Prime Minister
Prime Minister: G'day, Ray.
Ray Hadley: Well, you don’t know how happy I am to hear you, you've had some technical problems here this morning.
Prime Minister: All right,
Hadley: but it's all good. Now, if anyone's listening this morning and expects me to carve you up, they're going to be sadly disappointed. You and I've had plenty of battles over the years in all sorts of forms. But I just want to say something on a personal note. You became very emotional yesterday referring to your mum, to your wife and to your daughters. And I understand that emotion. But this doesn't just mean you, it means you and Greg Hunt and Josh Frydenberg and Annastacia Palaszczuk and Gladys Berejiklian, and the health officers federally and state. You've been at this now for 14 months, COVID. Now, I don't know how you all get the energy to get up in the morning and have another crack at it. But you do. And as a result of that, I think the electorate needs to be a bit forgiving and I perhaps as a broadcaster need to be a bit forgiving about where things are at sometimes, including what was said yesterday for which you've apologised and you apologise quite succinctly and very quickly after you made the comments. Did you just feel yesterday that things were coming in around you, did you feel like, you know, you're not that you weren't coping, but, you know, things were becoming even bigger than you thought they would be?
Prime Minister: Oh no, I wouldn't put it that way, Ray. I appreciate what you said, though. It's a very emotional issue, this but for women around the country, it's a very real issue and it's a very practical issue and it's not something that has just been happening in the last month. As I said yesterday, you know, these things happen to our mothers, our grandmothers and great-grandmothers. You know, it's been going on a long time. And you know, that doesn't rest of the thought of any one government or one individual or anything like this. But as Prime Minister, I've got to take responsibility for doing things in this House here and I will. But we've also got to take actions, all of us, to make sure women both are safe and feel safe and they shouldn't have to feel unsafe. And so that's what that's the frustration mate. And, you know, we've all got to do our bit and Stop It At The Start: that's a campaign we're running at the moment and this is the language we use unconsciously or consciously. And you know, blokes don't get it right all the time, we all know that. But what matters is that we're desperately trying to and that's what I'm trying to do. And we will get this right. And we need to focus on that, because right now there are so many other challenges occurring. These things we've just been talking about are terribly important. This morning, I was as you know, I was up there seeing over the floods up there, particularly around the Hawkesbury. But, you know, this all goes back to as you said floods up in North Queensland two years ago, [inaudible] victims of the volcano eruption in New Zealand, drought, fires, COVID-19, and now these floods again. Yeah, it's been quite a two and a half years in this job but I do it because I love my country, just like you do and like everyone else listening does.
Hadley: I guess what you'd like to do is rewind what happened yesterday and deal with it differently when you clashed with Andrew. Andrews is by the way been with Ben this morning, accepted your apology because he knows it's a sincere apology. But I just wonder a couple of things. There's a couple of things that go over in my mind. The story on Four Corners was not about women, it was about blokes in Parliament having homosexual sex and getting red boys in. That's what it was about. It wasn't about women it was about blokes having consensual sex with other blokes and that's disgusting. And what happened in the Minister's office is equally disgusting. And blokes performing sexual acts on either women or men consensually or is disgusting when happens in the workplace. But I just thought the narrative was lost yesterday, that it became again about, you know, alleged attacks on women. And the other thing is there's a young woman, a Senator from the Greens, who's described, you know some bludger in the Senate, groping at her or asking her for a date and monstering her. I mean, shouldn’t we identify these sort of people? I mean, whether they're working in this building or your building, don't we?
Prime Minister: Sure.
Hadley: I mean, it's not I don't care whether it's 1954 or 1968 or 2021. Don't we call these blokes out? I mean, I made the comment, I've got young women working with me. If they came to me and said this bloke is putting the hard word on me and you know trying to grab my bum well, he’d get shortened up very quickly by me and then by management I'd imagine.
