Prime Minister
Prime Minister: Well, g’day, Ali. It's good to be here in Adelaide. It's great that South Australia is opening up. It’s, and I can confirm we’ve got at 79.5 per cent on double dose vaccinations here in South Australia. So, as South Australians wake up and head to work today and many of them are already out there since early this morning, as many go out there and get vaccinated today, they’ll all wake up tomorrow and South Australia will be 80 per cent vaccinated. So, there's a challenge and I have no doubt South Australians are up to it.
Clarke: Prime Minister, today you are actually sending every Australian household a letter about the importance of a vaccination. Have you actually spoken to South Australian Alex Antic to try to talk him down from some of his threats to your agenda over what is essentially state-based vaccine mandates that push people to get vaccinated?
Prime Minister: Well, as you know, Alex is vaccinated and double dose vaccinated, and of course I've spoken to him over the course of this last week and been working with him. I mean, as you know, the Commonwealth's policy on vaccine mandates is that is as was agreed by all the medical expert panel right across the country, and vaccine mandates were agreed right across the country in relation to health workers, aged care workers and disability care workers. And those mandates are very important because they deal with people who are working with vulnerable people, and one of the most important parts, I mean, we now have one of the highest vaccination rates in the world, as well as one of the lowest fatality rates and the strongest economy coming through COVID. But that is particularly so for older Australians, and our rate of double vaccination for older Australians is over 96 per cent. And, so, that's been really important starting with that group. And now, as I said, with South Australia about to crack 80 per cent, that's tremendous news. We want people vaccinated, but we want people to live with the virus, but live together with the virus.
Clarke: But Prime Minister, when you speak to Alex Antic, or maybe even Queensland Liberal Senator Gerard Rennick, who who has been sharing misinformation, vaccine misinformation, do you say to them, ‘Look, these, the way that you're going about this is actually making it harder for the Government to get consistent traction with the message that it's the community as a collective that needs to get together on this, to put us in the best place possible against COVID-19?
Prime Minister: Well, look, I think I've been very clear about my support for the vaccination program and, as I said, we're writing out to all Australians and also encouraging them to now go and get their booster shots. I had, I had mine last week and I’m encouraging everyone to do that. And that's very important that everyone get those booster shots, not just your first and second dose vaccination. So, if you've, it's been six months since your first vaccination, since you've had your second dose, now's the time to go out there and book up your your booster. We’re one of the few countries in the world that have gone to whole of population booster vaccinations, and that's very important. What you're seeing over in Europe at the moment with a further wave, I think it's very important we keep, we keep rolling on.
Clarke: But, Prime Minister, the question actually was, when you speak to people like a Liberal Senator and Gerard Rennick, who is actually actively putting out misinformation, do you take him to task, behind the scenes, at least?
Prime Minister: Yeah, of course I do, of course I do, and I do publicly as well. I mean, there's no doubt about the Government's position on the importance of the vaccination program, and any suggestion otherwise is absurd.
Clarke: You've warned your own MPs and senators the disunity and instability in these final weeks will, you know, can be electoral death. Yet, as we touched on just earlier, one of your own crossed the floor to support an Independent’s motion for an urgent debate to establish this Federal Integrity Commission, saying that your Government is ignoring the will of the people and now the will of the Parliament. Do you concede you haven't handled your election promise of establishing this federal anti-corruption watchdog well enough?
Prime Minister: No, I don't accept that, because the the plan we have for a Commonwealth Integrity Commission is not the sort of kangaroo court that you see in in New South Wales where you've had, you know, an outstanding Premier in Gladys Berejiklian investigated in terms of who her boyfriend is. I mean, that's not examining criminal corruption conduct. What we want and what we've put forward is one that actually does provide sufficient procedural fairness, but one that actually does provide and doesn't allow for coercive powers to be used in an inappropriate way, that does safeguard against vexatious, baseless and politically motivated and time wasting referrals. We don't want to see these things used as a political weapon. And our proposal safeguards against that. What Labor and others are proposing is the sort of, sort of kangaroo courts that we don't think serves the issue of justice. This should focus on criminal conduct, not who your boyfriend is.
Clarke: Well, where is the legislation at right now?
Prime Minister: Well, the legislation we've had out for some time, and that's, that is our proposal. The legislation we have is out there and the Labor Party don't support it, and neither do others in the Parliament. So, that’s not going to be able to be passed through the Parliament. We've got our proposal. It's very clear. We developed it up. We did a lot of consultation. It's there for everyone to see. So, the suggestion that the Government does not have a Commonwealth Integrity Commission proposal is absolutely false. It's just that the Labor Party doesn't support it. They have an alternative model, which is the sort of circus that we see in other jurisdictions. And I don't want to see that applied at a federal level. I want to see a proper one which has the proper powers, which ours does, which has the ability to investigate these matters, but not to be misused for the sort of show trials that we've seen in other places.
