SUBJECTS: Labor’s plan for a Better Future; TAFE; Higher education; Rising costs of living; RBA cash rate; ICAC; Gender pay gap; JobSeeker; Pensions; Rorts; NDIS; Price of newsprint.
 
CARINA GARLAND, LABOR CANDIDATE FOR CHISHOLM: Good afternoon, everyone. I'm Carina Garland, Labor's candidate for Chisholm. And I'm so delighted to have such a wonderful team here from Federal Labor with me today. Higher education is really important to this community. We have two universities, TAFE campuses, and the community knows that higher education and vocational education doesn't just offer opportunity to build a better life, but it also is so important to our local economy. More and more when I speak to people in our community, they know it is only Labor that will make the investment and commitment needed to this sector so that we can all have a better future. Anthony. 

ANTHONY ALBANESE, LEADER OF THE AUSTRALIAN LABOR PARTY: Well, thanks very much, Carina. And it's great to be back with you here in Chisholm, you're a fantastic candidate and will make a great member after May 21st. There is a cost of living crisis under Scott Morrison. He's presided over a circumstance whereby we have had no real serious wage increases for 10 years, for almost a decade of this Government. And we've had in the last year a reduction in real wages, we also have rising inflation. And yesterday, we saw rising interest rates. The combination of low wage growth, rising inflation, and rising interest rates is putting real pressure on working families in the suburbs and the regional towns of Australia. And Scott Morrison seems to think that people have got it easy in this country. Scott Morrison has an excuse for everything, and a plan for nothing. He wants to always take credit when things are going well, but never accept any responsibility when things aren't. Labor has a plan for growth, but growth in a way which doesn't add to inflationary pressure. That's why we've targeted areas such as education. Whether it be early education through childcare, that will boost workforce participation, that will boost productivity. Whether it be schools, or right here at this TAFE, with 465,000 Fee Free TAFE places in areas of skill shortage or whether it be the 20,000 additional university places. One of the big chasms that's there in Australian politics is in the area of education. Whereby Labor understands that education is about opportunity and aspiration. But it helps not just individuals, it helps the entire country. We need to compete in this globalised world based upon how smart we are, not trying to drive down wages. And the thing about this Government is that low wage growth was a key feature of their economic architecture, they themselves say that. They're oblivious to the pressure which working families are under. Labor has a plan, whether it be for cheaper childcare, cheaper electricity prices, investing in new industries, making sure that we have our National Reconstruction Fund, creating new industries and new jobs, New Energy Apprenticeships, of which we will have 10,000, fee-free places in TAFE, additional university places. This is all about growing the economy in a way that doesn't add to inflationary pressure. It's all about cost of living. And Australians when they cast their vote on May 21 can think about this, is this as good as it gets? Because a government that goes into its fourth term doesn't get better. They just get more out of touch, more complacent, more arrogant. And that's what we've seen from this Government. I'd ask Tanya to add.

TANYA PLIBERSEK, SHADOW MINISTER FOR EDUCATION: Thanks so much Anthony. My dad was a plumber and gasfitter and it was a great job. It was a job that enabled him to support a family. And we want more young Australians to get the opportunity of having a great education. The sort of education that gives them a chance to get the job of their dreams, the chance to support a family and build a decent quality of life. But under Scott Morrison, what we've seen is billions cut from TAFE and training, about 60,000 fewer apprentices and trainees today than when Labor left office. Every year under the Liberals there have been fewer apprentices and trainees than Labor's last year in government. The consequence of this is a national skills crisis that is Scott Morrison's fault. Cutting billions, making sure that there weren't enough places for people to do the apprenticeships and traineeships that would give them the job of their dreams. That's all happened on the watch of the Liberals. The problem, of course, is not just for the individuals who miss out on a great education. The problem is for Australian businesses. Literally everywhere I go around Australia, businesses are telling me that they would love to expand, they'd love to put on more people, they'd love to operate longer hours, more days of the week, but they can't find the skilled staff they need to do that. Labor has a plan, as Anthony said, of course, to invest in early childhood education and care, to make sure that our schools are amongst the best in the world, to provide 465,000 Fee Free TAFE places, upgrade our TAFE facilities with a $50 million fund, and provide 20,000 additional university places. This, of course, is a great way to help Australians immediately, by reducing the fees that they would ordinarily pay to go to TAFE. Hundreds or thousands of dollars a year saved from TAFE fees. It's also a great way to help them earn more during the course of their life. We know that someone who goes to TAFE will generally earn about $19,000 a year more than someone who hasn't had the benefit of a TAFE education. It's also so important for our businesses, to really supercharge productivity in this nation. We have to have a skilled and educated workforce. We have to give people the opportunity of learning the skills, the trades, the professions, that will give them a secure job with decent pay. Thanks.

