SUBJECTS: A better future for Western Australia; healthcare; reducing healthcare pressure; costings; Labor’s plan for cheaper child care; Powering Australia plan; National Reconstruction Fund; housing affordability; Scott Morrison raiding your superannuation; local commitments; AUKUS; national security.
 
ZANETA MASCARENHAS, LABOR CANDIDATE FOR SWAN: Good morning, everyone. My name is Zaneta Mascarenhas, I'm Labor's candidate for Swan. I'd love to acknowledge and introduce my fabulous federal and state colleagues; Anthony Albanese, Mark Butler, Mark McGowan and Amber-Jade Sanderson. The thing that I'd point out here is that there's some incredible talent here, and what WA needs is a partner in Canberra. My team and I, we've knocked on 40,000 doors in total and the thing that we've seen is that West Australians want a strong Medicare system, and the thing that I know is that only the Labor Party can deliver that. This Bentley Hospital is only six minutes drive from my home, it's incredibly important and we've got some exciting information we'd like to share, I'll hand over to my fabulous leader Anthony Albanese.
 
ANTHONY ALBANESE, LEADER OF THE AUSTRALIAN LABOR PARTY: Thanks so much, Zaneta. It's great to be back here in Western Australia, with my friend, the Premier Mark McGowan and also Amber and Mark Butler, our Shadow Health Minister for what is an important announcement here to have a $150 million commitment to capital here for a Surgicentre for Perth. What this will do is deliver six new surgical theatres, two new procedure rooms, a 24-bed surgical ward and a new central sterilisation services department. This Surgicentre will make an enormous difference. It will make a difference in terms of the Commonwealth, working with WA under Mark McGowan based upon what is needed, making a difference to that capital infrastructure upgrade, so that we reduce waiting times for elective surgery, so that people can get the healthcare that they need, when they need it. Medicare is at the heart of Labor's health agenda. We have had a series of Medicare announcements to strengthen Medicare and to strengthen the health system. The health system is what brought me into politics through my own personal experience. I know the difference that a good healthcare system can have. We want to work with Mark McGowan, with other state governments, around the country to deliver better health outcomes. This announcement today is a practical announcement that will deliver on that capital upgrade, that will deliver particularly when it's needed arising out of the COVID pandemic.
 
JOURNALIST: Mr Albanese-
 
ALBANESE: Hang on. Good to see you on the trail, Greg, but we have some order here! And now I'd like to introduce the Premier Mark McGowan.
 
MARK MCGOWAN, PREMIER OF WESTERN AUSTRALIA: Very quick off the mark! Look, just so you know what's going to happen - I'll say a few words about this announcement, then I think Anthony will come back and answer all your questions, then I'll come back and do a COVID update for the local press and whoever wants any of that. But first of all, can I just thank Anthony and the team for coming to Western Australia once again. Can I thank them for this important announcement for our state. What this will do is alleviate the pressure on our hospitals, it will mean we have a major surgical facility here at Bentley Hospital. It will mean that the elective surgery pressure will be reduced on our hospital system. I mean, thousands of extra surgeries can be conducted here at this surgery centre in the eastern suburbs. So for all of the people, particularly in the eastern suburbs but more broadly across Western Australia, this will reduce the pressure on our hospitals. As we know all over Australia, the pressure on hospitals is enormous, every state is going through it. Making sure that there is additional state and federal investment into providing those opportunities for surgery, particularly the non-urgent surgery so we can have the hospitals dealing with the urgent surgery, is an important initiative that we have worked cooperatively with the federal Opposition on. This will be half-funded state and federal. It'll start construction, we expect, within 18 months to two years, and then be finished within or certainly in the first stage within a couple of years after that. So whilst it takes some years to plan and develop these things naturally, the ultimate outcome will be an improvement of the surgery capability of Western Australia and particularly ensuring our hospitals can deal with the more urgent cases. So we very much welcome this announcement. This is a major investment into health in Western Australia by Anthony Albanese and Federal Labor and we're very pleased to partner on that. I'll hand over to Anthony.
 
ALBANESE: Thanks very much. Tom, because he was polite. I've got a polite incentive scheme going on here, Greg.
 
JOURNALIST: I'm all for polite incentives, thank you. Mr Albanese, will you say clearly today that deficit will be higher under Labor and do you have specific targets—
 
ALBANESE: Sorry?
 
JOURNALIST: Will you say clearly that your spending, your deficit will be higher under Labor than the Coalition? Last week, you said the Coalition hadn't had their launch yet. Are there specific targets for productivity under a Labor government, and is there some measure we could have of how productivity will go up in your first term?
 