Clarke: But the point that Liberal backbencher Bridget Archer was trying to make when she crossed the aisle was that this is so important that it should be debated and that if this legislation isn't being supported, the one that you have put forward, then maybe as politicians, we need to go back, take a step back and debate, do the job, and actually come to something that will deliver a federal anti-corruption watchdog.
Prime Minister: Well, you don't just do anything at any cost. You, as a Prime Minister and the Government, we’ll put forward the proposal that we think is in the best interests of Australia, and we've done that. So, there's no, there's no question about us not wanting to have one. What I'm opposed to is one that takes you down a path like we've seen in other places. Now, I acknowledge the good intentions and particularly of my very dear friend Bridget Archer. I understand how strongly she feels about this. I understand that, and I think these things are motivated by, in good faith. But, you've also got to be aware that if you design this thing wrong, it turns in to the sort of show trials that we've seen and the way that these things can be manipulated and used for political purposes. That's not what they're for. They're there to deal with criminal corruption, not to be misused in the political realm and weaponised for political purposes.
Clarke: You talk about not doing things at any cost. Given just days ago the French Minister for Europe and Foreign Affairs, who signed the original submarine deal, which obviously we pay very close attention to here in South Australia, but he described this as a trust crisis and some sort of betrayal by the Government. Would you have done anything differently to make things less diplomatically painful in how this has unfolded?
Prime Minister: This was always going to be difficult. We were, we were, we were not going ahead with a $90 billion contract, and there's no simple way as a, to actually ensure that you can make that decision in a way that ultimately isn't going to cause great disappointment and offence. That was a reality. As I've said on numerous occasions, we had alerted, very clearly alerted, the French Government that the submarines they were building for us were not going to meet our strategic needs in a changed environment. I couldn't have been clearer about that. And they sent Admiral Morio out here to Australia to seek to convince us about that. We weren't convinced and we decided not to proceed. And you know, when you're Prime Minister, you've got to have the strength to make decisions which sometimes are going to offend people and upset people. But when they’re the right decisions for Australia, then they're the right decisions to take. I understand the French Government is upset about it. I understand President Macron is upset about it. But it's time to move on. We need to go and build the nuclear-powered submarines, that are the right decision for Australia. And they’re, you know, obviously South Australia will have a huge role in that, just as they have a huge role in the nine Hunter-class frigates that are being built here …
Clarke: So, can can South Australia trust, can South Australians trust you that they will actually get jobs on these nuclear submarines in the future?
Prime Minister: Well, of course, that’s where, to the extent we're building them here in Australia, which will be significant, because that is why we're doing it. That's why the Americans and the British …
Clarke: I know that, I know that we're building them in Australia. But just to be really, really clear, for all the South Australians that are so close to this …
Prime Minister: It’s Adelaide, it’s Adelaide.
Clarke: And we can trust you on that?
Prime Minister: Well, why wouldn't we be able to, because we're doing full cycle docking here in South Australia and that, every time I've been to South Australia over the last few years, that has been the issue that is raised, and I want to commend Premier Marshall because he has been very, very consistent on this and we've talked about this over a long time. South Australia got full cycle docking right for the Collins class. And that's why we decided to keep it here because they did the work and they got it done. And can I tell you, one of the reasons why the United States was keen to go forward with us on the nuclear-powered submarines, part of it was because of the great work that was done here in South Australia on getting the Collins class full cycle docking right. So, that was the right decision for Australia too, to keep that happening here in South Australia. And I commend everyone who's been working on that project. But it's not just that - there's the Hunter class frigates, there's the Hobart class destroyers. So I don't think there can be any question, Ali, about our Government's commitment to building naval vessels here in South Australia. We're actually doing it. Our predecessors didn't build a barge.
Clarke: Prime Minister Scott Morrison, we are hard up against the news, so thank you very much for your time.
Prime Minister: Well, thank you. I'm looking forward to being with Dr Rachel Swift today, who’s our Liberal candidate for Boothby. She's an outstanding candidate and she will bring great experience to the, to the Parliament and particularly with her medical background. At a time like this, it's exactly who we need here from South Australia. Thanks very much, Ali.
Clarke: Prime Minister Scott Morrison, thank you.
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