ANTHONY ALBANESE, PRIME MINISTER: Thanks for joining us. And I'm joined today by Senator Chisholm and Senator Watt, two great Queenslanders who represent this great state of Queensland each and every day. But importantly, today I'm here joined by Ali France, who's agreed to be the Labor candidate for Dickson once again. If you look at the last election, Ali achieved a swing of almost 3 per cent in this seat. This seat now has a margin of under 2 per cent. A swing of half of what she got last time will see Ali France elected as the Labor Member for Dickson as part of a Federal Labor Government. And I am so proud that Ali has agreed to saddle up for the third time. What that means is that the people of Dickson know that she is a fighter. She's a para-athlete. She's someone who's overcome extraordinary hardship and trauma in her life. She's determined to make a difference for the people of this electorate in the northern suburbs of Brisbane. And of course, every single taxpayer in this electorate will have received a tax cut in their latest pay, or the pay that's coming. That's a tax cut that would have been denied to them by Peter Dutton. I notice that Luke Howarth actually has a billboard advertising the tax cuts which are coming through, and I thank the LNP for praising those tax cuts. It's a pity they didn't vote for them. It's a pity they said that they would oppose Labor's tax cuts, and then that they would then reverse them. And Peter Dutton said that we should have an election based upon them. But they will make a difference for all those under $45,000 that were going to get $0, they're now getting a tax cut. For average workers, they're getting double the tax cut that they were going to get, and in addition to that, they're getting $1,300 between the Federal Government and the Queensland Labor Government off their energy bills. They're getting, as I visited yesterday, Fee Free TAFE. They're getting as well, Cheaper Childcare. And they're getting a freezing of medicines payments, something that Peter Dutton, when he was the Health Minister, of course, wanted a GP tax every time you visited a doctor. He wanted an increase in the price of medicines, not a decrease. And he wanted to charge people for turning up to the Emergency Department of their local hospital. What we've done, including in this electorate of Dickson, I opened an Urgent Care Clinic here just a short while ago. Urgent Care Clinics are making an enormous difference for Australians, with over half a million Australians getting the care that they need, all they need is their Medicare card, not their credit card. So on cost of living, we are making a positive difference. We're doing it in a way that's bringing downward pressure on inflation, with inflation having almost halved since we came to office, and we're doing that at the same time as we're creating jobs. Some 880,000 jobs have been created since we were elected, and our plan for a future made in Australia is all about the future economy. So, dealing with the immediate pressures on cost of living, whilst at the same time having a plan for Australia's future. And behind us will be installed the biggest battery to store energy in Queensland, right here in the Dickson electorate. And that stands in stark contrast for his plan for a nuclear power plant, or two of them in Queensland, and perhaps more into the future, sometime after 2040. What he wants is for the rollout of renewables and clean energy to be stalled while he has this nuclear fantasy. A nuclear fantasy with nuclear reactors that Peter Dutton won't go anywhere near. He doesn't have to be overseas. He won't go near them. When he's here in Australia, he hasn't been within 50 kilometres of any of the sites that have been chosen to have a nuclear reactor. There's no costings for his nuclear reactor plan. There's no timeline that's definite. There is doubt between what each of his shadow ministers say. Some of them say that they'll have community consultation. The LNP, David Littleproud, Leader of the National Party, says they'll impose them regardless of what the local community wants. So they're all over the shop. They don't have a plan for the future, but they also don't have a plan for doing anything other than saying no to the cost of living relief that the Federal Labor Government is rolling out. And that's why it's time that Dickson had someone who would actually stand up for their interest, not just stand up for themselves. Ali France has shown herself to be someone of compassion, someone of strength, someone of intellect and integrity and someone who will be an outstanding representative here in Dickson. I am so pleased that she's agreed to run again, because the electorate know her. They know the quality that she brings to the Labor candidacy here in Dickson, and I'm very pleased to invite her to make some comments here this morning before we take questions.
ALI FRANCE, LABOR CANDIDATE FOR DICKSON: Good morning everyone. Thank you so much, Prime Minister for that introduction. It's so great to have the Prime Minister here, as well as Senator Watt and Senator Chisholm. To be here in Brendale to have a look at the beginning of what will be the construction of Queensland's largest energy storage system, that will deliver reliable and consistent power, not only to this region, but well beyond. It's projects like this one which will get us to our 2030 target and will get us to net-zero by 2050. And it's projects like this one that make Peter Dutton's nuclear fantasy an absolute no-go. I haven't spoken to anyone in Dickson yet who wants a great big nuclear power station on their doorstep, that is going to require our precious drinking water from Wivenhoe to run. Not only is it going to push up our power prices, it's going to cost a bomb, it's going to take more than 20 years to build, but nuclear needs a truckload of water, a lot of water. What happens in this region when we have a drought? Wivenhoe got down to about 18 per cent in 2007. That's why this next election is so incredibly important for the Moreton Bay region, and it's why I'm really, really pleased and proud to be Labor's candidate for Dickson for a third time. We can't risk nuclear here. We can't risk Peter Dutton.
