SUBJECTS: $1 Billion for More Free Mental Health Services; Medicare; Health Workforce; Gambling; Us Tariffs; Economy; ASEAN.
 
SALLY SITOU, MEMBER FOR REID: Welcome, everyone, to the Inner West, where they get the representation of myself the Member for Reid, and the Prime Minister. And this is the package, this is the package that says to all Australians that this Government supports you during your mental health challenges. It says to them that it doesn’t matter how much you have in the bank, you will be able to see a mental health professional. And I want to thank the Prime Minister and the Minister for Health for this amazing package, and invite the Prime Minister up.
 
ANTHONY ALBANESE, PRIME MINISTER: Thanks so much Sally, and welcome to my hood everyone. I love all 150 electorates around Australia but I do have a particular soft spot for the one we're in right now. I want every Australian, particularly every young person, to be able to access the mental health care that they need. We will deliver $1 billion to roll out more services and locations Australians can go for free public mental health care. This investment is going to be so important for young people. Only Labor has a plan to strengthen Medicare, and what this will do is make sure that more Australians, particularly more young Australians, can get the help they need with this card here, with their Medicare card. That's the promise of Australia, the promise of a fair go, the promise of not leaving people behind that my Government's absolutely committed to. This will be critical because we know that one in five adult Australians experience a mental health issue for a year or more, and we want to provide more support for more people in more locations, and that's what today's announcement will do.
 
We will deliver 31 new and upgraded Medicare Mental Health Centres on top of the 61 that we're already committed to. 58 new, upgraded or expanded headspace services, such as this fantastic facility that serves mine and Sally's electorate here in the inner west of Sydney. 20 Youth Specialist Care Centres for young people with complex needs. And more than 1,200 training places for mental health professionals and peer workers. The new Youth Specialist centres will close a critical gap that has been there in our mental health system. It will mean that young people with complex mental health needs like personality disorders, eating disorders and early psychosis, will get the care that they need outside of a hospital setting. We'll also deliver an ongoing uplift in mental health funding to make sure that Australians get the services that they need. And this is on top of the previous announcements that we've made, rolling out commitments including the Mental Health Centres, the 12 Perinatal Mental Health Centres to provide support to new parents, expanding the headspace network and restoring bulk billed telehealth psychiatry Medicare rebates, so that Australians who are living in regional areas or remote areas outside of metropolitan areas can get equal access. Australians can find out, and I'll conclude with this, before I turn to the Health Minister, and then we'll hear from Professor McGorry, before we hear from Emma. Australians can find out more about free mental health services by contacting the Medicare Mental Health phone line on 1800 595 212. That's 1800 595 212 or by visiting medicarementalhealth.gov.au. We'll hear from the Health Minister and then the Professor and then Emma.
 
MARK BUTLER, MINISTER FOR HEALTH AND AGED CARE: Well, thank you, Prime Minister, for having us to your electorate and to Sally, I know you were at the opening of this service ten years ago. When I was young these services didn’t exist. If you had a mental health issue as a young person, you were expected to visit mum and dad's GP. And perhaps unsurprisingly, not many young people did. Over the past 20 years, Australia has led the world in building this youth mental health ecosystem. headspace is a core part of it, not the only part, but a really important part of it. And it gives a level of support to young Australians that frankly, most countries around the world just don't have. We know that most mental health disorders emerge when you are in your teens or in your early 20s. So having services like this, where young people feel comfortable attending, where they are involved in co-designing the type of service that Ashfield headspace and others deliver, is critically important to delivering that support at that important part of a young person's life.
 
Today, we extend our Strengthening Medicare program into mental health with a $1 billion investment in the mental health of all Australians, but particularly young Australians. And we're building on investments that we've been putting in place for the last few years that deliver free mental health services. We know that access to good mental health support is a really important challenge, really significant challenge in the community, but so is affordability. Far too many services in the private market cost too much and are simply beyond the means of many, many households, and they're not available in many communities in the outer suburbs and in regional Australia as well. So expanding the number of walk-in Medicare Mental Health Centres will open up access to support to people in our community that have nothing in their local community. Expanding and upgrading headspace services, almost 60 of them, will give that additional support to young people that we know is demanded out there, through the numbers of mental health issues.
 
