SUBJECTS: Labor Candidate for Forde; Labor’s New Energy Apprentices; climate change and energy; jobs of the future; manufacturing; hydrogen; Queensland; vaccine rollout; hotel quarantine; need for national quarantine facilities; Victorian COVID-19 lockdown; NSW Labor leadership; JobKeeper.

ANTHONY ALBANESE, LEADER OF THE AUSTRALIAN LABOR PARTY: Well, thanks very much for joining us. It's great to be here in Beenleigh in the electorate of Forde, back here in Queensland once again where I intend to be a regular visitor. And here today seeing this amazing facility. An amazing facility that's training plumbers and gasfitters for the jobs of today as well as the jobs of tomorrow, the future jobs and opportunities that will be available through hydrogen. An area whereby, as Mick said to us a bit earlier, they required, with the growth in LNG around Gladstone, about 15,000 different tradies. And the Queensland Government sees hydrogen as being just as big, if not bigger, in the future. And we agree with them. And that's why we launched, as part of my Budget Reply, the New Energy Apprenticeships program - $10,000 to provide an incentive for young people as well as workers retraining to take up apprenticeships in what will be an expanded new economy. This will be about secure jobs, about making a difference as well as we shift to a clean energy economy, making a difference for working families, providing skills that will be required so that we can have that transition that is so important. And there's nowhere that will be more important than here in Queensland, the most regional of states, a state that has an enormous growth capacity that we'll see in coming years. And I want to work with the Palaszczuk Government. And in order to do that, we need people like Rowan Holzberger, who today we're announcing as our candidate for Forde, to be elected. The truth is that the LNP have taken Queensland and Queenslanders for granted. The only time Scott Morrison comes to Queensland is to bag Queenslanders. It’s to say you should open up your borders, let it rip. And we know that the consequences for that would have been severe for the Queensland economy as well as for the health of Queenslanders. But the Palaszczuk Government kept Queenslanders safe. And they were rewarded at the last state election. Well, similarly, we say at the next Federal election there's an opportunity to elect a Federal Government that's prepared to work with Queensland, that is prepared to embrace the opportunities in this exciting and dynamic state. Rowan Holzberger is a local. He's someone who has worked across a range of industries including construction, including farming. I've known him for a very long period of time from when he grew up in Broken Hill. Rowan is someone who cares about people. He cares about the fact that there are a thousand less apprentices in this electorate than there were when the current Coalition Government came to office in 2013. He understands that action on climate change is good for jobs, good for lowering energy prices and good for lowering emissions. And he understands that what Queensland needs is a voice in Canberra for this electorate who won't just go along and be silent when Queensland in the last Budget got less money per head than any state in the country for infrastructure investment. So Queenslanders not only have not been rewarded for voting for the Coalition, they've actually been punished by a Government that takes them for granted and a local member who hasn't spoken out about the need for infrastructure in a community such as this. So I'm very pleased that Rowan has agreed to be our candidate for Forde. I'm sure he not only will make a great candidate, he'll make a great Member of Parliament, and a great member of the Labor team that will have Queensland very much as our focus, not just before the election, but importantly, after the election as a growth state. And I'd ask Rowan to make some comments and then Chris Bowen will make some comments. And I think Mick is available for any questions that we want to flick to him. Rowan?

ROWAN HOLZBERGER, LABOR CANDIDATE FOR FORDE: Well, thank you, Albo. And I have known Anthony Albanese for a long time, since I was a 14-year-old, in fact. So what's that? Ten years? Thirty-four actually. And I do want to say that I've never met anybody more authentic and genuine and effective than Anthony Albanese. Fair dinkum. He is a boy from public housing whose ambition has always been for his country. So thank you for coming to Beenleigh, Anthony. It's a town where the Holzbergers came to in the 1850s. There are even streets around here with the name Holz in them. It's a place where I live and I'm bringing my family up just around the corner. They go to school here. And it is a really special community with enormous potential. But I speak to families every day that are struggling to get ahead. Struggling to, in fact, just keep their head above water. Hard workers who are worried about their job. Mums and dads with little kids that can't find somewhere to live, let alone dream of owning a house. Old people who are quietly terrified about going into aged care in the state that it's in. And we've got a Prime Minister that won't take responsibility for any of it. It's always somebody else's fault. On the other hand, thanks to the commitments that Anthony Albanese has made for housing affordability, child care, building back manufacturing in Australia, these commitments will be of enormous benefit to communities like ours in Forde. Scott Morrison's blowing a trillion dollars. And what have we got to show for it? He's trying to keep it all stuck together with sticky tape to get himself to the election. But the people of Forde, the people of Logan Gold Coast, deserve better.

