SAM LIM, MEMBER FOR TANGNEY: Good morning everyone, welcome to Winthrop Primary School. And again I would like to welcome, again and again, our Prime Minister, our Premier and our Deputy Prime Minister here today. Mr Prime Minister.
 
ANTHONY ALBANESE, PRIME MINISTER: Thanks so much, Sam. Well, we're now 48 hours away from polling day. And there's a clear choice that this election between Labor, supporting and building Australia's future, investing in our people, investing in our infrastructure, investing in our future, or a Coalition of cuts and chaos. That's what's at stake between now and Saturday.
 
And can I say that here at this school, I want to thank the boys and girls here for the wonderful, warm welcome. It really is uplifting. These kids give you hope for the future, like every time I go into a child care centre. But I'm also reminded of what we're doing in early education. We're making a difference with the three-day guarantee for cheaper child care, that the Coalition have said they'll get rid of. They've said that they'll bring back the activity test that makes it harder, particularly for disadvantaged parents, whether that be a single parent or people from disadvantaged positions to get access to child care. We'll invest in child care infrastructure as well, something that the Coalition have never done and have not said that they support.
 
When it comes to education, of course, the government that I was proud to be a part of under Kevin Rudd and Julia Gillard instituted a review of what's the funding that every student needs to be their best. And that was put in place. And then the Coalition came into government in 2013, and the 2014 budget ripped $30 billion out of education and $50 billion out of health funding. And that has meant that a wasted decade has been there of not delivering that better and fairer schools funding that Australian young people deserve.
 
Well, we'll deliver $16.5 billion over a decade in the agreement that has been signed by every State and Territory government, and I want to give credit to Roger Cook as the WA Premier for being the first Premier to sign up to that agreement, making an enormous difference. It means an extra $2.4 billion for schools here in Western Australia. We're investing in these young people here. We're supporting the teachers in the work that they do. I noticed today we've seen another backflip from Peter Dutton over school curriculum. Now I make this point. The current school curriculum was put in place by the former government, not us. But they've looked for culture wars in every corner that they can find one. Every dark corner, is where they're looking. And here, having said that, they were going to rail against the curriculum, that it wasn't appropriate, now they're saying they won't touch the curriculum. So, it's not clear.
 
But if you can't keep a policy for three days, if you're going to an election saying, we'll tell you what the cuts are going to be after polling day, which is what Peter Dutton has explicitly said during the debates, then how can you be trusted to have a mandate over the next three years?
 
What we have done is put out very clearly our propositions before the Australian people. We haven't done it at the last minute, just during an election campaign. We've done it over a period of time, including going way back to last year, which is when we announced our 20 per cent off HECS debt and when we announced our free TAFE. I want these young people to be able to go to TAFE or to university in their future years. We'll invest in it. We know that as part of their costings, they are saying where some of the cuts will be. They're saying the cuts will be getting rid of free TAFE, they're saying it'll be getting rid of the Housing Australia Future Fund that will provide for more housing supply. They're saying they'll get rid of the National Reconstruction Fund. That's a part of a Future Made in Australia, working hand in hand with Roger's plan for a Future Made in WA.
 
But that's before you also get to the $600 billion that they'll need for their nuclear fantasy. Peter Dutton has two days left to visit a nuclear site. There's one here in Collie. I've been there twice. I went there last year when I was – there was a whole lot of dirt and levelling of the grounds, in order to put in a large-scale battery that's being exceeded now in size here in WA in a couple of other places. And now we visited there just last week. I'm not quite sure how he thinks this nuclear fantasy is going to work, because the battery, of course, is located in a place where it can connect up with the transmission lines that are currently connected to the coal fired power station that will close in 2027.
 
They sat back and watched 24 out of 28 coal fired power stations announced their closure, when they were in government. They announced 23 different energy plans and didn't land one. We've got one plan. We've landed it. It's for renewables backed by gas, backed by hydro and backed by batteries. We are backing Australia's future. They're sacking Australian public servants who provide services and advice, including, of course, in Veterans Affairs. There's a lot at stake in this election, as we go forward. I'll continue to campaign over the next couple of days. We will visit every state in the Commonwealth. But there's no better place to start than in engaging with some of our youngest Australians, because they certainly are our future, and we want to build a better future for them. I'll hand to the Premier then we're happy to take some questions.
 
