SUBJECTS: Australian manufacturing; jobs; jobs in regional manufacturing; Labor’s National Reconstruction Fund; climate change; net zero by 2050; vaccine rollout; reduction of flights from India.

LISA CHESTERS, MEMBER FOR BENDIGO: Good morning. And welcome, everyone, to Bendigo. And it's great to have my good friend here, Anthony Albanese, visiting another one of our fantastic family-run Bendigo manufacturers, Australian Turntables. We're here today to talk about Labor's vision and plan for manufacturing. Daisy, of course, is quite taken with the microphones. This is Daisy. And also with us today is little Charlie and my partner, Matt. Family, it's a big thing in Bendigo. And we do always come together. So why Australian Turntables, and why we're here, is for the years that I've known the Chapman family and been coming out to this business. They've talked to me about how they've wanted to expand. They've talked to me about how they've got a great vision for their business for the future, and how they really wanted to see partnership at a federal level from a Federal Government about what they can do to help grow manufacturing. There's always an optimistic story. There's always a vision when you come here. And so I was really keen to bring our Leader, the Leader of the Labor Party, here to Bendigo and here to Australian Turntables to see what they're doing on the ground, what the challenges are, but what the opportunities are. So welcome back to Bendigo, Anthony. It's really good to have you here this morning. I'm going to save the microphone from Daisy and hand over to you.

ANTHONY ALBANESE, LEADER OF THE AUSTRALIAN LABOR PARTY: Fantastic. Well, thanks very much, Lisa. And firstly, congratulations to Lisa and Matt and Daisy on the arrival of their newest family member, little Charlie over there. Two weeks ago today. And it was lovely to have a cuddle with young Charlie this morning. We had, as the major centrepiece of our Budget reply last year, was, of course, our cheaper childcare policy. We support that policy for all Australian families. It's not true that it's because we have this major baby boom taking place in our Caucus. It is a good thing that our Caucus is more representative of Australian families than it was when I was first elected two decades ago. And a big congratulations and shoutout to Lisa and to Daisy who is very proud of her little brother, and, of course, to Matt, as well. Look, it is great to be back here in Bendigo. This is a manufacturing hub. And during the national conference, the centrepiece of our announcement was the creation of a National Reconstruction Fund. During COVID, we saw the best of Australia. We saw Australians making sacrifices to look after each other, the strength of our society. But we also saw some weaknesses. We saw the vulnerability in our economy, the need for us to be more resilient, the need for us to make more things here in Australia, in the interests of job creation, in the interests of growing our economy, in the interests of Australian skills because we did see that. And it's fantastic to be here at Australian Turntables to see the practical work that they're doing, employing 32 people, high-skilled jobs, jobs in manufacturing, welding jobs in computers, jobs in the creation of a high-value product that's not only distributed around Australia, but distributed around the world. Our regional centres are particularly well-placed to have advanced manufacturing to grow into the future. But to do that, sometimes they need government support. And that's why we are creating the National Reconstruction Fund on the model of the Clean Energy Finance Corporation, a fund of $15 billion to provide support for businesses that might need loans or financing, to expand businesses that might need support to transition to the use of cleaner energy to lower their costs in the medium-term. Businesses that need that support from government. And particularly in regional Australia, I think it will be important into the future. We have enormous opportunities here to grow manufacturing. And this business is a great example of it. And right here in Bendigo with the Festival of Optimism that is held for manufacturing, where I gave a message to them, it's an example of in our regional cities, if we can grow manufacturing, if we can have that optimism about the future, if we can make sure that young people are trained and given the skills that they need for what are good, secure, well-paid jobs, then it will benefit all of us. Happy to take questions.

JOURNALIST: With the National Reconstruction Fund, is there a specific allotment for regional Victoria?

ALBANESE: We expect that regional areas will particularly benefit from it. And we've said that will be, essentially, the guidance that's given to the board. Determinations will be done independently from the board on the Clean Energy Finance Corporation model. What that has shown is that every dollar that the Clean Energy Finance Corporation has given or loaned to a business has resulted in $2.50 of private sector investment, and it's produced a return on investment. So it's a fund that's actually growing, not decreasing over a period of time. We think that the big area to benefit, because overheads in regional Australia are less, is regional Australia. Regional towns like Bendigo, like Ballarat, like Geelong. These are all towns that will benefit from this fund. And in the terms and instructions that are given to the board, that is something that they will have in mind.

JOURNALIST: What's to stop pre-established, big industrial hubs from taking up all the grants and regional Victorians being left out?

