SUBJECTS: Visit to New England; net zero by 2050; renewable energy; Morrison Government’s lack of modelling; Coalition Government focused on themselves and their pay; climate change; Labor’s policy agenda; Glasgow summit; Australia’s relationship with France; distrust in Scott Morrison; border restrictions.
 
ANTHONY ALBANESE, LEADER OF THE AUSTRALIAN LABOR PARTY: Well, I want to thank Jason for the welcome here to Sapphire. This is an important renewable energy project. Here we are in the electorate of the Acting Prime Minister, in part of a renewable energy zone, something that's been designated by the New South Wales Coalition Government, but that Barnaby Joyce actually opposes. He is opposed to jobs in his own electorate. It's no wonder that he can't envisage what the future looks like and the opportunities that are here for renewable energy jobs in regional Australia. The fact is, as well, that this project came about with support from the Clean Energy Finance Corporation. That's an important model. Technology doesn't just happen. Governments can have a role in facilitating the uptake of new technology. And the Clean Energy Finance Corporation was the vehicle that led ideas into actual investment into jobs, into economic growth. And here this project is a great example. The Clean Energy Finance Corporation I'm very proud of. It was a part of the work that happened while I was the Infrastructure Minister. It's a program that the current Government, of course, tried to get rid of, like they tried to get rid of the Renewable Energy Agency, like they tried to get rid of renewable energy targets. But the fact is that Australia is behind where we should be because of the almost a decade of denial by Scott Morrison and the Coalition Government.
 
I don't think there are opportunities for New England in new energy, I know there are. And we can see it right here. Barnaby's second time as a leader is just one more sequel that hasn't led up to the original. It's not as good as the first time, indeed. This time round, he's tying himself in knots because he gained the leadership saying that he'd oppose net zero by 2050 and it wouldn't be possible for the National Party room to adopt it. And now, of course, the National Party room has but he still says he's opposed to it.
 
Today, people will have no confidence in Australia being able to meet the challenge of climate change and take up the opportunities which are there, because it's a day when Barnaby Joyce is the Acting Prime Minister of Australia. If you look at the opportunities that will come from the renewable energy zone, some $10.7 billion of investment, 830 ongoing operational jobs, over a thousand jobs per year in construction. These are all opportunities that could be seized in regional Australia, as well as, of course, the jobs that come from cheaper energy, being able to have high-value manufacturing in the New England region and other places.
 
Can I make some comments as well, as the Glasgow summit is about to commence. Scott Morrison is overseas saying that he supports net zero by 2050 but also saying that there are no new policies being announced from last Tuesday. Yesterday, we saw Angus Taylor unable to answer basic questions about the cost and government expenditure relating to the 2050 target, relying upon technology that hasn't been invented yet, being vague and basically saying, ‘We'll get there just through the vibe’. Well, the Clean Energy Finance Corporation wasn't just a ‘vibe’, it was actually a vehicle to drive investment, as was the Australian Renewable Energy Agency, as were renewable energy targets. The former Labor Government put those in place and the current Government has relied upon them for any reduction in emissions which has been achieved up to now. The fact that they had no policy going forward will be exposed when the Prime Minister is at Glasgow. You can't have an Australian Prime Minister just saying, ‘It's the vibe’, when the rest of the world wants to see concrete steps towards net zero by 2050.
 
And overnight, as well, we've seen real problems with the relationship between France and the United States and Australia. You've seen President Macron make some very serious statements about his view of what Scott Morrison said to him prior to Scott Morrison cancelling the contract between Australia and France by text message. Australians need a leader who can be trusted. And the world needs to be able to trust the Australian Prime Minister. But President Macron has made a very clear and unequivocal statement about what was said to him in meetings just prior to the tearing up of that contract between Australia and France. And President Biden has also made some very strong comments about what he was informed and led to believe was discussions between Australia and France prior to those announcements being made. Diplomacy is important. It is important that Australians have a leader on the world stage who is trusted on that stage, whose word can be counted. But what we see is that being drawn into question very directly by the President of France and also the President of the United States.
 
