MATT GREGG, LABOR CANDIDATE FOR DEAKIN: Today we're honoured to be joined by the Prime Minister, Anthony Albanese, as well as Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations, Murray Watt, and the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Penny Wong. So, without further ado, I will introduce you to the Prime Minister.
 
ANTHONY ALBANESE, PRIME MINISTER: Well, thanks very much, Matt. And I firstly want to thank the early educators who welcomed us here, but importantly as well, these young Australians getting the best start in life. They were delightful this morning and I thank them for giving me the honour of getting to read a story with them. It is always uplifting to come into one of these centres and just see young Australians from all sorts of backgrounds just engaging with each other, recognising each other as just young humans and really getting on with each other and learning those social skills as well as picking up the best start in life. We know that more than 90 per cent of human brain development occurs in the first five years. So, that's why this reading and arithmetic and drawing and engaging is so important, not just as individuals, but also learning that interaction is important.
 
Now, last campaign, I was in Victoria, here in Melbourne, where I held up a $1 coin repeatedly, because when asked, I think, by someone who might be here, Tom, ‘would I support a pay increase if the Fair Work Commission determined it’, I said, ‘absolutely.’ The Coalition at that time said that must be a mistake because the sky would fall in. Well, I absolutely meant it. And we've said that not once, not twice, not three times. But now, for the fourth time, we are saying that we support minimum wage and those on award wages, some 3 million Australians, not going backwards. We know that they're doing it tough and that's why we want to support a real pay increase for those workers in our country. There's a stark contrast at this election between the Government that wants people to earn more and keep more of what they earn. We want wage rises and tax cuts. Those opposite us want wages to go down and taxes to go up. They have consistently, in their entire time in office, they never made a single submission calling for wage increases for those Australians on the minimum wage. And bear in mind, that's just $24.10 an hour. Not once in their ten years, and not once, as an Opposition, have they made a submission supporting that either. At the same time, they've said that they'll go to the next election opposing, not just opposing our tax cuts, which they did last week in the House of Reps and the Senate, they will introduce legislation to increase taxation for all 14 million Australians.
 
Now, this time last year, they were saying we should have an election to block the tax cuts that we put in place. Now there is an election, there is a say that the Australian people will have. We want the Australian people to vote for higher wages and lower taxes, not the Coalition's plan of lower wages and higher taxes. A pretty simple choice which Australians face. And in particular I want to single out our early educators. We have, along with aged care workers who have received around about a 28 per cent wage increase. We've legislated for a 15 per cent wage increase for early educators. Some 58,000 of those have received it already, making an enormous difference. We know that for both of those sectors, the people in the care sector who look after our youngest Australians and those who care for our older Australians simply weren't being paid enough. Those feminised industries were undervalued. And we should make sure that we didn't just thank them during the pandemic, we actually recognised that there was a crisis in these areas, that unless we lifted wages, we wouldn't have a workforce to look after these people.
 
I'm going to turn to Minister Watt, and then we're happy to take questions.
 
MURRAY WATT, MINISTER FOR EMPLOYMENT AND WORKPLACE RELATIONS: Well, thanks very much, Prime Minister, and thank you for your support for Australians getting a pay rise. One of the core priorities of the Albanese Labor Government has been to get wages moving again. And we are delivering. Before the last election, we saw five quarters in a row under the Coalition where real wages went backwards. We literally have a mirror image under Labor where we've had five quarters in a row leading into this election with real wages growing again. And we want to keep that happening. That's why Labor will put forward a submission to the Fair Work Commission asking them to award an economically sustainable real wage increase for Australia's lowest paid workers. There's about three million people who will directly benefit from this should the Commission agree to our submission. And it includes some of the lowest paid people in our community, the cleaners, the retail workers, the security guards, the early childhood educators, the kind of people who all of us depend upon to run childcare centres like this one to serve us and it's time that we serve them as well and made sure that they had a decent pay rise. Now, we've already seen this morning that members of Peter Dutton's Coalition have said that they will not support this position. They will not support a real wage increase for the lowest paid workers in our community, even an economically sustainable one. Now, I guess we shouldn't be surprised about this because we had ten years under the Coalition of them deliberately keeping wages low. In Opposition, they have voted against any every single change we've made to workplace laws that have delivered higher wages and we've already seen Peter Dutton commit that if he's elected, he will remove a whole range of those changes that we've made, which means wage cuts. And today we learn that they're not going to do anything about pay rises for the lowest paid. They'll stand back and stand aside, if a real wage cut is what is handed down again, I guess we shouldn't be surprised because there's a theme emerging through this campaign with Peter Dutton and the Coalition and that theme is cuts. They support cuts to wages. We've seen in the last few days they support cuts to Medicare, cuts to education. And why do they do that? Because they are desperately looking for money to pay for their $600 billion nuclear plan. So, Peter Dutton and the Coalition are prepared to cut your wages, cut Medicare, cut education. And what we know is that when Peter Dutton cuts, Australians lose. Labor won't let that happen. Labor supports those services and Labor supports a fair wage increase for the lowest paid in our community.
 