CHRIS BOWEN, SHADOW MINISTER FOR CLIMATE CHANGE AND ENERGY: Well, thanks Rowan. And congratulations and I look forward to working with you. Working with you in ensuring that the world's climate emergency is Queensland's jobs opportunity, which is something that the Palaszczuk Government understands, working with Mick de Brenni, the world's first Minister for Hydrogen, since being joined by Western Australia’s Minister for Hydrogen. The Palaszczuk Government is leading the way. The state governments do important work, but it's important that it be backed by the Federal Government. And it's not being backed by the Federal Government. It will be backed by an Albanese Labor Government. The Queensland Centre for Hydrogen Excellence here, for example, would work very well with our New Energy Apprentices, 10,000 apprentices getting $10,000 to train in the jobs of the future. Now, I see overnight that Scott Morrison is saying he'll lobby the G7 and other countries not to have carbon tariffs. Well, as the UK High Commissioner said this morning, the best way to avoid a carbon tariff is to have better climate change policies. That's what Scott Morrison should be working on. Reducing our emissions, growing the jobs of the future, capitalising on the opportunities that are there in a renewable economy. An important part of capitalising on those opportunities is training for the jobs of the future, which is what's happening here. So congratulations to the Palaszczuk Government to all involved in this excellent Centre of Hydrogen Excellence. And that will work very closely with the policies that we've already announced and will announce in the lead-up to the next election to ensure that the world's climate emergency is Australia's and Queensland’s jobs opportunity.

ALBANESE: Thanks very much, Chris. We’re happy to take questions.

JOURNALIST: (Inaudible). 

ALBANESE: Well, this Government had two jobs this year. And if they didn't get those two jobs right, then other things would suffer. And they are fixing up the rollout of the vaccine. And secondly, fixing up national quarantine centres. Now I note that today the Government has said that they will support a quarantine centre in Victoria. Once again, they've been dragged kicking and screaming to this position. Once again, now, they are saying some time in the future. The truth is that national quarantine should have been up and running right now. If that was occurring, we wouldn't have had the outbreaks, the 21 outbreaks, in hotel quarantine. We wouldn't have had the spread and the lockdown that we've seen in Victoria right now. I say this as well here in Queensland, why does this Prime Minister not support a quarantine centre in Queensland? I've met with John Wagner. I've spoken to Premier Palaszczuk about the proposal at Toowoomba. The proposal next to Wellcamp Airport is well thought out. It can be up and running in just 12 weeks. It's something in which John Wagner is not asking for any Commonwealth money for construction. What he's asking is support for the project. But Scott Morrison, even though that plan has been around since last October, has dismissed it. We learned this week in Senate Estimates they haven't even had any assessment of it at the proposal level by the Federal Health Department. It just shows how anti-Queensland this Prime Minister is. Annastacia Palaszczuk at the National Cabinet today will have more detail there about this proposal. But it is ready to rock and roll. It's ready to make a difference. And when it comes to vaccines, the issue here is not about compulsion. The issue here is aged care workers who are desperate to be vaccinated can't get access to the vaccine under this Government. You have facilities that I have visited, I have spoken to aged care workers, they've been told, 'Go off and see your GP'. The Federal Government was supposed to be in charge of the vaccination of aged care residents and aged care workers. It was supposed to be completed by Easter. And this Government has not fixed the problem so that people haven't had access to the vaccine. And something like 10 per cent of aged care workers only have been fully vaccinated. This has been an absolute fail on behalf of the Federal Government.

JOURNALIST: Do you support compulsory vaccination?

ALBANESE: People can't get vaccinated now. That's the problem. They can't get access to the vaccine. The question here is, why is it that the Federal Government can't give aged care workers, disability care workers, workers in essential industries, access to the vaccine? Why is it that the Federal Government can't even give numbers of how many aged care workers have actually been vaccinated? The figures that the Prime Minister gave in Parliament yesterday were figures relating to the leftover vaccine when the contractors have visited aged care facilities and have had leftover vaccine, they've been offered to aged care workers rather than being wasted. But in terms of a systematic program of aged care workers, it just hasn't been fixed by this Government. With regard to any compulsion issue, we will always take health advice on that issue. But the issue here is that people who are desperate to get vaccinated haven't been able to.

JOURNALIST: (Inaudible). What is your reaction to that?

ALBANESE: We'll always take health advice of health experts. That's what we should do. But health care workers have not been able to access the vaccine, just like so many aged care residents haven't been able to access the vaccine. Disability care residents haven't been able to access the vaccine. This Government had two jobs. To fix the rollout of the vaccine and to fix national quarantine. Scott Morrison is a Prime Minister who can roll out the red carpet for himself but hasn't been able to roll out the vaccine.

JOURNALIST: (Inaudible).

ALBANESE: They are questions for health experts, not for politicians. Politicians should follow the advice of health experts.

