SUBJECTS: Visit to ALPA; Labor’s $200 million Northern Territory Strategic Roads Package announcement; infrastructure to remote communities; national security; Ukraine; Australia’s relationship with China; Federal election; Labor’s policy agenda; health funding.
 
MARION SCRYMGOUR, LABOR CANDIDATE FOR LINGIARI: Good morning. Thank you all for coming today. We're in a fantastic environment in terms of ALPA. ALPA plays a critical role, particularly out in our remote communities. Their footprint is really important in terms of enterprise, jobs, which is, for Aboriginal people, is really important in some of those communities. It is fantastic to be here with the Leader of the Australian Labor Party, Anthony Albanese, to have a look at not just ALPA's retail operations and what they do across the Northern Territory, but also Queensland and down into Central Australia. We've just finished looking at the furniture enterprise and what the potential is with the furniture-making business. Labor is committed to looking at infrastructure across our breadth of the Northern Territory. But look, without making any formal announcements, I think I should leave that to the Leader. So, it gives me great pleasure to introduce the Leader of the Australian Labor Party, Anthony Albanese.
 
ANTHONY ALBANESE, LEADER OF THE AUSTRALIAN LABOR PARTY: Well, thanks very much, Marion. And it's fantastic to have someone who's a former Deputy Chief Minister of the Northern Territory as our candidate for Lingiari. And today, we're joined by the retiring member for Lingiari, Warren Snowdon, but also Luke Gosling and Malarndirri McCarthy. And I want to thank ALPA for the welcome here today. And thank them for the extraordinary work that they're doing across the spectrum of activity. They're producing this world-class furniture. Furniture that could only be made here in remote communities. Furniture that reflects First Nations culture. Furniture that is a national asset, as well as being wanted in the boardrooms of Australia. And indeed, in future, I'm sure, more and more around the world. They also are providing extraordinary services in communities. This is a food card that they develop themselves from the bottom up, this food card, so that communities could, themselves, decide what fresh food they wanted to buy in communities. This is what empowerment looks like, not Government imposing things from Canberra, communities making decisions about their own future, about a healthy lifestyle. This organisation provides apprenticeships, it provides training, it provides jobs, it provides economic activity for First Nations people. And I'm just so pleased to be here today to just congratulate ALPA on the work that they're doing, particularly in remote communities in the bush. But in order to be successful, they need to get products to the bush and their creations from the bush. And to do that, you need infrastructure.
 
This morning when we drove here, I drove along Tiger Brennan Drive. I'm very proud that, as Infrastructure Minister, I funded the two stages of the upgrade of Tiger Brennan Drive, something that was campaigned for very strongly by the local NT Labor members here, and something that we did in partnership with the NT Government. It is road infrastructure that makes a difference. But the truth is that road infrastructure isn't good enough in remote communities. You are 11 times more likely to have a fatality on a remote community road as you do in a capital city. And what that means is that we need, for the reasons of road safety, keeping people safe, to upgrade these roads. But it also means that for economic activity to occur, to be facilitated, you need to upgrade these roads as well.
 
And that's why this announcement today of a $200 million Northern Territory Strategic Roads Package is so important. It's about safety. But it's also about economic activity. It's about employment. It's about making sure, particularly during the wet season, that you can continue to have this activity. We've looked already at a range of projects - Santa Teresa Road, Mereenie Loop Road, all weather access to Maningrida and other places, Milingimbi Mainland Barge Ramp. A range of early priorities have been identified. But we'll work through, as well, a plan with the NT Government, with local communities, to make sure that we deliver bang for the buck here when it comes to this $200 million announcement. It will make a big difference, particularly in Marion's future electorate of Lingiari. It's something that I was very proud to be able to make substantial contributions to when I was the Transport Minister. But today's announcement is about what a future Labor Government will do for these remote communities, particularly making a difference for jobs, making a difference for economic activity and making a difference to road safety.
 
