SUBJECTS: Climate incoherence within the Nationals and Coalition; action on climate change; Labor’s emission reduction targets; Rewiring the Nation; electric vehicles; community batteries; PEP 11; job opportunities from acting on climate change; Australians stranded overseas; the need for purpose-built quarantine facilities; COVID restrictions and border closures.

ANTHONY ALBANESE, LEADER OF THE AUSTRALIAN LABOR PARTY: Thanks for joining me. Today we were given a reminder of that remarkable press conference Barnaby Joyce gave last year, where he stood in a paddock and looked at the sky and had this incoherent rambling about climate change. Today he did it on the Insiders program. The fact is, though, that the Nats aren’t just a rabble, they’re a roadblock. It’s very clear that they are completely divided when it comes to climate change. They’re divided between Michael McCormack and Darren Chester and Barnaby Joyce, even before you get to Matt Canavan and his position when it comes to climate that the world will end if we take any action on climate change. Good action on climate change is good for jobs, it’s good for lower energy prices and it’s good for lowering our emissions. And Australia remains a pariah whilst we don’t adopt net zero by 2050. This is a target that’s been adopted by every state and territory government in the country, by all of our major trading partners in the developed world. It’s a target that’s been adopted by the big four banks, our major corporations, including BHP, Santos, Woodside, Telstra, Qantas, and so many others, and by peak organisations like the Business Council of Australia and the National Farmers’ Federation. But here we have a Government in the lead-up to the Glasgow climate change conference that’s incapable of adopting net zero by 2050. And we know after eight long years of inaction that you won’t get serious action going forward when it comes to renewables, when it comes to the transformation in our economy that is required to take action on climate change. The fact is that whilst Labor supports net zero emissions, the Coalition have net zero credibility when it comes to climate change. And we saw that again today with Barnaby Joyce’s incoherent ramblings when it comes to climate action. The fact is that this Government have a climate of division. They are divided between the Liberal Party and the National Party, they’re divided between themselves internally within the Liberal Party and within the National Party, and then when they get together as a Coalition. Very clearly, what it will take is a Labor government that’s prepared to work with industry, prepared to work with the community, to actually take action on climate that will create jobs, that will encourage innovation, that will make a difference for lowering energy prices and lowering our emissions. Happy to take questions.

JOURNALIST: Just in terms of Labor’s plan to get there, will Labor announce its medium-term emissions reduction target before or after the Glasgow conference in November?

ALBANESE: We’ll announce our full suite of climate change policies after the Glasgow conference. I’ve said that very clearly. But we haven’t waited until then. One of the first announcements I made as Labor Leader was for net zero emissions by 2050. In my first Budget Reply, I announced our Rewiring the Nation program. That is a $20 billion program to fix transmission. That is the single most significant thing that you could do to enhance the stability of our energy grid to make sure that renewables can feed in. At the moment, the incoherence in the Government’s approach means that, even when you have investment like Snowy 2.0, it’s not able to enter into the grid satisfactorily so that it stabilises the energy system and encourages that investment in renewables that we need. In addition to that, as well, we've announced progress to make electric vehicles cheaper, because we understand that you've got to have a whole economy approach. We've announced plans for community batteries, when it comes to household solar, so that we can maximise the benefit of the action that individual Australians are taking in their own homes. So we can make a substantial difference. We'll have more things to say both in the lead-up to and after the Glasgow conference. But Glasgow will reframe the international debate. The question is, does Australia go to Glasgow with a strong position of having credibility? Unless we have net zero emissions by 2050, Australia will have net zero credibility when it comes to sitting around the table in Glasgow.

JOURNALIST: Are you waiting to see what the Government will announce before revealing your own plans?

ALBANESE: We're announcing, we won't be the government prior to Glasgow, so we're waiting for international developments as well. We want to announce a policy that's consistent, not change it during the term of government. And I've said that very clearly, from the beginning, when I announced net zero by 2050. And one of the things that I said would change the international framework in the debate would be the outcome of the US election. We've had the Trump administration, that was so liked by Scott Morrison and his Government that he went to a campaign rally in Ohio in support of President Trump, replaced by President Biden who has a clear commitment with this US administration to action on climate change and to international leadership.

JOURNALIST: You're saying you won't be the government before Glasgow. That's right. But we are expecting an election within six months. So doesn't the public deserve to know what the alternative government’s plans are?

ALBANESE: Yes, they do. And they will.

JOURNALST: Why not now? Why are you waiting?

