SUBJECTS: Unpreparedness of this Prime Minister; PM’s failure to learn from mistakes; vaccine supply issues and slow rollout; cost of living pressures; Grand Slam of failures; kids going back to school; Afghan humanitarian intake; Australia Day; Grace Tame.

CARINA GARLAND, LABOR CANDIDATE FOR CHISHOLM: Hi everyone, welcome to Chisholm, and welcome to Blackburn. And it is my absolute pleasure to welcome Anthony Albanese here in first visit of the year to Chisholm. It won't be the last. And what a summer we've had. I, like so many people in the community, have been really frustrated at this Federal Government, at the kind of summer we've been forced to have. We're all trying to do the right thing. We're trying to keep our community safe. And we can't find the tests we need to do so. And that outrage is coming to me and my campaign from right across the electorate. This is a really big issue. It seems like the Prime Minister is unprepared. He doesn't want to lead. He doesn't want to do the job. So, if he doesn't want to do the job, then it's time for someone else to be Prime Minister of Australia. And that person should be Anthony Albanese.

ANTHONY ALBANESE, LEADER OF THE AUSTRALIAN LABOR PARTY:Thanks very much Carina. It’s great to be back here in Chisholm, once again, in Melbourne to campaign with you and to talk to locals, as we have today, about how they're dealing with the current challenges. Australians know that we need to do better. The Prime Minister gave a speech to Davos in which, once again, he couldn't admit that any mistakes had been made. The truth is that if the Prime Minister was capable of ever admitting a mistake then we mightn’t keep making the same ones over and over again. The same mistakes that were made with the rollout of the vaccine have been made for the rollout of the rapid antigen tests. It’s easier to catch COVID, in many places in Australia, than it is to catch a RAT. And that is leading to a massive number of problems. It's leading to supermarket shelves that don't have food on them. It's leading to pressure with childcare centres closing. Aged care facilities where people can't see their loved ones. It's leading to anxiety in the lead up to the opening up of schools, as parents are anxious about whether they'll have access to the vaccine for their children. The Prime Minister should give a guarantee that every child will have access to at least one shot before they go back to school. That is what the Prime Minister spoke about earlier on, when he spoke about opening up. We were going to have Christmas all back together. There have been five occasions in which he has declared that the economy was about to come back and everything would be right if we just opened up. On each and every occasion the problem has been a failure to plan by a Prime Minister that's complacent, by a Prime Minister who said “it's not a race”, and by Prime Minister who will never admit that any mistakes have been made, and will always look for someone to blame and never take responsibility. If I'm Prime Minister, if I have that great honour, I'll take responsibility. You have to be prepared to accept high office with the responsibility that comes with it. Happy to take questions.

JOURNALIST: Australia has been identified as a COVID Danger Zone by the European Council, while the US Centre for Disease Control is also warning to avoid travelling to Australia, listing the country as high risk. How concerning is this?

ALBANESE: This is a real concern, but it’s not surprising given our infection rates are so high. Our infection rates are so high because there wasn't the preparedness. One of the reasons why the rollout of the booster is so low compared with European countries is because the rollout of the original vaccine was so low. And then when they finally announced a bring forward of the gap between the second shot and the booster shot, after Greg Hunt said it was irresponsible to have that just one day beforehand, then they could only do it for four months, originally, not three months, because the supply issues. It has consistently been a problem of supply that’s leading to Australia having very high infection rates. The past week has been Australia's deadliest of this pandemic. And the Prime Minister has dismissed all of this in his usual complacent way. “It's not a race”, “Nothing to see here”, “I'm not responsible” is his approach to leadership.

JOURNALIST: The Government has consistently said Australia is the envy of the world with its response to Coronavirus. Is it still the case given other countries don’t want their citizens travelling here?

ALBANESE: Other countries will make their own judgments. What is true is that Australians have been absolutely magnificent during this pandemic. The high vaccination rates, once supply has been available, shows that Australians are prepared to do whatever it takes to look after each other, to look after their families, their neighbours, their communities and their country. What has happened, though, is that they've been let down. The big bargain was that they would make sacrifices, they would support restrictions on their activity, they would get themselves vaccinated. But the deal was that the Government would do its bit. The problem here is that the Government haven't done their part of the bargain.

JOURNALIST: Now, economists are forecasting another rise in the Consumer Price Index this week. Australians are paying more for food and petrol. How concerned are you that we've seen inflation skyrocket here just as it has in the USA? And is there anything that governments can do to prevent that?

ALBANESE: Australians are really struggling with the cost of living. The truth is that under this Government, it is the first government in modern times in which wages aren't keeping up with the cost of living. The first government of any political persuasion where that's been the case. And the Government predicts that over the next four years real wages will decline. That is, people will be worse off. And that is, as well in addition to that, you have childcare costs which have been soaring. You have costs of health care, you have costs in so many areas that are leading to more pressure on family budgets. That's why Labor has a plan. We have a plan for cheaper childcare. We have a plan for housing affordability. We have a plan to lift real wages and to support permanent work. We have a plan for more secure work with rising wages, dealing with living standards by having cheaper childcare, and addressing cost of living issues. Australians are under pressure. This Prime Minister's attitude is always “oh, you've never had it so good”. The truth is the Australians are really struggling, so many people. And that's why this Government's oblivious, even in the way that it handed out JobKeeper to businesses that were having their profits soaring at the same time as so many sectors, including the arts, the higher education sector, tourism, were really, really struggling, and so many Australians have been left behind without the income support that they need.

