Prime Minister
Mike Henry: Now what you see here at the FutureFit Academy is part of a commitment that BHP made last year to 3,500 apprenticeships and traineeships over the next five years. Already at our FutureFit Academy here at Welshpool and in Mackay we have over 450 students and of those students over 80 per cent are female, and over 20 per cent identify as indigenous Australians. Average age is under 30. Now, this is part of BHP's efforts to rebuild from the pandemic, but also to build a very highly skilled workforce that is work force ready and is able to support a prosperous nation. BHP has around 45000 people here in Australia and we support tens of thousands of further jobs through the supply chain.
We’ve worked with others throughout the course of the pandemic to overcome some of the challenges the pandemic has posed. And that included us embarking on this sort of commitment, we’ve hired in more people we’ve provided financial support to local communities to small, local and indigenous businesses, and the FutureFit Academy is part of a $350 million commitment to 3,500 apprenticeships and traineeships, but we've also committed to spending over $450 million with Australian VET sector companies because we’re trying to stimulate home-grown innovation. This is all perfectly aligned with the government's, one, call for a business name recovery, which we are fully supportive of and, secondly, as a strong focus the government has on skills and training has been central to the nation's future. We believe that through everybody throughout the economy coming together to work on building skills and on education that that’s something that can enable Australia to continue to do what Australia does so well, which is harness its natural ability to provide the world with the resources, the knowledge and the services that it needs and with that, Prime Minister, I’ll hand across to you.
Prime Minister: Thank you very much Mike, it’s great to be here with you, and particularly great to be here with all of your team, the trail blazers who were here in the first programme of this wonderful initiative, which is putting Australians into work, keeping them in work and providing them with a career, which will support them and their families in their communities for a long time to come. Before I come to that, and I am joined by my colleagues, can I just extend, on behalf of the Commonwealth Government and all Australians, to all those in Kalbarri that we are standing with you. This morning at 8:00am, the phone lines opened on 180 22 66 that will provide that disaster recovery payment support to people affected in those areas. That is $1,000 per adult and $400 per child. These are critical support payments in a time like this. You can call that number, and your application is dealt with over the phone. There is no need for lots of paperwork. The Commonwealth Government, through Services Australia, has become very experienced through so many of the disasters we have experienced over the course of the last few years. Whether it is floods, whether it is fires, whether it is cyclones, indeed many of the other events that have impacted on so many Australians, and just as Australians were there for those who are affected by those natural disasters, so Australians will be there for those affected by the cyclone at Kalbarri. I am looking forward to going, in a couple of days’ time, to be able to see firsthand on the ground and see what additional support we can provide. Later today I am meeting with the Premier to discuss further support. I appreciate the way, once again, that the Premier and I and our agencies and our ministers have worked closely together on coordinating the response to this cyclone, just as we do on so many other disasters that sadly we have had to deal with over such a long period of time. These systems are there to support people. One of the things that happens during these disasters, Australians who have never had to reach out for support before, very self-sufficient, and I know how self-sufficient West Australians are: reach out. The support is there for you at a time like this and so please make that support available to you by reaching out and calling that number today and you will get a swift response and we are very pleased to do that element, as we will be doing many others in concert with the State Government.
