Kevin Rudd on Sunrise: The Ruby Princess fiasco

[video width="640" height="360" mp4="https://kevinrudd.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/Former-Prime-Minister-@MrKRudd-addresses-the-Ruby-Princess-controversy-after-being-featured-in-last-nights-explosive-7NEWS-investigation-into-the-co.mp4"][/video]E&OE TRANSCRIPTTELEVISION INTERVIEWSUNRISE, SEVEN NETWORK6 APRIL 2020SUBJECT: Ruby Princess, coronavirus JOURNALIST: The Ruby Princess cruise ship is now at the centre of a criminal investigation with the NSW homicide squad looking into why the infected vessel was allowed to dock in Sydney Harbour. It comes as a 7NEWS special investigation raises more damning allegations about what went wrong.(Video plays)There have now been 11 deaths and more than 660 cases of coronavirus linked to the Ruby Princess cruise ship. For more, I’m joined by former prime minister Kevin Rudd who was featured in that 7NEWS investigation last night. Thanks for your time, Kevin. You were outspoken in that program last night. Who do you think is responsible for all this?KEVIN RUDD: Well, the truth is that it’s three parties. One is the company, two is the NSW government responsible for health, and the third is Minister Dutton because he’s responsible for border security. Remember, even in the footage in the program last night you had Border Force staff off board the vessel, waving people off as they came back into port in Sydney. So all three share responsibility here. So far we’ve not heard from Minister Dutton. I think it’s very important for all those people who’ve been affected directly by this disaster, and those still to be infected, that we hear directly from the federal minister responsible.JOURNALIST: Yeah, it was pretty incredible last night. A lot of mistakes made, as you say. NSW Health apparently knew that 158 people were sick from the previous cruise. Should that boat have ever left Sydney on this last cruise?KEVIN RUDD: Well, based on I think the excellent report last night by Denham Hitchcock, I think the evidence is clear: no, they should not have been allowed to leave. But the bottom line is, responsibility is shared between the company being transparent – but guess what, you know something, companies sometimes don’t tell the truth; that’s why you need independent verification from governments. In this case both the NSW Health Department and border security, because Border Force is responsible, according to Mr Dutton, for protecting us from threats at the border. This is one boat, a huge ship, in the heart of Sydney, and importantly – look, I understand it’s hard in a crisis to get everything right. I understand that. But remember we had the glaring example of the Diamond Princess board in Tokyo for weeks before this, providing lessons for the world if people chose to watch and to learn.JOURNALIST: Yep. It is incredible and that’s why the Police Commissioner in NSW is saying the key question is, did Carnival Cruises tell the truth here? And that is the subject of the police investigation now. Kevin Rudd, thanks for your time.KEVIN RUDD: One final point, if I could.JOURNALIST: Yes.KEVIN RUDD: And that’s just this. I noticed the terms of reference of this police investigation goes to the company but, frankly, what everyone wants – the public affected by this disaster – is to get to the truth of how it happened across the board. I’m not pointing a finger in a particular direction here, but we need to look at the accountability of Minister Dutton’s department and the NSW department, not just a criminal investigation into the company. It’s got to be all three.JOURNALIST: Yep. Absolutely. We thank you very much for your time this morning and we also invited a spokesperson from cruise company Carnival Australia on the show this morning. They declined our request.