SUBJECTS: Failures of the Morrison Government during COVID-19; Labor’s policy agenda; rapid antigen tests; Federal election; Better Future for Queensland visit; economy; South Sydney Rabbitohs.
 
MURRAY JONES, HOST: An interesting story I caught up with news.com.au just over the last couple of days. An opinion piece up from Samantha Maiden. A new poll has highlighted major dissatisfaction with Scott Morrison's handling of the Omicron outbreak, suggesting trouble for the upcoming election. Now, his handling of the explosion of cases over summer has basically been smashing his hopes of re-election with the Coalition's primary vote diving to just 34 per cent according to this new poll. It's actually a poll that's been released by Resolve Political Monitor. So, the prospect of a March election is close to zero as the Prime Minister pins his campaign strategy on an April Budget and an election in May after the cases of Omicron hopefully start to plateau. Now, the Coalition is obviously hung on its economic performance over the last couple of years. A difficult one to counter in some ways. Let's talk about this. It's becoming more and more serious. Leader of the Opposition, and of course, the Labor Leader, Anthony Albanese, joins me. Good morning, Albo. How are you this morning?
 
ANTHONY ALBANESE, LEADER OF THE AUSTRALIAN LABOR PARTY: Good morning. Good to be with you, Murray.
 
JONES: Always good to have a chat. We'll come back to your trip around Queensland. Look, let's stick with this. Obviously, a very positive result for you with this particular Resolve Political Monitor that's come out just in the last couple of days. But the Coalition continue to talk about their economic performance. And in a lot of ways, and there might be a lot of reasons for that, I guess it's a fairly solid position. How are you going to counter that, Albo?
 
ALBANESE: Let's talk about their economic performance. This is a Government that have produced the largest deficits in Australian political history, have now racked up a trillion dollars of debt, they had doubled the debt before the pandemic. We have a circumstance whereby they are the second highest taxing government in recent times, only beaten by the Howard Government. As a proportion of tax of the GDP, they're up to around about 24 per cent. It was 22 under us. This is a Government that have no economic plan for the future. They have not been able to nail an energy policy. They've tried more than 20. And we know that the shift to clean energy is the major driving force of economic growth around the world, particularly in the industrialised countries. And so, this is a Government that don't have a plan. We have a skills crisis that they haven't planned for, because they haven't invested in training Australians for the jobs of today, let alone the jobs of tomorrow. This is a Government that have a failed economic record.
 
It's beyond my comprehension how they can rack up a trillion dollars of debt and have no substantial legacy to show for it. Where's the reform? When we had the Global Financial Crisis, we left behind infrastructure improvements in every single school in the country. We left behind the fibre rollout of the National Broadband Network that I personally assisted with there in Cairns, the rollout of fibre to homes and businesses to overcome the tyranny of distance in regional Australia, make it more competitive. This Government have no legacy. We introduced paid parental leave. They have a trillion dollars of debt, nothing to show for it. All they have is rhetoric and no plan for the future.
 
JONES: In the lead-up to the 2016 election, there was an illusionary budget surplus. So, we can expect some smoke and mirrors and some tricks. And look, at the end of the day, there's a reason why he is known as 'Scotty from marketing'. What type of tricks, particularly as they're hanging so much on the budget in April, what type of tricks are we expecting? Another illusionary surplus at all?
 
ALBANESE: No. They won't even pretend that anymore. But they've got $16 billion in the budget of decisions taken but not announced. That is, they're going to spend $16 billion of your listeners' money without telling you what it is. And you can bet it'll be based upon political decisions, like the way that they've rorted a whole range of funds. They treat taxpayers' money as if it's Liberal Party money. And the result is that you don't have sensible legacy. You don't have the sort of upgrades that they've promised there. They're often in the never never, including some of the upgrades they have promised to the Captain Cook Highway. We have a circumstance whereby when we were in Government, we did the Southern Approach to Cairns, promised, funded, delivered, opened, while we were in Government. We made substantial investment in real infrastructure on the Bruce Highway, into real projects, including the upgrades of the Cairns CBD, the Townsville CBD, real things that made a real difference to people. And yet, this Government have presided over all of this debt, all of these enormous deficits, but they say that they can't provide rapid antigen tests to Australians so that they can go to work so they can keep the economy going. This is a Government that has its priorities all wrong.
 