JOURNALIST: Ali, you obviously trimmed that margin quite significantly in 2022. Peter Dutton's status as leader, does that make you less confident or more confident, or how are you feeling about that, given the change of his position?
FRANCE: I think we can win this. And I think that there's a lot at stake this election. A lot at stake. A lot at stake for this region. A lot at stake for this country. If he implements his nuclear fantasy plan, we're actually putting all the progress that we have made on renewables in the bin. I think it's incredibly important for me to stand this time. I'm going to put absolutely everything into it, and I absolutely think that we can win.
JOURNALIST: Ali, you've obviously got political reasons for running. I'm just wondering if you would share a little bit about your personal drive to run as well, the Prime Minister touched on a little bit of that in his opening statement.
FRANCE: Yeah, well, I first got into politics, I guess, I first became political, after I lost my leg. But I think over time, having spent so much time in this community, I would absolutely love to represent this community. This community has given me so much support, so much strength in so many hard times, and more recently, there have been so many people in this community that have been so good to me. As a lot of you know, I recently lost my son. And we talked about this a lot. He wanted to be with me for this campaign. He was excited about me running, and it makes me feel so good that I have made this decision. Obviously, I'm incredibly sad that he is not here. But he said to me many times on many different issues "don't make me the excuse for not doing the important things". And this is so incredibly important. He wanted to be here for this. We also had other plans that he wanted to do, which was like making sure we go to the Boxing Day Test when it's The Ashes, and I will absolutely do that as well. But I feel really good about running this time. I have put a lot of effort into this community. They've given so much to me, and I hope that I can give that back by being their representative. I feel like the issues that are important to the people of Dickson are also my issues. I've lived them. The cost of living crisis, we're all feeling it here. I'm feeling it. I'm a single mum on a single income. I'm so pleased that we have a Labor Government, a Queensland State Labor Government and a Federal Labor Government that is so focused on cost of living issues. I think the energy rebates and the tax cuts for everyone are going to make a real difference. I think that people are really concerned about housing and rental affordability. We have an amazing $32 billion plan to build 1.2 million homes over the next 10 years. I think that's what people want to see, these homes actually being built. And in terms of healthcare, access to healthcare, this has been a huge issue for me, over a long time. Labor is making great inroads into ensuring that healthcare is accessible to everyone, and that includes the Urgent Care Clinics, more Medicare funded GP appointments, and satellite hospitals. But we've got more work to do. So, I'm really pleased to be a candidate here and to hopefully represent the people of Dickson
JOURNALIST: Ali, why do you see now as the perfect time to try and gain Peter Dutton seat? It’s a 1.7 per cent margin. Do you think this is the perfect time to gain the seat from him?
FRANCE: I think people have a real choice this election. And even though, you know, we've put in a huge effort the two elections before, I think it's also about people getting to know me as a candidate. You know, it takes time. I'm going to talk to as many people as possible. I love doorknocking, and I absolutely love making phone calls and talking to people and being at community events. I draw a lot of strength from it, so I will be putting in every bit of effort, and I really think that we can win this.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, just on BHP closing its nickel business in –
PRIME MINISTER: Can I just make a comment about that? Why this time as well? I just make this point. A whole lot of people, as I travel the country, say to me that the Liberal Party of today isn't what it used to be. And we know that from all those people in senior roles or formerly senior roles, who've abandoned the Liberal Party, that the lesson that Peter Dutton took from the last election was that Scott Morrison wasn't right wing enough. That he wasn't conservative enough. That he wasn't aggressive enough. And we see that playing out with what Peter Dutton is doing to the Liberal Party with policies that are more extreme than we've seen in the past, with the rhetoric which is there, with the abandonment of any principles of support for business, of support for markets. We saw that last week with the policy on supermarkets that – I don't know who he thinks is going to buy the local Coles store if it's forced to sell, other than Woolworths. And we see it in the nuclear energy plan that everyone in the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, the Australian Industry Group, the Business Council of Australia, the Clean Energy Council, all of the energy companies, the Australian Energy Market Operator, all of them who look at this say this just doesn't stack up. And I think that there'll be a lot of people who’ve been Liberal voters their whole lives, they'll say enough is enough. We've seen that in electorates that have been historically very strong Liberal blue ribbon seats electing non-Liberals. We're giving them a choice here in Dickson of voting for Ali France and saying enough is enough. We want politics to be part of the mainstream. We don't want a divisive Prime Minister, which is what Peter Dutton would be, of a divided party. And we see that with David Crisafulli couldn't mention the word 'nuclear' when he gave his speech just a week ago at the big convention, and we see the LNP federal leadership threatening the state leadership of intervening to overturn the nuclear ban. That's not the way that you get things done. You get things done by cooperating, by working with different levels of government across the political spectrum, let alone they can't even work across the Queensland LNP.
