SUBJECTS: Sporting moments; John Alexander; Labor’s candidate for Bennelong Jerome Laxale and his strong connection to the community; Budget and cost of living; Emergency Response Fund and not spending a cent on disaster mitigation; preselections and timing; relationship with China; Solomon Islands; aid in the Pacific; climate change; Labor’s focus on giving the Australian people a government they deserve. 

ANTHONY ALBANESE, LEADER OF THE AUSTRALIAN LABOR PARTY: Last night saw three extraordinary sporting moments in a very brief period of time. We saw Souths beat the Roosters – always important. But then, of course, we saw Buddy Franklin kick his thousandth goal, something that we mightn’t see again. And we saw the extraordinary response of the crowd at the SCG and a celebration of Buddy’s achievements for both Hawthorn and for the Swans, but also for the game. A proud Indigenous Australian, and an extraordinary athlete who is just marvelous to watch. We then saw Australia win a Test series in Pakistan, a great achievement with Nathan Lyon taking five wickets in the second innings. And here we are in Bennelong. Bennelong that is seeing the departure of another Australian sporting great, a former Davis Cup captain, someone who I regard as a friend even though they sit on the other side of the political aisle. And I do, before I announce our Labor candidate, want to pay tribute to John Alexander. John Alexander has made representations to myself when I was a Minister in the Government. He has also been a strong advocate on issues like high speed rail, issues of which we are in agreement. And he's also a mate who's greatly improved my second serve. And that has been important and has encouraged me to be a bit quicker round the court these days. And I just wish John all the very best for his future outside of politics, and he can be proud of his work as a member for Bennelong.
 
But Bennelong needs a new member. And I was very determined that Bennelong would get the best member possible. And the best member possible for this area of Sydney is the person standing next to me. Jerome Laxale is a committed local. He served as the Mayor of Ryde and continues to serve as a councillor with a record of achievement – a record of standing up against inappropriate development in this area, a record of standing up for multiculturalism and for the local community here, a record of engagement with people, whether they're the people I've met this morning who are involved in assisting asylum seekers, whether it's people involved at Club Eastwood, other organisations, Jerome Laxale knows this area is committed to it. And he's an outstanding candidate. He's also an articulate advocate, and someone who will be a strong voice for this community. And I'm very pleased that Jerome has been prepared to put himself forward at this election. And that is why I'm proud to announce that the Labor candidate for Bennelong will be Jerome Laxale and I hope very much that he's a part of a Labor Government that I seek to lead up to the next election. Jerome?
 
JEROME LAXALE, LABOR CANDIDATE FOR BENNELONG: Thanks, everyone. It's great to have supporters here. I am Jerome Laxale. I'm Labor's candidate for Bennelong. I'd love to start by acknowledging the traditional owners of the land here, they're the Wallumedegal people of the Eora Nation and pay respects to elders past, present and emerging. And welcome, Albo, to this wonderful, wonderful part of the world. Bennelong’s my home, has been for the last 15 years and I've had an absolute pleasure serving on council for the last nine years and as mayor for five years of that entire time. I live here, been here 15 years, my kids go to school here and it would be an absolute honor to be part of the Albanese Labor Government in a couple of weeks’ time. I'm running because I've got a track record of engagement and, like a lot of people here in Bennelong, we just simply cannot afford another three years of service Scott Morrison. A vote for the Liberals here in Bennelong will give Scott Morrison a red carpet to The Lodge. And that's not something that I know locals here are after. They want a leader that will take action when it comes to cost of living. They want to reduce the cost of childcare. They want real climate action, community batteries and investment in renewable energies. These are the things that Albanese Labor Government will bring. What I’ll bring to the table is community engagement. The last nine years I've been representing locals, from fixing potholes, to issues of multiculturalism, to building world class facilities right here in Bennelong. That's something that I'd love to do at the federal level. It did take a bit of convincing but thanks Albo for persisting. We got there, announcing today. We're going to have a six week sprint, Labor's in with a shot here in Bennelong and with your support we can get there. Thank you.
 
 
ALBANESE: A popular choice. That's why I rang him three times to convince him that he was he was the right guy. And I make this point – the last time we went into office in 2007 we won Bennelong. This time we need to win Bennelong again. We will take it seriously. You will see visits for this seat. This is a priority for me personally, because I also think it's about the quality of the team. And this guy would make an outstanding contribution.
 
