Eddie McGuire and Luke Darcy go head to head over Victorian lockdown
An angry Eddie McGuire has defended his move to Queensland for work while Victoria is in lockdown before going to head-to-head with his Hot Breakfast radio co-host Luke Darcy. Here’s how it unfolded.
Confidential
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Eddie McGuire has angrily denied he’s bailed out of Victoria ahead of a heated showdown with his radio colleague Luke Darcy about Victoria’s path out of lockdown.
McGuire flew to Queensland on Tuesday along with the AFL contingent for two weeks quarantine. The Collingwood president is also filming Millionaire Hot Seat and working for Fox Footy while up north.
In response to an emotional caller who wants business to reopen and suggested that McGuire has “more wealth and more to lose”, he said:
“It’s as simple as this, they will not open the borders anywhere until we get the numbers down,’’ McGuire said on Triple M’s Hot Breakfast.
“We’re saying open things up, as soon as people opened up if went out and had dinners when they weren’t supposed to do things, it blew up.
“If someone can tell me another way to get the numbers down I’m happy to hear it.
“As far as coming up here, leaving my wife for probably five weeks behind and my son who is doing VCE which is heartbreaking for everybody in those situations.
“I came up here, because the only reason we’re going to get these television shows back to Victoria is if they don’t go to Sydney.
“Not just me mate, yep, OK, I’m reasonably well off these days but the people who work in my organisation …
“The people in lighting, the people who are producers, the writers, all those types of people all the way through, the carpenters. They’ve got to get a job as well. The people who actually got to drive the six trucks to get the hot seat set up to Queensland have got a job.
“The ones who put it together are going to have a job, the people who put it to air have got a job and we’re actually going to have a job when we bring it back again as well.
Everyone’s doing their best to keep themselves going, everyone is in different circumstances.
“I don’t appreciate (saying) I’m bailing out of Victoria, give it a spell. I’m stuck in isolation for two weeks as well, just like everybody else, and I’ll be in isolation hopefully when we’re not in Victoria.
“I take that personally and I’m not copping it, simple as that.”
Darcy and McGuire then went head to head, with the former AFL star saying people are at breaking point and can’t suck it up any longer.
Here’s how it unfolded:
McGuire: “What’s the alternative. If we open up tomorrow what’s the alternative. I keep asking people the same question. What’s the numbers, how does it work, what’s the road map there.“
Darcy: “There’s a pivot strategy that has actually got scientific research that smart people in Australia and around the world are saying put all your resources right now into the vulnerable and the elderly. Put all your resources into contract tracing, we’ve got brilliant IT, we’ve got sensationally smart people. Get the healthy back out so the gym can open, get people back to work, get the shops open, the restaurants open, get the pubs open. With minimal restriction.
”We’ve seen examples around the world where we do it with common sense. If you’re sick you stay home, I agree with you on that, but this pivot has to be far much more than this notion of getting zero cases. Sweden, they’ve got zero cases, Ed, they’ve got zero deaths.
“People aren’t dying in Sweden anymore because they’ve kept the economy open.”
McGuire: “Their numbers of death have already been so much more than Australia.”
Darcy: “You’ve got 5,000 people in a population of 10 million. And now because people haven’t had their restrictions … you asked for a solution … the more you lock people down, the more you take their freedom, it costs lives.”
McGuire: “Mate, you’re putting words in people’s mouths.”
Darcy: “You asked for my opinion, that was my thoughts.”
McGuire: “You are saying lock people down, no I’m not. I’m trying to get people out as quickly as possible. Sometimes the quickest way to get from A to B is in a direct line, that’s all.
Darcy: “That’s a contest of ideas.”
McGuire: “The only time I’ve seen when people have gone out and freelanced and said right, OK, we’re not going to have any lockdown, it’s ended up being an unmitigated disaster. That’s what happened in June.
“We’re about to have 10,000 people at the football. We’re about to build towards having a full MCG.”
Darcy: “Not in Victoria, we’re not.”
McGuire: “That’s right, people didn’t do what they were supposed to do.”
Darcy: “That’s right, from our leadership, absolutely.”
McGuire: “The Premier can’t … it’s a failing of the person who didn’t do what they were told to do. The people who didn’t go to the doctor, who kept going to work when they had COVID-19. Who got tested positive and still went out and infected people.”
Darcy: “My very calm point is you can pivot out of this strategy, you can do it in a humane way. You can do it where it doesn’t cost more lives of health people who are dying because of lockdown.
“That is irrefutable, people are dying because of restrictions.
“So you’ve got to take that into account, when we grieve as we should for those who are elderly we also should stand there every day and say the next 15 year-old we lose who we shouldn’t lose is a disaster that could be saved if we were more humane and compassionate about this and pivot to a different strategy.
“This is talking about a genuine pathway out.”
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