ROGER COOK, PREMIER OF WESTERN AUSTRALIA: Thanks very much, Prime Minister. It's great to be here at Winthrop Primary School. And I want to acknowledge Sam Lim, the hardworking local member has done such a great job representing this community. Welcoming back the Prime Minister to Western Australia, and he's pretty much a local. And it's fantastic to see him here again. Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles, who plays such an important part, particularly for our defence industries in Western Australia, but also to acknowledge Kim Giddens, the member for, local state member, the Member for Bateman.
 
And my Government and the Albanese Labor Government are working in partnership to deliver for WA schools with a partnership that ensures that every school in WA is fully funded by 2026. It builds on my government's support to including, through the WA Student Assistance Payment, $150 for every kindy and primary school student, $250 for every secondary student, and for those who are interested, I can announce that today 100,000 Western Australian families have applied for the latest round of the WA Student Assistance payments. It's another cost of living measure, working with the Albanese Government day in, day out, to help WA families with the cost of living burden.
 
And speaking of real money, the Albanese Labor Government have committed to the Better and Fairer Schools program, which is an outstanding outcome for WA schools. We signed the agreement, the first state to do so. And it will, has reached a further, and in February, we reached a further agreement to increase funding by another 5 per cent. So what this means is that an additional $785.4 million from 2025 to 2029 will be provided to Western Australian schools, bringing the total additional investment in WA public schools to approximately $1.6 billion. And that's a fantastic outcome. It's a great outcome for WA students. It's a great outcome for WA teachers, and it's a terrific outcome for WA families.
 
So many Western Australians have an important choice to make this Saturday, and the choice is clear. Do we build Western Australia's future with Anthony Albanese or do we go backwards under Peter Dutton? As I've said before, Albo is a friend of WA. He gets WA. And the Prime Minister and his Cabinet have been here on so many occasions, and it's great working with a trusted partner in Canberra to deliver great outcomes for Western Australians. Sam Lim does such a good job representing this local community. He is an important part of the Albanese team and deserves the support of the Tangney electorate on Saturday.
 
The Liberals and Nationals have already announced large cuts to the WA public sector. They'll rip $17 billion of support for our critical minerals jobs across Western Australia. The fact they could not back the production tax credit scheme is an important indication that the Liberals and Nationals simply are opposed to WA jobs and opposed to prosperity in the Western Australian community. And of course, let's not, you know, let's never forget the nuclear power fantasy that Peter Dutton has prosecuted. If he was down there with the Prime Minister and I last week, he would have seen that Collie has already begun the clean energy transition. Banks upon banks of batteries, taking this state forward. But of course, he doesn't go to Collie. And he will never be the beneficiary of seeing the evidence that the clean energy transition has well and truly begun in Western Australia.
 
And finally, we should never forget that Peter Dutton opposed WA’s fair share of the GST. The GST deal which is so fundamentally important to Western Australia, our fair share of the GST. And that opposition should send a chill up the spine of every Western Australian. We are living in difficult times. Western Australia is in a geopolitically uncertain area and in these uncertain times you need trusted, and you need experienced leadership at the helm. And only Anthony Albanese will provide that leadership to continue to take Western Australia forward. Now, I’ll hand you back to the Prime Minister.
 
PRIME MINISTER: Thanks so much, Roger. I'll go to the West. The west, that's where we are!
 
PREMIER COOK: Nice work.
 
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, this election, possibly more than many, has been characterised by mistruths and accusations of lying all round. Is this why you didn't pursue the truth in political advertising legislation as vigorously as the campaign finance overhaul that was put up at the same time? And would you like to have another crack at that truth in ads legislation?
 
PRIME MINISTER: I would. We tried to do a range of legislation which we didn't have support for from the Coalition.
 
