KRISTY McBAIN, MINISTER FOR REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT, LOCAL GOVERNMENT AND TERRITORIES: Well we are here today at the Bega War Memorial Pool, and I’m incredibly grateful to the Prime Minister Anthony Albanese for coming along today. We’ve got the local Mayor Russell Fitzpatrick, local councillors Helen O’Neil and Simon Daly, our state member Michael Holland, but most importantly we’re surrounded by the Bega Swim Club and the Pambula Swim Club to make a really exciting announcement.

This pool was officially opened in 1962, it’s 33 metres long, and you've got to put 20 cents in to get any hot water out of the change rooms. So, we're making a big commitment today because the Albanese Labor Government believes in committing the full cost of a project to regional communities so that ratepayers and taxpayers aren't going to be having to fork out more capital for the council to do this great project here. So I'm going to hand over to the Prime Minister to make that big announcement. But I want to say a big thank you on behalf of our community for taking seriously the needs in our community.
 
ANTHONY ALBANESE, PRIME MINISTER: Thanks so much, Kristy. It's wonderful to be back in Bega. I have a long history of investment in Bega. The Bega Bypass was also 100 per cent Federally funded when I was the Infrastructure Minister. One of the big projects that we did to improve productivity, but importantly, to make it a safer road as well and to really improve the quality of life of people in this magnificent city of Bega.

And it is so pleasing to be able to be here and to look at these young Australians who are so enthusiastic about getting fit, about participating in sport, some of them very successful, competing at state championship level, but most importantly, all of them having a crack, having a go, that's good for kids. It's really important that young people engage in sport. And for this facility here, it will of course provide amenity for young, not so young and not so very young, and it will make an enormous difference here. $16 million will ensure that this pool can get the upgrade that it deserves. It's just part of the investment that we're making into this community. Of course, this community will also get an Urgent Care Clinic. Medicare Urgent Care Clinics have made such a difference right around Australia. We promised 50 at the last election. We're delivering 87, we've already delivered 87. And we're going to deliver an additional 50 Medicare Urgent Care Clinics, including one right here in Bega, making sure that people, if any of these youngsters have a slip on the side of the pool or need assistance, they can go somewhere. They don't have to go to the emergency department of a hospital, they don't have to look for a GP and is it open late at night or on the weekend. They can go to their Urgent Care Clinic, get the care that they need just with their Medicare card, not with their credit card. This is a part of the investment that we are making.

Can I pay tribute to Kristy McBain who of course has done such an extraordinary job and had such a major impact on this community of Eden-Monaro since her election in the by-election just a relatively short time ago. Kristy is someone who's such a strong advocate for this local community, but importantly as well, someone who is a former mayor of Bega, understands what regional communities are about and as Regional Development Minister and Local Government Minister, a job that I had the privilege of having at one stage for six years of the former Government that I was in between 2007 and 2013. Kristy just does an amazing job. She's in touch with this local community, but she's in touch with regional Australia and is such a powerful advocate around the Cabinet table through all of the processes that we go through, the expenditure review process when we're putting together a Budget. Kristy is a very strong voice for regional Australia, which is why it's very important that we keep Kristy, as the signs say, on May 3rd.
 
JOURNALIST: Can you take some questions from local media?
 
PRIME MINISTER: Sure.
 
JOURNALIST: From ABC South East, I'm Adriane, this is Floss.
 
PRIME MINISTER: Hey, how you going? I've been to your studios there a number of times, upstairs, I know where it is, near the bookshop. I'm in touch, I know Bega.
 
JOURNALIST: It's not a coincidence a few days ago the Liberal candidate for Eden-Monaro Jo van der Plaat announced $9 million if elected, for this pool. They need $16 million in total. Are you worried about Labor retaining this seat? Is that why you are here to announce this?
 
PRIME MINISTER: No, this was in the Budget. This went through our processes well before. This was in the Budget and we have, this will be included in PEFO, the Pre-Election Fiscal Outlook for any fiscal policy nerds out there, will be included, and it's something that we have advocated. But you can't build half a project. You ought to build a whole project, and we'll build the whole project here.
 
JOURNALIST: Okay and Eden-Monaro is currently held by Kristy McBain at 6.2 per cent. It changed after the redistribution of the boundaries because it included Goulburn, which is Angus Taylor’s old kind of territory of Hume. How do you feel about Kristy McBain's chances of winning over voters in that territory, given it was former Liberal?
 
PRIME MINISTER: I've known Kristy a long time. When we're talking about former areas that have not been historically always represented by the Labor Party. There's a state member here who's the first ever, I think, Labor Member for Bega. First ever. There's a federal member here who won a by-election at a time when Mr Morrison was at his peak at the height of COVID. That was a tough by-election. It's no accident that I sought Kristy out. We had a discussion at Merimbula Airport about her being the candidate for Eden-Monaro, because I just knew that she was just outstanding and I wanted the best candidate possible for this electorate. Kristy has shown that she's effective, and the people of Goulburn will be lucky to have Kristy as their local Federal Member as well. She's lost, I assume you've lost the Tumbarumba, that sort of area on the other side of the Australian Capital Territory, but Kristy is so passionate about this local community. She was educated in Canberra, so knows the Queanbeyan area and around there very well, but knows this coast, is raising her family here and she's an extraordinary local member and she's as good as any in the entire country. And that's why I'm very confident that she can be re-elected on May 3.
 
