SUBJECTS: Labor’s Better Future plan; manufacturing; renewables; Climate change; Federal election; Labor’s Powering Australia Plan; Labor’s policy agenda; Labor’s National Reconstruction Fund; job creation; disaster relief funding; polls; Scott Morrison always wanting to blame someone else and never taking responsibility; Scott Morrison is a Prime Minister that goes missing when Australia needs him; Liberal candidate for Warringah; Labor’s Powering Australia Plan; cashless debit cards; refugees.
 
TERRI BUTLER, MEMBER FOR GRIFFITH: Well, thanks, everyone. It is just terrific to welcome Anthony Albanese back here to Tritium, right here in Murarrie in the electorate of Griffith. This incredible company is a homegrown success story. And they're now a world leader. We're so fortunate to see work in this factory today, and have local workers talk to us about the work that they are doing to create these charging stations that have been rolled out around the world. So, it's really a great pleasure to have, of course, Anthony, Tony, Jim and Murray here, and to get the chance to speak to some of the founders and workers here at Tritium. So, with that, I'm going to introduce Anthony. Thanks for being here, Anthony.
 
ANTHONY ALBANESE, LEADER OF THE AUSTRALIAN LABOR PARTY: Thanks very much, Terri. And it's great to be back here at Tritium. I visited Tritium on other occasions as well. And I really want to thank Glen and James for their welcome here today.
 
The truth is that the future is right here at Tritium. And I'll have more to say. But I first want to say about a couple of the announcements that we've had today. Firstly, Disaster Relief Australia. The $38 million announcement we have. They already provide support with some 1,500 veterans. Using the skills that they learned through their membership of the Australian Defence Force to help not just Australians but people overseas as well to deal with recovery from floods, from cyclones, from bushfires. And what we saw this morning was the skills that they do have. We saw Westy launch that drone up into the sky. They're skills he learned in terms of reconnaissance in the ADF, but then he has learnt the skills to operate the drone through his work with DRA. And that led him to then go get full-time employment which he has with emergency services here in Queensland. So, this is a program that is fantastic for our veterans to participate in. It's particularly good, they've been down at Coraki, down at Lismore, providing support for people in their time of need. And using those skills is also good for veterans in terms of their mental health and other issues as well.
 
Secondly as well, we have an announcement this morning from Bill Shorten and Linda Burney about the NDIS. Labor will defend and protect the NDIS. We did a press conference a couple of weeks ago where Elly was an example of the sort of pressures that are on, there in Parliament House. Elly has a condition which means that she needs a colostomy bag to be replaced. And the cutbacks in her own plan were that she was told she hold reuse the colostomy bags, which represents a real threat to her health. Labor's plan to defend the NDIS goes to issues including boosting efficiency, but also making sure that we oppose any unfair cuts which are there. And that was outlined this morning. Labor's proud of our creation of the NDIS and will always defend it.
 
