SUBJECTS: The Federal Election; Labor’s policies, Anthony Albanese’s experience; Labor’s team; Visit to the Sydney Royal Easter Show.
 
ANTHONY ALBANESE, LEADER OF THE AUSTRALIAN LABOR PARTY: My fellow Australians, this election will determine whether we can come together to build a better future. We can seize that opportunity, but you have to vote for it, and that is what this election is about: building a better future. We are a great country. But we can be even better if we have a better government. We've had a difficult couple of years. Australians have been magnificent in making sacrifices to overcome the challenges of the pandemic, of floods, of bushfires. It has shown the strength of our society. But it's also shown our vulnerabilities of our economy and where we need to make improvement. So as we emerge from this, Australians deserve better. This government doesn't have an agenda for today, let alone a vision for tomorrow. They demonstrated that in their budget, which was nothing more than a ploy for an election campaign. With one-off payments that stop when the votes are counted, which they think will be enough to give them a second decade in office. We can and we must do better.

The pandemic has given us the opportunity to imagine a better future and Labor has the policies and plans to shape that future. Fear can be a powerful emotion, and there will be a bit of that over the next six weeks, I suspect. But I want to appeal to Australians’ sense of optimism and hope for a better future. One where there is more secure work and better paying jobs, stronger Medicare, cheaper childcare, a future made here revitalizing Australian manufacturing. We can be a renewable energy superpower that uses cheap, clean energy to support new industries through our National Reconstruction Fund. We can train Australians for those new jobs with our plan for more university places, and 465,000 Fee Free TAFE places. We will end the climate wars. Enough. We will become more self-reliant as a country, as we need to be. This will make us more secure at home as well as abroad. I know that many Australians are doing it really tough. They know that the price of everything is going up, but their pay isn't. Labor's plans for cheaper childcare, cheaper power bills and more secure, well-paid jobs are aimed at easing those cost-of-living pressures. We will build more affordable housing. We will fix the crisis in aged care. We will fix the National Broadband Network and we will bring the country together again. Businesses big and small, employers and unions, states and the commonwealth, more secure jobs, stronger Medicare, cheaper childcare, making our future here. That's my plan and Labor's plan.

And if I have the honour of serving as your Prime Minister, I can promise you this. I will lead with integrity, and I will treat you with respect. I will restore faith in our political system by ending the waste and rorts and establishing a strong National Anti-Corruption Commission. I won't go missing when the going gets tough. I will accept the responsibility that comes with high office. I will lead a government that repays and rewards your hard work. A government that reflects the decency and compassion and courage of the Australian people. I am humbled to put myself forward as Prime Minister of this great nation. I grew up not far from here, in Sydney, in public housing, the son of a single mum. I learned the value of a dollar. I learnt the importance of resilience. But I also learnt about the strength of community and the power of government to make a difference to people's lives. That experience, of overcoming adversity and fulfilling my mother's dreams of a better life for me than she endured, took me into politics and it's what drives me today. And it feeds my optimism about this most extraordinary country of Australia. So today, I say to my fellow Australians, this is our time, our time to seize the opportunities that are before us, our time to create a better future. Where no one is held back, and no one is left behind. I ask for your support on the 21st of May, for my team. I'm ready, we are ready and Australia is ready for a better future. Happy to take your questions.

JOURNALIST: Do you think this election will be decided on character or policy?

ALBANESE: I'll be engaging in the policy debate. And one of the things that strikes me is that the government had an opportunity in their budget to put forward a range of policies that were long term. And all I saw was a budget which they didn't even talk about after 24 hours. A budget that handed off one off payments, hoping that people would forget the cost of living pressures that they're under on a constant basis. Well, childcare costs don't stop once people have voted. Nor does the rising costs of petrol or housing, energy costs. All of these things are going up, everything except people's pay. And this government have been complacent. We have put forward constructive plans. A range of policies out there on industry policy, communications, the economy, the environment and climate change, women's policies, policies on Indigenous Affairs, policies across the spectrum. We will continue to advocate for them, because I don't think it's good enough for us to just stand still. Because in today's globalised world, if you're just trying to protect the status quo and keep things as they are, the rest of the world will just move past us.

JOURNALIST: Mr Albanese, if you win government would your opposition front-benchers stay in the same positions? There’s talk, for example, of Richard Marles going back to defence. 

