SUBJECTS: Federal election; Cost of living pressures facing Australians; Pay equity; Labor’s plan for a Better Future; Aged Care workforce; Migration policy; Health funding; Labor’s Help to Buy plan; Expansion of the Seniors Health Card; Scott Morrison's economic credibility in tatters.
 
ANNASTACIA PALASCUZUK, QUEENSLAND PREMIER: Okay, well good morning everyone and Happy Labour Day. This is a day of course we celebrate the workers across our state and the amazing achievements. I'm very happy to welcome Anthony Albanese here with us here today to lead the march for the men and women across this state, can I just say a couple of things. First of all, the Prime Minister of this country had a golden opportunity to unite this country. And during the pandemic he chose to divide. He chose to attack Queensland, attack Victoria, and attack Western Australia. This country needs someone who will unite this country, and I believe that Anthony Albanese is definitely the person to do this job. We've got someone here who will stand side by side Queenslanders, we've got someone who will stand by us to make sure that we get the infrastructure we need. He's not going to be, he would not have delayed things like quarantine, he would have stepped up to the plate. This is a very key message today I believe for Queenslanders in relation to Scott Morrison. Enough is enough. Now is the time, now is the time for us to unite the country and the man to do this is Anthony Albanese.
 
ANTHONY ALBANESE, LEADER OF THE AUSTRALIAN LABOR PARTY: Well, thanks very much, Annastacia. We worked together really closely when we were both the Infrastructure Ministers respectively for the Commonwealth and the state projects that we got done here in Queensland, like Ipswich Motorway. Projects like Gold Coast Light Rail, the Red Cliff rail line first promised in 1895, but now finally delivered. We also worked on a little project called Cross River Rail. We had the funding and everything ready to go. And then Campbell Newman's government together with Tony Abbott's Government scotched it. And Queenslanders had to go it alone –
 
PALASCZUK: That's right.
 
ALBANESE: But it's a fantastic project creating jobs making an enormous difference here in Queensland. Now yesterday, I had the campaign launch in Western Australia. And it was a great success and I thank Premier McGowan for hosting us there. Only Labor has a plan for a Better Future. And yesterday, we outlined more details of that plan. Our plan for more secure work, our plan for lifting wages, our plan for cheaper childcare for cheaper electricity bills, our plan to deal with housing affordability. Our plan to make more things here in Australia, including Queensland will be a great beneficiary, about $1 billion we'll allocate from the National Reconstruction Fund to make more things here. From our resources. We produce a great deal of rare earths here in Queensland, we should be making things here where we can, rather than exporting them overseas, seeing the value added overseas, seeing the jobs created overseas, and then importing them back at much greater value. That's our plan for a better future. Our plan for more secure work today will be a theme, of course of May Day and Labour Day, a day where we celebrate the fact that working people have fought to gain wages and conditions over a long, long period of time. The simple principle that we celebrate today is a fair day's pay for a fair day's work. But what we know in this country is that we have less secure work in this country. And the government doesn't seem to think that that is an issue at all. What workers also know is that the cost of everything is going up, but their pay isn't. So that's why they're under such cost of living pressures. And behind us we see some of the heroes of the pandemic. These heroes of the pandemic are the unwilling victims of Scott Morrison's cost of living crisis. Scott Morrison seems to think that people are doing it easy in this country. The truth is they're not. They're under enormous pressure. And that is why we need a Labor Government with a better plan for a better future. Tony's going to say something quickly, then Amanda, and then we'll take questions.
 
TONY BURKE, SHADOW MINISTER FOR INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS: Thanks very much, Anthony. Everything's going up except wages. And Mr. Morrison starts to claim now, that there's nothing you can do about that. Let's not forget, the decade of flatlining wages has not been an accident. They've admitted it was a deliberate design feature of this government. If you can deliberately keep wages low - while government is not in charge of every pay rate around the country, there are things you can do to improve wages. We've already announced what we can do to be able to improve job security in this country. And yesterday, we announced what we can do to be able to improve pay equity. It's simply not good enough, when women are paid more than $250 a week less than men to be able to act on this to be able to deliver for those heroes of the pandemic. There are two things you need to do. You need to fix the structure of the legislation. And then you need to have the panels to implement the improvements. The structure simply means you make sure gender equity is an objective of the act. And you make sure we have an equal pay remuneration principle at a federal level, just like we already have here in Queensland. And secondly, you make sure that for those heroes of the pandemic, you have panels to implement them, one on gender equity, one on the care and community sector. The reason nothing's happening at the moment is because Mr. Morrison has gone missing like he always does. We have a leader in Anthony Albanese ready to step up and take action on job security and pay equity.
 