PRIME MINISTER: Thanks, Murray. Tom.
 
JOURNALIST: The wording in the submission uses the wording economically sustainable increase. Why not put a number on it?
 
PRIME MINISTER: We have never put figures on our submissions, but what we put is an indication to the Fair Work Commission that is independent of government, our view of what is important. So, obviously they will take into account what the economic circumstances are in this. But it's very clear we want a real wage increase, but of course we want it to be economically sustainable.
 
JOURNALIST: Australia’s birth rates are hitting critically low levels. What does that say –
 
PRIME MINISTER: Sorry.
 
JOURNALIST: Australia’s birth rates are hitting critically low levels. What do you think that says about young people’s confidence in the economy of the future. And if I may ask the Foreign Minister a question also –
 
PRIME MINISTER: Sure.
 
JOURNALIST: The Chinese Ambassador has urged Australia to work closely with China to counter the impacts of tariffs. So is teaming up with China economically to counter Trump’s tariffs on the cards?
 
PRIME MINISTER: On the first question, the three Ps of economic growth, productivity, participation and population, we have in the focus that we've had, we have been aiming at all three. How do we improve productivity through areas such as new technology? How do we drive that change through the economy? Productivity has been slow. Participation. We have record workforce participation and population. Part of the reason why we have concentrated so much on childcare, including back from my first budget reply, that was a time when oppositions had policies that were coherent and that were fully costed. We wanted to make sure that part of that is driving up participation in the workforce, but also people having the confidence, if we had moved to an affordable child care system that helps boost confidence for population as well. One of the reasons why we've done Paid Parental Leave and super on Paid Parental Leave as well. All of these measures have been aimed at encouraging population growth through an increased number of births that are important. So, the Government is conscious about it. We have put in place a range of measures for that and I’ll ask Penny to comment.
 
PENNY WONG, MINISTER FOR FOREIGN AFFAIRS: Look, Australia is a trading nation and we know, we live in a time, where there is a lot of change globally, including on trade, but more broadly. And what we have to do is to recognise the reality and make good decisions for Australia and they include making sure we diversify our trade. And you've seen over the three years of this Government, our work to diversify our trading markets, not only to remove $20 billion of trade impediments on the Chinese market, but to do more to exploit the economic opportunities, to take the economic opportunities of Southeast Asia, of India, of a free trade agreement with the UAE. So, what I would say is we know as a Government, we live in times of great change, including on the economic front, and I'm sure we'll talk about that shortly. But one of the things we have to do very clearly is to focus on Australia's strengths, on diversifying where we export and where we trade to. And we will do that.
 
PRIME MINISTER: Thanks. We'll go to Mark and then we'll go one, two, three along that line and then we'll go back here.
 
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, there was a real wage increase last year. Low-paid workers – 3.7 per cent. Business, particularly small businesses, are operating at tight margins. What gives you the confidence that they'll be able to sustain another increase of our minimum wage.
 
PRIME MINISTER: Well, there are today 130,000 more small businesses. We've had around, on average, around about 25,000 small businesses register every month on our watch. That is one of the reasons why we put in the submission – economically sustainable. One of the things about low paid workers is that if you pay a local paid worker more money, it doesn't go to savings. They do spend it because they're doing it tough and they spend it, including in their local small business. So, it has an impact that's positive in the economy, including for small business. Trudy?
 
