SUBJECTS: Tasmania border easing; COVID-19 pandemic; manufacturing; Labor’s policy agenda; quarantine; COVID-19 pandemic; climate change; Labor’s Powering Australia Plan; skills; need for a National Anti-Corruption Commission; Federal election.
 
ROSS HART, LABOR CANDIDATE FOR BASS: Welcome, everybody, here to Launceston. And it's a big welcome to Anthony Albanese here in Northern Tasmania on the day that the borders open to people to travel to Tasmania. It's also my great pleasure to welcome my friend, Brian Mitchell, the Member for Lyons. And also thank you to Michael Cruse, the CEO Managing Director of Definium Technology, hosting us here today. Anthony, welcome here to Bass, Northern Tasmania. You're a great friend to Northern Tasmania, a great friend of Tasmania, and a frequent visitor to Tasmania. Delayed, of course, by the fact that the borders have been closed for so long. Welcome again, Anthony.
 
ANTHONY ALBANESE, LEADER OF THE AUSTRALIAN LABOR PARTY: Well, thanks very much, Ross. It's great to be here with yourself and Brian. And also, thank you to Michael for looking after us here today at this fantastic company. Well, the first thing to say is congratulations to Tasmanians. You've made sacrifices to keep each other safe during COVID. And you've done magnificently. And today, you reap the reward by families being reunited. It was terrific to be on the first plane into Launnie to see families reunited and people being able to celebrate being able to gather once again. I wanted to be here on day one because Tasmania is a state that I love. And Tasmania is an important state for the nation. And I wanted to be here to, in person, congratulate Tasmanians on what they have achieved during the COVID pandemic. I do want to say, though, that it's also great to be here at this company. I want a future made in Australia. We can punch above our weight. And just as during COVID, we've seen the strength of Australian society, people making sacrifices to look after each other. We've also seen some of the vulnerabilities in our economy. We need to make more things here. We need to give Australians the skills to fulfill those jobs in hig manufacturing here. This is an example of a company that's producing high-value manufacturing not just for Australia, but for the world. Michael would have taken a big risk establishing this company. But it shows exactly how successful we can be. This company produces quality product and employs 16 full-time employees in just five years and will be expanding in the future. We want an Australian Labor Government to be partners in that future. We want a better future for Australia, not just to go back to the vulnerable economy that we had prior to the pandemic. And part of that must be to make more things here and to give Australians the skills. I've already announced 465,000 free TAFE places and an additional 20,000 university places in areas of skill shortage. One of those areas, of course, is in data, is in software, is in these areas that this company is producing. One of the things about high-value manufacturing is because it is largely built on the basis of how smart we are, how good the technology is, not a matter of competing in the Asian century by driving down wages and conditions. It's a matter of competing by driving up our skills base, by driving up how smart we are, and how smart what we make is. This company is an example of that. It is producing high-value manufacturing. And it's one I think that's a great example going forward of what we need to do to take Australia forward so that we have a better future and we build back stronger.
 
JOURNALIST: Anthony, you haven't been able to visit much during the pandemic to Tasmania. We're now entering an election. Do you feel there is some catching up to do?
 
ALBANESE: Well, we're in the pre-caretaker period of the election. I was here, of course, when I was locked out of Sydney for three months. I visited all the electorates here. And I think I've just about visited every pocket of the electorate of Bass and the electorate of Lyons and the electorate of Braddon over the years. So, I'm a regular visitor here. You won't just see me, and you don't just see me, during elections. But the Prime Minister's chosen to have a very long election campaign. Well, I welcome that. Because I welcome holding his Government to account. The truth is that Tasmania would have been open if the Prime Minister had understood that it was a race to get vaccines, and that we should have had purpose-built quarantine around the country. But we'll hold him to account on those mistakes that were made. But we'll also put forward our alternative vision. Our vision for a future made in Australia, our vision for more secure work, our vision for Tasmania. And our vision for Tasmania is about high-value manufacturing. It's about value-adding in agriculture, it's about value-adding from our resources sector. It's about embracing the opportunity that is here in Tasmania for renewable energy to be exported to the north island, which is what we need to do. I was somewhat stunned by the Prime Minister - but then again, he sometimes doesn't read his briefs - when he used Bell Bay as an example of Tasmania being undermined by having a 43 per cent target to reduce emissions by 2030. Someone should tell him that the Tasmanian target is 100 per cent, that the Liberal Government in New South Wales has a target of 50 per cent, that the Liberal Government in South Australia has a target of 50 per cent. The fact is that Tasmania in particular can benefit from our policy when it comes to Powering Australia. As an example, we can grow the hydrogen industry here. We can grow high-value manufacturing here. We can value-add in our agricultural products here as well. I think Tasmania has a bright future, but it needs a government that is as ambitious and as aspirational as Tasmanians are for themselves and their families.
 
