SUBJECTS: Labor will legislate a National Anti-Corruption Commission; importance of Tropical North Queensland; water security; Labor’s plan to strengthen Medicare; Urgent Care Clinics; Scott Morrison always there for the photo-op but never there for the follow up; federal election; Labor’s policy agenda; Easter.
 
MURRAY JONES, HOST: Good morning, it's 4CA. Murray here for the Breakfast Show. Well, just for a little while this morning, special occasion this morning. Well, look at this, not even seven days into the Federal election campaign. Cairns has got pretty good reason to feel pretty important, and I guess a lot of focus on our region particularly today. In town in the flesh, Labor Leader, Anthony Albanese, and Shadow Treasurer, Jim Chalmers. They both join me in studio. Good morning, guys. Wonderful to see you.
 
ANTHONY ALBANESE, LEADER OF THE AUSTRALIAN LABOR PARTY: Good morning. Great to be here, Murray.
 
JIM CHALMERS, SHADOW TREASURER: Thanks, Murray.
 
JONES: Queenslander Jim, of course, this is kind of your stamping ground, but wonderful to see you and having you both together at such a special time. Lots to talk about. Albo, can I start with you? I do want to talk about, I've known you for a while, I know how hard you work, I know you work those media phones every morning with Toto the puppy dog under your feet there on a very regular basis. It's been a tough three years in Opposition. I mean, are you tired? Have you peaked too early? Unfortunately, it's not been a good start to the week.
 
ALBANESE: Not at all. I'm totally up for this campaign. And I'm up for giving Australia a better government. Because if we have a better government, we'll have a better future. And we have worked really hard over the last three years to not just hold the Government to account for its failure to order enough vaccines and its failure on rapid antigen tests and its failure to support the tourism industry and other industries here in the Tropical North. We have worked also to put forward really clear alternatives that will make a difference to more secure work, strengthening Medicare, making more things here and lifting living standards. So, we have a clear alternative to the Government. And this week, in week one, we already know now that if you want a National Integrity Commission, you have to vote Labor at this election. Because Scott Morrison not only has not fulfilled a promise that he made four years ago, he's walked away from doing anything in this term.
 
JONES: 26 years in Parliament. I guess you've got a degree of passion to possibly see some of this foresight through?
 
ALBANESE: Absolutely. I have the experience. And I have the team to make sure that we can get things done. We're being really careful and modest with our commitment. So, we're promising safe change. But we're promising a coherent set of policies that will make a positive difference to people's lives, so that, we hope, if we're successful, to be in a position then to, in three years' time, to say, 'This is what we said we would do. And we've done it.' So, whether it's fee-free TAFE, whether it be additional university places, wanting more secure work, cheaper child care, cheaper electricity prices, using the opportunity that's there from action on climate change to create jobs, to create new industries with our National Reconstruction Fund, we have a really positive agenda and an optimistic agenda so that we can learn the lessons of the pandemic. What are the weaknesses in our economy and how do we make sure that we emerge from the pandemic stronger?
 
JONES: You mentioned the National Anti-Corruption Commission. Now, according to the Coalition, the commission has not eventuated because Labor failed to support it. Explain to me, does the current Government really need your support to pass legislation?
 
ALBANESE: It was pretty bizarre. It’s the ultimate expression of Scott Morrison's failure to take responsibility for anything. The fact that he's saying that he can't pass things unless we agree. Well, why would you vote for him if he says that he needs Labor to pass any legislation? He hasn't even introduced the legislation to Parliament. And he promised it, not this term, he promised it last term in 2018, after he became Prime Minister, after the coup that removed Malcolm Turnbull.
 
JONES: Okay. You're prepared to do it. But if you get across the line to the next election, how soon are we going to see this? The integrity, the transparency, the trust in the Government is something that is very much lacking. We need it back in this country. How soon will Labor do it and with teeth to compel witnesses and also to compel the defendants to actually appear?
 
ALBANESE: Well, it's urgent. And that's why will legislate it this year.
 
JONES: 2022?
 
