MATT SMITH, LABOR FEDERAL CANDIDATE FOR LEICHHARDT: My name is Matt Smith. I'm the ALPs federal candidate for the seat of Leichhardt. Really excited to be here today with the Prime Minister, the Premier and the Ministers for this really exciting announcement about 490 homes being built right here in Cairns on this, the old drive in site, which has really laid dormant for the better part of almost three decades. There'll be a bit more details coming along, but one thing I want to touch on is these aren't just houses that we're building here, these are homes. We're creating a community. Over 700 people will be able to live right where we're standing now. The services are here, you've got the supermarket down the way, good access to public transport, skate park out the back if that tickles your fancy. More than that, more than that, this is where memories are going to be built. Grandparents are going to meet their grandchildren here for the first time. This project's going to start next week. Should be done two, two and a half years, but in 20 years time, people are going to look back and see the best years of their lives happening where we are now. This is where memories are created. This is why I'm so proud to be a part of an Anthony Albanese Labor team, because this is what Labor Governments do. They do it for the people. Thank you.
ANTHONY ALBANESE, PRIME MINISTER: Well, thanks so much. Thanks so much, Matt. It is great to be back here, and it's fantastic that you've agreed to be our candidate for Leichhardt. We launched Matt's campaign at the Cairns Show, which is the biggest show outside of any capital city that's held anywhere in Australia. And this bloke knew everyone at the show. He kind of stands out a bit. And I quite look forward to the idea, and I commit today that Matt Smith will sit next to Dan Repacholi in the House of Representatives after the next election, because no one wants to sit next to Dan, but Dan and Matt together, I think will be a rather extraordinary combination of sports people, but also fantastic local representatives. Well, it's great to be back here in Tropical North Queensland for what is a really exciting announcement. My Government is committed to doing more for Australians on housing. That's why we have a $32 billion Homes for Australia plan. We want more Australians to have access to home ownership, more Australians to have access to private rental but more Australians as well to have access to social and affordable housing. And the key to that is supply. And this project here is an exciting one, the largest one in Queensland. 490 homes built right here, a $400 million project, $350 million from the Federal Government, from Housing Australia and from the Northern Australia Infrastructure Facility, through a loan. And partnered with the Queensland Government led by Steven Miles. This is an example of what happens when governments work together to make a difference for the people who we're proud to represent. In the Senate, this week, we saw two attempts to have our Help to Buy scheme adopted. Now the No-alition of the Greens, One Nation, the Liberals and National Party, have all opposed that. Not because they're opposed to the policy, but just out of spite in the Greens Political Party's form. It is time that they stopped this nonsense. This is Green's Political Party policy to have a shared equity scheme, and yet they voted to kick it off down the track for two months further. It's exactly what they did with the Housing Australia Future Fund last year, where they delayed support for public housing. Now, we announced on Monday, 13,700 new social and affordable homes built throughout Australia, including right here in Queensland. They could have been built now and had people living in them, had the Greens and the Coalition not formed that No-alition last year to block support for public housing and affordable housing through the Housing Australia Future Fund. What's remarkable about that was that that was blocking funding not just for public and affordable housing, but also for homes designated for women and children escaping domestic violence. This week, once again, they've combined in the Senate to show they're not serious about housing. Well, we are. We are as a Labor Party, both Federal and State. And this project, here is a great example of that, how we're using all of the funds at our disposal, as well as working with the private sector and local government and planning provisions to make sure that we increase housing supply. Because we know that that is the key to making housing more affordable. This is a great project here in regional Queensland and will make an enormous difference for the families who get to live here, and I'm very pleased that we're partnering with the Premier's Government here once again to make a difference to the lives of Queenslanders. I'll hand over to Steven and then after we hear from the local state candidate as well, we're happy to take questions.
