Q: It is reported that extra spending promised during the election campaign from both sides of politics is adding to inflation pressures and that the Federal Budget – the Government’s Federal Budget was the cause of the interest rate hike this week. Will you guarantee that under a Labor Government, you will not be overspending to help with the cost of living pressures and in what way?
Anthony Albanese:
One of the big issues of this election campaign is the quality of the spend. What we will do is cut back on the waste and the rorts of this government. Today at ACCEI, I will outline our plan for, penned your that will grow productivity. Our plan to grow productivity by having better industrial relations. Our plan to grow productivity through programs like this here. Our program to grow productivity through child care that produces a return, all of the economists will say for every dollar invested you get $2 back
Q: You have put proposal to have a 60% emissions reduction target for 2030. Scott Morrison said that would be catastrophic for the economy. Would a 60% emissions reduction target for 2030 be catastrophic?
Albanese:
Our policies for 43% by 2030. What I am interested in is the implementation of our policy. We don’t have the same policy as the Independents or the Greens or Liberal Party. What we have as a policy that will actually deliver.
Chris Bowen steps in to answer as well:
Absolutely. Our policy of 43% is more than the target. It is the modelled result of our policies announced. We have taken our policy, safeguards, electric vehicles, and had them modelled and they show a 43% emissions reduction. No other party can say that. The government can’t, the Greens can’t and the Independents can’t. We are the only party going to this election with a comprehensive plan and with the evidence to show which levers we will pull to achieve our emissions reductions.
Q: Just on the Solomons. You were asked about this yesterday what your first action would be to try and repair the relationship. You gave a brief answer. Given the situation has escalated overnight with Manasseh Sogavare suggesting that Australia is treating the Solomons like children with guns, could you detail what you would do to repair that relationship.
Anthony Albanese:
What we would do to repair the relationship is not simple. The fact that the Prime Minister hasn’t picked up the phone to Prime Minister Sogavare says an enormous amount about what is needed, in terms of that relationship.
We have outlined a comprehensive Pacific plan. It is about increased aid, dealing with climate change, including hosting a COP along with the Pacific Island nations. It is about people to people relations, including parliamentary visits. It is about making sure that we have a migration program that allows people from the Pacific to settle here. What they will do is make remittances back to the Solomons and back to other Pacific Island nations.
Q: Has Labor dumped its long standing pledge to pay super on top of government funded parental leave?
Anthony Albanese:
We announce our policies during the campaign. We haven’t announced that as a policy. We support paid parental leave. We can’t commit to everything that we committed to during the last campaign.
Q: In your speech later on today, you will talk about the legacy of Labor leaders. One of those legacies is the NDIS. Yesterday, you talked about Labor’s 6 point plan. What are the six points?
Anthony Albanese:
The six points are what we will do in terms of what was outlined by Bill Shorten. That is about making sure…
Q: What are the six points?
Albanese:
If you let me answer the question… What that is about is making sure that we take pressure off people who are, at the moment, having their programs cut. We will make sure that there is administrative efficiency. So much is being wasted by the claims that are going forward with legal battles for individuals. What we will do is put people at the centre of the NDIS.
Q: What are the other five points?
Albanese:
We will put people – it is all around the theme of putting people…
Q: What are the six points?
Albanese:
We will put people at the centre of the NDIS.
Q: What are the six points.
Q: What is your policy?
Albanese:
We will put people at the centre of the NDIS. All of our programs are based upon that.
The journalist keeps asking, but Albanese does not answer.
Q: You are standing in front of an electric truck. Given how politically fraught climate policy was at last election, how confident are you that voter sentiment has changed?
Anthony Albanese:
I am very confident about the position that we are putting forward. It is comprehensive, fully costed. We have outlined it. We outlined it on December 3, from memory, last year. It has been out there for six months. What I am also confident of is that the government are incapable of dealing with the present let alone moving Australia forward into the future.
