SUBJECTS: JobSeeker rate; unemployment; social housing; JobMaker; climate change; COVID-19 vaccine rollout.
 

JOANNE SHOEBRIDGE, HOST: Anthony Albanese, Opposition Leader, good morning and welcome to ABC North Coast.
 

ANTHONY ALBANESE, LEADER OF THE AUSTRALIAN LABOR PARTY: Good morning, Jo. Good to talk to you again.
 

SHOEBRIDGE: So there is a whole raft support measures that are winding up shortly. Can we start with the rate of JobSeeker? The coronavirus supplement of $150 a fortnight has been wound back for job seekers. That will be replaced by a $25 a week increase on the old Newstart. Is that sufficient?
 

ALBANESE: Well, people will still do it tough. But this is an increase, which is good. The Government had resisted any increase at all for a long period of time and we said that certainly $40 a day wasn’t enough to live on. This will mean that people get a little bit more money, but they will still be doing it tough. Our concern also is very much with some of the measures that seemed to be attached to this. This idea of dobbing in someone who won't take your job really is aimed at rhetoric rather than substance. We know that there are eight job seekers for every job that is advertised out there.
 

SHOEBRIDGE: We are shortly going to see, I guess, a vacancy of low paid jobs in areas where there have been extreme house rises and where homeless people are being pushed out of the market. That doesn't mean it's going to be affordable for people to necessarily move to those areas.
 

ALBANESE: Well, that's why we need a comprehensive strategy to deal with poverty and to deal with unemployment as we come out of what's been a very difficult period. I have been very disappointed, for example, that the Government has failed to put a single dollar into social housing. Not one. And this was an opportunity whereby the Government could have been creating jobs, as we called for in the Budget Reply last year, while creating a circumstance whereby people could live with more comfort and with more dignity.
 

SHOEBRIDGE: How do you address all of these issues in a comprehensive manner given that there is so much politicking around? Can this be done without the politicking by any government of any persuasion?
 

ALBANESE: Well, that, of course, is a challenge. But what we know is if we listen to the experts, we need a response that requires, firstly, secure housing. You need to put in place services such as healthcare and other support. You also need appropriate skills training. At the same time that we've had a real need for people to get into work, we, of course, over a long period of time, have had skill shortages for too long. Australia has solved those issues by short-term measures such as importing labour. And that is a circumstance that we need to change. We need to identify where the jobs of the future will be, make sure that Australians are given the skills and training so they can fill those jobs.
 

SHOEBRIDGE: There is something like a 300,000 shortfall in the number of social housing properties needed in Australia. That was a figure that was quoted to me some weeks ago by one of the welfare agencies. It's going to take years, if not decades, to fix that, isn't it? Even if there is a willingness?
 

ALBANESE: You've got to start, that's the point. And I know the difference that it can make to someone's life. I grew up with a single mum in what was city council housing that then got converted into New South Wales Department of Housing. That security of knowing that my mum, who was an invalid pensioner, she was crippled up with rheumatoid arthritis, and myself, knew where we were going to be living in a day, in a week, in a month, in a year. That security provided me with the opportunity to do what my mum sought for me and parents all want for the kids, a better life. And it made a huge difference. I just think it is astonishing, frankly, that the Government hasn't taken the opportunity, in spite of running up a trillion dollars of debt, to build a single housing dwelling or put two bricks together. It is real neglect. And I think it comes out of a stigma almost that some in the Government feel about public housing. But it was certainly a part of post-war construction under Ben Chifley. You had the Commonwealth State Housing Agreement and you had major construction built. Because at the same time, you are creating jobs if you're putting investment into social housing.
 

SHOEBRIDGE: A few days ago, the ABC ran a story. JobMaker could pay bosses to cut wages and jobs. Is too much power being put in the hands of employers?
 

ALBANESE: Well, the problem with this scheme is that the Treasury documents actually had attached to it, that were obtained by the ABC, a colour-coded spreadsheet that illustrated how an employer could sack an experienced full-time worker earning $75,000 and replace them with three part-time staff on wages starting at $27,500 but gain an extra 22 hours of labour a week. So what we have here is a structure that isn't an incentive to hire workers, it's an incentive to fire workers, particularly those aged over 35. And one of the problems I know from people who I grew up with and mates is that if you lose your job and you're in your 40s or 50s, it can be really difficult to get back into the labour market. And with the exclusion of those aged over 35 from the hiring credit, these workers have just been left out and left behind by the Government.
 

SHOEBRIDGE: Climate policy has been a bit of an Achilles heel for Labor Governments or Labor oppositions for some years. It's been divisive for a good 20 years now. Given that your ambitious plans for climate targets didn't seem to resonate at the last election, will you still be putting together a comprehensive climate plan and is that what people can expect you to be campaigning on leading into the next election?
 

ALBANESE: Any Government that I lead will be strong in taking action on climate change. It is an enormous challenge for us. There aren't easy answers. But the good news is that good action on climate change will not only create jobs, it will reduce power prices and reduce emissions. We could be a renewable energy superpower for the world. What Saudi Arabia has been for the oil sector, Australia could be for renewables. We have to take up the opportunity that's there to take advantage of the fact that, as an island continent, we have the sources of sun and wind unlike any other country on earth. And that presents an enormous opportunity for us as well as, of course, the rare earths and other minerals which will increasingly be in demand for things like electric vehicles. We have everything that can go into a battery. We have copper, which is a major component of an electric vehicle. So we need to see this as a huge economic opportunity as well as fixing our environment and playing a constructive role in what the world needs to do, which is to act on climate change.
 

SHOEBRIDGE: And yet Labor failed to send that message and not much has changed, really, in the last four years. So if anything, there's more urgency. But Labor failed to sell that message, clearly, and opened itself to wedge politics.
 

ALBANESE: We are in opposition now, of course. But I was the Climate Change and Environment spokesperson when we adopted back in 2006 the policy of 20 per cent by 2020 renewable energy target. Now, we met that target in spite of the Government's efforts. And when we adopted it in 2006, it was widely opposed by the Coalition, of course, but some in the Labor Party, the truth is, didn't jump straight on board either. But everyone recognises now that renewable energy target was the most significant measure that has been implemented in terms of climate change action but also in terms of benefit to our national economy.
 

SHOEBRIDGE: And just lastly, this morning, I heard that your arm is a little bit sore. Tell us why.
 

ALBANESE: Well, I got my COVID injection yesterday. The Greens Leader, Adam Bandt, did it at the same time as Peta Murphy did, one of our caucus members from Victoria who's had health issues with cancer, to show that it was a good thing if you're in a vulnerable situation once you speak to your doctor that you, if possible at all, do get vaccinated. Vaccines don't solve this issue, vaccinations do. We really need to do it. It's painless, it is effective. And it was a good thing. We were supposed to do it, all the leaders together. Scott Morrison chose to do his alone and that's really a decision for him. But I do think that it's important. The health experts advise that it's important that people in leadership positions who are asking everyone to be vaccinated do it themselves.
 

SHOEBRIDGE: And you won't be forgetting that second shot?
 

ALBANESE: I certainly won't. It is on March 16. It is in the diary.

SHOEBRIDGE: Thank you very much for talking to me today. 

ALBANESE: Thank you very much.
 

ENDS