Of course, this afternoon, when I meet with the Premier, we will be talking about many other issues but one issue that is not in dispute and never will be, and that is the GST deal for Western Australia. This is a deal that as Treasurer I sponsored, as Prime Minister I legislated. The one person you can trust anymore with this deal is the person who actually brought it about, and that is me. The Premier and I share a passion for this and we work together to achieve this. I argued it on the west coast and more importantly, I argued it on the east coast. I said the same thing in Sydney as I have said in Perth. I have said the same thing throughout Western Australia as I said in North Queensland and in South Yarra. That is how you approach this. We did it because it was the right thing to do. It was a wrong that needed to be righted in Western Australia and we were very pleased as a Government to both take that initiative, to argue that case and to get it done. One of the many other areas we will be discussing this afternoon is the ongoing economic plan, recovery plan, for Australia but, particularly for Western Australia. Over the course of this pandemic, the Premier and I have worked very closely together with a series of initiatives. The West Australian Government has done a great job keeping people safe here in WA and we support those initiatives. But equally, the Federal Government has been there every step of the day, every step of the way I should say. More than $13 billion that is more than a billion dollars a month that the Federal Government has pumped into the West Australian economy in income and other direct supports alone. That was in JobKeeper that was in cash flow support that was in additional supports through the COVID supplement. That was the support that was provided direct to pensioners and other beneficiaries in the economic stimulus. That doesn't even take into account the more than 5,000 flights that were facilitated here in Western Australia. The more than 50,000 tonnes of exports that have been supported through the international freight system that the Federal Government subsidised. That was our job. It is true that the Federal Government's fiscal support, financial support, not just to West Australia but the entire country, it has more than doubled the States' combined investment, but that was our job. That is what we had to do and that is what we are doing and I can continue to reassure Western Australians that those two things working in partnership, health and the economy, has ensured that Western Australia is in the strong position it is now.
But as we rebuild, and this is why we're here now, the economic recovery depends on a very critical component and that is our workforce. On critical sectors, like the minerals and resources sector, this is such a fundamental sector for Australia and I think Australians are in no doubt about the support and priority that my government places on the resources sector, and particularly here in Western Australia. We need the people to come and work in this growing sector, whether it's the associates who are being trained here, coming from so many different sectors, to be part of the workforce of the future of our resources sector, the engineers that need to be trained, the others who we need to be coming into this sector to build the wealth and prosperity that the Western Australian resources sector has always delivered for our nation, that must continue. Not just here in Western Australia, but across the country. That means training people in getting the right workforce and I really want to thank Mike Henry and BHP for the ground-breaking, for the leadership programme that they have put in place here. It is a great thrill to be here today, particularly with Michaelia and Steve, the ministers who at that time were my Skills Ministers and have put so much work into building these new JobTrainer platforms and the apprenticeship programs which has kept young people in work and is training more people for work. And when Mike and I talked about this quite a while ago we said we are going to set up this place and we are going to train Australians from all different backgrounds to come and work in our sector and BHP has put their money where their mouth is and they have put their experience where their mouth is too, and they are raising up a whole other work force for the future of the West Australian resources industry. I want to commend them for that. This is such a big part of our economic recovery plan.
The JobTrainer program itself is a billion dollar investment in this year alone. Some 300,000 training places on top of what we already invest in every year between the federal and state governments to get Australians trained. At the start of the pandemic, one of my greatest concerns and fears for the economy is that apprentices would lose their jobs. This would be heartbreaking, not just at a personal level but the training and the effort that had been put into training people for a new career, they could have been two, three years into their apprenticeships, making the sacrifices, getting to TAFE, doing the work and that would all go. One of the first initiatives I put in place was to support apprentices to stay in their jobs and as I moved around the country and I am so pleased to be seeing the same thing here in Western Australia, those apprentices kept their jobs. Not only that, our boosting apprenticeships program added more apprentices, we tried to get 100,000 new apprentices employed. We thought it would take us 12 months. We did it in five, and so we have accelerated the program even further because we understand that building the workforce of the future for Australia, in critical sectors, whether it is in the resources sector, whether it’s in the agriculture and food processing, whether it’s in the energy sector, or any of these critical sectors that we have identified, especially in our manufacturing industries, that is where we need to put the effort, getting the workforce and we are investing in the skills.
