SUBJECTS: Child care; COVID-19 in India; stranded Australians.
 
ANTHONY ALBANESE, LEADER OF THE AUSTRALIAN LABOR PARTY: Good morning. Thanks for joining me. I'm here at St. Davids, at Haberfield. And firstly, I want to say congratulations to the congregation here on celebrating 150 years. Like much, it was delayed for COVID but today they've been able to launch the history of this church and this parish that provides aged care services, disability care, and the history happened to be written by Vince Crowe, who happens to be my former history teacher. So it's a great privilege to be here today as the local member. 

Can I say that today, Scott Morrison has missed an opportunity. He's missed an opportunity to respond to fixing up the problems that his own personally created child care policy has created. It's interesting in the media release, that the Government now acknowledges the problems that are there in the system, that when we announced our cheaper child care policy in last year's budget reply, they said didn't exist. They've acknowledged that there's a disincentive there, particularly for women to work a fourth or a fifth day, they've acknowledged that this is a handbrake on the economy. What they haven't acknowledged is that the increases in child care costs have now reached the point whereby we have the most expensive out of pocket child care costs in the advanced world. That is a real problem. 

We need to address child care, but it needs to be comprehensive. Today's announcement or leak of the Budget doesn't do enough. There is nothing there to regulate the costs that are at record highs under this Government. This does nothing to move towards a universal, affordable child care system, something that Labor says we need to do, because child care is not about welfare. Childcare is about providing an essential service, which boosts our economy and is essential economic reform. As organisations like the Business Council of Australia have said. Labor's policy will assist 97 per cent of working families. Four times, in terms of our policy on subsidy, will assist four times more families, then the Government's approach. This Government is trying to deal with issues without dealing with it comprehensively. 

We have a circumstance whereby the policy will support families who have a second or third child, but what about families who have just one child in childcare? And who might have more than one child as well. The fact is, is that if we have a comprehensive plan, what it needs to do is to remove the disincentive for all women to enter the workforce, to give families that choice. We certainly agree with removing the cap which is why Labor called for it in 2019 in for a considerable period of time, and why we had that as the centerpiece of our budget reply last year. But could I say that if imitation is the greatest form of flattery then this Government is indeed flattering the Australian Labor Party. Yesterday, we had a craft beer and distillers policy that was something that I've been calling for, for the last five years have campaigned on extensively with the sector. Today, they've gone a step towards Labor's policy of cheaper child care. But again, somewhat ironically, are saying that ours is too helpful to families who have children, that's again, because they don't understand that this is about economic reform, not about welfare policy. 

Can I make another comment about the Government's approach to employment. We now have at least 14 appointments of Liberal and National Party connected former politicians or former senior staff or former party officials being appointed to extremely high paid jobs.

Some of the appointments going into the tune of millions of dollars for decades into the future. Some of those like Sophie Mirabella's appointment to the Fair Work Commission, quite frankly incomprehensible for anyone who understands that the Fair Work Commission's job is to bring parties together and negotiate outcomes. And if you think about bringing people together, the last person you think of is Sophie Mirabella, who couldn't even bring together members of her own party, let alone anyone else. But this is a Government that have appointed 14 people into high paid jobs across the board. On top of the hundreds of people that they have appointed to bodies like the Administrative Appeals Tribunal, we've seen the Australia Post board debacles. All of these appointments have been made. Those 14 high paid secure jobs are things that most Australians could only dream of. Australians are increasingly in insecure work. Labor has a policy to make work more secure. And the Government has a policy to make former Liberal mates, more jobs that are more secure. That's their policy, more secure jobs for Liberal mates. Our policy is more secure jobs for more Australians. 

Happy to take questions.

JOURNALIST: On child care policy Mr. Albanese, what's the difference between yours and the government?

ALBANESE: Ours is more comprehensive across the board, ours will assist, Labor's child care policy will assist through the subsidy, more than four times those people who receive assistance from the Government;s plan. Our policy is to move towards universal provision of affordable childcare, just like Labor created universal health care through Medicare, just like Labor created universal superannuation, Labor will create universal support for affordable child care, because it's an important economic reform.

JOURNALIST: If the Federal Government's child care policy is more targeted, is it more achievable?