Can I just say one more thing about the Budget before I open up to questions to either myself or to Jerome? We're having a bit of speculation at the moment about cost of living. What we know is the cost of food and groceries, the cost of petrol, the cost of rents, the cost of everything is going up except people's wages. And now, after almost a decade in office, this Government is now trying to convince people in next Tuesday's budget that they care about the cost of living. That somehow at the last minute, at the last minute, if you give them a second decade in office they'll start to do something about the cost of living. The truth is that they have for a long period of time, with all of their budgets, made a strategic error. And the error is this – their budgets are always long on politics but short on plans. It's always about the politics, and we expect this budget to be no different. They're going to hand out taxpayers’ money, that is taxpayers’ money after all, not theirs, and hope that people are grateful. And they forget the circumstances of why people are really struggling at this point in time. But this Budget needs a plan for productivity. It needs a plan to grow the economy. It needs a plan to have an economy that works for people, not the other way around. And after almost a decade in office it is beyond belief that this Government could stand hand on heart and say they care about the cost of living when they themselves said that low wages were a key feature of their economic architecture. This isn't by accident, that living standards have fallen. This is by design of a government that doesn't care about people who are really doing it tough. Well, a Labor Government that I lead will make sure that no one's left behind, but also that no one's held back. That's why we have a plan, through our Powering Australia plan, to embrace clean energy and the cheap energy that that will provide, reducing people's power bills by $275. That's why we have a plan for cheaper childcare. That's why we have a plan to address housing issues through our Housing Australia Future Fund to support growth in supply of social housing but also emergency housing as well. That's why we have a plan for economic growth by using that cheap energy through our National Reconstruction Fund to transform existing industries, but to create new ones as well so the Australian economy is more resilient, so we can stand on our own two feet. That is the lesson of the pandemic – we remain vulnerable if we're just at the end of the supply chain. What we have from this Government though is no plans. This is all about the politics. Everything is always about the spin. Always about the announcement and never about the delivery.
 
That's why when you see Tuesday’s Budget, you'll see a lot of underspends. And of all the underspends that they've had there's one that really matters because it goes to the character of this Government. And that's the Emergency Response Fund to deal with the challenge in Australia of the impact of climate change, but also, of course, we've always had natural disasters. Floods, fires cyclones – we had a fund of $4 billion that grew to $4.8 billion to deal with mitigation and dealing with the impacts of severe weather events and to prepare for them. And this Government set on that fund and treated it like I was a term deposit. Failed to spend $1 preparing Lismore and the Northern Rivers, or Brisbane, or other areas from floods. Now they have an extraordinary circumstance whereby you've had that fund grow to $4.8 billion rather than actually being expended. It says everything about this Government. Happy to take questions.
 
JOURNALIST: You've emphasised Jerome’s local connections, why is that important for Bennelong but not for Parramatta, where someone's coming in from the eastern suburbs?
 
ALBANESE: Of course, in terms of those nominations, nominations close on Monday, I'll have more to say after we have a candidate for Parramatta. But I'll say this, there’s speculation about Andrew Charlton. Andrew Charlton is someone who would make a great member of the House of Representatives just like Jerome would. He would bring an extraordinary capacity. He of course was born in the northwest of Sydney. His dad worked at the Rheem factory, just down the road here in I think it's in Ermington, in the electorate. He's someone who has been a contributor to your august publication. The Sydney Morning Herald have seen fit to give Andrew Chartrand space because of his knowledge and expertise on economics. What you need is a mix of candidates, I'm very confident about the mix of candidates that we'll be putting forward at the next election. And I'm confident that Jerome can join that group, to be a part of a Federal Labor Government.
 
JOURNALIST: Mr. Albanese, how much more difficult is your task to take office in the next election when your party's picking candidates so late in the term?
 
ALBANESE: Well, the Liberal Party picked a candidate at the same time. Just in the last week, they've just selected a candidate. We selected Jerome a little while ago. And we went through the processes. Jerome was preselected unopposed for the seat. We were waiting for the appropriate time to announce, Jerome made a decision, we had a discussion about timing of announcements. We wanted to announce while waiting for the Liberal Party who hold the seat to announce their candidate and then we'll respond with ours. I'll say this, I don't know the name of the Liberal candidate. I forget, frankly. But everyone in this electorate knows the name of this bloke. Everyone knows the name of this guy. And indeed, the last time I was in this square was campaigning with Jerome, where he ran as a candidate for the seat of Ryde. We had a fantastic dinner here in Eastwood, a Chinese restaurant across the mall here. And I have been with Jerome as the Mayor as well up in this area. Jerome Laxale is known by everyone in this community, and he's respected by everyone in this community. He's an outstanding candidate. And he's up for it. We're all ready to go. These people here have all been ready to go. They've been talking to people about his candidacy for a little while, I suspect. Quite frankly, I'm amazed it hasn't run in the media before now, the fact that he would be Labor's candidate.
 
JOURNALIST: Why did it take some convincing?
 
ALBANESE: Because he was at the time he was running for local government and running for the Mayor. He was so committed to being the Mayor of Ryde. I spoke to him way back, a fair while ago, and Jerome, and I'll flick to him to answer the question himself, but I know that part of the impact was that Labor's vote increased for Labor in the Ryde council elections, but because of the way the system works there weren't direct elections of the Mayor. If there was, this bloke would have romped it in. But because of the structure, that meant that didn't occur. So, I went back to Jerome and said ‘mate, now you're not the Mayor, I reckon you need to focus on representing the whole community as the Federal member’.
 
