KARA COOK, LABOR CANDIDATE FOR BONNER: Well, Good morning everyone, and welcome to Goodstart in Wishart. My name is Kara Cook. I'm the very proud candidate for the Federal seat of Bonner here. This morning, we welcome the Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and also Treasurer Jim Chalmers. They are no strangers to Bonner, they have been here many times before, and we're just so thrilled to have them back in Bonner today. Last night I watched the debate, as I'm sure many people did, and I couldn't have been prouder to see the Prime Minister say that his legacy would be around child care. So, fantastic to have the first visit today here at Goodstart, and I'll now welcome the Prime Minister to say a few words.
 
ANTHONY ALBANESE, PRIME MINISTER: Well, thanks so much Kara our fantastic candidate for Bonner here in Brisbane, back in Queensland, back in another early learning centre, making a difference as we have. As I said last night, I want the move towards affordable child care for all Australians to be part of the legacy of the government that I'm proud to lead. We've already made a substantial difference. Our cheaper child care has delivered $2,700 cheaper for people on $120,000, as a result of the commitments that we made prior to our election in 2022. I came to Brisbane last year and I announced the abolition of the activity test, the three-day child care guarantee and a billion dollars for child care infrastructure where it wasn't available, particularly in our outer suburbs and in our regional communities.
 
Cheaper child care makes an enormous difference because it assists the three Ps as well as assisting families. The three Ps of productivity, participation and population, the way that you grow an economy, is all benefited by cheaper child care. But in addition to that, at a time when families have needed cost of living relief, this is one of the ways that we've delivered it, along with cheaper medicines, along with our energy bill relief, along with our Free TAFE and these measures.
 
I must say as well with Free TAFE. What I have seen when I've gone into TAFEs is people studying construction, electrical, but also studying to be care workers, particularly women, but certainly not exclusively. People wanting to work in child care, in aged care and in disability care. And Free TAFE is making a difference there. And the Coalition have made it clear that Free TAFE is gone if they are elected. This comes after they ripped money out of TAFE the last time they were in office and shut down trade training centres when they were in office during that 10 wasted years.
 
My focus, as well, is on the pay of child care workers. We had an outcome yesterday from the Fair Work Commission, an interim decision that spoke about the need to do more about gender pay equality. One of the things that my government did as part of our IR reforms was to put gender pay equity in as an objective of the Fair Work Act, something that had to be taken into account. I'm really proud that 62,000 workers in this sector have already benefited from the 15 per cent pay increase that we legislated. And that as well, importantly, as part of that, child care centres have a cap on the price increases as well. So, good for workers, good for families. We know that feminised industries like child care and aged care have been undervalued. They were heroes during the pandemic. They deserve more than our thanks. They deserve decent pay and conditions. And a precondition for keeping these sectors vibrant is ensuring that the workforce is properly looked after.
 
Last night as well, just on one final comment, if I can. If there's one thing that stunned me about last night, it was Peter Dutton being asked not a very difficult question about whether he agreed with the science on climate change. And effectively, he said he's not a scientist and couldn't say. There were different views. I would have thought that the science is very clear on climate change. The fact that in 2025 you have someone running for Prime Minister who can't say that the science is clear, that climate change is real and it is happening. And the fact that not every extreme weather event, of course, is because of climate change, they were before, but as I said last night, they are more frequent and they're more intense. And when you have a tropical cyclone headed for the coastline here of South East Queensland and Northern NSW, then I don't know what it takes to give a wake up call to the Coalition. But after a decade of denial and delay, it is time that we continue to have a government that understands the need to be part of global action on climate change. I'll hand to the Treasurer and then we're happy to take some questions.
 
JIM CHALMERS, TREASURER: Thanks PM. Really big thank you to the staff and the little champions here at Goodstart in Wishart, the southern suburbs of Brisbane. It's good to be almost home. And this is the second time in six days that Kara and I have visited an early learning centre and that's for two reasons. First of all, we believe in Kara Cook here in Bonner. And also because early childhood education and care is an absolutely crucial part of our economic plan. Early learning is a game changer for families and for our national economy as well. It's cost of living relief with an economic dividend and the Prime Minister has run through that today. Later this morning we will get the most recent jobs numbers. What we already know is that under this Labor Prime Minister we have had the lowest average unemployment of any government in the last half a century. The lowest average unemployment rate under Anthony Albanese of any Prime Minister in the last 50 years. Under this Prime Minister, around a million jobs have been created in our economy, and that is also a record. And so, when you put together what we're doing in early childhood education and care, with our approach to wages, with our approach to keeping unemployment low and our tax cuts – the defining feature of this government is Australians earning more and keeping more of what they earn. And early learning is a really important part of the equation because it makes it easier for parents to work more if they want to, so that they can earn more, and because of our tax cuts, because then they can keep more of what they earn as well.
 