ALBANESE: The problem for the Government is that last year when we announced our cheaper child care plan, they said there was no problem here. So now, they're proposing a half baked solution to a problem they said didn't exist. The Government has said that the design of the scheme - that was designed by Scott Morrison, as Minister - was looking after people. Whereas what we know is that child care costs have been increasing this year, by around about four or five times the inflation rate. We have the least affordable childcare system in the OECD. 

The fact is, other countries recognise that removing the disincentive to work actually boosts your economy and pays back. Now, when we announced our policy last year, the Government said that would cost money. They said that there was no benefit to the national economy of that policy. Now, they're saying in justifying their half baked plan. They're saying, but there'll be a return to the economy through growth. Well, if you get a return to the economy through growth, of doing a little bit of reform, guess what? You get more benefit for the economy by doing bigger reform, and Labor will fix childcare. It needs a comprehensive plan. Our plan is out there. It's been out there since the Budget reply and the Government, the Government refused to do it. Now the only reason, let's be clear, the only reason why there's any movement at all from this Government on this issue is because during the last Budget, they handed down a Budget that ignored 51per cent of the population. It completely ignored women in their Budget last year, and it also completely ignored the need for economic reform. This is a Treasurer who has produced $1 trillion of debt, who said that $200 billion of debt was unsustainable. This is a Treasurer who can't keep a line for more than three weeks. A Treasurer who three weeks ago, was speaking about paying back debt that he has created. And who now says we don't need to worry about that. This is a Treasurer who two years ago, produced mugs saying Back in Black prematurely when this Treasurer, of course will never produce a budget surplus, even though this Government was elected eight long years ago, promising a surplus in their first year and every year thereafter.

JOURNALIST: Australian trying to return from India, with the travel ban and facing jail terms, what are your thoughts on that?

ALBANESE: Well, the Government's got to justify how it is that the figures from India are similar to what they've been in the past from the UK and the US, but we haven't seen these sort of measures. The Government also has to explain why it is that Scott Morrison committed to bringing Australians home before Christmas, and we have tens of thousands of Australians stranded overseas. Australia has obligations to our citizens, to people who are Australians, not just to abandon them overseas, but then to threaten them is quite extraordinary action. And the Government needs to explain what is their plan for bringing Australians home. Other countries have been able to do it. It's now almost a year since I called for measures such as using the VIP fleet to bring people home. We need to get quarantine right. This Government hasn't got quarantine, right. It hasn't been able to bring people home. It hasn't got the vaccination rollout, right. The only thing that Scott Morrison has successfully rolled is Malcolm Turnbull for the Prime Ministership.

JOURNALIST: On that, I spoke to a lady who worked all last year through the second wave in Melbourne at Royal Women's Hospital in the COVID ward.She's gone to Hyderabad to see her dying father a couple of days before he passed away. And now she says she feels like she's being treated as a criminal. 

ALBANESE: Well, the Government is threatening people with with jail. It's pretty hard to just sneak into Australia. The Government controls our immigration system. The Federal Government is responsible for quarantine. The Federal Government needs to explain exactly how this announcement will work in practice. Our biosecurity laws are there for a reason. They're there, by and large, not to stop people, but to stop threats to people's health. Now, in terms of those issues, we of course, should follow health advice. And it's quite right for us to place restrictions on people are coming into Australia, but at the same time, at the same time, we have obligations to Australian citizens, and the Government needs to explain how it will deal with these issues. Because it can't just not only leave people stranded overseas, but now threaten them as Australian citizens from returning. 

JOURNALIST: The Iraqis are evacuating citizens from New Delhi, Australia, are doing nothing, they're going the opposite way and threatening them with jail if they try to come here. 

ALBANESE: This is an extraordinary policy from the Government. It of course, is up to them to explain how this would work in practice. But I'm very concerned about any abandonment by an Australian Government of the obligations that it has to Australian citizens. And in the example that that you use, this is a woman who's an Australian who's gone overseas to see her dying father in his last days. The idea that we would put her in jail upon her return to Australia is quite extraordinary. What we need to do is to make sure that we get the quarantine system operating properly. And Scott Morrison continues to say that the quarantine system is is working just fine. Well you can't have it both ways. So the quarantine system is working just fine. And then have the statements that were made by the Health Minister in the last 48 hours.

Thank you.

ENDS