SUBJECTS: Labor’s Urban Rivers and Catchment Program; Government’s electric vehicle strategy; Labor’s cheaper electric vehicles policy; climate change; lack of modelling from Morrison Government; Labor’s policy agenda.
 
ZHI SOON, LABOR CANDIDATE FOR BANKS: Good morning, everyone. First of all, my name is Zhi Soon. I'm the Labor candidate for Banks. And I would like to, particularly for those of you who aren't in this electorate itself, welcome you to the Banks electorate and in particular to this beautiful part of the Banks electorate here in Oatley. So, it's hard to argue with this vista at this time of the morning. So welcome, and welcome to you all. So, look, I first wanted to acknowledge that we are on the land of the Biddegal people of the Eora nation here in Oatley Park. And I wanted to acknowledge them as the traditional custodians of the land that we are speaking on here this morning. Look, I'm very glad to welcome back to Banks the Federal Labor Leader, Anthony Albanese, to talk about the Urban Rivers and Catchment Program here. And again, the urban rivers and catchment areas in this electorate is such an important part of the electorate in terms of bringing joy and recreation to the area. And I think given the events of the last year or so and beyond with the COVID-19 lockdown and restrictions, it's been particularly important as a resource that people can enjoy within their community. We need a Government here in Australia that recognises the importance of these areas and are willing to kind of stand up and really protect them. So, I'm really excited to welcome Anthony back here this morning to talk about the Urban Rivers and Catchment Program.
 
ANTHONY ALBANESE, LEADER OF THE AUSTRALIAN LABOR PARTY: Well, thanks very much, Zhi. And it's great to be back in the electorate of Banks, and particularly good to be in this beautiful part of the electorate here at Oatley Park. We can see that this is a pristine, natural environment. And today, we have local environment and community groups here with us for this announcement. And I'm proud to announce that a Labor Government will have a $200 million local Urban River and Catchment Program. This is a program that will accelerate support for natural environment and the cleaning up of our waterways such as the beautiful Georges River, but right around our cities.
 
One of the things that we're seeing is that for a long period of time, our urban waterways were where industry was located, it's where sewage often flowed into, it is where storm water flowed into. They were seen as drains. Today we know that, far from that, they are precious. They are so precious with urban consolidation, with more and more people living in medium density living, for the quality of life for residents around our cities and our towns. And here in Sydney, but like other cities right around Australia, our waterways are what make a city a fantastic liveable place. And to make our cities more liveable and more sustainable, we need programs that support the activity of state and local governments but also of community-based organisations. What we see around Australia is volunteers giving up their time, giving up their income to go and to help clean up our waterways. Because they know that clean water makes a difference. The swimming club has been here since 1927. It is an amazing asset for this local community in the St George and Canterbury Bankstown areas. But it can be even better if it's cleaner. We know that after a few days of rain, such as what we've had, stormwater flows into this river, making it unusable and not suitable for human activity. And we know that also threatened species around our urban waterways, be it flora and fauna, is a major issue as well. So, this program will make a difference. Partnering with local government, partnering with community organisations to clean up our waterways in our urban communities. And we've been given a reminder during COVID, whereby people gathered with family and friends in spaces like Oatley park, but in parks right around Australia, we've been reminded of the joy that can be had in having a picnic without noise, without TVs, without electronic equipment, just engaging with each other. And that renewal of that community activity is something that I think will lead to this program being very much welcomed. It is a program that will be run by the Environment Department. And we know it works. Last time Labor was in Government, we had a similar program that made an enormous difference right around the country. So, for rivers like the Georges River, the Parramatta River, the Cooks River, for some of the tributaries as well, like Cup and Saucer Creek and the creeks that exists right around, areas like Narrabeen Lake, these are all major assets to our community. And we need to value them. We need to cherish them. A program like this is an acknowledgment of that. And also, an acknowledgement of what really is a grassroots movement from the bottom up. Community organisations like the ones who are with us here today are doing incredible work. They need support of our national Government. It's a part of the leadership that I want to provide to make our cities more productive, more sustainable and more liveable. Happy to take questions.
 
