SUBJECTS: Candidate for Capricornia; casualisation in the mining industry; Government support to undermine wages and conditions; the LNP in the regions vs in Canberra; social housing; Scott Morrison in Queensland; coal exports; opportunities in manufacturing; Adam Reynolds; Queensland rugby league.

 
KARYN WILSON, HOST: Well, the Federal Election is on the horizon, whether it be this year or next. And getting in on the front foot now, the Leader of the Opposition, Anthony Albanese, will be in Rockhampton today to announce Labor's candidate for Capricornia. Mister Albanese joins me this morning. Good morning.
 
ANTHONY ALBANESE, LEADER OF THE AUSTRALIAN LABOR PARTY: Good morning. Good to be with you looking forward to being in Rocky again.
 
WILSON: It's beautiful weather to welcome you. What's the announcement this morning?
 
ALBANESE: Russell Robertson has agreed to be our candidate for Capricornia. Russell's an outstanding candidate. He's someone who's a third-generation miner, born in Clermont. He grew up in Moranbah. He's raising his kids there, he attended the same school where he now sends his kids, and he is someone who's also been very active in the community, as Chairman, in the past, of the Moranbah Community Scholarship which helps pay for local kids to go to uni. He's someone who has campaigned really strongly about the rights of miners to have permanent work. We know that casualisation in the industry and the use of labour hire firms has really undermined wages and conditions. And he's someone who has stood up for their interests, he is someone who has been on the side of his co-workers. And he's someone who will bring that contribution to the national Parliament to represent the people of Rockhampton, Yeppoon, Moranbah and the region.
 
WILSON: He ran in the last election in 2019 and in that election, Michelle Landry, she got about 40 per cent of that vote, Russell Robinson 23. What makes you think he is the candidate to go into the next Federal Election?
 
ALBANESE: I think if you look at history, when someone has a crack a second time, they're often successful. What happens the first time, particularly running against the sitting member, is you need name recognition, you need to get yourself known. And Russell has had that experience and effectively, therefore, will have been a candidate, by the time of the election, for over three years. And that really helps. I was very keen for Russell to have a crack again, I got to know him in 2018 and 19. And he is someone who is articulate, he is someone who speaks up for his community. And he truly would represent them. The problem for the local member is she might be a lion in the local area, but they're all mice when they get to Canberra. Canberra tends to be run by the Libs from Sydney and Melbourne, and they haven't spoken up for regional jobs and they don't have a plan for the economy on issues like casual work. You actually have, the Federal Government has, spent hundreds of thousands of dollars of taxpayers’ money supporting a challenge in the High Court which would undermine the wages and conditions of miners. And we've seen that consistently there's no one in the LNP speaking up on those issues on behalf of those workers. Russell Robertson will.
 
WILSON: In saying that, do you see Central Queensland as the place to win the election, the next Federal Election for Labor?
 
ALBANESE: I think Central Queensland, with Russell, with Matt Burnett in Flynn, we have two really very, very strong candidates. If you look at the state election results Labor did very well there. Remember that Scott Morrison came up to Queensland during the Queensland state election campaign, derided the efforts of the Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk who was keeping Queenslanders safe. He called for the borders to be flung open and was busy doing fundraisers up and down the coast there, including in Rocky, and didn't speak up the interests of Queenslanders. In the lead up to an election now he seems to have adopted a different position regarding borders. But when you look at the record of the LNP, I think that people who put their faith in them at the last election will be very disappointed with what has actually resulted. What was in the budget on Tuesday night, for example, for Central Queenslanders? There was an infrastructure cut of $3.3 billion in the Budget over the next four years for infrastructure investment.
 
WILSON: I wanted to ask you though, I mean, in saying that you want to make inroads here in Central Queensland, the next election. We had a lot of LNP, and a lot of politicians, the Prime Minister came to Beef last week, but you didn't come. Why is that? Wouldn't have been a great opportunity to speak to those in the agricultural community?
 
ALBANESE: We had four Shadow Ministers, they were part of my team. Unlike the Prime Minister I don't have my own plane.
 
WILSON: You could drive.
 
ALBANESE: He pretended to drive. Remember that, the bus tour where he kept jumping on the plane, and he'd get on the bus for the photo opp, but was using his plane right up and down the coast? I was in Mackay last week. You can't be everywhere. I’m speaking to you today from Brisbane this morning, I'll fly to Rocky, then flying back to Brisbane and having another event here tomorrow. It is more difficult for the Opposition to get around. But we had four Shadow Ministers there, and I've visited Rockhampton regularly, including since the election campaign, as Leader of the Labor Party, I've been back there. And I visited, of course, Yeppoon as well a number of times during 2019. This will be my third visit to Capricornia as the Leader of the Labor Party and that's more times, frankly, then Scott Morrison has visited.
 
