ANTHONY ALBANESE, PRIME MINISTER: Ready to go? You bet. Born ready. My fellow Australians, this morning I visited the Governor-General and Her Excellency has accepted my advice that an election be held on Saturday 3rd of May 2025. Over the last few years, the world has thrown a lot at Australia in uncertain times. We cannot decide the challenges that we will face, but we can determine how we respond. Our Government has chosen to face global challenges the Australian way. Helping people under cost of living pressure while building for the future. Because of the strength and resilience that our people have shown, Australia is turning the corner. Now, on the 3rd of May, you choose the way forward. Your vote has never been more important and your choice has never been more clear. This election is a choice between Labor's plan to keep building or Peter Dutton's promise to cut. That is the choice. That is your choice. Your job, your wages, your child's education and importantly as well, this thing here, your Medicare card. They're all in your hands because only Labor has the plan to make you better off over the next three years. Only Labor is acting on the cost of living. Only a vote for Labor will keep your wages growing, take 20 per cent off your student debt and cut tax again and again for every taxpayer next year and the year after. Our top up tax cuts will mean an average tax cut of more than $2,500. And only a vote for Labor is a vote for stronger Medicare. The biggest ever investment in bulk billing for all Australians so you can see a GP for free wherever you live. Cheaper medicines, capping the cost of a PBS script to no more than $25, the same price that it was back in 2004. Freezing the cost for pensioners and concession card holders to just $7.70 right to the end of the decade. 50 new Medicare Urgent Care Clinics on top of the 87 we've already got up and running. Labor's positive plan means taking another $150 off your power bill. Better and cheaper child care for every family and fair funding for every school, public and private. Making Free TAFE permanent. Creating greater opportunity for women not as an add-on or an afterthought, but as a fundamental economic and social priority. Building Australia's Future is about training more tradies to build more homes and helping more young Australians to buy a home. Meeting the challenge of climate change by seizing the opportunity of renewable energy and the transition. Building Australia's defence and security and rebuilding our relationships to keep us safe at home, secure in our region and respected in the world. And at a time where it has never been more important for Australia to stand on our own two feet, only Labor is building an economy where we make more things here, an economy defined by fair wages for hard work, where people earn more and keep more of what they earn.
 
The biggest risk to all of this is not what's happening elsewhere in the world. The biggest risk to Australia's future is going back to the failures of the past. The tax increases and cuts to services that Peter Dutton and the Liberal Party want to lock in. Australians remember what that looks like. Less than three years ago, the chaotic and dysfunctional Morrison Government left bulk billing in free fall, aged care in crisis and the NDIS at breaking point. A decade of the Liberals keeping wages low, sending jobs offshore and fighting about climate change left our nation open to the worst global inflation since the 1980s and the biggest global energy crisis since the 1970s. As I said at the time, it was always going to take more than three years to clean up 10 years of mess. Today, because of all the hard work that Australians have done, inflation is down, real wages are up, unemployment is low, interest rates are falling, and we're cutting tax rates for every taxpayer again. In challenging times, we have laid very strong foundations. We want to keep building. The Liberals and Nationals just want to start cutting. Over the past three years, they have opposed everything we have done to help people with the cost of living. If the Liberals had their way, you and your family would be worse off right now. And if they get their way, you will be worse off in the future. Because the Liberals are promising to increase income tax for all 14 million Australian taxpayers and because Peter Dutton needs to find $600 billion to pay for nuclear reactors, it'll provide 4 per cent of Australia's energy needs sometime in the 2000s. That money has to come from somewhere. Everything in Peter Dutton's record tells us that he will start by cutting Medicare and he won't stop there. He will cut everything except your taxes. No one will get any power from the Liberals nuclear reactors for two decades. But every Australian will get the bill right away. Because when Peter Dutton cuts, Australians pay.
 
My fellow Australians, we live in the greatest country on earth, and we do not need to copy from any other nation to make Australia even better and stronger. We only need to trust in our values and back our people. From our farmers and small business owners, to our teachers and nurses, from people who belong to the world's oldest continuous culture, to those who have chosen to make Australia their home and have enriched our multicultural society with their love of this country, to young Australians voting in their first election, the very best reason to be optimistic for our nation remains the courage, kindness and aspiration of all Australians. Serving you as Prime Minister is the greatest honour of my life. And what drives me each and every day is the determination to build a future worthy of the people of Australia. The world today is an uncertain place, but I am absolutely certain of this, now is not the time for cutting and wrecking, for aiming low, punching down or looking back. This is a time for building. Building on our nation's strengths, building our security and prosperity for ourselves, building an Australia where no one is held back and no one is left behind. At this election, I'm asking for the support of the Australian people to keep building on the hard work that we have done and the strong foundations that we have laid. I'm asking you to vote Labor so we can keep building Australia's future together. Thanks very much.
 
