SUBJECTS: 2022 election; telehealth; Medicare; regional and rural mental health; NBN; insecure work; economic figures; Scott Morrison; economic management; political appointments. 
 
BRIAN MITCHELL, MEMBER FOR LYONS:Well, thank you for coming to the beautiful Northern Midlands in my electorate of Lyons. I'm joined today by Anthony Albanese, the Labor Leader, and of course, Katy Gallagher, our Finance Shadow, Dr. Ross Kirkman, who's a psychiatrist; and Michelle Rapley, Dr. Michelle Rapley, who is a co-owner here at the Longford Medical Practice. Today's announcement is all about protecting Medicare, one of the key planks of the Labor agenda going forward. To that, I'll throw it out to Anthony Albanese.

ANTHONY ALBANESE, LEADER OF THE AUSTRALIAN LABOR PARTY: Well, thanks very much, Brian. It's great to be back in the electorate of Lyons. This is my third visit here to this town in the last few months, and today is a great announcement and I want to thank Michelle for hosting us here, and thank Ross for coming along as well. Labor will restore a 50 per cent loading for telehealth psychiatric consultations for people who live in regional and rural communities. This is so important. During the pandemic, we've seen real pressure on people's mental health in particular, and we had this loading put in place but then it was removed by the Morrison Government. It was removed too early, we say it should never have been removed, it should be a permanent level of support. Because we should regard people's access to mental health care as no different from if someone breaks an arm, they expect to get treated by a doctor. Psychiatric services dealing with people's mental health, whether they be young people, people who are in the workforce or older Australians, is an epidemic. We know that we need to do more. And in particular, we need to make sure that you have access to services wherever you live. Telehealth can be so important and that's why today's announcement is critical. We expect that some 450,000 consultations will take place over the next four years as a result of this announcement with a costing, fully costed like all of our policies, of $31.3 million over the forward estimates. This is a part of Labor’s commitment to strengthen Medicare. We'll have more to say about it in coming days, and indeed over the course of the election campaign. But we believe that having Medicare at the centre of our delivery of health services is something that makes Australia one of the greatest health systems in the world. And it's something that we should cherish, it's something we should protect, and it's something that we should strengthen. And that is what a Labor Government that I lead would do. And now to Katy.

KATY GALLAGHER, SHADOW MINISTER FOR FINANCE: And thanks Albo. Morning everybody. It's lovely to be here with Anthony, and with Brian, and Michelle, and Ross for this important announcement. I can certainly say as a former health minister that the proper funding of primary care is critical if we're going to make sure our health system works. Primary care and aged care are the Commonwealth's responsibility, and they both impact on hospital care. So, if you can make sure people are getting the services they need in the community, like mental health care, and proper mental health care with specialists, you can make sure that you're easing pressure on the hospital system. It's a really important announcement today. We know through the pandemic that regional areas access and affordability to health care was a big issue, as was escalating mental health concerns. This is one of our policies in terms of strengthening Medicare, but a really important one to make sure that Australians wherever they live are getting the health care that they need at a time they need it. 

Look, I just want to make a couple of other comments, to the Prime Minister’s been out today on jobs and plan of jobs over the next five years. We know this Prime Minister has made promises in the past that he hasn't kept, but this is just another promise not a plan. The Labor Party is actually the only party that's released comprehensive and detailed policies around supporting economic growth and the jobs that that will create. And just two of them, like the Powering Australia Plan, where we've released detailed modelling, the most detail any opposition would have provided in terms of the job opportunities and the economic growth that comes with that, more than 600,000 jobs, and most of those in the regions. So, I think that's the issue that, for the Prime Minister, is what are the details? Where we are providing all of that detail in our policies. 

The final issue before I hand to Ross is around the costings that, supposedly these dodgy costings unit that the Liberal you know, Finance Minister is operating out of his office – completely untrue, wrong, rubbish. I mean, they tried this about a month ago, remember and they did a big splash and it was apparently costed by the Finance Department, which they then had to crawl away from because the Finance Department distanced themselves and said they had had nothing to do with it. Well today, it's day two, we've got another scare campaign being rolled out. It's just simply not true. The policies, or the so-called policies, they’ve costed are not Labor's policies. We have all of our policies being costed by the Parliamentary Budget Office who are able to go through and work through the detail, and we will in the usual way that happens in every campaign, we will be releasing all of those prior to election day. And today's an example of that where we have a policy, it's been costed, it's been costed over four years. So don't listen to the dodgy costing units that's operating by some staffers on the Liberal bus. Look at the policies that we are releasing, the four-year figures of that and the costings that have been done by the Parliamentary Budget Office, every single one of them has gone there. Our costings, and our policies are modest, but they are fully costed, and you'll have all that information in the usual course of events as it's provided in campaigns. Thank you.