And I'm really excited about the expansion to something Pat McGorry championed 10 or 15 years ago, the Early Psychosis Services that exist now, that we funded when we were last in government, will be increased in number to 20, but also expanded to cover conditions other than psychotic disorders. So, they'll be expanded to cover complex eating disorder, borderline personality disorders and the like as well, building on that support for what Pat has called “the missing middle” - where young people are too unwell to be able to be adequately cared for in a service like this, but not yet unwell enough to qualify for support from the state government acute care systems. This is a critical investment for our community, an investment in the future of these young Australians who, at the moment, are languishing in what Pat McGorry has rightly called “the missing middle”.
 
The last element is a really important one. As the Prime Minister said, mental health services need to grow in this community. Demand for support is growing, but we're not growing the workforce fast enough. We've invested in the last couple of Budgets in growing the number of psychologists and other mental health workers. And today's announcement includes 1,200 additional training places to continue to grow that psychology workforce, to find new ways in which people can get psychiatry training and to grow that peer workforce that is just so important for mental health. I'm delighted we've been able to partner again with Professor McGorry. When I was appointed as the first Mental Health Minister ever at a Commonwealth level, Professor McGorry was Australian of the Year back in 2010 and we were able to partner to massively expand this headspace network, but also introduce this very important service for young Australians with complex needs. And I'm delighted we've been able to come together again and take those services to their next level. I’ll hand over to Patrick.
 
PROFESSOR PATRICK MCGORRY, ORYGEN: Firstly, I just want to say how grateful I am to the Prime Minister and to the Health Minister and to Assistant Minister Emma McBride for today's breakthrough announcement. This is, without exaggerating, this is visionary, because what we are seeing now is the Commonwealth building a system of care in the community, not just for young people, but for older Australians as well. But particularly young people, we are facing a youth mental health crisis around the world. Two out of five young people need professional help. It's a shocking figure and the Government is acting decisively now to fill that gap. You've heard about the “missing middle”. It's not just about strengthening the primary care level of headspace. It's also building a system that helps those young people with more complex problems get access to scientifically-based care, which has been a rarity in mental health. But we must fight for that, because we have treatments that work. They have to be made available to young Australians and their families.
 
And they have to be free. This is the other great thing about this announcement: we're not dependent on co-payments. Young people currently pay two to three times more than older people in out-of-pocket expenses with the current model. So, this is a massive breakthrough in building a system of care that will last into the future and turn back the tide of this mental health crisis in young people.
 
So every Australian family should be very happy today because they're seeing really great reform in place, now. The workforce issue the Minister just referred to is very important. It's not an easy job working in youth mental health. It takes skill, it takes compassion, it takes affinity with young people. And we need to build a workforce that's capable of doing that. So, just to, finally, I'd just like to again express our gratitude on behalf of every Australian family to the Government for this announcement. Thank you.
 
EMMA MCBRIDE, ASSISTANT MINISTER FOR MENTAL HEALTH AND SUICIDE PREVENTION: I want to begin by acknowledging the leadership of the Prime Minister and acknowledging the need for young people and their families right across the country. To Minister Mark Butler, for the work that you have done now for more than over a decade, to improve access to support and care for young people. And to local MPs like Sally Sitou, who every day listen to and advocate for improved services and better care for young people and families in their community. I've worked in mental health for nearly, well, since the early 2000s. As the Assistant Mental Health Minister, I have visited communities right across the country, including, I think, almost 50 headspaces. And what this means for Australians and their families is improved access to care, quality care, affordable care close to home. And I was reflecting to Minister Butler about my early years working in mental health, where young people in the community in distress would end up at crisis and be brought in by police or ambulance to the mental health inpatient units where I used to work. Now, we will see in Australia a system of care that is better matched to meet each person's needs wherever they are, wherever they live, and importantly, for free. We're bringing mental health care into Medicare and into the heart of communities. I’ll finish there.
 
PRIME MINISTER: Well, thanks so much, Emma. And I think you've all just seen what a fantastic Assistant Minister Emma McBride is. Can I just, before I take questions, just acknowledge, because Professor McGorry thanked us. Leaders take many forms. There's a leader standing right here in Professor McGorry. He has been extraordinary with the leadership that he has shown, the engagement with all sides of politics, the preparedness to get out there and speak about these issues and to raise public awareness and therefore raise public support for the need for action. So, I just want to really thank you, Professor. Happy to take questions on this firstly, if that's okay.
 