WILSON: 7:36 this morning.  On with us this morning is the Leader of the Opposition Anthony Albanese coming to, of course, as you just said, the Rockhampton region today, and announcing that Russell Robertson will be the candidate for Labor in the next Federal Election. I did want to ask you, though, about your policy to build social housing. We heard before seven o'clock this morning about a family of seven who have been having a very hard time finding social housing. Is the Labor policy to build some social housing proof, I guess, that this Queensland state Labor Government, they’ve kind of dropped the ball in this area?
 
ALBANESE: No at all. Actually, if you look at that the states are doing best on social housing construction, Queensland and Victoria are outstanding in terms of making investment, but they're doing it by themselves. You've had a trillion dollars of debt. You've had money splashed around for political purposes, but not a single dollar during this crisis has gone into social housing from the Federal Government. And I want to work with the Queensland state Government on those issues. I discussed that just last night here in Queensland with Annastacia Palaszczuk, the Premier, about the importance of our partnership, in terms of addressing these issues. This morning, of course, we'll be visiting social housing right there in Rocky for the announcement, and that will be an important part of, a component of what we stand up for at the next election. The waiting lists have never been longer, there's never been less support from a national Government for social housing. And yesterday, you actually had the Prime Minister, deride our commitment for social housing and say it should all be just about private housing. Well, private homeownership is very important, that we all have the opportunity. But for a whole lot of people, the truth is that that's not an option for them. And what we can't do is just ignore their interests, which is why we put social housing as a major centerpiece of what we said we would do upon coming to government.
 
WILSON: I know you're it's a busy morning for you. Just want to crack on, just one more. You've committed to net zero emissions by 2050. That's almost certainly going to see every coal-fired power station in the region shut down. What will Labor put on the table to help that industry transition because as you know, we are a major mining hub?
 
ALBANESE: We’re about support for people and support for workers. This Government not only don't have a plan for mining workers now, in terms of what's happening with the use of labour hire, casualisation in the industry undermining wages and conditions, they don't have a plan for the future as well. Now, of course, what we see is that there hasn't been a new coal-fired power station built in Australia for a long time. Now, that's just a fact. But there continues to be exports of particularly metallurgical coal from the Bowen Basin, it continues to be exported, continues to be used for steel production around the world, there continues to be a global demand for it. We need to make sure that we establish proper market-based solutions. And the truth is that despite the fact that the Government has given funding for Collinsville for a study, no one in the Federal Government thinks that project is going to go ahead, that's one of the things that will happen at the next campaign. There was a lot of nonsense, frankly, spoken in the lead up to the 2019 campaign, they will have to actually front up and say, okay, you said there'd be a new coal fired power station at Collinsville where it hasn't been approved, hasn’t been a hole dug in the ground. We need to make sure that we actually look at job creation, supporting jobs that are there in the mining sector right now. But also look at how do we create future jobs? How do we create new jobs as well? And there are huge opportunities we have in the mining sector. We produce everything that goes into a lithium battery, for example, much of those resources, they're in in Queensland. And I think that the Queensland resources sector does have absolutely a very good future indeed. But we also need to look at value adding, how we make more things here, manufacture more things here, become a more resilient economy. And that's something that Labor's absolutely committed to, because we want quality jobs to be available. And we want regional economic growth. And that will be an absolute priority of Russell when he is the representative for Capricornia.
 
WILSON: Lots to get to this morning, but I saw you had a bit of fun last night. You had, with the Premier, you had a beer watching the Broncos?
 
ALBANESE: I did indeed. I had a beer with the Premier and with Matt Burnett. The Broncos didn't have a great result. But they’re a young team that are building for the next few years. I think it's a very smart decision for them that to sign Adam Reynolds. I'm a South fan, so I'm disappointed to see him go. But he's an experienced level-headed bloke who will be able to steer them around the park next year. And I think he's a he will prove to be a great asset for the Broncos. I think they need a couple of experienced heads in there while their young up-and-comers, who have such incredible talent, are getting that experience that you need on the footy field.
 
WILSON: Well, Nick Busby our sports guru who co-hosts this show with me, and he has his own show at 9am, he agrees with you. He says he will be a great halfback for them.
 
ALBANESE: He certainly will. But he'll be good off the field as well, I think. I was I was on the Souths board for eight years, and we introduced a policy of looking at what people do off the field as well as on the field. And I think that's important that you have people who can grow these young men who are growing as people as well as on the field. And Adam Reynolds is great bloke, he's got four young kids, and I wish him well in the future. As I said I'm very sad to see him go to the Broncos but I think you need strong Queensland sides in the NRL in order to have a strong competition. At the moment, of course, the Queensland sides are all outside the eight. But I think in the future, no doubt that will change. It was certainly a great game last week between the Cows and the Broncos, and the Cowboys got home.
 
WILSON: Thanks for your time this morning.
 
ALBANESE: Thanks very much. Thank you.
 
ENDS