DR ROSS KIRKMAN, PSYCH2U PSYCHIATRIST: I'd like to emphasise one of the important principles of a fair and modern society is that people should be able to access quality mental health care, irrespective of your postcode and your income. Prior to January 1, that had been operating for the last 10 years, or 11 years, very successfully. Telehealth has been a very actively used service in psychiatry delivery to rural Australia and that was changed without good reason, on the January 1, whereby Item 288 was abolished, which means then that those people on low incomes could not afford the service of seeing a psychiatrist. This policy announcement reverses that bad decision. It is a fundamental principle of fairness, and of all to our future looking technology that telehealth is. Telehealth is going to become an increasingly sophisticated and important way of delivering telehealth to all areas of Australia and also around the world. This is going to be a technology that will get increasingly sophisticated with robotics, and a lot of other add-ons over the next decades. There's nothing new about telehealth. This was not invented through COVID. This has been very active in this space for the last 10 years. And I'm very pleased to hear this and I think all of rural Australia should be really very pleased to hear this announcement as well. Thank you.

ALBANESE: Thanks very much Ross. And can I make this point as well? That to Ross's comments about the last decade, I remember as the Minister for Communications turning on the NBN in various regional communities. This was a time where Tony Abbott and others thought the NBN was about just downloading videos. It's not. It’s about health services, it's about education services. We've been given a reminder of how important it is to have world-class fibre-based NBN. And that is one of the reasons why we'll also be upgrading the NBN around Australia. 

JOURNALIST: Is Labor exaggerating the rate of casualisation in the workforce? Analysis of the ABS data by the University of Melbourne shows that is actually about 5 per cent below the peak in 2003. Could you explain your comments on this change?

ALBANESE: We're not exaggerating the level of insecure work and there's a range of areas in which it’s happening. Casualisation is one of them. The contracting-out with labour hire companies is another. The third is of course the rise of the gig economy. The gig economy doesn't classify people as employees. It classifies them as contractors rather than employees. What we're seeing around Australia is a massive rise in insecure work, more and more people having to work two, three, four jobs in order to get by. And I'd say to the Government who are dismissive of this, that they need to get out more and talk to people on the ground about how they're really struggling with cost of living.

JOURNALIST: Mr Albanese yesterday was quite a…

ALBANESE: Hang on, it was her birthday yesterday. Give her a break. Happy birthday for yesterday. 

JOURNALIST: Thank you very much…

ALBANESE: I can confirm I didn't have any of the birthday cake.

JOURNALIST: Yesterday you said skilled migration would be key in terms of implementing your aged care plan and recruiting nurses. New Zealand's now chimed in saying it would have a negative impact on their country and essentially don't steal our nurses. What do you make of that rare intervention in our policy? And, you know, how will you fill these shortages if some skilled migration is no longer in the mix?

ALBANESE: Skilled migration is in the mix. New Zealand's comments confirm that. They confirm that Australia is an attractive destination to come. And it is. And I'll make this point, here in Tasmania where we are right now, there are 24/7 nurses. It's one of the rules that's in place here in nursing homes. It can be done here, why can't it be done around the rest of Australia? And because it's been done here, as I was talking with Michelle earlier on, this practice has GPs that go into nursing homes. But the fact that they know that there's a nurse presence changes the whole dynamic at the delivery of that health care. The fact is, it can be done here. It should be done on the North Island, as well as the South Island. 

JOURNALIST: Mr Albanese yesterday was a demoralising day, I guess, for your campaign. You've seen the newspaper treatment of it this morning, do you concede that you've got less chance of winning the election today than two days ago?

ALBANESE: Yesterday, I made a mistake. And guess what? I fessed up to it. And you’ve probably made a mistake from time to time, Andrew. There are other people who have made mistakes with numbers, even today. Even today. John Howard had, I think, a pretty clear comment about what he thought about it. My approach is I fessed up, I took responsibility, that is what I will do. From time to time, if ever I make a mistake, I'll own it. And I'll accept responsibility. But as I quoted The Ramones on day one of the campaign, so here's a Taylor Swift comment for you. My theory is shake it off.

