Prime Minister
ALAN JONES: The Prime Minister's on the line. Prime Minister, good morning.
PRIME MINISTER: Good morning Alan.
JONES: Thank you for your time. I wish people had listened to you. I do feel that this alarmism has taken root and it has overtaken the persistence with which you have said the majority, about 8 in 10. It'll be a mild illness and it will pass. And Peter Dutton is a metaphor of that?
PRIME MINISTER: Yeah he is. I mean, Peter's at home and he's recovering well. He joined the National Security Committee meeting yesterday via videoconference. So he is continuing to do his job. And I think that sort of demonstrates, as you've just said, that the case for most Australians, it is a mild illness. But the reason we need to be very careful about how the virus spreads is to protect those who are more vulnerable. That's why it's important to do the things we announced yesterday. I mean, we have more cases now. And so now was the time to take those additional steps, which means, you know, compared to other countries, the issues we've done around mass gatherings was well ahead of other countries, because when they did that, they had many, many, many more cases than we do now. We were able to slow the start of this virus in Australia and now we'll be able to continue to hopefully manage the spread, which means it'll put less strain on the health system at its peak level. And that means that our health systems will be able to better cope. Doesn't mean there won't be strains and stresses. It won't mean that there won't need to be changes made. And of course, we're going to have to do all of that. But if we manage the spread by doing the sensible things, so no longer shaking hands and no longer, well we be should always be practising the good hand hygiene and coughing into a handkerchief or your elbow, and avoiding contact with those who are were vulnerable. Do those sensible things. Then we will get through this.
JONES: PM I just, I'm really concerned I have to say, as I just said earlier today, I think the media have a high responsibility to as best, to first do some homework and secondly then advise and inform and not to alarm. If you take China, Italy, Iran, South Korea and Spain and they’re the 5 countries where there are problems. And the total deaths that I took off the W.H.O. list this morning approximately two hours ago was 6,455, in those five countries the deaths are 6,099. So in the remaining 151 countries that appear on the W.H.O. list, the death toll is 356. And of the 156 countries, in 109, according to the W.H.O., there are no deaths. Now, people are given being given the impression here that a meteor is about to collide with earth and we're all going to get the virus and suddenly our arms will fall off and there won't be enough timber left to make the coffins that are needed. You've tried to to draw back from this alarmism, but it is alive. You've only got to look at supermarkets everywhere, the healthy people, I quoted Jeremy Faust, the the expert from Harvard University who made the point, he said it's relatively benign disease for most young people. You've made this point, potentially devastating for the older and chronically ill. The mortality rate is 0 for children 10 or younger. It's 0.2 per cent in healthy non-geriatric adults. So on the basis of that, should we be thinking of closing schools or closing universities even I might add, you know, stopping people from going to football matches. These are mostly healthy, middle aged people?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, let me start with the last one. I mean, we've made the decision on gatherings of more than 500 and what we call non-essential static gatherings. That is to slow the spread Alan, on, when it comes to schools and universities, it is not the medical advice at the moment that they should be closed. And in fact, as I said yesterday, that could create, particularly for schools, more problems than solutions. As you said the incidents and the impact on the younger Australians is actually, much less than for the rest of the population. But in terms of the impact it would have on them going back home, they would need to be cared for. They may actually be being cared for by older Australians, their grandparents. That is not a particularly good idea at the moment. And it would also take potentially nurses and others out of the, out of the workforce when we need them right now. Now, I'm not saying that at some point down the track, those sort of measures may become necessary and that we'll do that on the basis of medical advice, but we won't do it on the basis of media opinion or things like that. I mean, what we need is facts. And I want to thank you for the facts that you're getting out there. Now is a time for facts rather than opinions. And those facts say, let's follow the medical advice. Let's slow the spread of this. That is the best way to protect particularly the elderly and the vulnerable, right now the next set of decisions we're making, we made a whole range yesterday, both as the National Security Committee and then the new National Cabinet. On Tuesday night, we'll be making more decisions around aged care facilities and around indoor gatherings. And we're waiting for that advice, that's being worked on right now. And also, we'll have some advice on managing the issues in remote communities.
JONES: See there’s 5 deaths in Australia so far, Prime Minister 5 deaths.
PRIME MINISTER: It’s terribly sad.
JONES: Terribly Sad. 900 died last year from flu, 43,000 died from heart disease one every 12 minutes, 50,000 died from cancer. The virus has had 5 deaths. Now out there. You know, the supermarkets, the supermarket shelves, it's just hideous. And the image that's being generated is, as I said, you get the impression that there's a massive meteor is about to collide with earth. We've got to stock up, locked down, close in. Don't go anywhere!
PRIME MINISTER: I mean, that's not necessary, as I said yesterday. The shops remain open, the trains still run, the phones still work, the lights still switch on. This is not a physical disaster where you've had a cyclone or something like that, which, you know, we do see in parts of Australia. And people are hemmed in for, you know, several weeks in those types of circumstances. That's not what’s occurring. That's not what is occurring here. And so I think the calmness is essential. Of course, there's going to be disruption to people's lives. Of course, there's going to be changes and there'll be more of that. And the reason we're doing that is to slow the spread, which means we save more lives.
JONES: Why is 490 safe and 510 not?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, these aren't absolute measures. And you're right,
JONES: That’s your advice.
