Prime Minister
ALLISON LANGDON: The Prime Minister in Canberra, good morning to you, Prime Minister.
PRIME MINISTER: Good morning, Ally.
LANGDON: Are you dirty with the US?
PRIME MINISTER: Very pleased that we've been able to get those million doses of hope in particularly 530,000 of them going straight into south western Sydney, where they'll be doing a very important job of those 20-39 year olds. This is an important part of supporting the lockdown that's in Sydney. These two go together, suppressing the virus through the lockdown, reducing the transmission in those key age groups. It was an area that we'd hoped to be able to take action on. And the ability to be able to get this arrangement in place with Poland has been very important.
In the United States, their situation is very different. They have hundreds and hundreds of people dying every day. They're facing their Delta wave just like so many other countries in the world. Of course, we have been having discussions with many countries around the world. But in this Delta strain around the world, what is more remarkable, I think, is the fact that we've been able to secure the million that we have.
LANGDON: But I mean, they've got 200 million doses of Pfizer that they're going to be sending around the world from August. And none of them are coming our way. You must be dirty.
PRIME MINISTER: We work closely with all our partners and we all have the priorities that we need to work with, we're putting doses into the South Pacific, into South East Asia, we're supporting places like Timor Leste. There are many calls on these doses and the fact that Australia has been able to just keep focused, as we have, on securing what we need to do. And that's what the arrangement with the Polish governments. And I think, again, Prime Minister Morawiecki, for his great support, we were able to strike up a rapport in recent months, going back a bit further than that, particularly, we're working together on some issues with the OECD. So Australia's been reaching out not just in our own region, but we've been making friends all around the world and talking to them about a lot of different issues. And so when this opportunity came up, we move very, very quickly, got on the phone, worked it also through with Pfizer. And there's 530,000 doses going into south western Sydney today. We've got one in four Australians now, double dose vaccinated. One and two will be first dose vaccinated this week. One and a half million doses a week now being done. That gets us on that path. At this rate we will achieve what we need to achieve. And that path of hope that we have with the national plan can be realised.
LANGDON: I mean, I think it's great that we've got these million doses from Poland and we thank them for sending them. But you just look at our relationship with the United States. We have done everything we possibly can to support them over the years through multiple wars. And in our moment of need, they said no, I mean that- how do you see that as anything other than a snub from Joe Biden?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, you're making assumptions about the discussions that we're having and the issues that are being raised. And …
LANGDON: So you didn't ask him and he didn't say no?
PRIME MINISTER: No, no, I didn't say that either, Ally. I'm just simply saying that we work with a lot of people around the world and we focus on where the opportunities are. All I'm focused on is getting those extra doses in. And that's what we've done. We have an excellent relationship with the United States. You focus on what's in front of you and what you need to do, and that's what Sydney needed. That's what the country needs. And those, it's not just the five hundred and thirty thousand that are going into Sydney. The balance will be going around the rest of the country. We've got lockdowns in Victoria, we've got lockdown's here in the ACT. And I'm not going to be complacent also about, you know, this could happen again in Queensland and Western Australia and no part of this country is immune from the Delta strain. So we need to address the urgent need in Sydney. But we also need to keep the national vaccination plan, which is really hitting those marks I mentioned before. So we'll focus on what we need to do here. Other countries will focus on what they need to do and and and we'll just keep working together to get this job done here in Australia.
LANGDON: So do we have any future doses coming from the US?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, when and if I'm ever in a position to announce further, but what we have coming from September and October, particularly in October, is that's when our doses really ramp up in that fourth quarter. As I said we've already got the additional, the new Moderna doses coming in September. The critical need we've had is particularly been in this month. And that's why and especially with the lockdown in Sydney enduring, then getting them this month has been very important. That's why I'm very pleased we were able to secure those additional doses out of Poland.
LANGDON: So what is the plan where more people have had the jab? Will you need to be vaccinated to go to say a concert, to a museum, to a bar or a restaurant?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, what exemptions are given to vaccinated people, that's what we're working through right now with the states and territories. They're the ones who put those rules in place. And I'm trying to get some consistency in how they do that across the country, because it's quite straightforward. If you're vaccinated, well, you're less at risk of contracting the virus yourself. You're less at risk of transmitting it to someone else. You're less at risk of getting a serious illness and being hospitalised and you're less at risk of dying. So obviously, if you're vaccinated, you present less of a public health risk to others in the community. And if you're not vaccinated, you're more exposed, you're more vulnerable. And so it's only common sense that in that situation, you would have arrangements that protected those who are vulnerable. And that means exemptions could still well apply there. But if you are vaccinated, well, there would be no need for those exemptions to apply in the same way. So it's a practical health issue. That's what it's about.