AMANDA RISHWORTH, SHADOW MINISTER FOR EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION: Well, I'd like to start by thanking our care and community workers. We've got some aged care workers here today, our early educators, our disability care workers, through the pandemic, they helped our most vulnerable. They also kept our economy going. Business as usual is not good enough for them when they have some of the lowest pay and conditions in this country. And why? Why because they are predominantly a feminised workforce. We know that the gender equity gap in this country is significantly impacted by the low wages and conditions of the community care sector. That is why I am so pleased that Labor has announced that we will not only put the principle of pay equity into the fair, Fair Work Act, but also importantly, have an expert panel to really demonstrate how we implement it. We need leadership, we need coordination. And we need a long-term plan. These workers deserve a chance in the Fair Work Commission just to hear their case to get the pay and conditions they deserve. And I'm really pleased that Labor will deliver this.
 
JOURNALIST: (inaudible)
 
ALBANESE: I'll ask Tony to make some comments on that as well. But can I make this point, really simple point. There are aged care workers here with us today. The Royal Commission makes it very clear that unless we give aged care workers a pay increase, the crisis will get worse. And this government can't even be bothered to put in a submission saying they deserve a pay increase. Any pay increase, no submission whatsoever. They are silent. They're silent on all of the workforce issues. Now the government did put some increased funding in their budget for aged care post the Royal Commission, but they ignored all of the workforce recommendations. They ignored the recommendation about 215 minutes of care. They ignored the recommendation about Aged Care Workers needing a pay increase. And they ignored the very clear recommendation about 24/7 nurses in aged care. Tony.
 
BURKE: When everything's going up except pay, there's a really simple benchmark. People can't keep going backwards. People cannot keep going backwards. Sorry. I think I've made it pretty clear. People cannot continue to go backwards in their pay and conditions. And let's not forget that from the government's perspective this is not an accident. This is a deliberate design feature that now people are living in their cost of living.
 
JOURNALIST: (inaudible)
 
ALBANESE:  I tell you what, what it says is I want to work with Premiers of all persuasions, all persuasions, and if you ask Dominic Perrottet about his view of Scott Morrison in private, you might get it.
 
JOURNALIST: Mr. Albanese, the Prime Minister has just been at an Eid event and he's had delays with humanitarian and family reunion visas directly raised with him at this event. What will Labor do to speed up visa processing and would you lift the cap on humanitarian visas?
 
ALBANESE: Well, one of the things that that we have from this Government is a gutting of the public service. And in so many areas, there are just longer and longer and longer delays. It doesn't matter whether it's migration, it doesn't matter whether it's Veterans Affairs and veterans trying to get payments. It doesn't matter whether it's in the areas of Centrelink, whereby people can't get through to a human being to talk. One of the things that has occurred with all of this Government's gutting of the public service, is that across the board, people are not getting the service delivery that they need, and that they deserve. And that is why one of the reasons why we've said we'll have increased, increased support for the public service that was part of Jim and Katie's announcement that they made last Wednesday.
 
JOURNALIST: On the government's announcement, the extension of the Seniors Health Card, your health spokesman has called it an election bribe. The Prime Minister says it is to address cost of living pressures. And it's been a vivid increase. So it's a structural change to a cyclical problem, for people who have disposable income of $144,000 and if it’s a bribe, and if it's not right, why support it?
 
ALBANESE: We support the measure, we know that people are under cost of living pressures, and where there's a good idea. We will support it.
 
JOURNALIST: Does Labor commit to the current super arrangements for self funded retirees, and other superannuants? And do you rule out any increase to super taxes and changes to caps?
 
ALBANESE: We've said we have no intention to make any super changes. One of the things that we're doing in this campaign is we're making all of our policies clear. Clear, we're putting them out there for all to see, I have my campaign launched three weeks in advance of the election campaign so that it can be scrutinised.
 
JOURNALIST: (inaudible)
 
ALBANESE: Our housing policy is good policy. How do we know that? Because we know that it works. In Western Australia, they've had a very similar plan now for 30 years. What it's done is enable people to get into housing who wouldn't otherwise get there. And it's also produced a return to the government. It's a very, very positive plan, which is why it's been welcomed by the Housing Industry Association, by the Master Builders Association. And it's why as well I note that in the past, Scott Morrison has been positive about it.
 