ALBANESE: Well what we have prioritised with our investments, is investments that will boost productivity. So whether that's in nation building infrastructure, whether that be in our Powering Australia plan, which will see $52 billion of private sector investment, will see 604,000 new jobs created, will see the economy grow in a sustainable way by taking advantage of the opportunity that's there from climate change action. Whether it be our Future Made in Australia plan. One of the things we want to do, and in the announcement that I made here during the campaign launch, we put aside a billion dollars of our National Reconstruction Fund for value adding for resources, we see enormous opportunities in things like battery production, and others. WA has such fantastic minerals. We need to, where we can, continue to export them, sure, but where we can value add, boost productivity here as well. Our NBN plan to make sure that we build on a rollout of fibre, 21st century technology, not copper from the last century, will boost productivity. And importantly, after this visit, we'll be going to a child care centre in the electorate of Hasluck, one of the things that our child care plan will do is boost productivity and boost workforce participation.
 
JOURNALIST: You've been saying all election that you will be a safe pair of hands for the economy, that Labor's fiscally responsible, there's now less than a week until the election. So when will Labor outline its costings?
 
ALBANESE: One of the things that we have done this entire election campaign, is with each policy we announce what the costings are. The idea that we don't have costings out there is quite frankly absurd. Today's costing is $75 (million) would be contributed from the federal Labor Government and $75 million from the McGowan Government. Greg?
 
JOURNALIST: I understand that you are investing in productivity enhancement, but over the next four years, will those investments lead to higher budget deficits than the Coalition?
 
ALBANESE: Those investments will lead to higher productivity-
 
JOURNALIST: But will the costings be high deficits under Labor?
 
ALBANESE: You get to ask your question, then I get to answer it. That's part of the deal here, you get to ask the question, I get to answer it. The question is, will there be higher productivity under Labor-
 
JOURNALIST: The question is will there be higher deficits over the forward estimates?
 
ALBANESE: If you want an answer, you got to stop talking. OK? That's the deal. What we will have is a fiscally responsible policy. You can't say, on the one hand, Labor isn't announcing enough expenditure, enough big things, and on the other hand, say that we're not being fiscally responsible, because we are. Everything we are investing in is about boosting productivity. In terms of the fiscal position, the other thing that I have said repeatedly, but I'll repeat it again, is that we will have Treasury and Finance go through an audit line by line to get rid of the waste and the rorts that this Government have had. This Government spent $70 billion dollars between the mid-year economic forecast and the Budget in March. $70 billion with no offsets. This Government have established multiple funds, we don't know where all the money is in those funds. That's why Treasury and Finance will go through. We understand the need to have a fiscally responsible policy, which is why our investments are targeted at boosting productivity.
 
JOURNALIST: Former RBA Governor Ian Macfarlane gave a speech a few weeks ago where he said if we are going to address the issue of housing affordability, whilst politically unpopular, there will need to be some drop in house prices. Now you and the Government have made the same criticism of each other's housing plans. You say the super plan will put up house prices, he says your (Help) To Buy plan will put up house prices. Do you agree with the idea that we do need to see some sort of drop or at the very least a decline in the rapid rise we've seen in house prices to address the issue of affordability? And if so, don't you therefore need to do something to make sure when you're doing any policy that might increase demand, you're also increasing supply?
 
ALBANESE: Let's be very clear about the difference in the housing policies between what we have announced and what the Government has announced. The Government in its desperation has come up with a thought bubble yesterday, that according to itself has not been modelled. They have no idea what the impact will be, except that Minister Hume belled the cat this morning. Minister Hume has said that it will put upward pressure on the housing crisis. That's what they've said, they've acknowledged that that's the case. The Government now have a policy to cut super, to cut real wages of those on the minimum wage, and to increase the cost of living pressures on people who are doing really tough at the moment. In contrast, our policy includes the establishment of a Housing Supply and Affordability Council, working with Mark McGowan and other state premiers and chief ministers on how we have a national strategy to increase supply of housing. The key is, you've got to increase supply if you want to deal with some of the housing affordability issues. But in addition to that, we have a policy for 20,000 additional social housing dwellings, 10,000 affordable housing dwellings for essential workers, emergency housing for women and children escaping domestic violence, remote housing policy, and our Help to Buy scheme, which is based upon a scheme here in WA that has operated effectively for three decades. The difference is as well, that the policy that we announced, Help to Buy, was endorsed by Scott Morrison, and other Liberals for a long period of time until we announce it and then they opposed it. Their policy that they announced yesterday has been opposed by their own Ministers in their own Government over a long period of time, whether it be Paul Fletcher or Sussan Ley and others, and now they've come up with this plan that Saul Eslake has called the worst housing policy in decades. Clare?
 