It is a source of considerable pride to us in Anthony's government that women, on average, are earning an extra $217 a week because of the steps that we have taken. I pay tribute to Katy Gallagher, the two Employment Ministers, the Prime Minister, for making sure that that outcome is the case. And so, you can see the progress that we've made together to this point in our economy. Unemployment has been extraordinarily low at the same time as we've got inflation down, real wages are growing again, we've got the debt down, interest rates have started to come down, and growth is rebounding solidly in our economy as well. That is the progress that Australians have made together under this Prime Minister's leadership.
 
And I ask you to consider, in contrast, Peter Dutton last night made a humiliating concession and an extraordinary admission. A humiliating concession that he had verballed the President of Indonesia. But also an extraordinary admission and the extraordinary admission was this: sacking 40,000 people won't be enough for Peter Dutton to pay for his nuclear reactors. That's what he admitted last night. He will sack tens of thousands of Australians, but he won't stop there. And we know what that means. There is no way he can find the $600 billion he needs for his nuclear reactors without coming after Medicare again like he did when he was the Health Minister, without big cuts to health and education. And that's more or less what Peter Dutton admitted last night in the debate that Anthony won. He said that 40,000 Australians being sacked is just the beginning, that it won't be enough to cover his nuclear reactors policy that he couldn't explain.
 
So, as we get closer and closer to election day, one truth is becoming clearer and clearer. When Peter Dutton cuts, Australians will pay. Australians will be thousands of dollars worse off if Peter Dutton wins the election. And that's because the choice in this election is higher wages and lower taxes, immediate and ongoing help with the cost of living under Labor. Or under Peter Dutton, higher taxes, lower wages and secret cuts to pay for his nuclear reactors. And that brings me to the final point I make. I see that Peter Dutton has expressed some views this morning in The Australian newspaper about income taxes. Peter Dutton must think Australians are stupid. He is the only major political party leader that has taken to an election a policy to legislate higher income taxes on every single Australian taxpayer. I mean, this stuff is laughable. He has a policy to return less bracket creep, not to return more bracket creep. And so, to see these views expressed on the front of one of the newspapers today is, frankly, ridiculous. If Peter Dutton wins this election, your income taxes will be higher, not lower. A vote for Peter Dutton is a vote for lower wages, higher taxes and secret cuts to pay for his nuclear reactors.
 
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, Russia's Ambassador to Jakarta says, and I quote, military cooperation is an integral part of intergovernmental relations between the Russian Federation and the Republic of Indonesia. How do you reconcile with this statement after your government initially denied reports that Russia wanted to establish a military base in Indonesia and do you maintain that position?
 
PRIME MINISTER: How do you reconcile the fact that the issue here is that Peter Dutton said that the Indonesian President had issued a statement saying that there would be a Russian Air Force base in West Papua. It was simply wrong. There is absolutely nothing has happened there. And it's just extraordinary that Peter Dutton has doubled down, including last night, and incredible that James Paterson, who has gone out there and essentially said, why didn't Labor know about something that is not happening? That is the question that has been asked. It's not happening. There's not a base. There was no statement from the Indonesian President, no statement from the Indonesian Defence Minister, no statement from the Indonesian Foreign Minister. And the question is, how could Peter Dutton, if he is successful, on the 3rd of May, deal with the President of Indonesia, which is so important for Australia?
 
JOURNALIST: On child care, yesterday the Fair Work Commission ordered a 30 per cent pay rise for child care workers. Will you fund that on top of –
 
PRIME MINISTER: Well that’s not right. That’s not right, with respect. That's not what they have found. What the Fair Work Commission found was that child care workers are undervalued. They have said there needs to be a process gone through over a period of time and they'll continue to do work on it. We welcome the Fair Work Commission report. We will work with the Fair Work Commission and work with the child care sector, work with unions, work with workers, as we go forward. But that is the decision that they have handed down.
 