JOURNALIST: Just on the nickel development within BHP, how much is cheap nickel being dumped by China and Indonesia to blame for this? And could the Government have done more to assist in keeping this business?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, this is a very disappointing decision by BHP. I do note that they've said that frontline workers will be redeployed, and we'll be holding them to account there. We've been working with BHP making suggestions for a long period of time. We have a policy in place on critical minerals that will provide access to capital and financing, because we regard critical minerals as not just being a part of our economic policy, but it's important for our national security as well. So the Government, we reached out to BHP over a long period of time. BHP have made this decision, and I find it disappointing, and I know that I had discussions as well with the WA Premier, Roger Cook. He will find it disappointing as well that this pause will occur for what BHP say is a couple of years before they bring back online. We know that nickel is an important industry. It’s important, and there is demand around the world. There has been some competition of course, from Indonesia, but it's of a different quality as well to that produced at the Kwinana plant, where I've been a couple of times.
JOURNALIST: So you don't blame market interference in Asia for (inaudible).
PRIME MINISTER: Well, certainly markets are, of course, a factor here. We are concerned about that, but this is a decision that BHP have made. We, frankly, find the BHP decision very disappointing.
JOURNALIST : What do you make of the spying inside the military? It's come after two people arrested just a couple of suburbs away, actually, facing Brisbane Court for giving details to the Russians?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, I've been briefed extensively by our security agencies, including the AFP, including as late as this morning but also previously, I spoke with Commissioner Kershaw prior to the press conference. They have outlined the details. Because the matters are before the courts, I won't make further comments except to say this, that Australia's security agencies are doing their job, and they're doing it well. People will be held to account who interfere with our national interests, and that's precisely what these arrests represent.
JOURNALIST: It's a bit of a wakeup call. I mean, this is right on our doorstep here.
PRIME MINISTER: This is something that we live in uncertain times. And we know that the work that our security agencies do, whether it be ASIO or the Australian Signals Directorate working with the Australian Federal Police and state authorities, on top of this. I think we can have a great deal of confidence in the fact that our agencies do their job, and they do it very well, and I'm very proud of them, and every Australian should be.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, earlier this year, Mike Burgess revealed a former politician had been cultivated by former spies. Today, we see a couple charged with espionage. Can everyday Australians be confident your Government and the country's spy agencies are doing enough to prevent (inaudible).
PRIME MINISTER: Absolutely they can, and the evidence is what's happened today. They're on top of these issues. If you engage in action that is against Australia's national interest, you will be caught by our security agencies. They are amongst the best in the world. We're part of Five Eyes internationally, but we're also very much focused on our domestic interests, and I have every confidence in our agencies doing their job, and that they will do their job without fear or favour. They'll make sure they act in Australia's national interest. We have recently reappointed Commissioner Kershaw as the AFP Commissioner and Mike Burgess as the Director General of ASIO, that is a sign of the confidence that we have in the leadership of those agencies.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister you've backed Shayne Neumann to stay on as Labor's candidate in Blair despite affirmative action rules in Queensland Labor. Do you have the same confidence that Graham Perrett should remain as the candidate in Moreton for the next election?
PRIME MINISTER: I do. I think that whoever wants to recontest here in Queensland has my support. I think with regard to affirmative action, I lead a Government that's the first government in history which is majority female. Job done. We are the most diverse caucus in Australian political history. I'm very proud of that. We will have outstanding men and women as candidates. We've got Ali here, who represents women, but also represents someone who, due to a tragic circumstance, lost her leg. She will represent and make it again, we want a Parliament that represents people of different backgrounds, different makeup, whether they be people of different genders, different race, different religion, people with disabilities. We want people to have – we want the Australian people to have the Parliament that they deserve. And the Parliament they deserve is one that looks like them. The LNP just select blokes. I mean, it is unbelievable that they can't find a single woman to replace people like Karen Andrews, their Senate team. You just look at a sea of people who look the same on the other side, and I think that that does a disservice to the Australian public. So, our policies have delivered, and people are selected on merit, but the Labor Party has been much more diverse than when I was first elected in 1996. That's a good thing.
