SUBJECTS: Labor’s policy agenda; stage three tax cuts; capital gains tax; negative gearing; Labor’s reform agenda; Federal election; establishment of Labor's National Anti-Corruption Commission; Labor’s announcement for stillbirth paid leave entitlements; Morrison Government’s rorting of taxpayers’ funds; lockdowns across the country; vaccine rollout; Scott Morrison failing Australians during a pandemic; Federal Government failing to deliver; JobKeeper; wage subsidies; voluntary assisted dying; ATAGI advice on COVID vaccinations; misinformation and confusion in messaging during a health pandemic.

ANTHONY ALBANESE, LEADER OF THE AUSTRALIAN LABOR PARTY: Thanks very much for joining us. I begin by congratulating Ariarne Titmus on a gold medal. This is a time when Australia needs lifting up. And it's a great thing. And that will help rejuvenate the spirits of Australians at this difficult time. Because as we know, there's still some 14 million Australians in lockdown. And my heart goes out to them who are going through a difficult period. But I also want to say thank you. Because those Australians overwhelmingly are doing the right thing. They're following the rules, they are following the instructions. They're looking after their own health, the health of their families, the health of their communities, and therefore the health of the nation by doing the right thing and making sacrifices. A party room meeting was just held virtually as the Coalition had one last Thursday. And Jim and I are here to provide an update on a number of matters that we dealt with prior to Parliament resuming next week. The choice in the next election will be between an Australian Labor Party that has concrete plans to lift living standards to lift wages, to create jobs in high-value manufacturing and renewables, to deal with the challenge of climate change, which we recognise if done properly will create jobs as well as lowering energy prices and lowering our emissions. A Labor Government committing to strengthen Medicare, not undermine it. Committed to make child care cheaper, as well as dealing with the aged care crisis that has developed under this Government. The Coalition Government has failed Australians this year by failing on the two jobs that it had. The rollout of the vaccine and also, of course, national quarantine. They botched both those jobs. This is a tired eight-year-old Government who want to be there for more than a decade, who haven't been able to deal with what they had to do this year, let alone look to the future with any positive vision whatsoever to take Australia forward.

Labor wants to deliver for working families. And what that means is providing them with stability and certainty. Families and businesses want to be able to plan. They want the ability to once again start looking forward to imagine a better, more prosperous life. And Labor intends to give them the policies that will do just that. Families want an economy that works for them, not the other way around. Australians need a Government that will back them and some certainty around the set of rules that they're playing by. And that's what Labor will give them. A Government that backs Australians. As Labor Leader, I am absolutely determined to look to the future, not relitigate the past. And what that means is not refighting the last election but contesting the coming election with a vision for the nation that is positive, that is optimistic, that provides a pathway to build stronger, not just to try to go back to what was there before, not to relitigate old battles, but to present a clear alternative vision whilst presenting an appropriate critique of the failure of this Government.

So today, I announce that Labor in Government will uphold the legislative changes to personal income taxes. And we will maintain existing regimes for negative gearing and capital gains tax. A Labor Government will deliver the same legislated tax relief to more than 9 million Australians that has already been legislated through the Parliament. We, of course, down the track will have more to say about cracking down on multinational tax avoidance before the election. And we will continue, when Parliament sits next week, to raise the need to provide immediate support to businesses and individuals who are doing it tough. This Prime Minister sometimes talks about Western Sydney, but he's abandoned Western Sydney at its time of need. If JobKeeper, which the Government reluctantly adopted after saying it was a dangerous idea, in circumstances that are exactly the same as they are now, if that was the right policy then that the Government conceded, why isn't it the right policy now? And we don't care what it's called. We just think that workers and small business deserve more support than they are getting from this Government right now.