JOURNALIST: So would you fund the pay claims on top of 15 per cent you’ve already –
 
PRIME MINISTER: That is not what they have handed down, to be clear.
 
JOURNALIST: They have recommended some level of pay increase. They've pointed out that to say –

PRIME MINISTER: They have, but they've said a five-year process. They've said, also, what they will do – this is an interim report about the gender pay gap. We know that no government has done more to close the gender pay gap than my government. No government. And we recognise that feminised industries in particular have been undervalued. That's why we've provided a 15 per cent pay increase for child care workers. That's why we've provided in excess of 20 per cent increase in aged care workers. That's why, when we were last in government, we did the SACS Award, Social and Community Services Award. We need to work these issues through. To be clear, this is not a final determination by the Fair Work Commission. This is something that we've asked them to look at and the gender pay gap is at historic lows as a result of the work that we have done.
 
JOURNALIST: Sorry, if I may actually ask a question. Once you work through that process, though, who will fund those pay rises to close that gender pay gap? Will it be the government?
 
PRIME MINISTER: Well, we're working through the process. And when we work through the process, that's what you do. You work with the Fair Work Commission, we'll continue to do that.
 
JOURNALIST: Noting that the fee cap under the worker retention payment finishes next year, obviously you're working through this process, can you guarantee whatever pay rise comes through, that families’ fees won't go up at child care centres?
 
PRIME MINISTER: What we have done is make sure, as part of the condition, not only are we paying early educators more, but we're making sure that families don't pay higher fees. That's part of the arrangements that have been put in place. As I said, in places like Goodstart here, 62,000 workers have already benefited from that.
 
JOURNALIST: Can you guarantee that beyond the next year, though?
 
PRIME MINISTER: 62 – what I'm doing is answering questions now about what is happening right now. We'll work with the Fair Work Commission as we go forward.
 
JOURNALIST: So just to clarify, there’s no money that’s been set aside as a contingency to account for those future decisions?
 
PRIME MINISTER: What we're doing – well, you're asking, with respect, to ask, have we put money aside for potential future decisions? That's a rather extraordinary question. What we do is we have a record of making sure that we have delivered. We've delivered real change, not just in aged care, but in early educators as well.
 
JOURNALIST: But decisions that are made are usually pretty close to that kind of, those early reports, when they come out. So, it's likely that decisions that are made will be in line with what we saw yesterday.
 
PRIME MINISTER: We'll consider all of those issues at the time. That's what we do as a responsible government.
 
JOURNALIST: Maybe a question for Jim, then, in that case, is there money set aside in the budget for future years as we see these pay rises potentially come through the system?
 
CHALMERS: Look, I'll make the same points that the Prime Minister has made. First of all, we've got a very good record of funding better wage outcomes, whether it's in early education or aged care, and especially industries dominated by women, we've got a very proud record and people should judge us on that and take their cues from that. Secondly, we welcome the work that is being done by Fair Work in this regard, when it comes to gender pay equity. And as the Prime Minister has said a couple of different ways now, that work is ongoing. And so when it comes to the sorts of provisioning that governments would do, there's still a lot of uncertainty, there's still a lot of unfinished business in the material that the Fair Work Commission released yesterday, and we'll work through that. For example, a good reason, and also in relation to Liv's question, is that there's a lot of uncertainty around the phasing of any increase in pay. And so we'll get our head around that. We've shown a willingness and an enthusiasm to do the right thing in the past. We'll work through it in our usual considered and methodical way. But the thing that unites all of your questions is the fact that what happened yesterday was really important, it was really welcome, but it's not finished yet. And so we can't fund it until we know, until some of those key questions are answered. 
 
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, the Treasurer mentioned earlier the jobs figure is coming out today. Because of the trade war that is breaking out, many economists have said that the unemployment rate is likely to rise to about 4.5 per cent higher than was predicted in the budget. That would mean lower tax revenue and higher spending in social services. Does that put at risk your spending, your election commitments in terms of spending? 
 