ALBANESE: Because the election is not now. The election will be after Glasgow. And we’ve already announced net zero by 2050. We have announced the largest program that we have announced during this term of opposition is the Rewiring the Nation program to fix transmission, a $20 billion commitment that we made. We've made a commitment on electric vehicles, we've made a commitment on household solar, we've said that Australia should be a renewable energy superpower for the world. They're all commitments that we've made. But we'll make further commitments between now and the election. And I do note that the current Government's target of 26 to 28 per cent is lower than the target if you add up the state and territory government targets that have been established right around the country, in terms of interim targets. So even if the Federal Government did nothing, had no further ambition, you would see a more ambitious position put forward by many state and territory governments, including the Coalition Government here in New South Wales.

JOURNALIST: Well just on interim targets, Liberal Dave Sharma wants the Government to cut emissions by 40 to 45 per cent by 2035. Is that a sensible target?

ALBANESE: Well, Dave Sharma you know, you've got to you got to give him a bit of credit for having a lack of coherence. Here he is. He's part of a Government that during a by-election for Wentworth is the only time that you've heard positive things said about climate change. What we actually need is action from a government. And only a Labor government will provide that coherent position going forward. Our interim targets will all be consistent with net zero by 2050. We’ve said that. And we'll have a series of programs in addition to the ones we've already announced. That will be consistent going forward. But Dave Sharma, frankly, has very little credibility in this area. He has had a number of opportunities, including with private member's bills and motions that have been before the Parliament. He consistently has voted against climate change action, as have people like Jason Falinski and others, and no wonder they've been targeted by not just Labor but by independent candidates as well. This is a Government that can't even agree to rule out PEP 11, which is about oil and gas exploration off the coastline from the Sydney coastline going up to the Hunter. And they are saying that that investment that has been proposed by a listed company can't be ruled out. That's within Keith Pitt’s capacity to rule that out today. He refuses to do so. And right throughout the Hunter, the Central Coast and the Sydney coastline this is a major issue.

JOURNALIST: Hello, Mr Albanese. Just picking up on Barnaby Joyce's comments. And, you know, he says that he's concerned, you know, he wants to make sure there's not an unreasonable loss of jobs or any loss of jobs in regional areas in that transition to net zero. Could Labor confirm that, you know, in your plans that there won't be a loss of jobs in regional areas.

ALBANESE: Good action on climate change will create jobs in regional communities. If you go to somewhere like Gladstone, the Rio Tinto aluminium refinery there is looking at how you can have renewables to lower their energy prices to enable them to expand capacity. If you look at the action that's taking place in Maryborough, just south of Gladstone there in Central Queensland, along with the manufacturing revitalisation of rail, what we're seeing there in the next 12 months will be the opening of a factory producing batteries to power renewables. There is an enormous opportunity for growth of jobs in the community if we get this right, particularly by lowering manufacturing prices, which is what you do if you lower the energy costs of those inputs. We have enormous opportunity in regional Australia. Many of that is being embraced already. I've travelled through North Queensland with Bob Katter and looked at the Kidston project, Big Kennedy, Little Kennedy, projects around Hughenden in his electorate in North Queensland that are creating jobs there today and jobs into the future. I've been to visit, in Cairns, a solar plant with Chris Bowen which is producing solar panels and other manufactured products as a result of the shift to clean energy that's occurring. We can create jobs, and we can create jobs particularly in regional Australia, if we get it right. The only thing that's holding us back is the incoherence and the rhetoric of the National and Liberal parties that are incapable of embracing the future and the opportunities that are there. Recently, just in the last week, we've had approval from Indonesia for the cables associated with the Sun Cable project in the Northern Territory that will power Singapore. This is us becoming an exporter of renewable energy to Singapore that will power more than 10 per cent of Singapore's energy needs into the future from solar panels with the largest solar farm in the world that will be placed in the Northern Territory. These are all opportunities that we have. But we have a Government that is incapable of embracing those opportunities, that has incoherent babble from Barnaby Joyce, who is the Acting Prime Minister of this country, and people like Matt Canavan and others who have held the Coalition back.

JOURNALIST: On a different topic, just before the Prime Minister left Washington, he did say, you know, very firmly, that once we get to 80 per cent vaccination we need to open up, and that's the challenge of all the Premiers that have no reason not to. Do you back him in on those comments and will you put the pressure on the Labor Premiers, especially Queensland and WA that have been resisting that they need to open at 80 per cent?

ALBANESE: Well, you forgot two states called South Australia and Tasmania. And that's something that the Prime Minister continually does but journalists shouldn't. The fact is that the reason why our borders have restrictions at the moment is a failure of Scott Morrison when it comes to vaccines and when it comes to quarantine.