CHRIS BOWEN, SHADOW MINISTER FOR CLIMATE CHANGE AND ENERGY: Thanks, Anthony. Today is the first day that it's been legal for Albo and Tim and I as Sydneysiders to travel to regional New South Wales. So, it's appropriate on this first day of regional travel that we come to this region, which is a renewable energy zone, which, as Anthony said, is an opportunity to create hundreds of jobs. And this is a renewable energy zone that Barnaby Joyce, as the Acting Prime Minister and local member, opposes. We asked him last week in Parliament why he opposes jobs in regional Australia. He had, as usual, no coherent answer. The fact of the matter is we know, in the Labor Party, that the world's climate emergency is regional Australia's jobs opportunity. And here, as much as any other region, every day that the National Party and their mates in the Liberal Party oppose renewable energy jobs is a day of betrayal of regional Australia. Regional Australia, which has powered Australia for so long and will power us for many decades to come in a renewable economy and export that renewable energy in so many cases.
 
Now, as Anthony said, we've seen an extraordinary development overnight. President Macron has expressed the same view that the Australian people have known for a long time. Scott Morrison said last week that the next election will be about who do you trust. Well, President Macron made it clear, 'Not you, mate'. And the Australian people will have an opportunity to say, 'Not you, mate' to Scott Morrison. This is an extraordinary development. I can't recall any instance ever where a world leader has expressed such disappointment in an Australian leader on a matter of fundamental integrity. If world leaders can't trust Scott Morrison, neither can the Australian people. The Australian people deserve to know that when their leader speaks, he speaks the truth. With Scott Morrison, we know the opposite is the case. When Scott Morrison's lips are moving, he's not telling the truth. Emmanuel Macron knows it. The Australian people know it.
 
JOURNALIST: You mentioned the implications of the Glasgow summit happening in the moment. We've had the G20 overnight and a fair bit of disappointment, really, at the statement that came out of that, kind of pointing the finger at China and Russia for not being in the room. What is your view on that? Is it a bit of a wasted opportunity without them there?
 
ALBANESE: Well, we need to see global leadership. And the solution to climate change must be a global one. But Australia has to be a part of that. And Australia, at the moment, by just saying that net zero by 2050 is an aspiration, not a legislated target, unlike the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Italy and other nations, is holding the world back. The fact is that Scott Morrison and his rhetorical position doesn't add up to the facts that we see. And world leaders will look at Scott Morrison and his record of saying that renewable energy targets are something that shouldn't be supported, electric vehicles are going to end the weekend, batteries and storage of renewable energy are as useful as the Big Banana or the Big Prawn. They'll look at that. And it means that Scott Morrison doesn't have credibility in providing the leadership that's required.
 
JOURNALIST: So, we're not going to get to net zero by just having more renewables. We do need to decrease our reliance on fossil fuels. There's a fair few calls for some sort of global plan to phase out coal-fired power. Do you reckon that's worth considering?
 
ALBANESE: Well, nation states are making their decisions. And they have implications for what happens in terms of the energy sources. And we know that that will occur going forward. We know that we need to move to a clean energy economy and that that is something that's needed to happen globally. So that is having an impact. It will continue to have an impact. All of our major trading partners have adopted targets of net zero by 2050. In China's case, net zero by 2060. But that has real implications for the energy mix. And here in Australia, we know that the cheapest form of new energy is clean energy. It's the energy that we see behind us here at this wind farm that can power over 200,000 homes. That is what we see occurring right around Australia. And we see similar initiatives, of course, happening in other parts of the world.
 
JOURNALIST: So it shouldn’t be a global compact, it should be still left up to the individual countries to decide how they go?
 
ALBANESE: Well, nation states will always make decisions, but they'll make decisions in the context of global agreement. Australia is a signatory to the Paris Accord and that is what calls for net zero by 2050. Glasgow is talking about 2030. A range of countries have upped their targets for 2030, including the United States and major countries in Europe. Australia has not. And it's unfortunate that that has occurred, because what it does is take Australia out of that debate.
 
JOURNALIST: It sounds like you'll go further than the Government on 2030, but perhaps not as far as you did in the 2019 election?
 
