SUBJECTS: Better Future for Queensland; Novak Djokovic debacle; Scott Morrison, Government advertising, Labor caucus.

MADONNA JARRETT, LABOR CANDIDATE FOR BRISBANE: I am Madonna Jarrett, Labor’s candidate for the upcoming federal election for the seat of Brisbane. I am running because I see a better future for Australia, a better future for Brisbane and I know only Anthony Albanese and Labor can deliver that vision for the future. The people of Brisbane are hard-working. They deserve a government that works for them and is prepared to put their families first. But we all know at the moment people are really hurting. They can’t get their antigen tests. They can’t get to the doctors. They can’t get groceries. They are paying more for medical services. We know that childcare is prohibitive for many families and not just that; many people are very concerned about the future that we are leaving for our future generations because of the lackadaisical approach this government has taken to climate action.

We have a real choice in this election. We have a choice between Albo and a Leader who has vision, is prepared to put families first today and create a sustainable future for tomorrow, or we have a choice of Morrison, who doesn’t hold the hose and frankly couldn’t plan his way out of a paper bag.

I am thrilled that Albo is here today with us in Brisbane, because I do believe that there is a better future for Australia and a better future for Brisbane. I have lived around the world. I have seen a lot and it would give me no greater pleasure than to join you in Canberra and to represent the people of Brisbane.

ANTHONY ALBANESE: Thank you very much Madonna and I am so pleased to be here on Day 10 of my Better Future for Queensland visit - a visit that has taken us from Cairns to look at the tourism sector, to Mossman to look at indigenous rangers. We have met with canegrowers around Mackay. We’ve met with banana growers around Tully. We have met community leaders in Innisfail and Ingham. We’ve met the tourism sector around Airlie Beach, prawn farmers in Proserpine. We’ve headed to Rocky, where we met with the beef industry. In Gladstone we have looked at the Rio Tinto alumina refinery and their plan for cleaner, cheaper energy to drive growth in that sector in high-value manufacturing with a future made in Australia.

And we have been to Maryborough, which has suffered so much and we have met brave Queenslanders, whether it be QFES the amazing professional there, whether it be the SES and RFS volunteers - Queenslanders looking after each other, showing the resilience and strength that makes this state and this country so great.

But we can even better in the future. I am optimistic about Australia’s future and during this trip I have heard feedback on our three themes - our themes of better living standard for working families by offering cheaper childcare, putting Medicare at the centre of our health system, not undermining them. And that includes the fact that rapid antigen test need to be available for free for workers through the Medicare system.

Secondly, secure work. People are worried about same job, same pay, they are worried about casualisation. They are worried that in this country there are about two million Australians who are unemployed or don’t have enough work. We know that insecure work means people can’t plan to have a family. They can’t plan to get a mortgage.

And the third principle - a Future Made in Australia. One of the lessons of the pandemic is that Australia needs to stand more in its own feet. When we had this pandemic we didn’t have enough personal protective equipment. We didn’t have enough ventilators. We still aren’t manufacturing mRNA vaccines here. We need to make more things here, making more things here like the rail manufacturing we saw at the Downer EDI site in Maryborough, making sure that we have high-value manufacturing here in Australia, that we are able to take advantage of the shift to cleaner, cheaper energy which can drive growth in regional Australia. Making sure that we are as good as those people who are running the farms, who are running industry, making sure that jobs grow in regional Queensland.

I am very proud to be here as well with my friend Madonna Jarrett. Madonna and I have known each other for more than 35 years. I have been friends with her family going back to when we were very young to say the least. And when Madonna and I discussed her running for the seat of Brisbane, I encouraged her because Madonna Jarrett is the sort of person we need in Canberra, someone with experience - lived experience around the world, someone who has worked in the private and public sector, someone who understands the needs of this community who will be an advocate for sustainability going forward, someone who will be an advocate for better living standards, not someone who will jut apologise for Scott Morrison’s mistakes.

What we know is that Scott Morrison never acts until a problem becomes a crisis. It’s always too little too late and when he does act he is always looking to blame someone else. If I have the great honour of being elected Prime Minister, with Madonna Jarrett as part of the team as the Labor member for Brisbane, I will accept responsibility. I will work with business, unions and community organisations to build a stronger Australia. We will learn the lessons of this pandemic about Australia coming back, not to what was there; coming back and building the country but in a way which builds strength, which builds that national resilience. That is my commitment to the people of Brisbane, That is my commitment to the people of Queensland and I just want to thank all those famers, businesses, workers, community organisations who have been so welcoming over the last ten days. This is a great state. I back Queensland 365 days a year and 362 nights and I will continue to do that into the future. Happy to take questions.

JOURNALIST: Inaudible.

