SUBJECTS: End of Scott Morrison’s lockdown in Victoria; Scott Morrison abandoning 120 years of precedent to protect Christian Porter receipt of secret donations; Morrison-Joyce Government’s climate policy shambles; Labor’s alternative climate plan.

ANTHONY ALBANESE, LEADER OF THE AUSTRALIAN LABOR PARTY;Firstly, I'd like to congratulate Victorians on their many months of sacrifice, looking after each other in order to protect their health, but also so they could now return to normal. I do think it's a bit rich for Scott Morrison to do morning media today, speaking about how he congratulates Victorians, when he and his Government, particularly his own Treasurer, Josh Frydenberg, have spent so much time bagging Victorians and, in particular, drawing a real distinction between the actions they've taken and the rhetoric against Victorians and their position on New South Wales. We know that the current lockdown began with a single limo driver in Sydney, unvaccinated, without a mask, and then a failure for New South Wales to lockdown appropriately, which was encouraged by Scott Morrison. And we know that this Government was too slow in securing vaccines. Mr Morrison continued to say that it wasn't a race. It was always a race to get Australians vaccinated, but they simply didn't have the supply of vaccines in order to do so soon enough.

Yesterday in the Parliament, we saw an extraordinary event - 120 years of precedent was thrown out. The speaker made a ruling in accordance with standing orders, he had to convince himself, examine the detail, that there was a prima facie case for the Privileges Committee to consider whether there had been a contempt of Parliament. A contempt of Parliament because of a deliberate attempt, by Christian Porter, to hide donations to him for what is a private legal matter. The facts are these – you can't, in this Parliament, continue to say, 'I got donations for a private matter or private income' without declaring it that's what the register of peculiar interest is. And a so-called ‘blind trust’ is so that you don't know. If you're a wealthy individual like Malcolm Turnbull was, you set up a blind trust so you don't know who investors are investing in on your behalf, so that there can't be a conflict of interest. In this case, we know where the money was invested. It was invested into Mr Porter's private legal matter against the ABC of up to $1 million. And the idea that he didn't know where the donations came from, defies belief. How is it people knew how to donate to this trust? They didn't mention Mr Porter's name. There was this obscure trust that we didn't know about until after Mr Porter had withdrawn from the case. Mr Porter chose to take the action against the ABC. Mr Porter then chose to withdraw from that action. Mr Porter has an obligation to declare where these donations came from. If that doesn't occur, then the register of pecuniary interests, a vital principle and process to avoid corruption in the Parliament, is rendered redundant. And no wonder Mr Porter never actually introduced the anti-corruption commission that was promised by Scott Morrison more than 1,000 days ago. It's very clear that it will take a Labor Government to introduce a National Anti-Corruption Commission with the powers of a royal commission, with the power to act independently including against politicians. It is a tragedy, I think, that Australians, so many of them, don't have confidence in the integrity of our political processes. Like, yesterday, it's little wonder why when Peter Dutton rejected the prima facie case, which the Speaker of the House of Representatives said was there, and Mr Morrison to get every one of his Coalition MPs to vote against integrity. Have no doubt that's what they did yesterday.

And on climate – the pantomime continues. The pantomime, whereby we have this pretence that there's some doubt over whether Scott Morrison will announce net zero by 2050. But no one can take him seriously on climate. Having spent years of ridiculing electric vehicles or ridiculing renewables, saying that renewable energy targets are nuts. Having spent all of that time his whole political career, running fear and scare campaigns against climate action, this Government can't be taken seriously, which is why Australia has a problem on the international stage when it comes to climate action.

JOURNALIST: Just briefly, Peter Dutton has asked the Privileges Committee to look into blind trusts and their use in covering legal costs. Why isn't that enough?

ALBANESE: No, Peter Dutton has said, 'Look over here, look at something else'. That is typical of this Government.

JOURNALIST: It’s the same thing, right?

ALBANESE: You know, if you believe that I've got a Harbour Bridge I can sell you. The truth is that there is a specific case of an abuse. And a prima facie case was found by the Speaker of the House of Representatives that was rejected by the Government. And of course, Peter Dutton, knowing he was going to do that set up a ‘look over here’ example. Well, the fact is, they have rendered their position on the Register of Pecuniary Interests very clear. Forget about blind trusts, the whole process has been thrown out as a result of what the decision was that they made yesterday.

JOURNALIST: So Labor wants a specific investigation of Christian Porter, rather than the issue of...

ALBANESE: No, the Speaker of the House of Representatives wants an investigation into Christian Porter. The Speaker of the House of Representatives who was unanimously appointed to that position not once, but twice. And 120 years of precedent. I've held Peter Dutton's position as Leader of the Government in the House, and I took it seriously. And I wouldn't have thought for a nanosecond about defying a Speaker's ruling and determination that there was a prima facie case.

JOURNALIST: Can you go to the next election guaranteeing there will be a renewable energy job for every coal worker who loses theirs in the transition?

ALBANESE: You obviously don't get what renewable energy is about. What renewable energy is about is the cheapest form of new energy. And that's why that is where Australia's going in spite of the Government. What renewable energy’s about is lowering energy costs so that we can have high value manufacturing. Renewable energy, I'd encourage people in this building to get out and about. I was in Fairfield last week at a glass and aluminium factory. Not producing solar panels, producing glass and aluminium, purpose built, a major employer, huge factory in Western Sydney. And what they are doing there is lowering their energy bills by $250,000 a year. A quarter of a million dollars by putting solar panels on the roof. What clean energy's about is creating more jobs, not just jobs producing renewables. Renewable energy lowers prices which allows manufacturing to expand, which allows more jobs, and those jobs will be in regional Australia. Regional Australia stands to benefit from action on climate change. That's what the Business Council of Australia modelling shows. And if this Government should table its modelling today, which Matt Canavan supported and went through the Senate yesterday, we'll see that modelling, and I'm sure it will show, as other modelling has, that there'll be more jobs in regional Australia.

JOURNALIST: Has Labor finalised its plan and the policies within that plan to reach net zero and targets of net zero by 2050?

ALBANESE: We've finalised a range of policies, some of which were announced some of which some of which are to come. And you'll see it in plenty of time. We have announced the Rewiring the Nation plan, $20 billion to fix transmission into the 21st century. We've announced that. That was a part of my first Budget Reply. We've announced our Community Batteries to make sure that people who put solar panels on rooves can benefit entire communities to lower energy prices for households and businesses. We've announced our New Energy Apprenticeships plan. We've announced a range of other policies consistent with our net zero by 2050. There's more to come.

Thanks.

ENDS