Now finally, before I throw over to Michaelia and we can take questions, today's vaccination numbers are an improvement. We have seen some 60,000 people vaccinated yesterday. That is up from the previous day, and particularly after the advice that we received from the Technical Advisory Group on immunisations, regarding the remote risk that was associated with AstraZeneca, to see those numbers pick up the next day was an encouragement but we have a long way to go yet. I have called together the Premiers and Chief Ministers for us to work together to deal with the problems we have in the vaccination program which stem from two issues. The first one was the constraint in the supply from overseas for our doses of those imported vaccines. We had three million that were supposed to turn up in those first few weeks and because of the problems in Europe, they did not arrive. But we were getting over the top of that problem and the second issue that has come from outside the Government's control is the medical advice regarding those remote risks associated with AstraZeneca. That will change how we do the rollout. The critical thing right now is we must be vaccinating those most vulnerable in our community. That means those who are in those 1A and 1B groups. And particularly, I want to stress, those Australians aged over 70. AstraZeneca is a safe and approved vaccine for people aged over 50. The risk to elderly Australians and vulnerable Australians of COVID is great if there is an outbreak. We will do everything we can to avoid an outbreak. But as we saw in Victoria, that cannot be always guaranteed. Those who we lost most, almost exclusively, were the elderly in Victoria when that outbreak occurred. So our goal right here, right now, is to ensure that we continue to progress forward with vaccinating that most vulnerable population. We have the vaccines to do that through AstraZeneca, they are being produced and we are getting on with that job. The second challenge is to deal with those under 50 and those in the next phase who are between the ages of 50-70. I will be talking and working with the States to look at the options for mass vaccination, firstly in the instance of those aged between 50 and 70 and the AstraZeneca vaccines that we have available. Good news on the general practitioners, is that we now have 4,000 of those GP sites established. We flagged that at the beginning of this week that we would be ramping that up further and that has occurred. We welcome the good performance, the great performance of our GPs. I am looking forward to meeting with the AMA President here in Perth this week to talk about those issues and we’re seeing the number of vaccinations through those GPs that went to 40,000 or thereabouts yesterday. In total we're just shy of 1.3 million people who have been vaccinated as of the close of yesterday. All of that, I think, indicates that here in Western Australia, this weekend, people will go along to their favourite sporting events, they will gather together with their families, there will be community festivals, there will be all of these things. That's how we're living life here in Australia and how we are living life here in Western Australia. That is not the experience of so many countries around the world today. Of course we're appreciative of that but we can’t be complacent about it and that’s why we will continue to work. I think this is reflected in the consumer confidence figures from today, that have come out from Westpac, up more than 6 per cent to be at a level, at its highest level in 11 years. Australians can see that Australia is coming through this pandemic, and through the recession that it caused, better than almost any other country in the world today. We're in a handful of countries to be living in this position. We intend to keep it that way. I intend to keep it that way by working with industry, by working with the state premiers and particularly here Premier McGowan to ensure that we keep Australia in the position we want them to be in. I'll pass over to Michaelia and then we'll take some questions.
Michaelia Cash: Thank you, Prime Minister. Ladies and gentlemen it is fabulous to join my friend and colleague, Steve Irons, the member for Swan here today at the BHP FutureFit Academy. Prime Minister, on behalf of all of us, it is great to have you here in Western Australia. In the first instance, Prime Minister, can I thank you for the support that both you have shown personally but also on behalf of the Commonwealth Government for Western Australians that have been affected by the recent cyclone. I acknowledge you are meeting with Premier McGowan today, in relation to that support. Can I also though, on behalf of Western Australians, thank you for standing here today as the former treasurer of our great country, but now as the Prime Minister, and reaffirming your commitment to that GST deal. As you said, when you were Treasurer you recognised that there was a wrong that needed to be righted. You fought for that to happen, both on the West Coast and the East Coast and I acknowledge those comments you made here today as the Prime Minister and your commitment to the GST deal.