PRIME MINISTER: Well, there's some heroic assumptions in that question, I've got to say. Look, the impact of tariffs is something that we're considering but as you would be aware, like everyone else looking at what's occurred in the United States, there have been a range of changes made on a day-to-day basis. What we'll do is work those issues through. In some cases, some of the tariff changes, just use one, for example, I've spoken to some meat producers here in Queensland. Some of them, yes, there might be issues with the United States, but there are pluses on the other side with exports to China because of the relationship between China and the United States and what's happening on trade there. So, we'll work those issues through. The Budget was only handed down in March 25, so a short time ago, the Budget was handed down. But we'll work through those issues. We're confident and I'm very optimistic about where Australia is positioned. 
 
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister noting what the Treasurer said earlier, is it an aspiration of the Labor Party to index the income tax brackets? Is that an achievable aspiration and how much would it cost? 
 
PRIME MINISTER: Well, I've never seen before in an election campaign, an alternative Prime Minister or a Prime Minister say I'm going to increase income taxes if I'm elected for all 14 million taxpayers, but I have an aspiration to do something different about it down the track. That makes no sense. So, he's going to lift everyone's taxes if he is elected and then aspire to do something to lower them back down the track. I've got an idea for him how about he commit to not lifting them in the first place? 
 
JOURNALIST: Do you have an objective to index tax brackets and what would it cost? 
 
PRIME MINISTER: Look, I'll go to Jim, but I tell you what I have at this election campaign is clear policies to make a difference. So, our policies of a tax cut and another tax cut. Our policy of the instant tax deduction will make a difference, particularly for low and middle income earners as well. We have real policies to make a difference. And in areas like child care, Free TAFE, our tax policy, they're permanent. One of the things about what they are doing is that they are committing to some short-term handouts that disappear, not long-term benefit and long-term pain. So, short term benefit, long term pain is what they are offering at this election campaign. But I'll ask the Treasurer. 
 
CHALMERS: Thanks, Mark. The reason we're not going down this path is because we found a better way to return bracket creep. Not once, not two times, but three times. We've only been here for one term and we're cutting income taxes for every Australian taxpayer three times. And the average benefit is about $50 a week, in addition to the announcement the PM made on Sunday about the standard deduction. So, we've found a better, more responsible, more affordable way to return bracket creep. Now, ordinarily, Peter Dutton should be laughed off the stage for what he said in The Australian today. But there's a serious element to it, and that is if Australians elect Peter Dutton their Prime Minister, every taxpayer will pay higher income taxes. And that is the difference that the PM just explained and I explained earlier. It is extraordinary, frankly, that when we have legislated to return more bracket creep, to cut taxes three times, that the Leader of the Opposition says he will legislate higher taxes on all 14 million Australians. And I think we should see today's interview in that light. 
 
JOURNALIST: The Treasury must have modelled indexation surely? We know Treasury models all sorts of things. It must have modelled it. What would it cost? 
 
CHALMERS: No, we haven't looked into doing it because we found a better way. We found a more appropriate, more responsible way to return bracket creep and give every taxpayer a tax cut. Now, I acknowledge that from time to time, including the crossbench in the Parliament, they make this suggestion to us. There are some countries in the OECD that do it that way, most countries don't. Most countries do it our way. But our job is to make things add up. Our job is to continue to manage the budget and the economy in a responsible and considered and methodical way. And again, there's a big contrast there with the riskiness and the recklessness of an Opposition Leader who will jack up everyone's taxes and then pretend on the front page of The Australian that he wants a completely opposite outcome to the one that he's taking to this election. 
 
PRIME MINISTER: That is a very bright light I’ve got to say up there. If someone can do something about that, I can’t see half the – thank you.
 
JOURNALIST: Last September, Dr Chalmers confirmed he sought out advice on negative gearing modelling from Treasury. Dr Chalmers said then it is not unusual for Governments or for Treasurers to get advice on contentious issues. It is not unusual for Treasurers to do that. Knowing that Dr. Chalmers said that, can you honestly say the Government never asked Treasury to look at negative gearing? 
 
PRIME MINISTER: No, look, it is normal process. As I said last night, we have a public service that we encourage to engage and if an issue is out there getting advice from it. But that's not what we're doing. What we are doing is what we're putting before the Australian people. What we're doing is a housing policy that's comprehensive, $43 billion and is out there for all to see. 
 
