SUBJECTS: Labor’s policy agenda; negative gearing; Labor’s reform agenda; Federal election; Morrison Government’s rorting of taxpayers’ funds; Lockdowns across the country; vaccine rollout; Scott Morrison failing Australians during a pandemic; Federal Government failing on delivering; JobKeeper; wage subsidies; misinformation and confusion in messaging during a health pandemic.

JIM CHALMERS, SHADOW TREASURER: Thanks for coming out to Logan and thanks especially to Anthony Albanese for being in the best electorate in the country. And this is where the magic happens when it comes to vaccinations here in our local community in Logan City and the southern suburbs of Brisbane. We're here to thank the workers who are doing such incredible work to help people get vaccinated here. We're here to thank the Care Army, the volunteers, the paramedics, Metro South Health, everyone who is here responsible for delivering the vaccine so that we can continue to keep each other safe here in this part of Queensland, Australia. This part of the health system could be doing more vaccines. There could be more vaccines provided here, more vaccinations undertaken here, if there was more supply. This is one of those venues which could be ramped up substantially. They're using some of the lanes but not all of the lanes here. It is operating five days out of seven days a week. So this is one of the places which if there was more supply, they could be doing more vaccinations. But unfortunately, that supply has not been arranged by the Federal Government. That has consequences for the economy. The Business Council of Australia has released some work overnight which points to the costs and consequences of these lockdowns which are made necessary by Scott Morrison's failures on vaccines and quarantine and also JobKeeper. These are very costly mistakes being made by the Federal Government. Something like 300-400 million dollars a day, billions of dollars a week, as a consequence of these lockdowns made necessary because Scott Morrison's not doing his job on vaccines and quarantine. Very costly for the national economy. Having stuffed up the vaccines, Scott Morrison should stump up JobKeeper. Having stuffed up the vaccination rollout and Scott Morrison should stump up JobKeeper or something like it so that people get the support they need in lockdown communities and right around Australia, those who are paying the price for his failures on vaccinations and quarantine. We need to get more people vaccinated. Places like this are ready, willing and able to do the work. We need Scott Morrison to do his job and to provide those vaccinations so that we can avoid some of these costs to the economy. He stuffed up the vaccines, he should stump up JobKeeper as soon as possible.

ANTHONY ALBANESE, LEADER OF THE AUSTRALIAN LABOR PARTY: Well, thanks very much, Jim. And it's great to be here with you in your electorate, in the heart of your electorate. Thanks to the doctors, nurses, carers, volunteers, police officers, all those who are pitching in for the community. And also of course, getting to meet some of those people wanting to be vaccinated here today. Scott Morrison had two big jobs this year. The rollout of the vaccine and effective national quarantine. And unfortunately, both of them have been botched. We've heard today that this centre could be vaccinating more people if they had more supply. That's the only constraint which is here. Not a reluctance to be vaccinated, just a failure of having sufficient supply. And what we've heard today also is that the 51 million Novavax vaccines that were expected to be here in the second half of this year have now been delayed until 2022. This is a further setback in terms of vaccinating the numbers in the population that we need to avoid the lockdowns that are currently being experienced by 14 million Australians. That's costing jobs. That's costing our economy. But we've also seen today the 27th failure when it comes to hotel quarantine. Hotels are built for tourists. They're not built as quasi-medical facilities. And these outbreaks are having a real consequence. Remember that this national crisis we're going through today began with a single outbreak in Sydney, a single failure that's led to consequences for New South Wales, for Victoria and for South Australia. Consequences, as well, indirectly for our entire national economy, as Queensland has had to shut itself off from New South Wales and from Greater Sydney. And as I've travelled around Queensland, I've certainly seen and heard that impact from the tourism sector and from others on the economy here in Queensland. Later today, I'll be traveling to Canberra to prepare for the sittings of Parliament next week. We will be holding the Government to account on its failures when it comes to vaccinations and quarantine, but also arguing the case if the Government doesn't move to provide more economic support where it's needed. The fact is Scott Morrison talks about Western Sydney, but he's abandoned Western Sydney at its time of need. The amount of support being given to small business and workers is simply not enough at the present time. And the unions, the business community, local community leaders, are all crying out for more support. It is not people's fault that they cannot attend work, that they can't engage in their normal economic activity, that they can't provide for their families. But what the Federal Government needs to acknowledge is that this is a direct result of its failure on vaccines and on quarantine. And therefore, it has a responsibility to step up. Happy to take questions.

JOURNALIST: Just on housing affordability, Labor's negative gearing changes were aimed at improving housing affordability. How are you going to address that? 

ALBANESE: Well, I'll ask Jim to comment on this also. But can I say this? The centrepiece of my Budget Reply this year was about the Housing Australia Future Fund. A plan to build 30,000 social housing units and affordable housing units for essential workers. This is a plan to prioritise the area where its most needed, housing allocated for women and children escaping domestic violence. Last night, like every night, women and children would have been turned away from shelters. We know that it happens right around the country. We need more investment in social housing. Our fund that we've established, $10 billion that we will establish, at no cost to the taxpayer by making sure that it's invested and the returns on that investment go towards construction, will create jobs in the short-term, but will also increase housing supply where it's really needed. It will assist particularly in the regions. We know that housing affordability is a major issue. But the old issue of supply and demand kicks in. It does matter. Labor has a policy to increase social housing supply, which stands in stark contrast to this Government that has created a trillion dollars of debt and not put a single additional dollar into a single social housing unit anywhere in the country.

