SUBJECTS: 2022 Federal Budget; election; Labor’s policy agenda.
 
TRISTAN MACMANUS, HOST: It has been called a cash-splash designed to buy votes ahead of an impending election. So, what is the Opposition's take on last night's Federal Budget? We are joined now by the Labor Leader, Anthony Albanese. Thank you so much for joining us today. With the generous spending, do you feel this might be an election winning Budget?
 
ANTHONY ALBANESE, LEADER OF THE AUSTRALIAN LABOR PARTY: This has all the sincerity of a fake tan and will last just as long. They may as well be handing out cash stapled to how-to-votes. But Australians will know that once the election is over and one done with, it's all gone, all the handouts end and all that's left is a $3 billion cut that is there in the Budget papers that the Government won't even say what the cuts will be.
 
NARELDA JACOBS, HOST: Mr Albanese, last night, Josh Frydenberg boasted that our economy is leading the world. Do you admit that they have done a pretty good job during the pandemic?
 
ALBANESE: The Government always talks itself up. There is nothing surprising in that. Your listeners will know that average wages will decrease this year by $1355, at the same time as the cost of petrol reached $2 per litre before the invasion of Ukraine, that the food and grocery bills are going up, that the cost of rent are going up. Everything is going up except people 's wages. And this Government don't have a plan for anything other than handouts just before the election. They don't have a plan for wage growth. They don't have a plan for sustainable economic growth. They still don't have an energy policy. They haven't landed one. They have announced 22 but hey have not landed one yet. They have big announcements on infrastructure, but they are off in the never-never, not just before this election, nothing happens before the next election in so many areas that they have announced. They have no plan for cheaper child care. They don't have a plan for Australians. They just have a plan for themselves.
 
MACMANUS: Can I ask what your plan is? How would you ease cost of living pressures?
 
ALBANESE: What we would do is address the falling real wages by having a plan to make secure work a priority, by addressing same jobs, same pay, by making wage theft a crime, by making sure that we addressed casualisation of the workforce. This Government can't even say that they support people being paid the minimum wage in the gig economy. Secondly, we need to alleviate cost of living pressures permanently through support for cheaper child care. That was at the centre of my first Budget Reply. The centrepiece of my second Budget Reply was about affordable and social housing. Increasing the supply of housing so that people who are so vulnerable in our community have somewhere to live with a roof over their head. A plan for new industries through our National Reconstruction Fund, powered by cheaper, cleaner energy. Our Powering Australia Plan will reduce power prices for household by $275 per person by 2025. That's a permanent decrease. We need structural reform. We need a Government that looks beyond just a couple of days before an election, coming up with cynical cash payments just in the lead-up to the election, and then they all drop off straight afterwards.
 
JACOBS: We have had a lot of viewers send in questions for you. Let's go to our first one, Hayley O'Brien who asks - How will Albo make workplaces safer for women?
 
ALBANESE: Hayley, we will adopt every one of the 55 recommendations of the Jenkins Review. One of the things that does is place obligations on employers to do their best to make sure workplaces are safer. That is a proposal from the Jenkins Review that has been ignored by this Government, like so many of the recommendations that were found. We will adopt each and every one of them. Secondly as well, we have a plan to deal with issues like ten days of paid domestic and family violence leave. We have a plan for 500 community workers in these areas, who work with families and, in particular, with women escaping domestic violence. Part of our social housing plan is to reserve 4,000 of those places that we will create for women and children escaping domestic violence. These issues, whether it be keeping women safe in the workplace or keeping them safe in the home, needs to be an absolute priority.
 
MACMANUS: We have one here from Pam Nangle who asks – Will there be an investigation into Kimberley Kitching’s treatment?
 
ALBANESE: We have seen overnight the extraordinary statements from Connie Fierravanti-Wells, making a character assessment of the Prime Minister, in which she accuses him of bullying behaviour in the range of other issues that she has raised this. She is a sitting Senator. And see joins people who know Scott Morrison well, be it the former Prime Minister, Malcolm Turnbull, his current Deputy Prime Minister, Barnaby Joyce, the former New South Wales Premier, Gladys Berejiklian who have all made assessments about Scott Morrison. With regard to any other issues, we have structures in place that are permanent, that were created in 2018, and improved in 2021. We look at any measures for improvement at any time. And those are procedures that are comprehensive, that were adopted unanimously through our Caucus processes, and through the Party.
 
JACOBS: A final question is from Ron Collingburn. He wants to know – What will you do to help pensioners survive?
 
ALBANESE: Well, I know what it is like. I grew up in a two-person household that was just myself and my mother. And she was an invalid pensioner. I know what it is like when you wait for the pension decisions to be made because they have such an impact on your life. We had, last time we were in office, the largest ever increase in pensions in Australia 's history. Labor will always be better for pensioners than the current Government. And one of the things we will do is place that downward pressure. We want to make sure that we have a plan to grow the economy, but in a way that puts downward pressure on prices. And I will always be sympathetic to the plight of pensioners. Because I know, from my own experience growing up in that household, what impact it can have and how tough it is.
 
JACOBS: Mr Albanese, thank you very much for your time on Studio 10 this morning.
 
ENDS