SUBJECTS: 2022 Federal Budget Reply; Federal election; cost of living; Labor’s policy agenda; Labor’s plan for aged care; national security; Australia-India free trade agreement; flood emergency on the East Coast of Australia; Morrison Government always too little, too late.
 
JO HESLIN, CEO OF HAKEA GROVE AGED CARE: Good morning, everyone. It's just such an honour to have aged care front and centre this morning here at Hakea Grove. And I really want to put out a very warm welcome to those standing behind me, and all of you. And I'm now going to hand over to, obviously, our member, Emma. And thank you so much for coming.
 
EMMA MCBRIDE, MEMBER FOR DOBELL: Good morning. I'm Emma McBride, the Federal Member for Dobell. And I'd like to begin by acknowledging the traditional owners of the land on which we meet, the Darkinjung people, and to pay my respects to elders past, present and emerging. To Labor Leader, Anthony Albanese, you care so deeply about aged care. And it is such a privilege to have you here at Hakea Grove on the Central Coast after the Budget Reply. To Dr Gordon Reid, Labor's candidate for Robertson, who works as a doctor in emergency, we're very fortunate to have you as the candidate here on the Central Coast. And most importantly of all, to Jo, and to all of the staff here who have cared for so many local people throughout the pandemic, who put themselves in harm's way, when there was a shortage of PPE or vaccinations, and kept local people safe, we're just so grateful for you. I've invited Anthony to the Central Coast today to talk about something which is very close to my heart - aged care. Many of you know I lost my dad to younger onset Alzheimer's dementia. And for me, this is deeply personal. And it is deeply personal to so many people and families. On the Central Coast, one in five people are aged over 65. And many local people work within aged care. It means so much to us. Aged care touches each and every family. It matters. And it must change. Thank you so much, Anthony.
 
ANTHONY ALBANESE, LEADER OF THE AUSTRALIAN LABOR PARTY: Well, thank you very much, Emma and to Dr Gordon Reid. It's great to be back on the Coast. And to Jo, thank you, not just for your welcome here this morning, but thank you for what you've done particularly during the pandemic. Jo lived in a caravan on site here during the pandemic, just so she could look after people here at Hakea. An extraordinary story. Just one of the extraordinary stories of Australians during the pandemic. The heroes of the pandemic. Our aged care workers, our child care workers, our cleaners, those people who kept the economy going. But particularly those people in the care economy. Those workers who helped aged care residents get through what was a very difficult time. And this morning, I've met some very happy aged care residents here who talked about the only complaint they had was getting too much food. But the truth is that in so many aged care facilities around the country, they're struggling. The residents are struggling. We have an aged care crisis. We had an interim Royal Commission which was summed up with one word in the title of the report. And that title was neglect. What we have is a circumstance whereby too many aged care workers are leaving the industry. What we have is too many Australians who deserve respect and dignity in their later years. Being in a circumstance whereby the Royal Commission found that over 50 per cent of aged care residents weren't getting the nutrition that they need. They are literally starving. We've heard too many stories through the Royal Commission about maggots in wounds, about had the dire circumstances that people have found themselves in. Someone who's fallen on a floor and there's no one there to pick them up. People who are living in circumstances of lying in their own faeces because there's no staff, not enough, to actually look after them at that time. People wearing the same clothes, not getting proper showers, not being able to live with the dignity that we expect. Well, a Labor Government I lead will put the humanity back into aged care. We announced it as our centrepiece of the Budget Reply on Thursday. Our five-point plan. Now, this five-point plan arose out of the Royal Commission. This isn't something we've gone away and done independently in terms of our research. A Royal Commission, when it is established, is established for a reason. And we know this Government resisted doing it, but then when the Royal Commission report came down, they have ignored some of the key recommendations. Those key recommendations that we will adopt are five key themes.
 
One is we will put the nurses back into nursing homes. There needs to be a nurse present in aged-care facilities 24/7. What that will do as well is to have some savings, not just a cost. Because if you don't have a nurse present, often an aged-care resident will have to be rushed to an emergency department to get the health care that could have been provided on the spot when it was needed, day or night. That is the first component. It just strikes me that this is just common-sense. And when I’ve said over the last couple of days that is what we would be doing, the response I got from many, including this morning where we were at Avoca Beach was, ‘Doesn't that happen anyway? Isn't that just common-sense?’ I say it is.
 