Whoa. We’ll go to Phil.
 
JOURNALIST: Sorry to raise this so early, but is it still your starting point for this campaign, given your thin majority, that there will be no deals in the event you are reduced to a minority government?
 
PRIME MINISTER: Yes, I intend to lead a majority government.
 
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, Labor in 2022 commissioned modelling on how your policies would affect power prices over the next three years. Have you modelled for the next three years? If not, why not? And if so, when will you release it?
 
PRIME MINISTER: What we're doing is making sure that we work on the energy transition. We're doing that and we have continued to see a system that has the support of the private sector, importantly. We have that investment occurring because we have put in place, not just a plan to lower emissions and to increase energy supply, but a path to get there through the Safeguard Mechanism and the Capacity Investment Scheme. Unlike our opponents, Peter Dutton had the word “nuclear” mentioned once last night, just once. And he has a $600 billion plan that he has no idea how to pay for.
 
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, no one would argue that Australians are better off than they were three years ago. So why does your Government deserve another three years?
 
PRIME MINISTER: We have governed through what have been turbulent seas, but we've governed by providing cost of living relief. If Peter Dutton had had his way and his opposition to our cost of living measures had been put in place, Australians today would be $7,200 worse off on average. He has no plans for cost of living relief going forward. Last night, all we saw was a very dark speech, a negative speech. He had no plans, except for jacking up taxes for all 14 million Australians.
 
JOURNALIST: If you, if Labor wins a second term, sorry, is it your intention to serve a full term as Prime Minister?
 
PRIME MINISTER: Yes.
 
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, why is reserving east coast gas a bad idea and is the AWU wrong to have pushed your Government to have done this when you had power?
 
PRIME MINISTER: The code of conduct that we introduced that was opposed by Peter Dutton has already delivered six times more petajoules, 644 petajoules of domestic gas, than Peter Dutton promised last night. He opposed the cap that we put on gas prices of $12. He had an opportunity to actually do something and support the mechanisms that we brought in as a government in December of 2022, and he opposed all of it. We've heard this before from the Coalition where they said there'd be a gas led recovery. But under the Coalition, gas prices went up sevenfold and they left us with a gas market crisis to clean up something that we've been doing.
 
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, what do you say to those Australians who are considering how they're going to vote in this election today and they're hearing that the economy is turning a corner, but they're not feeling that in their household budgets? What sort of hope can you give them that what they're hearing from leaders like you will actually impact their lives?
 
PRIME MINISTER: We’ll continue to have their back. One of the things that we have done is to craft cost of living measures so that we continue to put that downward pressure on inflation. Because unless you tackle inflation, the inflation which was 6.1 when we inherited, when we came to office, that rose, of course, in 2022 to peak with a 7 in front, which now has a 2 in front at 2.4 in the bottom half of the Reserve Bank band. That has been important. At the same time, what we've done is deliver things that have made a difference for Australians, whether it's the three lots now of energy price relief, whether it be the cheaper child care, the cheaper medicines, we have real wages that are growing, going up. We very consciously changed Scott Morrison's tax cuts to make sure that people who were really doing it tough, low and middle income earners got a tax cut. People under $45,000 wouldn't have got a single dollar from the former tax cuts. We intervened, a difficult decision, went to the National Press Club, owned it, went out and sold it. And now we will deliver, including for those people on that first marginal tax rate, not one, but a further two tax cuts. Peter Dutton has promised to actually bring into this Parliament legislation to increase the taxes of all 14 million Australians. We know that people have been doing it tough. That's why we have acted. Peter Dutton has opposed every single one of those cost of living measures.
 
JOURNALIST: As Prime Minister, Peter Dutton will go around the country asking people, do you feel better off than you do three years ago? And do you concede that most people are going to say no?
 