JOURNALIST: Should the new quarantine facility (inaudible)?

ALBANESE: Well, the best time to build standalone quarantine facilities that are fit for purpose was last year. The next best time is today. And it needs to be not just in Victoria. It needs also to be in Queensland and in other states that have put forward propositions that are sensible and that stack up for fit for purpose facilities. What we know is that hotels were built to house tourists, short-term. They weren't built as medical facilities. And we know that the Government has ignored its own advice when it comes to issues like ventilation and when it comes to standalone facilities. No wonder Jane Halton, who provided that advice to this Government eight months ago, and has seen nothing happen. And today finally, dragged kicking and screaming, the Federal Government have said they're prepared to provide some support to a standalone facility in Victoria. That's a good thing. But it will take time for it to be up and running. And the Government should be looking at how we build national facilities. Because this virus, contrary to the comments of Scott Morrison yesterday where he said we shouldn't be scared of this virus, Australians are scared if they have a relative, a mum or dad, a loved one in aged care. They are scared if they have a loved one in disability care. Many workers I've spoken to in aged care are scared that they will be not only contracting a virus but potentially spreading it into facilities. This is an issue whereby what is scary is Scott Morrison's complacency. This bloke will only ever act at the last minute when there's an absolute crisis and in order to solve political issues. Everything is looked at through the short-term political frame. And what we need is a Government that's prepared to lead, not just follow. A Government that's prepared to intervene to stop problems arising, not sweep up after problems have been created.

JOURNALIST: Should the new facilities like the one proposed in Victoria replace hotel quarantine?

ALBANESE: We think that the appropriate system for quarantine is purpose-built facilities. Obviously, that can't happen immediately because there aren't the facilities built because Scott Morrison has been complacent.

JOURNALIST: Should the Government view the extended lockdown (inaudible)?

ALBANESE: Well, they haven't been extended even to people who are affected in regional Victoria, who've suffered during this lockdown that has actually happened in Victoria. And the Government should look at and should consider any proposals whereby people, whether they be businesses or casual workers, have been left without income. And let me say this. If the Government hadn't have wasted, the figures are quite extraordinary, but it is at a minimum in the many tens of millions of dollars on JobKeeper payments to businesses that had actually increased their profits and that used those taxpayer funds to increase their individual wealth and to pay out dividends to shareholders, then they'd be in a stronger position to be able to provide support to those who need it.

JOURNALIST: (Inaudible). What do you think of that?

ALBANESE: Well, I very much welcome Chris Minns' election as Leader of the New South Wales Labor Party. Chris Minns is a talented, visionary, dynamic person. He will provide strong leadership for New South Wales Labor. And if you look at the performance of the Berejiklian Government, mired in scandal as it is, with members sitting on the crossbenches because of corruption hearings that have occurred in the Independent Commission Against Corruption, scandal after scandal, a Government that's been complacent, a Government that hasn't stood up to Canberra, then what New South Wales needs is a Labor opposition that's strong, that's committed, that is focused. Chris Minns will bring that to the New South Wales Labor leadership. And I look forward to welcoming him. I've spoken with him this morning and congratulated him on his election. It's a great honour to lead the Labor Party, whether it be at the state or the federal level. I look forward to working with Chris in the future. Just like I look forward to renewing my working relationship with Annastacia Palaszczuk later today when we're joined in events associated with the Queensland Labor Conference. And I look forward to addressing the conference with Annastacia tomorrow.

JOURNALIST: (Inaudible).

ALBANESE: It was a matter for the New South Wales Labor Party. And I'm pleased that it's been resolved.

JOURNALIST: (Inaudible).

ALBANESE: I think Chris Minns has what it takes to not just be a good Labor Leader in opposition but to be a great Premier of New South Wales, in the finest tradition of New South Wales Labor premiers. Someone who's concerned about jobs, someone who's concerned about secure work, someone who understands infrastructure, someone who understands new industries. You look at what Queensland Labor is doing under Annastacia Palaszczuk with a Hydrogen Minister. It's no accident. There’s two hydrogen ministers in this country. Where are they? Queensland and WA. It's an example of how Labor gets ahead of issues, helps not just imagine a better future for Australia, but sets about creating it in a practical way that makes a difference for Australians and lifts living standards. Thanks very much. 

JOURNALIST: (Inaudible).

ALBANESE: I haven't seen the detail. But let me just say this. That this is a Government that is weak against the strong and strong against the weak. And no one should receive money for which they're not entitled. But with JobKeeper, we have some businesses that have received literally many millions of dollars that they shouldn't have received because their profits were actually increasing. And that money, that taxpayer money, is just being funnelled into increases in dividends and benefits to shareholders. So I just wish this Government held everyone to account.

ENDS