SUBJECTS: Federal Budget 2021; visit to Cairns; Labor candidate for Leichhardt; Housing Australia Future Fund; New Energy Apprenticeships; tourism.

KIER SHOREY, HOST: Welcome.

ANTHONY ALBANESE, LEADER OF THE AUSTRALIAN LABOR PARTY: G'day, Kier. Well, I'm bit worried about you having to volunteer, though, at the ABC.

SHOREY: It is how it works. 

ALBANESE: One of the commitments that we have made is to restore the funding for the ABC that was cut by the Coalition. And we made that commitment last year and we will fulfill it. But we had some more commitments this year, of course.

SHOREY: And that's what I want to ask about, Mr Albanese. I want to ask about what the points of difference are when you have a Budget from a Liberal entity that is essentially Labor lite, as many people have called it. What are the points of difference?

ALBANESE: Well, the problem with the Government's Budget is that they threw a lot of money, $100 billion, at problems they themselves created. Problems like aged care where they've cut funding in the past, they put money back and expect applaud. A half-baked child care plan that doesn't really address the issue of affordability. They set up a whole lot of slush funds, 21 separate funds with $4 billion in them. We don't know where that money is going to go. Except we do know it will be allocated politically. And in spite of $100 billion of new spending, a trillion dollars of debt, it's all borrowed money, wages will go down. So a Labor Budget would have looked at how we increase the standard of living. The truth is that people will be worse off as a result of this Budget. The Budget papers indicated that. And what we think is that you do need to spend when there's a recession on. But you need quality spending that leaves a legacy. So our investment, for example, in social housing, $10 billion in a future fund, that will leave a legacy. It will help build 20,000 new social housing units, 10,000 affordable housing units, renovate housing for Indigenous Australians.

SHOREY: That's one of the key things in our neck of the woods is what's happening within Indigenous communities. And we're obviously in a very difficult time when it comes to just housing generally. So can you explain how that will work? How does that money go through and actually change the situation that we've seen come to the front over the course of the last year? Because we had places that were just in total lockdown because there was such overcrowding in houses.

ALBANESE: That is right. How it will work is by establishing a fund which you then use the investment, the return from that, to go towards new social housing, renovating, in terms of it will produce enough money, we have been through the Parliamentary Budget Office on all of this, to be able to get in and deal with maintenance and renovation and overcrowding that is there in Indigenous communities as well. As well as providing housing for women and children escaping domestic violence situations, making sure that they can be safe. And this was a centrepiece of our Budget. We do have a housing crisis in this country. There's never been more homelessness in Australia than today, in our entire history. And we're a better country than that. Because as you played in my introduction, the security of a roof over your head is so important for families. And we need to do better. The Queensland State Government is doing some heavy lifting. But for all of the expenditure we've seen from the Federal Government, they haven't been able to find a single dollar for housing.

SHOREY: Can I ask, Mr Albanese, about the tourism industry? And I'm being very focused on what's happening up in our neck of the woods. 

ALBANESE: As you should be. 

SHOREY: How do we alleviate the situation? Because a big part of that is feeding into job losses, feeding into housing issues, feeding into an increase in the pet surrenders that are happening to animal shelters, they're just overrun at this point in time. How do you support that industry?

ALBANESE: Look, the tourism industry deserved a special package on Tuesday night. And they got nothing. The Government continues to pat itself on the back and say that it's going well, whereas whole sectors of our economy are not doing well. The tourism sector, I had a roundtable last time I was in Cairns just a short while ago with the tourism operators, and we sat there near the Marina. And we just walked up and down and had a look at the cruise ships and the dive boats and others that would normally be out there on the water on the reef that simply weren't getting the traffic. So there's support for the airlines, and that was welcomed. But for tourism operators who are really struggling to get by, many of them, what they're worried about as well is that they're losing their quality trained staff. So the long-term impact, if it's allowed to just continue to decline, is a real problem for the sector. And I think it was very disappointing that this Government didn't have anything in the Budget to provide it with support. 

SHOREY: And would you do so if you were in Government?

ALBANESE: Absolutely. We wouldn't have allowed it to get to this situation. We argued very clearly that when the Government was announcing that the JobKeeper would just be shut down, that what you needed was support for sections that were really struggling. And no sector has struggled more than the tourism sector in terms of employment and in terms of the long-term damage which is there.

SHOREY: And can I ask, what's the experience going to be like today in Cairns? Are you going to take the opportunity to meet with community groups, with industry leaders? What's your plan today?

ALBANESE: We'll be looking at social housing. And we'll be looking, as well, at our New Apprenticeships program. The New Apprenticeships program for new energy is looking at how we actually create jobs of the future connected with new energy. We've had a veto by Keith Pitt with the NAIF program for a wind energy project that was supported by the NAIF board. It's extraordinary that this Government is prepared to set up an independent board and then intervene to veto it. And today also, of course, we'll be announcing Elida Faith as Labor's candidates for Leichhardt. Elida had a crack last time. It's always good to have a second go. Because what happens is, of course, you have name recognition and you've got out and about. Elida is really connected with the community. And I'll be very pleased to be in Cairns today announcing her as Labor's candidate.

SHOREY: And can I ask then, is there the idea of this particular seat being one that you feel you could take back?

ALBANESE: Absolutely. If you look at a community that's been left behind by this Government, you think Far North Queensland. It really has been, in terms of the time when the Government has been complacent, even the rollout of the vaccine and the need for quarantine facilities, which the Government has bungled both of those jobs. They're essential for opening Australia up again. And opening Australia up again is essential for reviving the tourism sector and for Far North Queensland's economy. And yet what we have is a Prime Minister who says there's no rush in people getting vaccinated. It doesn't make sense. It's the two jobs they had to get right this year. They simply haven't. 

SHOREY: Can I ask finally, Mr Albanese, is Labor ready for Government at the next election?

ALBANESE: We are absolutely ready. We have announced four Queensland candidates in four days. I was in Brisbane on Friday, Rocky on Saturday, back in Brisbane on Sunday, in Cairns today, because we are ready to go. I think that Australia needs a new Government. This Government's been in place for eight long years. And one of the things I say to people is, 'Can you think of one big legacy project like what Labor put in place?' We weren't perfect, but we had paid parental leave. We had the apology to the Stolen Generations. We had the National Broadband Network with fibre to the home. We had action on climate change. We had the renewable energy target at 20 per cent by 2020. We put in place significant reform measures. This Government have been occupying the space. They won't get better if they get another three terms. What we'll get is just more of the same and more focus on themselves rather than focusing on the needs of the Australian people and building a future. Building back better is what we need to do because the pandemic has exposed some of the weaknesses in our economy.

SHOREY: Anthony Albanese, thank you for your time. We look forward to seeing you up here in Cairns today. Go get your plane.

ALBANESE: Thanks very much, Kier.

ENDS