JAMES GLENDAY, HOST: Alright, let's get more on the review into Australia's COVID response and the recommendations. The interviews are coming thick and fast and all at once this morning. I'm happy to say we are joined by the Health Minister, Mark Butler. G'day, Minister
MINISTER FOR HEALTH AND AGED CARE, MARK BUTLER: Good morning, James.
GLENDAY: I just wanted to start off just on that key question this report raises about trust in government. How long do you think it will take to rebuild that trust in the general community?
BUTLER: I said yesterday, trust is lost very quickly and very easily sometimes, and it's much harder to rebuild, which is why it's so important that we start that task today. We've already made the announcement to respond to the central recommendation of the Inquiry: to establish an independent, authoritative Centre for Disease Control. We are currently really the only developed country that doesn't have that single authoritative body that can provide advice to governments and communities about an evidence-based approach to pandemic response and to other communicable disease issues. So, that really is the foundation on which we build a system to respond to the next pandemic - because there will be a next one - much more effectively than we did COVID.
GLENDAY: I won't labour the point on this, but I do want to focus on it. I mean, could you see things like school closures, people being fined for leaving their homes, sitting in their cars, social distancing rules, people being prevented from attending funerals, could you see the Australian public accepting those sorts of measures again?
BUTLER: Look, the advice pretty consistently, including from this report, is there's a real concern that people wouldn't respond to those directions in the same way they did - the very cooperative, community spirited way they did - in those first couple of years of the pandemic. And that's a serious concern, because there is going to be another one of these. I hope it's not for a very long time, but there will be another pandemic. They are going to be more frequent. They might be even more deadly than the COVID-19 virus was. So, we have to rebuild that trust and central to that is a confidence the community has that decisions that governments are making are evidence based, are grounded in good evidence that balances risks and benefits of a particular decision and also takes account of some of the broader impacts we saw right through the report: the concern the report authors had about the ongoing mental health impacts for children and young people arising out of COVID. I think the community having that confidence that there is evidence going into this, that there's much more transparency around these decisions -- I mean, the report says people just didn't understand the rationale for so many of these decisions, and that was what was central to trust being eroded over the course of the period.
GLENDAY: This is raised in the report, and we're getting a lot of feedback this morning on News Breakfast about this sort of central question, will the CDC help create a national blueprint for a future pandemic? Because it did seem particularly towards the end of that initial COVID period, that national unity started to break down and premiers, different health ministers started going their own way on certain decisions?
BUTLER: Our leaders worked so hard and they made some incredibly courageous decisions, but they just didn't have the tools in the toolkit that they needed. We all know they lacked the comprehensive pandemic plans that we know, with the benefit of hindsight, they should have had in front of them when this thing first hit, they just didn't have those plans. The report says they effectively had to build the plane while they were flying it. We can’t be in that position again. The CDC will work with other agencies to make sure there are comprehensive pandemic plans in place next time. There will be regular stress testing of government systems to make sure they don't just gather dust on the shelves, that we have the capability in our systems to respond very quickly if the thing hits again, and that will be a central role of the CDC.
GLENDAY: There's more I'd like to ask you, but I'm running short on time, Minister. Just on a separate issue that's been creating a lot of headlines. The Prime Minister bought a nice house recently and got some flight upgrades. There's a lot of media headlines. Is this hurting your government? What's the view inside Cabinet about this?
BUTLER: I can tell you Cabinet is focused on our job at a really difficult time for the country and the globe dealing with the COVID legacy that we've been talking about, the huge cost of living pressure on households. We're focused on helping households and business with that. We're focused on strengthening Medicare, on building a strong economy into the future. I mean, yes, mud is being slung. The Prime Minister has complied with all of the rules around declaration of these issues, as have all of our colleagues. And frankly, as I understand it, colleagues of Mr. Dutton's as well. We're keeping our focus on the job and that job is a difficult one at the moment, given the environment we're working in.
GLENDAY: And just finally, Minister, 12,000 early childcare educators will get a 15 per cent pay rise over two years in a deal set to be finalised today. What's your reaction to that?
BUTLER: This is terrific news and we've worked really closely with unions and employers in this sector to give a long overdue wage rise to some of the most important workers in our community. I mean, those first five years are the most important years in a person's intellectual and emotional development and it's long overdue that those workers get the wages they deserve for doing that work.
GLENDAY: Alright, Minister, we appreciate your time this morning.
BUTLER: Thanks, James.
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