SUBJECTS: Cheaper child care, visit to WA, redistributions in WA, sexual assault allegations. 
 

MATT KEOGH: Good morning everybody. It’s great to be here today with Labor Leader Anthony Albanese at the Goodstart Canning Vale, Batman Road. I want to thank Kenneth and his team and all the kids for having us here today. They have been wonderful in sharing their space with us. And we’re here because child care is so very important and unfortunately we’ve seen, nationally, child care costs go up by four per cent. But here in my community and the electorate of Burt, it’s gone up by over six per cent in the last year. So this isn’t about child care centres' fees going up. It’s about a Government that’s not supporting Australian working families by making child care more accessible and making those costs lower for those families. Labor is on the side of working families of Australia because we know how important it is to make child care more accessible so that children can get access to early childhood education at the most crucial developmental years of their life. So that parents can get back into the workforce so they can further their careers and better look after their own families. And frankly, the inability to get into child care is a handbrake on our economy when we need to see economic growth at its highest right now. And that’s why it is important. It’s important for families but it’s also important for small business owners and this is often forgotten. The Government’s own small business ombudsman has said that we need to improve access to child care to support small businesses. Over one third of small businesses are owned and operated by women and they’re inhibited by being able to get back in to their businesses because of the high cost of child care that stops them. That stops so many parents being able to get back to work, get back to their own business on day four or day five. And small business, let’s face it, has done it pretty tough already over the course of this last year. And in 23 days' time, it’s going to be even harder for tens of thousands of them because JobKeeper is going to be removed by this Government. And this Government has given them no certainty about what is going to follow after the 28th of March. Will there be any financial support? Not for just for those tens of thousands of businesses but for the 1.1 million Australians that are working for those businesses and relying on JobKeeper. Just today we’ve seen reports that over 250,000 people could lose their work because of JobKeeper coming to an end.
 
So what’s really important to see here, is of course Labor is on the side of working families, it’s on the side of those small business owners. We’re calling on the Government to make sure that it provides targeted support after the end of March, after the end of JobKeeper, but also on the side of working families supporting them get access to childcare. Seeing the subsidy rate increase, removing the caps, increasing the availability of child care to more and more families so that 97 per cent of Australian families can get access to childcare, to early learning for those kids, so that they get that opportunity for early education during the most developmental years of their lives. And with that, as I said, it’s so great to have Anthony Albanese, our Labor Leader, here in Western Australia, here in the great electorate of Burt, here at our Goodstart in Canning Vale. Over to you, Albo.
 

ALBANESE: Well thanks very much Matt, and it is indeed great to be here at Goodstart Early Learning Centre here in Canning Vale. I want to thank the educators for welcoming us here today and I want to thank the children as well for their very warm welcome and their generous Happy Birthday wishes for my birthday held this week. Look, this is an important economic reform. What we know is that every single dollar invested into early learning will produce at least $2 of dividend. What we know is that 90 per cent of human brain development occurs in the first five years. And that’s why this isn’t child minding. This is early learning. This will play a role in the success of this young generation that we see behind me here this morning. But it’s also about economic reform. It’s about productivity boosting, it’s about women’s participation in the workforce. Quite frankly, it’s not good enough that for so many working women, if they work a fourth or a fifth day in a working week, they actually don’t get paid for it in real terms. All that goes into child care costs. And what we need to do, if we’re going to truly boost our economy and come out of this recession stronger, is we need to boost women’s workforce participation, we need to boost productivity, we need to assist businesses, while at the same time providing early learning for our youngest Australians. So I have a very simple message for the working families here in Western Australia, which is Labor is on your side. Labor’s on your side when it comes to reducing the cost of child care and what we will do is to remove the cap on the subsidy. Secondly we will lift that subsidy up to 90 per cent and it will taper off to a much higher rate. And, in our first term, we will have a review looking at moving towards universal provision of affordable child care across the board after that proper economic analysis is made. We regard this as a fundamental economic reform. The fact is that the system isn’t working for working families at the moment. The fact that costs will increase this year by at least four or five times the rise in wages reinforces that Australia now starts off with one of the least affordable early learning systems in the world. And it’s getting worse, not better. And it’s getting worse not better under a system that was designed by Scott Morrison. Women were forgotten in the Budget of 2020 by this Government. They can’t afford to be left behind because leaving them behind leaves the entire country behind. And that’s why this is a critical reform.
 
Can I say also that it is particularly good to be in Western Australia on the 5th March. This of course I remember well, the election of the Hawke Government on 5 March 1983. And Bob Hawke, of course, is regarded, few States have claims on Bob Hawke, but of course he is regarded as a proud West Australian and was really connected with this great State. And I want to make Labor stronger in this State as well. I want a far bigger contingent to our National Parliament from the west. And this is my first visit here this due to the restrictions that were there, but I look forward to coming back again and again and again in the lead up to the election whenever it’s held.
 
