SUBJECTS: GP after hours access services; strategic fleet; fast rail for the Hunter and Central Coast; federal seats in the Hunter and Central Coast.

DANIEL REPACHOLI, LABOR’S CANDIDATE FOR HUNTER: Thanks for coming today to discuss this very important matter of GP After Hours Access service here in in Toronto. Such an important topic. And I'd like to introduce the people who’ll be talking today, which will be Dr Annette Carruthers, she’s GP After Hours Access founder, and Dr Lee Fong, he’s the secretary of GP After Hours Access as well. And I’d like to introduce Anthony Albanese to have a chat about it.

ANTHONY ALBANESE, LEADER OF THE AUSTRALIAN LABOR PARTY: Well, thanks very much, Dan. It's good to be here today with two doctors who have stood up for their local community and made a real difference to the support of GP after hours service, and also to be joined by Patrick Conroy and also Sharon Claydon as the local members who've been impacted by these cuts. The GP clinic behind us used to be available till 10 o'clockat night. Today it shuts at 4pm. It shuts at four because of the cuts which have been made to something like 1/3 of the hours of GP after hours services. Some 15,000 people who would have received service and support and health care through this GP after hours service will miss out as a result of the closure of one of the services and the cutting back in hours of another four. A Federal Labor Government will step in to restore funding to remove these cuts. The Federal Government doesn't really believe in Medicare, it doesn't really believe that people should get health care when they need it. It's one of the great divides in Australian politics. Federal Labor will always stand up for Medicare. We’ll always stand up for health care to be available whenever people need it. It's something that's in our DNA. It's something we fought for when we created Medibank. After Medibank was abolished by the incoming Coalition Government, it's something that we fought for, and the creation of Medicare by the Hawke Government. It's something, as well, that we continued to argue for when the current Government looked at Medicare co-payments. And it's something that we've resisted with the cutbacks and changes that have been made to the schedule. But to close down services and to reduce services on Christmas Eve is a heartless act. A heartless act by Government in the midst of a pandemic. A pandemic where we know they haven't planned to vaccinate people properly, they haven't planned to have purpose built quarantine. Now there are problems with the booster shot rollout in terms of supply. And there are problems now, as well, with people being able to access rapid antigen tests. The truth is that this cut should not have occurred. It certainly shouldn't have occurred on Christmas Eve. And the Federal Labor government that I lead will join with Dan and with Pat and with Sharon and with Meryl Swanson in making sure that this is reversed. Because this health care is so important. And I'd ask Annette to make some comments, as founding doctor of this service, about how important this is for the local community.

ANNETTE CARRUTHERS, GP AFTER HOURS ACCESS FOUNDER: Thank you very much. Ladies and gentlemen, this is the most wonderful news. That we have been listened to and we now have a potential for the service to be reinstituted at its former strength. It has been an absolute travesty that just when the public has needed us most over this Christmas pandemic period our services have been cut. The doctors, nurses, receptionists who work in the service are all incredibly disappointed, because they know how much the public values our service, how many times we are thanked for being here and being available, especially on public holidays like today. We all have been so frustrated. So we have to thank the community so far who has expressed their own feelings about losing part of the service, the doctors and nurses and receptionists who have all lobbied as hard as they can, to our to our local members and potential members, Dan, Pat and Sharon here today, you've all worked, listened really hard, and you've done everything you could to help us. And now thank you to Mark Butler and Anthony for listening to us and actually doing something about it. We are incredibly grateful for your position. Thank you.

ALBANESE: Thank you very much. And thanks for what you do in the community. I think this is a time where, if Australians didn't value health workers beforehand, they certainly do now. And you've done an extraordinary job. Happy to take questions.

JOURNALIST: Just how much funding will be required for the GP access service in the Hunter to go ahead at its former capacity?

ALBANESE: We’ll provide whatever is necessary in terms of the funding, because this is a service that provides care for people. And it's a bit of a false saving. Because what you'll have is people either trying to search out for additional services, turning up at emergency of the local John Hunter Hospital or turning up somewhere at a hospital system. Or, in the worst case, they won't get that health care and then the cost will be more because their need will be more acute. What we know about health care is that early intervention saves money, it doesn't cost money. And that's one of the great examples of the services that are here. So it’s a false saving that this Government has got. But we'll do whatever is necessary to support the funding that was cut to make sure that we can provide that support.

JOURNALIST: Is there a ballpark figure though? Because it was a sum of about $500,000 at a state level that (inaudible)?