JOURNALIST: Will the new version of nature positive laws be compliance only, and do you need to be upfront about that detail while you're in WA next to Roger Cook, who called the previous version a threat to WA jobs?
 
PRIME MINISTER: I've said very clearly that what we will have is, in accordance with what was recommended by the Samuel Review that was commissioned, I remind you, by the Coalition. What we’ll have is a policy that's good for industry. I've met with Rebecca already from the Chamber of Minerals here in WA. I've had discussions with the Premier here. We've had discussions with conservation groups. What I want is something that's good for business and good for sustainability, and that's what they want as well.
 
JOURNALIST: Will it be compliance only, that was the question. Will it be compliance only?
 
PRIME MINISTER: That’s what they want as well. That’s what they want as well.
 
JOURNALIST: Will it be compliance only? You’re not answering the question.
 
PRIME MINISTER: You’ll get to see the legislation when it's done. What we will do is not pre-empt processes of consultation. We treat people with respect. That's what my Government does. We engage with industry and I have a good relationship with the Chamber here. I have a good relationship with conservation groups as well. We will treat people with respect. We'll engage constructively with the WA Government and other state governments as well, and will produce an outcome that's very positive.
 
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, if I could ask just on some quotes from Tony Blair recently, he's warned that any plan to phase out fossil fuels for all countries around the world in the short term is, quote, ‘doomed to fail.’ Spain also this week has had a major blackout, this is a country that more than 50 per cent of its electricity is reliant on solar, and it had that mega blackout. So can you explain how your renewables focused plan will be different to the policies that Blair is warning about, and may have actually massively faltered in Spain this week?
 
PRIME MINISTER: Well, the first thing that I'll do is to reject the characterisation that you just raised. That's the Liberal Party's characterisation. Our plan is for renewables backed by gas, backed by batteries and backed by hydro. Firming capacity, that's our plan. We also have not, the Government hasn't shut any fossil fuel projects. We haven't done that. We have said, though, that 24 out of 28 coal fired power stations announced their closure under the former government, and the former government did bugger all.
 
What they did do was have 23 announcements of energy policies and not deliver one of them. They had, now, their gas rhetoric. This is a government, people have been around a while and people who are here certainly, without ageing people, Probes and others will well recall, will well recall the gas led recovery. Remember that? Josh Frydenberg used to stand up every Question Time and go on about the gas led recovery. If that was the case, why didn't it happen? It's all about rhetoric because they couldn't land a policy.
 
What our policy has done is have a 43 per cent reduction by 2030. Net zero, not zero, net zero by 2050. We're working with industry to do that in areas like Gladstone and the Pilbara and the Hunter Valley and the Upper Spencer Gulf. The real opportunity that's there is for the mix, for renewables, but backed with the firming capacity that gas brings. That's why me and this bloke are on exactly the same page when it comes to energy here in WA –
 
JOURNALIST: Phasing out fossil fuels isn’t doomed to fail then?
 
PRIME MINISTER: And right around Australia. 24 out of 28 coal fired power stations announced their closure under the former government. And if Peter Dutton actually was brave enough, had the courage to visit one of his nuclear sites, he could visit the site in Queensland. And what he'd see is a coal fired power station that isn't operating. Why is it not operating? Because towards the end of their life, there's issues with water, there's issues with ageing of these coal fired power plants, and they're shutting down and they're unreliable. That is something that has caused unreliability in the system. And that's why our plan for energy was backed not just by the conservation groups, but backed by the Business Council of Australia the Australian Industry Group and other businesses as well.
 
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, what do you say to voters who say that your offering lacks ambition?
 
PRIME MINISTER: That we have put in place during our first term, which has been a difficult time to be in government. We have inflation, headline 2.4 underlying down to 2.9. It was six when we inherited it. That's been a key task. At the same time, real wages have grown. Unemployment is still low at 4.1. There are economists around, I met one of them in the foyer of my hotel this morning who was writing articles in a national publication that said that you've got to get a boost in unemployment. Basically you have to see, in order to get inflation down, people need to lose their jobs. That's not the Labor way and it's not the Australian way. What we've managed to do is to do that whilst we've provided cost of living relief.
 