A Labor Government will also crack down on the rorts and waste of the Morrison Government. The rorts under the Morrison Government have undermined public confidence in our democracy. In September, it will be over 1,000 days since the Government promised a Commonwealth integrity commission. Despite the degree of abuse now reaching extraordinary levels, it's very clear that the Morrison Government has no intention of doing anything about it. They continue to treat taxpayers' funds as if they're Liberal Party and National Party funds. And we've seen that with the latest expose by the Audit Office of their pork-and-ride scheme, building car parks for commuters where train stations aren't even there. An outrageous abuse worth some $660 million for 47 car parks, of which only two have been built. So today, I announce that a Labor Government will establish an effective national anti-corruption commission, which is what we will call it. We'll call it what it is. The National Anti-Corruption Commission. It will have teeth. Labor's worked closely with experts and drawn on the experience of states and territories, all of which have a body such as this. We've developed a series of key design principles that will guide the implementation of this policy. Labor's National Anti-Corruption Commission will operate as a standing Royal Commission with the powers to investigate serious and systemic corruption amongst parliamentarians, parliamentary staff, public servants, statutory office holders and other public officials. It will have the power to commence inquiries of its own volition. It is well past time that transparency and accountability were returned to their rightfully central place in our democracy. Whether it's Car Park Rorts, Sports Rorts, Regional Rorts or Safer Community Rorts, something must be done about Scott Morrison's addiction to the rorting of public funds. 

So today, I announce that Labor will introduce a bill into the Senate to improve the transparency and accountability of ministerial decisions with grant programs. Labor shouldn't have to introduce this bill. But we don't have a choice. I cannot be clearer. The abuse of public money must stop if we are going to have confidence in our political system. The bill that Katy Gallagher will introduce, our Shadow Finance Minister, will force ministers who approve grants rejected by their departments, or award grants in their own electorates, to report the decision to the Finance Minister within 30 days, and for there to be transparency around that. At a time when the Morrison Government is racking up more than $1 trillion of debt and hundreds of billions of dollars of new spending, every dollar must be spent wisely, carefully and in the interests of the Australian community. 

The final decision which we deliberated on at Caucus today and which I'm announcing is our introduction of a bill by Kristina Keneally, a Private Senators' Bill to safeguard the entitlements of parents who are affected by stillbirth. In Australia, tragically, six babies are lost to stillbirth each day. More than 2,000 family tragedies every year. Under the bill that Kristina will introduce, we will ensure that employees can access the same quantum of entitlement to employer paid parental leave, regardless of whether the pregnancy ended in stillbirth or with a live birth. This is common sense. It's compassionate, and it's appropriate.

Now, we've taken our time. And we've done our due diligence to come to these decisions. Over eight long years in Government, this Coalition has shown that they're tired. They're out of ideas. And in my view, they're out of time. But it's up to the Australian people, of course, whether they continue for more than a decade in office. But I'd say to the Australian people, do you really think this Government is going to get better in its fourth term? Or will they be even more arrogant? Will there be more rorting, more looking after their mates, more promises that don't announce in delivery, more obsession with just themselves rather than the needs of the Australian people? We intend to put up an ambitious reform program. We've made many announcements up to this point. Our National Reconstruction Fund, Jobs and Skills Australia, Cheaper Child Care, dealing with aged care, including dementia care and dealing with staffing levels in aged care, having appropriate policies including net zero emissions by 2050 and a plan for renewables, including dealing with energy transmission through our Rewiring the Nation Project. Policies for more affordable housing for Australians through our Housing Australia Future Fund. We will have a lot more to say in the lead-up to the election. We'll put forward a plan that is as optimistic, that is as bold as the Australian people themselves. The Australian people are making great sacrifices during this pandemic. What they deserve is an Australian Government that takes the once-in-a-century opportunity to imagine a better Australia and then set about creating it. That's what I intend to do as Labor Leader. In contrast, my opponent waits until a crisis absolutely forces decisions upon him. I predict there will be some form of additional assistance in coming days. Once again, the Prime Minister is delaying, prevaricating, not taking leadership decisions, just as he did during the bushfire crisis, just as he did in resisting JobKeeper and wage subsidies, just as he did supporting the necessary conditions over mental health support and other measures that were needed to be put in place. Just as he has, of course, on the big two jobs that he had this year - the failure on the vaccine rollout and the failure to put in place national quarantine facilities. Labor is ready to lead. We're putting forward a critique of the Government, but a plan for the next election. But most importantly, we'll put forward a positive plan for beyond the next election to build a stronger Australia.

