SUBJECTS: Visit to New England; net zero by 2050; Morrison Government’s lack of modelling; Coalition Government focused on themselves and their pay; climate change; Labor’s policy agenda; Glasgow Summit; renewable energy; Australia’s relationship with France; next Federal election.
 
JAMES ‘MONTE’ IRVINE: I've been joined on the phone now by the Federal Leader of the Labor Party and Federal Opposition Leader, Anthony Albanese. Mr Albanese, thank you so much for taking the time to have a chat to me this morning.
 
ANTHONY ALBANESE, LEADER OF THE AUSTRALIAN LABOR PARTY: Good morning, Monte. It's nice to be in New England.
 
IRVINE: Yes, you're in the region. Your plans for the day? What are you planning on doing in the New England region today?
 
ALBANESE: Well, we're headed to the Sapphire Wind Farm with Chris Bowen and with Tim Ayres, the duty senator, and then headed to White Rock Solar Farm to have a look at the renewable energy projects. Of course, New England's a renewable energy zone. It's going to be of significant benefit for the region in terms of jobs, in terms of investment. And it's important that we are able to be here and examining the benefit. Of course, the local member doesn't support this plan, even though it is here with the support of the New South Wales Coalition Government. The solar farm can power 8,000 homes, and the wind farm, many, many more than that. And so, it makes a significant difference to the region. And we're quite excited to be here, to be able to be out and about. Then we're going to see the New South Wales Farmers President, James Jackson, to have a chat with him. So, it's a busy day today, but it will be a very good day.
 
IRVINE: Mr Albanese, you make a very good point that it does seem that our local member and Acting Prime Minister, Barnaby Joyce, doesn't seem to be supporting renewable energy as much as he could, particularly when such a large project is within his own electorate and even with the zero emissions by 2050 plan that was released last Monday. He doesn't seem to be 100 per cent on board with that. Do you see that possibly causing a rift between the National Party and the Liberal Party leading into next year's election?
 
ALBANESE: Well, it's just chaos in the Coalition. The wind farm can power up to 135,000 homes. It's produced significant jobs. And renewable energy zones are just one part of the New South Wales Government's plans, which are about a 50 per cent cut in emissions by 2030. The Acting Prime Minister, Barnaby Joyce, said that he was on board for net zero by 2050, except that he spoke against it in the National Party room, and has continued to not be able to appear side by side with the Prime Minister. And when you have a Government where the Prime Minister and the Deputy Prime Minister can't stand side by side on the same policy, then that's not a recipe for taking the country forward. It's a recipe for uncertainty. And of course, he's not the only one in the National Party. A majority of the National Party Cabinet ministers are opposed to the existing policy, including, of course, Keith Pitt. The only thing we know for sure that benefited the National Party out of the deal that was painstakingly done, after excruciating weeks of talking to themselves, is that Keith Pitt got promoted into the Cabinet and got a salary increase. Well, we actually need a government in this country that will stand up for the interests of farmers, for the interests of local communities, for the interests of regional jobs. Barnaby Joyce has shown that he's not capable of doing that. And that's why it is important that at the next election we change the government. I'm here in New England today. I want to represent all Australians regardless of where they live. And I'm here today in the electorate of the Acting Prime Minister to say that he's not even standing up for jobs in his own electorate, let alone across the country.
 
IRVINE: Mr Albanese, the Acting Prime Minister, Barnaby Joyce, on Friday, and last week, did make comments that he was trying to stand up for farmers and farming jobs when he came out and said that he wanted the farmers, particularly cattle farmers, to be removed or exempt from the policy of zero methane emissions by 2030, despite what Meat and Livestock Australia is saying, that they already have that target in mind, they already have policies in place in conjunction with the CSIRO, it does appear as though Barnaby Joyce has come out and is already making obstacles for the Government to follow their 2050 targets and roadmap.
 
ALBANESE: Well, Barnaby Joyce puts up fake issues in order to then knock them down to look like he's doing something. This was about an international proposal of which no one in Australia is saying that we should be a party to it. It's like yesterday, he was on TV speaking about the emissions not being counted from our exports overseas. Well, no one's proposing that either in the entire international community. And that would be like counting emissions from cars made in Japan when they emit carbon here in Australia. That's absurd. And it's not the way that international negotiations work. And so that, I think, is all designed to pretend that he's doing something that he's not. And it is typical of Barnaby Joyce, and he's dissembling here, his party to a Government that has now signed up to net zero by 2050 after he knocked off Michael McCormack on the basis that he would stand up against net zero by 2050. It's very clear that Barnaby Joyce's only priority is standing up for himself.
 
IRVINE: Mr Albanese, moving on from the Coalition's plan for net zero emissions by 2050, moving to the Labor plan, when will the Labor Party release its plan for net emissions by 2050?
 
