SUBJECTS: Glasgow summit; engaging with the Indo-Pacific on climate change; Australia’s relationship with France and the United States; distrust in Scott Morrison; integrity. 

ANTHONY ALBANESE, LEADER OF THE AUSTRALIAN LABOR PARTY: Labor will be continuing to watch the events at the Glasgow Climate Change Conference. And we hope for a positive outcome. We note that there was nothing new in the Prime Minister's opening address to that conference. We welcome, of course, any additional support for our neighbours in the Pacific. But we also note that this comes after considerable cuts to our foreign aid budget over a period of time that don't make up for the announcement that's been made overnight. And we suspect that they might notice that too, in terms of our neighbours. Quite clearly, we have a responsibility and also an interest in engaging in the Indo-Pacific on climate change. And during the 70th anniversary of the ANZUS Treaty address I gave to the Federal Parliament, I indicated that I saw cooperation on climate change as an important part of our national security arrangements with the United States, both directly but also indirectly with our Indo-Pacific neighbours.

Scott Morrison needs to not treat leaders of other countries the way that he treats state premiers here in Australia, where he often will treat them as political opponents rather than people who he needs to develop trusted relationships with. Gaslighting and backgrounding is no way to build relations with our important democratic neighbours and countries like the United States and France, where we've seen, clearly, a breakdown in relations in recent times. The comments of President Macron are very direct, but the comments of President Biden were no less significant. We have no greater partner than the United States of America. And the fact that the US feel that they were not given all of the information about the arrangements that were occurring, that they were a party to, with regard to the information given to France, is a real concern, as is, of course, President Macron's comments. And the attempted damage control by selectively leaking private text messages is quite an extraordinary step for an Australian Prime Minister to take. Leaders of countries, and indeed, people in their everyday life need to be able to engage in a professional way. And the leaking of this selected text message isn't the first time that we've seen that occur from this Prime Minister. Pretending, also, that personal criticism of him is criticism of Australia is using our nation as a human shield. Now, Scott Morrison isn't the first leader to see himself as synonymous with his nation. In France, Louis XIV said, 'I am the state'. A famous quote. Well, the news for Scott Morrison is he isn't the state of Australia. He's someone who is a leader with a track record of not answering questions directly, of dissembling, of gaslighting and of not being fair dinkum in the way that he deals with issues in the Parliament, or whether over a range of issues that he has had to deal with over the time since he's been the Prime Minister. Indeed, the whole way that he's dealing with climate change, where he pretends that he never said statements like electric vehicles would end the weekend, that batteries were as useful as the Big Banana or the Big Prawn, that renewable energy targets were nuts, that he opposed net zero by 2050, that he's made extravagant claims about climate change in order to undermine the debate and the need for action on climate change. That is something that he has very much a track record of. I might leave it there. Happy to take questions.

JOURNALIST: Opposition Leader, so who should Australians trust? Is it President Macron or Scott Morrison? 

ALBANESE: Well, what they should do is just look at the information that's out there. And what we want to see is a repair of the relationship with France and, indeed, a repair of the relationship with the United States as well. People would be aware, in their everyday life, Australians would know that the issue of selective leaking of a text message that doesn't really say anything except that when the Prime Minister was trying to organise a briefing, a time for a call to be made to President Macron, President Macron asked the question of whether it was about the subs. But the leaking of this text message is a considerable escalation of the conflict. Diplomacy requires trust and it requires sombre engagement between leaders. And I want to see an Australia that engages with our friends. And France is indeed a friend. President Macron made it very clear about Australia's contribution to the defence of the French people during the First and Second World Wars. President Macron had some nice things to say about Australia. And for the Prime Minister to, firstly, criticise the media for raising it and suggest that the media were there taking selfies with President Macron, itself was something that just wasn't true, it just didn't happen, and then to suggest that the criticism of the engagement directly between Prime Minister Morrison and President Macron was a complete repudiation of the people of Australia, is also not appropriate. What we know is that the Future Submarines project was a deal signed by this Government, by the Coalition Government. I have sat in the Parliament since it was signed. I've never heard a minister stand up during all of that time, not the Prime Minister, not the Defence Minister or a minister representing, not the Foreign Minister or a minister representing, and say, 'Oh, this deal is hopeless, it's over budget, it's massively out of time'. What I've heard is the Government praising that project. And indeed, in March, the Acting Defence Minister Payne announced a revised agreement about a 60 per cent local spend. And then, of course, in June, you had meetings occur in France, between our Prime Minister and President Macron. And then, on the 30th of August, there was two-plus-two meeting. So, the Defence Minister and Foreign Minister of Australia meeting with the Defence Minister and Foreign Minister of France. And the communique that went out from that said the minutes underline the importance of the Future Submarine Program. So anyone who had followed that debate would have seen that there was no criticism of the program by this Government prior to recent times when the program was opposed. 

And in terms of the relations as well, if you look at what Labor had to say, we were briefed. And again, another example, I received a phone call from the Prime Minister asking me to travel to Canberra. He didn't tell me what it was for, except that it was a briefing related to national security. I did that on 24 hours’ notice, rearranged things out of respect for the office of Prime Minister and because he said it was an important issue. I went through that national security briefing and didn't tell anyone outside the room what I had been briefed on. That is entirely appropriate. That night, the Prime Minister's office went around the press gallery and told people, journalists, that I had been briefed that day, that Labor had been briefed on tomorrow's announcement that was due at 7am. And as a result, my office started to receive calls about the nature of the briefing. It's not a way to conduct these issues. It's just not appropriate. 

When, in 2019, the Prime Minister sent me a private text message that he was going on leave and that the then Deputy Prime Minister would be acting. That was on Sunday night. You might be aware, for a number of days, the Prime Minister's office couldn't confirm whether he was on leave or not. The Acting Prime Minister couldn't confirm that he was the Acting Prime Minister. I didn't know where Scott Morrison travelled. I wasn't critical of him travelling. I didn't go out and breach that private message when Scott Morrison was on holiday. And then on Friday, on the Friday of that week, Scott Morrison gave an interview on 2GB from Hawaii, in which he said, 'Oh, I messaged Anthony Albanese, I told him what was happening'. As if I knew that he was in Hawaii. But I kept his confidence. I kept his confidence. Because that's what people of integrity do. They have relations between people. And this Prime Minister, on a range of issues, has ducked questions, has not given straight answers, has pretended that things that were a changed position for him were positions that he had all the way along, and always seeks to blame someone else, always seeks to defer responsibility. And I think that the decision re our submarines, Labor has been supportive of the change in direction. We provided that support in the national interest. The very next day, I convened a Shadow Cabinet meeting. There were no political plays made from the Australian Labor Party on those issues, because I take my responsibility to the national interest very seriously indeed. But I am very concerned at the breakdown that we see in relations and that the Prime Minister, in the comments that he's made and now escalating that conflict, it will mean that it takes longer to repair the relationships which are important ones for us. Thanks.

ENDS