TRISH COOK, LABOR CANDIDATE FOR BULLWINKEL: Good morning everyone, thank you for coming. My name is Trish Cook, I’m a local nurse and the Labor Candidate for Bullwinkel. I have the pleasure of welcoming back the Prime Minister to Bullwinkel, along with the Premier Roger Cook, and the ministers. I’ll pass over to the Prime Minister.  
 
ANTHONY ALBANESE, PRIME MINISTER: Well thanks so much Trish, and thanks for what you’re doing, representing of course what is a new electorate here in Bullwinkel. No one better than a nurse to represent a seat named after of course one of Australia’s legendary nurses in Bullwinkel. And of course, nothing says WA quite like a nurse who worked on an offshore oil rig, nothing quite says WA like that. And it’s my absolute pleasure to be back here with Madeleine and Penny of course from my team, but importantly as well the leadership of WA in Roger and Rita. And we work so closely together. And this is today, the announcements that I've made this morning that we're backing in here, in the electorate of Bullwinkel, just shows how much there is synergy between the future made in WA agenda that saw Roger and Rita re-elected here in WA and our Future Made in Australia agenda. The two significant announcements that we've made today in critical minerals and in the rail freight network are very important for advancing the WA economy, but also important for advancing our national economy, because WA is a driver of our national economy and our growth and our jobs. And that's why I've been such a regular visitor to this great state of WA. The Liberal and National Party flogged off this rail network. They flogged it off without thought to what then happened with investment and the need for maintenance and the need to make sure that the national interest as well as WA's interests were looked after. And that's why, here in the shadows of these grain silos and the railway line are two symbols of how important a strong rail freight network is in our state.
 
When I was Infrastructure Minister, we invested massively in the largest upgrade ever of the Australian rail freight network through the Australian Rail Track Corporation. What this is about is how we can improve the network to make sure that WA benefits as well. If we are elected next Saturday, we'll invest $2.5 million dollars to support the ARTC to work with the WA Government on the feasibility study for taking back control parts of the rail freight network. Since it was privatised in the year 2000, it has stunted investment in the network and in key growing industries for the last quarter of a century. At the same time, the demand for rail freight has grown. If we don't fix rail freight, what it means is more trucks on local roads here in Perth. It's as simple as that. And in terms of costs, that has a cost of maintenance of the road network as well as safety, but importantly as well, one of productivity. And that's why intermodal terminals are so important. That's why the return of rail freight is so important as well.
 
The 100-year-old East West Line is an essential link that connects WA with the eastern states. And of course, at the moment, the Commonwealth involvement goes as far as Kalgoorlie and then stops. What we're doing here is working together to make an enormous difference.
 
Today also, I announced our Critical Mineral Strategic Reserve. In a time of global uncertainty, Australia will be stronger and safer by developing our critical national assets to create economic opportunity, but also to build resilience. The strategic reserve comes on top of the previous announcements and reforms that my Government has put in place, including of course, production tax credits to encourage investment and reward success when it comes to critical minerals. And that will make an enormous difference here in WA.
 
It's just one of the measures that an incoming Coalition government, if they're successful in nine days’ time, will get rid of, along with the other cuts that they clearly will make. Our plan is about building national resilience, it's about making sure that we take advantage and seize the opportunities that are right before us. And I thank the West Australian for hosting us at the Leadership Matters Breakfast this morning for what was an important announcement for WA. But important announcements for WA are important announcements for our nation as well, because of the role that WA plays in driving growth in this great nation. And I'll hand over to the very proud WA Premier now. We'll hear from then the respective ministers, federal and state. And then we're happy to take questions.
 
ROGER COOK, PREMIER OF WESTERN AUSTRALIA: Thank you, Prime Minister. It's great to have you back here in Western Australia and making an incredibly important announcement for Western Australia. And I want to thank CBH for hosting us here today. Great partners as part of Western Australia's world class agricultural industry. And today we are continuing to work in partnership with the Commonwealth Government to realise great gains for our economy. My aim is to work day and night to make sure Western Australia remains the strongest economy in the nation. And we're continuing to diversify our economy, creating great jobs in WA and making sure that there's no better place to get a quality job in living in this state. And that's why today's announcements are so important.
 