JOURNALIST: Does Australia need incentives to increase its uptake of electric cars or will technological development make them more affordable?
 
ALBANESE: Well, last week, Scott Morrison said that he doesn't hold a hose when it comes to Australia's climate policy. And this week, we have another pamphlet, rather than a serious announcement. Labor announced at the time of our national conference, in the electorate of Banks, indeed, we announced our reduction or removal of taxation from electric vehicles. Labor will make electric vehicles cheaper by removing the excise and removing fringe benefits tax. What that will do is to encourage the uptake of electric vehicles by fleets. That's a major way in which new cars enter the market. Local government, state government, federal government, private sector buy fleets of vehicles which are then on sold usually after two years of being on the road. We need to make sure that we don't continue to fall behind. Australia last year had under two per cent of new vehicle sales were electric vehicles. In Norway, the figure was 70 per cent. In Denmark, it was double digits. In the United Kingdom, it was 15 per cent. I went to a conference as Transport Minister way back in 2009 in Japan, where every motor vehicle manufacturer was saying that they're not doing any research into internal combustion engines, it was all about electric vehicles and clean energy vehicles. That transition is happening. Volvo today have ads in our national newspapers saying that they've moved to electric vehicles fully, right now. This is something that is happening. It's something that even for the climate deniers in the Coalition, there are advantages in moving to cleaner vehicle, in removing particulates from our atmosphere that can have a real impact on human health. We know that this change is happening. The Government once again is fitting a familiar pattern. They deny a problem exists. They, during the last campaign, said that electric vehicles would “end the weekend”. And now in the pre-caretaker mode that this Government is in, in the lead-up to an election campaign, they want you to believe that now electric vehicles are all okay and they want to encourage uptake. Well, they can't have it both ways. This is a Government that is scared of change. Change happens in society. What we need is a Government that shapes change in the interests of people, that makes sure that people don't get left behind, that makes sure that Australia benefits through our economy and through jobs by taking up the opportunities that are there for a cleaner activity, which is a demand which is there. Last week, I am told that Angus Taylor was at the Climate Change Conference in Glasgow. I didn't really see him there. But Scott Morrison was there. And they would have been shaken by reality. A reality which is that the whole world is shifting in one direction and they have said, 'No, be scared of it. Don't go down that track, it will end the weekend'. And now we have today's rather, I guess, just completely inadequate, pamphlet, which follows their fuel security strategy, which was about keeping fuel reserves in the Gulf of Mexico. This is a Government that isn't up to the task of governing Australia in this century. This is a Government where time has just moved past them. And Scott Morrison is frozen in time while the world warms around him and where people actually uptake new technology.
 
JOURNALIST: Electric cars obviously don't use fuel, which means the Government won't receive the fuel excise. How would a Labor Government make up for that expected shortfall in revenue?
 
ALBANESE: Well, look, we'll deal with those issues in the fullness of time. But that's something that will have to be dealt with by all governments. But it is a good thing that we have less particulates in the atmosphere. It is a good thing if we encourage the uptake of electric vehicles, No one has ever said that they would impose their views on what sort of car people drive. That's up to people. But what you can do is make those choices easier by making it cheaper for people to drive electric vehicles. That's Labor's policy. Labor's committed to it. And I think people will look at Scott Morrison today and this announcement and just shake their head and say, 'What's changed?' This is a guy who says that at all about technology. And he's resisted technology. This is a guy who said electric vehicles would end the weekend. He said that battery storage for renewables was as useful as the Big Banana or the Big Prawn. And who said that renewable energy targets were, quote him, nuts. This is a guy who says he's about new technology. He's resisted it. Australia's had almost a decade of waste as a result of this Government. We need a Government that's up for the 21st century. Zhi, as the local member for Banks, will be doing this. David Coleman, if he makes a rare visit to the electorate, could say what his view is, but he's been a part of stopping action, which is why we need a change of government to actually have change in the interests of people and communities.
 