STEVEN MILES, PREMIER OF QUEENSLAND: Thanks so much, Prime Minister, it's great to have you in Queensland again, and in particular here in Cairns for this really exciting project. While the LNP and the Greens Political Party continue to block new homes for Queenslanders, our Homes for Queenslanders plan is delivering just that. New homes, new supply, new stock for Queenslanders. This is our biggest social and affordable housing project, one of many right across the state. We have a record number of social and affordable homes under construction right now. These 490 units will be a mix of one and two bedroom units specifically designed for seniors, for people over 55, some will have full disability access, but will be able to target wraparound services to that community. And we also will see allied health and other services delivered here directly to them. It's exactly the kind of project we want to support. A couple of years ago, we went right across the state and audited under-utilized land. Land like this disused drive in here, and we're going through the process of putting together housing projects to deliver those additional homes for Queenslanders. Where we are right now is in Mulgrave, where we have a fantastic candidate in Richie, and I'll just ask him to say a bit more about it.
RICHIE BATES, LABOR STATE CANDIDATE FOR MULGRAVE: Thanks Steven, Richie Bates, candidate for Mulgrave. Homes for Queenslanders is a priority for a Miles Labor Government, but these homes that we're going to build here are going to be more, are going to than that. It's going to be building a community, and it's about building a future for Mulgrave as well. I really look forward to this project, it's something that the community has been asking for, for a long time, and it's going to alleviate a lot of the housing stresses we see in our local community. I thank the Premier and the Prime Minister for being here today, and I welcome the project starting next week.
PRIME MINISTER: Thanks very much, mate. We're happy to take some questions.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister are you planning to roll out more affordable and social housing projects like this across the rest of regional Queensland?
PRIME MINISTER: You bet we are. We want to work with Steven's Government. They're putting record amounts into housing, and so are we. What we're doing through the Social Housing Accelerator is making sure that existing homes that were left derelict or unlivable can be refurbished and make sure that people can live in all of those homes as well as new housing. That's the Social Housing Accelerator. The Housing Australia Future Fund, just in the first round, 13,700 homes being built right around Australia, but we will be opening up the second round. As I said, it's unfortunate that the Greens and the Coalition delayed the Housing Australia Future Fund. Eventually, they voted for it, just like eventually they'll vote for Help to Buy, I'm sure. But the delays and playing of politics is something that we don't need. So we have, as well, with Queensland and other states, we put in record funding into the five year Housing and Homelessness Agreement. That agreement is part of our $32 billion. It's the largest ever five year agreement between a Commonwealth Government and States and Territories. And so I look forward to continuing to work with the Steven Miles Labor Government here in Queensland. But working with other governments right around the country as well to roll out more housing investment
JOURNALIST: Yarrabah over the mountain behind me here is an Aboriginal community 10 kilometres away. The residents there will be wondering, and they rely on Federal Government funding for housing, they'll be wondering, "when is our turn coming? When are we going to get our homes?"
PRIME MINISTER: Well, we have investment through the Housing Australia Future Fund. We have investment through a range of programs that are investing record amounts, the $32 billion in our Homes for Australia plan. And that is more than, I note this, the former Coalition Government that I had the privilege of replacing in 2022 didn't even bother to have a Housing Minister for a long time that they were in office. They didn't have a meeting of Federal and State and Territory Housing Ministers for a decade. They thought it was someone else's problem. What I want to do is to partner with State and Territory Governments to deliver support. As well as the additional funding that we have for local government to fix up infrastructure so that more housing can come online as well.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, speaking of working with State Governments, Chris Ellison, has said that he thinks that -
PRIME MINISTER: Chris Ellison?
JOURNALIST: Chris Ellison, the head of Min Res -
PRIME MINISTER: The former LNP Chris?
JOURNALIST: No, no.
PRIME MINISTER: Sorry, I thought we were in Queensland.