But I tell you what vision looks like. Vision looks like the schools funding agreement. Better and fairer schools funding. We didn't promise that at the last election that we'd deliver it. But we have. Agreements with every state and territory. And the last agreement signed up with the Crisafulli Government of Queensland on the day before our Budget which was March 24 of this year. That's something that where we've exceeded expectations, we're dealing with the transition to clean energy. We're dealing with cheaper child care and making a difference there. Free TAFE was on the verge of collapse in some places because of a lack of investment. We have put TAFE at the centre of the vocational education training system and I'll raise one more because I've raised the youngest Australians, the oldest Australians as well, aged care.
 
We have put in place the biggest reforms of aged care this century, bar none, making an enormous difference for older Australians to get the respect and dignity that they deserve in their later years. When we came to office, the title of the interim report of the Royal Commission was, in one word, ‘Neglect.’ That's what we were left with. People said we couldn't get, during the last campaign, 99 per cent of nurses are back in nursing homes, 99 per cent of the time. Coalition said that was a fantasy, couldn't be done. We've done it. We're paying aged care workers more, we're paying child care workers more and early educators. We are making sure, I don't pretend to be a revolutionary. I'm a reformist, putting in place sensible mainstream reforms, in a mainstream government that is making a difference for Australians, working with business and working with unions and working with civil society.
 
JOURNALIST: Your opponent has been saying a lot lately that the national polls don't reflect what he's seeing on the ground in seats, in places like this in the outer suburbs of Australia where people are doing it really tough, and that this election will be some kind of referendum on the handling of cost of living. Now, yesterday you pointed out that the Coalition did oppose most of Labor's measures and that people would be worse off under the Coalition. But is it your belief that Australians will thank you for being slightly less worse off than they would have been otherwise? Because it is the case that costs of groceries, electricity, insurance, and other things have gone up, even if by not as much, because of your measures.
 
PRIME MINISTER: It has been a difficult time for governments around the world. We've had the biggest global inflation issue since the 1980s and the biggest energy crisis since the 1970s. We've had to deal with that, and we've had to deal with it in the wake of COVID, of course, as well, still having an ongoing impact on supply chains. But what we have done, if you're an aged care worker and your pay has increased by more than 20 per cent, you know that has occurred and made a difference. If you're working in a mine and Same Job, Same Pay has given you, as someone I've met has got, $34,000 additional in your pocket, you know that has made a difference. If you're someone on the minimum wage, you know that the three increases that we have had and the increase that we're asking for going forward has made a difference, as well.
 
We know that people have been doing it tough. That’s why we took the difficult decision to change the legislated tax cuts. We're upfront about it. We changed our mind. We went because we weren't prepared to sit back when people were doing it tough and say, ‘no, no, we'll just keep giving $9,000 to myself and to every politician.’ But people on, who work in Parliament House, the cleaners and some of the essential workers who keep the joint going, ‘well, you're not going to get a tax cut at all.’ And you know what? At this election, it is about two things. It is about the fact that Peter Dutton opposed every cost of living measure because he had a view that if people were worse off, it would be better off for him politically. So, some of the things that he has blocked are extraordinary.
 
I got a question this morning from someone on a radio station about funding for emergency accommodation for women and children escaping domestic violence. I am outraged that the Coalition and the Greens blocked the Housing Australia Future Fund that has in it a component for women and children to be able to get emergency accommodation and to be able to transition then into social housing. You know, these things do make a difference. They're real.
 
But most importantly, I think people vote about the future. And our future offer is for tax cuts, is for 20 per cent off student debt, is for five per cent loans, is for increased energy bill relief, is for increased support for child care, is for these cost of living measures while building Australia's future in the long term. Peter Dutton's offer is higher taxes. He says he will increase the taxes for all 14 million Australians. Cuts to services, sacking Australians, not backing Australians who work in the public service, and a $600 billion nuclear plan he doesn't want to talk about. But he certainly won't visit any of these sites. It is a huge risk that he represents, a huge risk. And in today's uncertain times, Australians are looking for certainty and they can be certain that Labor will deliver that relief.
 