ALBANESE: We'll make our announcements after Glasgow, well before the election. We've said that we needed to wait and see the context of the Glasgow agreement and what comes out of that. We also need, obviously, to see the Government's modelling. The fact that the Government has not released its modelling prior to the Glasgow conference tells us that there must be something they're trying to hide. And it's important that that be released. And it's extraordinary, frankly, that last Tuesday, this Government have had a long time to prepare, they've been in office now, they're in their ninth year, and they had a major announcement, we were led to believe. But there was no modelling, no new policies, just new slogans. And what the world knows is that you need something more than a new slogan. And quite frankly, the Prime Minister standing up, as he did last night at the G20, and giving a speech about, ‘This is a mobile phone and technology will take us forward’, is a bit embarrassing. Everyone knows it's about technology. It's about how you drive that technology through an economy. How do you support the uptake? Now, the Clean Energy Finance Corporation is one example of how you can drive the uptake. And that is why this company has been so successful.
 
JOURNALIST: So, many projects in this area (inaudible). How do square that circle? How do you make sure that land use conflict doesn't ruin the, I suppose, the social contract of this industry?
 
ALBANESE: Well, there needs to be proper community consultation with any development. It doesn't matter whether it's a renewable energy project or a new industrial development, a factory, an extension to people's homes, they have to go through a process. And part of that needs to be community consultation. I know that Sapphire here is a supporter, for example, of funding local communities, including learn-to-swim classes. That's just one of the ways that you put back into the community. And that's part of the social contract between the private sector and the communities in which they generate their wealth. And that's one way that good companies operate that way. And I'd encourage them to do so.
 
JOURNALIST: You don't think, I suppose, what Barnaby Joyce might say is that it's inevitable that we're going to have a sea of wind turbines if we want to convert into a renewable economy, and therefore that land use is inevitable, and on that basis, he opposes doing so. What do you think of that?
 
ALBANESE: Well, Barnaby Joyce is just scared of the present and terrified of the future. He's incapable of leading Australia to where we need to go. He says now his party supports net zero by 2050, but he opposes every step to get there. It's a nonsense. And that's why Barnaby Joyce, quite frankly, isn't the person to take us forward. And it is embarrassing for a lot of Australians to see someone who's Acting Prime Minister today who is such an opponent of jobs in his own electorate and such an opponent of projects like this and others. He opposes the renewable energy zone in his own electorate, even though it will lead to billions of dollars of investment and thousands of jobs.
 
JOURNALIST: From the other side of the coin, I suppose, on renewable energy, the opportunity that renewable energy brings, every single time (inaudible) there's been a manufacturing boom in the neighbouring area. What does the Government need to do to make that happen here? Because it hasn’t happened so far. What does the Government need to do to make that happen?
 
ALBANESE: Well, the first thing they need to do is to connect all the renewable energy to the grid. Here, that is occurring, with this project. But throughout the country, there are whole lot of gaps, including Snowy Hydro, which won't be able to be plugged into the system. We have a $20 billion plan to make sure that happens nationally. That will drive down energy costs around the nation. That will improve economic growth around the nation and improve jobs. If you lower energy prices, what you do is you then enable manufacturing and you enable that jobs flow to occur. Now, the way to do that is through our National Reconstruction Fund. We've allocated $15 billion to make sure that lower energy prices can then be supported for new industries and for transforming existing industries to drive that jobs growth. And we have our New Energy Apprenticeship Scheme to make sure that Australians can do the jobs to keep that energy in the grid and to keep it going. It's a holistic approach that we have. Only a Labor Government will ever deal with the sort of industry policies that are required as we transition to a clean energy economy.
 
JOURNALIST: Can I just jump back to the French issue you raised earlier? I guess it sounds like you don't believe Scott Morrison and you do believe the French President about what's transpired. Is that the case? And how would you then repair that relationship?
 