Bringing our rail freight network back into public hands has been fundamental to our aims to continue to make sure that we increase productivity and we strongly support our industries as part of our whole rail network. The ripple effects of the former WA Liberal government announcement, a decision to privatise our rail freight network are being felt even today. That decision was made in 2000 and today it is crippling our industries. I'm thinking today about our grain farmers, our magnetite miners, our juniors and our senior miners. I'm thinking about our emerging passenger rail network across regional WA. And I'm thinking about WA motorists who are having to deal on a daily basis with the increase of truck traffic on our road network. And the opportunity to really activate Kalgoorlie, as the Prime Minister described this morning, an inland port, an intermodal hub to continue to improve the network of rail freight transportation in Western Australia is such an important announcement.
 
This is important as a standard gauge rail, it will complete the network between Sydney and Fremantle. It means that WA can continue to play its role as a major export hub. It means that we can continue to better move minerals, resources, grain and other cargo right across this state. That's why it's fundamental to our aim to diversify our economy. And I welcome the partnership, the partnership that comes from a shared vision that we have with the Commonwealth Government.
 
I also want to commend the Prime Minister and his leadership. We know that these are uncertain times globally and that critical minerals will continue to play an important part of our growing economy and part in the energy transition, but also as part of the economies of our strong trading partners. The intervention of the Commonwealth to continue to underpin our critical minerals industry is going to be fundamental not only to growing a nascent resources sector, but also to make sure that we can support our trading partners to secure the supply chains that we need to make sure that we can continue to develop the products and the energy transition arrangements that we all aspire to.
 
Two really important announcements today, and I'm so proud that the Prime Minister has chosen to make those announcements in Western Australia, the engine room of the nation's economy. And today's announcement, particularly around rail freight network, is fundamental to our vision to continue to make sure that we make more things in WA, that we can keep our economy strong, that we can diversify our economy and make sure that WA continues to play a key role in the national economy. Now, I’ll hand you over to Minister King.
 
MADELEINE KING, MINISTER FOR RESOURCES AND NORTHERN AUSTRALIA: Thanks very much, Premier. It's a delight to be here with our Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, Premier Cook, Deputy Premier Saffioti and Foreign Minister Penny Wong. And also our wonderful candidate for Bullwinkel, Trish Cook, who is a local nurse and also knows very much through the importance of the resources sector and of course the offshore sector as she has worked in what is a very challenging and difficult environment. I want to speak a bit today about the Critical Mineral Strategic Reserve that the Prime Minister announced earlier.
 
The Strategic Reserve, alongside the production tax credits and the increase in the Critical Minerals Facility together are real game changers for the emerging critical minerals and rare earths industry that is important to the whole nation, but of course will be extremely important here in Western Australia. What we know is that Peter Dutton and the Liberal Party have said they will actively seek to repeal the $17 billion production tax credits that will assist this industry. They will not support the Strategic Reserve. They will open up the Critical Minerals Facility to the very important but also very well-resourced gas industry, as well as five or six other minerals that are not in the same state as critical minerals.
 
What this all means is that all the support for critical minerals that has been put in place over the past few years and even before that is now being under threat of being taken away completely by Peter Dutton and the Liberals and the Nationals. And that brings me to another candidate for Bullwinkel, and that's Mia Davies. Mia Davies has said that she supports production tax credits and she wants to be a voice or wishes she had been a voice in the room when Peter Dutton decided to reject production tax credits. Well, the question needs to be asked, where are the WA Liberals? What room were they in when Peter Dutton decided to cancel his support for critical minerals and rare earths in Western Australia? Well, they're entirely absent. And so when Mia Davies says that she supports production tax credits, she sits at odds with the WA Liberals and the leader of the Liberals nationally, Peter Dutton.
 
So, for the good people of Bullwinkel that are voting now and will continue to vote up until May 3rd, you need to know and be very clear that a vote for Mia Davies is a vote for Peter Dutton, who wants to rip the heart out of this new and emerging and critically important resources sector, the critical minerals and rare earth sector. With that, I'll hand over to Minister Saffioti.
 
RITA SAFFIOTI, DEPUTY PREMIER OF WESTERN AUSTRALIA: Thank you very much. We very much welcome this incredible announcement by the Prime Minister to back in our decision to bring back the freight rail into public hands. We know it was a failed privatisation. We know that both industry and the farming groups very much want to put more freight on rail. And we know we need a better way to improve that performance over upcoming decades. As Minister for Transport, it has been a major challenge in many times to try and get more freight on rail as we don't control the freight network in WA.
 