LANGDON: Do you agree that COVID zero is no longer possible for New South Wales?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, COVID zero was never the goal of anybody anywhere. The idea that you can eliminate this thing is just, it's just not realistic. And it's never been Australia's goal. It's never been our goal. And I think it is very difficult now to get it.
LANGDON: It's WA's goal.
PRIME MINISTER: Well, it's not the country's goal and it's not the goal of the national plan and never has been. The suppression strategy has always been Australia's policy. But let me make the point about New South Wales. The case numbers where they are, we have to get them as low as we possibly can. The idea of getting to zero cases in community transmission is obviously a Herculean challenge. But we have to continue to focus on getting them down because the stronger we go into the next phase at 70 per cent, the more we will be able to ease things up. The higher the case numbers are, the more limitations that puts on us. So that's why I say to everybody who is in lockdown, whether in New South Wales, Victoria or here in Canberra in the ACT, is let's make it work, stay at home, stay positive. A million doses of hope there to encourage people. A plan of hope through the national plan that when we get to 70 and 80 per cent, we'll be able to move the country forward. That's what we need to focus on. Let's just keep focusing forward. We've had plenty of setbacks along the way. But we're getting over the top of them.
LANGDON: I think COVID zero is the plan for WA. I think it's also the plan for Victoria and Queensland. Does that mean they're not part of Australia?
PRIME MINISTER: No, that's not my understanding, and it's for those premiers, I mean, who have committed to the national plan for which COVID zero is not the national plan. All of them have signed up to the national plan. Not just once but three times …
LANGDON: Yesterday, I apologise for interrupting, but you had Mark McGowan say yesterday that even when we reach 80 percent vaccination, he's not going to open up if there is COVID in the community.
PRIME MINISTER: Well, this is- when we get to 80 per cent, this is what the Doherty medical advice, scientific advice, best in the world and the economic advice says: once you get to those levels of vaccination, it is against the country's interests to actually do that. It cost the economy more and it doesn't get the health effects because once you get to 80 per cent, you can treat it like the flu. The rate of hospitalisation, serious illness and disease is equivalent to the flu. Now, we don't go and shut down the whole country because of the flu every year. And so that is what the medical advice says. And that's been made very transparent and clear to everybody who sits around the table. And so really, that national plan that everybody has signed up to, it's actually a commitment they've made to the Australian people and people in their own states about the pathway out. And that pathway out is important because that's encouraging people to get vaccinated. And so to run down the plan is to actually undermine the vaccination programme.
LANGDON: Look, I mean, Prime Minister, I feel for you in the job you've got at the moment trying to bring a country together. You've got New South Wales, Melbourne in lockdown, all of this. We've got huge, huge payment support payments going out. I mean, I don't even want to think about where this ends in the kind of debt we're facing. There's a lot on your plate, which is what you're trying to juggle at the same time. We do have to go. I just want to ask you, I mean, just looking at those pictures of the Taliban now in Kabul overnight, I think everyone's been surprised by how quickly the country has fallen to them. How do you feel seeing and looking at those pictures and what does that mean? What our efforts were all for?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, it's a very distressing situation. But let me reassure people that we have been moving on this for some time. Since April, we've been able to get 430, bit more than that, of those locally engaged Afghan employees, people working with us and their families out of Afghanistan and here and into Australia. And they're already here. We've resettled about 1,800 over the course of these past many years while we've been in government and bringing people to Australia who've helped us, which we shut down our embassy in May in anticipation of these types of events. We are still working on to ensure that we can safely remove people from that situation with our partners and our allies. I can't go too much into the operational details of this, but let me say this about our presence there. We went there to stop Osama bin Laden and to stop Al-Qaeda having a base of operations in Afghanistan. And that's what was achieved. We were there in the cause of freedom. And every Australian who fell in that cause. An Australian who, of course, falls in that cause is a national hero. And for that, we are forever thankful and they've died in a great cause.
LANGDON: All right, Prime Minister, we always appreciate your time. Thanks for joining us this morning.
PRIME MINISTER: Thanks a lot, Ally. Appreciate your time.