SUBJECTS: Government’s low emissions technology fund; electric vehicles; climate change; Labor’s policy agenda; carbon capture and storage; Federal election; lack of trust in Scott Morrison.

PETER STEFANOVIC, HOST: The Prime Minister has announced a $1 billion low emissions technology fund as part of its commitment to meet net zero by 2050. The fund is aimed at fast-tracking emerging technologies. Joining us live now is the Opposition Leader, Anthony Albanese. Anthony Albanese, good morning to you. The Prime Minister is about to give a speech on it this morning, but will Labor support the legislation?

ANTHONY ALBANESE, LEADER OF THE AUSTRALIAN LABOR PARTY: Well, what legislation, Peter? We haven't seen it. I'll make three points. Firstly, Scott Morrison didn't take this policy to Glasgow because, a bit like his EV policy, it lacks a great deal of substance. It's all about style and all about spin. Now, he comes back after the conference and he's announcing policy. If he could have landed any of his 20 energy policies, we'd know about that now. And once again, it's all about the politics. So, note in the articles on the front page, it's all about wedging Labor, not about the substance. If the Prime Minister comes forward with serious policy with grunt, without trying to talk about the Clean Energy Finance Corporation, the very body that he tried to abolish, as if he's now a supporter. It's a bit like his EV policy. It fails the laugh tests. He's hoping that people are goldfish, and they don't remember what happened just two years ago.

STEFANOVIC: I will ask about EVs in just a moment. But the premise of the fund, it's going to be a split between public and private $500 million. Do you support that?

ALBANESE: Again, Peter, I'll make this point - you announced in your initial question to me that it was a billion-dollar fund. It's not. The proposal is for half that, perhaps. But we'll look at the details. And then the private sector to invest what the private sector does in its own operations. This is the very Government that abolished more than $500 million from the designated fund that was there when they came to office for carbon capture and storage. They abolished more than $500 million. And now, they're saying, 'Oh, we will put a bit back, we'll pretend it's more, we'll add in the private sector investment'. This Government cannot be taken seriously when it comes to climate action. The Australian people know that. This is a Prime Minister who pretends that he has no history in all of these issues. And the history of this is he tried to abolish the Clean Energy Finance Corporation, he tried to abolish ARENA, he tried to abolish the renewable energy target, he opposed electric vehicles, he opposed all of the new technologies that he talks about. And still, with the announcements, there's a lack of substance once again.

STEFANOVIC: But you are open to the fund, am I picking up?

ALBANESE: Well, we supported carbon capture and storage. What fund, Peter? What is the fund?

STEFANOVIC: Well, this is the big pitch this morning. So, you say you're going to take a look at it. Does that mean that you might be open to it?

ALBANESE: We always take a look at legislation on its merits.

STEFANOVIC: So, does that mean, though, that if you are open to it, that you would unlock your opposition to expanding the CEFC to include carbon capture and storage?

ALBANESE: Hang on, hang on. Peter, just think about what you've just said to me in the questions. You said there was a new fund, a low emission technology fund, and then you said the Clean Energy Finance Corporation. Which one is it?

STEFANOVIC: It's all of it, as I understand. It's the low emissions technology, which was a commercialisation fund, which would be run by the CEFC.

ALBANESE: Hang on. Now there's another name in there, the commercialisation fund. That's the point here, Peter. This is a Government that's thrashing about trying to come into the 21st century. The fact is, that new technologies are being taken up overseas in far greater rates. Because we have a Government that has held back the uptake of new technology. We have a Government that abolished the fund that was specifically there of greater than the amount they're talking about now for carbon capture and storage. We have a Government that tried to abolish the Clean Energy Finance Corporation in total. And now, they're talking about, well, I'm not quite sure what they're talking about. We'll wait and see what is actually proposed. But when you listen to the Prime Minister this morning, I'll give you the big tip. He'll talk about Labor. He will talk about what Labor will do. He's been in Government - they are nearing the end of almost a decade in office. He's shooting for a second decade in office. And he wants to pretend that the first decade just didn't happen.

STEFANOVIC: Onto EVs, if Labor was ahead of its time in 2019 by promising to halve all of new car sales to be electric by 2030, which has since been adopted by the US, even in New South Wales, and as a minimum, in the United Kingdom, why not back it in again?