JOURNALIST: Number one, how are you going to get the staff to offer these services? And if I may, for Professor McGorry, you said that there was a youth mental crisis in this country and around the world. Just wondering why you think that is.
 
PRIME MINISTER: On the first, that's one of the reasons why we've put in place as part of this funding, is 1,200 training places. We recognise that there's an issue of the workforce and that is one of the issues that we're dealing with.
 
MCGORRY: What's the cause of the youth mental health crisis? We published a whole issue of the Lancet, the British Medical Journal, last year, with authors from all around the world looking at this question. One of the co-authors I'd like to mention is Professor Ian Hickie, who we've worked with very closely over the years. We can't definitely answer that question, but we do feel that mega trends in society over the last 20 or 30 years, particularly socioeconomic, I can say, are injurious to young people. And I think the Government's addressing that in a number of ways. Student debt, housing, housing costs, climate change, all of these mega trends are conspiring to make the lives and futures of young people much more challenging and pessimistic. So, we think that's probably the main cause. There are other contributory causes, but we need to do a lot more work on what is actually driving this crisis. Someone said that young people are the miners’ canaries of society: they're showing up the symptoms of a society that's heading in the wrong direction. So, we need to identify what those problems are and then turn the direction around to make it a healthier, stronger, cohesive society. Social media plays a role and it's actually a symptom of the things I'm talking about. We've seen, I think, economic policies that are harmful to actually the community and they have to be turned around and have to be understood and turned around. Thank you.
 
JOURNALIST: Joel Cauchi who stabbed and killed six people at Bondi Junction, had unmedicated schizophrenia. What in this policy targets acute mental health. And for Professor, as well, McGorry, there have been breakthroughs in schizophrenia medication out of the US, KarXT in particular. How quickly do you want to see that on the PBS here?
 
BUTLER: If I can deal with the first question, which is an important question. All of the health and mental health ministers, after the Bondi Junction tragedy, came together to talk about what we could do together to improve supports and also cooperation across state boundaries. Because there were some issues around this particular individual travelling from one jurisdiction to another and a recognition of community treatment orders. So states are working through officials now to have better mutual recognition of community treatment orders and try to make sure we're better able to track individuals as they cross state boundaries. We've got officials working right now to look at other ways in which we can support people with, generally adults, with more chronic severe mental illness, not just psychotic disorders, but others as well. We're coming back together, we're due to come back together in June to talk about that. There's been some very good deep analysis of the level of unmet need for that cohort in the community. Some are being supported by the National Disability Insurance Scheme and that is working well for them. But we think about 230,000 adults with severe and chronic mental illness are currently not getting support from the NDIS or some other funding scheme from state governments. That is obviously a very big, that is obviously a very big gap in services for a very vulnerable group in the community. And states and the Commonwealth are determined to work together on that.
 
MCGORRY: Most of my early work was in schizophrenia and Orygen is a medical research institute in Melbourne that is looking at new treatments. And so it's great that you brought up the issue of new treatments in schizophrenia. There's huge possibilities here. There are some new drugs and obviously we do want to see them available to people as soon as they are, as soon as that's possible. But we do need more research and Minister Mark Butler is the Minister for Medical Research as well. And we also need a fair go for mental health research within the NHMRC and the MRFF system. So, because this is, mental illness is the biggest cause of burden of disease, apart from cancer, so we need to take it a lot more seriously. And this country, this infrastructure that you're hearing about today, is a perfect platform for discovery of new treatments and testing of them. And that's one of the things that the Government's supporting us at Orygen in, in developing a stronger capacity in clinical trials and further research. So, another reason we're grateful for the content of this announcement.
 
JOURNALIST: Professor McGorry, people trust your opinion. Do you think going into this election that the Coalition has a worse mental health policy on the table? Do you think they're going to cut mental health spending?
 
MCGORRY: No, I don't think they will. I think the Prime Minister already mentioned that this is, generally speaking, a bipartisan achievement of our country. I'm very proud of our country that they, we've built this system to the extent that we have already. And today this announcement is very strong. This announcement is very strong from the Government. It's not just covering youth, it's extending, as you heard from the Prime Minister, the Medicare Mental Health Centres, which is, in a way, an analogue of headspace for older people. And that's something that we really needed and the Government is building on that too. And also it's got a more complex package around work workforce and also, as I just mentioned, the research platform aspect too. So, I think we don't want to get into -- young people aren't interested in politics, they just want to get services. But today I just want to reinforce my gratitude and I want just, I want to acknowledge my colleague, Jason Trethowan, the CEO of headspace. He's a fantastic partner in this initiative as well. So, thank you.
 