JOURNALIST: Mr Albanese, the Prime Minister says you've got no idea. This is going to be a very long election campaign. What do you say to that? And what's your pitch to Australian voters after yesterday?
 
ALBANESE: Oh look, the Prime Minister a couple of weeks ago came up with, said that four plus three equals eight, and then came up with a convoluted explanation for why that was the case. Look, when you make a mistake with a number, and, you know, I was concentrating on something else, that shouldn't have happened. I owned it, then you own it and move on. You know, there were no consequences for real people as a result of what I said. This wasn't going missing, it wasn't saying something that that had drastic consequences out there, it was a mistake. I wish it hadn't have occurred. I'm usually very, very good with numbers. I was the infrastructure minister, I had to memorise a whole lot of numbers around projects, etcetera. It happened. I’ll be polite.

JOURNALIST: Thank you, the Government has unsurprisingly jumped on yesterday to claim that you can't be trusted with the economy. Can you answer that claim directly?

ALBANESE: Well, can't be trusted? This is a Government that have a trillion dollars of debt. This is a Government that today have employment projection, they made employment projections before the last election, they said we'd be debt free by 2030. This is a Government that have made 55, 55 projections on wages, and on 52 of them they've been wrong. 52 out of 55, they have been wrong. This is a Government that don't have a plan for the economy. Of course, that's why from this Government, what you're seeing is two things. On the economy, you're seeing support that's one off, that disappears as soon as people have cast their vote. And secondly, you're seeing these personal attacks on Labor. I found it quite extraordinary, on the day after the budget, a budget that was brought forward from May to March, so that they could outline their campaign for the next three years, they were talking about us. In the first dixers on the Wednesday, after the Tuesday night budget, they were talking about us. Josh Frydenberg went to the National Press Club on that day and said that the budget was all about the election. Well, he got that right. Because it was all about an election, what we need is a plan for the economy. Labor has a plan for the economy, for cheaper energy to power high value manufacturing, to train Australians for those jobs through fee free TAFE, and through additional university places, the creation of Jobs and Skills Australia, support for regions. We have a plan going forward. I'll continue to put forward that plan. 

JOURNALIST: The figures that Katy just disputed relate to policies that are in Labor’s platform in terms of the .5 per cent of foreign aid budget, the rate of offering preschool to three year olds, aspirational policies as I think you've called, making paid parental leave available up to six months. So yes, they are not something that you have baked in over the over the forwards, but they are issues that you are taking to this election.

ALBANESE: No, we're not. No, we're not. The platform isn't what we take to the election.

JOURNALIST: So that platform, none of those policies will be in the first term of an Albanese Government.

ALBANESE: The platform is not what we take to an election. The Labor Party structure establishes a National Conference that has a platform of aspirations about the Labor Party's view, the organisation's view. Labor then announces, the parliamentary party determines, our policies going forward. And if you have a look at the Labor Party platform, a resolution, a resolution is adopted at the beginning of every National Conference, which says just that. Our policies are the ones that we announce that are fully costed by the PBO, in this case, $31.3 million to be precise, over the forward estimates.

JOURNALIST: You’ve made economic management and cost of living key election issues. Considering yesterday's mistake, as you say that you couldn't say the two economic figures, can you understand the criticism that you may have lost all credibility on these issues now? And back on to John Howard, do you agree that it wasn't a big deal, yesterday's incident?

ALBANESE: Well, John Howard made his position clear. 

JOURNALIST: Do you agree it wasn't a big deal?

ALBANESE: I agree it was a mistake, and I owned up to it. It’s up to others who will judge these things. I'll just get on with things. But I agree that most people in public life have made errors when it comes to figures at various times, including the Prime Minister in recent times. It will happen, it will not be the only time during this campaign that someone gets a figure wrong. I'll give you the big tip, just pay attention and you'll see that. But the key is what policies we have going forward, whether it's having an impact on cost of living, our plan for childcare will have an impact on cost of living. It's fully costed out there. We've released it. It's not the same policy that's in the platform. It's the policy that I've announced and it's a policy where no family will be worse off, and most families will be better off. Now it's a policy as well, that will contribute in terms of second round effects that we haven't accounted for because the PBO doesn't allow you to do that. But everyone knows, every economist knows, that every dollar into childcare adds at least $2 to the economy, because it boosts workforce participation, and it boosts productivity. So, when we look at measures, we've looked at measures that make a real permanent difference to cost of living, or whether it's, as Katy outlined, our Powering Australia Plan that will reduce household power prices by $275.