Prime Minister: Yes. And that's exactly what should happen. And you know, there have been problems here for a very long time. And it's not as you know, as people know it's not confined to one side of politics and I don't see how this thing should be sort of put in a partisan context. It shouldn't be because, there's things for the Liberal Party to deal with, there’s things in the National Party to deal with, things for the Labor Party and the Greens as well, I mean aware of the things in the Greens in New South Wales Parliament. So I'm not pointing any fingers here. I'm just saying we just got to get on and fix it. There was an act of great disrespect towards a woman in the thing that was released the other night, and that was what happened in the Chief Whip's office, who is a female and a good friend of mine and that was a great act of disgusting disrespect. But this is one of you know, many. And these things happened you know, quite a few years ago. To my knowledge, it didn't happen even when I was Prime Minister, well before. So these are terrible things. And they have been called out. As for the other things we've talked about, I don't know if that's true or not. I've got no basis to know one way or the other. But regardless, I mean it's all got to start though I think, Ray, we've just got to respect each other a lot more. I mean we talk about the culture of respect. Well, and I don't want to make this a men versus women, women versus men thing. I don't think Australians want that either. We're all Australians and you know, there are great women and there are great men and who want to do the right thing. And they don't want to make this a whole identity issue. They just want to live in a respectful community where people can live safely and well together. That's what I want. That's all I want. It's a humble objective I hope, but it's one that surely we can all share.
Hadley: What do you think that in relation to behaviour in Canberra, more particularly in the House, that this is a defining moment in our history where all of a sudden, and you know the media play a role here as well. I've been knocking around for 40 years. I know a lot of things that have happened. I'll give you an example. When you went on a Kangaroo tour in 1986 or 1990, what went on tour stayed on tour in many respects.
Prime Minister: You there? Got you again?
Hadley: So what happened there stayed on tour. To a certain extent, I think that's also been in Canberra in relation to different things that have happened over the decades in Canberra. Well, it's a bubble, people living away from home, they can do things they wouldn't normally do in their normal environment. Is that the sort of culture we're talking about that has to change?
Prime Minister: Absolutely it is. And whether it's you know, on a tour or in Parliament or at a conference or in a workplace, wherever it happens to be. And one of the points I made yesterday, Ray is and this was a lot of the feedback I've had over this last month is you know, women will sit in a room in a meeting and they won't feel like they can speak up or they'll be talked over or that they don't feel that what they've got to contribute would be valued. Now, what I've learnt, particularly in the feedback over this last month, is that even those some who are in those meetings would not want that to be happening and may not feel they're doing anything to create that environment, that's still how the woman feels in the room. And so that means we've just got to make a bigger effort to engage, to incorporate, to listen, to value. And it's just, it's going to take time to get this right across society. This is a societal challenge. One of the things you learn pretty quickly in Government is that, you know, Government can't solve all these problems. We can certainly do our bit, but we've all got a role to play here. And if everyone sort of sits back and says oh, the Government's got to fix this. Well it won’t get fixed because it requires a change in the culture, the respect shown by each and every individual and that means let's come together, put all the politics aside and all the sniping and all the game playing and the point scoring and all that sort of stuff. That's not going to solve anything. What's going to solve things is people just genuinely trying to operate with better respect for each other you know, love one another. That was a pretty good rule, it was laid down a long time ago, and it's one that I try and live my life by.
Hadley: But see, the funny thing about this discussion is, I don't know, I'm older than you, but the most respected people in my life...
Prime Minister: Lately I feel like I'm catching up, Ray.
Hadley: I'll tell you, you're starting to look a bit like it too. But anyway, that's for another day. You've been under more pressure than me. But in my family, and I'm going back to my grandmothers. One who died in 1966 and one who died in 1975, the matriarchs were the most respected members of my family. So if Nan said something, I tell you, you better listen. And you know that flowed on down and I don't know, somewhere, you know, they talk about the good old days and all the rest of it. The matriarchs aren't there anymore and not respected and perhaps the patriarch aren't either, the older people, the older members, the community aren't respected like they used to be and maybe that's where one of the problems starts and ends.
