SUBJECTS: Suburban Rail Loop; Infrastructure; Labor’s plan to fix aged care; Morrison Government car park rorts; Infrastructure Australia; Building a plan for a better future; Wages growth; 500 workers for First Nations health; Pressures on regional housing.
 
ANTHONY ALBANESE, LEADER OF THE AUSTRALIAN LABOR PARTY: It's great to be here in Box Hill with our candidate Carina Garland, our candidate for Chisholm, with the Victorian Premier, my friend Daniel Andrews, with Jacinta Allan, who I worked with closely when we were both ministers together helping on nation building projects. And with my team, including Catherine King, our Shadow Infrastructure Minister, the Shadow Treasurer Jim Chalmers, and Penny Wong. I'm particularly pleased to be making a major infrastructure announcement, because nation building infrastructure can change the country. It builds productivity, it builds efficiency, it grows the economy, and it also improves of course, road safety. If you're putting people onto trains, they're safer. This project, the Suburban Rail Loop is an exciting project, I can't think of a more exciting infrastructure project in the entire nation. That's why Federal Labor will contribute an initial contribution of $2.2 billion to this project. This project will transform the way that Melburnian's can get around the city, but also transform for the whole of Victoria, because it will do what great cities do. If you think about the great cities of the world, London, Paris, New York, you don't have to go into the centre to get around those cities. What the Suburban Rail Loop does is improve the efficiency of the entire rail network, together with Melbourne Metro, which is about increasing the capacity of the network. Our three central cities on the east coast, Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane, all suffered from congestion at the centre. The solutions to them were Melbourne Metro; the metro project that is happening in Sydney to increase capacity and break the congestion on the City Circle Line; and of course, in Brisbane, Cross River Rail. We agreed to fund and indeed we had Commonwealth representation on the board of Melbourne Metro before the election of the Abbott Government, but the Abbott Government ripped $3 billion out of Melbourne Metro, and they've been ripping Victorian taxpayers off ever since. Ever since, Victoria has not got its fair share of infrastructure funding. This project will create thousands of jobs, will improve efficiency, is nation building, and will make an enormous difference. That's why Federal Labor is backing this project, which has, by the way, a benefit-cost ratio of 1.7, and that stands in stark contrast, our commitment, to the current Federal Government's approach with its colour coded spreadsheets. We were in Kooyong earlier today at a level crossing. Now in Kooyong at Surry Hills, was one of the four commuter car parks that were promised in Josh Frydenberg's electorate at the last election but were cancelled, at a cost of some $65 million. I don't know where they were going to put the car park at Surrey Hills, I gotta say. But at least there is a train station there, because in some of the projects that were announced, there's not a train station for a commuter car park. It makes no sense. But it stands in stark contrast. Labor will always support nation building projects. That's why we funded Regional Rail Link. That's why we did the M80, the Managed Motorways Program when we were last in government. We want Infrastructure Australia to be revitalized for us to move back to productivity-boosting infrastructure, and I'm very pleased to be here with the Premier today.

DANIEL ANDREWS, PREMIER OF VICTORIA: Thanks very much Albo. This is a fantastic announcement for every Victorian who wants more jobs, a better road network, a better public transport system. The suburban rail loop is the biggest project of its kind anywhere in our state, indeed, perhaps the biggest public transport project in our nation's history. It's a project that's been started by our government and I do genuinely hope for a partnership with an Albanese Federal Labor Government. Because when you work together in a partnership, that's how you get things done, not conflict, but working together in a partnership to create jobs, to get people where they want to go, to health appointments, to education and training, to friends and family, to retail, to housing. That's what the Suburban Rail Loop is all about. At the moment we've got all the spokes, but we don't have the wheel to connect all those different train lines. In fact, we have so many people every morning, they're going all the way into town on one line, only to then turn around and go back where they want to go on a different train line. That doesn't work, and as we look to Melbourne in the decades to come, as big as London is today in 2056, they're talking about Melbourne at 9 million people, we need to invest in things like the Suburban Rail Loop. I'm so pleased and so grateful that this project has been a priority for Anthony, for Federal Labor. With this $2.2 billion partnership, we will get this done. We've already got very significant funding down; early works will begin at the end of this year. This first stage between Cheltenham and Box Hill is 8000 jobs alone, 8000 livelihoods, 8000 families with the security and certainty that they are building a better future for our state, and for our nation. Albo thank you very, very much.