ALBANESE: Oh, look, it's my expectation that the frontbench will serve in the same positions that they're in now. I'm very satisfied with my frontbench. What I found extraordinary, earlier on today, was the Prime Minister's statement that Alan Tudge is still the Education Minister. Well, that just shows the chaos that's there. Even when people step aside, they've still got their job. The Prime Minister can't say who the Health Minister will be. The truth is that my frontbench are all re-contesting at this election. There's no one disappearing, there's no one withdrawing, and my front bench I have absolute faith in, and I would expect that the starting point would be that they would maintain the same positions that they hold now.

JOURNALIST: Mr Albanese, the Prime Minister this morning said that people are sick of politics, do you share that sentiment and are you expecting a real grind over the next six weeks? 

ALBANESE: Well, this is a Prime Minister who last year declared that he was campaigning and not governing. He's done that himself. All the photo ops that you've seen, that you would normally see during an election campaign from this Prime Minister, he started early. Whether it was sitting in car racing at Bathurst or whether it be shampooing a young woman's hair or playing the ukulele or sitting in a fighter jet. We've seen it all. The problem for this government is that it stopped governing some time ago. I think that Australians want a government that does its job, that doesn't always blame someone else, that accepts responsibility. I'm putting forward a constructive alternative, as well as saying that I think that a government seeking a fourth term and a second decade in office – is this really as good as it gets? What we have seen from this government over that period of time, is a whole lot of their talented, most competent people leave, which is one of the things that explains the incompetence that we've seen in simply managing portfolios over recent times. I'll give everyone a go.

JOURNALIST: Mr Albanese, can you tell us when we can start to expect some dollar figures around your policies and can you put a dollar figure on how much you expect to raise from the crackdown on multinational tax avoidance?

ALBANESE: We've put dollars on our policies. If you look at, for example, our policy that I used to get asked about, and I'll bet you I don't today, on climate change. We were asked what our 2030 target would be. I said very early on, that we would declare that after the Glasgow conference, and after the government released a policy. We have. That’s just one example of the most comprehensive, fully costed plan for any policy that any opposition has put forward since Federation. That outlines 604,000 new jobs to be created, $52 billion of private sector investment, five out of every six of those jobs in regional Australia. A plan that will see a 43% reduction by 2030. Our aged care plan that was a part of my budget reply has a cost of $2.5 billion dollars, over the forward estimates. Our childcare plan is fully costed. Our National Reconstruction Fund is out there for all to see. All of our policies that we've released have been fully costed. Whether it be the National Broadband Network, whether it be the funding for black spots, the Regional Housing Program, the Housing Australia Future Fund. There is another example: $10 billion to be put in a fund that will be invested, of which the interest will be used to create 30,000, affordable and social housing units over a period of time, Four thousand of those quarantined for women and children escaping domestic violence. We have put out very costed policies. We will have more examples during the election campaign about the multinational tax changes that we'll be proposing. But I'll make this point. What is the government - that's our agenda, or just some of it, I could keep going – for the next term, what is this government's agenda for the next term?

JOURNALIST: Scott Morrison has attacked you previously for not revealing who your Defence and Home Affairs Ministers will be, are you confirming that Brendan O'Connor and Kristina Keneally will remain in those positions?

ALBANESE: It's embarrassing for Scott Morrison, isn't it? The poor bloke can't say – he's got Greg Hunt leaving. He's the Health Minister during a pandemic. And he's leaving the Parliament, leaving the Parliament. So I'm not quite sure who the Health Minister is going to be. And the Education Minister who stood aside apparently is still in the cabinet as the Education Minister, so I'm not quite sure what's going on there. I have said that I fully expect everyone to stay in their current jobs. Obviously, after the election, the caucus, our caucus as a democratic party, elects the front bench. And we have an extraordinarily talented team. But I'm absolutely satisfied with the job that everyone is doing as part of that team. 

JOURNALIST: The Prime Minister says Labor is a risk to the recovery and Australians don’t know what it stands for. What do you say in response to this?