Prime Minister: Well, respect for elders, you know, when I initiated the royal commission into aged care, I said we had to develop a culture of respect for our older Australians, you know, respect your mother and father, respect your elders. Again, these are pretty good rules. They've been around a long time, and honouring these simple things. But let's not kid ourselves as well. You know, I remember what our grandmothers had to put up with mate, and their mothers and fathers. I mean, we've come a long way in a lot of these issues. I remember the day my mum, when she got her first job and she was so thrilled because they told her that she was going to get a bloke's wage. I mean, could you imagine that being said today? I mean, still men are getting paid more than women because women will often take the salary that's offered and that sort of goes to the point. But, you know, we're making progress. So I want to encourage Australians. Look yeah, of course, there are issues. But think about where things were 20 years ago, 50 years ago. And I can tell you, go and ask your nan and she'll tell you. She'll tell you the real story about the good old days. And these days, there are a lot of improvements. The other part of it I think, Ray, and I've said this before, you know, we live in a society where social media is corroding respect, I think in our community and the way people talk to each other, you know, if they think they can post it like this, they can also talk to each other like this. They can ring up offices and abuse people on the other end of the phone. This is not how you build a culture of respect. And if we, we got to work harder to respect each other. So before you go and put that post on Facebook and troll someone or sledge someone or say something terribly unkind or, think about if they were sitting right in front of you, another human being sitting there, is that how you'd behave towards them? Is that how you'd like someone to behave towards you? And I apply this rule to myself and I'm not perfect in this regard. None of us are but getting back to some of these basic moral principles about respect, caring for one another, loving one another, and treating others as you'd like to be treated yourself. I think that's a pretty good way to go.
Hadley: I'm just looking, you see we've opened a text line here, because with the floods, you want people to tell you what's happening. Unfortunately, the trolls get there in large numbers. Now, I'm impervious to criticism by this stage in my career.
Prime Minister: Me too.
Hadley: But some of the things that I've written here, I mean, I just couldn't share. I'm getting married on Saturday and some of the horrible things being said to me about the fact I'm getting married...
Prime Minister: I know. All the best, by the way, I hope you guys have a great day.
Hadley: Well, that counteracts some of the messages I'm getting. And there are messages, you know as you've just joined in, welcome, congratulating myself and Sophie all the rest of it but what you go to is a social media thing. And I've got a couple of mates in the media who are heavily involved in social media and I see them age by the day because they get involved in it because either the boss says, you've got to get involved in Twitter, you've got to. I said, no, I don't want anything to do with it. I want to stay as far away from as I can and I see other people close their accounts and open their account and all the rest of it. I don't think the social media and Twitter and these other type facilities have brought any great credit to this place or the world generally. I don't, I don't think it's helped us. Yes, it disseminates information, but in terms of the things that can be said and done to people, there'll be a lot of kids thinking about self-harm and a range of other things because of what's said about them on Twitter at the moment.
Prime Minister: That is all true. I mean, it's a powerful tool. It can be enormously useful, like right now as we're using those mechanisms to get messages to people out there about the floods and where the support is and the urgent information they need. We know that also when it comes to supporting the vaccination rollout. And we had another very significant announcement today because the TGA has approved the domestic AstraZeneca vaccine. And so that's now rolling off the line and getting out there, as we said it would. During the bushfires, during the drought. It's a powerful communications tool but, you know, in the hands of human beings, it can also be a very corrosive tool. So, you know, I say this always about social media and all this, people should behave online as they behave in real life. Now, that might not always be the best thing sometimes, I suppose, but I think the physical reality of dealing with another human being and seeing each other in that context rather than just some sort of picture on a social media account or something like that, or just a name that you don't know any about, anything about that person so you just rip in. Well, you know, we got to do better than this because out of a culture of disrespect, you know, that feeds a culture of disrespect and whether it's to our elders, people with disabilities, towards women to, you know, that is one of the contributing factors but none of it is an excuse. So I've got to take responsibility for stuff that's on my ticket, just like we all do. And look, I will, and not perfect, but I'll give it the best I can for all the reasons I set out yesterday. But