SUBJECTS: JobKeeper; Andrew Laming.
 

ANTHONY ALBANESE, LEADER OF THE AUSTRALIAN LABOR PARTY: Thanks for joining me. The actions of Andrew Laming as the Member for Bowman, make him unfit to be a Member of Parliament. What we've seen from this Member is someone who trolls and bullies women online, his own constituents, bringing one to despair and to think about ending her own life. We've seen him harass a state MP. We've seen him hide in bushes in order to photograph and video a constituent and we've seen him take photos up a woman's skirt in that woman's workplace. That's a crime. And I'm sure that the police will be looking and investigating that issue. What we saw from the Prime Minister was on day one, say that Andrew Laming should give an apology. Well, he stood up in Parliament and gave an apology and then retracted it on Facebook the next day, and said that, in retracting that apology, what he had done was, it was a pocket post on Facebook. And then we saw from the Prime Minister yesterday, say that Andrew Laming should have empathy training. Well, empathy training didn't work for the Prime Minister when it came to dealing with bushfires or dealing with the gender issues, which have been there before the Parliament in recent weeks. 

The fact is that this Prime Minister intervened to protect Craig Kelly's preselection but wouldn't intervene to stop Andrew Laming continue in the Parliament. We now have news that Andrew Laming has said that he will not contest the next election. But the fact is that Andrew Laming isn't fit to be a Member of Parliament today. Andrew Laming should go, he brings disrepute and disgrace to our national Parliament. And he simply should go. Happy to take questions. 

JOURNALIST: (Inaudible)

ALBANESE: Well, that's something for the Prime Minister to explain. But that is what the Prime Minister indicated. That was the big penalty, which Andrew Laming was facing. And these are very, very serious issues. And this is a Government, as I said, this week, that is unraveling before our eyes, a shambolic government, that more and more is all about itself, not about the interests of Australians. And on a day in which JobKeeper will end with some 960,000 Australians will lose that support today. Many businesses will lose that support today. I've been contacted by a constituent just this morning, who runs a business taking tour groups to Japan with his business partner. Their income has gone from many hundreds of thousands of dollars to zero, to zero. JobKeeper has kept that business going. But from tomorrow, there's no support for that business. 

JOURNALIST: (Inaudible)

ALBANESE: Well, the fact is that there are so many more people unemployed than there are vacancies. That's the fact of the matter. There's two million Australians, are either unemployed or want additional hours. So the fact is that whilst some businesses including some businesses that have got JobKeeper, have continued to do well and have increased their profits over the last year. A range of businesses have not had that support, and have seen massive downturns in their turnover. Now, if the Government wasn't paying literally tens of millions of dollars, to businesses that have increased profits and don't need support, then there would be more money available for those businesses and those workers who do need support. This is a Government that contrasts its treatment of people who got JobKeeper who didn't need it, with the way that they chased people down in the Robodebt scandal. This is a Government that strong against the weak, but very weak against the strong.

JOURNALIST: What would Labor like to see?

ALBANESE: What we'd like to see is targeted support. So that where businesses were in circumstances, which justified, quite rightly, and Labor called for it in wage subsidies, to keep that relationship going between employers and workers, then that would be able to be continued. And that is essentially a pretty simple principle. If the logic of why these payments were in place is still there today, why would you just remove that support? And this is a Government that has seen massive waste and massive rorts of taxpayers funds, not just the additional payments to job keeper. But of course, we've seen sports rorts. We've seen community safety rorts, we saw $30 million paid for a block of land that was worth $3 million around the airport. The fact is, this Government regards taxpayers money as being the same as Liberal Party money. And at the same time, they're not focused on what the needs of Australians are, and making sure that with the recovery, we actually build back stronger.

JOURNALIST: Just on Laming, is Labor willing to grant a pair while hes on leave?

ALBANESE: We don't think he should be in Parliament. And we'll act accordingly with that.

JOURNALIST: What do you mean by that?

ALBANESE: There's a range of measures available to the Labor Party when Parliament resumes, so a range of actions that could be taken. We are not sympathetic with the actions of Andrew Laming. We regard these circumstances as being very different from the circumstances whereby someone has a health issue. We unlike the Coalition, regard health issues as something that should be just dealt with. In a normal fashion. Parliament doesn't sit for six weeks. Andrew Laming should go in that six weeks 

JOURNALIST: A couple of Liberal MPs said on Insiders that there should be less booze in Parliament. Do you agree with that? 

ALBANESE: I agree that any measures that can improve the functioning of the Parliament should be considered. The Jenkins Review I have no doubt will examine that matter, amongst others. And certainly Labor is willing to consider any constructive proposals which are put forward.

ENDS