ALBANESE: We'll go to David first. 

JOURNALIST: We heard from the Reserve Bank Governor yesterday, he says rates are heading towards 2.5 per cent. It's just a matter of how long it takes to get there. If you form government, what are you going to do when rates go up? Are you simply going to blame Scott Morrison for it all? Or do you actually have a way in which you can prevent them from going to 2.5 per cent? 

ALBANESE: One of the things that the Reserve Bank Governor said yesterday was he spoke about domestic capacity constraints. One of those is about skills. That is a real constraint on our economy. We have around about one and a half million Australians who either are unemployed or want more work. The issue of insecure work is a big one. It's one I've been speaking about since I've been Labor Leader; the casualisation of the workforce, the use of labour hire, contracting out, means insecure work, people want more hours. And those capacity constraints are things that we will deal with. One of the things that we have to do is to boost productivity. So when we have prioritised where our spending commitments will be, they've been in areas like childcare, that will grow productivity, that will produce a return just like our TAFE investment.

JOURNALIST: What is the RBA’s cash rate?

ALBANESE: The RBA’s cash rate is 0.35.

JOURNALIST: Just on integrity, Scott Morrison has described a risk that setting up too strong an integrity commission would risk creating a public autocracy. What do you think he means by public autocracy, and is that a risk?

ALBANESE: What he means is, the reason why there is no National Anti-Corruption Commission is sitting all in his front bench and behind him. That's the fact of the matter. You have had these extraordinary attacks on a legal process, the likes of which no national leader I've seen, whether it's John Howard, or Malcolm Turnbull or Tony Abbott. I have not seen anyone from either side of politics call a legal process, it's not a court, but it's a legal process that Scott Morrison has repeatedly referred to as a kangaroo court. It's an extraordinary statement to make, which is why the outgoing, one of the outgoing ICAC commissioners, has referred to that as buffoonery, the comments that have been made. Dominic Perrottet, the premier of New South Wales has also stood up to Scott Morrison on this issue. And I give Dominic Perrottet absolute credit for doing just that. I think in terms of the issues that are there, there are so many integrity issues where this Government has just failed to give answers, whether it's the Leppington Triangle $30 million for land that was worth $3 million, whether it's sports rorts, whether it be commuter car park rorts, including here in Melbourne, where you had car parks committed for commuters, where there's no train station. The abuse of taxpayers’ money that we've seen under this Government. Scandal after scandal. We never get answers over questions, including about what the Prime Minister's own office knew about issues. We still don't have answers about the issues relating to Alan Tudge and compensation and payments that were made. This Prime Minister just dismisses any integrity issues. What is very clear is that if Australians want a National Anti-Corruption Commission, and to clean up politics, they need a Labor government to do so.

JOURNALIST: Mr Albanese, just going back to your point you made about insecure work earlier. The Federal Court earlier today has upheld that Qantas’s outsourcing baggage handlers was unlawful, but rejected that workers should get their job back. The outsourcing saves the airline $100 million a year in staff costs. Will Labor's Same Job Same Pay policy extend to outsourcing arrangements like this, to ensure that outsourced workers are paid the same as direct employees earn? And secondly, we're here in Victoria, it's a high watermark for Labor in terms of representation, how confident are you that you can really pick up seats and hold the seats that you've got here? 

ALBANESE: Well, I'm very confident that we can hold all of the seats we currently hold. And I note that we have a Prime Minister who won't be campaigning in seats like Kooyong, and seats like Higgins, and it's a no-go zone for the Prime Minister. You have senior members of the Government, who are not putting the Liberal Party logo on material. And on the issue of an anti-corruption commission. You had Josh Frydenberg, just this morning, dissociate himself from the comments of his Prime Minister. An extraordinary split between Josh Frydenberg and Scott Morrison over whether it was appropriate to call the ICAC in New South Wales the kangaroo court. You have chaos within the Liberal Party here in Victoria. But that's replicated right around the country. We support, of course, respect the integrity of court processes, including industrial ones. Our processes will be worked through in terms of the details of the legislation will be worked through with businesses, with unions. The principle is very clear that people who are doing exactly the same job should receive the same pay. But we'll work through those issues constructively. One of the things I've said, is that I'll bring unions and business together, they have common interests.

JOURNALIST: Okay, right. Just quickly sorry. On the Solomon Islands, a couple weeks ago Jason Clare said you were seeking a political briefing on the Solomon Islands. Have you received that? And if so, has it changed your attack lines on what the Government is doing?

ALBANESE: We've asked for a briefing to be scheduled in Canberra, and that will be taking place. What is extraordinary is that the Prime Minister today has indicated that he still hasn't spoken to the Prime Minister of the Solomons. I find that quite extraordinary. Hang on. Well, you only get one at a time, you don't get to.