ALBANESE: In 2022, we will get this done. Because we've waited long enough. And the Prime Minister has gone out there and attacked the New South Wales ICAC, the Integrity Commission that has made findings against Liberal and Labor. That's a good thing. That boosts confidence in the political system. And that's what we need. Australians look at a Government that paid $30 million for a block of land that was worth $3 million and wonder how that could possibly have occurred. They look at all of the rorts that have been there in grant funding, commuter car parks where there are no train stations, for goodness sake. And then it gets promised and then it gets withdrawn. They look at these things and just shake their head. And I believe politics is an honourable profession. People, overwhelmingly, across the spectrum, go into it for all the right reasons, whether they're Labor, Liberal, or independent, wherever they come from. But out there in the public, we need to acknowledge that we need to restore faith in that system. And if you have an integrity commission, one that actually has some teeth, not a toothless tiger, then that will do that.
 
JONES: Jim, can I talk to you specifically about something that's just coming up in the last couple of days? $107 million pledged to Tropical North Queensland for a water security project here for the Cairns City region. Can you tell me, is Labor in a position to match that guarantee if they do get across the line at the next election, and your strategic outline for Tropical North Queensland briefly?
 
CHALMERS: We will match that commitment toward a security.
 
JONES: You will?
 
CHALMERS: The only difference between the Liberals, the LNP, and Labor is that we will deliver what we announced in an election campaign. The Government is notorious, as you know, and we've spoken on your show before, big commitments before an election and failure to deliver afterwards. We will match the funding that's been announced for water security. We see it as crucial. Obviously, there'll be a business case, there'll be working with the states to make sure that it's delivered. But we are supportive of, and we'll match, that commitment to water security. More broadly, my mission in Anthony's team is to make sure that, as the national economy recovers from COVID, that regional Queensland in particular is a bigger part of the story. And so, as you know, all of our policies around TAFE, around child care, cleaner and cheaper energy, our investments in new industries in the Tropical Far North, which leverage and maximise our traditional strengths up here, all of this is about ensuring that we can grow the economy of Cairns and the surrounding region more strongly, more inclusively into the future. That's why I've been here eight times, I think this term alone.
 
JONES: I have seen you at least twice.
 
CHALMERS: That's why Anthony is here all of the time. It is because we don't want to be like the Coalition. They see the Tropical Far North as a source of votes. We see it as a source of jobs and opportunities for Australians.
 
JONES: And we've got some difficult times coming out of the pandemic. But we've just got so much to offer with the reef and the rainforest. I think there's pretty good reasons why you guys come regularly to Tropical North Queensland. If I can just stay with you, Shadow Treasurer, Jim Chalmers, just a little bit further. With respect to the clarification for the costings for the 50 Urgent Care Clinics, obviously, that medium-tier of care is essential. Often you can't get to the 24 hours. They're booked out more than 24 hours in advance. You don't want to clog up the system. Obviously, having this medium-tier healthcare system or option for people is a really good thing. When it comes to costings, though, that's obviously something that's caused a few heartaches, I guess over the last few days, and raised a few questions. Because it's not going to be cheap.
 
CHALMERS: Look, I think this is a beat-up from the Government, frankly. We've costed our policy at $135 million. It is about making healthcare more accessible to more people. I know, as the father of three little kids, my daughter has broken her arm in the same place twice in the course of 12 months. You want to be able to take them quickly for breaks and bruises and treatment.
 
JONES: Non-life-threatening type of issues.
 
CHALMERS: Where you don't want to go to the ED sometimes. And so, it's a crucial policy, which is about affordable, accessible healthcare, which is based on Medicare. And that's probably the key difference between Anthony and Scott Morrison. Anthony wants to build Medicare up. Scott Morrison wants to tear it down. And so, the costing is $135 million. Now, we will hear all kinds of desperate beat-ups from the Government about costings. Because they don't want your listeners to focus on the fact that they've racked up a trillion dollars in debt and have got almost nothing to show for it. We are following the same costing process that oppositions of either political persuasions follow. The costings for our policies will be done by the Parliamentary Budget Office and released in the usual way at the usual time. But this is the Government's attempt to distract from the fact they made a $60 billion error in their JobKeeper sums. They've sprayed around $39 billion in a Budget a couple of weeks ago without offsetting it. They've announced $70 billion in spending between December and March trying to buy an election. Now, this is the most wasteful Government since Federation. They want us focused on fake desperate beat-ups about our costings. Our costings will follow the usual processes. And they'll be released in the usual time, in the usual way.
 
