SUBJECTS: Federal election; Labor’s policy agenda; lack of trust in the Morrison Government; climate change; foreign policy; net zero by 2050; COVID recovery.
 
CARINA GARLAND, LABOR CANDIDATE FOR CHISHOLM: Good afternoon, everyone. Welcome to Chisholm. I'm Carina Garland, Labor's candidate for Chisholm. And I'm really thrilled to be here with our, hopefully, Australia's future Prime Minister, Anthony Albanese, who is going to fight for this community, unlike the Government that we currently have. Chisholm deserves better. Chisholm deserves to have representation that will go to Canberra and be a champion for this community. To protect Medicare, to create good, secure local jobs for this community and to make childcare affordable. I'm so excited about the opportunity to fight in this seat and to win this seat for Labor and to make the man standing right here the Prime Minister of Australia.
 
ANTHONY ALBANESE, LEADER OF THE AUSTRALIAN LABOR PARTY: Well, thanks. Thanks so much, Carina. And it is fantastic to be here in Chisholm with you today. And it is great to be able to be campaigning in a seat that will be critical for determining the next Government of Australia. What we've had is Scott Morrison seems to want a six-month election campaign. And that is because he has nothing to offer when it comes to actually governing Australia. For Scott Morrison, every day is just about the 24-hour political media cycle. And today, we've seen the extraordinary comments whereby Scott Morrison on radio has said he's never lied in public. Well, we know that this is a Government, when it comes to Australia's future, that is a bit like an episode of Seinfeld, a show about nothing. This is a Government about nothing. But now, we have Scott Morrison channelling George Costanza, morphing into George Costanza from Seinfeld, who said that “it's not a lie if you believe it”. Well, Scott Morrison, when he talks about electric vehicles, tries to wipe out the history of what he has said in the past. Consistently, what Scott Morrison says is, 'I have no regard for what I've said yesterday'. So, why should people have regard for when Scott Morrison speaks about today? Consistently, Scott Morrison is someone who himself doesn't have regard for his own words of yesterday. And therefore, Australians should not trust what he says today. Scott Morrison consistently is out there trying to run scare campaigns, putting out misinformation about what Labor's stands for, putting out misinformation about what his own Government has stood for.
 
What we know is that after almost a decade in office, Australians will ask themselves when they go to the polls, whenever it is, 'Is this as good as it gets? Will they get better in their second term? What's their plan for jobs and for national reconstruction and for building back stronger after the pandemic?' This is a Prime Minister who, on fundamental issues, hasn't been fair dinkum with the Australian people when he said that the rollout of the vaccine wasn't a race and then pretended that was about something else. He consistently walks away from his own words. And that's why it's remarkable for him, of all people, to say that he hasn't told a lie in public life. He consistently is prepared to say anything whatsoever, as long as it suits his 24-hour media cycle strategy. But the problem with that is it catches up with you. And from Malcolm Turnbull, who, of course, he stood next to in the prime ministerial courtyard, and said that he was ambitious for Malcolm Turnbull at the very time he was plotting to knock off an elected Prime Minister, we know that from the very way in which Scott Morrison attained the highest office of the land, he has been misleading the Australian people and indeed misleading people who are close to him.
 
Well, I seek a different way. I seek a mandate from the Australian people based upon my values, based upon the policies that the Australian Labor Party will pursue. To build back stronger, to have more secure work, to have cheaper childcare, to have Medicare at the centre of our health system, to make sure we tackle climate change with serious policies, to drive down emissions, drive down energy prices, and create jobs through the opportunity that is there with a clean energy economy. That's the future that I want for Australia. And if Scott Morrison wants a long campaign, then I'm certainly up for it. I noticed that he's written to, the Liberal Party has written, seeking a debates commission. Well, this is a Prime Minister who shuts down debates in the Parliament. So, I'll give him this tip. Parliament has two weeks’ sitting. I'm up for a debate with Scott Morrison on any issue of his choosing every day in the Parliament. Ten minutes each. Let's have a debate about what the vision for Australia is. We can have a debate one day about jobs, one about climate change, one about skills in education, one about health and Medicare. Whatever issues he wants to debate. I'm up for it. Because this is a Prime Minister who has walked away from scrutiny, who's walked away from debates. We will give him scrutiny, including the scrutiny that's required to restore faith in our political system by having a National Anti-corruption Commission. So, we can have a debate about that as well. Happy to take questions.
 
JOURNALIST: As you just mentioned, on the radio this morning, Scott Morrison has said he had never told a lie in public life. Have you ever told a lie in public life?
 