ALBANESE: Well, we weren't ahead of our time. Peter, we weren't ahead of our time. We were on time. We were in the 21st century. This mob were running around saying that electric vehicles would end the weekend, saying that you couldn't tow your boat or your trailer. I mean, there are B-doubles. There are big trucks in Europe that are electric vehicles. Buses here are electric vehicles. You've had an amazing change throughout the world. I went to a conference back in 2009 as the Minister for Transport, in Japan. Japan knows a little bit about vehicles. And there, every single auto manufacturer was saying, more than a decade ago, there was no research going on to internal combustion engine. It was all about EVs, it was about hydrogen, it was about new, clean energy. And this Government has just held Australia back. We had under two per cent of our new vehicle sales last year being EVs. Norway is at 70 per cent.

STEFANOVIC: Why not reheat your 2019 policy?

ALBANESE: Peter, you're asking me about what the Prime Minister pretends the policy was. There was no policy ever from Labor imposing any restrictions on whatever vehicle people wanted to buy. What there was, just as New South Wales has said, you'll be able to buy any vehicle in New South Wales. I'll give you the big tip. You'll be able to buy any vehicle. What the New South Wales Government has said is that, Matt Kean has said that, they estimate that 50 per cent of new vehicle sales in New South Wales will be electric vehicles in 2030. Why did they say that? Because the auto manufacturers tell them that, Peter. They tell them that. This is all a complete nonsense. Pretty soon after that, you are not going to be able to buy something other than a clean energy vehicle, an electric vehicle or some such. That is what is happening. And this nonsense that the Government says, 'Oh, Labor is telling you what to do. Labor is going to put on those restrictions', I mean, for a Party that says it supports markets and says it supports capitalism, they're pretty opposed to it from time to time. Capitalism is moving with the market, with new technology. And that is what is going on here. And the Prime Minister's furphy yesterday, I mean, how embarrassing? Him standing at a press conference at the Toyota factory that his Government urged to leave Australia, that used to produce manufacturing cars here in Australia. And he stands there, and he says, 'I didn't say I was against electric vehicles'. Well, come on, Peter. I mean, fair dinkum, he ran a campaign day after day, week after week. And that's the thing about this Prime Minister. You can't trust what he says. And if you can't trust what he said in 2019, you shouldn't commit to what he says or trust him in 2022.

STEFANOVIC: Just a final one. We're out of time. But we're looking at a pretty long election campaign here.

ALBANESE: We could keep talking until then, mate.

STEFANOVIC: Well, I just want to get this one more question in. Andrew Clennell mentioned yesterday that the approach is Keating-esque. 'To do you slowly'. Anthony Albanese, are you up for it?

ALBANESE: Look, this is a bloke who only has a political frame. That is all he's had since the day that he became the pretend Prime Minister. He always just focuses on the 24-hour media cycle. He's focused on the announcement, not what it looks like in a week, or a month, let alone a year or a decade. And that's why he keeps tying himself in knots and getting himself into trouble with the lack of consistency when it comes to issues like climate change, like electric vehicles, like so many other issues. If your focus is just on the next headline from friendly media outlets, then inevitably, you won't have the sort of plan that Australia needs to take us into the future. We have, for example, a $15 billion National Reconstruction Fund. $15 billion, not $500 million, that will fund new industries, that will support private sector operations to create new jobs, to create new industries, particularly in our regions, across the board, taking advantage of clean energy, manufacturing trains and other heavy manufacturing here, looking at new industries, transitioning areas like steel and aluminium to use clean energy. We have a $15 billion fund. We announced that a year ago. This Government inevitably will always focus on the short-term. And what we'll see from now until whenever the election is called is those short-term 24-hour announcements that, guess what? You forget what they said a couple of weeks ago. I mean, a couple of weeks ago, they stood up in the Blue Room and made their major climate change announcement. Where's it gone? They've now got new spin out there today, new spin yesterday, because there was no substance in their big announcement that they released in Canberra just a couple of weeks ago.

STEFANOVIC: Anthony Albanese, good to have you with us this morning. Appreciate it. We'll talk to you soon.

ALBANESE: Thanks, Peter.

ENDS