Can I also say, though, to Steve Irons, when Steve and I worked together in the skills portfolio the Prime Minister made it very clear to us: skills and workforce are centre to the economic recovery from COVID-19. It's great to join Mike Henry and the team from BHP here today to look at exactly what they are doing to lead Australians in terms of that recovery. As the Prime Minister said, when COVID-19 hit, first and foremost, our thoughts went to, in particular, apprentices and trainees. We did not want them to lose their jobs as a result of the pandemic. That's why, as a Government, we moved so quickly to put in place the supporting apprentices and trainees wage subsidy. And we were so successful in keeping apprentices and trainees on the job. What the Prime Minister also recognised, working with Steve Irons and myself, was that we needed to get the pipeline of apprentices going and as I look around here today it's fantastic to be surrounded by so many apprentices working in the resources sector. In terms of the building apprentices commencement wages subsidy, it is a 50 per cent wage subsidy provided to employers across Australia - any size, any industry, anywhere - to bring on a new apprentice into their business. We've set ourselves a goal as a government, we wanted to see 100,000 new commencements of apprentices and trainees within a 12-month period. I was delighted, Steve was delighted, and I know the Prime Minister was delighted when we hit that 100,000 within five months of the program being in place. And as a result of that we’ve extended the program so any employer across Australia, any size, any industry, anywhere, who signs up and takes on a new apprentice until September 30 this year will have the benefit of the 12-month 50 per cent wage subsidy. When we look at what BHP and the FutureFit academy have created here, Prime Minister, it is just great that when you come back to Western Australia, we are literally surrounded by those who work in the backbone of the Western Australian economy, the resources sector. And to BHP, I really do commend you on this innovative programme you have in place, and in particular the feedback we’ve received from the apprentices and the trainees who are here today, employees of BHP undertaking an apprenticeship or trainee and when they finish, going straight off to site. What we see here today really is workforce planning being done well. We are seeing quite literally that business-led recovery we need to see. And it's great to join Steve Irons and be able to showcase in particular apprentices and trainees to you here today.
Prime Minister: And thank you also, Steve. Steve and I came into the Parliament together many years ago. We looked a little bit different back then Steve, but I want to thank you for the great work you’ve been doing here in Perth. Questions?
Journalist: Christine Holgate has accused you of bullying her over the watches scandal, will you apologise?
Prime Minister: I said earlier today, the events that occurred in the Parliament last year, in October of last year, related to a very serious issue. Evidence had been given on two matters. One was that Cartier watches had been handed out to well paid employees who were also entitled to performance bonuses under their normal remuneration arrangements and on top of that, in a government owned, taxpayer owned company, Cartier watches were handed out on top of that. I didn't think it was appropriate. I still don't think it was appropriate. When that occurred it was also stated that this was not taxpayers money. I disagreed with that statement very strongly too. If it is a government company, it is taxpayers' money, and it should be treated with the same level of respect across government organisations as well. And so those are points I remain very committed to. So, at the time what I did was I spoke to shareholding Ministers that was in particular Minister Fletcher. Minister Fletcher spoke to the Chairman of the company. The Chairman of the company spoke to the Chief Executive. What we undertook to do was put a review into place into these matters that we considered to be very concerning. The instruction was that the Chief Executive would stand aside while that was being done. What I stated in the Parliament was that if the Chief Executive, and the indication had been that this might be the case, was not prepared to stand aside, and that she might wish to leave the company. I reflected that in the Parliament. Now, it was a willing day in the Parliament. The language in the Parliament was very strong. It was not my intention to cause distress to Christine Holgate and I regret any distress that that strong language may have caused to her and indeed did cause to her. That was not my intention. But what this issue is about ultimately, all of us who serve in senior positions, whether it's Prime Minister or Minister or chief executive or managing director of a government owned company, we all have responsibilities. What this issue was about, was about the appropriate way taxpayers money and taxpayers companies are run. There were serious issues there and Ms Holgate decided not to remain with Australia Post and Australia Post is now moving to appoint a new Chief Executive and any remaining issues sit between Christine Holgate and the Chair.
Journalist: Are you aware that your words in Parliament made her position untenable, were you trying to score political points [inaudible]?
Prime Minister: No, I don't accept that. The position was that Christine Holgate would be able to stand aside while that review took place. She chose not just to do that, she chose ultimately while the review was under way to resign from the company. That was a matter between her and the Chairman. If she'd wished to stay in the organisation while that review was concluded and the board and her could work through the serious issues that were raised in that review. There were serious matters here and serious issues that we didn't want to see repeated. If she had chosen to work through the process, then she could have chosen to do that. Instead she chose to resign from the organisation. That's a matter between her and the Australia Post board. My language in the Parliament on the day that the Labor Party was saying she should resign. I remind everybody that was the context of those discussions in the Parliament and what was said later. Parliament can get very willing and on that occasion, my language was very strong and I do regret any any, the distress that would have caused to Ms Holgate.
