SUBJECTS: Government’s Cabinet reshuffle; workplace culture at Parliament House; women in politics; ALP Special Platform Conference; Labor’s National Reconstruction Fund; Labor’s policy agenda.

SABRA LANE, HOST: The Government's promotion of women comes as Labor holds its national conference from today with the Party deciding on its policies as we head towards the next Federal election. The Opposition Leader is Anthony Albanese. Anthony Albanese, good morning and welcome to AM.

ANTHONY ALBANESE, LEADER OF THE AUSTRALIAN LABOR PARTY: Good morning, Sabra.

LANE: Given the focus from both the major parties now, will women decide the next Federal election?

ALBANESE: Well, women will certainly be important as they always have been. And one of the issues will be who has a plan to make sure that women aren't left behind and that women aren't held back. And Labor has that plan. We've been rolling it out during my leadership. The centrepiece of our Budget Reply last year was about women's workforce participation by boosting childcare, helping 97 per cent of families, making sure we remove the disincentive that's there for women to work a fourth or fifth day.

LANE: The Government now has a huge focus on women and equity with several women elevated to Cabinet and the new subcommittee of Cabinet focused on this. This shows the Government's listening, doesn't it?

ALBANESE: Well, it shows that the Government is looking at some of the responses that they've got due to their failure in the last Budget to have any policies aimed at assisting women. And that since then the debacle that we've seen with the Government unravelling before our eyes. But shuffling the deck won't change the bad deal that Australians, including women, are receiving from this Government at the moment.

LANE: Kate Ellis, the former Federal Labor Minister, told Australian Story last night that horrid rumours about her could only have come from within inside Labor, and that the rumours were weaponised against her. Will you tolerate that kind of behaviour?

ALBANESE: No, I won't. One of the things that Kate has said also is that the difference from when she came into Parliament and 10 years later was a substantial cultural shift due to the changing composition of the Labor Caucus, which is now on the verge of hitting 50 per cent. And after the next election, we'll have parity of representation between men and women across the caucus as we do now across my Shadow Cabinet.

LANE: But Labor's factional bosses, the bosses here, are all men. They decide which MPs become ministers or shadow ministers. 

ALBANESE: Well, that is just not right, Sabra. That's just not right.

LANE: You are saying that the bosses aren't all men, factional bosses?

ALBANESE: That's right. 

LANE: Well, some women have told me that they feel that they aren't listened to in these factional meetings, that men run it, and it's an old-fashioned way of politics.

ALBANESE: Well, Sharon Claydon's one of the conveners of the left faction. And the Shadow Cabinet is 12 men and 12 women.

LANE: Today the Labor Party national conference will be held. It happens every three years and it marks a change for Labor with more policies being released from now with an eye to the election. Today you're revealing a Labor Government would set up a $15 billion National Reconstruction Fund to facilitate the manufacturing of local products like cars and ships. Why do you think this will be a big vote winner?

ALBANESE: Well, because we need to have a plan for a future made in Australia. The pandemic has identified some of the strengths in society of Australians looking after each other, but also some of our weaknesses, the fact that we aren't resilient enough, the fact that we're susceptible to shocks such as a pandemic. We need to be self-sufficient. And we need to develop our manufacturing plan. We need to develop our jobs and diversify Australia's industrial base and basically develop our national sovereign capability. And we will do that through this fund that will look at areas including health and research, the medical area, including agriculture, including manufacturing of transport, including transitioning existing industries to net zero emissions. This is a practical plan that will work with the private sector, including superannuation, to drive jobs and growth.

LANE: The last conference endorsed changes to negative gearing and capital gains tax to help make housing affordable. They're absent from this policy platform. Does that mean that those ideas are dead and buried if you win the next election?

ALBANESE: Well, what it means is that we lost the last election. And what we're doing is developing a new platform for a new agenda for a new Labor Government, which we hope to be able to form after the next election.

LANE: Again, does it mean those ideas are dead and buried?

ALBANESE: Well, we have already said, for example, that we won't have any changes to the franking credits regime which is there. We've already said, as well, that we'll examine the Budget, the fiscal position, and we'll announce a comprehensive plan for any changes that we intend to make to the tax system well before the next election. 

LANE: So it's still possible that you might have changes regarding capital gains tax and negative gearing?

ALBANESE: Well, we'll announce all of our policies well before the next election. But we'll announce them positively. We don't have plans until we announce them. And they'll be done well before the next election. We want to concentrate on how we create jobs, on how we grow the economy, on how we share equity and fairness and move to a more equal society. This is the Labor Party at our best, gathering this time virtually due to the circumstances which we have beyond our control, but one in which members, unions, have all participated over a long period of time in developing a modern platform for the Labor Party.

LANE: Mr Albanese, thanks for talking to AM.

ALBANESE: Thanks very much.

ENDS