CATHERINE KING, SHADOW MINISTER FOR INFRASTRUCTURE, TRANSPORT AND REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT: Thanks very much Premier and Anthony as well. This is a transformational project for the State of Victoria. For people who live in the outer metropolitan areas being able to travel to work to appointments, that $2.2 billion we're committing to Suburban Rail, the East component from Box Hill to Cheltenham, really will be transformational. But it's transformational for regional people as well. If you live in Ballarat or Bendigo as Jacinta and I do, to actually get to the south eastern suburbs, you of course have to come into the centre of town to do that, and if you want to get out to the southeast, you then have to change trains. This will transform the way in which country people access Melbourne as well. But equally what it will do is bring new centres, new opportunities for new jobs into our suburbs. It really is transformational, and I absolutely commend the Premier for bringing this project to us. This is the difference; Federal Labor wants to work in collaboration with the states. We don't want to pick fights, we don't want to see under-delivery as we've seen with commuter car parks, we actually want to get on with the job of delivering and that's what we'll do with Suburban Rail. 

ALBANESE: Thanks very much Catherine.

JOURNALIST: The Warringah Liberal Party candidate has doubled down in her comments that gender reassignment surgery is mutilation. Is that an appropriate comment for a Liberal Party candidate to be making?

ALBANESE: I don't believe it is an appropriate comment and I make this point, vulnerable people in particular are deserving of respect, every human being deserves respect. What we need to look for from our national political leaders is ways to unify the country and bring people together not play politics in order to divide people.

JOURNALIST: The Australian Chamber of Commerce says that a push to increase wages in an unsustainable way could leave tens of thousands of businesses on the brink, you said earlier today that you do not support a push from unions to increase wages to 5.5%.

ALBANESE: Well, that's not what I said.

JOURNALIST: Well, you did say that you do not support the minimum wage to increase by 5.5 per cent.

ALBANESE: It's not what I said but go ahead.

JOURNALIST: By how much exactly will wages increase under an Albanese Government?

ALBANESE: What I said this morning was that no one should go backwards. The ACTU make their claim independently. We're not the ACTU. What I said this morning, though, was that when the Fair Work Commission considers any minimum pay increase, people should not go backwards. If you're on the minimum wage, you're struggling to pay your rent, you're struggling to buy food, you're struggling to get by, and the Fair Work Commission should bear that in mind in the decision that they make. The difference at this election campaign is very stark and very clear. We have a government that have low wage growth as a key feature of their economic architecture, they've said that, and that is what they have done over 10 years. Labor has a plan to lift wages and that is what we will do. A stark difference between the two. Suburban Rail Loop, I hear the magic words about the project.

JOURNALIST: I've got two questions. Okay. On Suburban Rail Loop you've obviously contributed $2.2 billion. This has been slated by the Victorian Government as a project that could cost up to $50 billion. If elected, would you increase that commitment? Because the state has been asking the Federal Government for much more money, even up to $10 billion.

ALBANESE: We're making our commitment today because that's what we are putting forward to Victoria. We of course, will work- this is a project that will go for a long period of time. We're hoping to begin very soon in the next 12 months for early works. But this is a nation building project. Our initial commitment is what we're making today, which is $2.2 billion. What that will do is, it should give the Victorian Government confidence that they'll have a partner with the National Government.

JOURNALIST: If you're focused on real wages growth, why wouldn't you support a push to ensure that the minimum wage outruns inflation?

ALBANESE: I believe the minimum wage should at least keep up with the cost of living. I was asked this morning about the ACTU claim, the ACTU claim is the ACTU's. Labor will put forward, in government we will put forward a separate submission based upon Labor's claim, but we think no one should go backwards. People should be at least keeping up with the cost of living. 

JOURNALIST: Just on Labor’s teaching policy, do you think it was misleading to say it was a $50 million investment covering 5000 spots, when that dollar amount would only cover 3000 spots in your first term?

ALBANESE: Not at all, our project - let's be clear about what the announcement was yesterday. We put out the cost that we gave, the full cost yesterday was $146.5 million dollars, that's the cost over the forward estimates of the entire program - that was the cost over the entire program of the announcements that we made yesterday. The forward estimates costs are completely accurate. This is two and four year degrees, we've said 1,000 places a year, not all of those are within the forward estimates.