ALBANESE: That I've outlined a range of policies that we would implement during the next term. Policies of cheaper, cleaner energy, which will drive the creation of new industries and new jobs through our National Reconstruction Fund, based upon the Clean Energy Finance Corporation model that this government tried to abolish. We will train Australians for those jobs. We will have a policy of lifting people's wages through the changes that we announced now, almost two years ago. For industrial relations, making sure that secure work is an objective of the Fair Work Act, properly defining casualisation, having same job, same pay, making wage theft a crime, closing the gender pay gap. We have outlined a series of policies for the election. Mr. Morrison has not outlined any agenda for another term. And, quite frankly, he suffered during this term from the fact that he sailed through the 2019 campaign without lining out a third term agenda, which is perhaps why he hasn't had one. But it's not good enough to say that you want a second decade in office without putting out exactly what your plans will be. What we know is from this government, because it's in their DNA, that it's likely to involve cuts to services, cuts to education, cuts to health, cuts to a range of services that Australians rely upon. And we know because we don't have to theorise what their attitude is towards cost of living. Because all of the measures that they've brought in all expire as soon as people have cast their votes.

JOURNALIST: The Prime Minister has said this election is not about him, it’s about the voters. Do you intend to make the campaign a referendum on his leadership?

ALBANESE: I think that his own side will continue to do enough to talk about Mr. Morrison’s leadership, or lack thereof. He's running an election campaign, whereby his Deputy Prime Minister has said he's a hypocrite and a liar. He's running an election campaign whereby people who are members of his cabinet, people who have worked with him, like Gladys Berejiklian, at the height of the bushfires said that he was more interested in politics than he was with people. And those character assessments are out there for all to see. That stands in stark contrast with my team. My team are united. My team have been doing the hard work on policies. We've released them in an orderly way. They're all fully costed. There's more to come over the coming weeks, and we're ready for government. We will be the most experienced incoming Labor government in history. And if you look at some of the, quite frankly, absurd attacks that have gone on from Mr Morrison, they just don't stack up. One of those is about my experience. Well, my experience is I've been Acting Prime Minister, I've been Deputy Prime Minister, I chaired the Parliamentary Business Committee for six years. So every piece of legislation that went through under the Rudd and Gillard governments, I presided over the management of that, including presiding over in a minority Parliament. Working with people in what is now the government, the opposition and the crossbenches to successfully bring people together. If you look at my record, you don't have to theorise whether I can work with people or not. My whole experience as a Minister for Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development, Local Government, Communications and other portfolios, was creating models that brought people together. The Infrastructure Australia model being the best example of that, one that's been undermined by the appointments that have been made by this government. But nonetheless, which has remained intact, are bringing together business and the private sector to work with the public sector, arm in arm to create a better future. That's the model that I would work on. The Australian Council of Local Government, bringing together 560 fellow mayors and shire presidents. Bringing them together so that decisions weren't made in Canberra, they were made in local communities, about what the local community's priorities were. Not the sort of colour-coded spreadsheets that we've seen, based on marginal seats for this government. And of course, Regional Development Australia that I created, which is still in place to set up regional economic plans.

JOURNALIST: Mr Albanese we saw earlier this morning after the Royal Easter Show, your partner Jodie was with you for that media opportunity. Can we expect to see Jodie a lot more over the next six weeks? And then how does she feel about potentially heading to the Lodge?

ALBANESE: Well, it’s a good thing to go, Jodie was keen. I told her I was going to the Easter Show, and she was keen to come. So, she's an independent woman. She will come to some things on the campaign. But I've got to say it was really enjoyable, mixing with people. I think, as someone who did grew up in the city, I always love going to the Easter Show. Talking to farmers, engaging with people, as you do. And the only danger today I think, was the camera crew tripping over a sheep or a goat, or a duck, as we went through, because they are all free range there at the Easter Show. But it's a great event. And it was really enjoyable. And it was fantastic to talk with people. And I've got to say just like the reception I've had, right around the country, it was very positive. And they were very cute pups. The only danger was either Jodie or myself running off with one of those beautiful little pups. But when I did get home my dog Toto was very upset because she could smell that I'd been cheating with those little puppies.

JOURNALIST: It’s clear – sorry – it’s clear Scott Morrison wants to make the economy a major focus of this campaign. What do you say to voters who believe the Coalition is a safer pair of hands, than a Labor Government?