JOURNALIST: On other matters –
 
PRIME MINISTER: Can we stick to this first and then we'll go to other matters.
 
JOURNALIST: On health in particular, obviously mental health, very important. Would the Government consider adding dental to Medicare as well? That's obviously very crucial for a lot of Australians.
 
BUTLER: Yeah, I've answered this a couple of times over the course of the campaign and before. I mean, our party is ambitious for better Medicare coverage for oral health and for dental care. But I've tried to be honest with people: our focus right now is on strengthening the Medicare that we've had for 40 years. And the decision was taken by Bob Hawke, as it was by Whitlam 10 years earlier, not to include dental care within Medicare, largely because they were fighting on so many fronts to get anything established in this country. We delivered a type, a limited dental care program under Medicare when we were last in government for children, that is delivering terrific dental care funded through Medicare to children of families on Family Tax Benefit. But at the moment, we don't have any short term ability to make a fundamental reform, it would be very significant, very costly because we're so focused on rebuilding general practice in particular, after 10 years of cuts and neglect. Our party though, does have ambition. It's in our party platform over time, but it's not going to be over the short term.
 
JOURNALIST: Can I just ask you a workforce question. You conceded earlier that workforce hasn't kept pace with demand, and this announcement today will be a similar thing. It will take several years to build that pipeline. In the interim, psychiatrists have either quit or threatening to quit in the public system, they say they're overburdened and they're underpaid. I know you've said before it's largely a state responsibility, but can the Federal Government do anything in that space to support them while you build the workforce?
 
BUTLER: Well, you've referred to the wage dispute, I think, here in NSW between psychiatrists and the New South Wales Government. We are providing record amounts in the coming year to all state hospital systems. A more than 10%, an 11% increase to NSW, which is an extra billion dollars next year alone. Because we recognise there are very big wage pressures across the health system: doctors, nurses, and in that case, psychiatrists. We want to make sure that the New South Wales Government has the resources to be able to negotiate a good wages outcome that serves the interests of patients ultimately. But we are determined to build the mental health workforce. As Professor McGorry has said, demand for mental health support is continuing to increase. We're establishing new models of care that will start on the 1st of January next year that we funded in a previous Budget: the National Early Intervention Service for people who have relatively mild to moderate needs but need a very quick early intervention to stop that spiralling into something more serious. So, it's about building a system of care that meets everyone's needs, because in mental health they are quite diverse. They can range from relatively mild, moderate and temporary to that severe and chronic mental illness we've talked about. So, it just takes investment. It just takes an eye to the workforce. I've heard over the last hour or so that the Coalition has said it won't support our workforce investment. I think that's just extraordinary: the idea that you can recognise there's demand in the community, but not invest in building the mental health which workforce is just extraordinary to me.
 
PRIME MINISTER: Are we finished with this? Then I’m happy to take –
 
JOURNALIST: I’ve got a mental heath question.
 
PRIME MINISTER: Okay sure. And then we'll go to other matters.
 
JOURNALIST: We know that one of the factors that drives mental health issues is gambling. One in three young Australians are gambling. Your government shelved long awaited gambling reforms. Do you not fear that that will exacerbate the mental health crisis in the long term? And just, if I can, you're the father of a young man. How important was it discussing mental health issues around the dinner table as he grew up?
 
PRIME MINISTER: Well, I prefer not to discuss my personal relationship with my son at a press conference. But, obviously, in general, it is quite clear that young men and young women have issues that we need to talk about more. When I was my son's age, if I can say that, no one talked about these issues. We knew, I went to school with people who you knew there was an issue there, but it wasn't defined, it wasn't acceptable. I well remember a friend of mine, not a relative, who was a young woman, a friend of mine's niece, who had an issue, ended up in RPA with an eating disorder. And that was really confronting. I was still pretty young at the time. I hadn't seen anything like that. She almost died. She is now well. She is now well and has children of her own. But that was really confronting that that occurred.
 
