PAUL CULLIVER, HOST: Today the new Labor Government will hold Federal Cabinet here in Gladstone. Anthony Albanese is the Prime Minister of Australia. Good morning to you.
ANTHONY ALBANESE, PRIME MINISTER: Good morning. Thanks for having me on the program.
CULLIVER: Worth noting the ALP does not hold a seat in regional Queensland outside the southeast corner. Did that inform your decision to come to Gladstone today?
PRIME MINISTER: I want to be Prime Minister for the whole country. And what we saw here in Central Queensland was significant swings to the Labor Party, almost six per cent in Capricornia and just a bit under five per cent in Flynn. So a lot of people came back to us in Central Queensland. But what we need to do is to do better in the future. And I'm hopeful at the next election, getting an even better result. But I want to represent people regardless of how they voted. I want to be a Government that works for all Australians wherever they live, however they voted, whichever political views they have, I have a responsibility to put the national interest first. And that's why I've brought my entire Cabinet team to Gladstone today.
CULLIVER: And so by bringing them to Gladstone, what do you tell them? What do you ask of them while they spend some time in Central Queensland?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, what I say is that we were given two ears and one mouth for a reason. We need to listen to people on the ground, in Matt Burnett, who's the Mayor of course here, we have an outstanding local representative in local government. He wasn't quite successful in getting the federal seat, but he's still representing his local community and fighting for it. But we'll also be meeting with local community leaders this morning. I'm just on my way to visit the Rio Tinto Alumina Refinery here. Now it's got an exciting proposal for solutions to competitively supply wind and solar energy with firming to its three Queensland refining operations, including the one here at Yarwun. And that's planning to develop something like 4,000 megawatts of large-scale wind and solar farms and firming capacity to power the plant. And that is an extraordinary example of the transition that's occurring in our economy. And here in Central Queensland, there's enormous opportunity. Our Powering Australia plan will create 604,000 new jobs, and five out of every six of them will be in regional Australia. And regional Queensland stands to benefit substantially. I want to see more things made here in Queensland, particularly in the regions. And I've visited, for example, the railway workshops there at Maryborough that are producing first-class trains and having to fix up the ones that were ordered by the LNP former government overseas that aren't fit for purpose. What we need is a plan to grow the economy, a plan to make more things here, a plan to take advantage of clean, cheap energy, which is there, which is what drives me and the Government that I have the great privilege of leading. And the entire Cabinet today will be having meetings, not just in Gladstone, but people travelling throughout the region over yesterday, today and for the rest of this week. Because they'll be listening to what people have to say. And that will be informing our decisions before Parliament resumes back in July.
CULLIVER: On the issue of cheap and reliable energy, blackouts have so far been averted in eastern states, widespread blackouts over the last few days, despite energy shortfalls. It has become apparent that some electricity generators are withdrawing from the market instead of meeting those shortfalls that we're seeing, showing the energy regulator has even written to some generators, reminding them of their obligations. What's your message to energy generators that are seeking to game the system right now?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, my message to the energy companies is that they have a responsibility to their customers, whether they be households or businesses, to do the right thing. And that if they're not doing the right thing, the regulator will take appropriate action. What we know is that a decade of the former Federal Government meant that it's a decade of lost opportunity, of investment that didn't happen, of an energy grid that wasn't made fit for purpose for the 21st century. And we have a plan to deliver on that. We want to work with state governments, but work with business as well, which is why our plan has been endorsed by the Business Council of Australia, the Australian Industry Group, the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry and the National Farmers’ Federation, as well as the ACTU. Because we need to end the sort of nonsense that we've seen over the last decade, where we had 22 different energy policies announced, but none of them landed. We've got one policy. We're going to land it. We're going to implement it. And it will make a difference because it will provide the certainty that business requires to be able to invest.
CULLIVER: On that, energy Ministers last week met and they agreed to come up with a national transition plan, and that's part of what you're referring to there. Will that plan include a plan for workers in industries like those in Central Queensland that don't see a future beyond renewables?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, what we will have is a plan to grow jobs. And our Powering Australia plan will do that, particularly in the regions. As I said, some 604,000 new jobs that will arise from the $52 billion of private sector investment that our plan sees happening. It was fully modelled. And that's why last week when Chris Bowen, our Federal Energy Minister, brought together the states and territories, they all signed off, whether they were Labor or Liberal, because they know that the certainty that they've been crying out for is now on the table and they want to seize that opportunity.
CULLIVER: With respect, Prime Minister, though, when a worker is facing a job loss at a coal-fired power station, say when it closes down, or a mine, when it closes down for coal, they don't quite know where they're going to go next. They don't see what that transition, what that retraining is going to look like. Do we need a better plan for that?