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, Peter Dutton has said this morning that he’s up for the fight with Donald Trump. He told Sky News, quote, ‘The President is walking all over you’. Do you think that’s true and how are you going to stand up to Trump.
 
PRIME MINISTER: Well, he says different things every day, doesn't he? The last time around he was, he was praising President Trump rather than standing up for Australia. I stood up for Australia when they put on aluminium and steel tariffs. I continue to stand up for Australia and have said very clearly that we won't compromise and negotiate on our PBS, on our biosecurity, on our Media Bargaining Code. I'll stand up for Australia. Peter Dutton will always dial things up to 11. He thinks this is a contest of who can say the most aggro things. It's not. That's not the way diplomacy works. That's not the way that engagement in international relations works. This guy has no experience in international relations. I benefited when I came to the Prime Ministership in a long period of engaging, particularly in aviation and maritime, which are by definition international industries. So, going to the International Transport Forum meetings, going to the International Maritime Organisation that's based in, negotiating air services agreements around the world, and I benefited from that. So, I came to it with an experience there. Peter Dutton, if he does do what he says he wants to do, he's measured up the curtains there at Kirrabilli. We know where he wants to move there with the Sydney Harbour views. Working from home while he denigrates Australian, other Australians who are working from home. If he gets that opportunity, he'll find that walking in and blustering isn't a substitute for actually engaging in a constructive way. Greg.
 
JOURNALIST: Do you agree with your Minister standing next to you, Minister Watt, that real wage growth can be delivered without productivity growth?
 
PRIME MINISTER: What we do is, well, we have had real wage growth. He's talking a fact. Real wage growth has gone up and it's gone up in a way where inflation has also gone down. The Minister –
 
JOURNALIST: But the RBA says you need productivity growth to sustain that. Is he wrong to say that?
 
PRIME MINISTER: The Minister has consistently, has consistently argued, as all my Government does, that productivity is really important. Productivity is important. It's one of the three Ps of growth. But I tell you what's important too, as a Labor Government, not leaving people behind. That's a core value that we have. We don't leave people behind and we don't hold people back. So, we stand for people who are vulnerable in our community, including those people who are doing it tough because they're on minimum or award wages. But we also are the party of aspiration. We're the party that wants people to get ahead and opportunity. That's what our whole education package is about, from early learning through to our school's funding for every school getting better and fairer funding for every school student, through to our free TAFE, through to our university's accord. That's what we stand for.
 
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, China has engaged in large scale military exercises around Taiwan, calling its leaders parasites. We know that there was that Chinese research vessel south of Australia heading west. Will your Government buy back the Port of Darwin?
 
PRIME MINISTER: Well, thank you for the question. We wouldn't have flogged it off in the first place. That's the first point to make. I was the Infrastructure Shadow Minister. We opposed the sale. We opposed the sale of the Port of Darwin. We opposed it at the time, we thought that was unwise. It was important to stay in Australian hands, is my view. And the Port of Darwin, not only was it flogged off, the Federal Government, under that 2014 budget, with Peter Dutton in the Cabinet, they had their recycling asset scheme. So, they provided a financial incentive to the Northern Territory to flog off the Port. So, not only did the Northern Territory Government get income from the People's Republic of China for flogging off the Port, they got a top-up payment from Australian taxpayers for selling the Port of Darwin to a company that is closely connected with the People's Republic of China Government. I'll have more to say when, over the course of this campaign, but I make it very clear that the hypocrisy of Peter Dutton, who does all the hairy-chested stuff. He was in the Cabinet. They sold the Port of Darwin to Chinese interests. They talk about Chinese ships around the coast. If Peter Dutton had been in Kirribilli House, those harbourside views that he wants so much, he could have looked out the window and seen a Chinese naval ship at Garden Island. It was in Sydney Harbour, not around the South Australian coast, on their watch. That is what they put in place. Paul.
 
JOURNALIST: You were in Victoria without the Premier of Victoria by your side. I know you might see her later today, but you had two Premiers in the last couple of days by your side early in the day –
 
PRIME MINISTER: Parliament’s sitting. It's this little thing called Parliament, Paul.
 
