Coronavirus: Karl Stefanovic’s heated interview with Dan Tehan over schools staying open

Karl Stefanovic has taken the Education Minister to task in a tense interview on Today this morning before launching into an angry rant about schools.

3 min read

March 23, 2020 - 10:37AM

Karl Stefanovic has made it clear he is not happy schools are staying open during a tense interview with Education Minister Dan Tehan this morning.

The Today co-host discussed the situation on air with Mr Tehan in the aftermath of Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s announcement last night that all schools would remain open despite the coronavirus pandemic.

Mr Tehan denied there were conflicting messages from the states and Federal Government, with several states urging parents to keep their children at home.

“I'm not entirely sure what world you live in or what planet you live on if you don't think parents are confused,” Stefanovic said. “Because right now, you're saying stay open. It's OK and it's safe for your kids to go to school. The Victorian Government are saying they're not going. That is immediately confusing. Right there. That is confusing. Right there. That is confusing. Do you agree?”

Karl Stefanovic and Allison Langdon pressed the Education Minister on air this morning.

Mr Tehan replied, “Well, Karl, I live on the same planet as you do.”

Stefanovic insisted, “Victoria are not sending their kids to school and you're saying OK. That's confusing.”

The minister pressed on. “Well, Karl, if you just let me try and explain to your viewers because this is incredibly important," he said.

“What Victoria have done is brought their school holidays forward to Wednesday. And they will be putting in place arrangements to move to online education. But they're also going to be working through what needs to be done to make sure that all our essential services workers, that their children can attend school during that time.”

Stefanovic wasn’t satisfied, as he launched a fiery rant after the interview wrapped.

“I just keep coming back to the notion that it's not all right for any of us to be within 1.5 metres of each other but it's OK at schools,” he said.
“I've got three kids and I have one on the way. Try telling that to a child. ‘It's OK for to you get this virus’. Straightaway, they're seeing all these messages out there. You can't be on Bondi Beach. ‘Hang on, I can't be on Bondi Beach with people but I can be in school with someone?’

“It just doesn't marry up. So that's why there's obvious confusion here.”

It comes as NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian today encouraged parents to keep their children at home “for practical reasons”.

She said 30 per cent of parents had already made the choice to keep their kids at home and the State Government felt it was “the best course to follow” in regards to the state health advice.

Schools in NSW will remain open for children “for parents who have no option”.

In an address to the nation on Sunday night, Mr Morrison made it very clear his position on schools had not changed.

States have urged parents to keep their kids at home if possible. Picture: Steve Pohlner

“Children should go to school tomorrow,” he said, adding that there had been no change to the health advice.

“I do not want to see our children lose an entire year of their education. This is very serious. If you are a four-year-old child at preschool, you do not get your year back. You only get it once.

“Early childhood education is incredibly important. As are all the years of school education. And we want to ensure keeping Australia running means ensuring we can keep up to the mark with our children’s education as best as we can and where there is health advice – which there is – you can get to school and you can be taught, then it is important that we do that for as long as possible, except where health circumstances would change that arrangement.”

But the PM said schools could be shut for the entire year if Australians didn’t take the virus seriously.

“If there is not a broad co-operation in the population … states will have to take more severe measures,” Mr Morrison told the ABC on Sunday night.