PRIME MINISTER: What we will be saying very clearly is that people would be $7,200 worse off if Peter Dutton had had his way. There wouldn't have been cheaper medicines, no cheaper child care, no energy bill relief, no tax cuts for people on low incomes. And middle Australia would not have been the great beneficiaries of our tax cuts. Real wages would not have been growing. We want people to earn more and to keep more of what they earn. On the first on people earning more, Peter Dutton has gone into this election saying he will abolish Same Job, Same Pay that has benefited people in the airlines industry, people in the mining and resources sector, people out there who are working side-by-side their fellow Australians. But because of manipulations, some earning up to, I've met a woman who is now earning $34,000 more a year because someone working in the mining sector in the Hunter Valley, because of Same Job, Same Pay. The definition of casuals has been changed so that that can't be manipulated and people can't be denied their superannuation and their entitlements.
 
JOURNALIST: In your opening remarks, you said that Australia is a great country, it doesn't need to borrow ideas from other countries. Is that a way of suggesting that Peter Dutton is copying ideas from Donald Trump?
 
PRIME MINISTER: Well, people will make their own judgments, of course, but people will have a look at the mass sackings of public servants and wonder, how is it? We've just been through a flood in Queensland, where in Hervey Bay where I was, 15 public servants working out of a caravan to make sure that those Australians got the money that they were entitled to and deserved. They're gone under Peter Dutton. The National Emergency Management Agency did not exist before we came to office. Now they've had a stockpile of sandbags, a stockpile of generators. That didn't exist before we came to office. That's the hard work that they've done. They're gone under Peter Dutton. Veterans, 42,000 of them, were in the queue for entitlements, men and women who have served our nation in uniform, they were denied entitlements. People passed away without getting the entitlements that they deserved. Peter Dutton regards that as waste. Now, there are a range of ideas that have been borrowed from others. We need the Australian way. The Australian way is that we look after each other, is that we're a country that in the language that we use with each other, fair dinkum, fair go, they're part of the Australian lexicon. This card is part of Australian values. The Australian values that say when Kerry Packer has a heart attack, he goes to the emergency department. He went to the emergency department at Royal Prince Alfred Hospital, the same hospital that I went to when I had my car accident when I was leader of the Labor Party in January 2021, got the same level of care. But most importantly than that, on that evening I was in the same room that my mum was in when, as an invalid pensioner, she got taken up the road after having an aneurysm and she never left RPA, but she got the same care that Kerry Packer got. They're the Australian values. That's what I'll fight for.
 
JOURNALIST: What do you say to Australia's strategic competitors who might use the next five weeks to cause mischief, be it cyber, military, mis and disinformation?
 
PRIME MINISTER: Anyone who tries that, I say to them, “back off.” Our Australian Defence Force, our Australian security agencies, they're still in place. We're a resilient country. I don't talk this country down. We have an extraordinary capacity to look after our nation. They're not taking five weeks off.
 
JOURNALIST: You've spoken about the economic uncertainties. You're heading into week one of the campaign with an interest rate decision, Liberation Day in the US. How concerned are you that that could hinder Labor's campaign?
 
PRIME MINISTER: We will continue to, of course, argue Australia's case that the decision on interest rates is, I refer you to the previous 5,124 answers saying the Reserve Bank are independent of the Government.
 
JOURNALIST: Peter Dutton has reaffirmed a 25 per cent cut to permanent migration. Do you think that kind of action is needed to take pressure off services?
 
PRIME MINISTER: Peter Dutton presided over first and second for the number of visas issued by any Minister. He's on the podium. He's got gold and silver.
 
JOURNALIST: Around the world, there's been, amid all the global uncertainty, there's been a sort of incumbency curse. Do you acknowledge that the global conditions are working against you as you go into this campaign?
 
PRIME MINISTER: Global conditions are real. That's why we've responded to them. Peter Dutton would pretend that global economic uncertainty and global inflation hasn't been there. There's nowhere you'd rather be than Australia. Landing where we have is like landing a 747 on a helicopter pad. Getting inflation down to 2.4 per cent from the 6 that we inherited. Getting real wages up five quarters in a row compared with the five quarters of going backwards that we inherited. Making sure as well that employment has been strong. As Labor Prime Minister, there is nothing more important than jobs, 1.1 million of them created on our Government's watch, more than at any time, any Government since Federation. An average unemployment rate lower than at any time during the 1950s. Now, I acknowledge that our predecessors, with COVID, had international impacts and that's one of the things we're dealing with. The impact of COVID, the long tail that occurred because of supply chain challenges, and then the Russian invasion of Ukraine adding to the global energy pressure which was there. I acknowledge that. But for all of their time, they didn't have those pressures. They never, not once during those three terms did they deliver an unemployment rate at the average that we have. They didn't deliver a single Budget surplus. We turned a $78 billion deficit into a $22 billion surplus, followed that up with another $15 billion surplus, followed that up by halving the deficit in the current year as well. We have done hard work to make sure we did what some economists said you can't do to lower inflation whilst protecting employment, not leaving people behind.
 