JOURNALIST: About working with the Premiers, Mr. Albanese. So I have a question for you about Premiers and also, Premier Palascuzuk might like to comment on this question as well. It's about health funding. We have a comment from Daniel Andrews in Victoria today about the need for 50/50 Federal-State funding for (inaudible) public hospital system. This is a significant issue for all Premiers, but I think Premier Palascuzuk as well. Would this be a part of your agenda in government, you say you're going to work with Premiers, would you work with the Premiers on 50-50 funding?
 
ALBANESE: What we're doing during this campaign and I'll take one more question after this, because the march is ready to go off. What we will do is sit down with Premiers constructively and work these issues through. We know that pressure that's there on the hospital systems. That's one of the reasons why we're put forward, for example, Urgent Care Clinics. What Urgent Care Clinics are aimed at is taking pressure off emergency departments, because we know that emergency departments are under such pressure. But the other thing that we're doing is being upfront in our discussions with the Premiers, we're not promising things in advance and then we'll say something different after the election campaign. What we're doing what we're doing is being very clear, I'm aware that the Premiers would like increased funding. Premier Palasczuk, raised it with me. All of the state premiers, Labor and Liberal wrote to the Government, I think it was last year, he says nothing new about this, what we're doing though, our policies are measured. We're inheriting off a government that doubled the debt before the pandemic, a trillion dollars of debt. So that is why we are being very responsible, very measured in the in the proposals that we have put forward.
 
JOURNALIST: (inaudible)
 
PALASCZUK: I've had a conversation with Anthony, as I'm quite sure that a lot of other Premiers has as well. Now, let's say this is no secret that all of the Health Ministers across the country are calling for an increase in health funding, all of the Health Ministers of both political persuasions. It is no secret that all the Premiers and the Chief Ministers from all political persuasions, are calling for more health funding. We've had two years of a global pandemic. It's put pressure on our hospitals. I know with Anthony, he will listen, he will listen. And he will conduct a listening exercise and look at those gaps. And we'll be able to work with him. Not someone who won't even allow it to be on the agenda item at National Cabinet.
 
JOURNALIST: One of the, one of the biggest issues in housing, housing affordability is the price of a house. Do you think the price of housing is too high? Do you think housing prices should come down to better help people on lower incomes afford housing? And in relation to your comments about Dominic Perrottet, he’s got a policy on the table or suggestion of replacing stamp duty with an ongoing property tax (inaudible) is that something that you would be open to if you are elected?
 
ALBANESE: We'll determine our own policies. And we will put them forward as we did yesterday. I note that Premier Perrottet is considering a very similar policy to the one that we’ve put forward. He is considering it, WA have it, Tasmania increasing theirs. Premier Perrottet is looking at a similar policy of ‘help to buy’ effectively. And the UK Government under the Conservatives has it. Canada has it. This is a sensible plan. We know the cost of housing is is very high. What we need to do is to have a whole of government approach, as well as working with state governments and working as well with the private sector. That's why our housing supply and affordability council we announced yesterday is an important component of what we're putting forward working with the states and territories to work constructively but also working with the private sector on areas like land release and those issues. That's why we have a plan for increased social housing. We have a plan for increased affordable housing, we have a plan for increased emergency funding as well. $100 million. We know that tonight, tonight, in every capital city in Australia, women with kids will get turned away because there isn't somewhere for them to go. We know in terms of these issues, there aren't simple solutions. What we are doing is trying to create a circumstance whereby everyone can have the possibility of a secure roof over their head. That's why we have a range of these measures, which are there. We know that the housing issue is one whereby the Great Australian Dream is out of reach for too many Australians. Jim will make a comment about interest rates and then we have to go join the march. Thank you.
 
JIM CHALMERS, SHADOW TREASURER: Thanks very much, Anthony. Whether the Reserve Bank raises interest rates this week or next month, Scott Morrison's economic credibility is in tatters. This is the third wave of Scott Morrison's cost of living crisis. This is a triple whammy of falling real wages, skyrocketing inflation, and interest rates are about to rise as well. Australians can't risk and they can't afford another three years of being absolutely punished by Scott Morrison's failures on the economy. Everywhere you look amongst this march today, you are seeing people as Albo said, the unwilling victims of Scott Morrison's cost of living crisis all around you. The workers of this country deserve better than another three years of being absolutely punished by skyrocketing inflation, falling real wages, and now interest rate rises as well. These workers have kept the wheels of the Australian economy turning throughout this pandemic, the thanks they get can't be another three years are falling further and further behind.
 
ALBANESE: Thanks very much. We can’t keep 10,000 people waiting. Thank you.

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