ALBANESE: It's a small amount of money compared with the support which is there. We've got the figures in the media release that we're putting out today.

JOURNALIST: You mentioned specific hours today that the service would have been open. But it’s a public holiday?

ALBANESE: The service would have been available today till 10 o'clock. That's the point. People don't get a health event on the basis of what day it is. They get it on the basis of need. And part of the principle here is that people should get the service that they require when they need it.

JOURNALIST: Jumping back to this morning, Labor took a similar sovereign ships policy to the 2019 election. Are you rehashing old ideas there?

ALBANESE: I was the Infrastructure and Transport Minister, Shadow Minister, before the last election. So it's not surprising that, as Leader of the Labor Party, it’s a policy that I supported and Bill Shorten supported. One of the things that is more obvious today than it was even three years ago is the need to protect our economic sovereignty. One of the lessons that has been learned from the pandemic is how vulnerable we are to supply chain issues. That is out there for all to see. It's one of the reasons why people like Barnaby Joyce, people like Senator Jim Molan and others, including Russell Broadbent, have called for similar policies. If only they were part of a government that could do something. But they've done nothing about it, nothing about it. And on their watch, we've seen a decline in the number of Australian ships around our coasts. This is a policy that is more needed than it was three years ago. And it's a policy that has the support of business, that has the support of unions, and it's one that is very much in our national interest.

JOURNALIST: And we’ve got you here for three days in the Hunter.

ALBANESE: The Hunter and the Central Coast.

JOURNALIST: You’re sandbagging three seats here in the Hunter. Are you worried about losing them? How worried are you?

ALBANESE: I’ll be in Robertson tomorrow. Come to the press conference. I'm not about just holding onto seats, I'm about winning seats. And we need eight seats to win government. Robertson is one of those target seats. We have a new candidate here in Dan Repacholi, standing up for his community against these cuts. I make no apology either for wanting to represent the Labor heartland, as well as the entire nation. It's one of the big divides, as well, in Australian politics. The last time we were in government, I put in enough funding, $7.9 billion, for the duplication of the Pacific Highway from here all the way to the Queensland border for areas like the Kempsey Bypass and the Arrawarra section, the sections around Bulahdelah, all of the upgrades that occurred, Devil's Pulpit, areas that were in areas not held by the Labor Party. I want to govern for the entire country. High speed rail is something that we envisage to go from Melbourne to Brisbane in the long term, via Sydney, Canberra, and Newcastle, and something that would make a substantial difference. I have a vision for the country. This Government act like an opposition in exile on the government benches. They’ve got nothing positive to say. They've got no agenda for this term, let alone an agenda for next term. They still haven't done all the things that they said they’d do before the last election. There wasn't much. We still don't have a national anti-corruption commission. What we have is more cuts to health care, cuts to education, cuts to the ABC. More cuts and no plan. We have wages that aren’t keeping up with the cost of living. We have a Government that's out of touch and out of time. And I think their reaction at the moment to our positive policy initiatives from the Labor Party says it all about their negative frame that they're in. Well, I intend to continue to advance positive policies for the people of this region and the people of every region. On Friday, I'll be in Queensland, I'll be in Far North Queensland. And I'll be spending a considerable period of time in Queensland in seats like Flynn and Capricornia and Herbert and Dawson and Leichhardt and others next week. And I look forward to being there.

JOURNALIST: On the fast rail announcement, what do you say to people who might be skeptical that the fast rail can be built between here and Sydney when there’s quite a few mountains in the way?

ALBANESE: Well, I announced, as the Infrastructure Minister, the Redcliffe rail line. It was first promised in 1895. We got it done. Today, people are on it making a substantial difference. I, together with Duncan Gay, the New South Wales Transport Minister then, we sat down, I put forward the proposal for what became NorthConnex with joint funding between the federal and state governments in order to make sure that that could occur to cut down commute times by road. We’ve done a range of the studies, we’ve done two phases. I tried to make it a bipartisan initiative by including people like Tim Fischer, by including not just unions but the head of the Business Council of Australia on the committee to oversee the implementation with Jennifer Westacott. I have a record of actually being able to deliver on big projects, on big reforms. And this project is an important one. It’s one in which we need to not remain the only inhabited continent on the planet that is not building high speed rail today is this one, is Australia, this island continent. In Europe, in Asia, in North and South America and in Africa you have high speed rail being rolled out. Why? Because it makes sense for the economy, jobs, for the environment.

ENDS