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Shadow Industrial Relations Minister Tony Burke says Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s “negative rhetoric” about global institutions in order to gain “domestic political advantage” has left Australia in a weak position on the international stage.
Ahead of the G7 summit in Cornwall, Mr Morrison urged the World Trade Organisation to implement dispute settlement systems to address China’s increasing use of economic coercion.
Mr Burke says the prime minister’s latest remarks are at odds with his criticism of “negative globalism” and has called on the government to employ a "calm and consistent approach" to foreign affairs.
“We certainly need less politics and more strategy in how we deal with our foreign affairs,” he told Sky News.
“We do have a view that the prime minister really needs to stop focusing everything on the photo opportunities and trying to get a domestic political advantage and to have a calm and consistent approach.
“One of the chal
Shadow Industrial Relations Minister Tony Burke says Victoria’s ongoing lockdown is the first “extended period of time” where people have been "left with nothing to live on” since there is no JobKeeper.
“Once you hit something that’s seven days or more, you’re talking about an entire cycle of your rent, an entire cycle of your grocery bills where you have zero income to pay for it,” he said.
Mr Burke told Sky News the federal government’s failure to establish purpose-built quarantine facilities was partly to blame for the outbreak and the prime minister’s refusal to take responsibility was “unacceptable”.
“Up until now the message from the federal government, in particular to sole traders and casual workers who’ve been left with nothing to live on for more than a week, the message has been that they’re on their own and the federal government will take no responsibility,” he said.
“If there’s a shift from that, then that’s a good thing, a
Shadow Industrial Relations Minister Tony Burke says Prime Minister Scott Morrison's complacency in dealing with quarantine issues and the vaccine rollout is directly connected to Victoria’s COVID outbreak.
Victorian health officials believe the outbreak originated from a returned overseas traveller from India who had undergone hotel quarantine in South Australia in April but tested positive for the virus after returning to Melbourne in early May.
Far from politicising the issue, Mr Burke says the Labor Party is holding the government to account for their failures, dismissing Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s claim that the Opposition is “walking away from bipartisanship”.
“The prime minister had two jobs: quarantine and vaccine rollout,” he said.
“His failure to deliver on those two jobs is directly connected to what we’re seeing right now.
“The prime minister became complacent; he had this view that it wasn’t a race – well, it is a race as the new varia
Australia’s slow uptake of the COVD-19 vaccine will severely hamper freedom of movement as Shadow Industrial Relations Minister Tony Burke warns a "relaxed" approach could see the rest of the world open up “faster than us.”
New data revealed by the Sydney Morning Herald on Wednesday showed 29 per cent of Australians were unlikely or very unlikely to receive the jab.
“I’m quite worried that we’re going to see, after all the hard work that Australians have done, the rest of the world will open up before we do because they’re doing the vaccine rollout better,” Mr Burke told Sky News.
“If the vaccine rollout keeps going so slowly in Australia, then a whole lot of the things we presume will happen with freedom of movement, we’ll get nothing for all the work we’ve put in over the last 12 months in terms of being able to open up again.
“The vaccine hesitancy that has been recorded over the last few days I’m really worried about."