JOURNALIST: Mr Albanese, just on Tom and Greg's question, will you confirm that the deficits will be higher under Labor over the forwards and [inaudible] the Coalition, and on Andrew's question, when will you release the details--
 
ALBANESE: You only get one. You only get one-
 
JOURNALIST: Well I'm confirming others. When will you release the details behind the costings of the policies you've announced? Those questions have been put to you multiple times.
 
ALBANESE: As we have, when we have announced policies, we've announced the costings for them. We will put out all of the Opposition's costings in the usual way, in the usual timeframe as Opposition's have.
 
JOURNALIST: Mr Albanese, under Labor [inaudible].
 
ALBANESE: We will put out all of our costings as Opposition's have, in the usual way at the usual timeframe. But we have put forward our costings all the way through. We have had new announcements from the Government yesterday. I have also clearly indicated what we will do in government through the Department of Treasury and the Department of Finance.
 
JOURNALIST: Mr Albanese, for a lot of this campaign you've been saying where there's [inaudible] on the super homebuyers scheme [inaudible] but are you prepared for a housing contest in this final week, and are you worried that it could sway young voters crucial to the election?
 
ALBANESE: I welcome a contest of ideas. Our policies are thought through, are focused on assisting people to buy, are focused on social housing, are focused on what works such as the WA scheme here. Where a policy is a good idea, and one of the issues that they came up with yesterday, the extension of the downsizing policy, we welcome it, it's a good idea. This policy is not a good idea. This Government are, at the same time that they're saying they support real wage cuts, are saying that they want to cut people's super. And the problem with that is not just -I've had a range of questions about fiscal responsibility, I'll give you this big tip, if you take super away from people, then you'll have higher deficits and bills from the government in the future. What super is about is making sure that people can retire with a decent income. That is the purpose of the superannuation system. It was designed to give people a comfortable retirement, if you gut people's super savings that means down the track, more people dependent upon the pension, more pressure on Budgets in the future. That's what it's about. That's what this debate is about. But this Government, every opportunity they have to attack super, they do so. That is what they did consistently when they fiddled around and eventually they got dragged, kicking and screaming. I mean, The Aus would have had 20 articles about them not wanting to move the super up. Greg wrote most of them probably. The truth is that they do at every opportunity attack superannuation and particularly Industry Super, even though the return on Industry Super last year, was you know, Aus Super and companies like that produced about a 20 per cent return. This year the return is less, but it's still nearing double figures, the return. This is an attack on future savings. It's an attack on future generations. It's not about assisting people.
 
JOURNALIST: You said everything we are investing in is about boosting productivity. Can you tell me how building BMX parks, painting murals on walls, building dog parks, how is that boosting productivity? These are all promises your candidates have made.
 
ALBANESE: Commitments that are about improving the quality of life for people are also things that happen during election campaigns.
 
JOURNALIST: [Inaudible].
 
ALBANESE: Well, if you don't think the arts community are worthy of any support, that's not a view that I hold. Our priority investments during this campaign, what's the largest investment? At less, mind you, than was wasted on the subs deal that didn't lead to anything. It’s child care. What are our other significant investments? The National Broadband Network. What are other significant investments? Increased skills through 465,000 fee-free TAFE places. They are our priorities, our infrastructure investments, including those that we'll make here in WA.
 
JOURNALIST: Mr Albanese, on housing plans. Yours is about government equity. The Coalition’s is about super. Why do you think it is appropriate or better for a government to take equity in the home of an Australian rather than an Australian to own their own home?
 
ALBANESE: Our plan is based upon plans that work, that we know work because it's been working here in WA for 30 years. In Victoria, in their model that they did their trial, which has been supported in the past by Scott Morrison since 2017, I'm advised that about one in six of the people who've participated in that scheme have actually been bought out, the government equity. It's given them the foot in the door of home ownership for low and middle income earners. That's why it's a good policy. We know it works. John, John.
 
JOURNALIST: On the stage 3 free tax cuts, Mr Albanese, the Greens have made it very clear that they don't support them. Do you remain committed to them and will you continue to support the stage three tax cuts if there is a condition of doing a deal to achieve government is to drop them? Where do you stand on them, are you willing to trade that away for government with the Greens?
 
ALBANESE: They have been legislated. We support them. We stand by that. We don't support the Greens. I'm seeking to form government in my own right.
 
JOURNALIST: Mr Albanese, Terri Butler has become the latest Queensland Labor MP to claim that a vote for the Greens would help reinstall Scott Morrison. Do you accept that that's simply not true?
 