JOURNALIST: Grattan and others say that the rise in wholesale power price will flow to consumers pushing up power bills. Should coal stay in the system longer to mitigate that? And briefly, are you concerned about taking larger deficits than the government to the election forecast. 

ALBANESE: We’ll of course put all of our costings out before the election, I assume the government will too. Now, people have started voting in this election, they started yesterday. And I note that record numbers of people, the anecdotal evidence, we don't have the precise figures, but the reports from polling booths right around the country is that record people are voting early, and record people are also putting in postal votes. So there's some 2 million people that have applied for postal votes. That will be a record number. We encourage people to vote in our democracy. The Coalition have not yet had their campaign launch, have not had their campaign launch. I assume at a campaign launch, you have some policy announcements. So all of the sort of adding up of where both sides are, can't occur. The idea that you can do that before the Coalition had its campaign launch is in my view, completely untenable. 

JOURNALIST: On today's announcement, you said previously that you would fund the infrastructure projects that stack up against Infrastructure Australia's model. This particular project though hasn't been assessed and isn't on the Infrastructure Australia's priority list, so how does that stack up?

ALBANESE: This project does stack up because it's got a BCR of 1.7. I'll tell you what doesn't stack up, commuter car parks that were announced at the last election – 

JOURNALIST: What about this particular project?

ALBANESE: Yes, it stacks up it has a BCR, a benefit-cost ratio of 1.7. 1.7. And we'll make this point as well. The other thing —

JOURNALIST: That project having to stack up with the Infrastructure Australia model —

ALBANESE: The other thing that we've said, you've asked your question, you get to ask your question, then I get to answer it. That's how these work. Infrastructure Australia - that model has been undermined. When I was the Infrastructure Minister, we had Sir Rod Eddington as the chair of Infrastructure Australia. He now is the chair of Infrastructure Partnerships Australia, the major private sector body. All of the big players in infrastructure in this country regard him as significant enough to be the Chair of that body. Sir Rod Eddington is someone who was knighted for saving British Airways, is someone who is on- or has been on the News Corp International Board, Rio Tinto, a senior business person. We had Mark Birrell, the Minister under the Kennett Government for major projects, as the deputy chair of that board, we had had Heather Ridout, we had Kerry Schott, we had Ken Henry, we had serious work being done. Now Infrastructure Australia is now chaired by- he might be a good bloke, but he was the mayor of one of Barnaby Joyce's local councils, who has said that he's going to travel around Australia in a caravan, fair enough he's retired, and ring in to the Infrastructure Australia Board. This is a board and a process that we took seriously. This is a process that's been undermined by a government that hasn't taken this seriously.

JOURNALIST: Just back to wages. You said you don't want people to go backwards. Does that mean you would support a wage hike of at least 5.1 per cent just to keep up with inflation? 

ALBANESE: Absolutely.

JOURNALIST: Can I just ask on Indigenous health, an economic order commissioned by NACCHO estimated a $4.4 billion funding gap for Indigenous health. Given the higher burden that First Nations people are facing, what will an elected Labor Government do to address this? Can you commit any funding to help close that gap?

ALBANESE: Well, we have already. Penny Wong in my one week absence, went to Alice Springs to make the major announcement that I was going to make, which was for 500 additional First Nations health workers, including for areas like dialysis and life saving projects. We've also made a number of announcements through Linda Burney in areas like Western New South Wales, in Ceduna in South Australia. We do need to close the gap when it comes to Indigenous health. This is a very serious issue.

JOURNALIST: On regional housing. The Regional Australia Institute has brought out a report talking about the pressures on regional housing areas. At the moment, they're saying that people are not able to fill local job vacancies there, because they can't find housing, rental vacancies are at almost 1 per cent. What specifically is Labor doing to help regional housing?

ALBANESE: Look it's a major issue, because one of the things that happened during the pandemic was that more people discovered they could work from home and could move to regions. One of the things that that used to be more attractive about regions was that housing costs were lower. But we've seen some of the highest increases in housing, being in places like Launceston in Tasmania. It is something that we need to address, we have announced a range of housing policies including our Housing Australia Future Fund –

JOURNALIST: Are these policies going to target regional Australia, though? 

ALBANESE: Regions will be a part of that program, as well as the Help to Buy program which, as you'd be aware, I think you were with us on the Central Coast with the young woman who saw that that program would help her potentially and her partner to have access to housing. A program I might add, that's working very effectively here in Victoria.