ALBANESE: No. What I do is put forward Labor's policies, and at times I get asked to advance Labor's policies before they've been finalised. I have been very careful to make sure that I put forward exactly what we're going to do in an achievable way. And I also stand by my record of integrity when it comes to voting and supporting individuals in the Labor Party. One of the things that I think I, as a minister in the Government and Leader of the Government in the House of Representatives, was I was able to deal with people, including the crossbenchers and indeed the then-opposition, in a way that was consistent with integrity, and one in which I'm proud of my record in public life.
 
JOURNALIST: On what grounds do you believe the next election will be fought?
 
ALBANESE: It will be fought about two things. One is the record of this Government and whether they deserve another term. Their record in failing to secure enough vaccines, their record in not dealing with purpose-built quarantine, their record in failing to deliver a serious National Anti-corruption Commission, in undermining Medicare, in reducing real wages, in the addition of insecure work that is out there, the pressures that are on working families, in failing to deal with women's safety. All of those issues have not been dealt with by this Government.
 
But it will also be dealt with on the basis of our clear alternative. Our clear alternative for more secure work, that values permanency, that lifts real wages and that improves living standards. Our policies to make childcare cheaper through universal provision of affordable childcare. Our policies to have Medicare at the centre of our health system, not have it undermined. Our policies for building back stronger, including through the National Reconstruction Fund, a $15 billion program to support new industries and jobs. Our program, when it comes to our policies on climate change, that will be one of the areas where new industries can see, rather than Australia exporting our resources, seeing value added and then importing them back. We need a more resilient economy. I have a vision for the country where we don't just dig up minerals and agriculture and then put it offshore and import it back when value has been added. We do it here. And we train Australians for the jobs through the creation of Jobs and Skills Australia. I have a vision for an inclusive Australia. One that values women's workforce participation. One that values women's safety and addresses the increasing levels of domestic violence which are there. One that respects the rights of women, one that has a caucus in Government that has 50 per cent representation of woman, and that Carina Garland is a part that of representation. One that recognises that we will be stronger when we recognise that our history is not just over 200 years old, it goes back at least 60,000 years, and respects the fact that we have the oldest continuous civilisation on the planet right here with First Nations people, and that deserves recognition in our Constitution. And that deserves a voice to Parliament that's respected. That's the Australia that I see. It's an alternative to the Government. It's a strong alternative, but it's one that stands in stark contrast to this do-nothing Government that is all about spin, never about substance, and is all about announcement, never about delivery.
 
JOURNALIST: Are you running a small target campaign?
 
ALBANESE: I think I just went through a few policies, just a few, including: When it comes to climate, we have net zero by 2050. It should be legislated. This is a Government that actually stand up and say, they're trying to make legislation a pejorative word. I don't know what they think goes on in Parliament, but in most parliaments, they're call legislatures, because what they do is, they debate laws and legislation. And if it's not in legislation, it's just a vibe. And the reason why it's just a vibe is that they can't get support from their own people to pass net zero by 2050. But we also have Rewiring the Nation. The single most important thing that you can do in the short-term is to fix electricity transmission in this country so that renewables can fit in the grid, so that you can stabilise that grid, get that energy efficiency there. We have a policy for community batteries, for solar. We have a policy of new energy apprenticeships to make sure that Australians can benefit from that job creation. We have policies when it comes to climate across the board. But we have more to say, and we will have more to say during the election campaign.
 
What we won't do is promise things that we can't deliver. We want to have an ambitious program but one that's realistic, one whereby people know, when they vote for us, what they'll get in their first term. Significant economic, social and environmental reform that's achievable, that can bring Australia with us. And that's the other big distinction between us and Scott Morrison. Scott Morrison's always looking for a fight. He's always looking for an argument, whether it's against state premiers, whether it's the actions in attacking Victorians and the sacrifices that Victorians have made over recent years because of a failure of the Federal Government to secure enough vaccines and to have purpose-built quarantine, he wants to have an argument. He wants to have an argument with everybody. This bloke thrives on conflict rather than bringing people together. I want a new Federation. One that respects states and territories and brings people together on that reform. One that respects people regardless of their race, their religion. One that doesn't look for areas of division. This bloke just looks for wedge-islation rather than legislation. He's always looking for the trick and the division. He goes out there and questions people's loyalty to this country, just as if that's a political game. Australia deserves much better than that. And that's why this Prime Minister isn't trusted on the international stage. And that's why this Prime Minister isn't trusted here in Australia either. Because his own words that he walks away from as soon as he says them are because he thinks that it doesn't matter. Thanks.
 
ENDS