JOURNALIST: Can I ask another question? Is that all right? Speaking of your last time that you were here with Rex, you were at Merimbula Airport. Any headway, I guess, in relation to if there have been any buyers that have put up their hand for Rex? Because I know you said the Government would step in.
 
PRIME MINISTER: Look, we're working through those issues, but one of the things that we are of the view, the Labor Party, and this is another reason to re-elect the Labor Government and to re-elect Kristy McBain. I find it extraordinary that the Nats and the Liberals have just walked away from regional aviation. Without Rex you would not have access to Merimbula and Moruya in this south coast region. You wouldn't have access to a whole range of places where it's critical. Places like King Island, Mount Gambier. The Rex of regional airline routes in Queensland, in Western Australia, play such a critical role. We understand that. I'm a former aviation minister. I understand that regional communities need to get in and out of the capital cities in a day in order to be effective economically. But I also understand freight needs to get in and out as well. And I also understand that facilities such as health facilities, doctors, people getting around is absolutely vital for these communities. Now we are out there looking for a buyer for that asset. But if not, we won't allow these regions to be left without access to aviation because to do that would leave these communities stranded. Clearly, the Liberal and National parties are prepared to leave these communities stranded. It's extraordinary that they've walked away from these commitments. If you look at almost everywhere that Rex flies is in a Liberal or National Party seat. This isn't a partisan decision by the Labor Party over one seat. It is a partisan decision on behalf of regional Australia. It is so important.
 
JOURNALIST: In the neighbouring seat of Gilmore, you've visited there semi recently and you made comment about the Liberal candidate running there, Andrew Constance, do you have any words about Jo van der Plaat, who is the Liberal candidate for Eden-Monaro?
 
PRIME MINISTER: No, because I don't know her and I've never met her and don't have any comments. I don't really need to either, because I know the candidate next to me, and I know the candidate next to me is outstanding. I did see some comments, the only thing I've seen of this candidate is some comments opposing an Urgent Care Clinic, opposing Medicare. This is someone who was here with the Shadow Health Minister that I just saw the comments today. I'm not sure when the comments were made, saying that people in this electorate doesn't understand why Medicare is an issue. Well, Medicare is an issue, let me tell you. It's a big issue in this election. We want people to have access to Medicare, we want people to have access to an Urgent Care Clinic and we don't want an Americanisation of the health system, and we know that Peter Dutton has to find $600 billion for nuclear reactors. The money's got to come from somewhere and the last time he was a Minister, he ripped the guts out of Medicare. He cut $50 billion from hospitals, tried to introduce a tax every time people visit a GP, tried to introduce a tax every time people end up at emergency department, and actually introduced legislation to increase the price of medicines. We are decreasing the price of medicines down to 2004 levels to just $25.
 
JOURNALIST: Just on Medicare Urgent Care Clinics. Some of the criticism, particularly for this region, is actually finding enough doctors and nurses to staff them without taking from the current stock of GPs and whatever that we have in this area. There's not enough of them as is. It's all well and good to say we're getting one, but is there scope to actually provide all the staffing and all the equipment that's needed?
 
PRIME MINISTER: Yes, there is. Because of the 87 Medicare Urgent Care Clinics that are up and running. All of them have staff, all of them have equipment. All of them are successful. There's some 1.3 million Australians have been to a Medicare Urgent Care Clinic. One in three of them look like these kids here, have been under the age of 15. We also have a plan to train more GPs and to particularly have those in regional Australia. We have a plan to train more nurses and health professionals. We have free TAFE, something that is also opposed by the Liberal Party that say free TAFE isn't valued because it's free. They say very explicitly that Australians don't value things that are free. Well, Medicare is free and TAFE under my Government is free as well for essential courses in areas of skill shortage and childcare and healthcare and disability care are just three of those.
 
JOURNALIST: A question has come through from my Canberra colleague. Do I have time? Thank you.
 
PRIME MINISTER: This should be the last one.
 
JOURNALIST: Yes. No worries. Peter Dutton has promised today his gas policy will lower electricity prices should he, as you did, put that in dollar terms and on a timeline.
 
PRIME MINISTER: Well, he has no idea of how he's going to get there. He gave, there was a lot of build up this week to speeches that he was going to give. It ended up being a bit of a damp squib because there were no costumes, there's no detail. We've provided six times the amount of gas that he promised on Thursday. Gas was at spot price of $30 when we came to office. It's now at $13. And he wants to talk about anything in order to not talk about the ‘n’ word, nuclear. That is the centrepiece of his policy, $600 billion. We know that a government way back under pre-Whitlam in the 1960s identified the south coast as a site. They even laid a concrete slab for a nuclear reactor on the south coast. And it never happened. Why didn't it happen? Because it didn't stack up. Because no one had put in money for it. Doesn't stack up economically. This is just a distraction for him to not want to talk about climate change and what is actually needed. This electorate understands that climate change is real. I spent some time, one of the reasons why I know this fantastic local member next to me is the work that she did defending her community during the bushfires of 2019-20. Kristy was amazing during that period. This community went through tough times. And Scott Morrison went missing, as the Liberal Party have a bit of a tendency of going missing when local communities are under pressure. Kristy McBain will never go missing. She'll always stand up for this community. Thanks a lot.

ENDS