ALBANESE: Well, you have a look at Scott Morrison's transcript today. And in one area, he says that he informed the French that they needed to go to a different form of propulsion, that the French projects were not what was in Australia's interests going forward. And in the same interview, in the same press conference, he says that we couldn't tell them until deals had been struck. Which is it? He's contradicted himself in his own press conference. And of course, when he went to the UK, he had a meeting with President Macron in France, face-to-face. And the idea that he told the French what was going to happen there is contradicted by his own statements, which is that he texted the French President the night before the announcement to inform them of what was occurring. And we know that immediately, we've seen job losses as contracts haven't been fulfilled in South Australia. President Macron has said out loud what a range of Scott Morrison's colleagues say in private, and some including Malcolm Turnbull, say. Remember him standing in the prime ministerial courtyard, saying he was ambitious for Malcolm Turnbull. Well, Malcolm Turnbull knows that he was ambitious for Scott Morrison, himself. And we know that Scott Morrison continually thinks that he can just spin his way around. And you saw that with the uncomfortable handshake that was put out by a photo by the Prime Minister's personal photographer with President Macron. An uncomfortable handshake that reminded me of the Prime Minister's trip to Cobargo, and other handshakes that he's done in the past domestically, whereby this Prime Minister continually won't recall his own statements. If you have a look in Parliament, he continually says he hasn't rejected electric vehicles, renewable energy, storage. And we know that he has, time and time again. And indeed, he rejected the target of net zero by 2050 repeatedly during the last election, something that he denies.
 
JOURNALIST: Is it not inevitable, though, there was going to be some French disappointment with this decision, which I note that, while you're still cautious and wanting to see more detail, you have kind of backed it in some way?
 
ALBANESE: It is always the case that we need to stand up for Australia's own interests. And we need to make decisions about that. But let's be clear, Scott Morrison and the Government were answering questions in question time in Parliament, saying that everything was all hunky dory with the French subs project, everything was all good, right until it wasn't. And now, they're trying to rewrite history and say, 'Oh, we knew it was many, many years late, it was $50 billion over budget'. That's not what they were saying just months ago. They were saying something very different. And what you need when you deal with international relations and with diplomacy, is honesty and integrity. And the fact is that President Macron has said very clearly and unequivocally that Scott Morrison did not tell him. He can't have made it any clearer. And President Biden has also said that he was not informed correctly. He believed that, as a result of information that was given, that the Australian Government had informed the French Government of the change in policy.
 
JOURNALIST: So, Biden and Macron are both essentially calling Scott Morrison a liar. Is that true? Is that what you think he is? Is he a liar?
 
ALBANESE: Well, that won't come as anything new to Malcolm Turnbull or to people who've seen Scott Morrison's statements in the Parliament, whereby he pretends that things he said a month ago or a year ago were never said and never happened. The truth is that you need integrity in politics. And you need to be straight with people. And when you're dealing with world leaders. This is the President of France, this is one of the National Security Council members, this is a significant world leader. France will play a key role in the European Union. Australia, of course, are trying to have trade agreements with the European Union at the moment. And with the departure of Angela Merkel from the leadership in Germany, President Macron is the most significant leader in Europe. And President Macron has expressed his views about Scott Morrison clearly and unequivocally. And that's a great shame. Because what we need is to have Australia punch above our weight on the global stage. We've done that in the past. It seems we're unable to at the moment. And it is quite extraordinary. I cannot think of a world leader as senior as President Macron making statements like this about another world leader. And it follows the comments of President Biden, our most important relationship, just two days ago.
 
JOURNALIST: Can I ask about state borders, just quickly? Today, you can come to the New England region. If you’re from Sydney, you can go to New York but you can't go to Queensland or WA. How tenable are these border closures going forward?
 
ALBANESE: Well, the national plan sets out an opening up of the borders. And just as New South Wales was closed up for a long period of time, those borders will reopen. But they'll reopen when they can be done safely. There have been significant restrictions on our activity, including where I'm from in Sydney. Until recently, parts of my electorate were in curfew, whereas people in Queensland could go to restaurants, go to work, their kids were going to school, they were going to the footy, they were hosting events. So, I think that Premier Palaszczuk has done good work to keep Queenslanders safe. She will open up when it's safe to do so based upon the health advice. And that's what we should be doing here. Making sure we look after people's health. Because that's the way we will also then build a strong economy.
 
ENDS