This decision by the Prime Minister and the Albanese Government very much backs our plan for the future. It means cheaper costs for farmers, it means more freight on rail, it means reduce road congestion and also the impact that many of these trucks are having on local roads, both throughout our suburbs and regional WA. This is a massive aspiration to very much change what is happening out there in regional WA, more freight on rail. When we first announced our commitment, we had, and we continue to have the support of industry, of the mining sector. There are many assets out there, many mining assets that can be then processed if we have more freight on rail, it changes the economics.
 
So, we very much welcome this announcement. The involvement at ARTC, in particular, working with the ARTC, working with a re-elected Albanese Government to deliver these incredible reforms, incredible changes that will very much support road safety, less trucks on roads, cheaper transport for our farming communities, for our mining communities, the ability to tackle many of the stranded assets out there in regional WA. So, this is very much a game, I had to use the word game changer too, Madeleine. This is a game changer for regional WA.
 
Look, when we brought in our road maintenance back to main roads, what we did is, as a result, we've employed more people in regional WA, more permanent jobs in regional WA. And of course, more recently, you also saw key figures of the National Party who are no longer in the Parliament, criticise that privatisation. Criticise the way they privatise that freight network. They sold it for a song. The lease is terrible and as a result, we can't get the wider economic benefits that we need to as a result of that failed privatisation. So, this is very much all about WA's future. It's about WA's future economic growth and also more people living and working in regional WA and less trucks and roads.
 
JOURNALIST: This was one of the first things you announced after the tariffs that were put in place by President Donald Trump. If you win the election, how important will these critical minerals be to your negotiations with Trump on tariffs?
 
PRIME MINISTER: Well, this is critical in and of itself. But obviously what it does is enable us to use our national power that we have. We have everything that is on the periodic table, including the 31 critical minerals that have been identified. It's important that that be used to serve our national interests. It's just part of what we have worked towards along with the Critical Minerals Facility, with this additional $1 billion, that will take that Facility up to 5 billion. The work that we have done in production tax credits as well. This is a comprehensive plan. We have had discussions with the United States as part of the bilateral meetings that we have had going back to the Biden Administration as well. This is something that is in demand, critical minerals are important, for IT, for everything that will drive the economy of the 21st century, including for our defence industries. There's no country you'd rather be than Australia, but we need to learn the lessons of the pandemic to build economic resilience to serve our national interests, and that's what we intend to do.
 
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, specifically, do you see it as a bargaining chip going into negotiations on tariffs with Donald Trump?
 
PRIME MINISTER: Well, we see it as just an element that is in demand. We know that our critical minerals are in demand. And one of the things that I have said, very clearly, is we won't negotiate over the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme, we won't negotiate over the media bargaining code, we won't negotiate over our biosecurity issues to protect our agricultural sector. What we do as friends is be prepared to engage in a constructive way and that is what I intend to do with the United States. Not do what Peter Dutton did on that morning that I made that announcement about 20 minutes after President Trump finished his speech, which is to say that we should put on the table our defence relationship with the United States, that was just one of the foreign affairs debacles, frankly, that have come forward during this campaign.
 
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, we've seen a couple of violent incidents at pre-polling booths just as pre-poll has been getting underway. How concerned are you by that? Is campaign rhetoric do you think contributing to that? And also one to the Premier. We've seen reports that the NRL has given the green light to bring a rugby league team to Perth. Do you think that that'll risk any sort of friendship with the Prime Minister when the Bears eventually play Souths?
 
PRIME MINISTER: On, I do note that the Minister Saffioti has sneakers that are approved by the Prime Minister and are the right colour. I'm distracted now, now that you've raised the Rabbitohs. The first question was about?
 
JOURNALIST: Violent incidents at pre-polling.
 
PRIME MINISTER: Yes, sorry. Look, there's no place for violence in our political system. We're a democracy. It's important that people engage in a respectful way. That includes people who are candidates, but it includes everyone on polling booths as well. The police have to be allowed to do their work as for particular incidents. But can I say that for the person who was hurt in my electorate, my thoughts go out to him and I hope that there is a very swift recovery. I’ll hand to the Premier.
 
PREMIER COOK: Look, can I just say I know that there are more reports in the east coast media sports pages with regards to the conversations that are taking place between my Government and the NRL. We continue to have those negotiations. We haven't had a formal response from the NRL. I assume they have a range of processes they need to go through to consider anything in relation to these conversations. I will say that conversations are positive, and we continue to look forward to those discussions continuing.
 
JOURNALIST: You did just say earlier about you use the word leverage. So, how much do you intend to put critical minerals on the table and say we now have a stockpile and what's your, I guess, is it an ultimatum that you will use with Donald Trump?
 