Now, this is particularly timely that we're here at Tritium today, because the future is right here, right now. This is a company that began a little over 20 years ago, with a couple of people, James, who's with us here today, and another person under a house in St Lucia just 20 years ago. Today, this company here in Australia employs almost 400 people. It's about to open an operation in Tennessee in the United States. It is looking at opening in Europe. We have fast electric vehicle charging stations that can charge up for a high-powered vehicle, 350km in just 10 minutes. Just 10 minutes. This is, a lot of the technology that we see here, including the cooling systems, was developed here. Australia has always been good at science and innovation. What we haven't always been good at is commercialising the opportunities which are there. And our Powering Australia Plan is about doing a just that. It's about seizing the opportunity that is there to deal with climate change and to create jobs. That's why we released that in my first Budget Reply going back to 2019. We announced the Rewiring the Nation Plan. The Rewiring the Nation Plan that is based upon the work of the Australian Energy Market Operator and its integrated systems plan, to bring the national electricity grid into 21st century so that renewables can plug in to that grid. We have a circumstance whereby Snowy Hydro 2.0 won't actually be plugged into grid when it's completed, an example of just failing to do the hard work and failing to make sure that we stabilise the grid by making sure it's fit for purpose for the 21st century. Our Powering Australia Plan will create 604,000 jobs. It will ensure that five out of every six of those will be in regional Australia. $52 billion of private sector investment. Reducing emissions by 43 per cent by 2030. And what we have opposed today with some thought bubbles out there, so-called costings which we haven't seen, again raising a scare campaign about action on climate change that flies in the face of reality. That scare campaign is based upon a view somehow that renewables aren't the cheapest form of new energy. And we know that is why the market is choosing clean energy and renewables for new energy growth. That is something that is happening in spite of the Government, not because of the Government. But once again we see just a scare campaign. And I wonder whether Dave Sharma, Josh Frydenberg, Trent Zimmerman and all of those people who suddenly have discovered that, yes, they support net zero by 2050 agree that somehow renewables are going to lead to higher costs, which is what the basic assumption of this so-called attack is based upon. We did the hard work in the lead-up to the announcement of our policy on the first Friday in December last year. We said we would wait until after the Glasgow Summit, until after the Government had released its policy. We did the modelling through RepuTex, Australia's leading energy economists. Our proposals stack up. Our proposals ensure that we can embrace the opportunities that are there in the future. But this is a Government that have no plan for the future. This is a Government that struggle with the present and don't learn from the past. No plan for the future. Struggle with the present. And don't learn from the past. Which is why, during the last election campaign, you might recall that Scott Morrison said that electric vehicles would end the weekend. He said you couldn't tow your trailer, you couldn't tow your boat, all complete nonsense. Complete nonsense, going forward. He said that battery, charging the big battery, was as useful as the Big Banana or the Big Prawn. He said that a 50 per cent Renewable Energy Target was nuts was his quote during that time. And his Minister at the time, given he's there in WA now spruiking the benefits of hydrogen, last election, when Labor had a policy on hydrogen, the Minister said that it was snake oil. That nothing would be ready for decades.
 
The delay, prevarication and inaction from this Government has meant that we're missing out on opportunities. There's such a thing as first mover advantage. Now, we've lost that. But what we need to do is embrace the action that is there from action on climate change, which will actually be good for our economy and good for jobs. And yet what today's scare campaign really highlights is that nothing has changed for this Government. All they're left with is a scare campaign, no substance, which is why Scott Morrison went to the Glasgow conference, gave an empty speech to an empty room and has nothing to say about Australia's future.
 
If people want a Government that will embrace the opportunities of the future, they need to elect a Labor Government. A Labor Government that will have clean and cheap energy. That will use that clean and cheap energy to power, not just in terms of the energy system, but to use that to power high-value manufacturing, to make us more competitive, and then to use the National Reconstruction Fund that we've said we will establish to support the transformation of existing industries, but also to support new industries, new industries like this one right here that just over the last two decades didn't exist at all, but with regard to electric vehicle charging, has really occurred just in the last decade. And we heard on the assembly line there the difference between producing some 28 charging stations a month just four years ago to now producing something like 500 a month, and going offshore, a great Australian success story. I'll ask Jim to add.
 
JIM CHALMERS, SHADOW TREASURER: A Better Future under Labor is powered by cleaner and cheaper energy creating new jobs, new industries and new opportunities right around Australia. And this is absolutely central to our economic plan. We have taken the time to model, using Australia's leading energy economists, to model our climate change and energy policy, which will deliver billions of dollars in new investment, get power bills down and create hundreds of thousands of jobs right around Australia, but mostly in the regions. And places like Tritium give you a glimpse of the possibilities of our economic plan. When we bring together great skills, when we bring together renewable energy, manufacturing, all of the things that you can see here, it gives you a glimpse of the possibilities of a Better Future under Labor, from a Government that takes the climate change challenge seriously, but also recognises the vast opportunities for our economy in cleaner and cheaper energy.
 
Now, Angus Taylor has been forced into another absolutely humiliating admission today that the numbers he cooked up and put in the papers are complete and utter rubbish. Angus Taylor has added fuel to the bin fire of lies that this Government tells about renewable energy. These are dodgy numbers from a dodgy Minister in a dodgy Government. These are numbers from a Minister you can't take seriously, in a Government you can't take seriously on climate change. And we've seen this humiliating concession today from the so-called Climate Change and Energy Minister that these numbers have been made up by the Minister and put into the papers in an effort to mislead people about the vast opportunities of renewable energy and the way that they can get our power bills down at the household level but also at the business level and create hundreds of thousands of new jobs in new industries and new opportunities right around Australia.
 
