NATALIE BARR, HOST: Health Minister Mark Butler joins me now live in Melbourne. Good morning to you. The Daily Telegraph reports you accepted a Qantas upgrade for a private flight just weeks after that Qatar decision was announced, did you?
MINISTER FOR HEALTH AND AGED CARE, MARK BUTLER: I've declared all of the upgrades. I think I've received four over the last ten years. They've all been declared in accordance with the rules. Yes, I did last year when I checked my records on a flight from Melbourne to Adelaide. They've all been declared in accordance with the long-established system now.
BARR: So, if Qantas main opposition is blocked from the country, and then all these government ministers get upgrades in the weeks after that, is that a bit dodgy?
BUTLER: I'm not sure what the allegation is there Nat? We fly all the time. We fly Qantas and Virgin. We fly several times a week. These happen in weeks after decisions that are made by governments that impact airlines all the time. They have for years and years. That's why we have a rigorous system of declaration, and I've complied with that and my colleagues have.
BARR: So should the Prime Minister clearly answer whether he was picking up the phone and talking to the head of Qantas and asking for upgrades?
BUTLER: Well, he has answered that, Nat. He's done a number of press conferences over recent days where he's been repeatedly questioned about this, about upgrades that he declared in a timely fashion in accordance with the system, as politicians right across the political spectrum have done for years and years now. He's answered these questions very clearly, Nat. I'm not sure what the allegation is that Peter Dutton's make beyond slinging mud, but the Prime Minister has complied with all of the rules that have been in place for many years.
BARR: Okay, moving on. A newly released COVID 19 inquiry report has revealed that the Morrison Government's slow vaccine rollout cost lives and pandemic spending actually made inflation worse, as well as finding that children and also the health system are still suffering from the impact of the crisis. How damning is this for the previous government?
BUTLER: The important thing is the report says that Australia fared well relative to other countries. We lost more than 20,000 people from COVID directly. They lost their lives. Thousands more because of the impacts on the health system. But we did much better than other countries, and that's down to some courageous decisions from our leaders but even more significantly, the cooperation from the Australian community and the terrific work of frontline health workers. I don't want to disregard that. We did well compared to other countries, but we could have done better if we had systems in place, if we had tools in the toolkit that leaders could have used, we could have done even better. We must make sure we do better next time. That was the purpose of this really powerful report, making sure we have a playbook for the next time, because there will be a next time.
BARR: I think the report actually said that Australians would have trouble following the rules next time following advice, because they don't trust the government anymore because of what happened. How do you stop that happening again?
BUTLER: That's the striking conclusion from this report. We're probably in a worse position today, if a pandemic hit, than we were in early 2020. Governments have more debt, the health care system is deeply scarred and most significantly, there's been a serious erosion of trust in our community. That's not just in response to pandemic measures, but we're seeing it bleed into childhood vaccination, the broader vaccination system. That's why our quick response to the central recommendation to establish an authoritative, independent and transparent Centre for Disease Control to provide governments with good, evidence based advice to provide the community with transparent advice as well, is really central to the hard job of rebuilding that trust. As I said yesterday trust is easily lost, it's much harder to regain, but we've got to set about that task from today.
BARR: Okay, Minister, thank you very much for your time today.
BUTLER: Thanks, Nat.
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