The second component which is important is to allow, according with the Royal Commission recommendations for 215 minutes of care per day. Again, making sure that people get the care that they need, whether it's a shower or whether it's the support in terms of their health care, their medication being looked after. But it is also the opportunity to have a conversation, to have a bit of human interaction that is so important.
 
The third element goes to the aged care workforce and their wages. We will make a submission, as the Government, to the Fair Work Commission to support a wage increase. Now, I notice the Prime Minister yesterday, of course, said that they would also, of course, be bound to deliver any wage increase that is granted by the Fair Work Commission. And that is right. But why is it that they are not on the side of workers earning as little as $22 an hour, to provide that support with a submission to the Fair Work Commission?
 
The fourth is about quality of service. We heard good quality of service here today. I've heard it in many aged care facilities that I've been to whereby you have a facility like that providing nutritious food. This morning, we were talking about people who had eggs, had porridge, had cereal, had yoghurt, had fruit, had juice. It's all available here. The truth is that it is not available in a lot of places. And we need to lift the standards. We need to have a mandated level of nutrition and care to be available.
 
And the fifth, but certainly not the least important, the one that ties is all together, is proper regulation. The proper reporting of where dollars are being spent that goes into the system. Making sure it goes to care. Making sure it makes a difference. I'm very proud of the announcement that we made on Thursday night. And I will continue to talk about it not just each day before the election, but after the election as well. Labor put in plans, as we announced on the Budget Reply night, to grow the economy through cheaper, cleaner energy, through our Powering Australia Plan, to grow new industries through the National Reconstruction Fund, to skill up Australians through the creation of Jobs and Skills Australia, to provide cheaper child care, to have fairer workplaces through our industrial relations plans, to fix the NBN here in regions like this through our uplift and resorting to the policies that we had that recognise that fibre was better than copper, particularly to overcome the tyranny of distance and allowing businesses to grow in regions like the Central Coast. We have a range of policies that are all out there to build the long-term. This Government just have a plan for six weeks, then these one-off payments that they announce - they will all disappear, but the cost-of-living increases will remain there in place. And what's more, they don't have a real plan to grow the economy or a plan to look after people.
 
We have now announced policies that go to our theme of child care, Medicare, aged care. Because Labor cares. We care that people deserve, in a country like ours, the best possible care, whether it's early start in life for the youngest Australians or older Australians who deserve respect and dignity. They've built this country. And in their later years, they deserve a proper quality of life. And that's why I made aged care the centrepiece of my Budget Reply and why I'm very pleased to be here on the Central Coast today. And I would ask Dr Gordon Reid to make some comments, who has seen it firsthand, the impact of some of the issues arising from aged care with his service as a doctor here in the local emergency department.
 
GORDON REID, LABOR CANDIDATE FOR ROBERTSON: Hello, everyone. I would like to thank Anthony Albanese for coming to the Central Coast, and Emma McBride, the Federal Member for Dobell, for hosting us, and Jo from Hakea Grove, for showing us around your facility and allowing us to talk to some of your residents. Aged care is extremely important. And as a doctor working in the Emergency Department, I know firsthand that patients are presenting to our emergency departments because they are unable to receive care in a timely fashion 24/7 because the service isn't there. And that's what Labor is going to do. It is going to make sure there is a nurse in every aged-care facility, 24/7, around the clock, so residents can receive the care that they need and so that people don't end up in an emergency department waiting to see me. So, I will be brief. Thank you so much for having us today.
 
ALBANESE: Thanks, Dr Reid. Happy to take questions.
 
JOURNALIST: How are you going to get nurses back in nursing homes? How will you attract enough of them in this industry?
 
ALBANESE: Well, for a start, people will be more attracted rather than what is going on with people leaving the industry if they are aware there is a plan to deal with the aged care crisis, if the recommendations from the Royal Commission are taken seriously by Government. And we will do that. We have already announced 20,000 additional university places in areas of skills shortage. One of the key areas of skills shortages is in nursing, and we need to make it more attractive. And that is what Labor will do.
 
JOURNALIST: The Prime Minister says your plan to have registered nurses 24/7 will be difficult as providers will struggle to find nurses. Can you guarantee that?
 
