STEVE PRICE:
And I can also tell you that Australia today, is likely to hit first vaccine target today for the whole country, which is 70 per cent double dose for everyone over 16. All of the country is now, it would appear, who can go and get vaccinated, 70 per cent double dose. That's great news. Dr David Gillespie is the Regional Health Minister. Also, as I said, the federal Nationals MP for Lyne. Good to talk to you again, Dr.
MINISTER GILLESPIE:
Good morning, Steve.
STEVE PRICE:
That's good news; 70 per cent double dose nationally.
MINISTER GILLESPIE:
Yes, that's a great achievement and first dose nationally, 85.5 per cent.
So, we're really powering ahead. The take-home message is we've got a way to go with some pockets around the country that haven't been there. Like, all the above 50, 60, 70 age group, they're well ahead of that national level. But there's some pockets in WA, Queensland and some regional and Indigenous groups that are significantly behind.
Particularly in WA and Queensland, they have realised they've got to get cracking, and the sooner they do get to those levels, they'll be able to open up too.
STEVE PRICE:
Clearly, Mark McGowan in WA doesn't believe that he will open up. He says that he's not going to open up even to double vaccinated people from the East Coast, and he is going to keep his state border closed. That's unfortunate, given that we want to be one country, isn't it?
MINISTER GILLESPIE:
It is unfortunate and it's one of the failings of our federation that these legacy powers that the states have had ever since the Constitution was formed, I reckon, it really needs to be addressed, Steve, because the whole purpose of the federation is that we didn't have physical hard borders.
That was why the colonies got together and formed the Commonwealth. But they do have this power. It's there in the Constitution. Interestingly, in the Spanish flu epidemic, you know what was the last state to open the railway lines to let people come in?
STEVE PRICE:
Couldn't be Western Australia, could it?
MINISTER GILLESPIE:
It was indeed.
Back in 1921, we had a speech in Parliament about it the other day and I thought, oh gee, history is repeating itself. But anyhow, the rest of Australia's getting going. We're opening up. We're looking forward to a good Christmas. It is just as much an economic crisis as a medical crisis, but we've got good vaccines, we've got good take up, we've got a beefed-up health system, we have got treatments.
If you are unlucky enough to end up sick in hospital, we've got infusion drugs. You know, some of the new antivirals have been announced that will reduce the chance of you ending up on a ventilator and sick or dying. But the best thing, prevention is better than cure, and that's two doses of whatever vaccine you can get.
STEVE PRICE:
And my understanding is that it'll still be 1 November, is that right, where Greater Sydney will be able to travel to the regions?
MINISTER GILLESPIE:
Yes.
STEVE PRICE:
They're currently not permitted to do so. But 1 November, once New South Wales gets to 80 per cent double vaccinated, that restriction will drop. That must be good news for your area?
MINISTER GILLESPIE:
Oh, it will be. We're looking forward to getting tourists back up the north coast. The mid-north Coast has got some stellar figures, but there's a few pockets further up the coast that are playing catch up. But by 1 November, they should be across those thresholds of 70 per cent, 80 per cent.
It will take concerted continuing uptake by some of these refractory sorts of micro regions where there's a reluctance or a complacency. People must realise it's not just old people that get it. If you are young and you're unvaccinated, you can end up really sick in ICU. In fact, most people in ICUs on ventilators in this third wave, whether you're in Melbourne or have been through it in Sydney were younger Australians.
Viruses go for people who've got no immunity, so if you're unvaccinated, it'll jump into you rather than jumping into a person that's double vaxxed. And a double vaxxed person has a much less chance of getting infected. Or if you do get it, it's a much milder illness, means less chance of ICU and unfortunately, or fortunately, much less chance of getting sick and dying from it.
STEVE PRICE:
Yeah, those travel restrictions will turbocharge your local community. I mean, you want places like, you know, Hawks Nest and Lake Cathie and all of those beautiful places, Old Bar, places like that to be packed again with people from all over Australia, but particularly from Sydney who love to go to those beachside villages across Christmas and have a wonderful, relaxing time.
MINISTER GILLESPIE:
The regions are the playground of the city folk and we welcome their business, but we want to do it in a safe way. So even though things are opening up, common sense has got to prevail, because the virus will bounce around the community for a while to go yet. This is what happens with these sorts of viruses. So socially distancing and if you're in a crowded train or bus, obviously, you got to keep your mask on, just in case there's people there that don't know they've got it but are spreading it. And that's the other thing - if you're vaccinated, the amount of virus you can shed if you are asymptomatic is much less. So that's why these vaccine campaigns also flatten the curve when there's an outbreak. If you can surge into an area, distribute vaccines, means it's got less people to jump to. So, you know, everyone knows about the R-number. It goes from about six down to less than one. So, the virus has got no one to jump to and there's less of it circulating in the air or on furniture or handles, all that stuff.
STEVE PRICE:
We're talking to Dr David Gillespie, Regional Health Minister, he's a senior Nat. Are you going to come to an agreement do you believe with your senior Coalition partners on net zero?
MINISTER GILLESPIE:
Well, Steve, just first, I want to say we all want to do good for the environment. The National Party has been right behind our current 2030 target. But we are the practical ones in the building. We want to make sure there's no unintended consequences in any commitments that the Prime Minister's going to make. The roadmap has got to be the right roadmap, and particularly regional Australia, where most of the wealth of the nation is created. See some of these people in the United Nations are saying, you know, you'll have to shut down some of your dairy industry and your beef industry, that's not going to fly. And you know, agriculture can bury carbon in the soil if they have the right fertiliser mix. And we can- people have got to understand, every beef or dairy cow, it's got about 13 per cent carbon. So, each one of them is a sink. And that's part of the hesitancy about agriculture. We know that heavy industries, like in my electorate, I've got about 20 per cent of my electorate runs out of the Hunter region economy, both in employment and secondary employment and tertiary employment. And we don't want any agreement that the United Nations puts up to mean that businesses that are legitimate businesses, that earn the wealth for the nation and power our cities and country areas, are shut down because they're starved of capital from the banks. Because you've seen a lot of this financial activism where board members are deciding who can get a loan. It's- we've just got to make sure all these things are considered in the roadmap. But we do want to have a better environment, and we are not going to get in the way of a better environment. We've got to have systems in place so that we have got baseload electricity happening. If we are changing our energy mix, we've got to have it available 24 hours a day. Because there's plenty of things in modern Australian life that run on always having electricity in them. And the big one is cities. When you have four and five million people, just a city being there has huge amounts of electricity - otherwise these cities will grind to a halt.
We are concerned that the regions and the businesses that operate there will be unintended victims. Particularly because we've learned before all the benefit of us reaching Kyoto 1 and Kyoto 2 came off the back of taking away property rights from, mainly country people, land holders, who are trying to feed the nation, feed our neighbours, grow cotton for our clothes. And we don't want that being turbocharged again with another blank cheque that the United Nations and all these other institutions, force on us. So, look, it's a big responsibility, but that's why people put us here, because they know the Nats are full of common sense. And we've got to make sure that it doesn't harm Australia whilst we're, in an inadvertent way, of trying to make the environment better.
STEVE PRICE:
Got a way to go, I think. But it's always a pleasure to catch up. Thank you very much for talking to us Dr David Gillespie. Good on you, Doctor. David Gillespie, there, the Regional Health Minister.