JOURNALIST: What did you make of James Paterson's assertion that you lied in relation to –   
 
PRIME MINISTER: Oh look, James Paterson, you know, he's the attack dog for them. He's out there. He's out there. This is the guy who, the leader of the Liberal Party stands up and says that the President of Indonesia has made a statement and then when it's pointed out that that didn't happen, it's just made up, James Paterson comes out and his response is why didn't Labor know that Peter Dutton was going to pile in on an issue because it was on the internet? I mean seriously, seriously – 
 
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, on negative gearing –  
 
PRIME MINISTER: Seriously, James Paterson. James Paterson will say anything. That's his job. He piles in. I don't take him seriously.  
 
JOURNALIST: Can I ask on that, do you rule out meeting the Greens’ demands on negative gearing if you have to negotiate in a minority government?  
 
PRIME MINISTER: I, I rule, I rule out negotiating with the Greens. That's even further for you –
 
JOURNALIST: Are you ruling out changes to negative gearing under a government you lead?
 
PRIME MINISTER: I rule out. I rule out. I have responded to that lots of times.  
 
JOURNALIST: Can I ask again? –  
 
PRIME MINISTER: Well, you can ask again. You get the same answer. We have our housing policy that we are taking forward. The Greens, I am not negotiating with the Greens. We make it very clear. And what's more, the Greens have said the one non-negotiable thing that they have by the way, is that they won't support Peter Dutton. What we're doing – and later today, to give you a tip here, I'll be going to a seat that's held by the Greens. We intend in getting Labor candidates up in the three Green seats here in Brisbane. That's our challenge. So, it's somewhat amusing to me – sometimes that people who are very hostile to the Greens seem so obsessed by talking them up and talking up their influence. The truth is, we are aiming for majority government. That's our objective. 
 
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, two questions. Today's my last day with you on the campaign for a while, so I’m hopeful that you will indulge –  
 
PRIME MINISTER: Where are you going, Latika? 

JOURNALIST: To the other side, believe it or not. 
 
PRIME MINISTER: The other side. You won't be as happy, Latika. 
 
JOURNALIST: Okay, well, my first question is a serious one. And please, could you – we understand the answer that you gave earlier. So, I really want you to address the substance of this. When did you learn of the request that Russia made of Indonesia? We understand the base is not going forward. We understand that Peter Dutton made a huge mistake. He said that himself. But when did you actually – 
 
PRIME MINISTER: The premise of the question is wrong. Next? 
 
JOURNALIST: And the second question. You, at the start of this campaign, as someone who's been here every single day, you were written off almost. Why do people underestimate you so much? Given that you have flipped the polls in a couple of weeks, you're in the lead, and your Opposition Leader is being caught seemingly woefully unprepared? 
 
PRIME MINISTER: I've said before a number of times, I've been underestimated from time to time –  
 
JOURNALIST: Why do think people underestimate you? Because you're here, right? 
 
PRIME MINISTER: What I do is I am, I am captain of an extraordinary team. We're putting forward our record, which we're proud of, but also our proposals that we've taken forward that we started to announce many, many months ago. And we were waiting for the Coalition to announce some policies. All they have now is a $600 billion nuclear plan, free lunches for bosses, and cuts to pay for it all. That's really all they have. And now this – as the Treasurer described it, laughable plan, aspiration, to do something about tax that they're increasing during this campaign. But the truth is that it's hard to win a second term. And you know, we're trying to climb a mountain, we’re a few steps up that mountain but it's a long way to get to the peak. No Prime Minister has been re-elected since John Howard in 2004. So, we've got –
 
JOURNALIST: Do you think Peter Dutton's helping you there?
 
PRIME MINISTER: Well, it's up to, I'm not the commentator, other people are. But I don't think that the Opposition are ready for government. I think that's obvious for all. They haven't done the work, they haven't done the policies, Peter Dutton hasn't addressed the National Press Club, has given no serious speeches for his first three years, appeared twice before the Canberra Press Gallery in over a six month period. He has spent the time talking up grievances and trying to blame people, saying things, making these throwaway comments like the President of Indonesia has made a statement, Labor has to say what they know about this statement that was not made, and then walking away from it. Like he has said three different referendums will be held and walked away from it. Like he has said, you know he's going to increase taxes but gets a headline, that if you actually then read the article today, you know, an aspiration sometime in the future I’m going to do something.
 
