SUBJECTS: Labor’s Powering Australia policy; Battery manufacturing precinct; National battery strategy; Increasing minimum wage; Multicultural Australia; Visits to Queensland; Morrison’s role in Port of Darwin sale to Chinese interests. 
 
MATT BURNETT, LABOR CANDIDATE FOR FLYNN: Well, welcome to the Gladstone region. More jobs in more industries, Labor is backing our traditional industries, and backing our new industries as well. We've got Rio Tinto partnering with Sumitomo Corporation, we've got Iwatani partnering with Stanwell Corporation. Our existing industries partnering with our new industries, right here in Gladstone. We've got Fortescue Future Industries, manufacturing electrolysers in our state development area, just over there. We turned the sod on that project just recently, how exciting is that for Australia and Central Queensland. And today, an Anthony Albanese Labor Government will deliver more manufacturing jobs for Australia, over to you, Albo. Let's get this done.

ANTHONY ALBANESE, LEADER OF THE AUSTRALIAN LABOR PARTY: Well, thanks very much, Matt. And it's great to be back in Gladstone. I think this is my fifth visit, at least, to Gladstone as the Labor leader. Because Gladstone is a great industrial centre here in central Queensland. And today's announcement is consistent with our attitude. A key part of our policy is that we need a future made in Australia, we need to rebuild manufacturing in Australia. One of the lessons of the COVID pandemic is that we need to be more self-reliant, we need to make more things right here. And today's project does just that. It's also about getting more value out of the supply chain, making sure that we send a message as well, that Australia under a federal Labor Government is open for business, open for the opportunities that can come from making more things here. Now, in Australia, we have the people, we have the skills and we have the resources to make batteries right here. We have resources like lithium, vanadium, copper, nickel, but what we do is we send those resources offshore, we see the value added somewhere else, and then we import it back once the value has been added. It makes far more sense to use those resources and make things here, and that is certainly possible. And that is what today's announcement and partnership with the Queensland Government is about. We will partner with Queensland with a $100 million equity injection for a battery manufacturing precinct. We know that this location here around Gladstone, with land that potentially is available from the Queensland Government, is a real priority in terms of a potential site. And we know what the benefit would be because the future battery industry CRC commissioned a report from Accenture. And what Accenture found was that a national battery strategy, making batteries here, could create 34,700 jobs, and $7.4 billion of economic activity by 2030. This decade, that is how exciting the opportunities are. But we need to make sure that we seize those opportunities. And that is what Federal Labor wants to do. In addition to that, we will have, today we're announcing, a Powering Australia industry growth centre, we need to look at the opportunities that are there to grow business. We have our National Reconstruction Fund, which will enable opportunities including the announcement that I made in Perth of $1 billion of that fund being for value-adding in the resources sector. I'd ask Ed to make some comments as well.

ED HUSIC, SHADOW MINISTER FOR INDUSTRY AND INNOVATION: Thanks, Anthony. Australia should be powered by Australian made batteries. Good for jobs, good for industries, good for households, good for the environment. But up until this point, we've missed so much economic opportunity. We dig up all the resources, we send it off offshore, we pay enormous prices to get that all back. And we should be able to match local demand for energy storage systems if we get our act together. The first part of what we're thinking in terms of battery manufacturers to set up here in Gladstone, a battery manufacturing precinct working with the Queensland Government, who have said they would partner with us on the location of land connection of infrastructure, providing additional training, teaming up with what we're announcing here, the 100 billion equity injection to make the precinct a reality, to set up a Powering Australia industry growth centre that will mentor small and medium enterprises to work with the bigger firms that we would hope to attract either from Australia or overseas to start that process, particularly around cell manufacture. To make sure out of the 10,000 energy apprenticeships we previously announced, 2000 dedicated towards Queensland, and particularly for this. And importantly, because this is going to be a big national project, and we need to ensure that we've got all parts of the country chipping in, in terms of battery manufacture and maximizing the value we can get out of the value chain as well, is to have a national battery strategy, battery manufacturing strategy, that will ensure as I said, we can get different parts of the country working together. We have a lot being done out of WA and in terms of processing, refining, a lot also being done here in Queensland, but there's so much more. And just to give you a sense and to reinforce this difference about where we're at now and where we could be. Where we're at now, in terms of battery industries, I think we get about 1.3 billion value and about 6000 jobs. But based on the work that the future battery industry, CRC says, by 2030, we could boost that to over 7 billion in economic value and create 34,700 jobs. This is huge. It's a big deal. And importantly, too, because we've committed on the way through with the national reconstruction fund, for instance, we want to drive economic development in regional Australia. And this is one example of just that.

ALBANESE: Thanks very much. Just before I take questions, I do want to note that Queensland has once again been hit by floods, including the loss of life, tragic loss of life this week, and I want to send my condolences to the family of the woman who has lost her life. Happy to take questions.