LAXALE: Yeah. Look, Albo was very persistent. And he's 100 per cent right. When he first spoke to me we were right in the middle of a local government campaign. I'm really pleased to be joined by the team here today, Councillors Purcell, Pederson and Song, and Councillor O’Reilly as well. We increased our vote. For the first time ever Labor outpolled the local Liberals. We increased our representation of females in our caucus, we did everything right. But unfortunately, as Albo said, we couldn't get the numbers in the chamber on the night. You know, like many people in this electorate, I held dual nationality. So, when Albo rang I needed to go through a process to get rid of those dual nationalities. The story that I've got is very similar to the stories of many people in this electorate. My parents were both born overseas, they moved to Australia as a land of hope and opportunity. They worked hard, sent me to school and university. This is the story of Bennelong. That came with it, that second passport, which I've now thankfully extinguished, enabling to announce here today. That's why I've left a little bit late. But as Albo said, I'm not new. I've been here for a long time. And the main thing is, I'm not going anywhere. Win, lose or… no there won't be a draw. Win or lose, I'll be here in Bennelong. My kids go to school here. I've been representing this community for a long time. I hope to be able to do so at the federal level.
 
JOURNALIST: Do you think it was the right decision for the Prime Minister to knock back meeting requests from the Chinese ambassador?
 
ALBANESE: That's a decision for him and I respect it.
 
JOURNALIST: Would you?
 
ALBANESE: Well, I haven't. The point is I haven't met with the Ambassador for China.
 
JOURNALIST: If you were Prime Minister would you?
 
ALBANESE: I have not met with the Ambassador for China, or indeed, with any other officials from the Chinese Embassy. My Foreign Affairs spokesperson has, Penny Wong, and the Foreign Minister I know and other ministers have, from time to time, had contact with the Chinese Embassy. And that's appropriate. But I respect and I support the Prime Minister's decision.
 
JOURNALIST: What approach would you be taking to the Chinese presence in the Solomon Islands? Would you be dispatching Penny Wong there to try and scupper that deal? What are you worried about it?
 
ALBANESE: This is an immediate concern that the Government needs to respond to. I will be briefed on Monday by our national security agencies on this issue, which arose only in the past couple of days, but it is of concern. I'd say this as well, Australia needs to up our presence in the Pacific. We need to engage. It was a mistake for this Government, when it came into office, to cut our foreign aid in the region. And we need to recognise that it is in Australia's national interest to have a strong presence in the region. We punch above our weight in the region, we play an important leadership role in areas including in the Solomons. I very much supported the actions of the Government in sending support to the Solomons during the recent difficulties that were experienced there. But Australia needs to continue to have a strong presence in the region. And we also, we also need to, I think, monitor the news that has come out. This potential presence is of real concern. That is an issue that should concern Australia. And I look forward to the briefings on Monday.
 
JOURNALIST: Labor has been quite critical of the Government's handling of this issue. What would you have done differently with regards to the Solomon Islands?
 
ALBANESE: We wouldn't have cut funding to aid, which occurred from Labor's projections when there was a change of government. That was short sighted. It was aimed again at sending a message domestically without putting our national interest first. The other thing that we'd be doing is increasing our credibility in the region by acting on the most important issue for our Pacific neighbors, which is climate change. Whilst Australia sits in the naughty corner, with Saudi Arabia and Brazil and some countries going to international conferences, refusing to increase our 2030 target, then Australia's status in the region is undermined by our failure to act on climate change. This is an existential threat to many countries in the Pacific, to Tuvalu, Kiribati and others. I attended the UNFCCC conferences on climate change that were held in Montreal and Nairobi when I was Labor's climate change spokesperson and developing Labor's climate change policy to ratify the Kyoto Protocol, to introduce a renewable energy target, in the lead up to the 2007 election. And there, I assure you, that Australia's inaction under John Howard was a real handbrake on our presence in the Pacific. And it's a real handbrake right now again, and we need to take these actions seriously. Because the world wants global action, and Australia needs to be a part of it. One more.
 
JOURNALIST: Is the factional bitterness, the anger, that's been stirred up following Kimberly Kitching’s death going to be a distraction for you throughout the campaign, and does it show that Labor is not as united as you’d like?
 
ALBANESE: No. I'm very focused and Labor's absolutely united. Our parliamentary team is very focused on the issues of concern to Australians. On the issue of rising living standards, taking action on climate change, making sure that we address the need for cheaper childcare, building back through our National Reconstruction Fund. That is our focus. We want to give Australia a government that's as good as the Australian people themselves. We’re very focused on that. I've been focused during this three years on this period. I said really early on, I used to get questions at press conferences about our 2030 target. I don't get them anymore. We have a fully costed plan, the most comprehensively costed plan of any policy put forward by any opposition for any election ever, with our Powering the Nation plan. And yet, I don't get any questions about it. That's because we have a smart campaign that will make a real difference to people's lives, that will grow the economy, that will do it in a sustainable way. We have a policy for economic, social and environmental reform. This Government are asking for a second decade in office, when they're essentially just standing still, they're treading water. And if you're treading water and standing still, the rest of the world goes past you. We’re in the fastest growing region of the world in human history. We have enormous opportunity to benefit from that, including through our greatest resource, which is the people, including the people in this multicultural community, with their connections on those growing economies to our north. If we seize the opportunities that are there we can make the greatest country on Earth even better into the future and give Australia a government that they deserve. Thanks very much.
 
ENDS