SUBJECTS: Blue Mountains tourism industry; JobSaver; National Anti-Corruption Commission; Scott Morrison’s weak integrity commission plan; Taiwan; One China policy; APRA tightens home loan standards for new customers; housing affordability.

SUSAN TEMPLEMAN, MEMBER FOR MACQUARIE: 
Good morning everyone. It is wonderful to have you here in the beautiful Blue Mountains on the land of the Dharug and Gundungurra. I'm Susan Templeman, the Member for Macquarie and it's always great to have Anthony Albanese here to learn even more than he already knows about the issues that we face. He is a frequent visitor to the Blue Mountains. But yet again, we're facing some challenges. And I'm also joined by the President of the Blue Mountains Tourism Association, Jason Cronshaw, who I'm going to ask just to paint a picture of what the situation is for tourism, remembering that tourism absolutely underpins the local economy here. And the idea of opening up is great in theory, but in practice we know we are going to face enormous challenges. Those challenges started two years ago this month when we were just on the verge of the biggest bushfire that the world has ever seen from a single ignition point, that effectively shut down Blue Mountains tourism across the top of the Blue Mountains and through to the Hawkesbury for months and months. So thank you for being here. And Jason, I'm going to ask you to say a few words if you would be happy to?

JASON CRONSHAW, BLUE MOUNTAINS TOURISM ASSOCIATION PRESIDENT:
Thank you, Susan and welcome to the beautiful Blue Mountains, Anthony. As you can see, behind us here, we're in the middle of the World Heritage National Park area, just west of Sydney. And it's been an attraction for visitors since a couple of 100 years ago. Sadly, since the Black Summer bushfires in 2019/20, we've had our ups and downs. And obviously with a couple of COVID closures, the Blue Mountains tourism industry now is at its knees. So we're looking forward to coming out of lockdown and inviting visitors to come back to the Blue Mountains.

ANTHONY ALBANESE, LEADER OF THE AUSTRALIAN LABOR PARTY:Well, thanks very much, Jason. And thanks Susan for once again hosting myself here in the beautiful Blue Mountains. This is a picturesque backdrop. It's one of the best, not just in Australia, one of the best in the world. But as you can see, there's no one here. And what that means is that that reflects the devastating impact that COVID has had on the tourism sector here in the Blue Mountains. A devastating impact coming on the top of the bushfires of two years ago. What this tourism sector here needs is more support. And the truth is that when JobSaver is removed, they will be pulling the rug out from an industry that's already really struggling. This is an industry that aren't getting visitors. The bus operators here, the hotels, the restaurants, we need to provide ongoing support whilst this industry gets back on its feet. Otherwise, what you'll do is you'll just lose tourism operators, you'll lose the skills from the industry as well. So there are two things that are required. One is some financial support additional to the tourism sector here. And secondly is support for skills and for the workforce to make sure it can be brought back to make sure that going into the future, it can once again be the massive generator of income and jobs for Australia. This industry here in the Blue Mountains is particularly dependent upon international tourists. And we know that international tourists can't come. And up to this point as well, there have been real restrictions on people even coming from Sydney up to the Blue Mountains for the day or for the weekend. And therefore there's a need for additional support.

I do want to also make some comments about the need for a national integrity commission. The Prime Minister, when he took over the leadership of the Liberal Party after Malcolm Turnbull was knifed, said that we'd have a national integrity commission. He said that more than 1000 days ago, but still we haven't even had legislation introduced to Parliament, and Amanda Stoker hasn't even committed to a timeframe of introducing that legislation before the end of the year. What's very clear is that it will take a Labor government to have a genuine National Anti-Corruption Commission, an anti-corruption commission that is independent of government, one that has teeth, one that can conduct its own investigations. What we see from Mr Morrison's proposal is their version of an integrity commission is more a goldfish than a watchdog. It's pretty quiet, it's got no teeth and it just swims around in a peaceful way. It's not going to rock the boat. The truth is that here we need to restore confidence in our political system. And it's no wonder that Christian Porter, who has his own issues with regard to secret donations for a private legal matter, that he refuses to disclose, stepped down for the ministry as a result, but thinks he can continue in parliament, was someone who was in charge of a National Integrity Commission, and didn't even introduce the legislation. A government that has presided over sports rorts, presided over commuter car parks where there isn't even a train station, has presided over regional rorts, grants, and abuse of taxpayer funds. A government that has used taxpayers’ money to fund its own research, a government with question marks all over it. And problems that have arisen from minister after minister, including Angus Taylor promoted last week. We still don't know how the correspondence was given to the media about Clover Moore that we know was dodgy and wasn't actually correct. What we actually need to restore confidence in our political system is a National Anti-Corruption Commission with independence of government. And that's what a government that I lead will deliver. Happy to take questions.