JOURNALIST: But my question is, are you backing him in to all the states, should all states ensure that they drop the borders and reopen at 80 per cent?

ALBANESE: Well, I looked last night at Western Australia, and that game between Melbourne and the Western Bulldogs, and it was a fantastic crowd that were there. They were loud and they were really enjoying the freedom that they have as a result of Mark McGowan’s leadership there in WA. Next Sunday, I would want nothing better than to be at Suncorp next Sunday watching Souths play Penrith. That's not going to be possible. Those restrictions, no one wants them there for one day more than necessary. No one. And that's why we have a national plan. I support the national plan, as does every state and territory leader. But it is Scott Morrison who's responsible for the failure which is there. It’s Scott Morrison that hasn't delivered the supply of vaccines to enable those vaccine targets to be met far earlier. It’s Scott Morrison that’s failed to establish purpose-built quarantine. The Premier of Queensland has had to go her own way and establish at Wellcamp a purpose-built quarantine facility due to a failure of Scott Morrison's leadership. So it's not surprising. It's about time that this Prime Minister delivered on his own commitments rather than consistently seeking not to show national leadership but to blame others. This is a Prime Minister who constantly blames others for the failure that he himself has had. And I note as well, remarkably, that he has said once again that Australians who are stranded overseas will be home by Christmas. If that sounds familiar, that's because that's what he said last year.

JOURNALIST: Mr Albanese, just on the stranded Aussies, the latest figures that I have from DFAT is that there are 47,000 of them overseas. The best hope for them to get back at this rate is for the vaccination rates to hit 80 per cent and then for them to be able to come in, you know, once the international arrival caps have been abolished. So you know, that's on the states as well to make sure that they, you know, reach those targets and then open up.

ALBANESE: I think you'll find under our Constitution and under our system of government that immigration and customs, as well as quarantine, are Federal Government responsibilities. Scott Morrison said that people would be home before last Christmas. Now as we approach this year's Christmas, we have more than 40,000 Australians who remain stranded overseas. That's a direct responsibility of Scott Morrison failing to set up purpose-built quarantine and failing on the supply of the vaccine. And it is heartbreaking. I've had constituents today, just this morning, reading my emails, a couple of constituents, one person whose partner went overseas to see a sick relative, who's stranded overseas. That relative unfortunately passed away. They live in Stanmore. They’re desperate to get their partner home. And they want to be able to, their workplace that's named in the email, has agreed that they could work from quarantine. But they can't get space because of a failure of the Federal Government to establish purpose-built quarantine facilities. If Wellcamp when it was first put forward had been established, we could have had so many tens of thousands of people through those processes by now. As it is, we just have Howard Springs, which has worked effectively, which has had more people go through quarantine than any of the hotels in the capital cities around Australia. And not a single case, not a single outbreak, not a single breach, unlike the hotel quarantine systems that have led to the current outbreak. And the current shutdowns that are there in Sydney and Melbourne and Canberra are all as a result of a single limo driver taking a foreign air crew to hotel quarantine and there being an outbreak as a result of that.

JOURNALIST: So just on that vaccination issue, so Scott Morrison says that Australians want to have their lives back by Christmas and then once 80 per cent of adults have been vaccinated, people should be able to travel interstate again. Do you agree with that?

ALBANESE: Well, I agree with the national plan, the national plan that’s there that this Federal Government and this Federal Prime Minister has failed to uphold. This Prime Minister has failed when it comes to the commitments that he's made. This time last year, he was saying we were the first in the queue, we weren't, when it comes to vaccines. And he was saying Australians would be home before Christmas, and we're not. The reason why there are any border restrictions now is because of the outbreak that began in Sydney. An outbreak that, in June, the Prime Minister congratulated Gladys Berejiklian in not taking action to restrict the spread of the virus that was at the time occurring in Bondi and in the Eastern Suburbs of Sydney. As a result, we've had that spread and we’ve had these restrictions. No one wants any restrictions to be in place for one day more than necessary. I certainly don't. It's very frustrating that it has occurred. People talk about moving within interstate borders. People in my electorate, some people in the Canterbury-Bankstown area in my electorate can't visit people across in other parts of my electorate for work right now. They're the sort of restrictions which are there as a result of this Government's failure. And Scott Morrison should accept responsibility for that rather than doing what he always does, which is always to look to blame someone else, always looking for a look-over-there moment. Thanks very much.

ENDS