JOURNALIST: Now the Government is giving international travelers the option of taking a rapid antigen test within 24 hours of departure rather than having a PCR test. Does Federal Labor support this move?

ALBANESE: Well, it has to be based upon the health advice because we know there's a difference between a rapid engine test and a PCR. A PCR test detects any presence of Coronavirus in the body. A rapid antigen test detects when that is contagious. So, it's important that there be a testing regime put in place, and that it be on the basis of health advice.

JOURNALIST: You said before, it's so incredibly difficult to find a rapid antigen test, months after National Cabinet changed testing requirements for close contacts and people with COVID. What more could be done to boost supply?

ALBANESE: They could have purchased supply. I've been approached by a company that have offered the Government rapid antigen tests at $3.25, $4 including freight from overseas, and they aren't able to do a deal with the Government. The fact is we should have been manufacturing rapid antigen tests here in Australia. Why is it that that wasn't put in place? We were told, about 18 months ago now, that we would be producing mRNA vaccines here in Australia in nine to 12 months. That was two Industry Ministers ago and 18 months ago we’re still not producing them here. Why is it that Australian-produced rapid antigen tests are being exported overseas rather than used here, because the Federal Government said it wasn't interested in purchasing them? We've just seen, in the last fortnight, the Government finally step up to purchase rapid antigen tests because of urgent and unforeseen circumstances. They were warned so many months ago that that was the case. And yet, the Prime Minister still won't concede that any mistakes have been made, which is why those same mistakes keep being repeated over and over again from a Prime Minister whose focus is always just on the 24 hour media cycle, always on the photo opportunity, never in actually doing his job.

JOURNALIST: And without more rapid antigen tests and continued pressure on PCR testing systems, is it possible people with symptoms or those who are close contacts won't be able to get tested and what are the implications of that?

ALBANESE: Look, we want people to be tested. The four great Grand Slam of failures, I say this in the Australian Open city of Melbourne, the Grand Slam of failures from this Government are tracing, testing, vaccinations and quarantine. Purpose-built quarantine – they haven't done anything serious about it. They were complacent and said it wasn't necessary and hotels were good enough. The vaccination rollout has been far too slow. Testing – there's been enormous pressure on and when things opened up you didn't have a step up from the Federal Government for increased testing and for accessing rapid antigen tests. And tracing, of course – I'm yet to meet anyone in Australia who has used the COVID Safe App that this Prime Minister said was the key, like sunscreen he likened it to, to keeping people safe. It is a multimillion dollar failure from this Government.

JOURNALIST: New South Wales students are likely to be undergoing twice-weekly testing to try to keep schools as safe as possible. But will this also increase the pressure on rapid antigen test supply?

ALBANESE: We need to keep students safe, people need to be tested. That's the key whether it's students who need to go to school so that their parents can go to work and so that they can learn. And no one wants restrictions, but people need testing so that we ensure that the health outcomes are the best possible. If you don't get the health outcomes right the economic consequences will be more severe. That is the lesson of this pandemic. It was the lesson from the very beginning, from the very beginning when the Prime Minister said “don't worry about it, I’m going on the footy tomorrow” at the very beginning of this pandemic. He got it wrong from that time. In June 2020, this Prime Minister was saying that we should just open up and learn to live with the virus. June 2020. Cut to January 2022 and he's there at the cricket making a joke about living with the virus and taking wickets with the virus at the very time when Travis Head wasn't able to play in that Test because he had the virus. Australians weren't taking wickets with the virus, which is why they're not going to work with the virus, and they won't be able to go to school with the virus. This virus needs to be taken seriously. And that means ensuring the best health outcomes possible. Because if you get the health outcomes right you'll get the economic outcomes right.

JOURNALIST: Just a couple of other ones, moving away from COVID. The Federal Government is boosting its humanitarian intake from Afghanistan with an extra 15,000 refugees to be resettled in Australia. Should that intake be increased even further?

ALBANESE: We certainly need to fulfil the obligations that we have to the people of Afghanistan, particularly those who helped our Australian Defence Force on the ground in Afghanistan. We need to be generous in our support. And I would encourage the Government to be generous in its support.

JOURNALIST: And lastly, do you believe Australia Day should be held on January 26.

ALBANESE: I think that Australia Day’s an important day for us to recognise our history, good and bad. It’s important for us to think about where we head as a country in the future. It's an opportunity for us to acknowledge that our history goes back some 60,000 years, and that is a priority for us to celebrate that, as well. We live with the oldest continuous civilisation on the planet. That should be a great source of pride. And it's why my priority isn't getting into the culture war debates. My priority is making sure that we get our First Nations people recognised in our national document, in our Australian Constitution, with the constitutionally-recognised Voice to Parliament. That is an important thing. That’s something that this Government promised would happen in this term. And we've seen no serious advance on it.

Can I conclude also by just giving a shout out to Grace Tame and Max for their fantastic news. Grace Tame has been a great Australian of the Year. She's a courageous young woman who changed the laws as a result of her coming forward and campaigning there in Tasmania, but also having a national impact. And as the Australian of the Year, she's shown courage. She has made a difference to the lives of so many young women in particular who had the courage to come forward as a result of Grace Tame’s leadership. I wish Grace and Max all the very best as Grace finishes her year as Australian of the Year. And it's great news at the end of that year about Grace and Max, who have a wonderful relationship. I've had the pleasure of meeting them on a number of occasions, and I wish them well. Thanks.

ENDS