So, no more of the lies about renewable energy being told by this Morrison Government. This has been a wasted decade of missed opportunities on climate change and energy. And the only way to get decent action on climate change, the only way to get power bills down, new investment flowing, new jobs, new opportunities, new industries, right around Australia is to change the government. A Better Future under Labor will be powered by cleaner and cheaper energy. That's our commitment. The Government is powered by these lies that they tell about climate change and energy.  We've had enough of that over the best part of a decade.
 
JOURNALIST: In an interview this morning you said that the Government has underestimated you. How?
 
ALBANESE: Well, I've been underestimated my whole life. My whole life has been one whereby I haven't got a leg up. I have fought for everything that I have got. I have a long period in public life. I have learnt something new each and every day. I lead a team that's united. I lead a team that has plans for the future. This Government are still relying upon, today, another scare campaign based upon a lie. Based upon the same untruths that they put forward during the 2019 campaign. They said that electric vehicles would end the weekend. And we have seen the growth here, 28 up to 500, in terms of charging stations being produced at this factory right now. These jobs are secure jobs. They'll grow. We met with company leaders earlier this morning. And they have done an amazing job. They're looking at expansion here in Australia. We, on the way here, turned into their research facility that is just hundreds of metres down the road. Because there are multiple venues of this company right here in South East Queensland. This is an example of the opportunity that is there from embracing the future, not being scared of it and not being terrified of it so to the point whereby you just dismiss the future. So, I have been underestimated my whole life. I will continue to put forward a really strong agenda for Australia's future. And that will contrast with this Government that have nothing to say about the present, ignore it, pretend this isn't happening. And in today's leak, essentially say renewables are more expensive and will lead to higher prices, even though our modelling, very clearly out there, shows that households will benefit by $275 on average.
 
JOURNALIST: Labor is six points ahead, same as last time. The Coalition primary vote is behind Labor's. But personal support for yourself has fallen. What do you make of these results?
 
ALBANESE: I'm not a commentator, that's your job.
 
JOURNALIST: You must have an opinion on that.
 
ALBANESE: That's your job to commentate on the polls. And there'll be a lot of polling between now and election day.
 
JOURNALIST: On climate change, your short term 2030 target is 43.
 
ALBANESE: Correct.
 
JOURNALIST: The UN is saying we actually need at least 45 to keep below 1.5 warming. The Climate Change Authority also says between 45 and 60. Why have you gone 43, why have not gone 45 or higher?
 
ALBANESE: Because what we didn't do, and we explained this in full when we announced our policy, what we didn't do was say, ‘Okay, let's pick a number and work back from there.; What we did is we went, ‘What is good policy? What makes a difference?’ And Rewiring the Nation was announced in 2019. This has been around for three years. And the Government have three years later got front-page splashes in tabloids based upon not quite sure what. Angus Taylor can't say what it's based upon in interviews he's given this morning. We did the hard yards on that. We also looked at other measures that we would put in place, including for electric vehicles, for example, removing the fringe benefits tax will make an enormous difference in terms of the price of that. Because one way that you get vehicles into the Australian market is either through direct government purchases or through company fleets. And that makes an enormous difference. We have a range of policies out there, community batteries. What we did was we worked through all of the policies and then RepuTex did the modelling and it found that would reduce emissions by 43 per cent by 2030. That's how you do good policy.
 
JOURNALIST: Just on the Greenfields, Morrison today said that he would guarantee Greenfields extended from four to six years. This is stand alone, this isn't with the omnibus. Are you guys going to support this stand-alone measure? Shorten did ahead of 2019. Will you commit to doing so?
 
TONY BURKE, SHADOW MINISTER FOR INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS: What Scott Morrison announced today is all over the place. It's completely different to what he said was Government policy two days ago. Let's not forget last time he introduced this. How was it taken out of the Senate? But a vote of the Government. They voted to get rid of their own legislation on this. The Government is all over the place, as I say, what Scott Morrison is saying today is the opposite in some ways as what he was saying two days ago, and what he's referring to today, where he's talking about the annual wage review, is a lower rate of increase than what's happening under current Greenfields agreements. We announced the industrial relations policies that we would be taking to the election more than a year ago. And unlike the Government, our industrial relations policies uniformly deliver secure jobs, better pay and a fairer system.
 