JIM CHALMERS, SHADOW TREASURER: Thanks very much, Anthony. And as Anthony said a moment ago, an Albanese Labor Government will deliver the same legislated tax relief for more than 9 million Australians who earn $45,000 a year or more as the Morrison Government. And we will provide that certainty and stability when it comes to the existing negative gearing and capital gains tax regimes. The focus should be on the economic cost of the Government failure on vaccines and quarantine and now JobKeeper. The focus should be on more jobs and better paid jobs and more opportunities for more people in more parts of Australia into the future. The focus should be on what Australia looks like in the future, not in re-prosecuting their last election campaign. Now, these tax cuts were legislated two years ago. And in the two years since then, we have been consulting, we have been listening. We have said all along that we would weigh up a range of considerations and make our views known closer to the election, but well in advance of it so that people could come to a view on what we are announcing today. These are not easy decisions. They're big decisions. But this is the right decision that we're making today, weighing up a whole range of considerations. And if you look through this entire period of this parliamentary term under Anthony's leadership, when it comes to the economy, we continue to get the big calls about the economy right. We said that people would lose their jobs when JobKeeper was cut. 56,000 Australians lost their jobs. We said it was madness to end JobKeeper before the pandemic ended, before the vaccines were rolled out. And unfortunately, that has turned out to be true. We said that the recovery was welcomed, but hostage to vaccines and quarantine. And we've been proven right there as well. We've said all along, you can't have a first-rate economic recovery with a third-rate vaccine rollout. And unfortunately, that has turned out to be true as well. We've been right on every occasion when it comes to the big calls about the economy. But we would prefer it if the Government got it right. The whole country knows it's just common sense to bring JobKeeper back or something like it. The whole country knows. It's just common sense to bring back JobKeeper, which should never have been ended in the first place. They should never have ended JobKeeper while they weren't getting vaccines rolled out and building purpose-built quarantine. And now Josh Frydenberg is out there today saying vaccinations are the ticket out of this pandemic. Well, the rest of the country knew that all along. Again, it's just common sense. We want people to get vaccinated. The Morrison Government hasn't provided enough vaccines to make that possible.

So when you look at the difficulties in the economy, you look at how workers and small businesses and local communities in lockdown areas are struggling, you can trace this all back to the errors that the Government has made on vaccines and quarantine and JobKeeper. That is clear to the rest of Australia. It is just common sense. And Frydenberg says that vaccines are a ticket out of this problem. That is an extraordinary admission of failure, that the thing that is purely the Government's responsibility is the main thing that this country is falling short on. And that's why communities are locked down. It's why the economy's bleeding $300 million a day, or $2 billion a week. So the failures on vaccines and quarantine and JobKeeper is putting Australians, their jobs, their small businesses, their recovery and the economy at risk. And what we have tried to do all along, when the Government comes forward with something which is working, JobKeeper but without the rorts and including casual workers and others unnecessarily excluded, then we are prepared to support that. It's time for the Government to recognise, as the rest of the country has, that it's common sense to bring back JobKeeper. It should never have been cut in the first place. That's one of a number of things that the Government is getting wrong. The Australian people can't afford for them to continue the Morrison Government to get these big calls wrong.

ALBANESE: Thanks very much. We're happy to take questions.

JOURNALIST: It is fair to say, I don't know if I missed the memo, but the election isn't on yet, but it feels like an election platform. Why today?