JOURNALIST: So, what would Labor do?
 
ALBANESE: Look, we'll deal with that in the fullness of time. The fact is that this change is occurring. Electric vehicles need to be made cheaper. Labor will do that. This is a change whereby for Scott Morrison to say that electric vehicles will end the weekend, well, there'll be no weekends, if he's right, in 2040. Because every vehicle that is purchased at some time in the next decade, this change is happening. The auto manufacturers are telling us that this is happening. They won't be producing internal combustion engine vehicles right into the future. They're transitioning. Volvo has made that announcement today. But all of the auto manufacturers around the world, in Europe, in Japan in Korea, in the United States. Unfortunately, this Government, of course, told the Australian motor vehicle industry to leave Australia. They dared them to leave Australia. What we should have been doing is transitioning and producing electric vehicles here. We had an opportunity to develop that industry here. As it is now, there are big changes coming through that are making a difference. Australia produces, for example, the fastest electric vehicle charging stations in the world at Tritium in southeast Queensland, and we're exporting them to the United States and to Europe. We can benefit from the shift to clean energy if we're smart, if we're innovative, if we're prepared to commercialise Australian scientific breakthroughs. This Government is scared of the present but terrified of the future, which is why they're not up to governing in the future.
 
JOURNALIST: What percentage of new cars need to be electric by 2030 to address our emissions reductions?
 
ALBANESE: Well, we won't be putting a target. What we'll be doing is making electric vehicles cheaper and making it more attractive for people to take up electric vehicles. We believe by doing that, Australians will make their own choice. Just like Australians have put solar panels on their roofs, not because of Federal Government policy, in spite of Federal Government policy. The Federal Government wanted to get rid of the renewable energy target. The Federal Government tried to get rid of the Clean Energy Finance Corporation. The Federal Government tried to abolish the Australian Renewable Energy Agency. The Federal Government has resisted net zero by 2050. This is a Government that's in denial about the change that is happening in our economy, and is being driven by new technology, speaks about technology, but it opposes it at every step. What we're convinced of is that Australians will take up that opportunity, just as they have by putting solar panels on their roofs. And if you combine the two things, solar panels, community batteries, with electric vehicles being charged through solar energy, you make a massive difference to the cost of running a car.
 
JOURNALIST: On climate, you say you won't release your policy until the end of the Glasgow Conference. What are you waiting for to come out of that?
 
ALBANESE: Well, we'll wait and see what comes out of the conference. That's the whole point here is that this is an important conference. It's the most important conference on climate that has happened this century. Scott Morrison went to the conference, gave a nothing speech to an empty room, and was one of the few countries along with Brazil, Mexico and Saudi Arabia, that went to that conference without increasing our 2030 target. Now, one of the things that could be considered by the conference is whether in 2022, those nations get asked to increase the uptake just as the United Kingdom, the United States, Canada, Europe and other nations around the world have. We are falling behind. Once again, we're in that category with Saudi Arabia, with Brazil. The category of the climate denying countries that aren't pulling their weight when it comes to the need for global action. We also want to see where the Government's modelling is. How is it that the Government, a week after Scott Morrison gave his empty speech to an empty room, he's doing a policy announcement today about electric vehicles, two weeks after his pamphlet was released in Canberra where he said there were no new policies? It's just extraordinary. It just shows, once again, that Scott Morrison isn't committed to any of this. He's not fair dinkum. He's having a lend, to use an old Australian term. He's having a lend of the Australian people believing that the guy who said electric vehicles would end the weekend has an electric vehicles policy. And he's having a lend when it comes to anyone who wants climate action knows that the only way for that to happen will be the election of a Labor Government. We've already announced our Rewiring the Nation program, a $20 billion commitment to fix electricity transmission in this country, to update it for the 21st century. We've announced community batteries. We've announced cheaper electric vehicles. We've announced our National Reconstruction Fund of $15 billion to assist industry to transition and transform, to take advantage of the opportunities which are there. We've already outlined substantial policies. We'll have more to come. Thanks
 
ENDS