSEK: Well, look, if this Taliban government is anything like the Taliban regime of 20 years ago I'm very, very concerned. And the early reports of women staying home from work, staying home from university, and even more worrying, what's being euphemistically referred to as 'girls being married off' to Taliban soldiers - I'm deeply fearful for what will happen for the women and girls of Afghanistan. And I know that Australian military personnel who served in Afghanistan are terribly worried about the situation in that country now. They have been calling on our federal government for years to bring Afghan personnel who served with Australians, who helped Australians - interpreters, security guards and so on - calling for those people to be brought to Australia. I mean our people have been calling for their Afghan compatriots to be brought here for years now. The fact that the situation on the ground has changed quickly in recent weeks is no excuse for the many people that we have let down in Afghanistan who faced terrible danger now because they helped Australian soldiers. And I know our people are the ones who have been onto the Government daily, daily saying, 'what are you doing to help these people?' I'm worried about anybody who stood up to the Taliban in the past - Hazara ethnic minorities, people who've stood up for women's rights for democracy in Afghanistan, they're all in deep, deep trouble right now. The way that this withdrawal has happened, I think leaves a lot to be desired.
STEFANOVIC: Okay, Tanya Plibersek, appreciate your time this morning. Thanks for joining us here.
PLIBERSEK: Thank you.
ENDS