ALBANESE: I'm not sure about the basis of the question. But we certainly are prepared for an election whenever it's called. We have given appropriate consideration to this. Parliament is due to come back next week. We made a decision that we would clarify our position around about now. And that is what we are doing.

JOURNALIST: Will a Labor Government have to reduce the money it has committed to health and education at the last election given you won't be repealing the stage three of the tax cuts? 

ALBANESE: We will make all of our announcements for the next election before this election. This term, not last term. I said that on the day that I became Leader. You have to respect the view of the Australian people. And we weren't successful at the last election. Will a Labor Government do more than a Coalition Government on education and health? You bet we will. For a start, we won't attack Medicare. And what we've seen with the more than 900 changes to Medicare that went through on July 1 is yet again an undermining of Medicare. That is what this Government always does. What you'll see from Labor is support for education. We've already announced it. Guess what? Early learning is the most effective investment that you can do in a child's education. More than 90 per cent of brain development in a human being occurs in the first five years. Why is it that we don't value that enough? That's why in my first Budget Reply, we announced that as a signatory policy at the centre of it. We'll have much more to say about our policies going forward. But our policies for the next election will be the ones that we announced during this term. 

JOURNALIST: But you can't say whether the funding committed to those two areas will be less than the last election.

ALBANESE: We will announce all of our policies for the election this term, not in 2010, or 2005. But this term. We've made that very clear across the board. But we will have substantial policies in health. We already have had, of course, in health and aged care, we have announced a very different approach to this Government's. We've announced different policies in education. We'll have more to say about TAFE, about schools, about universities. We will have more to say on policies across the board. But a Labor Government, Australians know and trust, that a Labor Government will always do more on education and health and looking after people than the current Government will. And what is more, we will do more to lift living standards across the board. We know we've had eight years of stagnant wages. And the Budget provided for a reduction in real wages in the coming four years. We've already announced a policy for secure work that will lift wages. Policies like same job, same pay. Policies to deal with casualisation of the workforce. Policies to put permanent jobs and job security as one of the objects of the Fair Work Act. Policies including domestic and family violence leave, paid leave, of 10 days. Policies of taking action to criminalise wage theft. These are the sorts of policies that we've already announced. We will announce more in the lead-up to the election.

JOURNALIST: Was it a unanimous decision?

ALBANESE: Yes. 

JOURNALIST: For the stage three tax cuts?

ALBANESE: Yes. 

JOURNALIST: And the negative gearing and capital gains tax?

ALBANESE: Yes.

JOURNALIST: Why can't you give any assurances to the state Labor Government that if you're elected, you will repeal the section of the Criminal Code that prevents doctors from providing voluntary assisted dying support via telehealth?

ALBANESE: Sorry?

JOURNALIST: The Acting Premier last week say they have had no assurances from the Federal Opposition that if you win Government you repeal that section of the Criminal Code.

ALBANESE: He hasn't raised up with me. I know Stephen very well. He hasn't raised with me. It may well have been raised with my health spokesperson. And it's a matter for Mark Butler and as legal issues, a matter for Mark Dreyfus. 

JOURNALIST: Mark Butler hasn't replied to questions on that matter. Neither has your office.

ALBANESE: It hasn't been raised with me. It hasn't been raised with me and what we don't do in the Labor Party is to decide policy at press conferences. What we do is have considered processes. We've just had one. It is a terrific process that involves our entire Caucus. We're a democratic process. And we'll give consideration to any policy matters in that appropriate way. 

JOURNALIST: Both of you mentioned quite clearly that you're not into re-prosecuting the last election campaign. That was quite damaging for Labor. How damaging do you anticipate it to be in the upcoming election? I mean, like the fact that you're saying multiple times that is not re-prosecuting the last election campaign. You're highlighting the fact that it was damaging. 