JOURNALIST: It is an issue that relates to Queensland as well, because the resources sector is strong here. He says that the changes to IR and the changes to environment laws on the books, that he thinks that maybe you don't understand the mounting pressure they're having on the resources sector across the country, and that you should get out of the way and just leave the State Governments to deal with it. What do you make of that?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, Chris Ellison, I know well, and I caught up with him last time I was in WA just a couple of weeks ago. And I was there at Mineral Resources headquarters. It's a pretty grand building. Mineral Resources is doing pretty well, I've got to say, under his leadership, and I congratulate him for it. We support the resources sector. I've got the Resources Minister here with me. We support it. We're pro-business, but we're also pro-worker. And to paraphrase Billy Bragg, just because workers are going forward, doesn't mean businesses going backwards. Successful businesses value their employees, and I'll say this about Chris Ellison and Min Res, one of the things that he's done is bring in a childcare centre into the facility there. He provides food for his workers, including food to be able to take home at night for people who are working hard, taking pressure off working families. He's an example of someone who I know values his employees. Well, we value every worker, and the legislation that we've put forward has seen, for example, industrial disputes are less under us than they were, working days per capita lost to industrial disputes are less than they were under the former Coalition Government. But what we won't be doing is returning to the Work Choices agenda of the Coalition Government. What we won't be doing is saying that enterprise bargaining and enterprise agreements can be undermined by the creation of shelf companies in order to pay people who are working side by side, who have the same skills, who have the same experience, who have the same contribution to make, but one because they're employed by a shelf company and one that is directly employed, that undermines the whole concept of enterprise bargaining. So we want to see wages improving. We want to see businesses also be profitable and Min Res, we want to see continue to be successful.
JOURNALIST: Just, I've got some questions to Bruce Highway, did Steven Miles write to you last night looking for a billion dollars, and will you agree to it for safety upgrades?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, we don't agree to a billion dollars on the basis of a question at a press conference.
JOURNALIST: Will you consider it?
PRIME MINISTER: I know that'll come as a shock to you. But as a Government that's run two budget surpluses in a row, the way that you do that is to have proper consideration of programs. We have some money in the budget that's available. In our last budget, I wrote to Steven about what the priority projects for that should be on the Bruce Highway. And we will give consideration to any proposals through our budget processes.
JOURNALIST: Will the Federal Government reinstate the Bruce Highway, 80/20 Federal to Queensland Government funding model?
PRIME MINISTER: As long as the Queensland Government agree to take away all funding for public transport, all funding for urban roads, all funding for projects like this, of housing and everything else.
JOURNALIST: Is that why the funding got reduced last year?
PRIME MINISTER: The funding didn't get reduced. The funding has been historically – I was the former Infrastructure Minister. The funding was 50/50, arrangements. And the reason why that occurs across the country is that, unlike when the Howard Government was in place, they had $1.3 billion they invested in the Bruce Highway over 12 years. While I was the Infrastructure Minister, we invested $7.6 billion. But we did other things as well – over six years, over half the time. We did other things as well. We invested in the Ipswich motorway. We invested in the Pacific motorway down to the Gold Coast. We invested in Legacy Way which made a difference, a tunnel project in Brisbane. We invested in Cross River Rail that was cut by Tony Abbott. Now we're investing in Sunshine Coast rail. We’re investing in a range of projects. The National Party weren't interested in any investment in our cities or urban communities at all. And the reason why you want to have a true partnership of funding and why we have that as part of our agreement on infrastructure going forward, is that the Commonwealth don't build roads. We're going to make sure that states actually deliver value for money, not do what had occurred for a while, which is state governments having projects which were overblown, and then the Commonwealth getting the bill for it. A partnership requires that.
JOURNALIST: Can I ask you a question on the QUAD Leaders' Summit? The President's hosting you and the other leaders in Delaware in his hometown of Wilmington. It's the first time he's done that. Is this somewhat of a – do you see it as a valedictory for Joe Biden?
PRIME MINISTER: I see it as the President continuing to do his job as the leader of the United States, a great partner of Australia, and a sign of the personal friendship as well that he's developed with myself, with Prime Minister Modi and with Prime Minister Kishida. This will be an important gathering. The priority is about peace and security in the Indo Pacific, as well as stability and prosperity, and it will be a real opportunity for us to re-engage. There will be other engagements, of course, including at the G20 and APEC that will be held in November. But I'm very much looking forward to meeting with President Biden, over the next coming days.
