SUBJECTS: Labor’s National Broadband Network announcement; Labor’s policy agenda; Federal election; lack of trust in Scott Morrison and his Government. 

NATALIE BARR, HOST: The Coalition's unofficial election campaign is now in its second week, with the Prime Minister describing himself as the underdog. For the first time, Scott Morrison has fallen behind Anthony Albanese in the areas of trust, likeability and understanding the major issues of concern for most Australians. The latest Newspoll shows Labor would win Government if we went to the polls today. Joining me now is the alternate Prime Minister, Anthony Albanese. Opposition Leader, good morning to you. If Scott Morrison is the underdog, what does that make you?

ANTHONY ALBANESE, LEADER OF THE AUSTRALIAN LABOR PARTY: Good morning, Nat. He is not at all an underdog. Labor has only won government from opposition three times since the Second World War. So we have a mountain to climb. The Government has the advantage of incumbency. They will spend $58 million of your viewers’ money advertising to say how good they are. And we have seen this week again more misinformation and strategies. They are just going out there and saying anything, really, to try and run a scare campaign in the lead-up to the next election.

BARR: It is a different approach that we are seeing, because one of the criticisms of that big report Labor did last time was that you guys thought you had it in the bag. So you are trying for underdog status?

ALBANESE: We are always struggling to get into Government federally. The only times that we have done it was Whitlam in 1972, Bob Hawke in 1983 and Kevin Rudd in 2007. This is a Government that is shooting for a second decade in office. They don't really have plans for the country, they don't have plans to take us forward. They seem to be scared of the present and terrified of the future, which is why they are concentrating on scare campaigns. We are putting forward positive plans, such as our plan to give access to high-speed broadband to an additional 1.5 million homes and businesses, particularly in our outer suburbs and our regional communities. And that is the announcement we have today. It is a great example of where the Government has gone wrong, replacing the fibre rollout of NBN with last century’s copper technology, which simply is not up to the task. Can you believe this Government has purchased 60,000 kilometres of copper wire, enough to wrap around the earth 1.5 times, in the 21st century? That is outdated. We know during COVID, students have needed fibre-based broadband to do their study, people have worked from home, businesses have had to operate. We know how important communication technology is for everyday life.

BARR: The Prime Minister says if everyone votes for you, petrol prices and inflation will go up.

ALBANESE: Complete nonsense, of course. He has been called out of by the experts as being nonsense. The truth is, this Prime Minister must not have filled up for a long time. I filled up yesterday and it was $1.80 on his watch at my local petrol station here in my community. Petrol prices have risen under this Government because, of course, international prices. We get all of our fuel from Singapore. On this Government’s watch, we have oil refineries shut down in Australia. And a rescue package had to take place to keep any oil refineries operating here at all. And that has happened on this Government’s watch.

BARR: The other problem this report found last time was your approach to climate change and particularly Queensland, WA, the Hunter Valley did not like your policy. When will we see your detailed policy? Everyone has been talking about climate change the last few weeks.

ALBANESE: Absolutely. We will have more to say before the end of the year. But we have already put out there, I think, the most significant climate announcement that has been done during this term, which is our Rewiring the Nation policy. What that is about is making sure that electricity transmission is fit for purpose for the 21st century. At the moment, we know that people have put solar panels on their roofs, but we know as well that we don't have a fit for purpose transmission system. For example, Snowy Hydro, when it is completed in a few years’ time, won't be able to plug into the grid. That is a low hanging fruit that can make an enormous difference. We also have policy for a community battery and solar energy. We announced a new solar energy scheme. And we have our $15 billion National Reconstruction Fund. What we want is businesses to be able to invest so that we can lower the energy prices, lower the cost of manufacturing, so we can create more jobs here. And today's National Broadband Network announcement is on par with that. We see new technology as being very important in terms of our economic productivity and our efficiency, creating jobs into the future. This Government has rejected technology. And you can't trust a Government that wants copper as a basis of its network in the 21st century.

BARR: Okay. We will have to leave it there. We think it will be a long election campaign. Anthony Albanese, see you soon. 

ALBANESE: Thank you.

ENDS