01:32
The federal opposition leader, Anthony Albanese, also called for caution regarding the push to narrow the definition of a close contact.
When asked about the federal government proposal to narrow the definition, Albanese said it would make sense to have national consistency, and a “commonsense approach” should be taken.
“But in order to achieve that, as well, we do need to deal with people’s anxieties. When we had a lifting, for example, of the QR codes, and people not being notified, what occurred was that a range of people just chose to then not go about their normal way of life and to withdraw from activity. So we need to be cautious about this.”
Albanese said the national cabinet should review the matter thoroughly, “and we want to see the states bring their public health advice”.
“All we’ve heard so far is Scott Morrison’s view about this. We want to hear the approach that state governments think should be taken to this. But what we do urge is there needs to be consistency, there needs to be clarity and certainty and common sense, because businesses and the Australian people in individual states and across the country are really struggling with this hodgepodge of constantly changing rules and definitions.”
Albanese pivoted to a broader critique of Morrison (with an election due by May), declaring that the Prime Minister “can’t continue to just come up with a new slogan in order to get the headline every week”.
“This prime minister needs to do something other than go to a focus group this morning and get a definition about ‘shake and bake’ …
“This prime minister speaks about personal responsibility. This is the guy who won’t take responsibility for his job, whose most common phrase is ‘it’s not my job’ when asked about things that clearly are the job of the Australian prime minister.”
Updated
01:28
Fire now out at Old Parliament House
Updated
01:23
Updated
01:01
Old Parliament House on fire
Updated
00:59
Updated
00:52
Updated