ALBANESE: Look at the facts. Under the last Labor government unemployment was lower than it was under this government. Productivity was higher. Taxation is higher as a proportion of GDP under this government than it was under the former Labor government. It is now the second highest taxing government in Australian recent history, only beaten by the Howard Government. If you look at the economic transformation, one of the big drivers of economies in this century is going to be the transition with renewable energy that is going on. This government have been in denial about that. This is a government that said that electric vehicles would end the weekend during the last campaign. They said that electric vehicles couldn't tow your boat, couldn’t tow your trailer, all this nonsense. Now, if you're in fear about the present, then you have no chance of shaping the future. And the problem for this government is that they're just treading water. What are their plans to create productivity, to get better cooperation between unions and business. To invest in infrastructure on the basis of what projects will boost productivity? We had the NBN. We’ll revitalise Infrastructure Australia. We’ll make sure that investment goes where it should. We'll make sure that we train Australians for the jobs of the future by creating Jobs and Skills Australia, under the Infrastructure Australia model, so that you get an input from employers. I announced that policy, fully costed in 2019. In Perth, it was one of the first policies that I announced. We will have, we will have a policy that will be about growth of our economy but will also be about sharing that growth as well. At the moment, we have an economy that isn't working for people. People know that. They're doing it really tough. This is a government that couldn't even say they supported people being paid the minimum wage. And when legislation was before the parliament that had overwhelming support, to outlaw and criminalise wage theft, you know what they did? They withdrew it, as a political tactic. They withdrew it. Legislation to make wage theft a crime. It says it all about this government. We will have a stronger economy; we will look at growing productivity because productivity is a way that you can grow both profits and wages. Productivity is the key.

JOURNALIST: You’ve been in Parliament since ’96, but do you think that the Australian public knows who you are and what you stand for? 

ALBANESE: Absolutely they do. They know what my record is. They know that I have a long record of public service. They know that that's been defined by collaboration, not conflict. By unity, not division. By achieving outcomes. And I'll make this point. I've been leader at the Labor Party for three years. I've done a press conference almost every day, for example, since January 2. On most days, I'm available, as people in this room know, to talk to anyone who wants to talk to me across the spectrum that is modern media. And what are the criticisms that this government have made? When I looked after a budget of more than $60 billion, I doubled the roads budget, I increased the rail budget by 10 times, I rebuilt one-third of the interstate rail freight network. I introduced the National Port Strategy, the National Land Freight Strategy, I created Infrastructure Australia, I created Regional Development Australia and the Australian Council of Local Government. In local government, and community infrastructure I funded as the minister, some 5,500 projects. I, of course put substantial investment into the Pacific Highway and the Bruce Highway. We invested more in urban public transport in my time as minister, than were invested in the previous 107 years, in Federation up to 2007. Has this government raised any criticism of my six years on the record? No. Instead, they'll go back, and you know, you'll see some things no doubt about 1983 or 1985. I'm waiting for them to get out my St. Joseph’s Camperdown Kindy book to say that I wasn't I misbehaved in in one of one of Sister Mary's classes there at Camperdown. I mean, it's absurd. I have a public record on there. And my record as communications minister, was that I supported doing it right doing it once and doing it with fibre, not buying enough copper to wrap around the world one and a half times, which is what this government have done.

JOURNALIST: But you have been a very passionate and active member of Labor’s Left Faction. Do you think you would be one of Australia’s more left-wing Prime Ministers, if elected?

ALBANESE: I am who I am. I'm a working-class lad from my background, I’ve been shaped by it. I'm someone who I believe is very much in touch with mainstream Australia. I'm comfortable in a boardroom, and I'm comfortable in a pub. I would say that there is no one in the Parliament who has closer credentials and more friends, in senior members of the business community than myself on the either side of politics.

JOURNALIST: Yesterday, you said Labor was the underdog going into this election. How much confidence are you taking from the polls that repeatedly have Labor ahead of the Coalition?

ALBANESE: I don't worry about polls, I worry about history. And history tells us that Labor has won office three times from opposition since the Second World War. I make this point as well. The three gentlemen who did: Gough Whitlam, Bob Hawke, and Kevin Rudd, none of them had ever served as a Minister in the government, let alone as Deputy Prime Minister or Acting Prime Minister, which I've done.

JOURNALIST: Are you prepared to raise tax as a share of the GDP in the name of responsible budget management?

ALBANESE: No, our objective is not about raising taxes. Our objective is to grow the GDP. That's our objective. That is what we have a plan to do. That's what the national reconstruction fund will do. That's what our powering Australia plan will do. That's what fixing the NBN will do. That's what our Infrastructure Australia plans will do as well. James?