JOURNALIST: Can I just ask you, we've seen the US Federal Reserve drop interest rates by 50 basis points there. Do you think the economic conditions that have allowed the Fed Reserve to do that will be present in Australia anytime this year?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, we know that global inflation is something that we've been dealing with. Global inflation has impacted the whole of the Western world. We saw economies like the United Kingdom, Japan and New Zealand, go into recession. We saw double digit inflation in places like the United Kingdom, and we saw interest rates be far higher in other countries than they were here in Australia. What we are managing to do is to try to land a decrease in inflation, which we have cut in half, whilst continuing to create employment. Today's figures show 978,000 jobs created on our watch. An unemployment rate remaining steady at 4.2 per cent whilst we're seeing wages increase, while we're seeing people be able to not just earn more but keep more of what they earn through our tax cuts for every taxpayer. So, we want – interest rates are, of course, a matter for the Reserve Bank – but what we are doing is putting that downward pressure on inflation, whilst we are as well making sure that we address cost of living pressures, because we understand that they're very real.
JOURNALIST: In terms of Australia's relationship with the US. Does it matter who wins the election? And then in on that as well, is universal childcare, your vision for next term that you’ll take to the next election?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, on the two things that are probably unrelated. On the relationship with the United States, this is a relationship between peoples based upon our common values. Two great democracies. And the relationship has remained strong no matter who the President of the United States has been and no matter who the Prime Minister of Australia has been. I have a very close personal relationship with President Biden, which is why I'm very much looking forward to meeting him over the next couple of days. And on universal childcare, look, we've received the Productivity Commission report. It's in a number of volumes with a lot of recommendations. We'll go through that. But I make it very clear that I want to see universal access to affordable childcare. We have had a position where I said at the last election we'd make child care cheaper. I said we'd address the issue of wages, and there'll be a 15 per cent increase in wages of early educators. Ten per cent in December this year, five per cent next year. And I've said that we would have a Productivity Commission report to look at a way forward. So we want – we knew we couldn't do this in one term. You can't turn around neglect – whether it be in housing, whether it be in childcare, whether it be in aged care – the neglect that we inherited from the former Government is something that we are turning around, and you can't do that in just two years. We know as well that they haven't learnt their lesson, because the Coalition are promising $315 billion of cuts. They see the indexing of aged pensions, they see the increased support for child care and aged care, they see the increased investment in social housing, they see the increased investment in a Future Made in Australia, including the National Reconstruction Fund – they see all that as being waste. At the same time as they want to build nuclear reactors, where they can't – months after promising this and saying the detail would be out there – they can't tell us how much they will cost. We know that they're going to be a couple of them here in Queensland, sometime in the 2040s that will, combined, create just four per cent of our national energy needs. We need to do better. It's only Labor that has a real plan going forward, and this site here is just the latest example of us being the builders and the Coalition and the Greens being the blockers.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister on the PNG team, will it be based in Cairns?
PRIME MINISTER: The negotiations are continuing on the PNG team with the NRL. The vision that's there is for the team to be based in Port Moresby. But I have no doubt, given the relationship between the PNG diaspora and the Cairns community, that there will be considerable interaction and benefit for Cairns here.
JOURNALIST: For you and for the Premier, in terms of Queenslanders having it all, do you think that there's enough funding to go around to fix the Bruce Highway and also host the Olympics? Or should it be one or the other?
