Bill Shorten says premiers have 'got to accept COVID-19 in the community'

Former Opposition Leader Bill Shorten said Australia must learn to live with COVID-19 and states and territories cannot continue locking down. 

Bryant HevesiDigital Reporter
3 min read
August 24, 2021 - 4:37PM
State premiers are continuing to disagree with Prime Minister Scott Morrison over the roadmap out of the pandemic and having to live with the virus. Political consultant Jim Middleton says there is a “bit of a difference” between the premiers of Queensland and Western Australia and the other state premiers. “Even while Daniel Andrews was having a shot at Scott Morrison over the vaccine rollout, he was much more accommodating about what happens when we do get to 80 per cent of eligible people vaccinated,” he told Sky News Australia. “In both New South Wales and in Victoria, these are the states where they have borne the brunt of the extensive lockdowns, Victoria last year and to a degree this year, and New South Wales now.” Mr Middleton said this “was not the case” in Queensland and Western Australia, who have managed to remain largely free from COVID-19 and the premiers responses were reflective of the “differing public attitudes”. “It is no doubt that in Victoria and in New South Wales too that people are very weary of having their lockdown and their freedoms restrictions for so long,” he said. “Their patience about this, the reward they see and the risk that comes with it, the equation is different, I suspect, to what we see Western Australia where life has gone on pretty much as normal.”

Former Opposition Leader Bill Shorten says premiers who have so far been successful in keeping COVID-19 out of their states will soon have to accept there will be cases in the community.    

Mr Shorten, who was the federal Labor leader between 2013 and 2019, said states and territories cannot continue to lockdown forever and Australia must learn to live with the virus.    

His comments come after Western Australia's Labor Premier Mark McGowan and Queensland's Labor Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk indicated a reluctance to open up even when vaccine targets are met.   

"I think sooner or later some of the premiers who've been successful in keeping their jurisdictions at COVID-zero, we can't keep locking down. So you've got to accept COVID in the community," Mr Shorten said in an interview with Steve Price on Tuesday. 

"What we've got to do is use this period of lockdowns to COVID-proof ourselves as best we can to minimise the lethality, the harm that's caused by COVID.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison has told premiers the states must prepare to live with the coronavirus. Mr Morrison argued lockdowns can’t last forever but he is already facing pushback from some premiers. National Cabinet agreed to the 70 and 80 per cent vaccine targets that would see lockdowns lifted and borders reopened.

"But at a certain point, we will have to learn to live with it."

National Cabinet in recent weeks agreed to Australia's pathway out of the pandemic, based on a report provided by the Doherty Institute.

Australia will move from the suppression phase to Phase B when 70 per cent of those aged over 16 are fully vaccinated and Phase C when 80 per cent receive their two jabs.

At Phase C, there will be minimal restrictions and highly targeted lockdowns only. 

Prime Minister Scott Morrison on Monday said Australia must start "coming out of the cave" and live with COVID-19 like other infectious diseases when the vaccine targets are achieved. 

"Once you get to 70 per cent of your country that is eligible for the vaccine and 80 per cent, the plan sets out that we have to move forward," he said. 

"We cannot hold back. Our task between that day and now is to ensure that we ready ourselves for that next phase."

New South Wales Premier Gladys Berejiklian said "every state will have to live with COVID" and declared the Delta strain cannot be kept out of other states and territories forever.    

But Mr McGowan, who said he will continue to pursue a zero-COVID-19 approach, noted the Doherty Institute report still allowed for lockdowns at Phase B and Phase C.  

"It's in black and white. People should read the plan," he said.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison has labelled Labor’s cash for jabs plan as “policy folly”, blasting the Opposition for their “cynical position” in using taxpayers’ money to “issue a vote of no confidence” on Australians. “Australians are coming forward every single day in record numbers, as we've seen the vaccination rate continue to climb each and every week, some 1.8 million vaccine doses administered last week,” he said. “Now, the leader of the opposition might want to engage in a cash splash for whatever reason, a cash splash, he would’ve just written the cheque for $3 billion already for things that people were already going to do. “That says a lot about how Labor would’ve managed this COVID pandemic, it says a lot about their judgement, it says a lot about how they managed the nation's finances. “It is a cynical position of the Leader of the Opposition to want to use taxpayers' money to issue a vote of no confidence in Australians. “So I will leave the Labor leader to his policy folly …, and we will stay, we will stay with the proven policies and proven faith in the Australian people; we are standing up for the national plan, Labor seems to be standing in the way.”

"My view is we should do everything we can to stay in the state we are currently in, and at the same time vaccinate like hell.

"I think that's the majority view here and in the states without COVID cases. And in Victoria and the ACT, which are trying to eliminate it as we speak."  

Ms Palaszczuk on Tuesday said the Doherty Institute report "was all predicated on 30 cases across Australia, not 13,000".

She has insisted on seeing updated modelling from the Doherty Institute, due to be released on Friday, and has not ruled out keeping the border closed with NSW if case numbers remain high at Phase C.   

"At the moment the borders are shut and, you know, we don't know when they're going to come out of their current outbreak," she said.

Mr Shorten said it was still possible for Mr Morrison to get state and territory leaders on the same page.

"I don't think it helps when Mr Morrison says, you know, the premiers must do this and that by Friday," he said. 

"I mean, it may sound good and it may be red meat to your base, but in life, if you're going to persuade people, don't kick their heads first. You know that just sort of gets people's backs up."

Mr Shorten also told The Australian he thought the 80 per cent vaccine target set by the Doherty Institute was acceptable but wanted youngsters protected as well as adults.  

"To open safely, it's about reaching high enough vaccine coverage plus focusing on other measures such as adequate ventilation, masks, third booster doses for health workers, and vaccinating children," he said.