Happy to take questions.
 

JOURNALIST: (inaudible)
 

ANTHONY ALBANESE, LEADER OF THE AUSTRALIAN LABOR PARTY: Well redistributions happen and there will be a seat lost in WA. But we have a quality team here in Western Australia. And whether it’s Anne Aly or whether it be Patrick and Matt, our entire team are quality. I was with Matty yesterday and Josh yesterday evening. What we need, we have quality, and what we need is to match that quality with quantity and I’m sure that we will be able to do that. When a redistribution happens it’s like throwing all the cards up in the air and that’s a time when you can get significant change. Because normally what happens is there’ll be publications saying there’s been a seat that been abolished, but those people haven’t been abolished. Redistribution, particularly where there has been a change in the number of seats, means significant change, and that means also significant opportunity. And I and Labor’s team intends to seize it.
 

JOURNALIST: (inaudible)
 

ALBANESE: Look the people won’t go, so those people will still get to vote. The growth in Western Australia of course tends to be along the coastal strip. This is a city that stretches very much north to south. It’s one in which, when I visit Western Australia, I always travel from the airport on Gateway WA, the largest ever road project funded by a Federal Labor Government, 80 per cent funded by the former Labor Government, and I was the Infrastructure Minister. Last night I crossed and had a look at the Perth City Link project, that’s very exciting. Right throughout Western Australia, there are projects that were funded when I was Deputy Prime Minister or Minister for Infrastructure and I have a connection here that I will continue to build on as we go forward.
 

JOURNALIST: Mr Albanese, your reaction to Kate Jenkins appointment?
 

ALBANESE: I welcome Kate Jenkins' appointment. Kate Jenkins is going to have a big job ahead of her. Quite clearly we need significant reforms. We have forwarded our views that it should be very wide terms of reference. It should include changes to the MoPs Act, the Ministerial and Parliamentary Staff Act. It needs to have proper services so that people know where to go to get assistance. It needs to have transparent processes in terms of complaints, including arms length from those in positions of existing power, so that people can have confidence to go forward either on a confidential basis if they wish or on the basis of it not being confidential if that’s appropriate and if the people agree. So this is a big job. It’s important that it be done and that there be confidence in the system.
 

JOURNALIST: (inaudible) time frame of the review and are you confident that it will be fast enough and that action will actually take place?
 

ALBANESE: Well I hope that it is. I haven’t been given the details of the announcement and I think that’s a decision that the Government’s made to not do that. I would have appreciated a heads up prior to the announcement from the Prime Minister. But that’s a decision for him. We will examine the details of the announcement and will respond accordingly.
 

JOURNALIST: Linda Reynolds apologising to Brittany Higgins, is that enough or should the Minister be stood down?
 

ALBANESE: Well it’s clearly not enough. I said yesterday, what do you have to do to lose your job under Scott Morrison’s Government? I find her position untenable and I think that it should be obvious to all, even before this revelation. But I did read the statement that she’s put out. It doesn’t cut the mustard really and the fact that such statement should be made. I think that Brittany Higgins has been incredibly brave. I have said very clearly, and I repeat again, I believe Brittany Higgins. I think that she deserves respect for coming out as she has. I note Grace Tame, the Australian of the Year, her quite extraordinary speech before the National Press Club and that it was her courage that encouraged Brittany Higgins to come forward.
 

JOURNALIST: (inaudible)
 

ALBANESE: Hang on one tick, I’m going to give everyone, including the women also, a fair go, so it’s not the loudest. Yep, you’re it.
 

JOURNALIST: (inaudible)
 

ALBANESE: Well Linda Reynolds should not have the job of Defence Minister today.
 

JOURNALIST: In terms of historical rape claims, should there is an enquiry set up (inaudible)
 

ALBANESE: The circumstances of the current Attorney-General of the Nation are ones of which requires a response. A response that is something other than you should unsee it and unhear it. And the fact that questions will continue to be asked is one the reasons why there should be an inquiry, because the person involved holds the position of Attorney-General and first law officer of the land. He’s a Cabinet Minister and Scott Morrison needs to assure himself, but also the Australian people, that he’s a fit and proper person to hold that role.
 

JOURNALIST: (inaudible) it didn’t probe particularly enough?
 

ALBANESE: Well it didn’t probe at all. Their owns comments are there that they weren’t in a position to proceed with an investigation. There hasn’t been one.
 

