SUBJECTS: Morrison Government all announcement no delivery; Government ridicules electric vehicles; climate change; Labor’s policy agenda; carbon capture and storage; Federal election; Scott Morrison can’t be trusted.
 
ANTHONY ALBANESE, LEADER OF THE AUSTRALIAN LABOR PARTY: Good morning. Well, another day, another announcement from the Morrison Government. Because for Scott Morrison, it's always about the announcement, never about the delivery. Always about the spin, never about the substance. Perhaps the charging stations are going into the car parks that haven't been built, next door to the train stations that don't exist. The problem with this Government is that in the lead-up to elections, and we're in the pre-caretaker mode now, this Government is always prepared to say absolutely anything, and then not worry about delivering if it's a commitment about some investment in the future, or not worry about being consistent in the statements that it's made, and indeed denying it. Of course, overnight, the Morrison-Joyce Government was ranked dead last on climate policy in the Climate Change Performance Index that was released in Glasgow. The Liberals have had nearly a decade in Government. And you simply can't trust Scott Morrison to deliver. And you cannot trust what Scott Morrison says. When it comes to the Prime Minister's spin cycle on energy, we know this. Firstly, the Prime Minister didn't take any of these policies to Glasgow, because he knows that they're all about spin and not about substance. And they're all about him pretending that they haven't been in Government for almost a decade. A Government that has been in office for almost a decade, that tried to abolish the renewable energy target, that tried to abolish the Clean Energy Finance Corporation, that tried to abolish the Australian Renewable Energy Agency, that oppose net zero by 2050, that said electric vehicles would end the weekend and that you couldn't tow your trailer or your caravan if you had it. Tried to pretend that people were going to stop people having choice in terms of consumers going forward. This is a Government that has a record that it's pretending that it doesn't have. Secondly, if Scott Morrison could be trusted to deliver on any of these policies, then why is it that we've had more than 20 energy policies over that decade? And thirdly, with Scott Morrison, we all know that policy announcements are just about the announcement, they're not about the substance. Why is it that Scott Morrison and Angus Taylor, who I read was in Glasgow, but no one would know that, made a major announcement in Parliament House all about their net zero by 2050 and how they were going to get there? We still haven't seen their modelling. If there was any substance to any of these policy announcements, why weren't they made then, when the Government explicitly said in its documentation, its pamphlet, that there were no new policies? And of course, Scott Morrison at that time as well, continued to, though that pamphlet, have two columns, 'What we're doing' and 'What we're not doing' in order to spin their way out of it. Scott Morrison yesterday denied that he had been critical and had ridiculed electric vehicles. Well, there's this little thing called the internet. They've done their best to undermine the NBN. But still, people can look up what people have said in the past. And it's there very clearly on the record in multiple media conferences, with Scott Morrison and Michaelia Cash and other senior members of the Government ridiculing electric vehicles. And now, he seeks to deny that he said it. Well, I make this very simple point, when his own words mean so little to Scott Morrison, why should they mean more to Australians when he speaks today? If what he said in 2019 is so worthless, why is it that they should give any credence to anything that Scott Morrison says in 2021? Because it is all about the announcement. The Prime Minister has returned from Glasgow and has gone into a spin cycle. But Australians will know that nothing credible will come out in the wash of this spin cycle. Happy to take questions.
 
JOURNALIST: What's wrong with using the Clean Energy Finance Corporation to invest in carbon capture and storage programs?
 
ALBANESE: Well, we'll wait and see what legislation they have. But what they were trying to do was to take money that was allocated for clean energy, for renewables, in the CEFC and ARENA, two bodies that they tried to abolish. They tried to abolish. And they were trying to use that money for things that weren't renewables. This Government, even in its spin today of the figures that they've used, are double, when you actually look at the detail, they are talking about the Government taking credit for private sector investment. That's just absurd. We have a $15 billion National Reconstruction Fund that we will establish. If we're going to include private sector investment in that, that will facilitate much more than $30 billion of activity. But we don't use that figure. This is just an example of their spin. Because what the Government's talking about, we'll wait and see what they come up with, whether it's new money, what it is, but let's take it at face-value, $500 million dollars. They removed more than $500 million from the Budget that was in the Budget for carbon capture and storage when they came in the Government. So, they're putting back less than the amount that they removed in their first Budget. These people are hypocrites. They are inconsistent. They're not fair dinkum. And they're not real. Which is why they're rated as last in the world when it comes to policy on climate change.
 
