Coronavirus: Anthony Albanese vows to set up disease control centre

An Albanese government would establish a dedicated agency to help Australia respond to future pandemics.

\Anthony Albanese. Picture: Richard Dobson

An Albanese government would establish a dedicated agency to help Australia respond to future pandemics.

Anthony Albanese has vowed to establish an Australian centre for disease control (CDC) if he were elected prime minister, as he labelled Scott Morrison’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic as “too slow, too reactive and too unco-ordinated”.

“We can’t be left playing catch up again,” the Opposition Leader said. “We can’t afford another Ruby Princess, or another tragic disaster in aged care. Our health, our lives and our economy all depend on us getting our response to future pandemics right.”

The agency would house experts to monitor threats; prepare the health and aged-care sectors for future outbreaks; ensure there was enough stock of medical equipment; run regular pandemic preparedness drills; and work with other countries on a regional and global strategy.

Labor says Australia is the only wealthy country without a CDC equivalent.

In his pre-budget address to caucus on Monday, Mr Albanese flagged Labor would start outlining more of its policies and take up the political fight to the Coalition.

Mr Albanese, who will deliver his first budget reply speech on Thursday night, predicted this would be the “second-last budget that a Liberal government should deliver for a very long time”.

“This week, we will start to change tack,” Mr Albanese told caucus. “We will continue to hold the government to account but we will start to provide the beginnings of our plan for Australia.

“People have wanted us to be constructive during the pandemic; increasingly, we will now provide our alternative.

“The government was incapable of delivering a recovery that doesn’t leave people behind and hold people back.”

Mr Albanese has released little policy since becoming leader after the May 2019 election and has vowed to go to the next poll with a smaller agenda than Bill Shorten.

While Labor’s internal debates on climate and energy have spilt into the public sphere, there will also be a stoush over tax policy.

The party is yet to determine whether it will go to the next election vowing to repeal stage three of the government’s income tax policy.

The third stage of the tax policy, due to be introduced in 2024, will flatten the top income tax rate to 30 per cent for all workers earning between 45,000 and 200,000.

The Morrison government has not outlined whether it will bring forward the stage-three tax cuts in Tuesday’s budget.

Some Labor MPs believe it would be politically foolish to ­oppose income tax cuts, while others believe the government’s plan was regressive and should be opposed or repealed.

Opposition Treasury spokesman Jim Chalmers said Labor had concerns with stage three but would not commit to opposing the tax measures if they were brought forward in the budget.

“We have raised concerns with stage three of the income tax cuts.

“Stage three is the least responsible, least affordable, least fair and least likely to be effective because higher income earners aren’t as likely to spend in the economy as workers of more modest means,” Dr Chalmers said.

“It’s up to the government how they present that legislation to the parliament. We haven’t seen how they intend to do that. We’ll come to a position after we see that.

“The priority in tax relief should be Australians who need it most and Australians who are more likely to spend it in our shops and small businesses around the economy.”