LUKE GOSLING, MEMBER FOR SOLOMON: Good morning, everyone, and welcome to the Palmerston Medicare Urgent Care Clinic. This clinic has seen over 21,000 people in our local area. It is a great example of how we're strengthening Medicare and making services more accessible and more affordable for Territorians and, of course, Australians all around the country. And it's been fantastic for us to be able to announce that Darwin will also have an Urgent Care Clinic, and that's been very warmly welcomed indeed.
 
My name is Luke Gosling, I'm the Federal Member for Solomon, which is here Palmerston, but also the city of Darwin, collectively greater Darwin being the capital of Northern Australia. With my colleagues, Marion Scrymgour, the Member for Lingiari, and the Minister, Senator Malarndirri McCarthy, Senator for Northern Territory, we're extraordinarily proud of the investment of the Albanese Federal Labor Government in the Northern Territory to lift up the opportunities and to take advantage of our incredible resources here in Northern Australia, but in the Northern Territory in particular.
 
Joined by a couple of my federal colleagues this morning, of course, it's awesome always to have the Prime Minister here. I've lost count of how many times the PM has been to the Northern Territory as Prime Minister, but of course, before then, decades and decades of support for the Northern Territory. We've also got Katy Gallagher, always good to have the Finance Minister in town, really appreciate her support, particularly as public servants, servants of the public are so integral to the Northern Territory. Mark Butler, with the medical support to the Territory across the board as the Minister for Health, it's so appreciated, as is Anika’s support, and she'll have a bit more to say about our fantastic announcement for senior Territorians, making sure that we've got places for our people and making sure that we help our health system by getting people into appropriate residential aged care. That's not all, there’s more, but Malarndirri being our Minister for First Nations Australians has been doing an incredible job and bringing real jobs into the Territory and across Australia for First Nations people is going to be good, not only for our economy, but just for our standing as people, proud Australians all, and we're very proud of the work that she's doing. So without further ado, I'll hand over to the boss, the Prime Minister of Australia, Anthony Albanese.
 
ANTHONY ALBANESE, PRIME MINISTER: Well, thanks very much Gos, and it's great to be back here in the Territory once again, making positive announcements. Indeed, this is my second visit to this Urgent Care Clinic, one of the 87 that we have operating right around Australia. We promised 50. We've delivered 87 and we'll deliver another 50, including in Darwin. This election is a clear choice between Labor, building Australia's future, investing and strengthening Medicare. And Peter Dutton, who has to find $600 billion of cuts for his nuclear plans. Peter Dutton, who does not have a positive plan for Australia, and who chops and changes what policies he's putting forward on a day-to-day basis. We are building Australia's future with the largest investment in Medicare in 40 years. And today we have very significant announcements indeed to back that up. We're investing up to $60 million to support construction of a new residential care home in Darwin, delivering no less than 120 new residential care beds, addressing acute shortages which are here in the Top End. Anika Wells has done an amazing job as our Minister for Aged Care. It's why I promoted her to the Cabinet. The largest reforms in aged care this century, literally. Just one of the big issues that we've addressed in Government. When we came to office, there'd been an Aged Care Royal Commission. The interim report was summed up best in the title: Neglect.
 
We had a program of dealing with the immediate issues, we’ve provided a 28% increase in wages of people working in the aged care sector. What the Royal Commission found was that unless we addressed those issues, you simply wouldn't have a workforce. People were leaving the workforce who were dedicated professionals, dedicated to caring for older Australians, giving them the respect and dignity that they need in their later years, but they simply couldn't afford to stay in those jobs and they are leaving the sector.
 
What we have now is the leaving rates dropping dramatically. We have people coming into the sector. We have 99% of the time there's a nurse back in nursing homes. Something that when we announce that as a policy. When I announced that from Opposition in the days when oppositions had fully costed policies, it was dismissed by the Coalition as not being possible. Well, it's real, it's happening right now and making an enormous difference.
 