Journalist: Prime Minister will you meet Brittany Higgins when she travels to Canberra to take part in the Kate Jenkins review and will you apologise to her in person for the alleged treatment that she suffered in Parliament House?
Prime Minister: I've already made those apologies publicly and I'm looking forward to meeting Brittany, we will be meeting privately, where that will take place, that hasn’t been arranged yet. We've reached out to Brittany Higgins to arrange that meeting, like I said we would, and we have and those arrangements are being put in place. That will be a private conversation. I’m looking forward to having it, I know there are a range of issues that she's relayed to my Chief of Staff that she would like to raise and I look forward to hearing her.
Journalist: Admitting that you caused distress to Christine Holgate, do you have a problem with the way you speak about women?
Prime Minister: No. This issue was not about gender. This was about taxpayer organisations handing out Cartier watches to well paid executives. This has nothing to do with gender. This has to do with the performance of people who are responsible for running taxpayer organisations. That’s what this issue is about.
Journalist: So admitting that you’ve caused her distress, why wouldn’t you apologise for that?
Prime Minister: I think acknowledging distress has been caused is appropriate, but when it comes to these organisations, we all carry big responsibilities and it can be a very robust environment and that robust environment shouldn’t be taking account of people's genders, it should treating everybody equally. That's what I do.
Journalist: Will you call her and express that one-on-one not just through the media?
Prime Minister: I don't think there's a need for that. The Chairman and the former Chief Executive, that's where the employment relationship existed and that's where those issues are being addressed.
Journalist: She says she didn’t go voluntarily, should she get her old job back?
Prime Minister: That's a matter between the Chair and her. That not a matter where the Government, as Ministers or myself as Prime Minister, have any direct involvement in whatsoever.
Journalist: What's the status of the Boston Consulting review of Australia Post? Can you guarantee there won’t be job losses as Ms Holgate has said there would be?
Prime Minister: I'll refer that to the Minister and you can raise that with him. He is managing that matter.
Journalist: Should the Chairman of Australia Post resign?
Prime Minister: There's nothing before me which suggests that.
Journalist: Last week it was revealed the JobMaker scheme had only created 609 jobs, well short of the 450,000 predicted. Are businesses like BHP doing the heavy lifting in regards to getting Australians back to work?
Prime Minister: All Australians are doing the heavy lifting. I think BHP is doing a tremendous job, as are many Australian companies and if Australian companies don't want, don’t feel the need to draw on that taxpayer funded support to do that job then that’s good news too. I think having profitable companies is a good thing. Profitable companies investing in the training of Australians is a good thing. And where they do that off their own dollar, that's a good thing and that’s the sort of self-reliant economy that the treasurer and I and my Government have been supporting and seeking to build and have ensured we’ve been able to move through this COVID period and ensured it is coming out the other side strong. Where there are more people employed in Australia today than there were before when the pandemic hit, consumer confidence is at an 11 year high. That's good news for business, good news for jobs and it is evidence of the strong recovery that we're seeing take place coming out of the COVID-19 recession. So I'm not therefore surprised that large companies, where they have the means to actually invest in futures and training, are doing just that and I welcome that. But there are many small and medium-sized businesses like those who have come through the apprenticeships program and the boosting apprenticeships program who have relied very much on that support. In the past, in the most difficult periods of the pandemic, including here in Western Australia, who were very reliant on those JobSeeker arrangements, that saw them through and now they're getting back on their own feet and they've graduated from that program and I think that’s a good thing. So everyone is doing their bit of the heavy lifting here. Right throughout the pandemic that’s when I've seen Australians do, people carrying their load and in many cases they’ve sought to carry the load of others. The Commonwealth Government has done that here in Western Australia. The State Government has done it here in Western Australia. Local governments have been doing it and companies, employers and workers, all working together to ensure that Australia is one of a handful of countries that is leading the world out of the COVID-19 pandemic and recession.
Journalist: Joe Biden said that he is going to withdraw troops from Afghanistan by September 11. Are there any implications from that for Australian personnel in the region?