CHALMERS: Thanks, Albo. House prices are being driven by a range of things including incredibly low interest rates and the issues that we've got with supply. When it comes to our housing policies, our first priority, as Anthony said, is to build more affordable homes for people, including first responders and essential workers, so they can live closer to where they work. That's our first priority. But obviously, we have other policies under development. And we'll have more to say about affordable housing. When it comes to negative gearing, we have said all along that we wouldn't take an identical set of policies to the next election that we took to the last election. And we've spent much of the last two years listening, consulting, learning the lessons from that last election. People expect us to look forwards rather than backwards. And that's what we're doing. Our first priority is affordable and social housing. We'll have more to say about the housing market. We also need to recognise that for a lot of people who are having trouble getting a toehold in the market, it's because they've been dealing with stagnant wages for so long. The story about housing affordability is a big and broad one for a lot of young people whose wages have been stagnant under the eight long years of this Liberal-National Government. And they only have more wage stagnation to look forward to if this Government is re-elected. There's a big picture here. We've said where we intend to begin with social and affordable housing, we recognise what's driving these house price increases. And we'll have more to say as we move towards the election.

JOURNALIST: On the COVID Disaster Payments, the Business Council wants the rate to be increased from 600 a week to 750 a week. Is that a reasonable request? 

ALBANESE: Well, what we've said is that if the circumstances are the same as when JobKeeper was operating last year, why is it that the support is less? People now in parts of Western Sydney can't leave their suburb, they can't attend work. That isn't a decision that they're making. It's a decision that governments have made due to a direct failure of the Federal Government to roll out the vaccine effectively and to have national quarantine. So we need more support. We've said you can return to JobKeeper. We know that it works, keeping that relationship between employers and employees. But we don't care what it's called. What we are saying is that we need more support, and it's needed right now. Not at some time in the future. It's needed right now.

JOURNALIST: Back on the housing affordability. How will Labor pay for the new policy?

ALBANESE: It's extraordinary that the Federal Government announced $100 billion of new spending in the Budget. Last year, less than a year ago, they announced another $100 billion of new spending with no offsets whatsoever. So we're not going to take lectures from the Coalition, which has presided over a trillion dollars of debt, which doubled the debt before the pandemic. We will have all of our costings out there, all of our expenditure, all of our revenue, well before the next election. I gave a commitment that we'd make announcements as we went along, that we'd give proper consideration. We did that yesterday in order to be completely transparent well before the election.

CHALMERS: Look, this is a Government that said that they would deliver surpluses in their first year. And every year, they've delivered eight so far, the Intergenerational Report says that there'll be at least 40 more, they multiplied the debt even before the pandemic. So as Albo said, we won't be taking lectures on fiscal responsibility from this Government. They have spent $100 billion in this most recent Budget. And in our view, they don't have enough to show for it. So the difference between us and the Liberals and Nationals when it comes to managing the Budget is we will be more responsible, we will get more bang for buck. Josh Frydenberg's Budget is riddled with rorts. And we've seen that in recent times. Car Park rorts, Sports Rorts, dodgy land deals, Safer Communities Rorts. The list goes on and on and on. We think we can get better value for money for the Australian people. We think we can be more responsible with their taxpayer dollars. That means spending it more effectively on some of the priorities that we've identified. And we'll have more to say between now and the election. But we are not taking lectures from the Government that has racked up a trillion dollars in debt. What we're seeing here is generational debt without a generational dividend. Labor can and will do better.

JOURNALIST: You had a chance to speak to some of the people coming here to get their vaccination. What is the community telling you?

ALBANESE: The community is telling us that they want to be safe, they want to get through this. They want to be vaccinated. They've heard the health messages and they know that they want to keep themselves, but also, more importantly, their family and their community safe. And I think it stands in stark contrast. We are seeing a bit of two Australia's here. One Australia, the overwhelming majority of people, whether they be the workers who are providing the service here or the people queuing to be vaccinated, who are doing the right thing, who understand the threat that this pandemic represents to their health and to our way of life. And they're doing the right thing. They are pitching in. 'We are all in this together' is their attitude. And then we have a few people like George Christensen out there promoting the opposite. Stirring people up, spreading misinformation. And we have a Prime Minister who refuses to condemn George Christiansen. You can't disassociate yourself from Saturday's rallies without dissociating yourself from people who encouraged Saturday's rallies and the behaviour that puts the recovery at risk and puts people's health at risk. So I say, I stand with the overwhelming majority of Australians who are doing the right thing. And quite frankly, as well, the workers here today are heroes. They're heroes of the pandemic. Whether they be the doctors, the nurses, the carers, or whether they be the volunteers. One of the volunteers here travels from Ipswich every day to help out here. And they deserve our utmost thanks and our utmost praise. And that's why Jim and I are here today. 

Thanks very much.

ENDS