JOURNALIST: The Prime Minister says that he's backing Australian choices, not putting mandates on them and telling them what to do.
 
ALBANESE: Isn't that an example?
 
JOURNALIST: Let me finish the question. My question is, are you proud of Labor's record on things like quotas and mandates on everything from getting women into politics?
 
ALBANESE: That's just nonsense. Well, that's a nonsense question, with respect. I'm not sure where you're from.
 
JOURNALIST: The Sydney Morning Herald.
 
ALBANESE: Well, where was the mandate? A question back that journalists need to ask this bloke when he's standing up and spouting this nonsense, which then is somehow repeated. What the Prime Minister has said is that somehow there's a mandate on the electric vehicle policy that we took to the election in 2019. There was no mandate. There was no forcing people to give up their utes. That was an absolute nonsense. And it should be called out. And it shouldn't be repeated by serious journalists. Serious journalists need to look at this nonsense and call it out for what it is and not repeat it with slight variations. Because the fact is that what we are saying on electric vehicles is we will lower the price. We will lower the price of electric vehicles by removing the fringe benefits tax and by removing excise. This Government had nothing that they announced yesterday that would lower the price. There have never been mandates. There has never been any attempt by any government to take away a choice that private individuals would make. But what the Government was doing in 2019 was denying the reality. And there are two things you can do about the future. You can either shape it in the interest of people, or you can sit back and pretend it's not happening and allow the future to shape you. And what this Government was doing in denying what was happening in technology and electric vehicles was denying what was happening in the marketplace. Volvo had ads yesterday in the newspaper, including in the Sydney Morning Herald, full-page ads, saying they were going to full electric. Now. That's happening now. Electric vehicles are reaching price parity sometime either 2023 or 2024. Ford, GMH, all the Japanese, Korean, European auto manufacturers are all moving towards electric vehicles. They are all phasing out what has happened historically in terms of our vehicles. I attended a conference back in 2009 as Australia's Transport Minister. That was a time where Australia wasn't embarrassed on the international stage. The ministerial council on emissions and energy and transport was held in Tokyo. The Japanese know a little bit about vehicles and automotive. And there, every single manufacturer was saying, 'We are doing no research into internal combustion engines'. It was all about electric vehicles and all about hydrogen. So, let's not have people sucked into this nonsense argument about choice and mandates. It's complete nonsense. The fact is that in coming period of time, you will, for people who are born today, they won't have a choice of buying a petrol vehicle, because no one will be making them. That is what the automotive sector are saying. And here in New South Wales, a Liberal Government that's more responsible, that doesn't deny change that's occurring, is acting very differently as well. So, this is all Scott Morrison. What he does consistently is put up an announcement that's never followed through. But he does something else as well. He tries to characterise alternative policy based upon facts as something that it's not. And it never was, and never will be. What I'm about is choice. But making sure, as well, that we're not the dumping ground for the world because we've fallen behind. The number of electric vehicles sold in this country last year in terms of new entries was under two per cent. The rest of the world, by and large, is in double digits. In Norway they are at 70 per cent. We are falling behind in so many areas. We're not just losing first mover advantage, it's worse than that as well. And that's why we ranked last when it comes to policy development.
 
JOURNALIST: Labor has promised to outline its climate policies after COP, which is nearly over. When can we expect to see your targets?
 
ALBANESE: When we do it. And it will be with more substance than the nonsense that we saw from the Government just weeks ago. I'll give you the big tip. We won't have a whole series of spin and announcements with nothing behind them like we saw from Scott Morrison just a few weeks ago standing there with Angus Taylor, and now next announcements, saying not much yesterday, and then again today. Our policy will be substance. Can I say this? We've already got net zero by 2050. We've already got Rewiring the Nation that will transform our electricity grid and our system transmission for the 21st century. We have announced the cheaper policy for electric vehicles. We have announced the policy for community batteries. And we have a $15 billion National Reconstruction Fund to support new industries, to support jobs in those sectors.
 
JOURNALIST: The PM already seems to be on election footing. Why are you leaving it so late to announce your policy position on climate?
 