JOURNALIST: First of all, commiserations on the Bunnies last night. But to borrow footy-ism with Ali coming in, is this you essentially picking your team early perhaps for an early election?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, it's picking the right team for the election whenever it's held. And one of the things I know about Ali is that she will follow in the footsteps of some good friends of mine who've shown perseverance to the electorate. Susan Templeman, who is currently the Special Envoy for the Arts, the Member for Macquarie, is someone who won at her third attempt in Macquarie and has turned that into a relatively safe seat. Because people look at Susan, they go "you know what? Gee whiz, she's had a crack, three times". They look at Ali and they will see someone who's tough and tenacious, and who’ll stand up for them. Someone who will represent them, the sort of representative that people are looking for. And so by selecting early – and I'll be in Brisbane tomorrow to give you the heads up for your diaries, I'll be in a few places next week as well back in Queensland, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday of next week. And what we'll be doing is continue to roll out candidates, and we've got the right candidates. Rowan Holtzberger is fronting up for a second time in Forde. Yesterday, we announced Rebecca Hack, we have in Ryan. In her we have someone who is able to take on the Greens. The feedback I get from Queenslanders who voted Green in three of those seats at the last Federal Election is they're pretty disappointed that the Greens have used their position to just hold up legislation. To hold up legislation to build new social housing, to hold up legislation on multinational taxes, to hold up legislation across the board, including some of the actions that they've taken, including on the environment, it’s very disappointing that they have not pursued a positive agenda, but essentially have partnered with Peter Dutton’s LNP, time after time after time, as Senators Watt and Chisholm can attest, to block or defer legislation. I mean, they're currently deferring and refusing to vote for a Help To Buy scheme to enable home ownership here in places like Dickson, in the Senate. Even though the LNP here in Queensland is saying that if they are elected, they'll have a shared equity scheme. How does it make sense? The opportunism of the Greens and the reactionary policy of the LNP are what we will be campaigning against here in Queensland, campaigning for Labor primary votes.
JOURNALIST: You didn’t win a single seat federally at the last state election in Queensland. Steven Miles looks like he will be ousted as Queensland Premier in October. How are you going to get Queenslanders to vote for you federally next year?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, I wouldn't pre-empt any state election if I were you. Because I've seen a few, and at the last election, at various stages, for reasons beyond my comprehension, people were saying that we wouldn't win the Federal Election, and we won. And what we did here in Queensland was reduce margins that were double digits in places like Flynn down to winnable seats. In Forde we cut it in half. In this seat, we more than cut it in half, the margin. If we get the same swing that we got last time, then we'll achieve an outstanding result, and we'll see more seats in the Labor column. And this time around, we will have our record to point to. Our record of delivering tax cuts for every taxpayer in Queensland. Our record of delivering energy price relief. Our record of delivering cheaper childcare. Our record of delivering Urgent Care Clinics. Our record of helping Queensland jobs to be created through the transformation that's occurring to clean energy with a future made in Australia. We want things to be made here in Queensland. Peter Dutton and the LNP don't. They're saying no to the Future Made in Australia plan. We will have all of that, plus a positive agenda for the future. What Peter Dutton will have, there's a plan for nuclear reactors that's uncosted, untested, with a timeframe well into the 2040s. People want practical plans now, and they want a Government with a vision for the future. Peter Dutton doesn't offer anything positive for Australia's future. What he offers is just further division, and he'll seek to divide. We'll see all sorts of buttons trying to be pressed in the run up to the next election, dividing people. I want to bring people together, and that is what we will do. Working with unions, working with business, working with the community in Australia's national interest. Someone like Ali France, is someone who's a great advocate to bring people together.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, the US President Joe Biden has mistakenly referred to his Ukraine counterpart as President Putin. What's your reaction to that?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, of course, that is unfortunate that that has occurred. From time to time, I think most people in public life or in their private life will have got a name wrong and so that has occurred. But we'll continue to work with President Biden, and then we will work with whoever the US people determine should be the next President. That's the job. We don't interfere in elections overseas. And just as in the UK, I met three British Prime Ministers in a period of four months at one stage in 2022. I worked well with Rishi Sunak, and I'll work very positively with my friend Sir Keir Starmer who was elected about a week ago, now, around about this time the results were rolling in, or just had in the United Kingdom. So we have a close friendship with the United States. My engagement with President Biden has been extremely positive.