JONES: You've heard it directly from Jim Chalmers this morning here on 4CA. Albo, if I can finish with you, the PM has deliberately turned the focus on the credentials of the Government, since his character was obviously savaged from so many people, even from within his Party. If he wants to talk about the team, I mean, we regularly speak to Tanya Plibersek. I mean, she's the longest serving female Federal parliamentarian, a legend. Just recently, Penny Wong was in town. She was treated by everyone as an absolute rockstar. Richard Marles was actually married here in Cairns. That is always a talking point. Jim, great to see him here. He's the Queenslander. Let's talk about your team broadly and what is behind it. If the PM wants to talk about the Government and the team that's in there, let's talk about the depth of talent you've got there and what they can actually do for Australia.
 
ALBANESE: Well, we will be the most experienced incoming Labor Government in history. We've only formed government three times since the Second World War from opposition. Neither Gough Whitlam or Bob Hawke or Kevin Rudd had served as ministers in the Government. I've served as Deputy Prime Minister. Penny Wong has been Leader of the Government in the Senate, and a senior Cabinet Minister. Chris Bowen was the Treasurer. And he'll be the Climate Minister. We have Tony Burke who has served there for six years. We have someone next to me here, in Jim Chalmers, who will bring incredible experience to the position of Treasurer.
 
CHALMERS: He is making me blush, Murray.
 
ALBANESE: And Katy Gallagher, Chief Minister of the ACT. Kristina Keneally, former New South Wales Premier. We have an experienced, talented group of people who are united, who are absolutely committed to creating a better future for this country. And it compares with a mob across the way whereby the Deputy Prime Minister has said that he didn't trust, after knowing Scott Morrison for a long period of time, he wasn't trustworthy, and called him the big L word. It's just extraordinary. And so do so many others of his team. The exchange between Gladys Berejiklian and a Cabinet Minister, where Gladys Berejiklian was saying that Scott Morrison cared more about politics than he did about the bushfire victims. And we've seen that again, repeated. One of the things about this Government, look, people make mistakes, everyone will make a mistake in their life. The question is whether you learn from it. This Government keep repeating the same mistakes. They didn't act soon enough on the bushfires, then they didn't order enough vaccines soon enough, then they didn't act soon enough to order enough rapid antigen tests, then they didn't act soon enough when it came to providing support for flood victims, including here in Queensland. It is the same mistake repeated over and over again. They're obsessed with short-term politics. They're obsessed with spin. Because their record, quite frankly, is shocking. They have presided over now a trillion dollars of debt with not much to show for it. And they doubled the debt before the pandemic.
 
JONES: Generational issue.
 
ALBANESE: Doubled it. They've had 22 different energy policies and haven't landed one. They had key commitments like a National Integrity Commission that they've just failed to deliver on.
 
JONES: And I think, at the end of the day, what we talked about, people making mistakes, but when things go to integrity and moral character, I think we do need to think twice about those. Great to see you guys in town. I better let the boss get back and get on there, because I've pushed in this morning.
 
CHALMERS: It's good of him to let us push in.
 
JONES: He did really well. And look, thank you so much. It's a real pleasure. And I think it's important for Cairns to have this opportunity to have so much focus not even seven days into the Federal election. Labor Leader, Anthony Albanese, Shadow Treasurer, Jim Chalmers, wonderful to talk to you. Thank you so much for your time this morning. Cheers
 
ALBANESE: Good on you, Murray. And can I wish everyone a Happy Easter, and for those people of Christian faith, a holy Easter.
 
ENDS