SUBJECTS: Federal Budget 2021; economic reform; India travel ban; quarantine; international travel; vaccine rollout; skills shortages; chaos within the Coalition; borders; child care; next Federal election.

ANTHONY ALBANESE, LEADER OF THE AUSTRALIAN LABOR PARTY: Thanks for joining us this morning. This Budget is a real test for the Government. This is a Government that waits until there's a crisis before it responds. On aged care in 2019, they received a report titled ‘Neglect’. But they have waited until this week for any response. On child care, when we announced our cheaper child care policy in last year's Budget Reply, they said there were no issues, there was no problem with rising child care costs, there was no issues with women's workforce participation. And now they acknowledge in their release that, indeed, there is a major problem. There is an issue of women's workforce participation and productivity that will benefit our economy with the investment in child care. If a half-baked solution, which helps one quarter of the families that our proposal will help, is a good idea, then quadrupling that is an even better idea. This is a Government that whether it's vaccinations or quarantines waits until there's a crisis before there's any response at all from Scott Morrison. And in tomorrow night's Budget, it reflects that, if the leaks are strategically placed day after day, some of them contradictory, mind you, to be believed, the fact is that this is like a show bag budget. A Budget that looks pretty flashy, but when you take it home, only lasts a few days or a few weeks. The fact is there's no lasting legacy from this Government except for a trillion dollars of debt. No substantial economic reform, no plan to deal with stagnant wages, no plan to deal with living standards under real pressure and the costs that families have. No issue of the two million people who are underemployed and seeking more work. Nothing to do with increased casualisation of our workforce. The fact is that this is a Government that have been in office for eight long years. And now they have discovered that jobs should be a priority, all they have really done is destroy their own rhetorical position of so many years about deficit.

JIM CHALMERS, SHADOW TREASURER: Thanks, Anthony. If the Government really cared about aged care or training, they would have done something about it by now. We had eight long years of this Government. At the next election they'll be asking for 12. A lot of the issues they say that need to be cleaned up in this Budget are the messes of the Government's own making. The Government's eighth budget can't undo all of the damage done by the first seven budgets. We can't have another budget which is just yet another political patch and paint job. We can't have another budget which is long on politics and long on marketing, but short on job security and short on wages growth. Now, this Government doesn't have an announcement problem, it's got a delivery problem. The centrepiece of last year's Budget delivered in October, the Government said 450,000 jobs would flow from the JobMaker scheme. The Treasurer had to admit it was more like 1,100 jobs. One in every 450th job that the Government promised was actually created by the centrepiece of the last Budget. So remember when we look at the Budget tomorrow night, and the Treasurer makes all kinds of claims about jobs which will flow from his Budget, remember what a humiliating failure the centrepiece of the last Budget was. The Government doesn't have a problem generating headlines, it does have a problem generating good, secure, well-paid jobs with fair conditions. There are two million Australians in this country who can't find a job or can't find enough work to support their loved ones. They need to be the Government's focus. It can't be another ‘look at me’ budget, it can't be another budget which is all about marketing and spin, it needs to actually deliver for millions of Australians who have been struggling under stagnant wages growth under this Government for eight years now. So what we want to see tomorrow night is a Budget which is not just a pamphlet, but a plan. Not just a brochure, but a proper Budget which addresses all of these issues which have piled up over eight long years of this Government. This country needs to have something to show for the trillion dollars in debt that this Liberal-National Government has racked up. The country needs to have something to show from this Government which had already multiplied debt even before coronavirus. We need to make sure that there is a lasting legacy of this Budget, it needs to be more than just getting a Government through an election. It needs to be getting Australians, and particularly working Australians, into secure well-paid jobs that they can feed their families on.

ALBANESE: We're happy to take questions.

JOURNALIST: The Budget is based on the assumption that international borders will reopen next year. When do you think they should reopen?

ALBANESE: Well, a precondition of that is the Government getting its two jobs that they had in the beginning of this year right. They have had a year to prepare in terms of quarantine and vaccinations. And they have bungled both. Whilst the quarantine system remains reliant upon hotels in the middle of CBDs and whilst people aren't vaccinated, then there will continue to be restrictions on our economic activity. This is an absolute failure of an essential job that Scott Morrison and the Government had. And if you want an example of the gap that's there, the chasm between promise and delivery, it's the issue of vaccinations where we were told four million Australians would be vaccinated by the end of March. If you want another example, it's that all Australians who wanted to come home would be home by Christmas. And we know there's still 35,000 Australians stranded overseas and recently the Government adopted a policy that they should be locked out or locked up when it comes to vulnerable Australians, including children, stranded in India.

JOURNALIST: Does the Government need to come up with a plan to open the border for skilled migrants ahead of other classes to address skills shortages?