Everything from that to the work that we've done with Maggie Beer to make sure that aged care residents get more nutritional food. All of these issues have been dealt with. There's more to do, which is why we changed the Aged Care Act last year and delivered it through the Parliament.
 
Our Health and Aged Care Plan for the Territory is a comprehensive plan. It's delivering on aged care, but it's doing more as well. $10.1 million to CareFlight to purchase a plane to support medical evacuations from remote communities. Patients in remote NT do not have reliable access to timely emergency medical retrieval services, especially during the wet season, and this will provide care for up to 700 patients a year. We'll deliver an upgraded Medicare mental health centre in Alice Springs and a headspace plus and a youth specialist care centre in Darwin. This is on top of the record investment that we've made in Northern Territory hospitals. When we made the announcement earlier this year about the $1.7 billion of additional funding over just one year for hospitals. Of that, the Northern Territory was the biggest increase per capita, a 30% increase, the largest of any jurisdiction. Playing catch up here in the Northern Territory, making sure that that care is given.
 
We have already delivered the eight Urgent Care Clinics and of course Northern Territorians will also benefit from our tripling of the bulk billing incentive. We want people to be able to see a doctor up to 90% and they just need their Medicare card, not their credit card. We're addressing the catch up that was needed from bulk billing in free fall, from the disastrous time that Peter Dutton was health Minister, when $50 billion was ripped out of hospitals funding, when they tried to introduce a GP tax and a tax every time people visited an emergency department, and when they couldn't get their way on that, they froze the Medicare rebate for six years.
 
And we are determined to make sure that we strengthen Medicare and that we do it right throughout the country, including here in the Territory. The last measure, of course, I'll talk about today, is cheaper medicines, making an enormous difference. Bring it down to just $25, the same price that PBS medicines were back in 2004. And of course, we've frozen the maximum amount to just $7.70 for pensioners and concession card holders for the rest of this decade. So, whether it is Urgent Care Clinics, hospital funding, aged care, mental health support, cheaper medicines, we have a comprehensive plan that we're launching here today. And that's why I'm so pleased that we're joined by our Health Minister as well as our Aged Care Minister. And I'd ask, Anika is going to make some comments and then Katy Gallagher is going to make some comments in her capacity as Public Service Minister. And then we're happy to take some questions.
 
ANIKA WELLS, MINISTER FOR AGED CARE AND SPORT: Thank you, PM, good morning, everyone. It's great to be back here in the NT. Our local journalists will remember I spent some of my formative years here in the NT, including going to preschool at Ida Standley in Alice Springs. As the Aged Care Minister, it's my fourth trip back here, I think two in the last month. And last time I was here, Luke and I went to Pearl Supported Care and met Jan, who runs Pearl Supported Care there. She's been in aged care for more than two decades. She told us that she had a waitlist of over 100 people waiting for a bed at Pearl Supported Care. So, I promised Jan that we'd go away and do some more work and see if we could help her. And today we return with $60 million worth of good news to build 120 new aged care beds here in Darwin. That will be on top of the $40 million we have already invested in building more residential aged care facilities here in Darwin this term.
 
What that process looks like now is we will open EOIs, we have already been talking to providers who have the experience and capability to be able to deliver this facility. We have significant interest and we will continue to work through that. It is part of the ambitious agenda the Albanese Government has had for aged care this term. It was the very first bill that we put through the 47th Parliament, we have now invested more that $35 billion in fixing the aged care crisis this term. That looks like $17.7 billion in wage rises wage rises for our aged care workers who have long been undervalued and under-serviced. And we need those people back in the sector. And like the PM said, because he keeps a close eye on this and I appreciate his support, they are flooding back to the sector. The staffing rates look great now compared to where they were three years ago. And despite the fact in Question Time every single day, the Opposition asked me how on earth I was going to do it, we have put nurses back into nursing homes. 99% of the time now there is a nurse on site in a residential aged care facility, something they scoffed at the possibility of happening.
 
That's on top of 4.8 million minutes of care that we've added into residential aged care every single day. And I appreciate, shamelessly take this opportunity to thank the Prime Minister and Ministers Butler and Gallagher for their support of me and believing in me and my ability to get this done, together. We can't wait to keep working for older Australians to lift the standard of care in aged care.
 