Prime Minister: Well without going into national security matters you can be assured that the Australian Government has been working closely with our American partners and allies on these issues.
Journalist: It’s been a while between trips, are you aware how long it has been since you visited WA?
Prime Minister: I was last here for the Telethon with Jenny and we very much enjoyed being there for Telethon but since that time a lot has happened. After returning from the United States in fact, it wasn’t here not long after that, already in September of last year we were dealing with bushfires in Queensland and I remember Jenny and I being up there in Queensland in September and then through October and then through November, important meetings with the East Asia Summit up in Thailand, which was the last time I met with Premier Li Keqiang from China and that was a very important summit that was held in Bangkok. We returned and the bushfires continued to rage as they did all through the summer and then, of course, as we moved into January, we moved into the pandemic. Western Australians needed me to be at the helm of this country, and that's exactly where I was.
Journalist: Did you abandon the WA Liberal Party?
Prime Minister: Absolutely not. From where we were, we were providing support. We've got a lot of work to do here at a state level as a party but I think Western Australians distinguish very significantly, as we’re seeing Australians do right across the country. What they've seen here in Western Australia is a Premier show strong leadership through the course of the pandemic, supported by a strong Federal Government that is underwritten through the significant financial investments which has more than outstripped what was able to be done by the Western Australian Government.
Journalist: Have you spoken to the Liberal MPs who lost their seats. Do you know how many seats were lost in WA?
Prime Minister: That's a matter for the state party. I'm focused on my federal team.
Journalist: Do you know how many seats were lost by the Liberal Party in the WA election?
Prime Minister: They are matters for the state party. I'm focused on the federal issues.
Journalist: [Inaudible] that swing you would lose at least four seats federally including Steve’s including Christian Porter’s, is it desperate times for the Liberal Party in WA?
Prime Minister: No, not at all because I think Western Australians know that my Government and the Liberal Party as a federal level is the party that have ensured that people have stayed in their jobs, that the GST deal so needed over such a long period of time was championed by the Liberal Party, by the federal Liberal Party and was delivered for Western Australians. Indeed the very surplus they have in Western Australia could entirely at the end of the day be put down to the additional GST payments the Western Australian Government received, 1.5 billion dollars because it is a surplus of less than 1.5 billion dollars. We have delivered as a federal Liberal team for Western Australia, whether it's in infrastructure, whether it's in defence contracts, whether it’s in JobKeeper, or tax cuts or the resources industry, our energy technology road map, our trade deals, all of these things have been very important for Western Australia and they've been delivered by a federal Liberal Government and I trust, I trust Western Australians' judgement. They have rewarded the strong leadership of Premier McGowan and my Government has been providing strong leadership for Western Australians as well.
Journalist: [Inaudible].
Prime Minister: The state election is run and done, I'm focused on delivering for Western Australians.
Journalist: On the vaccine program, one of the biggest problems is supply.
Prime Minister: Sorry, couldn’t quite hear you.
Journalist: On the vaccine program, one of the biggest problems is supply. We’re not getting enough overseas doses and large parts of the population have been told to get another vaccine, so how will more National Cabinet meetings resolve that and have state and territory leaders agreed to two National Cabinet meetings twice weekly?