JOURNALIST: You can't get away from the fact that voters are still struggling to find reasons to elect you. How are you going deal with that? How are you going to give them reasons when they say they don't know who you are or what you'll do when you become Prime Minister?
 
ALBANESE: It is a cracker of a reason is right here. Right here. This is about the future. This is about what the Government denies. They deny the role that the transformation that will occur in, not just the Australian economy, we're talking about a transformation of the global economy. And what we see at international conferences is Australia go along and be in the naughty corner with Saudi Arabia, with Brazil, with a couple of countries, trying to oppose the tide that is occurring in terms of the transformation of the global economy. What we seek here right now is Australian science and ingenuity. It is this company that developed the cooling system for their charging stations. And what that means is it can be locked up, essentially, doesn't have to be opened up, fixed. So, it stops bugs and things interfering with the electronic equipment in terms of its use. This is world's best technology. I want to back Australian science. I want to back Australian jobs. I want to back Australian industries. This Government don't. They say that the vehicles that will be charged by these stations will end the weekend. They say that this is going backwards and will hurt Australians. The truth is that the role of government, and it's a big difference between myself and my opponent, my opponent is running on fear and scare. He did that in 2019. And the truth is he got elected. He got elected without an agenda. My agenda is about optimism, is about creating opportunity, is about backing Australian science, is about backing Australian industry and backing Australian jobs. I want a high productivity, good wage economy going forward. This Prime Minister is incapable of doing it.
 
JOURNALIST: Just on Katherine Deves, are you concerned that the transgender community is being dragged into the middle of a political debate here? What do you make that this is a tactic to try to gain votes from a community that voted against same-sex marriage?
 
ALBANESE: This is a debate that is divisive within the community. But it's also divisive within the Liberal Party. And the Liberal Party, I'll leave it to them to sort it out. You've got Matt Kean making comments. You've got Trent Zimmerman in North Sydney, in the seat next to Warringah, saying that the candidate for Warringah should be disendorsed. This is just another example of the chaos and division that is there within the Liberal Party. And I make this point. Scott Morrison's last captain's pick before the last election was a fellow called Craig Kelly. Craig Kelly. And Craig Kelly is now continuing to run as an Independent.
 
JOURNALIST: On the world stage, Australia is in the naughty corner because of our coal exports. Would you end them?
 
ALBANESE: No.
 
JOURNALIST: You accuse the Coalition of starting a scare campaign but isn’t Labor doing the same thing on pensioners on the cashless debit card? When did the Coalition Minister ever say that pensioners will be added to the system?
 
ALBANESE: Here is what Anne Ruston said.
 
JOURNALIST: Not a general quote.
 
ALBANESE: Here is what Anne Ruston said. And people can make their own judgement. Here is what she said. In 2020. In 2020, during this term of this Parliament, this Minister said this. ‘We are seeking to put all income management onto the universal platform, which is the cashless debit card.’ I might see if Jim wants to add something.
 
JOURNALIST: As Leader of the Party can we please ask about cashless debit card?
 
CHALMERS: We can be very clear about this. Labor will abolish the cashless debit card. The Government will keep it. And they have talked about expanding it. The Prime Minister, during the course of this term, in September 2019, said the cashless debit card commended itself to wider application. The Minister said, as Anthony reminded you, in 2020, she talked about this being the national platform. If people want to ask the Prime Minister if he is serious about this, he will abolish the card, but he won't. Labor will abolish the cashless debit card. The Liberals and Nationals will not. And they have talked about expanding it. Those are facts.
 
ALBANESE: One at a time.
 
JOURNALIST: I want to ask about the comment you made on breakfast radio this morning. On your interview with Neil Breen, you said that your plan is very clear. ‘Offshore processing began when I was Deputy Prime Minister in 2013. We turned back boats, we had settlement in third countries.’ You were Deputy Prime Minister in June 26, 2013 through to September of that year. Between that period, some 3,960 people arrived illegally in Australia on 48 boats. You didn't turn back the boats. Is that not accurate?
 
ALBANESE: We have said that we support Operation Sovereign Borders. We said we support the offshore processing system, we said we support boat turnbacks, we said we support settlement in third countries. There is a difference we have over temporary protection visas. We have been very clear. We have been very clear about the policies that we support, very clear going forward. We will continue to support them. One of the things I said on radio this morning was that the Government said that if you agreed to the New Zealand model, that would open up the whole system again. The truth is, they delayed on that for year after year. We have been calling upon them to accept it. And they waited until just before the election before they said that.
 
