ANTHONY ALBANESE, PRIME MINISTER: I'm joined today by Dr Ses Salmond from the Leichhardt Women’s Community Health Centre and Suzy Pace from St Vincent de Paul for what is a really important announcement and one that I'm really proud to make. St Vincent de Paul in this local community and indeed right throughout Australia, make an enormous difference providing emergency accommodation for women and children escaping domestic violence, and, of course, a charity that does just extraordinary work, and I've been associated with for my whole life, basically growing up in this local community, of course located very close to here in my electorate, and Leichhardt Women’s Community Health Centre here, has been providing services for generations now. My mum came here 40 years ago or more and provided that service. It has a reputation, which is that women can come here seeking support to improve their health and to get that support that they need when they need it, without judgment, just without coming in and getting that support. It actually is one of the earliest examples in Australia of feminism in action, set up by women for women to help women and that is why it is so important here. I'm proud that my Government will deliver $4.5 million to support these key services. This building needs renovation, it needs more counselling rooms, it needs more access for people to come in and get the support that they need, in comfort, in privacy, and to get that advice which will make a difference for them being able to provide that important work for women. In addition to that, we will provide support for St Vinnies to have increased crisis accommodation. We know that women and children escaping domestic violence need somewhere to go. Quite often the reports are that women will either stay in a relationship, one that they should leave, or they will spend a night in a car or in a park or surfing around various lounge rooms of friends and colleagues. We need to do better as a society than that.

This is a part of my Government's comprehensive plan to tackle violence against women and children. When we have been elected in just this term, we've instituted 10 days paid domestic and family violence leave. We've made permanent; the leaving violence payment. We changed the single parenting payment to make a difference. We have employed now 400 - or paid for state governments to employ some 480 additional community service workers. We have an agreement through the states and territories, after the National Cabinet that I convened, of some $4 billion to go towards making a difference on women and children escaping domestic violence. We know there is more to do and we’ll continue to do that. We, of course, as part of the Housing Australia Future Fund that was held up by the Coalition and the Greens in the Senate for so long, there are 4000 of those homes that would be available to provide that security for women and children escaping domestic violence as part of our support for increases in social housing. The Housing Australia Future Fund will be abolished if Peter Dutton is elected as Prime Minister in a decision that is callous, a decision that shows there's no understanding of the need to invest in social housing in communities like this, but indeed, right around Australia. We'll continue to work with organisations and with the community sector.

But I do want to conclude before handing over to Dr Ses and Suzy to just say that this is a sector where, wherever I go, whether it's in my local community or anywhere in Australia, the people who are providing front line services are largely women, providing that support, giving up not just their time and their skills, but the emotional toll that it must take on them as well. They're committed to other women in their community, and I'm constantly in awe of the work that they do. I have no idea what these people's salary is, but I can assure you it will be less than it should be, and they do it out of commitment to their sisters, but commitment as well to our great nation, Australia.
 
Before I hand over, I'll just make this point. The Coalition have not only said they'll abolish the Housing Australia Future Fund, and not only have had none of these initiatives going forward, they've now said that they will change the childcare policy that we put forward, and we indeed have legislated through the Parliament. The Coalition will legislate to bring back the activity test. The activity test, when it comes to child care, keeps underprivileged and disadvantaged women in poverty. It means they can't go and get a job because they don't have that three-day guarantee of access to child care. And I just say to the Coalition, rethink this. You have got this wrong. They voted against this in the Parliament. I announced this as part of our second wave of child care reform in Brisbane in December, and then we legislated it through the Parliament when Parliament sat in February and March. This country can't afford to go backwards. When Peter Dutton says back, he means it. Going back to a time where we didn't have programs that actually benefited people. The abolition of the activity test and the three-day guarantee for child care is based upon proper policy assessments, based upon the advice of people on the front line, based upon the statistics that show that abolishing the activity test will particularly assist disadvantaged women to escape poverty, to get a job, to look after their children, and that's why it should be supported. I'll hand over to Dr Ses then we'll hear from Suzy then happy to take a couple of questions.
 
DR SES SALMOND, MANAGER, LEICHHARDT WOMEN’S COMMUNITY HEALTH CENTRE: Thank you, Prime Minister, I must say that what an honor it is to actually have you here today and standing next to you as you pledge more expansion of services to women in the Inner West. Can't thank you enough for that. What it will mean for us in terms of expansion of this building is, as the Prime Minister said, we've only got two counselling rooms at the moment, we can make that four. We won't need to send our counsellor home because we don't have any enough counselling space for her to work at home. We will have larger clinic rooms so we can offer more kind of medical and nursing support, more access, and equitable access. But all these expansions of this building actually make a huge difference to women's lives, and they will actually save lives, like as a result of this money that actually has been pledged to this women's health center, it will actually make a huge difference, and it will save women's lives. So, thank you so much. Can't thank you enough.
 