ALBANESE: Well the Djokovic debacle shows yet again the characteristic of the Morrison Government. First they said somehow it wasn’t their responsibility, the fact that the Australian Government issues a visa. And this could have all been avoided.

This government says it takes borders seriously and the issue of visas seriously. There are people in this community who know that they have tried to get a visa for their mum or dad or aunty or uncle or child indeed, to coming to Australia. There are Australian citizens who were threatened with jail terms, you might recall, if they returned to Australia from India at one stage. But somehow the issuing of the visa for Novak Djokovic that occurred by the Australian Government, that it is a surprise to the Morrison Government that this was controversial. This has been the lead story in the sporting world for months – for months – on every back page of every newspaper in the world.

Novak Djokovic is the number one male tennis player in the world. A great Queenslander, Ash Barty, is the number one female tennis player, And Novak Djokovic has been shooting for is tenth Australian open, trying to be the greatest grand slam champion of all time by winning his 21st title. And the idea that it was unknown that this was coming, and the idea that only late on a Friday afternoon on the weekend before the tournament begins, after the draw has taken place we finally have a decision from the Federal Government, says it all.

This has been a great embarrassment for Australia. It is one that could have been avoided. The rules are clear that you need to be double vaccinated in order to enter Australia. And we still don’t have an explanation for how it is that the Australian Government, under Scott Morrison, issued the visa in the first place.

JOURNALIST: Inaudible.

ALBANESE: The right decision was to stop the visa being issued in the first place and the rules are very clear. What has occurred here is a debacle which has been dragged out day for day after day after day. This is a government that always looks at the spin. Does anyone believe that there wasn’t a workshopping of when the decision would be made for Friday at 6pm? Does anyone believe that was a one-off decision by the minister? Just like this government put ads on TV about rapid antigen tests before people could actually get access to rapid antigen tests and before they had purchased any. At the same time that they published the tender for rapid antigen tests from the Federal Government, they had ads on the TV.

This is the same government that during the bushfire crisis, while it was still raging, had ads on TV using our defence force personnel and with a donate to the Liberal Party button as part of the ads. The only thing that is missing from the ads about RATs is a donate to the Liberal Party button.

JOURNALIST: Inaudible.

ALBANESE: Local business is really struggling and it is a direct result of the failures of this government. The grand slam of failures – quarantine, vaccinations, tracing and testing are the grand slam of failures from this government. So Novak Djokovic mightn’t win the grand slam, but Scott Morrison has won the grand slam of failures – tracing, testing quarantine and vaccinations. That is what we have seen from this government.

And it’s another example of whereby something we have always known, and something that Scott Morrison has never known, in spite of the health advice, if you don’t get the health right, then you won’t get the economy right. And that is what has occurred here. We have had complacency and arrogance from a government that was warned months ago they needed to prepare – that the opening up of the borders would result in a spread of the pandemic and they needed to prepare, including through testing. But the reason why they have had to move to RATs of course is because the testing system wasn’t coping. A whole lot of it was being shut down at the very time it needed to be ramped up. And so the government said you are on your own, go and get a rapid antigen test. But people couldn’t find them, and if they could find them, they couldn’t afford them. And then they said that we can’t afford rapid antigen tests but we can afford to spend taxpayers’ money on ads. It says it all about this government. We always needed to get the health outcomes right, because if you don’t get the health outcomes right, you certainly can’t get good economic outcomes.

JOURNALIST: Inaudible.

ALBANESE: Of course they need to be ordering more rapid antigen tests. But what we have seen as well is that it is just like the rollout of the vaccines, where Pfizer was approaching the Federal Government saying we want to do a deal with you to give you access to vaccines so that you can protect your population, and Scott Morrison said it wasn’t a race. It always was a race. And it always was a race to get rapid tests.

These are systems that have been in use overseas for a year and yet the Government failed until this week to purchase rapid antigen tests. It was approved in September and the approval took effect from the 1st of November. Unions were raising with the government. For example, the Transport Workers Union wrote to the Government and said we need to deal with this because of supply chains. Dave Noonan, the secretary of the construction branch of the CFMEU, sat in a meeting with Michaelia Cash months ago and said this is an issue to keep the workforce going. What they got back was crickets - no response whatsoever.

The problem is the Prime Minister likes to give cricket analogies. He stood in the commentary box there at the SCG at a time when there was no food on supermarket shelves, at a time whereby people couldn’t get their boosters, childcare centres were being shut, aged care facilities were closing down to visits form loved ones. The Prime Minister sat there and said how good is living with Covid and how good is taking wickets with Covid.

Well, I tell you, the other place that cricket is relevant is when people raise issues with this prime minister because what people get back – the experts – is crickets. They get no action. They just get silence,. And they wait until it is an absolute crisis before this prime minister is ready to act.