JOURNALIST: My question to you is if NSW Police (inaudible)
 

ALBANESE: Well if NSW Police were in a position to do that then certainly, what required, I haven’t tried to be prescriptive here and I certainly haven’t argued this should be a parliamentary inquiry. I, in fact, have explicitly rejected that. The idea that parliamentarians should sit in judgement here would be a very bad idea. What I seek though to do is to address the obvious issue here. It’s an issue which Scott Morrison says isn’t there, that we should just all move on. Quite clearly that will not be the case and there’s lots of precedents and quite frankly for a Government that established a Royal Commission and appointed Dyson Heydon of all people to look at that Royal Commission into things that might or might not have occurred with Julia Gillard a long long time before she was a parliamentarian, for them to speak about how we can’t look back at the past. They set up a Royal Commission into, in part, looking at events relating to Julia Gillard, a relationship that she had long before she was a candidate for Parliament, connected with him being a union official on what might or might not have happened there. And that of course meant that, under this Government, former Prime Ministers have been brought before inquiries to look at past events, including events before they were Members of Parliament, including the former Leader of the Opposition, as well with that inquiry. For them to say that you can’t look at matters in order to assure confidence. They were political inquiries under Dyson Heydon. I’m not arguing for a political process, I’m arguing for an appropriate process consistent with the legal principles which are there, which is people are entitled to the presumption of innocence, but these details need to be examined. And they haven’t been up to this point.
 

JOURNALIST: Some members on your side of the House also need independent inquiry to resolve their wrongdoing, any allegations, any claims from the past.
 

ALBANESE: Well I don’t see any allegations being made against people on my side.
 

JOURNALIST: There are (inaudible)
 

ALBANESE: Well if you are referring to the investigation that was made, that Bill Shorten fully co-operated with, made statements to the police, the person making the allegations made full statements, a number of them as well to the police. All of the people who were potential witnesses or people engaged were dealt with by the police. There was a 10-month thorough investigation there. What has occurred with Christian Porter is that there hasn’t been any investigation. What has occurred is that Scott Morrison has essentially said this can be summed up short to Scott Morrison ‘I’ve heard the words of Christian Porter and his denials but I haven’t even bothered to read the words that were forwarded to me, which are the words of the person making the allegations’. One of the most disturbing things that I’ve found about Christian Porter’s press conference of two days ago was that neither the Prime Minister or Christian Porter have actually read the complaints that were forwarded to the Prime Minister. And that the Prime Minister has a discussion with Christian Porter without them looking at the documents that have been forwarded. I find that quite extraordinary. Just as I find this Government’s lack of accountability and its incapacity to actually deal with issues that are before it. Christian Porter, of course, in the past, in the previous term of Government, refused to give statements to the Australian Federal Police over enquiries. You’ve had Angus Taylor not give statements or be interviewed about issues relating to fraudulent documents before this Government. But most concern of course is the inconsistencies that are there with Brittany Higgins, whereby at least three Ministers, at least four members of the Prime Minister’s staff, media enquiries, other people including people who are Parliament House security, the cleaners in Parliament House who went into the Defence Minister’s office after the reported sexual assault, a range of people knew that something had happened here. And no one, the Prime Minister would have us believe, told him until he read about it on the Monday morning. I think this is a Government that is characterised by a lack of accountability. This is a Government that is being defined by its arrogance. And what we need is a Government that is accountable. Because responsibility, the first stage is accountability, and then responsibility to put in place appropriate mechanisms. I haven’t sought to politicise this issue, I haven’t sought a Parliamentary inquiry or some such. I have given the Prime Minister the space to show leadership. It’s about time he did it. And quite frankly, on the case yesterday with Linda Reynolds, I find his response to her statement of condemning it, contrast that with, the strong action that was taken against Christine Holgate, who spent $20,000 on Cartier watches. I think that was an inappropriate expense of money but I tell you what, that pales into insignificance compared with a range of issues that are out there being discussed of abuse of taxpayer funds and more serious issues, when no one has lost their jobs. Christine Holgate lost hers.
 

JOURNALIST: Mr Albanese on a (inaudible) matter, is the SA Coroner (inaudible)
 

ALBANESE: The South Australian Coroner has not made a decision, one of the issues that I’ve raised is whether the Coroner does appropriate inquiry, including all of the circumstances of this woman’s death. Sometimes the Coroner will look at a very narrow focus of what the circumstances are. In this case, it would look at whether the woman concerned took her own life. That would of course would not look at the full circumstances. One option, of course, for the Coroner and for the SA Police in conjunction with the NSW Police, perhaps, is to look at the full circumstances here. What we need is, I recognise that this is a difficult issue, but this doesn’t just go away. It actually needs a comprehensive response so that, I think that people deserve better in this country. For us to just say, 'Oh well he said, without even looking at the documentation, that it didn’t happen'. Because that will just lead to further questions as we are seeing here today. I would prefer, much prefer, for there to not be an examination of this issue through the media, but through appropriate channels. Thanks very much.
 
ENDS