KATY GALLAGHER, MINISTER FOR FINANCE, WOMEN, THE PUBLIC SERVICE, AND GOVERNMENT SERVICES, LABOR CAMPAIGN SPOKESPERSON: Thanks, Anika. And today we've been up here talking about public service and the importance of public services to the people of the Northern Territory and the importance of public servants as a workforce here in the Northern Territory and here in Darwin, there are a pretty large workforce, well over 2,000 public servants across the Northern Territory. And if Peter Dutton has his way with his 20% cut to the public service, that will mean around 500 jobs will go from the Northern Territory. The big employer in the Territory is Services Australia, but also those other frontline service delivery agencies.
 
We know the people in Northern Territory because I hear it from Luke and Malarndirri all the time about the importance of those roles, the importance of having additional help to make sure those services can be provided to the people of the territory. Whether it's getting your pension on time, being able to engage with Centrelink, being able to see a person and have your issue resolved. That's the work that Luke and Malarndirri have been doing up here to make sure that the public service is funded properly and able to do the job that we need it to do. And that is all at risk because we know Peter Dutton has said he will cut 41,000 jobs from the public service. Senator Nampijinpa Price was put in the job of essentially shadow minister for DOGE not long after Elon Musk was appointed to that position in America. And she was given the job to go out and work out how to make cuts to the public service. She has repeated that 41,000 jobs will go this week.
 
This morning on radio, Senator Paterson has said there will be redundancies in the public service. So, this rubbish that it's all going to be found by attrition has been put to bed today. It is actually redundancies, which means sacking of public servants. Now, Senator Nampijinpa Price, her backyard, of course, here, she's refusing to say where those cuts will come from, but we know those cuts are coming. They've been very clear that they're going to cut hundreds of billions of dollars which they see as waste. That will mean jobs will go, services will go. And then the real kicker is they're not going to tell you when those cuts are going and where they're going from until after the election. So, that is what is at risk up here in the Territory. Jobs going, services going, and an opposition who's refusing to say where those cuts will be made.
 
PRIME MINISTER: Thanks very much, Katy. Welcome, Katina. Welcome to the tour. You missed out on the Great Barrier Reef.
 
JOURNALIST: I’m devastated, looking forward to getting to WA.
 
PRIME MINISTER: We may well be heading there.
 
JOURNALIST: Elon Musk has been put in charge of running the ruler over the submarine production in the US and the AUKUS deal. How concerned should Australia be, and is the US really still a reliable national security partner?
 
PRIME MINISTER: I'm confident about AUKUS because I've had those first-hand discussions with the President of the United States and also with more than 100 members of Congress and the Senate during my state visit to the United States. I'm also confident that people, when they make an assessment, know that this is in Australia's national interest, but it's also in the national interest of the United States.
 
JOURNALIST: Just following on Katina's question. Australia, you know, obviously is contributing in the near term, over $4 billion to shipbuilding capacity under AUKUS. Would you accept any changes to those near-term arrangements or to future funding arrangements now DOGE is looking at the setup.
 
PRIME MINISTER: Look, we support the existing arrangements that we have with the United States. I support the existing arrangements we have with the United States.
 
JOURNALIST: Are you concerned, though, that it will cost more with these tariffs in place?
 
PRIME MINISTER: I support the existing arrangements that we have with the United States.
 
JOURNALIST: PM the President said overnight that countries on the 10 per cent baseline tariff can negotiate a better deal. Is it difficult timing for Australia, given the election caretaker period? How will the government manage that between now and the 3rd of May?
 
PRIME MINISTER: Well, that, of course, is a factor. That's just a reality, but it doesn't mean that we can't continue to engage and we are continuing to engage with the United States on a daily basis. I welcome the President's comments overnight. I have seen them. He has spoken about, of course, the change that was made, the day – overnight – a day ago, when he made the 10 per cent change. This is a new statement by the President. We welcome it. We believe that reciprocal tariffs on Australia should be zero. Let's be very clear.
 