ALBANESE: It may well. Why would I accept that that's not true?
 
JOURNALIST: Because if the Greens hold the balance of power, there's no way they'd back in the Coalition.
 
ALBANESE: Well, the Greens formed a government in Tasmania with the Liberals. I want people-
 
JOURNALIST: [inaudible]
 
ALBANESE: What I'm interested in is electing Labor Members of Parliament. Electing Labor Members of Parliament. And I want Terri Butler re-elected because she as Environment Minister will do more for the environment than any Green sitting next to keep Adam Bandt company ever will.
 
JOURNALIST: You quote Saul Eslake, you didn't quote everything he said. Let me just quote some of the rest of it. He said that ‘anything which allows Australians to spend more on housing than they otherwise would, be it First Homeowner grants, stamp duty concessions, tax preferences for property investors, shared equity schemes’ - such as your one – ‘anything that allows Australians to spend more on housing than they otherwise would result primarily in more expensive housing, not in more people owning homes’. Do you disagree with him?
 
ALBANESE: I agree with our policy. Our policy is measured. It's targeted. It will make a positive difference. Together with our policies with the Housing Australia Future Fund, it will make a difference in terms of increasing supply and putting a roof over people's heads. I know the benefit of a secure roof over your head - it's my life. It's how I have got to a position of the son of a single mum who grew up in public housing to be running for prime minister of this country. It gave me the confidence and security in life. And in my first campaign, I spoke about this at the National Press Club, was against the privatisation of what I saw as my home. As my home. I want a comprehensive plan on housing. That is what, that is what Labor will deliver. Last one, Matt, and Josh.
 
JOURNALIST: Mr Albanese, the Prime Minister has taken a swipe at Labor today about this issue of when Labor should have been briefed about the AUKUS deal, the reports that the Biden Administration wanted it done months prior than it actually happened. He seems to be suggesting that had Labor been brought into the fold months earlier, it would have leaked, particularly from the Deputy Labor Leader, Richard Marles. Could Labor have been trusted to keep that under wraps, considering how closely held this information was, even within Coalition ranks?
 
ALBANESE: I have national security briefings all the time. What this Prime Minister always does is put his political interest first, before the national interest. It's always about the politics. We were briefed on the Wednesday afternoon. The Prime Minister's Office, as you well know because you would have been one of them, went around that afternoon and briefed people in the gallery that I had been briefed on a significant announcement that would occur the next day. That didn't come from me, that came from the Prime Minister's Office. The Prime Minister's Office went around and said there was a briefing. What I did was convene a meeting of the Shadow Cabinet and the Caucus, and we endorsed the position that I took to those bodies within hours of the announcement. Labor, and I say this in the state of the great John Curtin, Labor laid the foundations for the US alliance during the Second World War, when Australia turned to Labor in its darkest hour. We have been supporters of the US alliance ever since. And what I haven't done, has ever release private text messages between people, let alone between leaders of other countries, which this Prime Minister quite clearly has done. We were briefed just beforehand. The US administration, the information is out there that they expected Labor to be briefed, because this is an issue that doesn't go for a year or a term of Parliament. They expected there to be briefing and expected there to be a condition there would be bipartisan support. And I make this point, even though Labor could not have been more clear, more decisive or more certain about our support for AUKUS, this Prime Minister has continued to play politics and to suggest that that wasn't the case at each and every opportunity. The problem for this Prime Minister is that he's always looking for a conflict and a division. That's what he feeds off. He's never looking for agreement. It doesn't matter whether it's backing Clive Palmer against Mark McGowan. It doesn't matter whether it's on national security issues, it doesn't matter whether it's on other policy issues. Doesn't matter whether it's some of the responses to the pandemic. This bloke always looks for the fight, not for the solution. Australia can do better. And under my leadership, if we're successful on Saturday, I'll look to unite the country. Whether it's big business and unions, whether it's small business and employees, whether it's the Commonwealth, states and local government working together for our common interest. That's what this country needs. Enough of, enough of this bloke, enough of the conflict fatigue that has set in. He can't change. He won't change. That's why people need to change the government. Josh, you’ve been polite, that’s why you get the bonus question.
 
JOURNALIST: You’ve called the downsizing policy a good idea year, how is this not going to put more pressure on first home buyers that wouldn't you think feasibly some of these older people would be downsizing into the same type of homes that younger people would want to buy, first home buyers, isn't it just another example of younger people getting shafted in favour of older voters?
 
ALBANESE: No, well this is an extension of an existing scheme which is there, they're changing the age rates for it. It's one that is practical, that we believe will assist people at this time. Thanks very much.

ENDS