NATALIE BARR, HOST: New South Wales is emerging from its 106-day lockdown this morning with pubs, shops, and hairdressers among those bracing for an influx of customers. The fully vaccinated can now enjoy gatherings of 10 people at a home and 30 outside, they can dine out or shop under a one person per four square meter rule indoors. Personal and beauty services reopen with caps, the same for gyms with one person per four square meters or 20 to a class. And 100 people can now attend weddings and funerals. This is a live look at Alan Buki's hair salon in Paddington, it reopened at midnight with a eager customers booking a cut from midnight after three long months without a trim. For more, I'm joined by Deputy Prime Minister, Barnaby Joyce, and Labor MP, Joel Fitzgibbon. Morning to you. Barnaby, how significant is Freedom Day for the national economy?

BARNABY JOYCE, DEPUTY PRIME MINISTER: Well, it's incredibly important and like being down here in the Hunter Valley, where you could go to this gym, where we're about to give $25.7 million, because... we're giving 10. And that's really important. People are going to be able to get out, they're going to be able to exercise, they're going to be able to get their liberties and their freedoms back. And that means whether you're in the Hunter Valley or anywhere else, you have the capacity to start living the life the way you wanted to. So get your second vaccination, get it all over and done with, make sure that you get back out and put this as something behind us and let's all move on.

BARR: Exactly. Hopefully it is behind us. Joel, the New South Wales Premier says he wants to avoid any further lockdowns. Is that going to happen, they talked about targeted restrictions?

JOEL FITZGIBBON, MEMBER FOR HUNTER: Well, this is the point, isn't it, Nat? There's a mixture of excitement and nervousness up here in the Hunter today. People are obviously very happy. They're off to have their first schooner for a while and maybe a haircut and a trip to the gym, but they want it to be long-lasting. We've seen this movie before. So, people are a bit nervous about that. And of course, it's a partial breakout. Sydney still can't come to us, we can't go to Sydney, and our visitor economy here is very heavily dependent on that Sydney market. So, we have a way to go yet before our economy is up and running again. And there's also some nervousness about the low rate of vaccination here in the Hunter. Sydney will be coming to us in the not too distant future, and our vaccination rates are going to be too low. So, we've got a bit of work to do there yet.

BARR: Yeah, a lot of regional areas seem to be worried about that. New South Wales Premier, Dominic Perrottet, is coming up live on Sunrise after 7am. We'll ask him about that situation. Now, the Prime Minister has indicated overseas travel could be fast tracked in New South Wales, pending a home quarantine trial. Barnaby, do we still need home quarantine if so many people are vaccinated?

JOYCE: Well, hopefully we get to a point once we continue to get our vaccination rates up, where that becomes less and less the requirement. What we want to do, as we raise the requirements, as we raise the vaccination rates, we can reduce, of course, the other impediments to our liberties and freedoms that we've got. Now, we're moving back towards international travel, we're moving back there quicker than we expected. And that's a good thing. We want to make sure that people have the capacity to travel overseas and to come back. Right now, yes, they have got to go into home quarantine. But you know, the world will move on as we get further and further, and higher and higher vaccination rates. And that is a good outcome. There'll still be requirements from time to time for targeted, specific lockdowns. But they'll be very small in scale and very, very targeted.

BARR: Yeah, Joel, do you think the overseas travel will be an incentive for the rest of the country to hurry up and get vaccinated – those states like WA and Queensland that have low rates because they haven't had many cases?

FITZGIBBON: Yeah, I hope so, Nat. We in the regions like to travel overseas too, and any incentive to get those vaccination rates up will be a welcome one. I think the key thing here on home quarantine is that politicians need to still be guided by the health expert advice. And if we continue to do that, then we'll come out the other end in pretty good shape, I hope.

BARR: Now this is an important one, the Prime Minister could seek future legal action for those who use online platforms to vilify, abuse, or harass others. Barnaby, this is an issue you are passionate about. You have spoken about this. How quickly could we see some change here?

JOYCE: As quickly as possible, and I was speaking to the Prime Minister about this yesterday. The Prime Minister and myself are at one on this. We are not mucking about. Changes are going to happen. This has gone on too long. When we have children, especially young girls, and I've had to deal with this issue before rather than just the most recent circumstances, who the bully goes into the bedroom with them at night on Instagram, and basically attacks them and assaults them from an anonymous source. This has got to stop. This is garbage and we've talked about this for too long. And now actions have to happen. And they're going to happen here, Nat, and they're going to happen in the United States and things are going to change. And if anyone wants to vote against the mums, predominately mums, and dads who have had to deal with the calamity in mental health issues that this has brought about, well they can  stick up their hand and be seen by everybody, and good luck. Good luck with that. We've got to change this...

BARR: ... Yeah, so what is it going to be? There's word that you'll make Facebook and Twitter be treated as publishers under Australian law. So they will receive... they'll be under the same conditions as other media companies?

JOYCE: Well, I mean, if you say something, Nat or Kochie, you go to court.

BARR: Yeah.

JOYCE: You're a publisher. These people are also stripping all your revenue off you. They're dripping your revenue off you, they're bringing about the demise of papers, they're taking away the revenue from television stations, they're taking away the capacity for proper investigatory Fourth Estate role, which is your role. The proper investigation into power and into politics. But these people go, and their algorithms talk about finding the vulnerable and affecting them. And we've seen that in some of the evidence in the United States. And there was a committee in the United States, and I've contacted that committee. I'm serious about this. We want to see some changes, we're over this, over talking to these people. They, you know, it shouldn't be Facebook, and it shouldn't be Instagram and Twitter that are tearing people's lives to pieces by having to manage their kids who have - You know, we put billions into mental health, and then these people collect billions of profits. And they know what they're doing. And we've found that out.

BARR: Yep. They're big enough and rich enough and smart enough, surely, to do something. Joel, would this received bipartisan support?

FITZGIBBON: Yes, I think so, Nat. I mean, these social media platforms have amplified the voices of every individual, and made it all too easy for people, sometimes and often anonymously, to vilify and defame people. So the platform owners have a responsibility to do something about it. As does government. We've got to be careful though, to not to kill the internet, or in this case, our social media platforms. People are so dependent on them these days for their information. And of course in regional Australia, where we've lost so many of our regional newspapers, these platforms have become the key source of information for many communities. So, we need to get that balance right.

BARR: I know, but some people feel like they've had their chance. So now we have to force them into it. So yeah, look, we have to go...

JOYCE: ... People...

BARR: ... Time's out.

JOYCE: People can say what they like, but they can't say: I'm [inaudible] the world is made of cheese, the world is flat and I don't care about that, but you have to go and kill yourself.

BARR: Yeah, I know. It's horrendous and time is up. Thank you, Gents. Talk to you next week.