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, is the Federal Government prepared to use nuclear submarines against China?
 
PRIME MINISTER: What sorry?
 
JOURNALIST: Is the Federal Government prepared to use nuclear subs against China?
 
PRIME MINISTER: We have – we are building and are going to have nuclear-powered, conventionally-armed submarines. We don't want to use weapons against any country. –
 
JOURNALIST: But are you prepared to, if you had to.
 
PRIME MINISTER: We want peace and security. We don't have – Australia does not have, nor are we accessing, nuclear weapons.
 
JOURNALIST: Camden Smith, NT News. The Commonwealth has made a number of what I call phantom commitments around infrastructure in the Northern Territory. $1.2 billion for Arafura Rare Earths – not on the ground. $1.9 billion around Middle Arm – not on the ground. $440 million around local logistics hubs. That money hasn't been spent either. Given that, would you be prepared to make a commitment around funding upgrades to Tennant Creek Airport as part of a $35 million plan to boost infrastructure there? And on another matter, in 2013 you were visited by the then NT Infrastructure Minister Peter Styles.
 
PRIME MINISTER: Sorry, I was –
 
JOURNALIST: When you were Infrastructure Minister, you were visited by Peter Styles, the NT Infrastructure Minister at the time.
 
PRIME MINISTER: I don't recall Peter Styles, I've got to say, with respect to Mr Styles.
 
JOURNALIST: Peter Styles requested funding to upgrade Port of Darwin. You knocked him back. Do you acknowledge that that's part of the, the fact that that then prompted the lease arrangement to be put into place? Do you do acknowledge that reflects the sort of infrastructure shortfall that is delivered here to the Northern Territory on a regular basis, or the lack thereof.
 
PRIME MINISTER: Thank you for that comprehensive question, and I will endeavour to answer it succinctly. No, is the short answer. When I was the Infrastructure Minister, we delivered record infrastructure funding for the Northern Territory, including at the Port. When I was the Minister, the railway line didn't go to the Port. We delivered that. And on the way here, I went along this little road called Tiger Brennan Drive. You know what Tiger Brennan Drive was before I was the Minister? It was a goat track. What I did was convert it into the road that everyone here at this press conference has just driven on. The first funding and some of it, not only did we promise it, we funded it and I opened some of it, while I was the Minister. That was the most important road project for connecting up Darwin and Palmerston. That's my record as a Minister and I don't, with respect to Mr Styles, I actually don't remember him. But there's, a lot of people rotate through ministerial positions. Can I say this about the Port of Darwin? What a longbow that is. I, as Infrastructure Shadow Minister in 2015 and then in 2016, when the Port of Darwin was flogged off – 2016, April 2016 is when the incentive payment of $19.5 million was forwarded to the NT CLP government as an incentive payment to flog off the Port. The key date wasn't any meetings in 2013. The key date for the privatisation of that asset was the Joe Hockey Budget of 2014 that put in place an asset recycling program that provided an incentive to state and territory governments to flog off public assets. That was the key date for that. We responded appropriately for ports around the country. I've addressed the National Ports Conference here, and if you speak to the people who run the National Ports, they will say that I, as Minister, was one of the first, I was the first Infrastructure Minister Australia has had with that title. But I also attended all of those National Ports meetings. We delivered infrastructure, including the road and rail networks to upgrade, which were important for productivity lifting at those ports. The CLP made a decision to flog off that Port. We opposed it at the time, the Commonwealth Government provided an incentive. We opposed. The asset recycling program was one of the key elements that led to the flogging off of the Port of Darwin.
 
JOURNALIST: PM, in relation to power bills –
 
PRIME MINISTER: Sorry, just one thing on Tennant. Look, we have a program. It's under consideration, like other programs. What we do is we go through a business case and that's the appropriate way. Are there any locals? And then we'll come to James and then we'll do that. Thank you.
 
JOURNALIST: Tilda Colling, ABC News. Here in the NT, our most at-risk populations in aged care are First Nations people in remote communities. Why aren't we investing there?
 