ALBANESE: I just told you that we announced our Rewiring the Nation policy in my first Budget Reply. That was in 2020. I announced our policy on the National Reconstruction Fund. $15 billion. Not a fudge, like we've seen today of, 'We don't know how much is there'. But we know it's not a billion. We know that's not the case. We know that already. We've announced our policy for community batteries. Where's the Government's policy on that? Where's the policy for cheaper electric vehicles? Where's the policy for new energy apprenticeships that we've announced already so that we can have the skilled workforce to undertake the jobs of the future? We have announced all of those policies. This Government actually now argue, and it's a part of the next stage of the spin cycle that a previous question went to, they go to as well saying that legislation apparently is now something that's bad. Someone should tell this Government that's what parliaments do normally, is legislate. We pass laws based upon the values and policies going forward. This Government not only is it saying it won't legislate net zero by 2050, so it's just a vibe, it's not a policy. Other countries have legislated. Not only are they saying they won't, they're trying to turn their internal turmoil within the Liberal Party, within the National Party, and between the liberals and the Nationals, into a position whereby it's a virtue, somehow, that that's about freedom in some sort of channelling of far-right politics that doesn't think that governments should ever legislate for the future. It's quite an extraordinary proposition.
 
JOURNALIST: Mark Dreyfus has been prosecuting the case against Michael Sukkar on integrity matters. How does that stack up when we're hearing in IBAC about what seems to be a widespread culture within Victorian Labor of branch-stacking and potential misuse of taxpayer resources? And how does it stack up against Anthony Byrne remaining a member of your team?
 
ALBANESE: Are you serious? Anthony Byrne held a junior position as a committee deputy chair and no longer holds that position. Michael Sukkur is a minister in the Morrison Government who engaged in practices that have been revealed, including by the Nine newspapers and 60 Minutes, along with Kevin Andrews and his office, and there's no penalty whatsoever. And the Prime Minister is saying that there's nothing to see here. It's another reminder of the fact that you need a National Anti-corruption Commission.
 
JOURNALIST: The Prime Minister says he is not involved in the private quarantine proposals. (Inaudible). Are you satisfied with that assurance?
 
ALBANESE: Well, no, I'm not. There needs to be complete transparency. And this Government never is transparent. This is the Government whereby if you look at its practices, you understand why it is that they're on a go-slow when it comes to a National Anti-corruption Commission. The fact is that this Government have a lack of transparency. The details which have been revealed, once again, contracts going without open processes, contracts whereby people don't know that they're even available until they're granted. Once again, people with connections to the Government doing okay. The fact is that this is a Government, when it comes to quarantine, has walked away from its responsibility. They had two jobs with regard to COVID. Fixing national quarantine and rolling out the vaccine and ensuring supply. They failed on both. And now, we have a position on quarantine where not only have they failed to establish national quarantine facilities, not only have they blocked proposals such as the one that the Palaszczuk Government has to step in and proceed with that Wellcamp Airport, not only had the recent breakdowns and lockdowns in Sydney and Victoria and indeed spreading in New Zealand are risen out of a failure on quarantine, of which have been more than 20 breaches that have led to real consequences for our economy, billions of dollars being lost, jobs being lost. Now, we have a contracting out. So, now, under circumstances whereby a Government that has said, 'No, quarantine has got nothing to do with us', is facilitating contracts and taxpayer funds being used in ways that would appear to be not transparent. I don't know about you, but I didn't hear about this private contract. I didn't hear the Government standing up in question time when Parliament sat during the last fortnight and say, 'We're going to have this proposal'. I didn't hear the ministers stand up and boast about how they were going to do this. And this is a Government, really, that the more you examine it, this is a Government at the end of its third term, that has been in office for almost a decade, is seeking a second decade in office, that is showing itself to be not fit-for-purpose. If they're not up to the job towards the end of their first decade, does anyone really think they're going to get better in their second decade in Government? Because in so many areas, they're failing. And I conclude with this comment. Scott Morrison himself has said that he doesn't have regard for what he himself has said just two years ago, or just one year ago. He denies it all the time. If Scott Morrison doesn't have regard for his own words, why should any Australian have regard for what he says today? Thanks.
 
ENDS