And part of what today's about, and can I give a shout out to all of you, for the way that you've asked these questions and engaged seriously in this issue. This is about helping people's mental health. This press conference is about that as well. Making sure that if people need a helping hand, they can put their hand up and it's not something to be hidden, is so important. And that's why I spoke about Professor McGorry's role, because he, more than any other Australian, has made it acceptable, has changed the dynamic in the way that we discuss these things. When I talked with the parents, including one of the parents who lives not far from here, when Charlotte lost her life, talking with Charlotte's mum, who bravely talked about this as well, it's one of the things that led to us taking the action that we have on social media. It's good that that is a bipartisan position in Australia. People might have seen the Time Magazine article, that's good, because what that is about is saying to the world that once again, Australia is leading the way, having the courage to show leadership and to get that support. So, I think these are issues that we need to deal with. I'm really proud of this announcement. We've been talking with Professor McGorry, our team going through the processes when we were working out our policies for this election, we were very clear that we wanted to strengthen Medicare: how do we improve GP services. But we want to do more than that as well, the Urgent Care Clinics. But this announcement isn't an add on. This is a central part of our health policy that we're taking in this election. Having been in government for one term, what you're able to do is to assess, okay, we've done some repair work, we've got better funding for hospitals, we've got the Medicare Urgent Care Clinics, we're properly tripling the funding for GPs. But mental health is a really important part of that. There'll be some more health policy during this campaign as well, but I think this is critical.
 
JOURNALIST: And on gambling?
 
PRIME MINISTER: On gambling, my Government has taken more action on gambling than any government in history. The register that we've established, the first time that has happened. The issue we've taken on credit cards, the issue we've taken, as well, on directly addressing, getting rid of the benign “gamble responsibly” tag on the end of ads. Making sure that people do know that you lose. That's the system. You can't buck the system. The reason why gambling exists is because more people lose than win, and addressing those issues as well as the discussions that were taking place with sporting codes and others about them taking action, which many of them have as well. There's more to do. But we think that - I'm proud that my Government's done more than any other government ever.
 
JOURNALIST: The rate of suicide among Indigenous Australians is increasing, the latest Closing the Gap report found. What in this policy will go to helping them and/or what else needs to be done to really address that issue?
 
BUTLER: Well, thanks for that important question. And as part of our Indigenous health programs, we're funding a range of First Nations-led services that are not part of this announcement particularly. But as part of this announcement we are asking Headspace to think more about how they reach out to rural communities. Of the new Headspace services, two of them will be established in remote communities and we hope that Headspace will be able to partner with Aboriginal-led services, probably Aboriginal Medical Services to deliver them. That is new. There will be 20 rural outreach site services: that again is a new model of care and that will be able to provide support to many parts of Australia where there are high Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander populations. So, Headspace has a good record in supporting young Aboriginal people in this country. Its Yarn Safe program has operated for years. But this investment today takes that to another level and I'm sure will give much better support to that population at that critical age of adolescence in their early 20s.
 
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, global markets are in free fall –
 
PRIME MINISTER: Are we finished with health? OK if we have.
 
JOURNALIST: Global markets are in free fall. The Australian dollar is now just worth 60 US cents. Donald Trump is threatening more tariffs, 50% on China. What progress, if any, has your Government made with the Trump Administration?
 
PRIME MINISTER: Well, we live in uncertain times. We know that that's the case. But I'm absolutely certain that in these uncertain times, now is not a time for cutting. Now is not a time for the sort of retreat from policy that we've seen from the Coalition. We'll continue to engage constructively with the US Administration, which is what we've done up to now and it's what we'll continue to do.
 
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, Australians’ super is exposed. How would you reassure people that we're on the right track here and you're making progress?
 
PRIME MINISTER: These are uncertain times, and we know that that is the case. The decision of the US Administration, as I said, last Thursday, is an act of self harm. But it's also, because it's the world's largest economy, it has implications for the global economy. What we are doing is preparing for that. We were the first country in the world to respond to the US decision, the first in the world, because we had prepared, because we are considered government, because we want to make sure that Australians -the impact of this is minimised. That's why we have in advance done the work that we did over the last three years. But that's why in particular we did the work in the, not unsurprising announcement - although some elements of it were surprising, I've got to say, the Heard Island decision and Norfolk Island, and some of it was rather strange, that's the truth. But we are dealing with this in a considered, organised way because that is what a considered government does.
 