JOURNALIST: Why when you were the Infrastructure Minister did you prioritise the funding of Tiger Brennan Drive in Darwin where the roads are already fine over things like roads(inaudible) where you can't get to those places during the wet season?
 
ALBANESE: We did both. We had substantial road projects in remote communities when I was the Minister. And we delivered Tiger Brennan Drive as well. Tiger Brennan Drive is the most important road in the Top End in terms of connecting Darwin and Palmerston. And it's made an enormous difference to productivity. It was identified, as well, as one of the priorities. And I'm proud that we did that. But we need to do both. We need to make sure that we continue to do both. We had a range of projects, the Beef Roads Program, we had a range of projects in remote and regional communities. This $200 million won't fix every road in the Northern Territory. It is a big place. There's a lot of investment required. But what it will enable to happen is to make a very real difference.
 
JOURNALIST: You are fully committed to sealing the Mereenie Loop now. Can you put a date on when that will be sealed by?
 
ALBANESE: We can't put a date on it.
 
JOURNALIST: Why not? You put a date on Tiger Brennan.
 
ALBANESE: Because we have to sit down with the NT Government and work these issues through. We are providing the $200 million. It will be available in our first Budget. We'll sit down with the Northern Territory Government and work out a process for good infrastructure development. What you do is you roll it out so that you maximise the output. But you also minimise the cost by having a rolling program. That's what good infrastructure programs do. That's why we've identified the $200 million as a Federal contribution, which is a substantial contribution that we'll put in our first Budget.
 
JOURNALIST: How should Australia respond to a Chinese warship shining a laser at an Australian plane? And how would you characterise that act?
 
ALBANESE: Well, it's an outrageous act of aggression that should be condemned. And I condemn it. And I'm sure that the Australian Government should be making the strongest possible statement about what is a reckless act.
 
JOURNALIST: How would you describe Xi Jinping's China? And do you think it's a threat?
 
ALBANESE: Xi Jinping's China has changed substantially since 2013. Of course, the Coalition Government welcomed Xi Jinping to Parliament House. And at the time, there was effusive praise for him given by the Government of the time. The truth is that China has changed its position.
 
JOURNALIST: What do you mean by that when you say China's position has changed?
 
ALBANESE: China is engaged in more aggressive activity, of which we've seen this latest report as being just an example. China has changed his position with regard to Hong Kong. They tore up, effectively, the agreements that were put in place there. China is more engaged in the region. It's changed its posture. And Australia has needed to respond to that.
 
JOURNALIST: How would you fix our relationship with China or do you think it is not repairable?
 
ALBANESE: Look, I have not been critical. I've said that it is China that has changed and China's responsible. And whoever is in government will face the difficult task ahead in dealing with China. One of the things that we have to recognise is that the Biden administration says that we need to recognise that there's competition without catastrophe needs to be the objective. That is something that we would work with the Biden administration on if we were successful, just as a current Government will.
 
JOURNALIST: Should we be sending military equipment to Ukraine as several other nations are, including the Netherlands?
 
ALBANESE: Well, my understanding is that there are no requests at this stage. What we should be doing is making Australia's position very clear that we respect Ukrainian sovereignty. We expect Russia to back off. There is no place for the intimidation and threats that we've seen from Russia against a sovereign government, which should be respected, the Government of Ukraine. And that was something that I indicated to the Federation of Ukrainian Organisations when I met with them in Melbourne nine days ago.
 
JOURNALIST: Paul Keating says that China is not a threat. Do you agree that it's not a threat?
 
ALBANESE: I have a different position from Paul Keating on China. I've said that on a range of occasions. I speak for the Australian Labor Party.
 
JOURNALIST: Will you be taking advice from Paul Keating?
 
ALBANESE: I take advice from my Caucus. And we'll continue to work through the issues. Paul Keating is a great Australian. But on this, we have a difference between Labor's position and Paul Keating's position. And I've said that before.
 