We saw that absurd front page splash a couple of weeks ago now during the campaign from Angus Taylor where, when he was asked what was the basis of that – it was nothing and the idea that electric vehicles are not part of our future is just so absurd now. You have had the government creep towards reality but they are incapable of landing it. They have had 22 different energy policies and haven’t landed one. We have one policy, we will land it. It will create jobs. It will make a difference.
Anthony Albanese makes climate jobs pitch
Anthony Albanese is in Sydney, making a pitch for the jobs which could come with a switch to renewables. Chris Bowen is with him:
We are at the smart energy Expo. This is exciting. The future is here right now. What we need to do in Australia is to learn to commercialise our scientific breakthroughs. There isn’t a PV panel in the world that doesn’t have some intellectual property that came from Australia. From the Australian National University, from the University of New South Wales, what we haven’t always done is commercialise the opportunities, maximise the jobs and economic growth that can come from Australian scientific breakthroughs. Australia is suffering from a cost of living crisis under Scott Morrison. Australians know that the cost of everything is going up but their wages aren’t. Families are under real pressure. Scott Morrison has a plan for the election, Labor has a plan for a better future. Part of that is here right now.
The journalists must sense that Scott Morrison is getting ready to leave, because they cut across this answer with a lot more questions, interrupting the PP as he gives his election pitch speech.
Q: On Parramatta: it is your fifth visit to this seat. Why haven’t you spent any time in North Sydney or Wentworth, where sitting Liberals are at risk of being turfed out, is it because your brand is toxic there?
Morrison:
I am here in Parramatta because I am here with Maria and at this campaign, there is a choice between a Labor government and a Liberal National government. In this seat here, and all the seats I visit around the country, I am focused on the contest that is happening between the two alternatives for government. I have made the point clear about independents.
That is a vote for chaos, for instability. It is a vote for instability. I don’t outline my program in advance. You all know that. That is how campaigns work. This election is a choice between Labor and between Liberals and Nationals. That is the choice that Australians have to make.
Do they want Mr Albanese who has never done a budget, never held a finance portfolio, doesn’t have an economic plan, is shielded by his shadow ministers daily because he can’t answer fundamental questions.
[Interruptions about why isn’t he answering the question]
He had a housing policy that fell over within 24 hours, an aged care policy that unravelled under 24 hours and a health policy that is uncosted and we are talking about a Labor alternative that won’t stack up when it comes to dealing with the real challenges Australia faces on the economy and national security.
[Interruptions about why isn’t he answering the question]
They are unproven, untested.
We have been proven and tested in one of the most difficult times Australia have faced.
[Interruptions about why isn’t he answering the question]
Yes, we haven’t got everything right. Not every decision we have made Australians would agree with and the times have been difficult.
[Interruptions about why isn’t he answering the question]
There is a choice and it is a choice between whether you want the Liberal and Nationals to run the country and continue that strong economic management or do you want the Labor party supported by the Greens and a cavalcade of independents, where you are inviting chaos and weakness. A strong economy versus a weak economy?
[Interruptions about why isn’t he answering the question]
I am focused on the contest between Labor and Liberal and myself and Mr Albanese.
Q: On the Solomons issue, it may be Sogavare’s word that we are the preferred security partner but since you said there was an issue here, he has criticised Australia for not doing enough to protect infrastructure and he has suggested Australia has threatened to invade the Solomons …
Scott Morrison:
None of that is true.
Q: Hasn’t this war of words provided cover for the Solomons to have a deeper relationship with China which was the exact thing we were trying to prevent?
Morrison:
No. What we need to be conscious of is we need to be calm and composed when we deal with these issues that arise. Prime minister Sogavare has entered into a secret arrangement with the Chinese government. He has done that with a number of his cabinet ministers. That didn’t come as a surprise to our government and now we just work responsibly with our partners to manage that situation, to first protect the security interests of Australia but also of the Solomon Islands. We are concerned for the Solomons.