Well, the election's on May 3 and I think that Australians, I certainly hope that Australians have a good look at what the options are and there's a real choice at this election between Labor with building Australia's future, with our plans for that future, cost of living relief, continuing to have responsible economic management, continuing to believe, not just believe in climate change, importantly to act on the transition to the clean energy economy that's occurring. Look after sectors like child care and aged care, were in crisis before we came to government. Dealing with all of those issues and importantly repairing our nation's relationships with the Pacific, now with Indonesia. Bridget McKenzie joined in yesterday and made declarations about President Xi. She confused then President Xi and then verballed Premier Li as well. China, our most significant trading partner. They just have these throwaway lines and then walk away from them and think that it doesn't matter and they don't have to be held to account. They are not up for government.
 
I'll tell you what I've done over the last three years as well, which is seek out people like Kara Cook to be the candidate here. Someone who's been a representative on Brisbane City Council, someone who is an outstanding candidate. We've got cracker candidates in seats that are of particular importance to us around the country while they're busy knocking off candidates because they're not up for it and have got some crazy comments in their past.
 
JOURNALIST: Hello, I'm Tallulah from Channel 10. First day on the campaign.
 
PRIME MINISTER: Welcome.
 
JOURNALIST: Thank you very much. You alluded to it earlier, but do you think that Peter Dutton is a climate denier based on the debate last night. And also, there's just over two weeks to go on the campaign, a lot of public holidays in that time. Are you confident that you can score some votes, especially in seats like this one held by the Liberals?
 
PRIME MINISTER: On the first, I think Peter Dutton's comments speak for itself last night. He was asked, and David Speers re-asked a couple of times, gave him the opportunity to say that the science on climate change was real. You know, all of the hottest years on record have been this century. We're seeing more extreme weather events in greater intensity. And he said, I'm not a scientist and there's different views. Does he believe in gravity? I mean, what else is there that is a scientific fact that he needs assurance of or a science degree to understand? You know what, there was a bit of discussion last night about young people. And I say this to young people who are concerned about housing, about social media and social inclusion. They're concerned about the economy and their place in it. They're concerned about intergenerational equity, which is why we're putting in place the 20 per cent cut in student debt. But you know what they're all concerned about, climate change, because this is something that will have, by definition, a greater impact on the kids who are here, today than it will on myself or Jim or Kara or the journalists who are here. And this guy says, oh, well, I don't really know, there's different views about climate change. Climate change is real. We need to have a real response. And the idea as well, he trotted out the old, oh, well, we're a small portion of the world's emissions. You know, when we had an issue with the ozone layer, the world joined in a different protocol there to make sure that CFCs were acted upon. And we need to act on this. The science is real, just like the damage that was being done to the ozone layer was real. And I find it extraordinary that in 2025, after, way back, John Howard, I remember him, he wouldn't sign up to Kyoto Protocol and then agreed just before the 2007 election, he discovered, yes, Australia had a 108 per cent target under the Kyoto Protocol, he would ratify and he would support an emissions trading scheme. Now, I thought John Howard wasn't great on climate change. I've got to say that, but this guy's worse. Two decades later, the Coalition have gone backwards from where John Howard was on climate change. Just extraordinary at a time when the economic benefits of acting, through renewables, because the cost of solar and all of those issues, have come down. It is beyond my comprehension. So, I think Peter Dutton’s comments speak for themselves.
 
JOURNALIST: PM, isn't it incredulous to say that Steven Kennedy is sitting in Treasury, reads the AFR or the SMH and The Age and says, oh, they're talking about negative gearing, I'll whip up some modelling. That doesn't seem to be how a proper government functions, shouldn't, how can you say that no modelling was commissioned? And also now I've got you, Dr Chalmers, will you, also, the Budget was March 25, as the PM's just pointed out. Will the underlying cash and the fiscal balance that you unveil in a week or so be around the same, or have they deteriorated because of your promises?
 
CHALMERS: Well, you'll know more about that when we release our costings. Broadly the same. Broadly the same. But we'll make that clearer in the course of the coming days. I think much more consequential will be the costings that our opponents need to release, given that they've said they want to spend dramatically more on defence. They've got, they're burning $10 billion on something which doesn't last longer than 12 months. They've got some of the other initiatives which cost billions of dollars. And so the damage that will be done to the Budget will be done by our opponents. We will continue to take a very responsible, very measured, very considered approach, recognising that the budget is in much better nick than it was three years ago. And that's helped us make room for some of the important priorities, including a tax cut for every Australian taxpayer, ongoing and immediate cost of living help. So, you'll see that laid out before long.
 