JONES: And certainly, with respect to the RATs, there was an ANZ spending report just in the last week or so, that actually showed that New South Wales is doing worse under the current situation than what they were in the thick of lockdowns. But if we can just turn now to the Oxfam report, and over the past two years it's reported, the wealth of Australia's 47 billionaires has doubled to about $255 billion. Inequality is a real issue here in Australia. That trend has been reflected worldwide, with Oxfam urging even governments to consider a 99 per cent one-off windfall tax on these pandemic wealth gains. Even the intergenerational report last year highlighted a shrinking tax base, obviously an aging population, and the need for tax reform. What's Labor pledging to do to reverse this inequality that's becoming more and more of a reality for so many Australians?
 
ALBANESE: Well, Labor will always stand up against inequality. That's why we argued, for example, for the increase in the JobSeeker rate. That's why we're arguing for wage increases. We want to see living standards lifted, not fall. Under this Government you have had many people who are billionaires benefit from JobKeeper, even though their companies were, and we know which ones they were, were benefiting from the pandemic with increased economic activity in their stores. They were able to claim JobKeeper at the same time as people have been asked to go out there and struggle to find a RAT. And if they do find one, they've got to pay maybe $30, up to $50, for a single rapid antigen test just to keep their family and the people they come into contact with safe, as well as look out for their own health. It's extraordinary that this Government just don't get it. We need a plan to lift living standards. That's one of the reasons why I've been speaking about Australian skills and Australian jobs. That's one of the reasons why I want to give more support to small business so that they can get by. The tourism sector that I met with there in Cairns are continuing to do it really tough. And there are whole sectors that have just been left behind during this pandemic. The tourism sector, the arts sector and the higher education sector in particular have not been given the support that they needed during this time.
 
JONES: Well, look, I can certainly understand your position with respect to wages growth. That's been a real issue in Australia for quite a while now. And that's one of the things that's going to certainly deal with some of this inequality. But one issue that's been very divisive from within the Labor Party, and it's raised concerns for quite a few Labor supporters as well, particularly at this time when we've got a situation where if we increase GST, the consumption tax is going to hit the bottom line of the people that I guess are the most vulnerable here in Australia, obviously, multi-nationals, we could hit them further to increase their tax base, but how can Labor justify still supporting the third stage of these tax cuts? The people that are most able are actually getting a free ride in the next six months or so?
 
ALBANESE: Well, it's legislated, of course. And stage three of the tax cuts begin at $45,000. If you're earning $45,000 a year, that's not rich. You're struggling to get by, given the increase in rent and housing affordability issues which are there. So, that's when it kicks in. They’re legislated. The idea that you can just go into the Senate and reframe it is just not fair dinkum. And one of the things that I've done is to be upfront with people. I want to make sure that we don't create circumstances whereby there's a view that we're going to do things that we're not going to. And we're not going to interfere with the legislated tax cuts which are there, that have been supported by the Parliament. We attempted to change the stage three of the tax cuts. And we weren't successful. Now that they are legislated, we do need economic certainty going forward for people. And we make no apologies for that. We'll look at the area of multinationals and multinationals paying their fair share of tax. And we'll have more to say on that down the track.
 
JONES: And look, coming back to that $45,000 starting salary with respect to the 7 per cent, which will come through with the third stage tax cuts, and what you say is quite true, $45,000 a year is not a lot, but the ceiling is still $200,000. So, I guess looking at that ceiling, the upper limit of $200,000 is probably the one that's irked a lot of Labour's supporters.
 
ALBANESE: Well, we are in a circumstance whereby this Government is the second highest taxing in in Australian political history. That is the truth. They want to talk about how they're not in favour of taxation. Of course, we know that they are. We know that they're also not in favour of markets when it's not convenient for them. And we've seen that in a range of areas. The only area they're saying, 'let It rip' when it comes to the market is people struggling in a Hunger Games type of exercise over trying to get access to a rapid antigen test.
 
JONES: Sure. Look, let's move on. We'll leave the difficult questions behind. Because it was great to see you in Cairns just a few weeks ago. Keen to find out a bit more about your trip south. And particularly, your timing was remarkably good to be able to show your face particularly around Maryborough with those serious floods. Thankfully, you just missed them. But you arrived just after the worst of the flooding.
 