ALBANESE: The Government needs to fix border issues, which it is in charge of. It used to be that the Liberal Party talked about borders in a different way. Now, they're about keeping Australians out, but they're also about restricting economic activity. Until we fix up the health issues associated with COVID, then there will remain restrictions, including on skilled migration, including on tourism, including on our international education sector.

JOURNALIST: On aged care, how much do you think is needed to fix the system? Is the $10 billion plus the Government flagged be enough?

ALBANESE: We'll wait and see what they actually promise and wait and see when they're going to deliver on those promises as well. But the roadmap is clear from the Royal Commission that we need to address fundamental workforce shortages when it comes to aged care, that we need to make sure that we have better regulation, that we need to stop the exploitation which is going on. This is a Government that have sat around, having received a report entitled ‘Neglect’ since 2019. With maggots coming out of older people's wounds, with circumstances whereby half of aged care residents aren't able to get the nutrition that they need, they're literally starving, and whereby thousands of Australians have died in the last 12 months waiting for their aged care packages at home that they have been approved by. This Government has sat on eight years of neglect. This Government also cut funding for aged care, directly by Scott Morrison, and hasn't put that money back in spite of the interim report of the Royal Commission. So this is a real test. But when it comes to this Government, they are all about announcement and not delivery. I note the so-called new infrastructure announcements around the states and territories today, again, a sleight of hand, all smirk and mirrors from a Government that never delivers what it promises. They said it's over 10 years, so I bet you this, when you look at the details, it will all be in the out years. Some of these so-called announcements have been announced three times. I note one of the big packages in New South Wales is for the M1. Well, we all know that the big handbrake on congestion is around Hexham. That was announced during the 2019 Budget. They haven't dug a hole yet. And yet they're announcing further projects again. This is a Government that have underspent on average $1.2 billion per year over its eight long years as a gap between what they have announced in the Budget they would spend in the next 12 months and what they have actually invested. Because for this Government, it's all about announcement, never about delivery, always about the photo op, never about the follow-up.

JOURNALIST: Back to the travel ban, the Government's ban has gone to the Federal Court. Can you believe it's gotten to this that Australians are taking the Government to court just to be allowed back in the country?

ALBANESE: It is quite extraordinary. No wonder it's received such a strong reaction, not just from Labor, but from members of the Government's own backbench. And if Government members had any ticker, more of them would be speaking up on this issue as well. The Australian passport has to mean something. The Australian passport means that the basic issue of when you need assistance, the Australian Government will be there for you is contrasted with this Government's approach which is, ‘you'll be locked out or locked up’.

JOURNALIST: Mr Chalmers, before the pandemic the Government always committed to not spend economic windfalls such as iron ore and soaring copper prices. Now, they're baking an extra spending into long-term areas. Does that mean you'll have to find extra savings or are you going to continue to accept windfall gains from the economy to boost the bottom line?

CHALMERS: Having failed the first seven cracks they had at it, I don't know why we would think they'll deliver the eight time around. What we're seeing in the Budget, as you know, is extraordinary spike in iron ore prices in particular. The Budget assumes that iron ore tracks down to about $55 a tonne. The last spot price I saw was about $200 a tonne. So it has nothing to do with the Treasurer, but that is one of the key reasons why the Budget is recovering. That's a good thing. One of the reasons why Anthony and I have been talking about cautious spending is because we need to make sure that any spending in the Budget matches the economic circumstances. We need to make sure that anything that is committed in the Budget on Tuesday night, or by the Labor Party between now and the election, that we're getting maximum bang for buck for that investment. And we will proudly stack up any commitments that we make against this Government, which is the Government of Sports Rorts and dodgy land deals and JobKeeper for profitable companies that didn't need it and a billion dollars on advertising and all of the rest of it. We need to be careful and prudent and cautious. This Budget can't just be another free-for-all to get the Government through the election. It needs to be a Budget which suits the economy. The economy needs support right now. There is a case for some targeted investment where we get genuine bang for buck in terms of more jobs and more opportunities for more Australians. And we'll judge the Budget in that way.

JOURNALIST: Mr Chalmers, you said we need to be careful and prudent. We're racking one of the biggest debt levels this country has ever seen. Do you think that Australians should be concerned with that spending?

CHALMERS: Well, it's not just among the highest levels of debt we have seen, this Government is responsible for the highest level of debt ever. And they like to pretend that the trillion dollars of debt that they racked up is purely a consequence of the pandemic. But debt was already multiplied by this Government before any of us had ever heard of coronavirus. Now, there is a case, as we have said, for much of the last decade, we have been entirely consistent and said when the economy is at risk and people's jobs and livelihoods are at risk, there is a case for the Budget to lean into that and for governments to support people to get them through, whether it's the GFC or the recession last year. The difference between us and the Liberals is for purely political reasons, they have spent much of the last 10 years perpetrating this absolute sham and this absolute lie. It's for the Government to explain why debt when it was $200 billion or $250 billion was a disaster and now that it's a trillion dollars and heading north, it's somehow prudent and sensible and responsible. We have been consistent all along. We have been responsible all along. We need to make sure that any new dollar of investment, every dollar is borrowed, that it goes to a good purpose and ideally something that generates jobs and opportunities for people. The Government has been all over the shop on this. They got it horrendously wrong for the last decade. They don't deserve a round of applause for their recent rhetoric.