JOURNALIST: I was going to say, Mr Albanese, you were talking about renewables jobs, renewable economies, a few minutes ago, it caught - it takes more people to run a coal mine than say, a wind farm or a solar farm. How many jobs do you anticipate being created long term versus short term in those industries? And is that sustainable for people to have you know, long lasting careers like they might have the extractive industry?

ALBANESE: Look, both things- it's not either or. Our resources sector will continue to be of vital importance, and we should continue to export our resources, which are there, whether it be…

JOURNALIST: …Including coal?

ALBANESE: Including coal. That should be determined by markets. I’ve made that very clear. And that's always been my position. The issue with renewables isn't about the job making a solar panel or making a wind turbine. Although that's important, and we can do that too, and it's a tragedy, frankly, that we make so little, here in Australia. It's about the fact that the cheapest form of new energy is renewables. And it's the cheaper, cleaner energy, which will drive down energy prices. And our plan will reduce, for example, household prices by $275 by 2025. It is though, for business, if you're about setting up a manufacturing business, then cheaper, cleaner energy can change the competitive nature of Australian-based manufacturing compared with overseas. We have all the resources for example here that go into a battery. Lithium, nickel, copper. We have it all here. What I say is, let's make more things here. Using as well, cheap, clean energy, which will change the competitive nature of production here compared with overseas. And we have that opportunity. Just one company to give an example. Tritium in southeast Queensland. Tritium in southeast Queensland produces Australian innovation. The fastest electric vehicle charging stations in the world. We're exporting them to North America and to Europe. We're creating high value jobs. When you go into manufacturing plants, in 2022 what you're likely to see is yes, you are likely to see people on the factory floor, you also see offices, and you see people behind computers. And you see incredible efficiency. And chances are in those plants, you'll see if you go up on the roof, you'll see solar panels, powering those plants as well. Powering that energy to produce things, whether it be things like windows and other activities, frames and all of that. So if you go to for example, Rio’s aluminium operation, they're just outside of Gladstone. What they're looking at is green hydrogen, they're looking at renewables they're looking at- not just because of the impact on emissions. They're looking at it because it drives down their costs. And what business has been saying in this country for a decade now, is they're crying out for leadership. They're crying out for certainty. They're crying out for that investment certainty that they need to be able to make it. But this government have had 22 energy policies that they've announced, and they haven't landed one in almost a decade. We have one policy, we’ll land it, we’ll implement it. And if you want to look for an example, of collaboration, our policy released, fully costed on December, the first Friday in December, I think it was December 2 of this year- of last year. It has been cheered on by the Business Council of Australia, the Australian Industry Group, ACCI, the National Farmers Federation, and the ACTU. That's an example of how you can end conflict and actually get a policy that makes Australia able to go forward as one. And I think people are sick of these arguments that we had during the last campaign. But can you trust, can you trust Mr. Morrison to change his views? Because he's been out there during the last campaign ridiculing, ridiculing a 50% renewable energy target, ridiculing electric vehicles, he goes to conferences in Glasgow and sits in the naughty corner, because he's not allowed to increase our 2030 targets, even though that's what the conference was about. Australians deserve better. 

And over the coming weeks, I'll be taking more of your questions. I note that I've taken a lot more than my opponent did today. And I'm really looking forward to campaigning over the next six weeks. I love campaigns. Anyone who's seen a campaign in Grayndler knows that it's full of life. It's a very political community that I'm proud and privileged to represent. And I, of course, ask the good people of Grayndler as well, to return me as your member for another term. But I ask for something else as well. I ask the people of Australia to return Labor candidates. Because at this election, there are two people standing for prime minister. Only one of them is in a position to say they want to form a government in their own right. The other one is part of a coalition - that's a coalition, that's a coalition of chaos, frankly, at the moment. We've seen leadership changes in the Liberal Party, within the National Party. We've seen a whole range of ministerial changes. We have ministers who stood down but apparently still are the cabinet minister now. We need to do better. This government have acted like an opposition in exile sitting on the government benches. At this campaign, I'd say they need to be held to account as well. I'm happy to be held to account. I look forward to campaigning over the next over the next six weeks. Not that we haven't been campaigning before now. It's got to be said. But in the words of the great Ramones. Hey, ho let's go.

ENDS