I've got to say that, I mean, I was up sort of up your way today, you know, was going out of Pitt Town and those places. And, you know, it is just so incredibly staggering to see it from the air. I also appreciated the opportunity to meet with some of those on the ground this morning. I didn't have a lot of time. I'll be going back there, of course. I'm looking forward to doing that because of Parliament sitting I didn't have a lot of time, but I did get to speak to people on the ground there at the RAAF base involved in a whole range of operations there, and they're doing a great job out of there. But honestly, the expanse of that water and the homes that are under you know, are totally subsumed in all of this. But I'll tell you one thing that really impressed me, Ray, was just I saw a lot of farm machinery, trucks, tractors, you know, other things that people, gosh they must have moved quickly to get them on higher ground to protect those assets. That's all going to help on the other side of the clean up. That's the next big task was the sun was shining out there today. But there's a massive clean up task. The Premier and I are working together on that. And we'll do that together and we'll try and do that as quickly as we can. And I'll get up the Mid North Coast also very soon. I've been going over all those inundation maps this morning and just seeing what's occurring there. And can I tell you, thank to everyone who has been calling in to get that support. We've already put 13 and a half million dollars out the door. Over 10,000 disaster recovery payments have already been made. I'm glad people are making use of that important help that's there right now. And that number, 180 22 66. And the Defence is going to be deploying emergency support force of around 290 personnel to support and assist state and recovery services from tomorrow and an additional 170 personnel have been placed on a 24-hour notice to move. There are other support tasks such as debris clearance, clean up. And a further 120 are being readied for further recovery. So we're getting all those plans in place. We're even sort of sorting out those food supply issues out there in North Richmond. The barges have been identified and they'll be going across and we're ready to put our heavy lift aircraft into support that. We haven't been asked to do that. I know that issue has been raised by the local member up there. Appreciate her raising it, Marise Payne, who lives out in Western Sydney, she's been raising this issue also. So we've been moving on that. But we've got to remember, you know, the New South Wales Government is running the response and the assistance. They're very professional. They're very good at what they do and where they need additional help from us. We are there.
Hadley: Just one final thing about AstraZeneca. The Australian made, I see that four batches, 832,000 doses have been cleared for supply and this goes into Phase 1B. Will that make up the great percentage of doses we get? The Australian made AstraZeneca? Or will we still need to supplement it with overseas AstraZeneca?
Prime Minister: This is why we did the domestic manufacturing Ray. There have been a couple of big decisions we've made in the last 12 months, more than that, declaring the pandemic, closing the border, all of these things JobKeeper, JobSeeker assistance, cash flow, all that very important. But I got to tell you one of the biggest ones we made was, we said we can't rely on the supply lines coming out of Europe or the US. You know, vaccine protectionism will surely take effect. And so we said we've got to do it here. So we had to basically create the capability to manufacture this vaccine and to now seeing those first 832,200 doses heading out the door from that plant. I was down there a little while ago down Melbourne at Parkhill seeing the fill and finish process. This is a great Australian achievement to have done this in such a short period of time and this means we can look after ourselves here and we can also help those out who are close by, particularly up in Papua New Guinea. We've got a team up there right now. We expect those vaccinations to commence this weekend. We'll get further advice from them because we've had an AUSMAT planning team up there about further clinical teams that need support. We're right up working with the Queensland Government in the treaty villages in the Torres Strait. So that's on the Papua New Guinean side of the line and seeking to extend the vaccinations that we're doing in the Torres Strait into those areas. So we're making a lot of progress Ray. It's been a pretty intense year and from time to time, that means, you know, that shows, that's just human. I think people understand and I appreciate Australians understanding.
Hadley: And of course on the back of that, Germany's gone into its third lockdown. So anyone who thinks the battle of COVID-19 is over is far mistaken it's still on.
Prime Minister: And I'm backing Chad Townsend to have a great game this weekend. He's a great guy. Wade had he's 250th, he was celebrating with his kids and I'm just glad the footy is back on too, that helps everybody I think.
Hadley: It's a bit away from what we've been dealing with for the last 14 months. Anyway, thanks very much for your time. And the only thing you have to do at the moment is keep going.
Prime Minister: I will Ray.
Hadley: We need you.
Prime Minister: Good on you, mate. Cheers, all the best to your listeners, bye.
Hadley: Scott Morrison there, the Prime Minister.