JOURNALIST: Could you give us insight into why Labor made $180 million in local announcements without putting out press releases? And are you on the same page as Andrew Charlton, your candidate in Parramatta, in February he co-authored a paper on Uber drivers. I will finish the question. It said there were overwhelmingly satisfied with the higher rates of pay as opposed to flexible hours. Is that out of step with Labor policy on the gig economy?
 
ALBANESE: I haven't read the thing that he wrote. With due respect to you at a press conference, I would read the articles before I respond. I can I say on the economy, and Tony will add something, one of the things that is happening on the gig economy is we asked questions in the Parliament about if people should be paid the minimum wage. What the Government has said is it is complicated. I don't think it is complicated to say that Australian should be paid the minimum wage. The minimum wage is just $20.33.
 
BURKE: At the moment in the gig economy, you get found that you are not an employee and immediately all of your rights fall of a cliff. All of your rights. No rights to a minimum income at all. All the rights fall on the cliff. When hear the Government say that casualisation hasn't change, they leave everyone working in the gig economy, whether it's transport, the care industry, not just apps you might have on your phone where people are working on the gig economy now. It should never be the case that the hardest question for a government to answer is whether or not Australian should at least be paid the minimum wage. But this Government cannot guarantee Australian workers will at least be paid the minimum wage. We will extend the powers of the Fair Work Commission to be able to set minimum standards for these workers. We should not be a country like we have become, where people are being paid less than what is meant to be the minimum in Australia, because of a legal technicality of how they are defined.
 
JOURNALIST: Back on the polls, two this week, back to back, showing a rise of number of undecided voters, nearly a third undecided or indicated they will support independents or minor parties. Five weeks left to go. How do you convince those people to back you? They don't like what Mr Morrison has done for them, but they are not supporting you either.
 
ALBANESE: We will continue to put forward our agenda for a positive agenda for a Better Future. A Better Future where no one is left behind or held back. With the four key themes we will continue to run on. Strengthening Medicare. Cheaper child care, cheaper electricity prices, taking pressure off the cost of living. Dealing with more secure work. And a Future Made in Australia. Last one.
 
JOURNALIST: Shane Stone, the head of the National Recovery and Resilience Agency, you have been outspoken about him, would he be sacked if Labor wins Government? And your Defence spokesman, Brendan O'Connor, has previously said that Labor would consider the idea of almost a civil Defence Force, if he was in government, to respond to national disasters. Is that still a possibility and is it still something you consider?
 
MURRAY WATT, SHADOW MINISTER FOR DISASTER AND EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT: Can I make the point of the announcement that the announcement we made today, in terms of funding to Disaster Relief Australia, is a really good example of a contrast this Labor Party, with Anthony Albanese, is offering, compared to Scott Morrison. Over and over again, when we see bushfires and floods, we see Scott Morrison step back and duck for cover. What we see from Anthony Albanese and Labor is stepping up. We are not going to leave Australians left behind and abandoned during disasters, whether it be at the time, and leave funds unspent, or after disasters with recovery. And that's why we made the commitment today.
 
I haven't given any thought at all to who might be holding particular offices if we win the election. We will win the election first. We have called on Shane to resign. And he should have done that by now because of the disgraceful comments he made, blaming victims of floods for the circumstances they found themselves in when his own Government has a fund that has now reached $4.8 million because they haven't built a single disaster mitigation project.
 
In terms of the resilience corps, obviously the announcement we made today is along the same lines. We think the announcement today about giving money to veterans’ organisations is good for the veterans, good for the volunteers and it's excellent for disaster communities as well. We can't continue to rely on the ADF to do all the work after a disaster. This Disaster Relief Australia organisation will be able to chip in and lend more of a hand as result of the funding we have given today.
 
JOURNALIST: You are still open to a dedicated Defence Force?
 
WATT: I think I answered.
 
ALBANESE: Last question.
 
JOURNALIST: You been accused of scaring old people. How is this not a scare campaign?
 
ALBANESE: It's based upon the Government 's own policy. We will abolish, let me be very clear, if they want to really rule it out, they will support our policy, which is to abolish it. Thanks very much.
               
ENDS