ALBANESE: He must have been shocked by the Royal Commission that he himself says he is proud of commissioning. This is a recommendation of the Royal Commission. This isn't something that has come out spontaneously. This is something that after considering all of the evidence by the Royal Commissioners, who reported not just with a significant interim Royal Commission report, but then a final report as well, developed over years. So, this Prime Minister is always looking for an excuse not to act. Well, if I'm Prime Minister, I will take responsibility. I will show leadership. I will listen to the experts, including the Royal Commissioners into aged care. It just stuns me that no matter what the issue, whether it's dealing with floods, dealing with bushfires, ordering enough vaccines, this Prime Minister, with every issue that is raised, is never about solutions, never about anything other than blaming someone else and never accepting responsibility. The Prime Minister and the Federal Government run and regulate. They are the regulators of aged care. It is a Federal program. It is funded federally. It has, within it, the capacity of the Federal Government to regulate the system. And it is about time this Prime Minister took responsibility for something.
 
JOURNALIST: What modelling has been done on the wage increase?
 
ALBANESE: The Royal Commission has done the modelling. The Royal Commission have said that in order to retain as well as attract members of the workforce, there needed to be a wage increase. I tell you the other thing that has happened is go talk to anyone who works in the aged care sector, I have talked to aged care workers right around the country, and talked to some today again, and thanked them for the work that they do. And they do magnificent work under incredible pressure. But it's physically demanding work. It is emotionally traumatic work sometimes. Watching people who they care for, who they grow to love, who they have a relationship with, and many of them pass over a period of time. People in aged care, by definition, are in their later years. And it is a really tough job. And to pay people $22 an hour clearly is not enough to keep people in the system and to attract them.
 
JOURNALIST: The Government is signing free trade deals with India. They are almost in caretaker mode. Have you been briefed about this?
 
ALBANESE: This Government are not really good at expressing the normal courtesies that occur. The Prime Minister didn't bother to ring me, for example, about President Zelenskyy's address before the Parliament. And that is a matter for him. But, of course, I would change the way that courtesy was offered in the Parliament, I've got to say. But in terms of the India free trade agreement, we welcome it. Peter Varghese did a significant report some years ago now that largely has laid on the shelf. India is an important nation. It will grow to the third largest economy in the world in coming years. I myself have a long relationship with India going back to more than 30 years ago. I backpacked around India for six weeks. I got to know the Indian people. I got to see them firsthand. A great way to explore a country is to jump on a public bus and a train and even to hitch a ride, we did, between a couple of places there. But India, where I visited and led a parliamentary delegation to in 2018, the Indian economy has grown enormously. It is a very sophisticated economy. They are world leaders in information technology. They are world leaders in so many areas. In manufacturing, in pharmaceuticals, in information technology and others. And we can engage strongly and have great benefit by deepening the relationship between Australia and India. I welcome a deepening of that relationship. And it is something that would be very much a focus of a government that I lead.
 
JOURNALIST: India has been soft on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Does it seem like the right time to engage with them?
 
ALBANESE: I think it is always a right time to deepen our relationships with India and other countries in our region. I think it is very important that we do that. It has been spoken about for some time. Dr Varghese's report is a seminal report about that. We already have strong people-to-people relations as well through the diaspora here in Australia. One of the things I did on a visit to India in New Delhi is to launch the Australian-Indian Alumni Association. So many of the professionals in India receive their training here at universities and TAFE colleges here in Australia. Those people-to-pandemic links, whether it be people who have come and studied here, Australians going to study and engage in India, or the heritage of what is a growing diaspora here in Australia, is important. It puts us in a strong position going forward. I think one of the great advantages we have in this country is our multiculturalism. And the fact that we are located so close to the fastest growing region of the world in human history to our north presents us with real opportunities going forward.
 
JOURNALIST: Which countries would you be looking to do trade deals with if you become Prime Minister?
 
ALBANESE: I would be looking particularly to engage with countries in our region. I think that there are enormous opportunities for us, for example, to become a renewable energy superpower for the world, with projects that occur like the Sun Cable project will be helping to power Singapore. What we need to do is to make sure as well that we manufacture more things here, that we value-add here as well. That is part of my Future Made in Australia is about increasing domestic consumption of Australian manufactured goods. But it is also about identifying the comparative advantages Australia has and where there are export opportunities for those goods.
 
JOURNALIST: There are reports today that the Prime Minister spread rumours about his opponent for the seat of Cook before the preselection. According to the reports, he said that a person of Lebanese background would damage the Party's chances in the Shire and told that his opponent was rumoured to be a Muslim, despite being a Catholic. Can I get your views?
 