JOURNALIST: Should that be taken as a sign of a lack of confidence in her Government? And just further to one of the earlier questions, do you have a centrepiece economic policy or productivity policy at this election that will grow the economy in an organic way, not through subsidies or award rises, to lift living standards?
 
PRIME MINISTER: On the first question, the answer to that is no. I work closely with all state and territory governments, all of them, and have a good relationship with every Premier and Chief Minister, including Jacinta Allan. And we will work on education – we did the school funding agreement here. Victoria was one of the first states to sign on. Victoria has had significant investment in its capital investment in schools. With regard to,
 
JOURNALIST:  Will you stand up with her though?
 
PRIME MINISTER: Well, we don't flag our magical mystery tour that you're on the bus. I don't want to, don't want to upset you with that, Paul. But you're aware people listening might not be aware, but you're fully aware of the program that we go through. I meet regularly with every Premier and Chief Minister. Look, our whole agenda is about productivity. Whether that be the investment in the future economy through the Future Made in Australia, whether it be the work that Ed Husic is doing on data, on technology, on IT, all of that work, whether it be the upskilling of the workforce, that is about boosting productivity as well. We have a substantial agenda there. Our competition agenda, including the incentive that the Treasurer has put in place for the states to have productivity reform, is there as well. Yeah. And then, Latika.
 
JOURNALIST: You've been quite bullish about not just holding onto your gains in ‘22, but expanding. Can you see a realistic scenario where the Liberals hold no seats in Melbourne after the election?
 
PRIME MINISTER: I just hope Michael Sukkar is door knocking. I'm here in Deakin. I think the more people that engage with Michael Sukkar, I find him, and his colleagues complain to me in the Liberal Party since he's been made manager of opposition business, they complain about the way that he handles himself and the arrogance that he shows. We have a fantastic candidate in Matt. This is the second time that Matt has run for this seat. Next door Gabriel Ng is a fantastic candidate for Menzies and we know that the Menzies electorate has been changed as well and is a target seat for us. So, we'll continue to campaign, but we'll campaign everywhere. I want to represent all Australians, regardless of who their local member is, regardless of what the margin is. You know, on day one, I went to Dickson. That's Queensland's most marginal seat. But I went to Hinkler as well. That's important. An important centre in central Queensland.
 
JOURNALIST: Do you see that a realistic prospect in Melbourne?
 
PRIME MINISTER: Well, look, people will cast their votes. We're not taking anything for granted. I'm not measuring up any curtains and didn't prior to 2022. There are many people who underestimated the outcome in 2022. And there are a few who underestimated me in the lead up to this campaign too. We'll see how we go.
 
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, you're a renowned Greens slayer in Grayndler. There's a seat in Melbourne in McNamara, Josh Burns there. Given the things that Adam Bandt has said about Israel, doesn't Labor have moral obligations to preference the Greens last there? And is this something that you will use your authority and leadership as the Prime Minister and Leader of the Labor Party to make sure happens, as Jewish Labor members want?
 
PRIME MINISTER: Well, I don't engage in preference negotiations, as you're aware, but I say this about McNamara. Josh Burns is a fantastic local MP. He's a great representative for the people of McNamara. The Greens political party have lost their way. They're no longer a party that concentrate on environmental issues. What occurred in Josh Burns’ electorate office was just a disgrace. Just a disgrace.
 
JOURNALIST: So don’t you want to see them put last then?
 
PRIME MINISTER: What I do is do my job. Paul Erickson will do his job and the organisational team. What I will do, certainly in Grayndler, as I said yesterday, the fact that on the Inner West Council Labor had an absolute majority. Now, it's very unusual. My area, at one stage it's represented by two Green state MPs. One of those Green state MPs, the member for Newtown, made a completely disgraceful antisemitic comment that she then walked back from. But it said a lot about what was in their thoughts at that time.
 
JOURNALIST: Just a reader question, Geoff Perry from [INDISTINCT] in Victoria, who wants to know, will you consider indexing income tax brackets?
 