Now, when it comes to negative gearing, we've made it very clear that that's not something that we are proposing. We've got a housing policy, it's not in that. We've got a tax policy, it's not in that. We've made that very clear on a number of occasions. Now, when it comes to the advice that we get from the Treasury Department, I said last year, when you asked me lots of times, I said last night when some of you asked me lots of times, Jade and others I think were there last night, that from time to time we get advice from the Treasury on issues that are in the public domain. And I think you, Shane, would understand probably as well as anyone, that there is a difference between commissioning modelling, which is what the PM was asked about last night, and getting advice from the Treasury, getting views from the Treasury on issues that are in the public domain.
 
Now, in this case, that's an important distinction. And so what makes what the PM said last night, what I said last night and what I said last year consistent is that we've been very upfront, we have said all along that from time to time we get advice, we get views from the Treasury. And one of the things I appreciate that the PM said last night, and I think it encapsulates the view of our whole Government, is that we respect the Australian Public Service. We know that we rely heavily on the advice that we get there. Whether it comes unsolicited or whether we ask for it, we rely heavily on it. That's as it should be.
 
JOURNALIST: Was this unsolicited?
 
CHALMERS: No, I said last year, and I've said on a number of occasions now, that I sought a view, now that's different to commissioning modelling. The Prime Minister was asked about commissioning modelling. I sought a view. Another thing which will be relevant to you and your work, Shane in particular and Ready and others who are here, you know that there's a Tax Expenditure Statement, and so the Treasury provides advice to us in the context of the Tax Expenditure Statement when it comes to negative gearing and some of these associated issues. And so it should be normal practice, it is normal practice to seek or receive advice on these issues from time to time. We didn't commission modelling. The view from the Treasury is that a change to negative gearing wouldn't get the sort of improvement that we desperately need to see in our economy when it comes to supply. And that's why our focus is not on changing that, our focus is on building homes for all of the reasons we've been talking about a lot.
 
JOURNALIST: Will you rule out any changes to negative gearing if Labor's elected?
 
CHALMERS: I'll give the same answer that the PM gave and that I've gave on a number of occasions. We're not proposing any changes in this area. We've got a housing policy. It's not in it. We've got a tax policy to cut everyone's income taxes. It's not in our tax policy. We found other, better ways to build more homes, and that goes to the choice at this election, more homes and smaller deposits under Anthony Albanese or fewer homes and higher prices under Peter Dutton.
 
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister -
 
PRIME MINISTER: Bring it home.
 
JOURNALIST: Ready for it. Two parts. The President Emmanuel Macron.
 
PRIME MINISTER: Only two.
 
JOURNALIST: The French President Emmanuel Macron is pressing ahead with plans to recognise Palestinian statehood at a UN conference in June and there is a pressure within the UK to do the same. You've spoken about like-minded foreign policy on these issues. So, in that case, do you consider or are you considering, if re-elected, joining those efforts? And if I may, a second part. There is a Perth based doctor, Mohammed Mustafa who has been in Gaza treating patients. He's been doing a lot of interviews over the last few days about his experience. He wants to talk to you directly. Are you open to that?
 
PRIME MINISTER: On the first, Australia determines our own position. On the second, with respect, I haven't been sitting down watching the news for Mr Mustafa. I'm not aware of those.
 
JOURNALIST: Are you open to –
 
PRIME MINISTER: I don't know the issue that you raise, so I don't know who Mr Mustafa is. I'll have a look at it and give it consideration, which is appropriate given that I got no advance notice. If you wanted me to give a response, then what you do is you give us a heads up and we have a look at who it is in advance. What I do is give considered responses. I don't shoot from the hip. You're thinking of the other bloke.
 
Can I say to everyone, because we will have another stop but won't do a full scale press conference. Can I just wish everyone a very happy Easter and to say of people of faith around Australia as well, Easter is a particularly important time for Christians. This year, I'm aware, being the representative from Marrickville, we have Orthodox Christian Easter at the same time as Catholics and others are celebrating and commemorating the resurrection of Jesus Christ on Sunday. And it's an important time of the year and I hope people get to spend time with their loved ones and that it is a happy and holy time. And of course, for the young ones, I hope they have success in their Easter egg hunts and don't eat too much chocolate. Thanks very much.
 
ENDS