SUBJECTS: Federal election campaign; climate change; Government’s lower emissions technology fund; Australia’s relationship with China, United Stated and France; Paul Keating; Labor’s policy agenda.
 
ALLISON LANGDON, HOST: Opposition Leader, Anthony Albanese, has launched a blistering attack on Scott Morrison as the PM hits the pre-election campaign trail in NSW and Victoria.
 
KARL STEFANOVIC, HOST: It's like the pre, pre, pre-election campaign trail. Anthony Albanese joins us from Sydney. Albo, good morning to you. It's on. Are you ready?
 
ANTHONY ALBANESE, LEADER OF THE AUSTRALIAN LABOR PARTY: G'day. Well, we're in pre-caretaker mode, I think, with Scott Morrison. But for Scott Morrison, it's always about the 24-hour media cycle. And over the recent days, he's essentially said, ‘Don't worry about what I said last month or last year on electric vehicles’, for example. Well, if Scott Morrison doesn't have any regard for what he said yesterday, why should you believe or trust what he says today?
 
LANGDON: What are you working towards? Do you think it is going to be March or May?
 
ALBANESE: We're ready still for December. But if it goes until May, that's really the Government changing the whole cycle. They'd have to bring the Budget forward. It's because they think that they see a window to just keep clinging on without an election. I think that Australians deserve to determine their own future. Which is why, under normal schedules, there should be an election in March, and we should, whoever wins government, be allowed to bring down a Budget in May.
 
STEFANOVIC: Scott Morrison will need your support to establish this billion-dollar lower emissions technology fund. Will you support it?
 
ALBANESE: He can't even get the support of his own side at this stage. That's what the reports in the papers say. Look, we haven't seen any legislation. But this is an announcement in search of policy once again. This is a Government which yesterday was announcing half a billion dollars of new government money which today is saying, ‘We want less government’. Which is it? This is a Government that says they support carbon capture and storage, and they need funds for it but they abolished more than $500 million for that when they came into office. This is a Government that doesn't trust business and markets, that keeps intervening. You've had a $600 million intervention to build a gas-fired power plant in Kurri Kurri. Interventions from the Government to have studies for the people who are building a coal-fired power plant, or want to, in North Queensland. The contradictions are there from day-to-day. By the time we get back to Parliament, this policy will have changed five or six times.
 
STEFANOVIC: Matt Canavan has said no. Gerard Rennick has already said no. You could say no at this point, couldn’t you?
 
ALBANESE: I am a bit more considered than those two individuals. I actually look at legislation. And we have a process for determining it rather than just on the gut instinct. The truth is at least they are fair dinkum. They say they don't support any policy on climate change. They say they don't support the science of climate change, which really reflects what the Morrison Government have done. They've been in office for more than a decade. They're searching for their second decade in office. And Australians will ask themselves: Is this as good as it gets? Will they really get better in their second decade?
 
LANGDON: You are saying there is a maybe on that one. Paul Keating was at his best yesterday. He claims Australia has lost its way with China, saying it doesn't pose a threat and it's allowed to be rude. Do you agree?
 
ALBANESE: China has changed its posture, that's the truth. They're far more forward-leaning. Australia is right to speak up for our own values. And China is the nation that's changed in terms of their attitude towards Australian imports, for example, and Australian businesses are suffering. There's no doubt that we need to have a more strong effort working with business. And we should always try and work diplomatically.
 
LANGDON: So, you don't agree with Paul Keating, is that what you're saying?
 
ALBANESE: Well China's changed its stance is what I'm saying. And Australia has to, of course, change accordingly. And we've done so. We will always stand up for Australian values. We at the moment, though, have bad relations not just with China. We've had Joe Biden distance himself from the Australian Government as well as the French. So we've got problems with China, the US and France at the moment. We are living in an era of strategic competition between the United States and China. The United States are our allies and that's important.
 
STEFANOVIC: You definitely disagree with him, but you don't want to go to war with an ex-Prime Minister.
 
ALBANESE: Paul Keating always has strong things to say. And it's always important to listen to what he has to say. He is wise counsel. I'd advise you to take the same tack, Karl.
 
STEFANOVIC: I'm not going to listen to him on China. Good to talk to you. Thanks for your time, Albo. Have a great weekend. Looks like it is getting wild out there.
 
ALBANESE: Thanks very much, guys. Have a great day. It is getting a bit windy here. But I've held off the rain, how about that?
 
LANGDON: Well done on that one. Thank you.
 
ENDS