JOURNALIST: On wages, Mr Albanese. New research shows that in female dominated industries people earn up to 36 per cent less than in male dominated industries, you're meeting with businesses after the election, if you win, to talk about wages, what will you do specifically for those industries like childcare and aged care to boost those wages? 

ALBANESE: Thanks for the question. It's a good one. I note that the women business leaders have made a significant statement today that's covered in the newspapers. That is one of the reasons why we have said that gender pay equity should be made objective of the Fair Work Act. Because there have been 21 separate cases taken to the Fair Work Act, over, more than- going back more than a decade, of which only one has been successful. If you look at the structural difference, the gender pay gap in Australia is 13.8 per cent. Now, that represents a structural weakness in our industrial relations system. Whereby, because only one of I think it's 21 cases from memory have been taken, the only one that was successful was in 2012 when Julia Gillard was the Prime Minister in the social and community services award. What that did was grant a significant pay increase for workers in that sector. The evidence when you go back and look at the consequences of that decision, are that a largely feminised industry of community workers have stayed in the industry, and have therefore been more productive, have therefore been able to go up the career chain and earn higher wages and therefore earn more superannuation and better retirement incomes. But when you have 21 separate cases being taken and only one being successful, then there's a structural problem there. And specifically as well, the aged care case that's before the Fair Work Commission at the moment. Aged care workers are paid $22 an hour. This is tough work. It's demanding physically, but it's also demanding emotionally in terms of their mental health. We have said we will make a submission, saying that the Fair Work Commission should bear in mind the evidence that was before the Royal Commission into Aged Care, that recognised that there was a crisis, recognised that unless we do something, then people will continue to leave the sector. 

JOURNALIST: Can I ask a question to the Premier, Mr Albanese?

ALBANESE: Sure, yeah, good.

JOURNALIST: This morning Scott Morrison said Anthony Albanese as Prime Minister would be a pushover. You’ve had a rocky relationship with Mr. Morrison. Do you think you would get more money out of Scott Morrison or Anthony Albanese? 

ANDREWS: Well, the record is very clear, with Scott Morrison. Every federal dollar that Victorians get from the miserable Morrison Government, it's as though we should, we ought to bow our head and treat it like it's foreign aid. We have been ripped off by this Liberal National government. And instead of Mr. Morrison talking about these issues he ought to have been here delivering for Victorian workers and families. I've had a conversation with the Prime Minister about suburban rail loop, and zero dollars, zero dollars. The contrast could not be clearer. Anthony Albanese is about building things, he's about partnership, he’s about creating jobs, is about making sure that our cities and regions our nation actually works. 

JOURNALIST: (inaudible)

ANDREWS: Well, that is a ridiculous suggestion that would only be made by a bloke who is so desperate, because he's been there for a decade and done precisely nothing. Done precisely nothing. This project stacks up, this, this project more than stacks up. It's not a cost. It's an investment in jobs, and a road and rail network that actually takes people where they want to go. And $2.2 billion is a very significant commitment. We would always, we would always like more, but $2.2 billion, versus zero from Scott Morrison. You know, this is not, this is, what this is what desperate people who have built nothing and done nothing, got an excuse for everything and plan for nothing. This is the sort of stuff that comes out of Prime Ministers who have just run out of time.

JOURNALIST: Are you a drag on the Federal Labor vote… (inaudible).

ANDREWS: Well, this is the thing about the Federal Liberal Party, they say lots of things, and they do very little. They do very little. If only their talk mattered. If only the pure politics of these people mattered. Let me be really clear with your claim. When Victorians were at their darkest time, senior Federal Liberals proved to be Liberals first and Victorian second, they thought they were bagging our government, they were bagging every Victorian who was following the rules and doing the right thing. And that might be one of the reasons why they're in a bit of trouble in their seats. At the end of the day, this is Albo’s press conference and back to, back to him. Don’t get me started.