PRIME MINISTER: Yeah, it's advice. And the 500 is what is being applied around the world and for enclosed spaces the medical experts are considering that right now. And what, it doesn't say that that will stop the virus completely. It just means that when you get to gatherings of that size and above, then the risk is greater. And so you're just removing the risk. What we're always trying to do is just push down on the risk because that pushes down on that curve, which means we push down on the pressure on the hospital system and and the GPs and all of that. But as you say, eight out of 10, our advice, a mild illness. And those of us who are in that more healthy category, we're in a position by our own behaviour in terms of containing the spread to protect those who are more vulnerable by our own behaviour, and us doing the right thing. I think it's great that Woollies today. I mean, Woollies are providing dedicated hours at their supermarkets so elderly Australians can get a go. And the fact that they haven't been getting a go and some of the behaviour we've seen there has been terribly disappointing. That's not Australia. That's not how Australians respond. And I think, yes, the government needs to continue to provide that instruction. But honestly, each of us have got to check each other on this sort of stuff. We’ve all got a responsibility there-
JONES: Yeah I mean, the multipliers are enormous, though, aren't they? As you know, you’re a Sharks fans so the shark play to no ground, then the pies, the sausages, the egg and lettuce sandwiches, the beer, the clean up afterwards. These are a stack of people whose jobs are at risk. See Robert’s emailed me, there is a stack of emails, Alan now that the government has stopped so many industries from functioning at all. Will they legislate that all lenders should not demand payments or penalise or default those who have no income following the latest restrictions? We already- sorry go on.
PRIME MINISTER: They are very real issues and I'm finding the banks to be very constructive on this and a lot of those sort of practical issues we will also now be addressing. And I think they're very reasonable points. The economic impact I've been very upfront with Australians about. Last year- last week, I should say. I was on the program last week. We had the- what was effectively $20 billion with the health and the stimulus package. We can obviously keep looking at those issues. We we we take these measures carefully. And after a lot of consideration and we know the impact it can have economically. And that's why we resist potentially going to other measures when at the present time they're not necessary because we want to keep society functioning and the economy functioning, that's why we talk about reducing-
JONES: Keeping business in business and jobs in jobs is really tough on you when these multipliers come in. See Alan’s writes to me and says, while you got the PM on today could you pass on, I’ve got to do this because it's not, he says it's unacceptable for our government to give any funding to the NRL. I've just spoken to Peter V'Landys. I don't agree with that, but or any other major sporting organisation. So they can pay the salary of multi-millionaires and prop up the clubs, which are the gambling dens of Australia. I don't agree with that. But however he makes this point, I'm a casual worker on $26 dollars an hour, who in a month will lose my house due to this virus. I've got two kids under 10. I'm just one person. I have friends who’ve placed their businesses in liquidation already, help real Australians. Last week's comments by Christian Porter telling Australians like me that we are compensated for being casual made me vomit. We are casual because Australian governments and business don't look after Australians if the NRL receives the golden handshake, you'll have backlash from everyday Australians that made the bushfire crisis seem like you were roasting marshmallows. So people are desperate. Do you understand that? I'm sure you do.
PRIME MINISTER: I do understand. And obviously the NRL is not high on the list at the moment. Addressing the health issues, hospitals, making sure we've got the health workforces in place, aged care facilities, small businesses making sure they've got cash flow support and in particular casuals, as I said last week. We have the sickness payment that it goes to casuals. Should they find themselves isolated or in fact, infected by the virus, they can access that payment. It's a Newstart payment. And that and we've waived the waiting period for people to get access to that as well. So there is a range of these things, Alan, that we're going to be looking at. We are meeting on this every day for long periods, going through all of these-
JONES: I hope we can talk each time to you because the information is key here.
PRIME MINISTER: It is.
JONES: We've got to neutralise it. Look, just one other thing, which is miles away from any of these-
PRIME MINISTER: Oh sorry Alan, just before you mention that, one of the other things we're doing when I mentioned the ban on mass gatherings yesterday as well as the self-isolation. The great thing about working with a National Cabinet is that it will be backed up by state and territory legislation. So that has implications for things like insurances and so on, for a lot of those events and how a lot of that, you know, the knock on effects of that. So rather than being an advisory, making it an actual clear direction from the government, backed up by legislation, that enables a lot of the other issues to kick-in, to provide support.
JONES: You've got to come together as a Parliament to pass the legislation to provide these benefits to that you announced last week, is the gathering of the parliament with thousands of staff and hundreds of MP’s, is that in breach of your edict? About 5- meetings of 500 people?
PRIME MINISTER: No. What we'll be doing is, and we'll be working on this today with the Speaker and the President of the Senate. I'll talk to the Leader of the Opposition as well, over the course of this week. And we'll be proposing a set of scaled back arrangements which will enable the Parliament to meet, to do its business to pass these laws and for us to get on with the job. I mean, it's a very scalable arrangement. And there are measures we can use. I mean, there won't be a necessity for all the staff to come to Canberra or all the other visitors who would normally come, I mean public galleries won't be open, school visits won't be happening, and there will be a massive scale down on all of that. That, and the focus will be on passing the important legislation that relates to the stimulus package and the health funding. And so all of that can be accommodated. See Alan, there'll be lots of challenges, but there'll also be lots of practical solutions.
JONES: Well just one thing before you go. I mean, people on the board here this morning and I can understand how they're annoyed. Paul as you know, who works for me coming down the highway this morning to 7-Eleven in Artarmon was selling unleaded fuel, at 165.9, it was 121.9 on Friday, and then Ashley from our studio in Brisbane says unleaded is selling for 114.9 and 159.9 cents a litre. People are doing it tough, but they don't have to be ripped off at the bowser, do they?
PRIME MINISTER: Yeah. Well I’ll raise that with Rod Sims at the ACCC. I mean, we know where oil prices have gone over the last few weeks. And so I'm sure he's taking a closer look. He's the cop on the beat on that. So I'll let him do his job on that. And we'll get about the job of keeping Australians safe and we'll do everything we can to keep them in jobs and businesses in business.
JONES: Thank you PM. We'll talk later in the week.
PRIME MINISTER: Okay cheers.
JONES: Thank you so much.