DAVID KOCH, HOST: Well, now the 459 Coronavirus cases have been recorded in Victoria and 10 people have lost their lives in Australia's deadliest day of the pandemic. There are now over 4,000 active cases in that state and more than 200 people in hospital.
NATALIE BARR, HOST: Questions are being raised about the leadership of the Victorian Government during this crisis, with some commentators suggesting the Federal Government should be in charge of future outbreaks, not individual states. Let's bring in Nationals MP, Barnaby Joyce, and Shadow Resources Minister, Joel Fitzgibbon – morning to you both. Barnaby, let’s start with you. Would the situation in Victoria be any different if the Feds had been making these decisions?
BARNABY JOYCE, MEMBER FOR NEW ENGLAND: Probably be better coordinated across the nation. Obviously some of the issues, such as the arbitrary nature of borders, could be dealt with in a more pragmatic and realistic way. Obviously Mr. Andrews had – unfortunately the results of this is people are dying, so I’m even going to be flippant about it. If it's beyond his capacity to look after, he has to be honest and say, you know, the Federal Government with greater resources should be able to step in. It's not good. It can't go on the way it’s going.
KOCH: Joel, what do you think? Should the Feds have stepped in and taken charge? The Victorian Government was slow to bring in the army for the quarantine in hotels – sort of quarantine hotels in Sydney, were run by the army and the police. He was a bit slow to ask for Defence Force help when they had to come in to help with the lockdowns. Don't the Feds need more say?
JOEL FITZGIBBON, MEMBER FOR HUNTER: I've long been an advocate for the abolition of the states you might know, Kochie. We're not going to do that anytime soon and our Federation is what it is and still the states our best placed to manage our state health systems. They have all the resources and the architecture in place. But certainly there is more the Federal Government can do but of course it can only do it at the invitation of the states.
BARR: Yeah I know it's hindsight, but Barnaby, we watched the opening statements of that inquiry last week and we watched a lawyer stand there and say we think that every case in Victoria will probably be traced back to that hotel quarantine where, as Kochie said, the army and the police were rejected and private contractors were brought in. This is horrific.
JOYCE: Yeah it was, and just so your listeners know, the private contractors were in some instances too close, vastly too close to some of the people who were staying there and that gave the mechanism for it to break out. That was a debacle and it was a debacle that cost lives. I hate to say it, I agree with – I agree with Joel. The role of the states, I don't know if they're as relevant as they are in 2020s as they were 1901 and we really should at some stage have a serious discussion about that. But the Federal resources can only be deployed at the invitation of the states and that confusion, and I hope there's no sort of, you know, unreasonable pride held by Mr. Andrews. If it's obviously beyond his control, he's got to do something about it. And that was a total debacle what happened, just like the Ruby Princess; it was another one of those absolute total debacle.
KOCH: Yep. All right now a Bunnings customer has gone viral with her claim wearing a mask at Bunnings infringes on her freedoms under the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Take a look.
*AUDIO OF PHONE FOOTAGE*
BUNNINGS CUSTOMER (KAREN): I can have you sued personally for discriminating against me as a woman.
BUNNINGS EMPLOYEE: We're not discriminating against anyone...
BUNNINGS CUSTOMER (KAREN): You are. It's not.
…
KOCH: Joel, are you surprised that some people are simply refusing to accept the health advice in Victoria. Joel, yep.
FITZGIBBON: Sorry. Yeah Kochie, one thing that's been reinforced in my mind in my many years in Australian politics is that you can't legislate against stupidity. And I just don't know what we do these people. Complacency is on the rise, but worse stupidity is on the rise, and we're best to just ignore these idiots. Sometimes you just don't know whether to be angry at them, or just to feel sorry for them.
BARR: Yeah, Barnaby, it's like a competition online, isn't it? They're all posting it and everyone's reposting it saying they're idiots. What do you think we do?
JOYCE: How do you get sued impersonally? That's the first thing. Her opening statement – you know what's going to happen next is just complete and utter rubbish. This is – and she filmed it. I mean most people when they are stupid keep it to themselves, but she put on national television – it's great. I don't think – I've just got great admiration for the staff. They were so cool and so reasonable for someone who's, you know, just completely off with the fairies. You're in their premises. It's their private property. You know if they want you to wear a hat, you got to wear a hat. You know, and this is a health issue. I mean, you are dealing with other people's lives and you know, these no-vaxxers, no viruses nutcases really got to understand that dealing with other peoples' lives.
KOCH: Yep, absolutely. All right, Gents, thank you for that. Barnaby, good to see you getting a bit of rain out there too.
JOYCE: Yeah, I know it's great. Obviously, crops going to grow out west. We're going to get a bit of money pumped around the place. That's what we want.
KOCH: Yeah. All right, guys. Thank you for that, see you next week.
FITZGIBBON: Thanks team.