JOURNALIST: (Inaudible)

ALBANESE: Well, what's lacking from their goldfish model, rather than the watchdog that's needed, is something with teeth. In their model, it would be up to the Government effectively whether something was looked at by an integrity commission. We know that the Prime Minister has form here. He has charged his former Chief of Staff and now Head of his Department on multiple occasions to do reviews, including, remarkably, a review to find out what people in his own office knew about the circumstances around Brittany Higgins, that are now the subject of a legal case. He could have just asked his own staff. But what he did was he got Mr Gaetjens to look at this matter and we still don't know what happened in terms of a report. This is a government that hides from transparency at every single opportunity. We don't hear, from Mr Morrison, straight answers to very straight questions. And he and his Government are characterised by secrecy, by non-disclosure. And we saw that with the decision of the Administrative Appeals Tribunal to overturn the issue regarding the National Cabinet meetings and whether they should be disclosed. So you need an integrity commission or anti-corruption commission that would actually have independent powers to examine matters itself, not something that was dependent upon the government. Because we know that this Government, under that system, have set up various inquiries that we never hear from again. We never hear the outcome of these inquiries. There's multiple ones currently in abeyance as a result of this Government using so-called inquiries to actually have a lack of transparency. And what we saw today is that some of Australia's top lawyers said this about the proposal: ‘It would hide corruption, not expose it’. Hide corruption, not expose it. That's what some of Australia's legal minds, our best in the country, have said today about Mr Morrison's model. And then they went on to say it does not deserve to be called watchdog. Indeed, it doesn't. Which is why I say it's more like a goldfish than a watchdog. Because it's peaceful. It doesn't have any teeth. And it doesn't serve a purpose of holding anything to account.

JOURNALIST: (Inaudible)

ALBANESE: It could investigate politicians, it could investigate ministers, it could investigate public servants. It would be in charge of its own operations. You need that independence. And what we have in every state and territory around the country is examples of various tribunals that have dysfunction. We could take the best of those models, put it at the national level. What we have from Mr Morrison is the worst, weakest proposal, which is why it's been rejected by anyone who examines it seriously.

JOURNALIST: (Inaudible)

ALBANESE: Well, it should be based on best practice, is what it should be based on. But, like ICAC, it should be able to launch its own investigations and be independent of government. That's the critical matter here. You can't have a so-called watchdog that's dependent upon the government. Because we know that there when integrity issues have been raised, whether it was integrity issues about Minister Taylor, former minister Porter, the Prime Minister's own office, what the Prime Minister does is establish so-called inquiries that never report and that never provide any information to the public. And that's why the public need a genuine body so that they can have confidence in our political system. I think overwhelmingly people are engaged in public life for the right reasons across the political spectrum. We need to make sure that the public can have confidence that everyone is in those circumstances.

JOURNALIST: (Inaudible)

ALBANESE: I'm suggesting there's a need for more support for businesses like the tourism sector here. One of the things that we've said, when we argued for the JobKeeper program, was that it was necessary to keep links between employers and employees. Now, the Federal Government have simply taken an arbitrary date in which to withdraw support, when the restrictions are still having a massive impact. We won't have international tourists suddenly be flooding to this region on December 1.That's the truth of the matter. And therefore, the problem for operators is that the cost, if businesses go bankrupt, if businesses lose their investment that they've made in their buses, in their capital, as well as in their staff and in their training, then it costs far more to build back from zero than it does to keep existing businesses going. And the concern here, including we've heard from the Blue Mountains tourism sector here today, is that the cost will mean it takes many more years to recover unless there's support given on an ongoing basis.

JOURNALIST: Do you think incentives will encourage tourism in places like the Blue Mountains?

ALBANESE: Well, we think certainly that incentives are worth looking at. But at the moment, there are those restrictions. And even with incentives here, domestic incentives, that won't take the place of the international tourists, of which the tourism sector here is so dependent. You have massive investments here in places like Scenic World, in the buses, in the restaurants, in the hotels. And that investment has been really struggling as a result of the pressure that's on.

JOURNALIST: (Inaudible)

ALBANESE: Well, there's a bipartisan commitment to a One China policy. And that's bipartisan. That's been there for a long period of time. And Australia should continue to urge for peaceful actions in our region.

JOURNALIST: (Inaudible)

ALBANESE: We should ensure that there's peace in the region. And Australia should continue to play a constructive role promoting peace in the region.

JOURNALIST: (Inaudible)

ALBANESE: We should continue to call for all parties to continue to support peace in the region. There is a bipartisan commitment to a One China policy. That's been in place for a long period of time. And that's the basis for our dealings with China. That hasn't stopped, over a period of time, good relations in terms of economic relations and people-to-people exchanges with Taiwan.

JOURNALIST: I appreciate your response. But I just want to be clear, does that also include diplomatic responses?

ALBANESE: Our diplomatic position is clear, which is a bipartisan one up support for One China.

JOURNALIST: The banking regulator has announced tougher serviceability tests for home loans, making it harder for some borrowers to get a mortgage. Is this a good step or could there be unintended consequences?

ALBANESE: Well, I'm very concerned, and Labor's concerned, that housing affordability is a real issue and that people are being priced out of the market. It's one of the reasons why we put housing at the centre of my Budget Reply this year, calling for the creation of 30,000 additional either social or affordable housing units. We'll continue to have more to say about housing and affordability in the lead up to the election. But this is a major issue going forward.

ENDS