JOURNALIST: Just one wages, if you’re [inaudible] a 5.1 per cent increase in the minimum wage on the hustings and you’re not prepared to back it up in the Fair Work Commission, isn’t that a bit disingenuous? 

ALBANESE: Not at all. We've been absolutely consistent. And I said the other day, two days ago, that we'd make a submission in government. A submission to the Fair Work Commission case will be open until June 7. They'll take into account the March accounts. And I've said consistently, one of the themes in this campaign, I don't know if people have been paying attention out there, is that the cost of living, of everything, is going up, except wages aren't. The idea that we would support a real wage cut for people on the minimum wage is, I think, the extraordinary claim. I think what's extraordinary about this debate, is that a Prime Minister who says that people who are cleaners, retail workers, people who got us through the pandemic, should get a real wage cut, is really what he is saying. We'll put in a submission. In terms of the submission, this is what we'll put in a -- submissions close on June 7. The election, here's the story, the election is May 21, submissions will be open until June 7. And this is about whether those people on the minimum wage in Australia get $1. Get $1 increase, and one of the things that this Government is saying consistently, they talk about how strong the economy is, but a $1 increase for those people who are on the absolute minimum wage, somehow the sky will fall in. What I have said, consistently, and I'll say each and every day, is that if the Fair Work Commission that operates independently of government makes a decision to not cut real wages and to keep up with the cost of living, that is something that I would welcome, and I'd welcome it absolutely.

JOURNALIST: On battery manufacturing here today, you know, green hydrogen is a massive industry here in Gladstone, there's all this investment, but you go into the pubs and you ask workers, and they're all fearful that this could lead to a boom and bust situation, like what happened with the LNG industry where 14,000 jobs were here and disappeared overnight. I guess they feel no planning is being done and they’re concerned for social impacts. Do you agree that there needs to be a national transitional authority to help with that transition in places like Gladstone and the Hunter, and what is your plan to ensure that a boom-and-bust situation doesn't happen?

ALBANESE: What our plan is, is to have a boom, and a further boom, and a further boom. One of the things that's happening with areas like battery storage, and this isn't just about – when we speak about batteries, people think about electric vehicles. And yes, that's part of the part of the story. But it's also about storage for households. One in four, I think the figure is now, of Australian households have solar panels on their roofs. Far less than that have storage, because of cost, because of those factors. It's about that for households, but it's also about storage for industry. It's about how you drive that change through. This is a growth industry into the future that will create jobs, not in the short term, but in the very long term. And Gladstone is ideally positioned, and I'll ask Ed to comment on this as well. Gladstone is ideally positioned because it has a deep-water port, it has an industrial skills base, the people we met this morning, the young women who are working here, doing TAFE courses, in chemical engineering, skilling up, these are good jobs, good jobs, right here in Gladstone. And we spoke today, we've been welcomed by Southern Oil. And thank you to Janri for showing us around. One of the things they're looking at here, is expanding further into the future. If we get this right, we have enormous opportunities in the future. And one of the things about the debate, what we will have is a National Reconstruction Fund of $15 billion, with an independent board that provides that support for investment going forward. And we'll make sure that we work with Australian industry making sure that the benefit is kept here. Ed?

HUSIC: Thank you. I just want to pick up on a couple of points in terms of your question. Over in January, I took myself over to North America to see the two Tesla Gigafactories that are set up there in regional North America, providing in one case in Reno 13,000 jobs, and in Austin 25,000, doing a lot of battery manufacture, creating thousands of jobs right there in that part of the world, and talking with them about, because a lot of people, a lot of companies overseas, cannot figure out how we've got so many resources, and we haven't taken the step to capture the full value of that, knowing how many thousands of jobs can be created. Talking through them with that, one of the things that they said ideally, particularly about places like Gladstone, they would love to have one of the best ports in the country to be able to ship batteries around because a lot of surface transport has to be used. So the thousands of jobs created, you've got ideal infrastructure here and a State Government that wants to partner up. In terms of things like hydrogen too, I'd make this point, a lot of manufacturers are worried about the rising cost of the gas, the Government, the Coalition has done very little to try and address this. They had big plans around the gas fired recovery. They said that they would do stuff on reservation, they said they'd look after manufacturers, gas prices going through the roof, firms wondering whether or not they'll survive. And not doing much in terms of hydrogen as an alternate source of energy, particularly as an input for what we're seeing here. Being able to provide the heating that is used as part of the production process as well, are being completely absent from a tired and lazy Coalition that hasn't done stuff, and the worry longer term is what does it do for manufacturing, if they can't get reliable energy supply? So we want to see a base of workers here in regional Australia. We want to see training providers so that the skilled workers are there when needed. And this is the stuff through the partnership with the Australian Government, with an Albanese government and the Queensland Labor Government, very keen to work together to make that happen.