JOURNALIST: Just on the matter of China, you just talked about how you are not happy with the process in Hong Kong. But you've also seemingly said that it's really on China's change. Is that a bit of an acknowledgment that Australia can't really do anything to bring Chinese to the table in terms of changing its behaviour?
 
ALBANESE: Well, China has changed its ideology under Xi, and its engagement in international forums. What Australia needs to do, though, is to continue to stand up for Australian values. And that's something that we've done. It's important, in order to do that, that there not be false distinctions raised which undermine Australia's unity, which doesn't serve the national interest or our purpose. It's very clear that's the case. So, when China put forward, through Channel Nine newspapers I think, its list of changes that it wanted to see, that was rejected by all sides of politics. And we continue to have a common position about the South China Sea, about the treatment of Uyghurs, about Hong Kong, about Taiwan, about engagement in the region.
 
JOURNALIST: Bob Carr has said that Australia is overreacting over China. Do you agree with him?
 
ALBANESE: I agree with my statements. I agree with my statements about positions. It's not up to me to respond to every former leader of every party which is there.
 
JOURNALIST: Do you think Australia is overreacting about the threat China?
 
ALBANESE: No, I believe that our response has been appropriate, considered and measured. Australia has been subject to sanctions by China. They weren't initiated by Australia. They were initiated by China. And they should be removed.
 
JOURNALIST: There are fears Russia could withhold gas from other parts of Europe with the situation going on in Ukraine. Does that speed up the need for us to develop the Beetaloo Basin in the Northern Territory?
 
ALBANESE: Well, in terms of the timeframe, it doesn't quite fit. You can't speed up the process for dealing with an immediate concern which is there. We've been supportive of the Beetaloo Basin Exploration on the basis of looking at, of course, environmental approvals which need to be considered there, as well as the traditional owners. What we need to do with regard to gas and Russia, potentially, it does open up some additional case that Australia might be able to fill some of that gap. That is something that I met with APPEA while I've been here. Of course, we are major gas producers. And any fall in the market as a result of Russian action, we will be one of the countries, I suspect, that people are looking for to fill that void, they will look towards Australia.
 
JOURNALIST: On health funding, Mr Albanese, the premiers are calling for up to $20 billion extra. If you won office, would you scrap the 6.5 per cent growth cap on health funding?
 
ALBANESE: We will make our health announcements at an appropriate time. And today is not the time for that. What we know is that there's enormous pressure on the health system. Labor's position has always been very clear. We regard Medicare as being the centre of our health system. We regard the need to work cooperatively with states and territories to deliver health services. Labor is a party that will always be better on health and education than the Coalition. It's what we've always been. The Government will, from time to time, undermine it. There's a bunch of people in the Coalition that don't really support Medicare at all, and believe in a 'survival of the fittest' sort of position. And that's a position that, from time to time, they put forward. But we would sit down with the states and territories and work through these issues. Because quite clearly, the gaps that are there, including elective surgery and for a range of procedures that have been caused as a result of COVID and the pressure on the healthcare system, are causing real problems for real people in the real world, right now.
 
JOURNALIST: In terms of roads, you've said you commit to allocating that 200 million out of your first Budget. How much of that money will be actually implemented into those infrastructure projects within those first three years? And how much is pushed off into, you know, eight, nine or ten years?
 
ALBANESE: One of the things that we haven't done when we've made announcements is not have things off on the never-never. I think people are very frustrated at this Government and the gap that's there between announcement and delivery. We see it so often. A big announcement and then nothing happens from this Government. And indeed, in the last Budget, they cut infrastructure investment over the forward estimates by more than $4 billion.
 
JOURNALIST: But just in regard to this project you're announcing, when are we going to see money rolling in and what years are we going to see it rolling in?
 
ALBANESE: Well, you'll see all of our costings out there. But it'll be in our first Budget. I can't be clearer than that. And we want to sit down and work with the NT Government on a timetable for rolling out these projects. There's not a Federal public works department. So, these, by definition, are worked through with state governments to roll out these projects. It will make a substantive difference. Thanks very much.
 
ENDS