SUZY PACE, HOUSING AND HOMELESSNESS MANAGER, ST VINCENT DE PAUL: I too would like to thank the Albanese Government for this financial commitment. What it will mean for St Vincent de Paul Society is we have, well, we know that the leading cause of homelessness for women and children is domestic and family violence, and one of the growing cohorts in homelessness at the moment is women over 55 that are homeless. This financial commitment will mean that we can also expand and enhance our current service to bring it up to best practice. This crisis accommodation in the Inner West is for single women over the age of 45 specifically that have escaped domestic and family violence. So, it's a crucial service in this area, which like this building, needs a financial injection desperately, and we need to bring it up to best practice. And what does that mean? It means that we need to provide better accommodation for these women that are fleeing from horrendous violence. We need self-contained accommodation, in crisis refuges with private amenities without sacrificing the on-site compassionate care and trauma informed service from skilled caseworkers, so this commitment means a lot to St Vincent de Paul Society and this area where it's much needed. So, thank you so much for being here and also for the holistic vision of bringing us both here today. Accommodation is key for you know, for accessing supports, the wraparound supports and what the Leichhardt Women's Health service provides is amazing, and it's really going to complement the women that we're supporting in crisis accommodation. So, thank you so much.
 
PRIME MINISTER: Thanks, Suzy. Happy to take a couple of questions.
 
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, you mentioned before that your Mum had visited this service many years ago. What’s the benefits that she got from visiting a place like this, or like, is there anything that you could remember?
 
PRIME MINISTER: I do. I won't go into her personal health issues, but she was - my Mum was not well. She had rheumatoid arthritis that crippled her joints, and that then led to a range of other health issues that she had to deal with, in part because of the heavy medication that she was on, at one stage, more than 30 pills a day for different things, and then that creates other problems. The benefit of her coming here, and I remember coming here with her as a child, was feeling comfortable. My Mum was a single mum who lived down the road here, where we lived on Pyrmont Bridge Road, and she had just, you know, a young boy to look after, didn't have a capacity to fight for her rights often. She needed support and feeling the comfort of coming to a women's health centre run by women for women, with no judgment, made an enormous difference to her, and that is something that I remember about when this application essentially came through to my office. I was just, “yep.” That was the easiest decision I'll make as Prime Minister. I've got to say, I have to make some difficult decisions, this was not one of them, because I know the difference that it will make.
 
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, we're in your seat today, just on preferences in your seat. Hannah Thomas, the Greens candidate has said, you’re complicit in genocide, you should expel Israel's Ambassador, and you should sanction Israel, and also says you should arrest Benjamin Netanyahu if he ever chooses to come to Australia. Why are you telling your supporters in Grayndler to put her second?
 
PRIME MINISTER: Why is The Australian determined to give the Greens such profile? It's rather strange, I've got to say. I wouldn't have been able to tell you if you'd have asked me who the candidate was. Last time around in this seat, I won on primaries. I won on primaries. That's the way the system works. I got more than 50% of the vote. I look forward to people voting number one for me and then filling in all the numbers, just as they do, to make sure it's a formal vote. And I don't intend to promote the name or the candidate - of the Greens Party candidate, and I'm surprised that The Australian are determined to promote them.

Last night's debate, sorry if I can. Just last night, Peter Dutton confirmed that there are secret cuts. He had an opportunity to say where those cuts will come. Will they come to health? Will they come to education? Housing - we know that the Housing Australia Future Fund will be abolished. We know that they will make cuts across the board, because they not only have to call waste the expenditure, such as the increase in people's wages, in the increase in pensions, they're going to abolish the Housing Australia Future Fund. They're going to get rid of support for manufacturing through the National Reconstruction Fund, they are going to get rid of the activity test, which will hurt disadvantaged women, in particular with children. Peter Dutton needs to come clean about where the cuts will be. He has a $600 billion nuclear energy plan. He needs to tell Australians, before the election, not afterwards, where the cuts will be made, otherwise, all of his promises that he is making, all of which, of course, disappear in a short period of time. Those short-term hits that will disappear. We know he will increase income taxes, because he has said that, that will cover $17 billion. But he needs to find further information, further details about where the cuts will be. We're now just 11 days from polling day on May 3. The Australian people deserve better. We handed down a Budget in March, and then we had the Pre-election Fiscal Outlook. We have outlined the costs of all of our policies.

He needs to come up and explain to Australians how he pays for his nuclear plan. We know that he won't go anywhere near any of the sites for a nuclear reactor. It's radioactive for him going near them. He just won't go anywhere near them. Well, he does need to explain this, because the Australian people deserve the information before they cast their vote. Half a million Australians have already done so, I expect another half a million will today. But he needs to, as a matter of urgency, come out with where the cuts will be. He's got another big spending announcement today. We'll see if that actually results in anything. The last time they were in government on defence, of course, what they did was make more than $40 billion of announcements with no money attached. This time around, of course, as well, we know he'll sack 41,000 public servants. The last time around, there was a queue when we came to office of 42,000 Veterans, men and women who have served our country in uniform, who are awaiting their entitlements. So, you can't, on the one hand, say you care about defence, and at the same time, be treating our Veterans in such a callous way by denying them their entitlements. Thanks very much.