JOURNALISTS: [shouting]

ALBANESE: Hang on, one of the things I do is, the loudest yeller doesn’t get the next question. Jen?

JOURNALIST: [inaudible]

ALBANESE: No. The Fair Work Commission is an independent body of government—

JOURNALIST: [inaudible]—

ALBANESE: Hang on, hang on. It’s ok, but you don’t get 20 questions. What I said the other day, and I stand by consistently, consistently, is that if the Fair Work Commission makes a decision which says that real wages for minimum wage workers should not because that is something that I would welcome. 

JOURNALIST: You touched on female workforce participation last night, Labor's national platform talks about lifting paid parental leave to 26 weeks, in an interview last year, you said you would consult on this. Why have you therefore not taken the policy on lifting paid parental leave to the election?

ALBANESE: Because what we've done is take policies to the election in the context of a trillion dollars of debt that we'll inherit from the Government—

JOURNALISTS: [shouting]

ALBANESE: Hang on, hang on. Can we actually get some order whereby you ask a question, and I’ll answer it. That’s the way these things work, so that there’s some order. You ask your question, I’ll give you the answer. We will inherit $1 trillion of debt if we are successful. If we are successful. The Government doubled the debt before the pandemic. What we have said is, we will make clear commitments for things that we are absolutely certain can be delivered. Can we undo 10 years of damage under this Government, 10 years of damage, in one year, on day one? No we can't. What we can work towards is repairing the way that Australia works so that people aren't left behind. Repair the way that Australia works, so you get a real reform agenda and economic growth in a sustainable way. The way Australia works, so that we improve the economic participation of women, the biggest commitment that we are making that's on budget during this campaign is our childcare commitment. It's less funds, less of an investment, because it is the investment that produces a return, less of an investment than the waste of five and a half billion dollars that this Government put towards the French subs, that all they've got is a torn-up contract, because guess what, those French subs are never going to surface.

JOURNALIST: New polling shows that you are on track to win government, are you heartened by this, or are you sceptical?

ALBANESE: I am focused on May 21. And that election timetable. We're focused on May 21, on getting there, but we're also focused on the next election as well. I'm focused on an agenda that's achievable, an agenda whereby we can point back and say we've promised you a better future, and we're delivering. We're delivering cheaper childcare, we're delivering more manufacturing jobs, we're delivering a pathway to reducing our emissions, we're delivering more secure work, we're delivering on cost of living pressures by dealing with cheaper childcare, cheaper energy bills, cheaper medicines. That is my focus. That's my only focus. Polls come and go. We'll wait and see. I welcome the debate that we had last night. I make this comment, I thank Channel Seven, for hosting last night. And I thank also previously Channel Nine and Sky News for hosting the three debates that we've had. I make this comment, I cannot believe that the national Prime Minister will be the first one during a campaign who has not appeared on any ABC programs. It is like he has an allergy to the ABC. No debate on the ABC. No appearance on QandA. No appearance on RN Breakfast, no appearance on ABC Breakfast, no interviews on Insiders, on the major programs, and no appearance yet at the National Press Club. 

JOURNALIST: Paul Keating said if you change government, you change the country. You'll be the first Italian Australian Prime Minister. Ed Husic will be the first Muslim Australian in the cabinet. Have you thought about how that will [inaudible]?

ALBANESE: I have, absolutely. And I'm heartened by the response that I have particularly from the Italian community. I'm being hosted next Wednesday, we don't give you a whole lot of advances, but next Wednesday I'll be at the Marconi club in Western Sydney. There are members of the Italian community who are saying to me, they are going to vote Labor for the first time in their life, because they want an Australia that reflects modern Australia. Modern Australia is made up of people called Husic, and Albanese, but it's also made up of people like Watt, and Matt. We're a diverse country, and the fact that I have a non-Anglo-Celtic name and so does our Senate leader as well, I think sends a message out there, hopefully to multicultural Australia, that you can achieve anything in this country. It's a good thing that we have in Queensland, a premier called Palaszczuk, that we had in New South Wales a premier called Berejiklian, that in Victoria, we had Steve Bracks of Lebanese descent. There's a fellow called Malinauskas, who's just been elected in South Australia. I think it's a very positive thing. 

JOURNALIST: Since the election has been called, we've had a number of visits and the Deputy Prime Minister, who spent Easter here, in fact. Following that, we've had people from the Coalition. David Gillespie, the regional Health Minister, we've had Bridget McKenzie here as well, we've also had Mr Littleproud.

ALBANESE: Have you had any Liberals?

JOURNALIST: Well, them and the Nationals are a coalition.

ALBANESE: You haven't been paying attention if you think that.