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, in 2022 you said Labor can't repair all the damage done in the first term. You lamented the state of the books you inherited. Considering the recent budget shows 10 years of deficit and increasing debt to GDP ratios and there hasn't yet been a policy release for structural economic reform this campaign. Have you in effect ruled out Budget repair in the second term as well?
 
PRIME MINISTER: I didn't rule it out in the first term. And we turned a $78 billion deficit into a $22 billion surplus under Labor. We then follow that up with a $15 billion surplus. We've improved the Budget bottom line by $207 billion, $207 billion improvements in our first term. We have been a responsible economic management government and will continue to be so if we are fortunate enough to receive a second term.
 
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, you mentioned being a responsible economic manager. Treasury is saying now that GDP will contract, revenue will fall. How can you continue to claim to be responsible unless you revisit at least some of your agenda to trim spending?
 
PRIME MINISTER: This election is about a government that has a plan to deal with cost of living relief and to assist families at the same time as building Australia's future. And an opposition that has an agenda for cuts. It's very clear that they will, if they are successful, rip the guts out of Medicare, like they did last time with $50 billion of health cuts, take away funding for schools with $30 billion of education cuts. Across the board they did all of that and then produced, not a surplus first year and a surplus every year, which is what they promised. They delivered, every year, a deficit that just grew and grew and grew and grew. And included in that, enormous waste. Now, during a pandemic, governments around the world of course, would go into deficit, but you didn't have to give $20 billion to companies that were actually increasing their profits, not being affected adversely.
 
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, if I can be shameless, the Sky News People’s Forum is tonight, your first chance to debate Peter Dutton. How's the prep been going? And is it true that is Dan Andrews channelling Peter Dutton to help you or how's the prep going?
 
PRIME MINISTER: Look, I look forward to discussing, not just with Peter Dutton, but importantly as well, discussing with the people who will come along and ask questions. I agreed to this, and we put this forward as the first debate, because I believe that Sky - particularly during the day - plays a role in informing the Australian public. And certainly, it's something that's watched around and is important. And so, I look forward to talking with the people of Wentworthville. I'm very familiar with the Wenty Magpies and I look forward to being back at Wenty Leagues Club tonight and talking about the issues that are raised by the people there.
 
JOURNALIST: Just back on the economy, from the briefings you've received, can you explicitly rule out a recession?
 
PRIME MINISTER: Look, we have, as a Government, continued to see the economy grow. We've continued to see now over the last five quarters, wages grow five quarters in a row. We have, in addition to that, seen tax cuts for every taxpayer, dealing with cost of living relief. And we've seen inflation, importantly, brought down to 2.4%. It had a six in front of it when we were elected. It peaked at 7.8 in 2022. And what happened in 2022, in the lead up to that election, was a March Budget which saw a massive spike in the deficit, up to $78 billion, not a single dollar of savings in that Budget. Now when we came to office, we had to repair that. And we turned that around, at a time where we've had the largest global inflation issue to deal with since the 1980s and the biggest energy crisis since the 1970s. Higher wages, lower inflation, lower taxes, increased cost of living support, economic growth and by the way, more than a million jobs created on our watch. That hard work that we have done, if we had not have done that, we wouldn't have been as prepared for what is happening in the global economy. We’ll continue to engage, but I tell you what it's not the time to do: it's not the time for cuts in order to pay for a $600 billion nuclear plan.
 
JOURNALIST: Government spending as a share of the economy is at near record highs at levels not too similar to the COVID pandemic when the economy was in crisis. Have you left the Budget in a position where government will be able to be able to adequately respond in the event that there is a global recession?
 
PRIME MINISTER: Well, thanks for the question, which is very similar to a question that I got over here. Look, we have turned what we inherited, which was deficits each and every year, into either surpluses or a lower deficit.
 
JOURNALIST: Queensland is today extending the use of coal-fired power, pushing their plants out by three years and more. Are you concerned about that? Will that undermine efforts to bring down carbon emissions in Australia? 
 
PRIME MINISTER: Look, the decisions of the Queensland Government are just that, they are a matter for the Queensland government. Of course, the Queensland Government own their energy network and, of course, that has provided a significant benefit. I've seen that during the flood events that have occurred: the fact that they are government-owned has meant that people have been able to reconnect with power, whoever was in government – Labor and now the LNP – and that's been positive. 
 