This prime minister needs to do his job. He needs to do less selfies, less media stunts with cooking and all the nonsense that we see. He is happy to do high-vis shots in the cabin of a truck. How about he look after truckies, who actually deliver the food and essentials that we rely upon? If only the world was run by selfies, this government would be good. And photo-ops. But the truth is that it is run by people who are doing their job. Our nurses are doing their jobs. Our truckies are trying to do their jobs. Our supermarket workers are doing their job. Our police and emergency services are doing their job. Scott Morrison is not doing his job. He is not up to doing the job because for him the job is all about marketing and advertising, rather than substance. Australia is suffering at the moment because we have a prime minister who is obsessed by himself and on every issue it’s not about the country, it’s not about looking after people’s health. It’s all about the next poll. It’s all about the 24-hour timeframe. It’s all about the marketing.

We need to do better. Labor will build a better future. That is our plan. More secure work. Lifting living standards. A Future Made in Australia. Making sure that we deal with the opportunities that are there from the transition to clean energy. Making sure that we deal with jobs and lifting people up. Making sure that we do our jobs. I give this commitment, if I am elected Prime Minister, I won’t buck responsibility. I won’t be looking for someone else. On the way through we will have a an anti-corruption commission with teeth, because that is something else which is needed.

JOURNALIST: Inaudible.

ALBANESE: The aged care sector are really suffering. We had Mike Baird this week, the former Liberal premier of New South Wales who looks after Hammond care, one of the biggest providers in the country, talking about the need to bring in the Australian Defence Force to make beds and look after our elderly Australians.

We need to acknowledge, unlike the government. Simon Birmingham was on TV yesterday saying everything will be right. And throughout this Scott Morrison does a media conference every now and again, at least once a month saying we are all through this and we are going to push through. For aged care workers there are real issues. For aged care providers, they are very anxious. But for the families as well of aged care residents there are major anxieties being caused and of course for many of the residents, some of whom with the level of dementia that is there with people in aged care facilities, they are really struggling with what is going on. It’s a really difficult time for them. And my heart goes out to them and their families and the Federal Government remain complacent about it. If they won’t listen to me they should listen to Mike Baird about how serious this crisis is.

JOURNALIST: Inaudible.

ALBANESE: Certainly many businesses are really struggling to get access to a workforce. We have heard that particularly from the agricultural sector and there is incredible frustration that we haven’t been able to bring Australians home safely, let alone, let alone bring in workers who are necessary and who are needed. I have heard from the Queensland ag sector that the Pacific Island workers are providing an important contribution. But how is it that we are in the third year of this pandemic, if Scott Morrison had of listened to Annastacia Palaszczuk, who has been arguing for purpose-built quarantine, and was arguing with John Wagner. They had the site there out at Wellcamp and now the State Government are assisting with, if that had happened when it was first proposed, now more than 15 months ago, it would have been up and running throughout last year. We could have brought people in safely, right next to the airport. Once again a nonsense excuse. Wellcamp Airport takes international freight flights all the time. I have been the Aviation Minister for six years and I know that airport could have played a critical role for bringing Australians home as well as well as providing support for businesses in Queensland. And yet it was ignored and all sorts of excuses coming up from the Federal Government of why that shouldn’t ahead. How is it that on so many areas, things that are the Federal Government’s responsibly - immigration, issuing of visas customs and quarantine, Scott Morrison always looks to blame someone else - never accepts responsibility.

Australia needs to do better. Under a government that I lead with Madonna Jarrett as the member for Brisbane, we will do better for the country because we won’t wait, we won’t sit back and spin and say that everything is all OK until an issue that you could see like a train coming down the tracks - and the Novak Djokovic debacle is an example of that - how you could not see that coming as an issue is beyond my comprehension, beyond my comprehension.

But for this government, it seems to have come as a surprise. And that is why, in spite of the fact that they put it out six o’clock on a Friday night, I will give them the big tip. The world is a big place. It wasn’t Friday night at six o’clock around the world. In some places it was the beginning of the day and there is no bigger story on the planet today than this government’s bungling of that issue.

Thanks very much and just a final big shout out to Queenslanders. Thank you for the very warm welcome that I have had here over the last ten days. I look forward to being back here again before the election, but obviously after the election as well. I look forward to working with Queenslanders. You are a great state. We need more Labor representation in the caucus. We have fantastic candidates from Elida Faith in the Far North, right down to Madonna Jarratt here in Brisbane and everywhere in between and we need more Queenslanders in the Labor caucus because I want Queensland to have a strong voice led by Jim Chalmers as the leader of our Queensland team. I want a strong voice in the caucus for Queensland.

ENDS