PRIME MINISTER: Look, we have our changes. There are two tax policies at this election on income tax. So, for Geoff, if he wants income tax to be lower, he should vote Labor. If he wants income tax to be higher, he has to vote Coalition. Peter Dutton has been very clear. There are no income tax changes at this election apart from him saying that he wants them to be higher and Labor standing for lower taxes.
 
JOURNALIST: Just following up Greg's question from earlier. The Reserve Bank Governor said yesterday that you can't have wage rises without productivity growth. That was contradictory to what Senator Watt had said earlier in the day. Who's right? Out of those two, they're quite different statements.
 
PRIME MINISTER: That's right. There has been wages growth in Australia. There has been, there has been wages growth and productivity growth has been lower. So, they're just facts. We want.

JOURNALIST: So you disagree with the Governor?
 
PRIME MINISTER: No, no. We want high wages and we want to get productivity up.
 
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, Karoline Leavitt said that President Trump is always up for a phone conversation and a good negotiation. We know that you've had your two phone calls with him, but since then, when was the last meeting between a member of your Government and someone from the Trump administration? And when was the last time that Don Farrell spoke to Howard Lutnik?
 
PRIME MINISTER: They’re daily, daily discussions are taking place. Yep.
 
JOURNALIST: The $20 million Buy Australia campaign appears at this stage to be essentially all that the industry support that the Government has announced since the first tariffs. If we are to see wide scale tariffs announced tomorrow, is the Government prepared to offer industry support to the industries that are affected?
 
PRIME MINISTER: We are certainly prepared tomorrow for whatever outcome is determined and you'll see that tomorrow.
 
JOURNALIST: Last night the Victorian Liberal Party started rolling out negative ads which drew an association between you and Jacinta Allan, do you need to disassociate yourself from her for your own party's electoral prospect here? And if not, how do you explain what we're seeing in Victoria, certainly in the published polls, in terms of support for your Government really trailing other states and what used to be a very safe Labor city in a safe Labor state?
 
PRIME MINISTER: Well, what we'll do is continue to put our positive agenda. Victorians have a real choice at this election. The choice is between a Government building Australia's future, cutting taxes, addressing cost of living pressures and a Coalition that will increase taxes that doesn't have policies in so many areas and now have confirmed this is an Opposition that are talking about no need to have an Education Department. That is what they have said federally. Peter Dutton went on that Sky News show late at night and said that there was no need for a Department of Education because the Federal Government doesn't run schools. Well, actually, we've got a bit of a role in early childhood education in the schools funding agreement where we've just put $14.6 billion of additional funding into public schools. We fund private schools, we're providing free TAFE, we run universities and coordinate that. But this guy says, no, we can get rid of the Education Department. That's happened in other places. I don't think it's a good thing for us to copy. On Medicare he's also then gone on to say that we don't run hospitals and therefore why have you got so many people in the Health Department? Well, like, hello, when we went through Covid, the Commonwealth had a critical role and we supported the Morrison government in that role. We fund hospitals, we fund aged care, we have a critical role in health. We’re the body that looks after things like pharmaceuticals looks after immunisations. The Commonwealth has a critical role in health and education. Peter Dutton wants to just say, no, we'll get out of there and we'll leave it all to the states. That is the contrast. That is what people will vote on the 3rd of May and they shouldn't be surprised, they shouldn't be surprised, if it happens if the Coalition is elected, I mean, sometimes when governments get elected, people go, oh, they're doing what they said they would do, and expressing some surprise at that. Now they've been told very clearly what the choice is. My Government, that will look after people, that won't leave people behind, won't hold people back, will support increased wages, will support lower taxes, will support early childhood educators, will support fixing the aged care sector, will take action on climate change. And an Opposition that says there's no role for the Commonwealth, no need to have people in education and health. I mean, today Angus Taylor is giving a speech saying there'll be more public servants in a new thing to look at, I'm not quite sure what, at the same time as they're ripping the guts out of Medicare, out of education and out of the public service.
 
JOURNALIST: You mentioned schools there. How do you feel about a NSW public school giving primary school students the opportunity to opt out of ANZAC Day commemorations?
 