JOURNALIST: Thank you, Prime Minister. Just world events, overnight Macron's talking about a reassurance force in Ukraine. Have you been part of those discussions with allies? Is that something that we commit to in the context now of an election campaign?
 
PRIME MINISTER: We have. There has been another meeting of the Coalition of the Willing in Paris over the last 24 hours, overnight. Australia participated in that meeting, just like I personally participated in the Leaders’ meeting that was held just a couple of weeks ago. I'll make it very clear. Australia stands with Ukraine. We regard Vladimir Putin as an authoritarian dictator who has imperialistic designs not just on Ukraine, but on other countries in the region. There used to be, for a long time, there was a bipartisan position of support for Ukraine. And providing those assets, we have provided significant assets $1.5 billion, $1.3 billion of that are military assets. We are prepared to give consideration to being a part of the actions of democratic countries, because what we understand is that the struggle of President Zelenskyy and the Ukrainian people isn't just a struggle for their national sovereignty. It is a struggle for the international rule of law. It is a struggle for what's right. And Australia has always stood up for what's right on the international stage.
 
JOURNALIST: Liberation Day will fall smack bang in the middle of the first week of the campaign, with potential tariffs being imposed. Have you been given any indication from the Trump Administration what way they might fall on tariffs for Australia?
 
PRIME MINISTER: We have been engaging on a daily basis with the Administration. I received another briefing this morning. We'll continue to engage constructively in Australia's national interest.
 
JOURNALIST: Your opening remarks were about the risk of your opponents, and you've mentioned them a lot more times since. Are Australians in for five weeks of a great big scare campaign?
 
PRIME MINISTER: Peter Dutton last night gave a Budget Reply that was all about fear. It was all about fear. What I want is a campaign that's about policy, substance, that's about hope and optimism for our country. I'm optimistic about Australia. That's one of the big distinctions in this campaign. I think we are the best country on earth. I'm so proud to lead this country. The greatest honour of my life is being here in Australia. But it's also when I walk into a G20 meeting, I know that Australia has that fair ethos of looking after each other. People know that too. We have that reputation. We punch way above our weight. Look at the relationships that we've been able to repair and compare it with what it was when I came to office, where we're in the naughty corner at global climate conferences, at G20 meetings in our region in ASEAN. We have, I've hosted every ASEAN Leader here in Australia last year. We are engaged in the G20. We are participating in the Conference of the Parties. We hope to host a COP, Conference of the Parties, here in Australia. And I'll have more to say about that during the campaign. We proudly participate in the Quad. We get invited to G7 meetings, to NATO. We punch way above our weight and that and that is important.
 
JOURNALIST: Just on the tariff issue, have you made any requests for a phone conversation with President Trump and what's the status? If so, and given that it will be occurring while the Government's in caretaker mode, what kinds of briefings would Opposition Leader Peter Dutton potentially get in relation to the tariffs?
 
PRIME MINISTER: Well, it would be nice if Peter Dutton accepted the offer of briefings. In recent times, there's been a few he's missed, which has enabled him to continue to not talk about facts.
 
JOURNALIST: Your relationship with the President, Prime Minister, you've invited Donald Trump to visit Australia. You still haven't been able to get him on the phone again. What do you say to Australians who believe that Peter Dutton might be better placed to deal with Donald Trump than you would be?
 
PRIME MINISTER: Look, I've had two constructive discussions with President Trump. The way the international diplomacy works is that people have discussions at the diplomatic level and then people come together when there is a solution and when there is a resolution going forward. We have a constructive relationship. My Foreign Minister has been to the US, was there at the Inauguration, was one of the few, was only Quad Foreign Ministers who were there invited. My Defence Minister, my Treasurer has been as well. We have constructive relations and will continue to do so. And those canons are a signal that there's something else going on today. Thank you very much. Look forward to seeing you over the coming weeks.

ENDS