PRIME MINISTER: Look, the Olympic Games here in Queensland will be a ripper. I remember in Sydney, in the lead up, I had a few friends who left town because they thought, you know, it'll be a bit noisy, and there'll be a lot of people around. All of them regret that. It was a sensational time for Sydney, and it was also a time which brought lasting economic benefit. What Brisbane 2032 will do is to put Queensland and what is now a global city of Brisbane on the global map. It will have a lasting benefit for the people of Queensland. It will be a great success, and I have every confidence that that will occur. It's not either or. You know, you need to be able to do things as well that lift up the country. How good is it that Australia is going to host our third Olympic Games? Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane as well as of course, the Olympic Games here will have a lot of events in the regions here in Queensland as well. And that lasting benefit, which is why we're funding, I think, 19 different projects here in Queensland as a Commonwealth Government. Now, the Bruce Highway needs fixing. My Government's committed to it. I have a record not talking about it, but doing it. You know, we had in Rocky – just to give one example – the former Government that I was a part of did the planning work on the Rockhampton Ring Road when Kirsten Livermore was the federal Member. Then you had a change of government in 2013 and you had media releases, but you had underfunding of the project, and nothing happened. Myself and the Premier turned the first sod on that project. We actually got it done. I'm committed to getting things done on the Bruce Highway, which is why, when you receive a letter from the Premier, you go through it in a considered way and work through those issues with a timeline, with costings, with workforce issues being considered. I want it to be done as soon as possible, which is why when we were last in government, have a look at what happened over that six years. Cooroy to Curra, Yeppoon flood plain, Mackay Ring Road, Townsville Ring Road different stages, Port Access Road, Southern approaches to Cairns. All of the work that occurred all the way up, including – Cooroy to Curra, the former Minister Warren Truss was the Transport Minister and the Member for Wide Bay. And with respect to Warren, he used to stand up in Parliament and say, “this is the worst part of the worst highway in Australia.” He did nothing about it. It took us to do something about it in one of our first budgets. And now Cooroy to Curra is done around Gympie. So we don't get out a colour coded spreadsheet to decide where projects will be built, like the former Government did. What we do is we're getting on with the job, as well as doubling Roads to Recovery funding for every local council, regardless of who runs it, right around the country.
PREMIER MILES: Well, we can and must do both. The 2032 Games are going to be fantastic. They'll be particularly fantastic for tourism destinations like Cairns, drawing people from around the world to our incredible natural assets around here, as well as the people who come here to see events at the upgraded Barlow Park. So we're making sure that people right across Queensland benefit from hosting the Games. We do have, between us, $6 billion worth of projects currently underway on the Bruce Highway. The Prime Minister has already outlined some of them. That's our most important road, and the work of upgrading it will never stop, and we will continue to invest in making it better and safer and faster and more productive.
JOURNALIST: Why did you wait till last night to write to him?
PREMIER MILES: Hang on a second. I wrote the letter a few weeks ago. What you saw yesterday – so we have $7 billion committed to these new venues. That's a fair bit of money. Yesterday you saw the LNP Leader David Crisafulli commit billions more. He wants to build another $3 billion stadium on top of the $7 billion that's already committed. So when it comes to priorities, we can have a great Games. We can invest in the Bruce Highway, we can invest in great healthcare. But we can't if David Crisafulli gets his way and spends another $3 billion on stadiums, just because an Olympic big wig bullied him into it.
JOURNALIST: Will the QSAC Project Validation Report consider the concerns around the small size of the venue, comparatively?
PREMIER MILES: So, the IOC in their contribution to our venues review identified QSAC as a suitable venue. Many of the venues in Paris incorporated temporary seating or temporary expansion, and that's what we're considering there at QSAC. We have many great venues. We're upgrading and building more new venues. We're building the arena with the Australian Government at Roma Street. It'll be a fantastic venue. But what we don't need is another $3 billion gold plated venue, just because David Crisafulli is too weak to stand up to those few people in the inner city of Brisbane who want to see it.
JOURNALIST: So, that PVR will take into consideration making it bigger?
PREMIER MILES: Well that PVR will assess the proposal, which is a new, brand new venue with a 14,000 seat stadium with temporary seating to take it to 40,000.
JOURNALIST: Just on the recent meningococcal outbreak in Queensland. Are you concerned about low vaccination rates? And are you trying to do something about that?
PREMIER MILES: Well, we're always, always working to increase our vaccination rates, and we have some of the highest vaccination rates in the world here in Queensland, but we want to see that continue to increase. And there are teams in Queensland Health, public health teams, as well as nurses out there making sure that all of our young people have all of their vaccinations.
JOURNALIST: What are you doing to make sure the 80/20 funding for the Bruce Highway is being reinstated?
PREMIER MILES: Well, I think the Prime Minister just outlined how aware he is that we would prefer to see additional funding. We would prefer to see those projects funded at 80/20. But we're going to work together to continue to invest in new projects, and we're not going to let that dispute over the funding share get in the way of us accepting the funding that's on the table and getting projects started.