ANIKA WELLS: Good news. We are. Last time I was here, we were in Darwin and then in Maningrida, where we announced, I think it was $12.6 million to build new beds for residential aged care residents out in Maningrida. And that town in particular, I think, is a great testament to the work that we've done in the Urgent Care Clinics to integrate that with other primary health measures that we fund federally. Because as a health hub there in Maningrida, they have two nurses on call overnight. They found a way to use the Urgent Care Clinic funding to boost access there. It's over the road from the residential aged care facility. And we're now investing as part of, I think it's $800 million, nearly a billion dollars in total, of First Nations investment in aged care this term. But particularly here in the NT, we're up to hundreds of millions of dollars in investment and in building new beds, in particular. So, I think, we're at Pearl because we're building new beds out there. We're at Maningrida, we're due to go to Nhulunbuy for the same thing. It's part of the $300 million ACAP round that focuses on building new beds in rural, remote and First Nations communities, in particular.
 
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, this announcement is probably sounding eerily familiar to a lot of Territorians, because in May last year, the NT Labor Government announced preparation for works of 120 bed aged care facility in Palmerston. That land is still there. Why not build the facility that you're announcing now in that location?
 
PRIME MINISTER: It’s precisely what we intend to do.
 
JOURNALIST: PM, on power bills, you've announced plans for subsidies for solar batteries, but what about for people who can't afford or are unable to install these batteries on their homes? What are you doing to bring down power bills for those people? And further to that, will power prices be cheaper than they are today when your energy rebates run out in December?
 
PRIME MINISTER: The good news about our batteries program, as I think I might have said before, is that one, it will assist people who obviously access the program, people who either put on solar panels with batteries or people who currently have solar panels on their roof, which, as we know, we’re the largest number per capita in the world, but not enough batteries. So, it will help those people. But what it will also do, because it enables the power to be stored that is there during the daytime to be used during peak time, it takes pressure off the grid and therefore lowers demand during that period as well. So, everyone benefits. That's the beauty of this program is it assists not only those people who access the batteries program but will also assist everyone else as well.
 
JOURNALIST: How much better off will those people be, who don’t have batteries?
 
PRIME MINISTER: Well, I've just said what it will do for the grid.
 
JOURNALIST: But is there a specific figure and will power prices be cheaper after the rebates end in December, than they are today?
 
PRIME MINISTER: James, what it will do is make a difference. There are a range of measures that go into those issues that you raise, depending upon which house, where, what the time is, what else is happening in the global economy as well. There are a range of factors there.
 
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, you said you'd have more information for us on Labor's plan to bring the Port of Darwin back in Australian hands. So, how do you plan to do that and with what money from what fund? And if I may, on a second issue, we've seen in The Aus today how Peter Dutton was the target of an alleged terror plot. Adjacent to that we know threats and reports of harassment, nuisance, etc. has doubled since 2021. You've been in Parliament since 1996. Do you feel more anxious about your personal safety now than ever before?
 
PRIME MINISTER: On the first, can I say that I reached out to Peter Dutton this morning, and it is a fact that the number of threats that have been made to Parliamentarians has increased in recent times and that has been reported on by the appropriate authorities. I, myself have been the subject of a range of issues, at least one of which is before legal processes at the moment, there was a pretty serious incident. So, what I have confidence in, though, is the Australian Federal Police and the authorities to do what they can to keep us safe. But that is one of the reasons why you've seen an increased number of security measures put in place, because we do live in times that unfortunately, we've seen around the world as well, but here as well, these threats be made. They shouldn't be. There's no place whatsoever in politics for any of this. And I have ensured that any time any Member of Parliament, regardless of who they are, have asked for support, they have received it.
 
JOURNALIST: For the Port of Darwin. You said you'd have more information for us. So, what is your plan? How will you do that? And where will you get the money from?
 