JOURNALIST: My question is to Mr Albanese. If you agree to this extension of two years of the deeming rate. It was introduced as an emergency measure. Isn't that just an acceptance that the cost of living crisis is going to continue for another two years, irrespective of who wins on May 21?

ALBANESE: What it is, is a recognition that people are doing it really tough. And it's a recognition that the Government's measure of a $250 payment done during an election campaign to go out and then ending after an election campaign, is not good enough. It's also a recognition, I note this, that the interest rates fell four times between 2015 and 2019. There was no change to deeming rates during that entire period. Scott Morrison had to be dragged kicking and screaming to make any changes to deeming rates. And this is the same guy, the same Prime Minister who wanted to increase the pension age to 70.

JOURNALIST: On the gender pay gap, there's currently a 28 per cent difference between men and women when it comes to super when they retire. Has Labor got a plan to address that?

ALBANESE: We sure do. It's called our childcare policy. It's called a policy that doesn't include a structural change which gives a disincentive for women to work a third or fourth day. It's one of the reasons why the Business Council of Australia and other business groups have called for childcare reform. You need to recognise that one of the things that has an impact about the current mish-mash and mess that is childcare subsidies, whereby, for some women, if they work a fourth or a fifth day, what that does is they can actually lose money, or at least not earn any additional funds. That does a couple of things. One, it stops them being promoted, because they're not full-time participants, and they're at a competitive disadvantage in their workplace. Two, it holds back productivity of those businesses. But three, it means that women retire with less superannuation than would otherwise be the case. And it's also the case, of course, that the gap, and that's what explains the gap that's there in terms of retirement incomes, compared with the current wage gap, gender pay gap, which is 13.8 per cent. I'd say Tanya you might want to comment on that as well.

PLIBERSEK: Oh, yeah. Thanks so much, Anthony. I mean, there's two things that we have to do to reduce the superannuation gap. The first is make sure that women are paid equally with men, we've got a great set of policies to make sure that that happens, including more transparency in workplaces, including the Fair Work Commission having greater powers to make orders to pay men and women equally. And the point that Anthony makes about women being discouraged from working those last couple of days a week because it actually costs them money to go to work is a really important one. Families are making decisions all the time about how to best balance their budget. If it costs the secondary earner in the family money to go to work. I can tell you, they're not doing it. So cheaper childcare, and reducing the gender pay gap, that's how we reduce the superannuation gap. 

JOURNALIST: Have you met with Dan Andrews and when will you be out campaigning with him?

ALBANESE: I've been here for about an hour and a half, which you would be aware. And during that hour and a half, I assume the Victorian budget, because it was handed down yesterday, that Parliament's sitting this week. I certainly will be campaigning with Daniel Andrews during this campaign.

JOURNALIST: Just further on the Solomon Islands, Manasseh Sogavare has again hit out at Australia, saying that referring to the Solomon Islands as [inaudible] is insensitive. Should you win the election, what is your first order of business in terms of repairing that relationship with the Solomon Islands?

ALBANESE: Well, we'll show respect to all the Pacific family. 

JOURNALIST: Just a question for Tanya. Tanya Plibersek, have you been shafted from the Labor election campaign? And is your appearance here today an attempt to put those rumours to bed?

PLIBERSEK: Sure. Well, we're here today talking about education, which is my portfolio. And I've been travelling around the country, working very hard for a Labor win. I’ve visited more than 20 marginal seats so far, I'll keep doing that. I don't know how many media events I've done. I think I last counted about 30 of them. And can I tell you one thing, not a single person has stopped me in the street and asked me the sort of question that you just asked me now. You know what they're talking to me about? They're talking to me about the cost of living. They're talking to me about the interest rate hike they've just experienced. They're talking to me about the fact that it is harder and harder to make ends meet under Scott Morrison's Government. And you know what I tell them, that it's only Anthony Albanese that has the plan to take a little bit of pressure off families, by reducing the cost of childcare, by helping them with affordable housing, by reducing the cost of medicines, by making sure that they can get a great job. And when their business is doing well, and their employer is doing well, see the occasional pay rise as well.

ALBANESE: Can I make this point? No. Everyone gets one question. I was criticised by some of the media yesterday for giving you more than one, so I've taken that on board and you only get one. You certainly can, Jen, you certainly can. But could I just say on that. I've got my education spokesperson here. Who is Scott Morrison's education spokesperson? Who is it? This is a fundamental issue. Education is so important. Scott Morrison can't say who his Education Minister is now and he is the government. He today has made some more comments about Alan Tudge. What's Stewart Robert doing? I am proud to be captain of a fantastic team. It's a ripper team. I will appear with all of them over the course of the campaign. And what we're doing is coordinating people out there in every State and Territory. I have shadow ministers today in Queensland, WA, South Australia, Tasmania, New South Wales, and Victoria and possibly in NT as well. Scott Morrison has ministers who are in witness protection, ministers who are in witness protection, who can't appear anywhere. Jen.