[He is interrupted but keeps going]
We are concerned for the Solomon Islands, for the broader security in the south-west Pacific. Other leaders that I have been in regular contact are equally concerned. Should I have the opportunity, I am looking forward to sit down with all of the Pacific leaders so we can talk to each other as family about the risk this presents, not just in the Solomon Islands but across the Pacific and that is the way we will handle these issues, as a family, as an equal with all other countries in the region and that has been a mark of the approach that I have taken into dealing with the Pacific family as an equal.
Q: The question about the structural deficit that exists. A $40bn to $60bn, that is not going to be solved by the falling jobless rate or by growing the economy. It is a deficit that needs to be addressed. Will you look at spending cuts after the budget? For example the NDIS is on a pathway, it has hit more than $60bn a year over the decade. You have said you will fund it, will you fully fund it at that pathway or will you look to make savings in that policy as well as other areas?
Scott Morrison:
We always run our programs responsibly. I disagree with you when it comes to how we ensure we can bring the budget back into balance, and the way we were able to do that was ensure our spending was responsibly.
[Not just structural]
The pandemic hit and just as well we did it. Can you imagine what would have happened after the last election if Bill Shorten was elected and he put $387bn worth of higher taxes on the Australian economy?
Could you imagine what our experience would have been over the last three years if we had let Labor loose on the economy after the last election? People know the risk of Labor. These are very serious times. Whether it is on the national security issues you raise, and they are real, of course.
The global economic challenges and the pressures on Australia that are seeing interest rates in the UK and North America and Canada and in New Zealand raise many, many times over, multiples over what we are seeing here in Australia.
The same on cost of living. Prices going up higher overseas and you often say to me at these press conferences, “But we live here in Australia, prime minister.” That is true and that economic shield our policies have put in place have shielded Australians from those higher prices and higher interest rates. It has ensured we have more people in work and it means the businesses like the ones we are in right here, they exist today. If we hadn’t taken the actions we had taken, businesses like this may not be here today, the apprentices who are in work today wouldn’t be in work today.
Q: On Henry’s question, when did you last speak to him? According to previous stuff you have said it was at the end of last year …
Scott Morrison:
I said I have had contact with him in last few months.
Q: How can you be assured that we remain the preferred security partner if you haven’t spoken to him in the last four weeks?
Morrison:
Because he has communicated that to me consistently. That is the policy of the Solomon Islands government.
Q: But how do you know?
Morrison:
He hasn’t changed his policy.
Q: With respect, we have a diplomatic rift with the Solomon Islands. That is clear and evident from what has been said. When was the last time you personally spoke with prime minister Sogavare? What is stopping you from picking up the phone? This is a cry out of attention from him. What is stopping you picking up the phone and speaking leader to leader to de-escalate this?
Scott Morrison:
I can tell you clearly, I am following carefully the advice I get from our security intelligence agencies in how we are responsibly managing the issues in relation to this matter. That is what I am doing. Exactly what I am doing.
Prime minister Sogavare, as Mr Howard has pointed out, has had a number of views about the relationship with Australia over a long period of time.
Our approach has been to be supportive, to answer their call, to ensure we have provided support for vaccines, support when they have asked for it, in terms of military support, police force support, training, we have always been there for the people of the Solomon Islands and we always will be. That doesn’t mean that prime ministers will always agree. I have a different view to him about the role of Russia invading Ukraine. I have had contact with him in the last few months.
Q: The French president has described you as a liar and Minister Sogavare is upset. These are both important partners in our region. Has your Pacific step-up failed? Can these relationships be repaired?
Morrison:
No, it hasn’t and, yes, we will continue to ensure our relationships are managed well.
Q: There is a lot of focus on what is happening in the US right now, the supreme court considering overturning Wade versus Roe. What is your view on what is happening in the United States now and what is your personal view on a woman’s right to choose?
Scott Morrison:
Two things.
That is a matter for the United States. That is a matter for the United States, it is for them to determine their rules and laws and how they do things. My own view here in Australia is we are not changing any of the settings and I don’t believe we need to change.