PRIME MINISTER: Well, we certainly are looking for a private buyer, as I've said, and there is interest. I mean, I'll ask Luke to comment on this as well, but this was something that was flagged on the Thursday with you, we won't go through commercial negotiations, and the interested parties. But there are interested parties here in the Port of Darwin. If we can secure an arrangement and a transfer of ownership back to Australian control in an orderly way, without Commonwealth intervention and compulsory acquisition, we will do so. But we are prepared also to use compulsory acquisition powers.
 
JOURNALIST: After how long Prime Minister?
 
PRIME MINISTER: When you negotiate commercially, what you don't do is respond publicly in that way, because that is not in taxpayers’ interests, what we will do –
 
JOURNALIST: But the timeframe is critical because it’s a strategic threat, PM. That’s the point of asking about the timing, it is critical because of the strategic threat timing, isn’t it? It's not just about a commercial deal.
 
PRIME MINISTER: It is about a commercial arrangement. The Port would never have been flogged off. That's the timeframe if we were -
 
JOURNALIST: We're asking what you will do.
 
PRIME MINISTER: And I've told you what we will do.
 
JOURNALIST: By when?
 
PRIME MINISTER: I've told you what we will do. We will enter into commercial negotiations. If you're in a commercial negotiation and you want to buy a house and you say, “we've got to buy that house, I need to buy it by the 13th of April” guess what? You lose your power in the negotiations. What we will do is negotiate in the interest of Australian taxpayers, in the national interest. It will come back under Australian control. We would never have flogged this off. We would never have had an asset recycling scheme to encourage the privatisation of essential national assets. That's what the Coalition had.
 
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, an Australian designed weapon system has been trialled by Israel's Defence Force. Will your government move to prevent the sale of any lethal EOS product to Israel?
 
PRIME MINISTER: We do not sell arms to Israel.
 
JOURNALIST: But you sold parts that had been assembled in the US.
 
PRIME MINISTER: We do not sell arms to Israel. I'm aware of the report that you refer to. We looked into this matter. The company has confirmed with the Department of Defence the particular system was not exported from Australia. Australia does not export arms to Israel.
 
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, some members of the crossbench and also the Greens believe that they can corner the Government in a minority, maybe even in the Senate, into changes like capital gains tax and negative gearing. Despite the pressure they put on, will you budge?
 
PRIME MINISTER: No, and our position's very clear. Let me make this clear. I want people to get that pencil in the ballot paper and put a 1 next to their Labor candidate. That is the way that you elect a majority Labor government. That's my objective. That's what we're aiming for. That's what I've said consistently. That's what I've done consistently.
 
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, on electric vehicles, Peter Dutton has claimed this morning that scrapping the fines for emissions caps under the scheme that Labor proposes will reduce future price rises that you've baked in for car buyers. What's your response to that?
 
PRIME MINISTER: This is another change in policy, he said he'd get rid of it, now he said that he'll change something that is essentially the incentive for the policy to be implemented. So, there's no incentive, but it's another change in policy. Let's be clear. There were, before this legislation was passed, only two countries in the world that did not have fuel standards, Australia and Russia under Vladimir Putin, the only countries in the world. We have not put an allocation of an expectation of any revenue from this measure in terms of so-called fines because we expect that the companies, the way that it's been designed, and we designed it, you might recall, in partnership, we sat down and went through the legislation with companies, we expect them to comply. What it is doing is making sure that Australians get cheaper vehicles. And I find it extraordinary that Peter Dutton, who says he cares about the price of fuel, doesn't want people to have more fuel efficient cars, which reduce the costs of filling up their car. It's a nonsensical policy that Mr Dutton has came up with. But I await, a couple of days time, he'll probably have another one on the same thing.
 
JOURNALIST: There's concern in Washington about your reluctance to talk about using attack submarines against China. I'll just quote one of the experts there, ‘if you want to deter conflict in peacetime, you need to talk about using it in wartime, and we haven't seen a willingness yet on the part of the Australians.’ Why won't you talk about it?
 
PRIME MINISTER: I have no idea who you're quoting.
 
JOURNALIST: I'll tell you. It's US navy strategist Bryan Clark, and he's advising the Australian Defence Force on the design of those submarines.
 