JOURNALIST: Can I ask a question, Australian - just to clarify something that's been discussed in the last few days, the Australian public has delivered their verdict on the Voice to Parliament. What happens to truth telling and treaty if you get a second term?
 
PRIME MINISTER: Look, we are focused on practical reconciliation. This isn't something - see, one of the things that I haven't done –
 
JOURNALIST: Sorry PM, does that mean [inaudible] -
 
PRIME MINISTER: Well, one of the things that I haven't done is wait for an election campaign in order to announce policy. And I announced our policy at Garma last year, where not a single Coalition member federally, gave the respect that Indigenous Australians deserve at the most important cultural event that is held by First Nations people in Australia. I outlined it there in a speech, it's about economic empowerment. It's about practical ways to close the gap. That is what I am focused on.
 
JOURNALIST: Sorry PM, does that mean -
 
PRIME MINISTER: Well, that's what I'm focused on –
 
JOURNALIST: That truth telling and treaty is just done?
 
JOURNALIST: Sorry PM does that mean [inaudible].
 
PRIME MINISTER: That's what I'm focused on. That's what I'm focused on. Go and read the speech. Thanks.
 
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, in the final sprint, if you lose your majority and you have to go into minority, and I know you've been asking for a majority, but is that a loss to you? And then what right would you have to stay as leader if you do lose the government, its majority? And secondly, I know you had a great time in there, but do you think it's really appropriate to campaign to children?
 
PRIME MINISTER: You bet. I think this election is about young Australians. I make no apologies for going into a school because I'm giving schools better funding. That's what I'm doing. And how do you tell people that we're giving schools better funding without going into a school? And one of the great privileges that I've had as Prime Minister and as the Member for Grayndler, it must be said, over a period of time, is going into schools and going into early education centres.
 
JOURNALIST: Sorry, sorry, can I ask the question about losing your majority? If you lose the majority and you're go into minority, is that considered a loss to you?
 
PRIME MINISTER: Oh, look, what I'm about is maximising our position on Saturday. We take nothing for granted. No Prime Minister has been re-elected in this country having served a full term since 2004 –
 
JOURNALIST: I know but is majority a loss?
 
PRIME MINISTER: We have a mountain to climb. And it will it is difficult for Labor to be re-elected. I take absolutely nothing for granted at this election campaign. My job is to go out there, put forward the policies that we have. The Australian people will vote, and we'll see what happens on Saturday. But I think we've run a positive campaign, we've run a clear campaign. We haven't waited for elections to be called before - well, they didn't really wait for the election to be called, they waited for, you know, this week, I think I don't know if their costings are out yet. Anyone know that?
 
JOURNALIST: Not yet.
 
PRIME MINISTER: No. Well, you know, it's, you know, I mean, for goodness’ sake, how do you take this mob seriously when they've had to hide half their Shadow Ministers? I mean, I'm sure Andrew Hastie hasn't been in any schools to be fair, because he hasn't been anywhere, and he's the Shadow Defence Minister. The Shadow Foreign Minister, I was in his seat the other day with you, the Member for Banks, he hasn't been sighted. Like this is the alternative government of Australia. And Angus Taylor is busy counting numbers.
 
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, I just wanted to know if you've spoken or you're planning to speak to Jerome Laxale over homophobic slurs his father made to a Liberal volunteer. I think it happened yesterday. The story is in The Herald, it happened while he was handing out how to vote cards.
 
PRIME MINISTER: Do you want me to speak to people about their family? I keep families out of politics.
 
JOURNALIST: But do you think it's appropriate?
 
PRIME MINISTER: I keep families -
 
JOURNALIST: But do you think it's appropriate?
 
PRIME MINISTER: I've answered your question. If you yell, it doesn't mean you get a different answer. Okay?
 