ALBANESE: Well, it was a wonderful trip through Queensland. And it was a chance to engage with so many Queenslanders. We went from Cairns, we went up to Mossman to look at the Indigenous rangers program, of which we will double, which will make an enormous difference for employment for First Nations people but also to protect the land and sea environment around Tropical North Queensland. We then headed to Innisfail. We had a terrific activity with the local Chamber of Commerce and community leaders there at Brothers Leagues Club before we headed to Tully and went to a banana farm there. We went to Mission Beach and met with the council, the Cassowary Coast Council, and talked about their plans for Mission Beach. We headed to Townsville, Mackay, where we met with cane growers in Townsville. I got to thank our Australian Defence Force personnel there, which was a great honour for me. And we went right down. We went to Rocky and Ingham. In Ingham, we got to see a good example of local investment whereby, when I was the Minister for Regional Development, I approved funding for the Cultural Centre Library and activity there that's at the centre of the town as well as the wonderful mural that is there, paying tribute to the Italian workers particularly in the cane industry around Ingham. Rocky, we had a Beef Australia 2024 funding commitment there for the beef industry. And then we went to Gladstone where we talked to people at the Rio Tinto Alumina refinery about their plan to use clean energy. And then a great honour for me was just to say thank you to the magnificent people from the fire and emergency services, but also the volunteers from the SES and the RFS, who were helping to clean up Maryborough. And we did that at the cricket ground there. And we also went and had a look at the impact around the Downer EDI factory where of course, they're making fantastic rail carriages for Queensland. And it's a great example of advanced manufacturing there that has helped to really grow the economy around Maryborough and surrounds. So, it was a fantastic trip by road, it was hard work. We met a lot of people and worked all the way through. Particularly the tourism sector there in Airlie, of course, are suffering from similar things that the industry in Cairns is. It's been really hard hit. But right throughout the area, we went to places large and small along that route. It will be difficult to get 10 days on the road during the election campaign whenever it's called. So, it really was an opportunity to engage, not just in the major centres like Cairns and Townsville, but also some of the smaller areas like Gracemere and Ingham and Innisfail as well. It was a terrific opportunity to talk to people where they are as well. We went to Australia's largest prawn farm which is there just near Proserpine. And the scale of it was quite extraordinary. And so, it was a real opportunity to engage in one-on-one talks with people involved in heavy manufacturing, in agriculture, in tourism, across the board. And throughout the area, of course, we met all the local mayors and local community leaders. And I just want to take the opportunity to thank those people in the community who met with us during that visit.
 
JONES: And after such a long trip, I'm sure you are still happy to come home and see your puppy dog. I think she's with you right now this morning.
 
ALBANESE: I got quite a good welcome home from Toto when I got home. They are a great thing to have, a little puppy. And I know you've got one too.
 
JONES: Yes. Very happy to see me yesterday afternoon. Well, thank you for being so generous with your time this morning. Congratulations, certainly, on the results there of that Resolve poll just over the last couple of days. I just hope the Rabbits are going to be as solid as what you're looking for 2022, Albo.
 
ALBANESE: Well, I'm going for the big double this year. A Federal Election and a 22nd Premiership. We'll see how we go. I'm a bit worried about our halfback with Adam Reynolds. He was so good for us last year. But in Cam Murray, I think they've made a great decision to put a young fellow in as Captain. He's going to be one of the all-time greats, I think, for Souths and for the Blues and for Australia. He's also a very remarkable young man. He really carries himself well. He's a leader on and off the field. But I think for the Broncos fans there, I know it's Cowboys territory, but I think Adam Reynolds will be very good for Brisbane this year. I hope the Cowboys go well. How do you think they're going to go?
 
JONES: Look, you know, it's probably still a bit too early and I probably haven't studied enough. But you know what it's like, it's swings and roundabouts. It's probably about time that the Cowboys started to do a little bit better. So, let's just wait and see. Let's hope so anyhow.
 
ALBANESE: I hope so. They're a very good club. And it was great to see them win the comp a few years ago.
 
JONES: It's just been a bit dry since. That's the issue.
 
ALBANESE: I think that JT, once he put up his boots, they need Taumalolo to go a bit stronger this year than he did last year. I think he's an awesome player when he's hot. And they need him to fire up.
 
JONES: Just wait till he starts chasing Rabbits. You might change your mind.
 
ALBANESE: You'd run, wouldn't you?
 
JONES: I certainly would. I'll be more like a kangaroo, I reckon. Albo, I got to head to the news. But look, thank you so much for being so generous with your time this morning. A great chat about some interesting things and some difficult things that we talked about. But they're things that I guess are going to come up during the the election campaign. Leader of the Labor Party and, of course, Leader the Opposition, Anthony Albanese, have a fantastic day.
 
ALBANESE: Thanks, Murray.
 
ENDS