ALBANESE: Well, we've already released a range of initiatives. We, of course, have had a long-standing policy, and it was confirmed when I became the Leader, that we would legislate for net zero emissions by 2050. Since then, we have announced in my first Budget Reply, the Rewiring the Nation policy to fix electricity transmission so that the grid operates for the 21st century, not for last century. And that is the low hanging fruit that will really drive down our emissions, perhaps more than anything else. We have a policy for cheaper electric vehicles by reducing tax on them. We have a policy for community batteries to assist in solar energy. We have a policy for new energy apprenticeships to make sure that Australian workers can benefit from the changes that are occurring. And we have our National Reconstruction Fund, some $15 billion to support new industries. These are all policies that we've announced. We'll have more to say in how we will head towards net zero by 2050. We know that it's necessary for us to do it. And I note that the Government, including Minister Taylor yesterday, couldn't say what the cost of their proposal is and it's reliant upon technology that hasn't been developed yet. And when they made their big announcement last week, they said there were no new policies. It's quite extraordinary that not only do they have no new policies, but they're undermining the policies of the Coalition Government here in New South Wales.
 
IRVINE: Well, part of the criticism of that roadmap was the fact that there was no modelling released at the same time for the policies. Is that something that the Labor Party will do when you release further policies, you'll put your modelling out there for the Australian voters to look at?
 
ALBANESE: Well, we'll very much have a lot of detail when we make our further announcements. All of the announcements that we've made up to now have been fully costed. And that's been important in terms of programs like community batteries, fixing electricity transmission, and the National Reconstruction Fund. The funding for them is all available and was announced at the time. What you have from the Government is essentially saying, 'It's the vibe, we'll just rely upon that', and no specifics. And it was very disappointing, I think, last week that occurred. And Scott Morrison, of course, couldn't turn up at Glasgow without having announced net zero by 2050. So, we had this pantomime with the National Party pretending to wrestle with this policy. And then frankly, it was not much about anything when the detail wasn't announced last Tuesday.
 
IRVINE: Will a carbon price be part of the Labor policy?
 
ALBANESE: No, it won't. Because the thing about those mechanisms is that you needed to, many years ago, fix the price signal for renewables. Now, the price signal for renewables is the cheapest form of new energy. That's why you're seeing this investment. And that's what's extraordinary is that you have a price signal against action on climate change, effectively, by the Government using taxpayer funds to directly invest in projects, some of which are promoting fossil fuels, and which don't stack up in terms of the market.
 
IRVINE: Mr Albanese, moving on to something a little bit more international at the moment, the French President has claimed that Scott Morrison has lied to him about the cancellation of the submarine contracts. If you're elected leader next year at the election, what's your plans in trying to move over the riff that does seem to have happened between Australia and France?
 
ALBANESE: Well, Australia needs a leader who can be trusted on the global stage. And what we've had in recent days is the President of France very clearly saying that he was certain that the Prime Minister of Australia lied to him. And we also have the President of the United States saying that he thought that the break in the arrangements between Australia and France was something that had been communicated to the French and had been worked through. So, you have a real breakdown in relations with the United States, as well as with France, that causes a real problem. What President Macron has said out loud is what a range of Scott Morrison's own colleagues say about him in their dealings with him. Of course, one of those is Malcolm Turnbull, the former Prime Minister who he stood next to in the courtyard and said that he was ambitious for Prime Minister Turnbull. Of course, we all know how that ended up that week, and who Scott Morrison was really ambitious for, which was himself.
 
IRVINE: All right, well, Mr Albanese, one last quick question. When do you think we will go to an election? There is some speculation that it could be early December. What's your feeling on the matter?
 
ALBANESE: Well, the election may be on December 11. This Prime Minister is struggling to keep together his ramshackle Coalition Government. And it may well be that he thinks things are going to get worse in 2022 and that he calls the election in December. We're ready for it. This is a Government that don't have an agenda for the future. We've just had a fortnight of Parliament, whereby the Government failed to introduce legislation on a National Anti-corruption Commission, failed to introduce any legislation relating to its climate change announcement, failed to introduce any significant reform legislation at the end of their third term. This is a Government that are frozen in time while the world warms around it and aren't capable of leading Australia into the future. They don't have an agenda. And the last day of sitting, of course, we had legislation to try to stop people voting in the next Australian election. They don't want donor IDs for major donors to the Liberal and National parties. But they want voter ID to try to restrict the voting in Australia, which is a pattern that we've seen developed by the far-right in the United States. And it appears that this Government is channelling those strategies.
 
IRVINE: Mr Albanese, thank you so much for your time this morning. I really do appreciate it. December 11, you think it's going to be. But thank you so much for your time this morning. Enjoy your time in the New England and enjoy getting around and having a look.
 
ALBANESE: Thanks very much. Well, it's a beautiful day here. And it's always a lovely part of Australia to be in. And I look forward to having a chat with locals while I'm here. And you put on a beautiful day for us.
 
IRVINE: No worries. Mr Albanese, thank you so much for your time.
 
ALBANESE: Thank you. All the best.
 
ENDS