JOURNALIST: You talk about surpluses and deficits, that you inherited a Budget that had deficits as far as the eye can see. Arguably, that's what we're seeing right now – it is deficits as far as we can see. So, are you going to turn that around? 
 
PRIME MINISTER: We're seeing lower deficit: almost half of what we inherited. I said, going back to my comments prior to the 2022 election, it's one of the reasons why you need a long-term Labor government to repair a lot of the work that's been done. We've provided almost $100 billion of savings, 95 to be precise. We would have been way over that. We have done the work. You can't argue with a $78 billion deficit into a $22 billion surplus, a $100 billion turnaround. And yesterday in PEFO – haven't had any questions about PEFO – but that confirmed the hard work that my Government has done.  
 
JOURNALIST: You and Minister Wong have for years talked about the need to deepen ties in the ASEAN region. Do you believe that Trump's tariff regime will push ASEAN countries further into China's orbit? 
 
PRIME MINISTER: What I want to see is us strengthen our relationship further with ASEAN countries. I was very proud to host every leader of ASEAN in Melbourne in March of last year and that was really significant. I don't think, with respect, it got perhaps the coverage and the acknowledgement that it should have. I was really proud that every single leader came – no deputies, no representatives, every single leader – and that's a direct result of the hard work that my Government has done to turn those relationships around. Our relationship with Indonesia has never been stronger. Never been stronger. And the work that we've done there, but with other nations in ASEAN as well. And one of our responses to the decision of last Thursday will be to build on that. I will convene, won't necessarily go to all of them, but the idea of missions, business missions. We've had business missions to Indonesia, to India, to Laos, to the region, to China as well that have been important in terms of those economic relationships.  
 
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, last election you promised that electricity bills would go down by $275. They didn't. Why should we trust you on the economy this election when you made promises that you couldn't keep, and you probably shouldn't have made? Will real living standards go up in your term? Can we avoid global recession and have you left yourself fiscal room for a stimulus package if we do indeed go into a global recession? 
 
PRIME MINISTER: Well, what we have done is continue to have responsible economic management. I said before: we have had the biggest energy crisis since the 1970s. That's just a fact. And you would have recognised that in the United Kingdom, the energy bills in Europe and in the UK, were impacted. Indeed, some nations hit double digit inflation. We didn't do that. We took on responsible economic management. And I note as well that, as well as economic growth occurring, unemployment being low, wages going up, inflation going down and interest rates starting to fall, in addition to all of that, what we saw in the latest figures, the last quarter, was per capita incomes as well are growing. In real terms we have turned a corner. There are of course global headwinds that we are seeing. We have to deal with that. We're not immune from impacts of the global economy.  

But what we have shown consistently is the preparedness to act for the times, to provide support that is needed for people. It stands in stark contrast, and I go back to: we are in uncertain times but I'm absolutely certain this is not the time to cut, this is not the time for what the Coalition are going to have to do to pay for their $600 billion of nuclear power plants as we go forward. Now is the time to continue to manage the economy responsibly, whilst we make sure we Build Australia's Future by building up our education system, by making sure that people's health is looked after, by making sure as well that people have rights in the workplace. And yesterday we saw an extraordinary turnaround from the Coalition when it came to working from home and the sacking of 41,000 public servants.  
 
<interruption>
 
PRIME MINISTER: – No, it just encourages. But anyway. Security people should be allowed to do their job.  
 
Can I make this point? Yesterday, Peter Dutton tried to pretend that he no longer supported sacking 41,000 public servants and that they now were walking away from their plan to oppose working from home. This was after, on working from home, they opposed our legislation that had that as a bargaining provision, along with opposing Same Job, Same Pay and the other fairness in the workplace provisions that we had put in place. When it comes to these issues, in terms of sacking public servants, Peter Dutton would now pretend that he can do this just through attrition. The people who leave the public service most frequently are those frontline people delivering services. If you go into DFAT, it's not a rotation, you tend to stay there as a life career. The people in Services Australia, the people in Centrelink, the people delivering those frontline services have the most frequency of changes. So, this is a pretence of a policy that simply cannot be believed. Thanks very much. 

ENDS