JOURNALIST: What concrete changes will you introduce to overhaul the Commonwealth Grants Program if you are elected? And when will this be done by?
 
ALBANESE: Well, this is just a disgrace. Today, we have found through the research that has been done by Nine newspapers that $4 has gone to Coalition electorates for every dollar that has gone to a Labor electorate. In my electorate of Grayndler, they've received $700,000 of Commonwealth grants funding at the same time as the electorate just next door that has a very similar composition, Reid, has received $15 million and Cook $8 million. Taxpayers don't pay different rates of tax according to what electorate they're in. But what we know is that unless you're in a marginal National or Liberal Party seat, you won't receive the same support as those voters do. And the pork-barrelling is just out of control. This Government have set up a number of funds. Sports rorts, commuter carpark rorts, regional grants, a whole range of programs. They've even politicised the Community Safety Program. The Community Safety Program should be above partisan political interests. What you need to do is to look to what I did when I was a minister. I was the Minister for Regional Development and Local Government. When I was the Minister, Labor electorates under the regional and local community infrastructure program received 53 per cent of funding. Labor held 53 per cent of the seats. What we see from this Government is rort after rort. We have a number of funds that have been set up in the last Budget. And we'll see a frenzy in the lead-up to the election campaign from this Prime Minister. The fact is that we've never seen before a Prime Minister who was so determined to treat honesty and integrity as an optional measure. It is no wonder that there's no National Anti-Corruption Commission. Because this Government is rotten to the core. They've completely corrupted the granting process. And what we see is that these rorts need to stop. And this Government seems to be determined to brush it off.
 
JOURNALIST: Well, what would you do?
 
ALBANESE: What we did was to have grants based upon integrity. What we did was to have a grants system based through local government where every local government in the country benefited and where we took advice from departments. What we didn't have is the sort of system that this Government has, and we will not have in Government, is a few ministers sitting around with colour-coded sheets and the Prime Minister's office sitting down with colour-coded seats based upon the marginality of electorates and determining funding that way. Funding should be based upon objective criteria and should be based upon need.
 
JOURNALIST: Is an integrity commission required?
 
ALBANESE: We need a National Anti-Corruption Commission. And we need it now. And I put the Prime Minister on notice that a National Anti-Corruption Commission will be able to look at the sports rorts program and these rorted programs of taxpayer funds. Taxpayer funds are ones that are paid for by the hard workers such as at this company here. They deserve better than to have their funds, their taxpayer funds from their hard work, funnelled into marginal electorates on the basis of a political whim. They deserve for funding to be allocated, as well, for major infrastructure projects. When I was the Minister, we funded projects like Gold Coast Light Rail in safe Coalition seats because it was the right thing to do. We put $7.6 billion into the Pacific Highway when we were in office, a highway which didn't cross a Labor electorate from the north shore of Sydney right up to the Queensland border for most of that area. The truth is that this Government have been involved and they're addicted to it, and they just dismiss it. And in the last Budget, they established a range of funds where they allocated billions of dollars in decisions taken but not announced. It's not on.
 
JOURNALIST: An integrity commission would take some time to establish. So what short-term measures can you put in to make sure taxpayers funds are spent better?
 