JOURNALIST: What is your plan to get people who are employed as casuals into permanent work?

ALBANESE: To create permanent work, firstly, to properly define secure work as part of the objectives of the Fair Work Act, as one of the things that the Fair Work Act consider when they're dealing with agreements between employers and employees. There's a role for casual work. My son works casually, he's studying at university. He works at Woolworths. It's a good job for him. He will be working, I spoke to him this morning, he will be working this afternoon. I myself worked casually. I worked a range of jobs, at Maccas, at Pancakes on the Rocks. That was a good job, 11pm to 7am, you get some good sights in there at Pancakes on the Rocks let me tell you on a Saturday night. But I tell you what it also did, I got triple time, penalty rates. Something that this Government doesn't support and made measures on. So casual work will have a role. The problem here is people who've, and there was a case in Queensland, Mr. Skene I think from memory his name was, S-K-E-N-E, he was working, given shifts the same way through for a year in advance, but he’s defined as a casual. So, he didn't have, one of the things we’ve found out during the pandemic, is that because of definitions those people didn't get sick leave, they didn't get holiday leave, etcetera. It has an impact potentially on people's super, a range of things. And so, there was a case which he won. The Commonwealth Government has appealed one of the cases about the definition of casualisation. And in the IR laws, that they got rid of most of them, but one of the changes they put through, made it easier to define people as casual. We see nothing wrong with casual work. But we do think that we shouldn't pretend that someone who's working in a permanent job with the same shifts permanently every week, week after week after week, and given notice a long time in advance should be classified that way.

JOURNALIST: Scott Morrison yesterday voiced support for a ban on transgender people competing in female sports. And he also said the education curriculum risks being sold out to a left-wing agenda. What's your position on both of these comments?

ALBANESE: On the first, he seems to be unaware that it's already covered by the Sex Discrimination Act, sports already control these things. And I note, I think last time I was in Tasmania, this was an issue. Premier Gutwein, the former Premier now, made a very strong comment on that. And the second one was?

JOURNALIST: The education curriculum risks being sold out to a left wing agenda.

ALBANESE: He needs to talk to the New South Wales Education Minister from the Liberal Party, if he's worried about that. Look, this Prime Minister needs to do his day job. His day job is about things that he's responsible for, not look for wedges and dividing Australia. One of the things that I want to do, of course, education is important and the basics of education are important. Teaching people the fullness of our history, teaching people to read and write, and mathematics, all of that are important. But this Prime Minister is always looking for the division. My role, I see as someone who's campaigning to be in a national leadership role, is to unite the country, not look for divisions. Hang on, everyone will get a question.

JOURNALIST: Mr Albanese, the Australian Human Rights Commission is at risk of being downgraded because of two recent political appointments, in which it specifically names Michaelia Cash’s pick for Human Rights Commissioner, Lauren Finlay. It's asking that the Commission rectify those appointments by providing a more transparent selection process. Would an Albanese government keep Ms Finlay in that role? And will you commit to not making similar political appointments if elected?

ALBANESE: Sorry, at the risk of, at the risk of creating a headline here. I don't know who Ms Finlay is.

JOURNALIST: She's been the Human Rights Commissioner since the end of last year. Have you heard the recent news about…? 

ALBANESE: No, I haven't. No, I haven't. So, you know, we'll have a look at that. But this Government, what I do know, is that one of the reasons for the delay in the calling of the election was so that they could make just dozens of appointments day after day after day. I mean, is there any former Liberal MP or Liberal Mayor or Liberal counsellor who hasn't been appointed to the AAT or the Productivity Commission? Or to the Fair Work Commission? It's just an outrage. I think there can be good political appointments. And I'll name one. I think Barry O'Farrell was a good appointment, he has a sincere interest in India, developed in his time as Premier of New South Wales. And I look forward to, if we're successful, working with him, as India is an important country, as a member of the Quad, for Australia. It's a good appointment. I supported Mathias Cormann running for the Secretary General of the OECD. I not only supported him privately, we went into bat publicly. We spoke to people who we have connections with to support an Australian in that role. That contrasts with what our opponents have done historically. Our opponents, who've when they came to office withdrew, Steve Bracks was on his way to the United States, withdrew that appointment. This Government have just appointed mates to so many jobs, that it has undermined the standing of organisations.

