SUBJECTS: Fast rail from Sydney to Newcastle; COVID cases increasing; rapid antigen testing.

SARAH ABO, HOST: Well, he's made his first move. And it's being dubbed the election express. Opposition Leader Anthony Albanese announcing Labor's $500 million promise to start a fast rail network from Sydney to Newcastle, cutting travel time to just 45 minutes.

CHARLES CROUCHER, HOST: The Labor Leader joins us now from beautiful Newcastle. We can all tick high-speed rail off our election-year bingo. There have been proposals for this for decades. Why now, and why this network?

ANTHONY ALBANESE, LEADER OF THE AUSTRALIAN LABOR PARTY: Because it is more needed than ever. What we are seeing is massive growth in Newcastle and the Central Coast. If you could get on a train right here at this station and arrive at Homebush to watch a Newcastle Knights game, when you got a train at 6:30 and there for 8pm kick-off, wouldn’t that be just fantastic for the people of the Hunter? Trains make sense. We are the only island continent on the planet that is not building high-speed rail. We know it makes sense for the environment. We know it makes sense for the economy. It's an important decentralisation measure. It will provide a massive impetus to business in Newcastle and the Central Coast, a massive benefit for those who commute to work from the Central Coast into Sydney and will overcome the tyranny of distance. We need to actually convert what's been an idea into a reality.

ABO: And $500 million sounds and is a lot of money but it's merely a drop in the ocean when we're talking about a project like this. The Communications Minister, Paul Fletcher, has said this is an election stunt. Albo, the sledges are out already.

ALBANESE: Well, that's what you have when you have no substitute. This is a Government that doesn't have a vision, that has racked up a trillion dollars of debt and no legacy to show for it. Why haven't they used this opportunity of this massive spending we've seen from this Government to actually build something that makes a long-term difference for the nation? This is a nation-building project. It will make a massive difference for jobs, for our economy. We did analysis the last time I was in government, I set a taskforce, it included people like Tim Fischer, Jennifer Westacott, the head of the Business Council of Australia, because it makes economic sense. This is an important project for the electorate, it's one that we'll advance. We're not pretending you can do it in a year or two. But it has massive support from the business community as well as the wider community.

CROUCHER: Why stop at Newcastle? Brisbane, Melbourne, Canberra, there's options everywhere

ALBANESE: Well, exactly. No, it needs to go from Brisbane to Melbourne, but a first stage, a priority, would be Newcastle-Sydney, because that's the most dense population that's there. Where you see the growth occurring. We've spent billions of dollars on toll roads but we haven't spent the same money on public transport, on rail. When I was the Minister for Infrastructure, we put more money into urban public transport than all previous governments combined for the previous 107 years, and projects like Gold Coast Light Rail, like Regional Rail Link in Victoria, the Perth CityLink project where we sunk the rail line and united the Perth CBD with Northbridge. The Noarlunga-Seaford line in Adelaide. All those projects were advanced while we were in government. They provided a legacy from the global financial crisis. This Government haven't provided any legacy. This is a project whose time has come and it's time to advance it. It would make a massive difference. We in this country are a vast island continent with a very sparse population relatively, but it's concentrated in that Brisbane-Melbourne corridor. So, if you had a high-speed rail line, we showed, when we did the analysis when we were in government that it produces a positive economic return for the country. One of the first things this Government did when they came into office was abolish the funding that was there for the authority in their 2014 Budget. We want to get on with the job of high-speed rail. And it's the first stage, the Government have looked at - the State Government - have looked at faster rail. We want to work with them as well. We want to work with governments of all persuasion to get this nation-building reform done.

ABO: To shift gears a bit, COVID cases across the country are escalating. We are trying to do the right thing. We're testing at home. It's almost impossible to get a test, a rapid antigen test, even PCR wait times are blowing out. Rapid tests, we need them. We need them now. But they are expensive. What do you think needs to be done?

ALBANESE: Well, we needed to prepare for this. The reason why we've had the move to rapid antigen tests away from PCR testing is because the Government couldn't deliver the capacity to test people, even though we knew that once we opened up, there would be an increase in the number of cases and the need to test. This is yet again an example of where the Prime Minister, a year ago, was saying that there was no rush when it came to the vaccine rollout. He was wrong then. He was wrong to not prepare to have rapid antigen tests fully available. And they shouldn't be priced out of people being able to get them either. People who can't afford them should be given them. That's the truth of the matter. Because, otherwise, the consequences are more dire. The consequences of people not being able to be tested means that they will be out there in the community spreading the pandemic. And we need to do all that we can. We need to get the health outcomes right in order to minimise the economic impact. I don't know how it is that those lessons haven't been learnt. But this Government, it's always too little and too late.

CROUCHER: Anthony Albanese, we wish you a very happy new year. Look forward to speaking to you throughout 2022 as we approach the election.

ALBANESE: And happy new year to you and all of your viewers.

CROUCHER: Appreciate it. Thank you.

ENDS