ALBANESE: Well, these reports join other reports from within the Prime Minister's own Party. You have, whether it is the former Prime Minister, Malcolm Turnbull, his current Deputy Prime Minister, Barnaby Joyce, the comments that have been made by Gladys Berejiklian, the former Premier of New South Wales, the comments this week of Concetta Fierravanti-Wells, but also crossbenchers like Pauline Hanson and Jacqui Lambie who have dealt with this Prime Minister. There is a theme which comes through about the Prime Minister's character. And I will leave other people to look at those comments and make their own judgements. I am not a member and wasn't involved in the Cook Liberal Party preselection. I do know this: The Prime Minister only received eight votes out of all the votes that were cast in that preselection ballot. When people had a look at where he was at, they judged the other candidates would be better to represent their local community than Scott Morrison. And just as when he became Prime Minister, of course, he became Prime Minister not in the first ballot. Peter Dutton was out there and had the challenge and then he came through the middle just days after his own people apparently voted not for Malcolm Turnbull in that first ballot. But he was standing there in the prime ministerial courtyard saying that he was ambitious for Malcolm Turnbull. No wonder there is bad relationships with wherever Scott Morrison has been. He doesn't have lasting friendships and lasting loyalties.
 
JOURNALIST: Scott Morrison says that his candidate in Parramatta is a contrast to your captain's pick. What's your reaction to that?
 
ALBANESE: He must be beside himself about their candidate in Dobell. The candidate in Dobell that needs a Google Map to find the electorate here on the Central Coast. The fact is that my candidate for Parramatta, the Labor candidate, was elected unopposed. The only candidate which received support from everyone in the Labor Party in the Parramatta electorate. He is receiving the support of the outgoing Member as well, Julie Owens, who is out there campaigning with Andrew Charlton. Andrew Charlton was born in North-West Sydney. His dad worked at the Rheem facility there Ermington in the electorate. He is someone who will make an outstanding contribution as the Member for Parramatta.
 
This Prime Minister hasn't got candidates in every seat. He is in court. What's more, he is using taxpayer funds for the Solicitor-General to appear in the High Court of Australia to make representations in what is an internal Liberal Party faction fight. The Liberal Party in New South Wales have been left a mess by the interventions of Scott Morrison and Alex Hawke, who are determined to impose their own candidates, including taking a bloke from the North Shore of Sydney, trying to put them into the electorate of Hughes. I know that candidate because he ran for Grayndler a few elections ago, as the Liberal Party candidate. But I've got candidates in electorates around the country. I'm proud of all of mine. Scott Morrison is a Prime Minister in a Government who can't even deliver candidates in every seat. And in this seat of Dobell, he has a very controversial choice that has been rejected by many of the locals, unlike Emma McBride here. When you think of the Coast, you think of McBride. And I have known Emma since she was a very young person because I know and respected her dad, Grant, who did so much for this region. And our candidate for Robertson here today is a product of Umina Public School and Central Coast Grammar. He has gone from Umina Public School to becoming a doctor working in emergency departments here at Wyong. I'm really proud of the candidates that I have right around the country.
 
JOURNALIST: Just a final question for ABC North Coast on the flood situation. The New South Wales Government has told flood evacuees that they will have to move to emergency accommodation in Queensland over the school holidays because people have made holiday bookings in advance. Do you believe the Government could be doing more on that matter?
 
ALBANESE: Clearly, the Government could have been doing more throughout this flood crisis. We waited nine days for the national emergency to be declared. And then it was only declared in New South Wales, not Queensland, because the Queensland Government believed it was just far, far too late. We saw the absurdity of a Government that had legislation carried through the Parliament with Labor's support, to allow for emergency declaration, saying that the delay was because of consultations, when we know that is just complete nonsense. Complete nonsense. The legislation doesn't even require any consultation. It is the Prime Minister's responsibility and his alone. And in Senate Estimates this week, we heard evidence which made it clear, it was a matter for the judgement of the Prime Minister when that emergency was declared. And then eventually, when the Prime Minister turned up in Lismore, we had streets closed off with security, making sure that real people who were flood victims couldn't get to talk to the Prime Minister or say what their concerns were. And then we had a declaration in some areas, but not in others, based upon if you were in the National Party seat of Page, you had a declaration in three local government areas, including in Lismore. But if you are in Ballina or in Murwillumbah or in Byron, you didn't get those declarations, let alone in Queensland. So, you have differential payments depending upon where you live. This Prime Minister is always far too little and way too late. It's something that characterises this Government. And they need to do much better than people who have lost their homes being put in emergency accommodation, being told, ‘No, you've got to move again.’ People deserve to be treated with dignity and respect. And they deserve a Government that accepts responsibility and delivers for people when they need it. Thanks very much.
 
ENDS