ALBANESE: Because it's aimed at, very specifically, providing support to local domestic manufacturers which aren't the big players. The big players can gain access to international finance and to those mechanisms really easily. What this is about is existing businesses to transition and to grow. But also, it's about new industries, new emerging industries as well. We've seen businesses with new technology coming to existence. And I think that if we come back to Bendigo in ten years’ time, there'll be businesses manufacturing things that we haven't even thought of yet. Australians are very good at coming up with innovation, everything from Wi-Fi to screw top bottle tops. We've been very good at many of the innovations that have occurred in solar energy. What we haven't been good at is commercialising those opportunities. And some of the people we met today are a good example, the workers here. People who've come from Deakin University, come to work here, a relationship between the company and the university is one of the things so that ideas are translated into real outcomes and real jobs. And that's something that we're determined to do.

JOURNALIST: The US has declared to halve its emissions by 2030. Scott Morrison didn't make any commitments overnight. Was this a missed opportunity by Australia? What pledge would you make?

ALBANESE: Well, this is another missed opportunity by Australia. Australia got to speak at this major summit after Bhutan. It says something about where we're ranked and the way that we're viewed and our place in the world when it comes to the transition to clean energy and dealing with the challenge of climate change, but also taking up the opportunity that climate change represents. You have, in Scott Morrison, someone who when he said, and I heard his comments last night, where he said that it wasn't about when, it was about how. Everyone else at that summit would have been scratching their heads. Of course, in part it's about when. That is one of the factors that the conference was brought together on. So Labor thinks that this is very disappointing that Australia has put ourselves in a position whereby the United States and other countries, of course, are talking about taking action against nations that don't seem to be pulling their weight when it comes to dealing with the global challenge of climate change. And Australia is seen with Saudi Arabia and Brazil, and countries like that, as not pulling our weight. All of our major competitors have adopted net zero by 2050 except for China, of course, a major trading partner that has net zero by 2060. Every state and territory government has adopted net zero by 2050. The Business Council of Australia, the National Farmers' Federation, our big four banks, all of the big companies, including resources sector, like BHP and Woodside and Santos, they all have targets that are interim. Australia has to get its act together. And in the lead-up to the Glasgow Conference later this year, there'll be real pressure on Australia to lift its game and to show that it's serious about tackling climate change.

JOURNALIST: So what pledge have you made? Where do you think Australia should be at in 2030 or 2035?

ALBANESE: Well, what we would do is, in Government, of course, what we're doing is that we are encouraging the current Government to take stronger action. We've set net zero by 2050. And all of our policies in the lead-up to that, and in the election, will be consistent with that. So we've put forward practical programs to make a difference. Practical programs to encourage the take-up of electric vehicles. Practical programs to deal with the issues, including getting batteries through community batteries to encourage their take-up and the restoration of energy. We have practical programs, including our $20 billion commitment to Rewire the Nation. The big low-hanging fruit that we could do to transition our energy sector is to fix transmission that's not fit-for-purpose in the 21st century. We announced as part of the Budget reply last year that $20 billion commitment that we made. 

JOURNALIST: Do you think it was the right decision to reduce the number of arrivals from India by 30 per cent?

ALBANESE: Well, I think we have to be cautious. We understand that is a difficult decision. But we also know that we're not through COVID yet, that we can't be complacent, which is why the rollout, or the non-rollout, of the vaccine is so important. Yesterday in Melbourne, I visited an aged care facility where not a single resident has received the vaccine, not a single aged care worker has received the vaccine. It's not good enough. Australia, in terms of the vaccine rollout, it's been appalling, the gap between what the Government promised and what has actually been delivered. We said we were at the front of the queue and we're at the back of the queue. So like on climate change, Scott Morrison has these platitudes. The truth is we're falling behind other countries around the world and they are looking at us. And the spin and marketing that characterises this Government doesn't wash when you actually have to deal with real challenges and real outcomes.

JOURNALIST: (Inaudible).

ALBANESE: Look, I will leave it to the health experts to respond to these matters. They've recommended a reduction. And I think that's appropriate. But we should continue to monitor the situation. The concerns in India, that in the last 24 hours they broke the record for the most number of COVID infections that we've seen from any individual country around the world, it just shows, as well, given that the situation in India had been improving prior to the latest outbreak, that we can't be complacent. It is one of the reasons why we need vaccinations to occur and for Scott Morrison to do it properly. I mean, the only thing that Scott Morrison has successfully rolled out is Malcolm Turnbull from the Prime Ministership. Since then, he has been characterised by making promises and never delivering on them. We were told we were first in the queue. We were told four million Australians would be vaccinated in March. None of that was true. Eight weeks ago, all of the category 1A, people like aged care residents, were told that they'd be vaccinated within six weeks. That hasn't happened. And aged care workers are now being told, 'Just go to your local GP and sort that out'. It really isn't good enough. Thank you.

ENDS