JOURNALIST: That it’s appropriate for Labor candidates -
 
PRIME MINISTER: That's the way we work. That's the way we work. What? Someone's family member. I don't talk about people's family. I don't like people talking about mine. I don't talk about others. I don't talk about Peter Dutton's family. And I would ask you, you haven't asked me any questions about Peter Dutton's family, if you had of, you would have got the same answer, which is, I don't talk about people's family. Jerome Laxale is the candidate, and he's a great candidate for Bennelong.
 
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, the centre for Climate Reporting a not for profit online has posted video that shows –
 
PRIME MINISTER: Sorry, the centre for?
 
JOURNALIST: The Centre for Climate Reporting has posted a video that shows Chris LaCivita, the co-manager of Donald Trump's election campaign last year, claiming that he's been advising the Liberal Party on structural problems as it campaigns in Australia. Apparently, the advice was around the beginning of the month. Now, I should say Peter Dutton has flatly denied that he's had any contact with Chris LaCivita. But at this stage, how does it strike you that the Liberal Party might have been getting advice from one of Donald Trump's masterminds? And could you give us a broader, what role has Donald Trump played in this campaign as it closes?
 
PRIME MINISTER: I’ve been focused on Australia, of course. I am concerned about some of the positions that have been put during the election campaign here. That people, commentators have said resembles things that have been done, such as sacking, mass sackings of public servants. We have a serious election campaign to run here. I've not been interested in fighting culture wars. I've been interested in fighting for Australians. That's what I'm interested in. And the campaign of the Liberal Party has become more and more right wing under Peter Dutton. That's just the truth of the matter. Peter Dutton has had different positions, has sought to raise culture war issues and he, under the Liberal Party, has lost people like Christopher Pyne, people like Paul Fletcher and Simon Birmingham are going at this election. Will the last moderate in the Liberal Party turn the lights off? Will the last moderate turn the lights off? Because that is what is happening. In the time I've been in Parliament, there were people like Petro Georgiou and people who were moderates in the Liberal Party. Under Peter Dutton, he is a deeply conservative man. There have been increased right wing elements, we saw here in Roger’s election. I mean, some of the elements that are in the Liberal Party who are candidates at this election. I mean, their candidate for Fowler has said extraordinary things. I don't talk about people's families, and I think they should be kept out of it, to be very clear.
 
JOURNALIST: But do you condemn those comments? But do you condemn the homophobic comments?
 
PRIME MINISTER: Seriously, mate. Seriously. People's families should be kept out of it. And frankly, it's beneath you to ask whether I support homophobic comments because of course I don't. Of course I don't. And frankly, it's offensive, even suggesting it –
 
JOURNALIST: You would condemn it though.
 
PRIME MINISTER: But I don't attack people's families is what I don't do, what I don't do, and I don't think people should. What I'm concerned about in terms of people handing out is the mass handing out of Exclusive Brethren or whatever they're calling themselves these times. You know, frankly, it doesn't stack up that hundreds of people have just happened to turn up at polling booths, some travelling across state boundaries to hand out for the Liberal Party, wearing Liberal Party shirts. What is the quid pro quo, given that that organisation doesn't vote in elections and given the views that they have.
 
JOURNALIST: We're expecting some more detail from the Coalition on their, what they might say from reducing the federal public service. Are you confident that your model for the public service is more cost effective, taking into account some of the savings you've announced in the last term of government on external labour do take effect from the 2025-26 financial year onwards?
 
PRIME MINISTER: Yeah. Consultants, cost more money than public servants, and they don't produce the same efficiencies either.
 
JOURNALIST: On gas, you’ve made it clear that gas is an important part of our energy transition. We have heaps of gas under the ground in Australia, yet we're facing a shortage, particularly on the east coast, within a few years. That's according to AEMO. So after the election, if you're successful, what is your message to the states in terms of boosting gas supplies, getting more gas out of the ground for the domestic supplies that we so need?
 