PRIME MINISTER: No, I don't issue ultimatums. What I do is engage diplomatically in our national interest and it is in our national interest to use the full suite of leverage that is available to us. This is an element in that.
 
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, where do you want your first bilateral visit to be after the election? Will it be to Washington to make the case on critical minerals? And I know that the editor that hosted you this morning said your campaign had been in many ways shameless and outrageous. Does that get to the point that you're stretching the truth in your attacks on the Opposition?
 
PRIME MINISTER: Well, you can make your own judgments about the Opposition and people at home can make their own judgments as well. Today, today the Opposition have confirmed cuts. They've confirmed that there'll be cuts in income tax, not one, but two income tax cuts repealed, and they'll legislate for higher income tax. Now, I've been around for a while. I've never seen a major political party go to an election saying we are going to increase the income tax of every single Australian taxpayer. They've also confirmed that they will oppose the 20% reduction in student debt for three million Australians, at an average of $5,500. They also have confirmed that they were against tax support on EVs, then they were for the measure and now they're against it again, the measure on EVs. And most extraordinarily, they have confirmed that of the 41,000 public servants who will be sacked, all of those are going to be in Canberra.
 
Now, what that represents, be very clear about this - we'll go through in order. Be very clear. That is, two thirds of the Commonwealth public servants of Australia are going to be out of a job. That is what they have said. I'll tell you what's outrageous, it's that. Because that means Services Australia that have their headquarters there, that deliver payments to pensioners, that deliver payments to people who are out of work, that deliver emergency payments for people who've been through natural disasters. Two thirds. The National Emergency Management Agency that's been established by us, gone. That provides the national leadership and support when there's a natural disaster in this country. ASIO, the Australian Signals Directorate, all of our security and intelligence agencies, where does Peter Dutton think they are based? They are based in Canberra, in our national capital. The Department of Defence, do they think that the CDF and the senior defence leadership in this country aren't based at Russell in Canberra? Where does he think they are? The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade that deal with the issues of which we're talking about here, relationships with other countries. Two thirds of Canberra public servants sacked.
 
Now, we know that Peter Dutton has got ahead of himself and has measured up the curtains at Kirribilli House and in one of his first announcements said that he would live there rather than in the Prime Minister's residence at The Lodge. But for goodness sake, I think it's impossible to actually be too outrageous on the comments that they are making in this campaign. They are showing, Peter Dutton is showing, that they are just not ready for government. We know it's less than three years since they were the government, but during this campaign we have seen chaos, the working from home debacle where they are still saying that that was the right policy, it was just the wrong time. So, we know there are more cuts because they've got to find $600 billion for their nuclear power. At the same time as he won't go anywhere near one of the sites of these nuclear sites that he is proposing for the country. I think that Australians over the next nine days have an important decision to make because there is a real choice at this election. My Government that is competent, is orderly, has a plan for Australia, building Australia's future, or this mob that will cut and wreck, that can't even hold a policy position for a series of days, that make announcements yesterday without knowing what the spending will be done for. You know, I just think they are not ready.
 
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, you said this morning at the breakfast event that falling off the stage had been the worst moment of the campaign for you when you were in the Hunter Valley. But at the time -
 
PRIME MINISTER: It was a joke. It was a joke. Chill out. Next. Chill out.
 
JOURNALIST: But at the time you said that you hadn't fallen off the stage -
 
PRIME MINISTER: No, well, I didn't fall – I did not -
 
JOURNALIST: Is there anything else you would like to clarify from the campaign, including who asked for advice on negative gearing?
 
PRIME MINISTER: What?
 
JOURNALIST: Is there anything else you'd like to clarify from your statements on the campaign trail, including who asked Treasury to give modelling on negative gearing changes?
 
PRIME MINISTER: Not at all. We have made - our policy is clear. And before the 2022 election campaign, there was a scare campaign and it said we were going to do all this. We've been in government for three years, we haven't. The proof is in the pudding, as my mum would say.
 
JOURNALIST: Where will your first overseas visit be? You'll obviously -
 
PRIME MINISTER: I'm not getting ahead of myself -
 
JOURNALIST: But you'll obviously want to see Donald Trump at some stage –
 
PRIME MINISTER: Sure.
 
JOURNALIST: You haven't visited President Prabowo in Indonesia. Is either one of those countries a priority as the first visit?
 