PRIME MINISTER: Well, actually, to put it in perspective here, I support ANZAC Day. Simple as that. I'll be at ANZAC Day. I will be at the Australian War Memorial. I think that's the appropriate place to be. I hope sincerely that Peter Dutton joins me at what is a national event. I think it's appropriate, given we're in caretaker mode, about that.
 
JOURNALIST: Should students be given the opportunity to opt out?
 
PRIME MINISTER: Well, I'm not aware of details of, a student, a school somewhere. There's a lot of schools in Australia. My job is to support Australians. And I support ANZAC Day very strongly. And what's more, because I support our veterans, I support what we've done in Veterans’ Affairs, which is to take the block of, 42,000 people were in the queue. Men and women who had served us in uniform. And Peter Dutton regards all that as waste. We have paid an additional $13 billion since we came to office in entitlements to the men and women who have served us in uniform. That's my concentration on ANZAC Day.
 
JOURNALIST: Just on the culture wars. You have referred many times to Peter Dutton copying moves from overseas. But Donald Trump is a bit like he who must not be named. Are you calling Peter Dutton ‘Temu Trump’?
 
PRIME MINISTER: No.
 
JOURNALIST: You said that there are daily conversations happening on tariffs. Which industries is Australia most worried about being affected beyond what's been flagged on pharmaceuticals, biosecurity, those issues. Which industries are you most worried about? Should farmers be worried? Should drug manufacturers be worried?
 
PRIME MINISTER: I make this point. Well, I'll make two points. One is that Australia's exports to the United States represent under five per cent of our goods exports. So, let's have some perspective here about standing up for Australia's national interest. I know there's a lot of focus on this, but to put it in perspective, less than five per cent. And what I have done and what the Foreign Minister has done and our Trade Minister has done is build relations since we came to office. So, for example, in March last year, I had every ASEAN leader here in Melbourne. If you look at where Australia's future economic development is and the opportunities – Indonesia will be the fourth largest economy in the world. ASEAN, the giants, with enormous growth. Vietnam, Singapore, Thailand, Malaysia. These countries are very important for Australia with growth. I commissioned Nicholas Moore from Macquarie to do his South East Asia economic strategy to 2040. What that did was go through, and he visited every single nation except for Myanmar for obvious reasons, every single nation in ASEAN. We took a business delegation as well to Jakarta as part of that process for the ASEAN meeting. I took another business delegation to Vietnam and the Laos PDR last year. And what we are doing is engaging in ASEAN. We're also engaging with India. India will grow to be the third largest economy in the world. It was undercooked, that relationship. I've been to India twice as Prime Minister. We are engaging in our region. As well as of course, the restoration of trade with China, which represents almost one in four of our export dollars. I am confident that what we will put in place is measures that support industries. It’s been flagged, you're aware there's a document out there from the United States very clearly, so people know what it is. But what we're not prepared to do, for example, to say, oh well, what we will do is to flag and have a free-for-all on goods coming into Australia without proper biosecurity. Because that could do enormous damage to our various meat products which are here. You know, beef, I think is under consideration at the moment. Pork is much more difficult, the issues surrounding it, the biosecurity issues. We will stand up for Australia's interests. So, I just make that point, which is really important. The other final point I'll make for people to consider, when you look at aluminium and steel as an example where tariffs have been put on, there aren't more American aluminium producers or steel producers manufacturing today than they were in February before the tariffs changed. None. All that's happening is that everyone is paying more who's purchasing the products in the United States. So, if you have an across the board increase in tariffs, it doesn't change the comparative advantage of any particular country.
 
JOURNALIST: Can we ask the Foreign Minister some questions after?
 
PRIME MINISTER: No.
 
JOURNALIST: Why not?

PRIME MINISTER: It's my press conference.
 
JOURNALIST: Is there any scenario where you wouldn't advocate for a real wage increase? How low would productivity have to be or economic growth have to be for you to say we'll only advocate for inflation or below inflation when it comes to minimum wage and awards?
 
PRIME MINISTER: I think the idea that a Labor Government would ever advocate for a below inflation increase, that people on the minimum wage should go backwards – not the party I belong to and not the party that I lead.
 
ENDS