Prime Minister: Yes they have in short. I was in contact with them yesterday and just like it was last year when we had to deal with many difficult challenges of course they will come together in the same spirit, and that’s why I'm very confident the issues and problems we're currently beset with will be resolved. There are two issues, initially the problem was with the supply of overseas vaccines. That’s what slowed down the first few weeks until the AstraZeneca vaccine which was being produced in Melbourne was able to come off the factory line to go through the fill and finish process, go through batch testing and become available. Now that AstraZeneca vaccine had ramped up to 800,000 a week. The challenge now is the medical advice that has been received that deals with the rather rare instance where you can have the clotting occur for those who are under 50. I noted that in the United States, the Johnson & Johnson vaccine is now facing some similar issues. This is why our selection of vaccines was so important. In recent days, the Government has been criticised for not getting the Johnson & Johnson vaccine. That would have been another adenovirus vaccine. We already had one of those, which was AstraZeneca. So we decided to go with the Novavax vaccine and to go with the Pfizer vaccine and the mRNA vaccine so we ensured that we had coverage over the different types of vaccines foreseeing that it is possible, although there was nothing in early testing to suggest this that any one of those vaccines could potentially faced one of those challenges. Right now our focus is on vaccinating people for whom the AstraZeneca vaccine does not present a challenge. Of course there are those under 50 or who are working in front line health workers and aged care workers and others, but a vast number of those are also aged over 50 and the AstraZeneca vaccine is very appropriate for them and those suppliers of AstraZeneca are continuing to roll out. I haven’t finished yet. We don't have an issue with the supply of AstraZeneca vaccines. They are rolling out of our domestic manufacturing. The issue is in relation to the Pfizer vaccines. The Pfizer vaccine timetable that we have from Pfizer is ramping up in the next few weeks and months and into the third quarter of this year. We have secured an additional 20 million Pfizer vaccines that will become available in the fourth quarter of this year and that will happen at the same time as we expect to receive the Novavax vaccine. We will have a, if those supply lines hold up and that is something outside the Government’s control, then we will have a substantial number of vaccines in the fourth quarter of this year. That is why we will have to change our delivery method because we would like to see this done before the end of the year but that will only be possible if we can ensure that we have the mass vaccination program in place that can do that in that space of that final quarter. Now prior to that, we will have AstraZeneca vaccines that we believe we might be able to ramp up the pace of vaccination for those aged between 50 and 70. That's millions of Australians. And we have a strong GP network now of over 4,000 that we can work those vaccines through. Equally there's an option to work and I've discussed this with at least one Premier about how mass vaccination could be an option earlier, say in June or July, for those over 50 groups that are in the balance of the population and it's a very large number and there will be vaccines we believe to support that type of activity. Now that just can’t happen overnight and that’s why calling together the states and territories, the Premiers, for us to deal directly with this as leaders to ensure we can get those systems in place, to understand what the risks associated with that, what resourcing is required and to be able to direct those programs as a National Cabinet. That's what the meetings are for. Over the course of this week, the Health Ministers are meeting. They'll be doing that Thursday evening. The medical advisers are meeting this week as well. They'll put a first pass set of issues before us next Monday. We’ll start working through those issues. By the end of the week we'll meet again, and we will work this problem and we’ll solve it.
Journalist: How long do you see it being necessary to meet twice weekly? And when do you think pharmacists will be involved in the vaccine rollout?
Prime Minister: On your first question, as long as we have to, which is what the issue was last year. We met as frequently as we needed to and as often as we had to lead the country and to solve the problems. We have another set of problems to solve now and we are going to do the exactly the same thing and we will solve those problems. The issues for pharmacies we'll have to look at carefully now as we’re recalibrating the whole rollout. And that’s what we'll be addressing and working through those issues. At present they weren’t due to be involved until the next phase. So phase 2A and beyond. That was not due to occur until after mid-year. And We will now need to weigh up the various options that we have with mass vaccination centres for those aged over 50 and whether that is a viable option and should be pursued or we can continue to do that at a sufficient rate using the previous method, which was to be done through GPs and pharmacies. Those arrangements stay with us and we'll work those issues. That's what we'll do. The pandemic has taught us, you've got to be practical, you’ve got to work together, you’ve got to solve problems. Problems occur that are beyond the Government's control. There's a great uncertainty that relates to a lot of this and that is true all around the world. You know in Australia we're living in a way that the rest of the world isn't and that can lead us perhaps to be thinking that these issues have gone away. They haven't gone away. And the rest of the world, the United States, they're seeing 70,000 cases additionally of coronavirus every single day. There's 1,000 people dying every day in the United States. That's not Australia. In the United Kingdom over 30 people are dying every day. Over 1,500 new cases every single day. That is not our reality. That did not happen by accident. That occurred because Australian Governments led by the Federal Government came together and worked the problems and solved them. And that’s exactly what we’ll do again now. Thank you all for your time. Appreciate it.
[Ends]