PRIME MINISTER: Well, Indonesia was my first bilateral visit in the last term to see President Widodo. It was a wonderful visit. I visited Indonesia three times in this term of office. I will, of course, visit Indonesia at some stage. I'll, of course, visit the United States. I've had invitations from both of those leaders, but we're not getting ahead of ourselves. The third of May is the date in which Australians will determine the very, two very distinct roads. One a positive road, one that's optimistic, seizes opportunity, backs WA, backs a Future Made in Australia. Or the road of cuts, cuts and chaos as represented by a Coalition that can't even agree with each other. I mean, they've had today, Mr Tehan and Mr Dutton, different things. They can't get anything right and they don't really like each other. I mean, in this seat of Bullwinkel, you've got the Libs and the Nats fighting against each other. You know what? They both voted to privatise this rail network.
 
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, a question for the, question for the candidate, please.
 
PRIME MINISTER: Sure.
 
JOURNALIST: Trish, if you lose this seat in nine days’ time, will Labor's ban on live sheep exports cost you that? What are you telling farmers when you go out to the eastern part of this seat, looking them in the eye and saying, I'm sorry we voted to shut down your industry?
 
TRISH COOK: Well, I'm campaigning to win this seat. I'll be a great representative for Bullwinkel. I want farmers to farm sheep and I want those sheep processed in WA. I want to see those jobs here. And the package that has been on the table from the Federal Government of $139 million, I want to see that spent wisely for the farmers, for the support of the farmers in Bullwinkel.
 
PRIME MINISTER: We’ll go to a couple more over here and then we’ll go over there. We’ll do the left and then the right.
 
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, was the Government aware that a British, not a British, sorry, a Dutch shipbuilder was going to - my mistake. I was waiting for a little while there. Was the Government aware that the Dutch shipbuilder was going to be building the navy's new tugs in China? And what does that say about Australia's shipbuilding capacity here when you talk about wanting to make more in Australia?
 
PRIME MINISTER: Well, there are two views when it comes to building things in Australia. My Government, that supports a Future Made in Australia, and a Coalition view that had a Defence Minister that said we couldn't build a canoe and that every state Coalition Minister in every state government has offshored production of transport infrastructure. We are –
 
JOURNALIST: In China, though?
 
PRIME MINISTER: We are bringing – well, Coalition state governments have done it through a range of countries and what has happened every time that has not worked well.
 
JOURNALIST: Can I ask about your proposed tax changes around superannuation, the Greens believe they can pressure you into lowering that threshold from balances over $3 million to balances over $2 million. Will you rule out doing a deal with the Greens to lower that threshold?
 
PRIME MINISTER: Yes.
 
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, former CFMEU organisers with rap sheets have used a loophole in IR laws to access mine sites. Is that acceptable? And will you unwind changes that allow union officials to enter work sites without being subject to the fit and proper person's test?
 
PRIME MINISTER: Well, the Fair Work Commission deal with those issues and that's their responsibility.
 
JOURNALIST: [inaudible] the changes?
 
PRIME MINISTER: No, no. The changes allow for the Fair Work Commission to be very clear to have responsibility for ensuring that appropriate laws are upheld. This particular person, I've seen the report, has had some rather colourful things to say about me. So, I think it's a big stretch to argue that he's a friend of mine. I'd never heard of him before today. But inappropriate behaviour by unions has been dealt with by my Government. It was in WA that I stood up at the airport here and expelled John Setka from the Labor Party. I'd been leader of the Labor Party for a matter of weeks when I did that.
 
JOURNALIST: Is your critical minerals reserve a sign you don't trust the free market to do its job? And is international free trade dead under Donald Trump?
 
PRIME MINISTER: Our critical minerals reserve is a sign that we understand that there is pressure on global trade and we understand that having a reserve will enable us to protect our national interest. It will encourage the investment that's required in critical minerals along with the other measures that we have, the creation of the Critical Minerals Facility and importantly, the production tax credits.
 
I’ll just go along in an orderly way.
 
JOURNALIST: Sorry to ask this but just picking up on your interjection with Rhiannon before. Why does it matter whether you stepped off or maybe fell off the stage?
 
PRIME MINISTER: I have no idea. I have no idea why it matters.
 
JOURNALIST: But why is it important to you to say that it was a step and not a fall?
 
PRIME MINISTER: I have no idea why you are interested in it compared with the big picture. So, you're the one asking the question.
 