JOURNALIST: Mr Albanese, you said people are doing it tough, it's only going to get worse. Will you commit to a review and an increase of the JobSeeker rate under a Labor Government, and also an increase in the pension rate. 

ALBANESE: What I've said on both those issues is that one of the things that A Labor government should always do, is to assist people in need. And we know that people are doing it really tough. The JobSeeker rate is under $46 a day, just under. And I've said that every single budget shouldn't have, we don't need a review to know that people are doing it tough. What we need to do is to each and every budget, to examine and do what we can do to assist people. The last time I was in government, I was proud to be part of a government that had the largest ever increase in pensions in Australia's history. Last one.

JOURNALIST: Mr Albanese you didn't answer the question, will you increase the JobSeeker rate?

ALBANESE: I did answer the question. What I have said is each and every budget, each and every budget, we will consider what we can do on issues like that.

JOURNALIST: You've spoken about the rising cost of living, we know the rising cost of.

ALBANESE: Bonus question for Sarah, because she's being polite there.

JOURNALIST: We know that business costs are rising as well, it emerged today that the price of printing for regional newspapers is going up about 80 percent, which is putting regional newspapers across the country under threat. Do you support immediate financial relief to help the sector? And how much of a loss would it be if regional newspapers were to close down in those communities?

ALBANESE: Well, it would be a massive loss, a massive loss. Look, regional newspapers play such a critical role in regional communities. If you live in the middle of a big capital city, like the one we're in now, then you're impacted by a whole range of factors. Think about a regional community but Canberra or others as well, that are potentially impacted by this and circumstances beyond their control. I've always been very sympathetic when I've met with regional media, WIN and others about the pressures that they're under. So I would take a constructive role on any of those issues. From now during caretaker period, of course, we, you know, I would be prepared to sit down. I believe that they play an important role. And it's legitimate to make sure that happens.

JOURNALIST: Just we have some really hard economic times, we have a lot of debt. If Labor gets into government, can you guarantee there will be no cuts made to health, education, NDIS, the really, really big programs, will you make any cuts at all to make savings for that bottom line?

ALBANESE: Thanks, Sarah, I'll tell you what, what will make, where there are potential savings, it's in the rorts that have occurred under this Government. And they're not rorts in education and health and NDIS. They're rorts in their allocation of funding on a political basis with their colour coded maps. That's why we've said we will have an audit conducted by Treasury and Finance, and have a line-by-line examination of that. But Labor will always be better on education and health. Labor will always be better on education and health, than the Government, than the Liberal Party. Because we believe that a healthy society is a productive society. We believe a society that invests in education is investing in growth and investing in our future. Part of a better future for Australia is making sure that people aren't left behind, and people aren't held back. What that means is investing in health and education. We've put forward during this election campaign, if you look at our priorities, including here in TAFE, in universities, in early learning, the commitments that we've made in health, are all about improving the system. When it comes to the NDIS we've had a comprehensive plan announced by Bill with six points. One of the things we want to do is take pressure off people who either have had their funding cut or are worried their funding will be cut as well, take away some of that bureaucracy, the money that's been spent attacking people essentially and their packages. On the NDIS I think Jason might want to just say something. Very last one. Extra last one.

JOURNALIST: The Coalition have today said that they have done more than any other government to help women. We know that Senator Amanda Stoker was at a pro-life event. We also know that the PM’s former Resources Minister, Matt Canavan was also there. What message does that show to Australian women? And what will Labor do to make sure that women in this country are heard when it comes to decisions and choices around their body?

ALBANESE: We'll respect women. We will have a very different approach, if you look at my campaign launch on Sunday, had as a major policy differentiation, the issue of the gender pay gap, and addressing those issues. This is a government that sat back, and as a direct result of the way that women in particular felt about the Government's attitude towards women and women's safety, had tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of women around the country march for justice. The Prime Minister couldn't walk out the front of Parliament House, and then stood up in Parliament and made the comment that in other countries, people who were protesting would be shot. That was the response that women got. We still have a failure to adopt the 55 recommendations to the Respect@Work Report. We have questions which still remain to be answered about the Prime Minister's office and what they knew about issues and just a roadblock put up. I will lead a government that respects women, that makes sure that we recognise that one of the things that we can do to advance this country is to fully embrace the commitment of advancing women's interests, because that's in our national interests as well. That's in our national interest as well. A good government isn't one that represents just 50 per cent. It's one that represents the whole society. Thanks very much. Thank you.

ENDS