PRIME MINISTER: Look, we want, if people think that it's a good idea to want anything other than security in our region, one of the things that we're doing is investing in our assets. We're investing in our assets so that we're more secure. Obviously you have assets there as deterrents. The great benefit of nuclear-powered submarines, as I've spoken about many times, the reason why the Government supports them is because of their stealth capacity, because they can stay underwater for longer. They don't have to snort, they don't have to come up as often. They are a strategic asset of which everyone is aware. So, the idea though, that is in everyone's interest to talk up war, which is what you're inviting me to do, is in my view, not a responsible thing for the Prime Minister of Australia to do.
 
JOURNALIST: PM, one for Luke and then one for you as well, after. Mr Gosling, do you think that Australia's defence spending, which is set to reach 2.3 per cent by 2030, is enough to defend Australia in the current strategic threat environment?
 
GOSLING: We'll always be prepared to look at the strategic environment and make the appropriate decisions. And what Richard Marles, the Deputy Prime Minister and Defence Minister, has outlined is an increase of over $50 billion this decade for our defence budget. Obviously, we committed to a process of a Defence Strategic Review and out of that a national defence strategy. And we've funded that through the IIP. And we'll continue to -
 
JOURNALIST: That isn’t my question, do you think it's satisfactory for the environment we are in now?
 
GOSLING: And we'll continue to make investments that are required to fulfil our responsibilities to the Australian people, to keep them safe through an agile and capable Australian Defence Force. If I can just go to the submarine question quickly, I wrote an 8,000 word paper on the strategic rationale for AUKUS and why it was so important. If anyone's interested, have a read. The Lowy Institute's -
 
PRIME MINISTER: You could read it out now -
 
GOSLING: The Lowy Institute's got it online, but what the Prime Minister says is exactly right. It's the endurance. It's the range. And we happen to be an island continent in the middle of the Indo Pacific. And we need that increased range and increased capability for the future. Just here in Darwin Harbour, last week we had a Virginia class submarine, the same one that we'll acquire through our deal with the US, and there's going to be 18 Royal Australian Navy submariners training on that vessel. We are doing everything that's required to be prepared to take carriage of that capability, which will ensure into the future that we have the capability we need to defend Australia.
 
JOURNALIST: Just to yes or no Mr Gosling, do you want higher defence spending? Prime Minister, I have one for you.
 
PRIME MINISTER: You've had a fair crack, he’s had nothing. I'm an equal opportunity guy. Particularly for, where are you from?
 
JOURNALIST: The Australian.
 
PRIME MINISTER: The Australian. Why are you laughing?
 
JOURNALIST:  Prime Minister, your key national security team, Penny Wong, Richard Marles. Can you guarantee they'll serve next term in full in their current roles?
 
PRIME MINISTER: Yes.
 
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, more than 60 aged care patients are currently taking up hospital beds in the NT and then we also know that we've got a very large homeless elderly community on our streets. Do you really think 120 beds is enough?
 
PRIME MINISTER: I really think that we've had to address over just three years what was a crisis in aged care, an absolute crisis. It was summarised with one word: neglect. We had to force the former government into a Royal Commission on aged care. One of the first vision statements that I did was on aged care. I did it on ageing of the population. I did it in Brisbane from memory, when I did a series of considered policy outlines, which is what you do when you're preparing as an alternative government. We did the hard work in Opposition, something that quite clearly the other side have not done over the last three years. They've just sought to promote grievance and talk Australia down over three years. That's why they're unprepared. We have put in place the aged care workforce issues, which is a precondition for doing everything else. No good opening new beds if you don't have a workforce. We're building a workforce, including 99 per cent of time, the hours, four million extra minutes, 4.3 million extra minutes of care being given to our older Australians every single day. Now, is there more work to do? Absolutely. And that's why I'm asking for a second term on the 3rd of May, because we have built foundations. We have put in place now the legislation, the most significant legislation this century on aged care reform, just one of the measures that we've done as a really important part of our agenda. Thanks very much.
 
ENDS