CHALMERS: We've said since the day after the election that no opposition takes exactly the same set of policies to the next election that they took to the last election. And what we've tried to do is listen and learn from the last election and consult widely and make sure that we come up with a set of policies in my area in the economy which are matched to the conditions that we would inherit - the Budget conditions and the economic conditions. This election won't be about differences on these legislated tax cuts. The next election will be about the cost of the economy of Scott Morrison's diabolical failures on vaccines and quarantine and JobKeeper. The next election will be about whether Anthony Albanese and the Labor team can create more jobs and more opportunities for more people, more fairly shared, than the Morrison Government can after eight years of wage stagnation and flatlining living standards. The next election will be about what happens after the election, not what happened before the election. And so, that is what people can expect from us to focus forwards and not backwards. And today is part of that.

JOURNALIST: What's your response to the Government's argument that the COVID Disaster Payments is flowing more quickly than JobKeeper?

ALBANESE: Well, what I say to them is that they need to do what I've done, and Jim's done, and all the Labour Caucus have done, which is speak to our electorate, and importantly, listen to what people are saying. Now, we've had to do that sometimes virtually, through Zoom calls. And I've certainly done that with small businesses. They're crying out for help. They're crying out for help. There are so many people out there who aren't getting any assistance at all, who can't leave their suburb as we speak. And businesses that literally are collapsing as we speak. So this Government can say that it's all okay and that things are on track. They've got form for that. They said we were at the front of the queue for vaccines. Yesterday, Scott Morrison announced booster vaccines for 2022 and 2023. That's terrific. But boosters are boosting existing vaccines. We haven't got our aged care workforce, our aged care residents, disability care residents, vaccinated yet. And they were promised they would get vaccinated by Easter. This is a Government that just sometimes I wonder if they just believe their own stuff, if they just talk to each other. They need to actually speak to the community. The community is hurting. Workers are hurting. Businesses are hurting. They're crying out for help. The New South Wales Liberal Government is telling them that. Businesses are telling them that. The Business Council of Australia is telling them that. The Australian Council of Trade Unions is telling them that. And we're telling them that. It's important that they listen and stop with this characterisation that defines Scott Morrison's Government. Of him standing up and saying, 'She'll be right mate, it's all going well' as if it's a cheer squad when people are doing really, really tough.

JOURNALIST: Do you think people living in regional Australia should be able to access voluntary assisted dying?

ALBANESE: We don't have any legislation before us. And it's a state matter. It's a state matter. It's not something that we have to determine a position on. And in the Labor Party, we have a conscience vote on any such matters.

JOURNALIST: The ATAGI advice has changed for younger people in Sydney to get whatever vaccine. Do you think this advice should apply to all of Australia?

ALBANESE: I think that it's really important that I don't trying to instruct ATAGI on health advice. These are people who have doctor next to their name for a reason. Because they have spent years of studying these issues. They're experts. It's important that their advice come up to governments and governments then consider that advice. I've been respectful of it the whole way through. I haven't changed my view that the health advice is something that should be respected. What I know is that it is difficult for people to get vaccines. That's the problem at the moment. The problem is simple. That's one of supply. And still, I have people in my electorate who can't access vaccines, who log on and can't get an appointment. That's something that's caused enormous frustration.

Can I before I conclude just mention on one further issue related to health? And that is the comments and activities of George Christensen. George Christensen is a member of the Government who is putting out misinformation that is damaging and that's undermining the efforts of those Australians who are making sacrifices to keep each other safe. It's important that Scott Morrison pull George Christensen and Barnaby Joyce, take action, and just stop this misinformation. It is dangerous. It's not assisting processes. We know that the events that occurred in Sydney could become a super spreader event, which would mean a longer lockdown, which would mean more jobs lost, which would mean more cost to our economy. But importantly as well, we saw a 38-year-old woman lose her life over the weekend, as well as a woman in her 70s. Can we be more respectful of each other? And as Members of Parliament, including George Christensen, we have a responsibility to actually put forward information which is factual, not based on quack theories, and not information which is dangerous, that encourages people to risk their own health and the health of others. Thank you.

ENDS