Prime Minister
7:44 PM
BRETT MASON: Prime Minister, welcome back to SBS.
PRIME MINISTER: Thanks Brett. Good to be here.
MASON: You've spoken about National Cabinet working towards a road out of the coronavirus crisis, in your eyes, what does success look like on the other side?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, ultimately, we want to get Australia back to normal, but there will be many steps between that point, and where we are now. This is something that we have to get used to and we have to get used to it at a much higher level of economic activity and be able to cope with that in the future. So no country has found the magic formula to this yet, and Australia is better placed than most and many because of the strong position we went into this in.
MASON: There does seem to be a sense within the community of, okay, we've gotten through the worst of this. We can start to wind back some of those restrictions. You're pretty adamant we're not at that point yet?
PRIME MINISTER: No, that is complacency and it's a dangerous complacency. And I warned against it. We still have quite a number of things to still get in place to have the protections there that would enable those sort of restrictions to be eased many, many weeks from now. We want to avoid the horrific scenes that we've seen overseas. I mean, this idea of some herd immunity, well they're not achieving that in Italy. They’re not achieving it in the United States and, or in the United Kingdom for that matter. And look at that horrific scenes there. I don't want to see that visited on Australia and so we need to be very careful, this thing can get away from you quickly, I mean Singapore’s curve is going up, it’s not flat, and Singapore was one of the example jurisdictions just a few weeks ago, so we cannot be complacent.
MASON: You've spoken about the virus moving in waves. How crucial were Chinese Australians in stopping the devastating impacts of that first wave of coronavirus heading out of China?
PRIME MINISTER: The amazing work of the Chinese Australian community, Australians coming home and self-isolating as they were asked to do, that has put Australia in a very strong position. It was the amazing compliance and cooperation and diligence and patience shown by the Chinese Australian community that saved Australian lives, including many in that community. And they were phenomenal. And I thank them very much.
MASON: You've spoken about this virus not having a face or a flag. Unfortunately, some Australians don't see it that way. In recent weeks, we've seen some appalling and horrific incidences of racism, Australians attacking other Australians on the streets. How disappointed have you been by those attacks?
PRIME MINISTER: I'm massively disappointed. Because it's just so wrong. It's so against who we are as a people. I mean, we're all in this together. It was the Chinese Australian community that actually protected Australia so early on in this virus outbreak around the world. They should call it out. And it's not on. It's, it's not how we get through this together. Sure the virus started in Wuhan, in China, that's what happened, that's just a fact. But that doesn't mean that this was, it has any nationalistic, or or any other sort of characteristics to it. That's just where it started.
MASON: The human rights commissioner has called for non-violence, or low risk detainees to be released from detention as a precaution to prevent a potential cluster of COVID-19 cases?
PRIME MINISTER: They’re not decisions the government’s taken, and it's an issue that's under constant review by the Australian border force and we’re putting the health interests first, but that's not a measure that has been taken.
MASON: Do you think this will be one of the biggest challenges that the region’s faced together with Australia?
PRIME MINISTER: I think so. I mean, what is happening in Indonesia is of terrible, great concern. And our thoughts are very much with them. And we're speaking regularly to our counterparts in Indonesia. The scale of their challenge is well beyond anything imaginable in Australia. And, you know, we need to be there and provide what support we can. But the scale of that challenge in Indonesia is unlike anything that we've seen in our time.
MASON: Two words have come to define this crisis in Australia, Ruby Princess. Why was that ship allowed to dock in Sydney and those passengers disembark?
PRIME MINISTER: We're in the middle of an unprecedented crisis. And there will be things that don't go according to plan. And that's not an excuse for it. That's just a reality. And if we allow ourselves to get so caught up in those things, sure, learn the lessons quickly.
MASON: What should have been done when that ship arrived?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, as you say, the rules were very clear about, Border Force is not a health agency, they don’t have doctors, that's not what their job is. I mean the New South Wales Government has been very clear about what's happened and I'm sure the lessons have been learned and we can move forward.
MASON: There’s been some criticism of the WHO for the time it took to declare a pandemic, you’ve raised some concerns about wet markets being allowed to re-open, is it time that the international community has a look at the World Health Organisation and some of the calls it’s made during the last few months?
PRIME MINISTER: Well we didn’t rely on their calls. I mean we called this as a virus of pandemic potential well before the World Health Organisation and we went to the pandemic response stage well before the WHO even called it as one. So thankfully we weren’t relying on their calls in terms of how Australia responded. That obviously highlights some issues that I imagine need to be addressed there, but on the issue of the wet markets, I just find it baffling. I just don’t get it. And we want to be able to protect the world’s health from these sort of incubators of viruses and we really, I’m puzzled by the decision, I can’t really, I mean I’m not a health expert, the WHO are the ones who are supposed to provide those sorts of protections at a global level, and I do find the whole thing a bit mystifying.
MASON: Thank you very much.
PRIME MINISTER: Thanks Brett.