JOURNALIST: Have you spoken to Richard Marles today about the reports in the papers that he told top military brass he's likely to become defence minister, and will you pull him into line over that?

ALBANESE: No, I haven't, I haven't spoken to him. But I've answered this on a number of occasions, I'll do it again today. The person who appoints portfolios is myself, if either in government or as I did in opposition, I allocate portfolios. 

JOURNALIST: But should he be talking to the military about it?

ALBANESE: Just because something is written, doesn't make it fact. And the truth is that I have spoken to Richard many times about the job he's doing in his portfolio. And he's loving, he asked for the portfolio that he currently has. He is a science-nerd par excellence in the Parliament. He also is very interested, and wanted, to be passionate about employment, about small business, about the portfolio's that he holds. I'm going to give everyone a go.

JOURNALIST: Mr Albanese, you're shrugging off yesterday, as a mistake, you've made a joke about it. But interest rates and employment figures, they represent jobs, they represent mortgage repayments, they represent cost of living, and these things matter to people. Can you promise Australians that you are across the details of the economy? Or are you out of your depth?

ALBANESE: I'm absolutely across the economy and what we need to do, which is why I have a practical plan to deal with the economic challenges that Australia faces. I have an economics degree from Sydney University. I studied both orthodox economics and political economy. I spent four years there doing it. And then I became an economic policy adviser to the Hawke Government.

JOURNALIST: Why are you making mistakes about basic details of the economy, the Treasurer recounts figures at you regularly?

ALBANESE: I made a mistake. I made a mistake. I've owned it. I wish it hadn't happened. 

JOURNALIST: So why did you make the mistake?

ALBANESE: Well, my thoughts from time to time, if you haven't made a mistake, and from time to time had been distracted by other issues, we had dealt with, as you know, you were there, we dealt with the young Frankie and I had the issue of children's health, hearing, and all of those issues in my head. And I'm not making excuses for it. It shouldn't have happened. I get asked questions all the time about the economy. And I got asked, on the same day, I got asked about what the inflation rate was, what the wage rate was, I got asked a number of things and I got all those questions right. Hang on, hang on. We're giving order, so everyone gets a question.

JOURNALIST: Isn’t the point of yesterday, you say it was one mistake, but it was four questions you were unable to answer. First from Clare, then Stela, myself, and then Andrew Clennell, on that single topic. And on a separate topic of the Solomon Islands, how are you going to push back on China's influence in the region and what is your plan going to be for the Solomon Islands?

ALBANESE: Well, what I wouldn't have done was just sit back and do nothing. Why wasn't a Minister dispatched to the Solomons? We're in caretaker mode now. But this has been an issue for weeks. I made that call beforehand, Australia needs to step up, not just in a title. We need to step up in reality and develop those relationships with the Solomons but with other nations in the Indo-Pacific as well.

JOURNALIST: The other part of the question was it wasn't one mistake, it was four questions.

ALBANESE: Well, I just said, I've said clearly, that it was a mistake. I had a mistake. I made it. I've fessed up to it. I've owned it. I'm not, I'm not dismissing it. I made a mistake. I'm not trying to analyse it. I'm owning it. No, I'm owning it and I do own it. I accept responsibility, and that's what I will do. That's what I will do. If a mistake is made, then I'll own it and that, people will draw their own contrast. Look, people make mistakes in life. And what you need to do, my mentor was Tom Uren. He was a great Australian, former prisoner of war. I worked for him when he was a Minister in the Hawke Government, but he was also a Minister in the Whitlam Government. And Tom drummed into me two things. One is you need to learn something new every day. And the second is you need to get better every day. That is the philosophy as a person as well, in how you relate to people. You have to grow as a person. That's something that I've taken to heart, it's something that I try to do every day. And do I regret yesterday? Yes, but I've owned it. That’s it. Last one.

JOURNALIST: What was the personal effect on you on that mistake yesterday, and do you think that you let your side down by making such a silly mistake? Personally, how did you feel?

ALBANESE: Other people will draw conclusions. I've got to say this, that I've been contacted not just by members of my own side with generous comments, but by members of the Government as well, by members of the Government, who have been generous in their comments, and I thank them for it. Thank you.

ENDS