TANYA PLIBERSEK MP
SHADOW MINISTER FOR EDUCATION
SHADOW MINISTER FOR WOMEN
MEMBER FOR SYDNEY
E&OE TRANSCRIPT
TELEVISION INTERVIEW
ABC NEWS BREAKFAST
TUESDAY, 17 AUGUST 2021
SUBJECTS: Afghanistan; Lockdown; Universities Accord.
LISA MILLAR, HOST: Tanya Plibersek thank you very much for joining us. I do want to speak to you about plans that you have for the university sector in a moment, but you would have been across the developments, the speech from Joe Biden and what we're seeing in Afghanistan, still shocking scenes. Is there anything more that the Australian government could or should be doing right at the moment? What's your take on it?
TANYA PLIBERSEK, SHADOW MINISTER FOR EDUCATION, SHADOW MINISTER FOR WOMEN: Well it's absolutely devastating. And I think it's important to say that Australian military personnel who served in Afghanistan have been calling on our government for years to get the Afghanis who helped them, fought with them side-by-side, put themselves in danger, to get those people and their families to Australia. This campaign has been going for years. This is no surprise that's come out of nowhere. I'm worried about the Afghani personnel, who helped Australians. I'm worried about ethnic and religious minorities, and Lisa I am so worried about the women and girls of Afghanistan. If this Taliban regime is anything like the last one, we know they are in for the most difficult time. There are already reports of girls being, what they call euphemistically, married off to soldiers, Taliban soldiers. This is a very grim time for Afghanistan and we do need to look to the international community to see what now? How can we support and protect the people of Afghanistan now?
MILLAR: We are hearing that women and girls are already losing some of their freedoms, the way they're having to dress, the approach they're taking, most of them are just staying at home because they don't know what might be next. Joe Biden says there was no choice, that they couldn't go on fighting a civil war in Afghanistan. This had to be the way even if it was hard and messy and not perfect, do you understand that sentiment from the US President?
PLIBERSEK: I don't think anyone looking on Afghanistan at the moment could tell themselves that this is what success looks like. Now I'm certainly not up for Australians to be in Afghanistan forever. What I would have expected is a more orderly withdrawal of America, Australia, and other Allied Nations, a more orderly handover of power to the people of Afghanistan. I think the scenes that we're seeing right now are just heartbreaking, and they are particularly heartbreaking for the people who served in Afghanistan, particularly heartbreaking for them. This is a very difficult time for Australian soldiers who were there.
MILLAR: Tanya, I just want to move on to the COVID situation in Australia because it is again grim news, Melburnians waking up to tighter lockdowns, the ACT in a longer lockdown, Darwin and Katherine in lockdown, Sydney seeing the numbers continue to close. People are losing patience, it would seem, given the breaches that are occurring. What can happen? What do you say to Australians this morning watching you?
PLIBERSEK: Well, what can we do? We need to get more people vaccinated. The biggest failure of the Australian Government at the moment is the very low rates of vaccination. Not enough jabs in enough people's arms, not enough deals with enough companies to get those jabs into people's arms. The hotel quarantine is also an ongoing problem. We still don't have a fit for purpose quarantine system. But right now it's about vaccination and it's about following the rules - people not leaving home unless they need to, behaving as though they have COVID and anyone they encounter out on the street might have COVID. We need to look after each other by following the rules and it blows me away, frankly, that engagement party in Melbourne and examples like that where people just think they are above the rules. They're endangering themselves, they're endangering their family, they're endangering their community, and they're making the lockdowns longer. As long as people continue to circulate in the community with COVID, giving it unknowingly to other people, the lockdowns will continue. That's the problem.
MILLAR: Do curfews and closing playgrounds go too far?
PLIBERSEK: I think it's so hard on kids at the moment. I've got three kids, they're going stir-crazy and they do need to get outside and exercise. But, you know, I walk past those outdoor gyms in my local park and I see people circulating around all the outdoor gym equipment and I just think if any one of those people is sick, then they're all sick. So I do have some understanding of why these tough measures are necessary. We need to get on top of the spread of a virulent, a virulent virus. It's spreading throughout the community so easily. We need to stay away from each other and that means some really hard times ahead.
MILLAR: You're also keeping an eye on the university sector. You're putting forward an Australian Universities Accord that you think might be part of the answer. Can you briefly tell me about it?
PLIBERSEK: Well, there's just been too much arguing about university policy in recent years. What we need is to set some objectives for our university system. It's about educating Australians for the jobs of the future. It's about research that will drive new jobs and new industries. It's also our fourth largest export, our largest services export. It is that important to Australians. We need to try and take some of the political to and fro out of the debate about what role our universities should play in our economy, and in our society, and I would love for the government now to offer extra university places for students. The kids who are doing their HSC or VCE this year, the kids who are in their final year of high school haven't just had this year disrupted, they had a shocker of a year last year as well. They've missed out on school camps and formals and 16th birthday parties and you name it, they've missed out on it. Wouldn't it be great if we could say to them when high school’s finished you can go on to a course at uni if that's what you're interested in, or TAFE or an entry-level job. We need to give these kids some certainty and some hope, and while ever we've got a government that's chopping and changing university funding arrangements, courses being cut, university staff losing their job, that certainty doesn't exist. We should be looking for certainty and bipartisanship in universities at the moment.
MILLAR: On a very big news day, Tanya Plibersek, thanks for joining us.
PLIBERSEK: Thank you Lisa.
ENDS
