SUBJECTS: ALP Special Platform Conference; Labor’s National Reconstruction Fund; Electric Car Discount; foreign affairs; climate change; vaccine rollout; Labor’s policy agenda.

FRAN KELLY, HOST: Opposition Leader Anthony Albanese has declared Labor is ready to govern. He is saying the country needs 'a seismic cultural shift following the Morrison Government's multiple scandals' over sexual assault allegations and the treatment of women generally. Labor has used its national conference to unveil their new slogan. It's 'On your side', with a big pitch to the aspirations of Australian families as the country emerges from the economic downturn caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. Today, the ALP conference will focus on the environment with a $400 million plan to make electric cars and solar power more affordable. At the same time, the Prime Minister is announcing a plan of his own, a $1 billion plan to build guided missiles for the Defence Force, which he says will be essential to keeping Australians safe in a changing global environment. Anthony Albanese, welcome back to Breakfast.

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

KELLY: You said yesterday that the next election will be a contest between a tired old Government that's been in power eight long years or a Labor Government that will be on your side, no community forgotten, no worker left behind. Is this an 'It's time' pitch or something else?

ALBANESE: Well, it's a good description of where politics is in 2021. Scott Morrison used to say, 'Which side are you on?' I think Australians know he's on his own side, everything's about political management. And what we need is a Government that actually looks to the recovery and seeks to build back stronger, seeks to build on the strengths that Australian society has shown in people looking after each other during the crisis, but also attempts to deal with the weaknesses in our economy, the lack of resilience that is there, the fact that many people have been left behind during the pandemic and that we need to build back stronger and to build a more resilient and inclusive society.

KELLY: Okay. But where's your plan for that? I mean we still haven't seen too many major policies from Labor. Why would voters be looking to you rather than trusting the Prime Minister who continues to be preferred PM by a very long shot in the polls because of the treatment of the pandemic largely?

ALBANESE: Well, the fact is that this week we've rolled out significant policies, not just the electric car and the community batteries policies today, but just yesterday my $15 billion plan to support the private sector in superannuation, to build more resilient existing industries, but also to look at where the new jobs will be in the future, how we take advantage of the natural advantages we have, for example, in the resources sector. Not just mine new minerals like nickel and lithium that go into batteries, but actually build things here, create jobs here. That's my focus. It is on jobs, lifting living standards, making sure that we're an inclusive society. And we have adopted, over the last two days, comprehensive plans across the economic, social and environmental policy frameworks.

KELLY: I'll come back to some of your policies. But has the Prime Minister stolen your thunder in terms of creating new industries and creating new jobs with this $1 billion announcement to build a new weapons facility to manufacture ground-launched and air-to-air missiles?

ALBANESE: Well, that's not a new announcement, Fran. You probably spoke about it this time last year when he was announcing it at that time. We've had these defence announcements now on multiple occasions. 

KELLY: Well, it might be a reannouncement but nevertheless a new industry that he's proposing, isn't it?

ALBANESE: No. That was part of the announcement that was made during the Eden-Monaro by-election a year ago.

KELLY: Nevertheless, he's proposing a new manufacturing project here. Do you support it?

ALBANESE: One of the things that we've identified is defence industries, making sure, though, that we maximise Australian procurement. We have a $90 billion subs plan that the Government's struggling to actually create and maximise Australian jobs and Australian content as part of that plan. And we've raised the issue that in the deals that have been done, the Australian Government has failed to include things in the contracts to make sure that we maximise the benefit to Australia from those proposals.

KELLY: Let's go to what you're announcing today, the electric vehicle policy, that Labor would cut the import tariff on electric vehicles priced below $77,000, will exempt them from Fringe Benefits Tax, which is worth quite a few thousand dollars. The Government successfully demonised your electric vehicle policy at the last election. I'm sure you remember that they called it a war on the weekend. Now it's due to release its own EV policy mid-year, I think. Have attitudes changed a lot since the last election? Is that no longer fodder for a scare campaign? Has it got to be more than just cutting taxes? Does there need to be a whole infrastructure project piece of work around this?

We seem to have a problem with Anthony Albanese. I'm not sure what's happened. It has gone completely dead from where I'm listening. We might go to a promo and see if we can find out what's happened. I'll be back with you shortly.

(BREAK)

Anthony Albanese, Are you there?

ALBANESE: I am indeed. That was unusually polite from Phil Coorey.

KELLY: We were in the midst of talking about the electric vehicle policy that you've rolled out. Australia lags the world when it comes to take up of EVs. There are only 20,000 on the road. The last time you set a specific target, 50 per cent of new car sales by 2030. That's not there now. I think it is probably too ambitious from where we stand at the moment. How many more electric cars does Labor estimate would be on the road as a result of your policy? 