JOURNALIST: In ’22 you said during the campaign that you would always front up if you got things wrong, you'd just front up and deal with it. It's kind of become this huge thing that the Liberals are saying is emblematic of the way that you confront when you misrepresent what’s happened.
 
PRIME MINISTER: No. It says something about their character, frankly. It says something about their character. The same thing that's said when a cameraman got hurt. It was, you know, treated, I think, in an interesting way, the response. You know, I stepped off the stage. I didn't fall over on my backside. I stumbled. That's what happened. I laughed about it at the time. I laughed about it since. It's no big deal. I fell for Newcastle a long time ago, it's a great place. And can I say this, that the Coalition, I have seen, if the Coalition is spending time on memes and on media about that issue, it says that my government's economic policy, social policy, environmental policy, foreign policy, national security policy are going okay. That's the message it sends to me.
 
JOURNALIST: The offtake participation in the reserve is voluntary. What's the incentive for a company to take part in that reserve when someone like China could artificially inflate commodity prices and, you know, that's where they'll sell to? And in addition, the, I'll leave it at that, yeah.
 
PRIME MINISTER: It just provides some surety for them, when people, along with the other measures that we have, the production tax credits, it provides some certainty going forward.
 
Hang on a tick but you’re not in the queue now, we’re going along. Order, we run things orderly in Canberra.
 
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, how will farmers benefit when and if the rail freight in WA gets back into public hands?
 
PRIME MINISTER: Oh, look, they'll benefit because it will mean increases in productivity that can then lead to increase in a return for farmers. It will make an enormous difference, which is why it will be welcomed. It's about cheaper freight. It costs less to have a large train full of grain or other products as well. I mean, there's a reason why in the Pilbara and in the Kimberley you have these giant trains full of our resources. The same principle is there and that is why it will make a difference for them.
 
JOURNALIST: Should the Commonwealth spend anything on helping WA secure an NRL side?
 
PRIME MINISTER: Look, we haven't been asked. But let me just say this, I support, the National Rugby League isn't national unless it has a team from Perth.
 
JOURNALIST: You gave money to Hobart, to Melbourne Storm, to PNG then, so why –
 
PRIME MINISTER: No, we didn't give money to Hobart. What we gave money for is for an urban redevelopment project in Hobart. And the PNG side is the best example of soft diplomacy that I've been engaged with.
 
JOURNALIST: Can that be replicated in Perth?
 
PRIME MINISTER: I don't think we need diplomacy between us two. We've been mates for 40 odd years. And the PNG side is about economic development, as well. It's transformational. The PNG side, you know what it's about? It’s about getting young people in the most significant nation in the Pacific that has a population greater than the rest of the Pacific combined, getting those young kids to school. That's what it's about. It's about economic development through tourism. It's about lifting them up. It's about integration with Australia and no better time to do it in the lead up to PNG's 50-year anniversary.
 
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, it's come out today that your candidate for Dickson, Ali France, she previously made posts which depicted Peter Dutton and Malcolm Turnbull wearing Nazi costumes. They were doctored photos. She's also called Israel an openly racist apartheid regime. Given these comments, do you believe that they were appropriate, and will you continue supporting her as the candidate of Dickson?
 
PRIME MINISTER: Look, people will go after people's history going back to more than a decade. During the last campaign, Ali France was attacked for, quote, using her disability as an excuse for why she lived in the home that she lived in. Ali France is someone who lost her leg saving her child's life when she pushed a pram forward and was hit by a motor vehicle. Ali France is an extraordinary Australian.
 
JOURNALIST: [Inaudible]
 
PRIME MINISTER: Ali France is an extraordinary Australian. And I don't know what your tweets are like more than a decade ago or what have you, I've no idea. But people are going and attacking Ali France as they did, as they did during the last campaign. What I know about Ali France as a person today is that she is an outstanding human being. She's someone who has overcome extraordinary adversity during this time while she's been a candidate, the loss of her son and has overcome tragedy and I reckon, I reckon it would be a really good idea – I got asked a question before about the nature of campaigns – and it would be a really good idea if people recognise that Ali France is someone, is someone who has shown courage, who has overcome adversity, is putting herself forward not for the first time, not for the second time, but for the third time to look after the local community that she loves, that she won't leave in a time of crisis, that she will look after. Ali France was there packing those sandbags to look after her local community and I think, you know, she's contesting Dickson, you know, I think that, I wish her well and everyone I know who's had contact with Ali France over a long period of time has been supportive of her. Thank you very much. Thank you.
 
ENDS