JOURNALIST: You said Mr Morrison has an allergy to the ABC, but neither you or Richard Marles have been here since the election has been called. Have you given up on Flynn or is it in the bag?

ALBANESE: I have been here five times into Gladstone. I have been three times to Emerald, twice to Biloela, a number of times to Rockhampton, to Gracemere, I almost had, you know, if I was an LNP candidate for Lilley, I would've changed my address to here, I've been here so often. I've been here more than the LNP candidate for Lilley has been at the address where they're enrolled. I have been a regular visitor and I was here just a little while ago. I've been here since then. And I drove from Cairns to Maryborough, right through here, we went to the Rio site, I visited a range of sites here in the electorate. We looked at the beef industry at Gracemere. In Emerald I met with the mayor and the community there, in Bilo we went to the power station. I have been here on so many occasions, because this bloke here, Matt Burnett, I personally asked him to run. Why did I do that? Because I know that local champions can make a difference. This guy is the Queensland equivalent of Kristy McBain, the champion of Eden-Monaro, he'll win Flynn because he's so connected and embedded into the community. One of the meetings I had here in Gladstone we had in a boardroom here. Just a meeting with all of the leaders of the community. There were people there who previously had worked on the current LNP members campaign. And they were telling me that this time they were backing this bloke. 

JOURNALIST: You said it would be completely untenable for Labor to release its policy costings [inaudible]

ALBANESE: No. Well, I hope that the Courier Mail are asking the Prime Minister that he's not releasing his policies, because he hasn't even had his campaign launch yet. What I have said is that the questions about comparators between us and them, how can you answer that before they've had their campaign launch. We will release all of our costings like other oppositions have in the usual way, at the usual time.

JOURNALIST: It's good for us to be here in Gladstone, what do you say to Australians who perhaps don't get the opportunity to come here and maybe don't understand completely the energy transition that is happening in Australia or have concerns about the move away from coal and fossil fuels? How do you see this within Labor? How do you see this as the local candidate? 

BURNETT: Well, what I see is we're supporting more jobs and more industries. You can't be the mayor of the Gladstone region and not support the coal mining industry. I worked for Queensland Rail, we carted the coal from the Central Highlands and the Banana Shire to our fantastic board, exported across the world, we brought it to our local coal fired power stations at the same time, Brisbane Sydney Melbourne, we're investing in new energies as well. Like I said, Andrew Forrest manufacturing electrolysers right here in Gladstone, Sumitomo partnering with Rio Tinto, Iwatani partnering with a coal fired power station in Stanwell here in central Queensland. As well, we have got the new industries and the old industries working in harmony. We know how to do it in central Queensland. Come and have a look. We've got the greatest beaches in the world, we've got the greatest community in the world, come and check out Flynn, you'll love it.

JOURNALIST: On the issue of minimum wage, you held up a $1 coin before, talking about how this minimum wage it is quite small of an increase that we've been discussing about, do you support a minimum wage increase, not just for those who are actually on that $20 rate per hour, but also do you support the minimum wage, which is built into a number of awards across the country now, that would then flow on into other industries where people are earning considerably more than that? 

ALBANESE: The Fair Work Commission, as you know, if you go back, draw a distinction regularly, when they look at the minimum pay, minimum wage, and the national wage case, they draw distinctions about that all the time. What I'm talking about here is people who are on $20.33 an hour that the Federal Government says they should have their real wage cut. The Fair Work Commission does that.

JOURNALIST: The Chinese ambassador to Australia has said that China's rise should not be seen as a threat to Australia. Are you prepared to accept that statement, and will you meet with the Chinese ambassador to Australia if you are elected?

ALBANESE: I have not met the Chinese ambassador to Australia, and I'm not aware of the detail of what you're putting forward.

JOURNALIST: [inaudible]

ALBANESE: Well, what I say is that China has changed its posture. They are more aggressive in the region. We need to, in the words of the Biden administration, have competition without catastrophe. That's what Kurt Campbell speaks about. I'm asked about China, and the other night, we had a question about the Port of Darwin, where Scott Morrison said it had nothing to do with the Federal Government. Well, this here is a signed document, signed by Scott Morrison, in May 2016, as the Treasurer of Australia, and by David Tollner, the Treasurer of the Northern Territory. The Government, and Scott Morrison as Treasurer, provided a $20 million, $20 million incentive to the Northern Territory Government under its asset recycling program, to sell the Port of China, to a company that had interests connected with the Chinese Communist Party. The Federal Government provided a $20 million incentive to the Northern Territory Government of the Country Liberal Party to sell the Port of Darwin to a company connected with the Chinese Communist Party Government in Beijing. Mr Morrison, during the debate on Channel Nine, said that it was nothing to do with the Federal Government. He clearly misled or forgot at that time, and he should explain why it is that the Federal Government provided that $20 million incentive. Thanks very much.

ENDS