PRIME MINISTER: Well, we need more supply. It needs to be done in a sustainable way. But we have also, one of the things that's happened during this election campaign is there have been a range of things announced by Peter Dutton that are happening. So he's announced, for example, housing, infrastructure funding that he announced, I think, here a while ago. We're doing it, like it's rolling out in partnership. We have had two rounds of that program that he either doesn't know exists or pretends he doesn't know exists. On gas, on the day of the election in 2022, gas was $34. Today it's $13. We've mandated the gas code of conduct. We changed the domestic gas security mechanism to ensure that we can intervene to ensure supply domestically. We've put in place all of those measures. All Peter Dutton has, a bit like his defence policy is a blank media release with a headline on the top and no detail.
 
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, I have one from me and one from the viewers of SBS World News. From me quickly, does the Government, if re-elected, plan to reintroduce religious discrimination legislation that was shelved because of a lack of support? And from the viewers, what will the Government do to protect transgender Australians?
 
PRIME MINISTER: Well, we on the first issue, one of the things that I've said, and I maintain my position, is that you need broad support for legislation. We weren't able to receive that. This is the last time in Australia, the last time, that you would want to have a divisive debate about religion. So I'm up for legislation that has broad support, but we do not need further issues created. I've been about turning the temperature down, not up on those issues, which is what social cohesion requires. And on the last, I just respect people.
 
JOURNALIST: Sorry that on Jane's question, further to it. In Victoria, for example, you've got the Bass Strait reserves have been depleted. You've got a Victorian Labor Government that's been dragging its feet for years on extracting gas. What do you say to Jacinta Allan and the rest of the Labor Party in Victoria?
 
COOK: Oh, look, I'm not going to speak for Victoria. I can speak for Western Australia, where I say that we understand and know that gas will provide a very important fuel as part of the clean energy transition. That's why we've continued to make sure that we support our oil and gas industry, not only to reap the rewards of providing gas to their overseas customers, but also to make sure that we've got energy security in Western Australia. And a hallmark of successive Labor governments in Western Australia is to implement a domestic gas reserve to ensure that local industry and local residents or households have access to affordable, reliable gas.
 
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, I wanted to ask you about student debt. Something like 1 in 4 voters have already cast their ballot. What's your intel telling you? Is your HECS debt policy translating into votes from a demographic that tends to favour the Greens?
 
PRIME MINISTER: Look, we'll find out on Saturday. But there is a big difference between us and the Coalition. We support cutting HECS debt by 20 per cent. They don't.
 
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, overnight, we learnt that the US economy went backwards by 0.3 per cent in the first quarter. Are you worried about the risk of recession in Australia? And do you think Donald Trump has lost the plot?
 
PRIME MINISTER: Our Government has presided over growth in every quarter since we've been in office. Unlike, it must be said, a whole lot of the advanced economies around the world. And we continue the briefings that I've had during the campaign from Treasury, that I expect there to be future growth. So one of the other, and I'll conclude with this, one of the other, I think, distinctions, in this campaign, is I'm optimistic about Australia's future. I want to not just talk us up, but raise us up as a nation. Peter Dutton spends every waking moment trying to talk Australia down, trying to divide Australians. And that does nothing for confidence in the economy, which is so important.
 
And we have, if you look at all of the figures, inflation heading the right way, interest rates heading the right way with, started to rise before the election, now started to fall. Unemployment being low. Indeed, the lowest average unemployment rate it has been in 50 years of any government. And more than a million jobs created, more than any government since federation, has been created. If you look at all of that positive economic growth in every single quarter going forward, that's something, and why we say that we're turning the corner, but we need to keep going. You can't afford to just press the pause button and stop, because the world will go past us. And with some of the US trade issues, will present challenges to the global economy. Australia's exports to the US are under five per cent of our total exports.
 
What will have potentially a bigger impact, because those things are still being exported, things like, to give you one example, plasma – comes here from the United States, gets processed, then gets sent back. They're not going to say, no, that's not happening. It's just they'll pay more for it. So it’ll have an impact. That's why I say, that – and I said on the day that President Trump made his announcement – that this was an act of economic self-harm by the Trump Administration. I firmly believe that. My Government stands for free and fair trade. We'll continue to do so, and I'll see you at the next stop. Thanks very much.
 
ENDS