Q: Leading economists are warning that neither major party has a plan to tackle Australia’s structural deficits and spending forecasts have increased over the past three years. Can you rule out cuts to aged care, NDIS, healthcare if you are re-elected to government?
Scott Morrison:
The way you support Medicare, now at $31.4bn a year, the way you support the NDIS, the pension, record investments in aged care. We called the royal commission on aged care, I called it and backed it up in a response totalling some $19.1bn to actually address the serious issues that have been there for over 30 years.
I have said all along the way you pay for these things is by ensuring you have a strong economy.
How do you ensure a strong economy? You need small and family businesses that are being established, successful in employing people, getting them off welfare and getting them into work.
Welfare dependency today is lower than when we came to government. Tax rates are lower than when we came to government.
Investment in essential services, schools, hospitals and Medicare and the NDIS all higher under our government than they were when we came to government.
The reason we have been able to do all these things is because we have a strong economic plan that has not only brought us through the pandemic, ensuring we are performing better than all of the advanced economies in the world, like US, UK, Canada, and so many others, Germany and France, we are doing better than all of them because of the strong economic plan that we have …
We turned the budget around by over $100bn in the last 12 months, that is the single biggest economic turnaround fiscally in a budget we have seen in over 70 years and we did that by growing the economy. That is how you pay for Medicare.
Q: You have spoken about a red line with the Solomons, do you admit that your rhetoric on the region for a domestic audience has inflamed the situation and potentially damaged your relationship with Manasseh Sogavare?
No.
Q: Opening a business is a huge financial risk for a lot of people. Why would anyone open a business, take that risk when interest rates are going up, the rising cost of living is going up and they cannot guarantee an income that they would have had when they would have been employed?
Scott Morrison:
[We get a new line with this one]
Forty thousand small business and family businesses have been started in the last five years. One hundred thousand were created in the last 12 months. They are tough times. I have met so many small and family businesses in my role as prime minister, indeed as treasurer before that and going back to when I was immigration minister, because I said so many of our ethnic communities, so entrepreneurial in spirit are seeking to realise the opportunity for themselves and be their own boss and have those economic opportunities.
The passion of small and family businesses is – you can’t quench it and in an economy where unemployment has fallen to 4%, where we have 400,000 more people in work today than we did before the pandemic, where our economic growth is running ahead of the major advanced economies of the world, they see the same opportunities that I see, as we come out of this pandemic, Australia is positioned more strongly than so many of the other advanced economies of the world.
That is why Australia has been able to shield itself from so many of the negative economic impacts. Just this week, we saw the Reserve Bank take the decision which Australians were expecting that eventually the bank would move to release those emergency settings they have had on interest rates.
Let’s look at what has happened overseas. It went up 25 basis points this week, the first time it has risen in over 11 years. Already in the United States it has risen three times that amount. Seventy-five basis points and 50 just overnight. In the UK, it has gone up 65 basis points.
In Canada, it has gone up 75 basis points. Three times what it has here in Australia. In New Zealand, just across the ditch, it has gone up five times the level that the Reserve Bank moved interest rates just this week. Interest rates are a pressure on small and family businesses …
We know how hard it is for them to save for their retirement. At the last election we didn’t support the abolition of negative gearing which Anthony Albanese supported.
We said it need today stay because so many small family business owners pay for their superannuation and their retirement by the investments they make out of their business over the course of their working life. We understand the needs of small and family businesses. Labor doesn’t have a plan to get their costs down, they have a magic pen or wand they can wander around like Harry Potter. You can’t run the economy like Harry Potter. You need responsible financial management.
That has been an oft-repeated line from Scott Morrison and members of the Coalition rubbishing Anthony Albanese’s pledge to write a letter to the Fair Work Commission in support of aged care workers receiving a pay rise, if he won the election.
But that same line the government is using seems to imply that it doesn’t believe statements of support from the prime minister are influential. Which is very strange.