ALBANESE: You can just not do it. You can just not do it. You don't need a measure to know that this is a system which is broken and a Government which is morally bankrupt. You don't need a measure to know that it's wrong to have colour-coded sheets in the Prime Minister's office determining where taxpayer funds go. And the reason why you end up with those sort of outcomes is that, I'll give the Prime Minister a big tip. People who live in Reid, a multicultural electorate which borders Sydney Harbour in the north and has the area down towards the Cook River in the south, is pretty much like my electorate of Grayndler. Very much. But on one side of Ashfield to the west, there is some $15 million of funding, but to the east, $700,000 of funding. That's just not fair. It's not right. It's not the Australian way. And the Government must just stop this rorting. Because it's become endemic and it undermines faith in our political system. No wonder there are so many independent candidates jumping up and running in safe Coalition seats. Because there is real concern about the Prime Minister's actions on this. It has got worse since Scott Morrison took over the prime ministership. In the lead-up to the 2019 election, an election they didn't think they'd win, they put it into overdrive. And these figures don't even account for major projects like the commuter carparks program and others that were once again subject to the same rorting. What we need is integrity as a system. What we need is to listen to the Audit Office recommendations. We need a national integrity commission. And we need governments to be held to account for their actions. Ministers shouldn't be allowed to treat taxpayers' money as if it is the same as Liberal and National Party campaign funds.
 
JOURNALIST: Is it true, though, that some regional seats that have received extra funding that have experienced bushfires and droughts have actually needed that extra funds?
 
ALBANESE: Of course. It should be based upon need. But the truth is they also established a purpose-built fund for emergency response where they haven't spent a dollar. That was established at the height of the bushfires and not a dollar has been spent from that program. We support looking after people in need. But the fact is at the same time as this money has been funnelled into marginal electorates that they seek to win, there are people still living in caravans in southern New South Wales and in Victoria that were impacted by the bushfires.
 
JOURNALIST: Anthony, how are you going to tip the marginal Tasmanian seats back into Labor's favour?
 
ALBANESE: By putting a message to Tasmanians that they need to hear and that that they want. And that message is very clear. That here in Tasmania, they want jobs. They want secure work. They want to see companies like this backed with high-value manufacturing. They want a Government that actually looks after their interests and the whole of Tasmania, not just marginal electorates. We will campaign very strongly on holding the Government to account on both their failures that they've done. And the other message that we'll say to Tasmanians is that this Government have been in office now for almost a decade. They're asking for a second decade in office. Do Tasmanians think that this is as good as it gets? Because a fourth-term Government, can you imagine the rorting of taxpayer funds that will occur in a fourth term if this Government gets its way? This is a Government that just governs in its own interests, not in the interests of people. We want an economy that works for people. We want a plan for jobs, so that people are not left behind. We want a plan so that people have an opportunity to get those high-value jobs, to upskill, to support people going to university or to TAFE to get a better opportunity in life. We want to take action on climate change. We need a Government that is prepared to put forward a vision for a better future for Tasmanians. This Government just want a better future for themselves. And I think that's the big distinction. And we have outstanding candidates. I'm very pleased that Ross Hart has committed to having another crack as the member for Bass. Ross did a great job last time he was the Member. I think Tasmania is entitled to be disappointed with the performance of this Government. They know that they will have a Prime Minister who visits Tasmania regularly, not just during election campaigns, if I'm the Prime Minister of this country. And I'll work as well with Chris Lynch in Braddon and of course Brian in Lyons and Julie in Franklin. And we'll have a crack as well in the electorate of Clark. But here in Tasmania, I think Tasmanians have done such a fantastic job during COVID, but it hasn't been helped by the fact that they couldn't get access to vaccines. And that was the big job that this Government had, the big job that they had. And people will also look at the promises that Scott Morrison made in the 2019 campaign that still haven't been delivered. No doubt, he'll promise them again. But I think that Tasmanians are entitled to be sceptical about promises that will be made by the Prime Minister.
 
JOURNALIST: Just on COVID, all passengers on two flights in Queensland have been told to isolate for 14 days over Christmas and one person on board tested positive. Is this what living with COVID looks like?
 
ALBANESE: Well, this is a difficult thing. I know that in New South Wales there are a range of people who have had to go into isolation for 14 days, many thousands, indeed, because they were at a site where there was a COVID-positive case. In my own electorate, there are more than 100 people who attended a trivia night at the Oxford Tavern who were in the same place. They've all got to isolate at the moment. My son had his 21st birthday party on Saturday night. A number of people couldn't go because they've had to self-isolate. It's very difficult for people. We need to make sure that people do get vaccinated who are eligible. If you're eligible for your booster, get your booster shot. It's quite clear that people are going to need that booster shot. And I'd say that the Government needs to learn from the mistakes that it made with the failure to roll out the vaccine properly for the first and second shots with the boosters. I am concerned that there appears to be some potential hold-ups with people getting access to those booster shots. Thanks very much.
 
ENDS