ALBANESE: Well, what we're not doing is setting a target, Fran. We've seen that movie and we know that results in a scare campaign. What we're doing is saying that we will make electric vehicles cheaper because we know that this is the future. And what we saw was a rather pathetic scare campaign against the future by the Coalition at the last election, like their campaign against action on climate change, against anything that makes sense in terms of where the economy's going and where transport is going. There's not an auto manufacturer in the world that's currently investing in internal combustion engines. It's all about electric vehicles and new forms of cleaner transportation.

KELLY: Would Labor's $15 billion fund, would you like to see it underwrite some kind of electric vehicle production in Australia? 

ALBANESE: Well, that's one of the things, certainly, that could be done. We produce everything that goes into an electric vehicle, be it the increased copper use, be it lithium and nickel in the batteries. There's no reason why we can't be producing, at the very least, components here, and potentially being opened to producing electric vehicles here. We need to be a country that makes things, that creates jobs, that's more resilient as a national economy. And the pandemic has shown some of the weaknesses which are there.

KELLY: Electric vehicles are not the only thing, as you mentioned, there's not a target from Labor. There's still no commitment from Labor to a medium-term emissions reduction target. Your platform does make a pledge to adopt the latest scientific advice. That is for a 50 per cent cut by 2030 if global warming is to be limited to below two degrees. Is that the medium-term target Labor will take to the election?

ALBANESE: No. What we will take is net zero emissions by 2050. And as I've always said, there'll be events including the International Summit being convened by Joe Biden next month, including, of course, the Glasgow Summit. Now, that will reset the international regime going forward. And it makes no sense for us to set down aims and targets before those conferences have taken place. 

KELLY: Okay. But those conferences will have happened before the next election, almost certainly. So Labor is likely to have a medium-term target at the next election?

ALBANESE: Well, we will certainly have a policy that's consistent with net zero emissions by 2050. And what we're doing in the meantime is rolling out practical examples of how we move towards a cleaner economy, creating jobs at the same time as protecting our environment, and lowering energy prices for consumers. Good action on climate change is good for jobs and it's good for consumers. 

KELLY: Just on foreign policy at the national conference, it passed six resolutions denouncing China's approach to Taiwan and Hong Kong, strongly condemning its violations against the Uyghurs as not the actions of a global responsible power. Those resolutions were not included in the Party platform. Why not, if Labor feels that strongly about Chinese territorial aggression and human rights abuses? Why not in the platform? 

ALBANESE: Well, it has exactly the same status, traditionally, foreign affairs.

KELLY: Why keep it out of the platform?

ALBANESE: Well, no-one did, Fran. Traditionally, that's what happens. They are in the form of resolutions that have moved on the floor. And yesterday, I think you'll find that there are resolutions passed about just about every part of the world that traditionally is the form that it's taken. It is exactly the same status as our platform. 

KELLY: Labor has amended the platform on Palestine to maintain support for a two-state solution in the Middle East, but to also call on the next Labor Government to recognise Palestine as a state. Will you be bound by that platform if you win the next election? 

ALBANESE: Well, it's exactly the same platform that we took to the last election. 

KELLY: To recognise Palestine as a state?

ALBANESE: Correct. There's not a word that has changed. 

KELLY: So will Labor still pledge that it's a true friend of Israel?

ALBANESE: Yes, because Labor supports a two-state solution. And it is in the interest of both Israelis and Palestinians to have security in terms of its borders and to have a two-state solution. And Labor has long been a friend of Israel. But we've also recognised that the dispossession of Palestinians can't continue into the future and that there's a common interest there and the international community has to play a role in a peaceful resolution of the Middle East conflict. 

KELLY: And just finally on vaccines, we were talking to Phil Coorey about the vaccination rollout, the pressure on the state governments, the state Labor Government in Queensland, because health workers, obviously, have been allowed to work on wards where COVID patients are present without being vaccinated. As of yesterday, we've got more than 600,000 doses administered of the vaccine across Australia. That is well down on the original promise of four million doses by the end of March. But there have been international supply disruptions. There are also the floods which have interrupted the rollout in New South Wales. Do you accept that the Government has things back on track now?

ALBANESE: No, I do not, Fran. They had a target of four million. They said that target wasn't dependent upon anything else, that they would certainly reach the target. 

KELLY: Well, we did not get the international supply we were expecting. 

ALBANESE: And if you go back and have a look at Scott Morrison and what he had to say in January of this year, he said that it would be reached, that it wasn't dependent upon those issues. He was very confident. And then the rhetoric changed halfway through March whereby we were no longer in a hurry to achieve a rollout of the vaccine. This isn't my target, Fran. This is the Prime Minister's own target. And yet again, an example of how Scott Morrison is always strong on announcement and always weak on delivery. 

KELLY: Anthony Albanese, thank you very much for joining us.

ALBANESE: Thanks very much, Fran.

ENDS