JOURNALIST: There's big money being spent in this Budget. Are Labor viewing it as a pre-election Budget or is there still one to come?

CHALMERS: This Budget is wholly and solely a Budget to get the Morrison Government through an election. If they genuinely cared about aged care or training or actually getting infrastructure money out the door, they would have done something before now. This Government is eight years old, by the time of the next election they'll be asking for 12 years. They seem to want a round of applause for talking about some of these issues which are messes of their own making. We will be ready for an election whenever it is. But this looks like and smells like and sounds like a Budget designed to get a Government through an election and not to get people into good, secure, well-paid jobs. And it's good secure and well-paid jobs that Australians need.

JOURNALIST: Mr Albanese, we heard today from people who are furious that the records in the National Archives are disintegrating. John Curtin's wartime speech is also at threat. What priorities would you take on saving Australia’s history?

ALBANESE: This is a part of Australia's history that should be respected. National Archives is a critical institution. And we should be providing appropriate support for all our national institutions.

JOURNALIST: Simon Birmingham says aged care won't be fixed overnight. Do you interpret that as playing down expectations?

ALBANESE: He's presided over eight years in which all this Government's done on aged care is have cuts. I heard his interview this morning where he said Scott Morrison called the Royal Commission. Yes, he did, once again, dragged kicking and screaming for action when it was more acute, the problems, then if you get in early and fix them. These problems in part have been created by Scott Morrison's $1.2 billion cut to aged care. These problems in part have been created as well by the Government's attitude towards workforce issues. The fact that wages are stagnant, the fact that aged care workers have to work in multiple facilities which was one of the issues with the spread of COVID last year, the casualisation of the workforce. The fact that women's work in so many areas is undervalued and underpaid in aged care, in child care, in feminised industries such as that. And this Government having nothing to say about that. All they had to say last year was that they wanted to get rid of the Better Off Overall Test and they wanted more downward pressure on wages, because, as we should never forget, Mathias Cormann declared that wage restraint and driving down wages was a key feature of their economic policy. That's a fact that occurred. And it's a fact that many Australians are really struggling. And we'll judge the Budget on whether it works for people or not. Because our economy should work for people, should lift wages, should lift living standards, should create opportunity. For this Government, they see it as people working for the economy in some abstract way.

JOURNALIST: They have obviously come to the table on child care. Is there something they should be doing to close the super gender gap?

ALBANESE: They haven't come to the table on child care at all. What they have done is say to Australians after having said last year, one, that there was no issue of child care affordability, The second issue was that they denied that an investment in child care would boost participation and would contribute to the economy. Now, on both those things, they were wrong. And they have conceded that this year. What they have done is to remove the cap on funds which is something that we called for last year and is our policy, but they have also limited support to just one-in-four of those families who will be supported by Labor's Cheaper Child Care Plan that will assist 97 per cent of families. And they have done that because they still don't get it. They still don't get it. This is a Band-Aid rather than a reform. And a move towards universal provision of affordable child care is about economic reform. It's about recognising that across-the-board, if you invest in child care, the return to the economy will be greater than the cost through increased workforce participation of women, by lifting up productivity, and as well, by improving outcomes, medium and long-term, for children who benefit from early learning that is quality. So this Government haven't learnt. What they have done is to try to have something to say about child care. And does anyone think that this Government would have been talking about issues like child care and women's safety if it wasn't for the fact that a reported sexual assault happened 50 metres from the Prime Minister's office? If it wasn't for the fact that more than 100,000 women and men rallied around Australia in the March 4 Justice, including people who came to Parliament House to meet with the Prime Minister and with the Minister for the Status of Women and couldn't even get an appropriate meeting, couldn't get them to come out to walk 50 metres to the front of Parliament House. The fact is that this Government is continually playing catch-up. And tomorrow night's Budget, if all the leaks are true, is just another example of them playing catch-up, of them having no vision beyond the 24-hour media cycle. What we need in this country is a Government that will have a vision for growing the economy in the interests of people, that does have a vision for the opportunity that's there for us to grow back stronger, to create good, secure, well-paid jobs, to address the need for innovation and new industries that we will do through our National Reconstruction Fund. To skill up the nation for the jobs of the future. It seems to me obvious that if all the things that are in the Budget are true, then it will take a Labor Government to have that vision and to get that real reform agenda going and give Australia a Government as good as it deserves. Thanks.

ENDS