Prime Minister
PETER STEFANOVIC: Joining us from Canberra is the Prime Minister, Scott Morrison. Prime Minister, thanks for your time this morning. Just before we get to IR, can I get your reaction to that news out of Israel that Malka Leifa may well be extradited soon, your reaction to that? And when you think she may be extradited?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, I welcome it very much, just as the Attorney-General has, and the Attorney-General travelled to Israel at the end of last year I understand it. It's an issue that Australia, and I personally, have raised consistently with the Israeli Prime Minister and others throughout that system. And so that news is very welcome. And I know the Jewish community more broadly here in Australia will be very pleased with this news. Now, there's still a legal process to continue. I understand there's potential appeal there still in that process, but that's said this is some news we've been waiting for for some time. And I want to commend all of those who've been campaigning strongly on this here in Australia and in Israel. This is a very good day for them, but the ultimate day is still a little bit away. And hopefully that will be soon.
STEFANOVIC: Okay, well, we'll get on to JobMaker and IR. Did you ever think that you would be borrowing from Hawkey's playbook?
PRIME MINISTER: Well you take your lessons in politics from wherever they are. And in times like this, the most difficult economic times we've faced since the Great Depression, then you've got to bring people together to find new solutions in industrial relations, in workplace relations. We've been spinning wheels for quite a period of time. And that is not going to help us get people back into work. And we've got to break out of those old moulds and put the weapons down, get people into a room and sort it out. And hopefully you know, I don't have any preconditions here and I don't have any guarantees to offer. All we can do is get people together and see if we can crack through some of these difficult issues on everything from how the awards can be made more simple - so how we can ensure people get paid properly, in greenfield sites as they're called, those new investments, there’s certainly so people will put the money in so they can create jobs. All of this is incredibly important to getting people back into jobs.
STEFANOVIC: Well unions have laid down the first marker already Prime Minister, they want to extend JobKeeper beyond September while also not reducing JobKeeper to the lower Newstart allowance. Are you open to that?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, these aren't the issues that are actually part of the five areas that we've set out. I mean, the government will make decisions on JobSeeker and JobKeeper, as we've said consistently they are temporary measures. And it's important, as I said yesterday, that we get the economy out of ICU as quickly as we can. We can't have Australians living on borrowed money for a protracted period of time, that dulls the economy and it doesn't get it moving again so we can create more jobs. So we're looking at those issues, as we've always said. But the process we've engaged in in, good faith, is in five key areas we've set out what they are. And I'm very, I welcome the fact that the ACTU, particularly Sally McManus, who I met with in Sydney at Kirribilli House last week, that, you know, we're going into this in in a good faith way, but the expectations, well we’ll see what happens.
STEFANOVIC: You're going to need the states to get on board with this as well right. And up until this point and it's been something of a rocky relationship in recent times. There's been a disconnect when it comes to schools and even borders as well. So why would this time be different?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, the states don't have the same role to play in industrial relations. So, no, that doesn't require the states to be signing off on these issues. I mean, they’re employers in their own right, state governments. But what we've demonstrated through the National Cabinet, I think has been under-assessed here. I mean, the National Cabinet has worked together extremely well to manage Australia through this crisis. Yeah sure there's some issues at the moment about borders down there and whether it's Western Australia or Queensland or South Australia or Tasmania. Those states make their own decisions on those issues. The expert medical advice at a national level never recommended internal borders within Australia. And it's not good for the economy, particularly as we go into this next school holiday season. Those tourism businesses need that support. So those individual states, they’ll have to justify those decisions themselves and, because it wasn't something that came out of National Cabinet. But if you look across the broad scheme of what National Cabinet has done and how they’ve worked together, they've got more in agreement than not.
STEFANOVIC: Okay but is that a failure of National Cabinet, though? The fact that you set out that three stage plan and on the third stage, by July, you had hoped for interstate travel, several of the states have said, well, we're not going to do that until September. So for that point, is that a failure of National Cabinet?
PRIME MINISTER: Well No I’ve got to pull you up there Peter, no, no. Peter, I'm going to pull you up there, because that's just not right. Internal borders were never part of that, they should've never been in there in the first place, on National Cabinet’s agreements. They were individual decisions made by states. One of the reasons why the National Cabinet has worked is because it hasn't held itself to a standard that you've just suggested. Of course there's gonna be differences. I mean, to think there wouldn't be differences would be naive. And to assess it in that way I think is very unrealistic. I think we sometimes undersell ourselves in Australia. We look overseas and say, well, they did this, well they did that well. We don’t look at how well we've done here in Australia. Let's not forget here in Australia, there are countries overseas just as sophisticated as us, health systems, developed economies who have death rates a hundred times more than Australia. Now, I think that's something the National Cabinet can take some comfort in, that they have played a very constructive role in avoiding that death and destruction here in, in New South Wales, in every state of the Commonwealth.
STEFANOVIC: Okay just on this ship that stopped in Perth. There is a bit of a blame game going on, Prime Minister, between the Premier of Western Australia and the federal government as well. Ultimately, who is responsible for this ship docking?
PRIME MINISTER: Well the state authorities are responsible for the health of the human beings, and Agriculture is responsible for the health of any animals that ultimately go on these vessels and the Border Force deals with the clearances, which relate to passports and visas and all of these sorts of things and the border entry. So I mean the process is actually being applied here. Those individuals who have been tested positive, they've been isolated and they've been separated. Everyone else has remained on the vessel. So, you know, I'm not interested in the blame game on this. Everyone's doing the job they should be doing. And we'll work closely with the Western Australian government. But I tell you one thing we've got to be careful of here Peter, and that is we can't shut down the shipping industry of our trade, on the basis of coronavirus. I mean, we've got the systems in place and they can be managed and they can be protected and they are being. But if we're going to stop exporting our, whether it's our agricultural products or our resources or anything like this, then that is going to hurt our economy drastically. So I would caution people from getting too far ahead of themselves on this. There's a ship, there's some people on that ship who've got the virus. They've been isolated. That's what should have happened. And we'll work constructively with the West Australian Government to manage that vessel like so many others that we've had to deal with. Some of them have been far more complicated. But overall, we've been able to manage many, many, many of these vessels in recent months.
STEFANOVIC: Prime Minister, I'm sure you are looking forward to the return of the NRL that starts tomorrow night. But there's been a bit of a blow in your team with one of the players testing positive for steroids. What are your thoughts on this?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, I'm very disappointed. That's the first point. But there's an ASADA process which is ongoing. And so I’ll let that run its course and I don't want to prejudge any of that. But obviously, as a Sharks fan I’m obviously very disappointed and I’m sure the players and other club officials are similarly disappointed. And Bronson is an incredibly talented young footballer. And, you know, he made his debut last year,, he was electrifying to watch. So this is, I think it's disappointing, obviously, for the club but particularly for himself and his family and look I hope, he's a young fella and this will be putting a lot of stress and strain on him. It would appear, based on what we've seen, that some terrible judgements have been made on his part. And I'm sure people will get around him and support him. But there's no place for drugs in sport, doesn’t matter whether it's in my team or anyone else's team. We don't want drugs in sport. And that's the key message.
STEFANOVIC: Okay. Prime Minister Scott Morrison, appreciate your time this morning. Thanks so much for joining us here.
PRIME MINISTER: Thanks a lot Peter.