ALBANESE: Thanks, Premier. Can I just make this point about - going to Trudy’s question, I want to make two points. One is that I want to work with all Premiers constructively. That's what I did when I was in government last time, including the New South Wales Coalition Government, Coalition government that I sat down with and negotiated for example, $405 million from each level of government to do what's now called NorthConnex, was then called the F3 to M2. I sat down with the Victorian Liberal government. We negotiated with the Liberal Government $3 billion for the Melbourne Metro project, not with a Labor government, with the Liberal government. And then and then it was delayed and the reason why it's not all done a long time ago, was because that was cut. I prioritise funding not based upon an electoral map, based upon need. We had $7.6 billion to the Pacific Highway that ran through Coalition seats by and large, compared with the Howard Government's $1.3 billion dollars. We had a similar figure - over $7 billion for the Bruce Highway, compared with the Howard Government $1.3 billion. We funded projects like Gold Coast Light Rail that went nowhere in near any Labor electorates, I assure you, that was a priority project approved by Infrastructure Australia. We approved all of the projects that went through the Infrastructure Australia process. That's the difference between me and Mr. Morrison, nation building projects that make a difference on infrastructure compared with the Coalition, a Coalition that just get out the colour coded maps that say that this is not a, this is not a national priority for the national government, but a commuter car park, is - that they announced and then cancel. And an example as well, I'll make the second point is that I also want to work with Dominic Perrottet. And the Tasmanian new Liberal Premier in Tasmania, and anyone who's a state leader. And today there's an announcement in Epping, one that I will support as well. I know the New South Wales Liberal Government promised this four years ago and nothing's happened. But we will match certainly that commitment.  

JOURNALIST: Mr Albanese, on integrity, you’ve got plans for a National Anti-Corruption Commission, what problems do you see with Victoria’s IBAC model, do you think that all witnesses and hearings should be held in public.

ALBANESE: I think that politicians shouldn't comment about IBAC and processes which are taking place.

JOURNALIST: You are proposing a Federal ICAC – 

ALBANESE: Yeah, I'm happy to talk about a National Anti-Corruption Commission.

JOURNALIST: And what you're proposing at a federal level, is it acceptable, would it be acceptable for that federal, federal body to examine politicians in secret behind closed doors?

ALBANESE: It will be acceptable for that body to operate according to how it sees it should operate and not take directives from politicians about how it operates. Last one.

JOURNALIST: You've spoken a lot about your record as infrastructure Minister and Infrastructure Australia (inaudible). Why did you promise $10 billion as a Shadow Infrastructure for the Suburban Rail Loop in the last election and there was no business case from Infrastructure Australia. That would have been the biggest investment ever by a Federal Government, but there was no evidence at that point that it stacked up. 

ALBANESE: This is a game changing project.

JOURNALIST: But your commitment (inaudible).

ALBANESE: This is a game changing project. When you look at the way, that the way that cities operate around the world, you look at any of them, and what you need to avoid. And something we did - this is a natural extension of the work that was done, you couldn't do this before you did the metro project, because you need you need to fix the hub. And then you need the spokes to be connected. That is what you need to do. That is what the projects, for example extending the Queensland line in Springfield, do. That's what regional rail link did here in Victoria, what you need to do is to make sure, and I make this point as well, and this is the last one that I'll make, because it's a good one.

JOURNALIST: But how do you know it’s a good investment?

ALBANESE: Because if you get advice from any transport economist, and you look at the way that cities work, Infrastructure Australia and the major cities unit that I established, that this government abolished - the major cities unit. One of the works that they did was that you need to prioritise urban public transport, and you need to fix the way that they operate. And you need to stop the circumstance, whereby, whether you're in Box Hill and want to go to Western Melbourne, and you’ve got to go right through the city, or whether you're from Ballarat and Bendigo and you've got to go into the city in order to get the southeast, you have to fix that problem. This is the same issue that our major cities are confronting, and a city like Melbourne, a great global city of growing to eight or nine million over coming years. You see the growth that is there. I had the great honour of opening projects like Tarneit, a new rail station with regional rail link. You know what we did when we were in government? We promised projects, we provided the funding and we opened them during that period in government, during that period in government. I’ll wait for the nation building projects that have been covered by this government. Crickets, crickets. That is the answer, that these nation building projects should be where the Commonwealth Government prioritises. We did, when I was the Minister for Infrastructure, we funded - more Commonwealth funded investment went into urban public transport than all previous governments combined for 107 years, six years versus 107. Why did we do that? Because urban public transport has to be an absolute priority. Our cities - we are the most urbanised country on the planet- our cities need urban public transport. We'll work with state governments to get that done. Thanks very much. 

ENDS