PRIME MINISTER: Which is why you need new industries to grow. You need to make sure that in today's changing world, unless you shape the future, the future will shape you. And that's what workers need. Workers need new industries to grow. And you can see that in a town like Maryborough, which before the Downer EDI site was revitalised, was struggling. You see the wealth that's being created, the multiplier impact that comes from that high-value manufacturing. And what we saw during the election campaign, I came here to Gladstone and spoke about battery manufacturing and it being a perfect site producing high-value jobs. You see it, The Rio Tinto site that we're visiting this morning with the CEO, Kellie Parker. What they're doing is making sure that that site, that alumina refinery has a future by using renewable energy to lower their costs at the same time as lowering emissions. That is about producing those high-value jobs.
CULLIVER: You mentioned the idea of building a battery manufacturing facility. During the election, it was thought to maybe being Gladstone, maybe somewhere else. Can you confirm it will be in Gladstone?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, we'll work with the private sector. What we're saying is that Gladstone is an ideal site. What we're looking for is partners and the Federal Government playing a role in that. It won't be a Federal Government owned operation. What we want to do is to create the environment. And the land is available here in Gladstone. We want to work with the Queensland Government to make sure that those sort of issues can be progressed. Here in regional Queensland, I see a great future for towns and cities like Gladstone, Rocky, Mackay, Townsville to see that growth in the regions. And you can see it with new industries which will emerge. What we've done historically is we have benefited from Australia's resources that we've exported. What we need to do is to look at ways in which we can continue to export by all means, but where possible, we can value add here with the resources that we have to actually create manufacturing, to create more high-value jobs right here in Australia.
CULLIVER: Prime Minister, I want to see if we can get through a few more issues, I know that your time is tight. I just want to ask you, the previous government funded a feasibility into the Collinsville coal-fired power station. Is there any chance of that progressing under your Government?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, there was no chance of it progressing under the former government. It was a con. What they did was they funded a feasibility study into a new coal-fired power station that they knew had no possibility of proceeding because it wasn't commercial. If it was commercial, you wouldn't have had to use taxpayer funds to do the feasibility study.
CULLIVER: So, that is dead and buried then?
PRIME MINISTER: The proponents of the plant wouldn't do it. Well, it's not a decision for Government. There's nothing to stop the proponents going ahead. By all means, if they want to lose money they could do that.
CULLIVER: But no Government support?
PRIME MINISTER: The point is the markets are speaking on these issues. The Federal Government knew that. The LNP was dishonest about that proposal when they put it forward prior to the 2019 election. They used taxpayer funds for a project that they knew, and the Government members themselves, including the Federal Treasurer at the time, Josh Frydenberg, said would not proceed. And I think it's time that politicians stopped being just not fair dinkum with people. And the former government wasn't being fair dinkum when they proposed Collinsville, which is what the proponents themselves said prior to the last election.
CULLIVER: Alright, obviously the Bilo family, the Nadesalingams, are back in Biloela now. That was a Labor Government promise or a Labor election promise to do that. Are you able to provide any update or timeline for the Nadesalingam family receiving permanent residency?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, that will be a decision for the Immigration Minister. But I see no impediments to the family being granted permanent residency. They're a family that are wanted and much loved in Biloela. And it's good that they're home. It brings to a close what is not our finest hour as a nation. We're a generous nation. We are a better nation than one that takes two little girls who were born here in Australia out of their home in the middle of the night and shuffles them off to Melbourne and then sends them Christmas Island and keeps them in detention for four years at a cost of double figures of millions of dollars to taxpayers.
CULLIVER: Okay. Would you encourage the Minister to make that decision sooner rather than later?
PRIME MINISTER: That's a decision for the Minister. And it's appropriate that the Minister make those decisions. Indeed, the law provides that the Minister has to make that decision. So I make no further comment other than that.
CULLIVER: Just on the Australia-wide economy, yesterday the share market plunged more than five per cent. Last night, the Reserve Bank Governor Philip Lowe, has warned inflation may reach seven per cent. Prime Minister, do you think Australia is on the verge of a recession?
PRIME MINISTER: No, I think that Australia has difficult times because there are difficult global circumstances. And areas including the failure of the Federal Government to have an energy policy are adding to the economic issues that Australia is facing. But we will work our way through it. I'm positive about Australia's future. And I'm very positive that we can continue to create jobs and to have an economy that creates a better future. I want an economy that works for people though, not the other way around. It's quite clear that people are struggling with the cost of living at the moment. And that's understandable given the pressures which are on, which is one of the reasons why we have a plan for new job creation. But we also have plans to deal with cost of living pressures by making child care cheaper, by making medicines cheaper, and by supporting a lift in wages, unlike the former government that wanted low wage growth to be a key feature of their economic architecture.
CULLIVER: And just finally, access to healthcare in regional Queensland is a really serious and dire issue. State premiers are asking for the Federal Government to commit to funding health services 50–50. Will you do that?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, state governments will always ask for greater contributions from the Federal Government. I have a meeting with the state Premiers and Chief Ministers tomorrow night and then Friday in Canberra. I'll listen to what they have to say. I understand that there's pressures on the healthcare system. But at the same time, we're inheriting a trillion dollars of debt from the former LNP government with not much to show for it. The sort of waste that we saw, including the millions of dollars that went to the proponents of the Collinsville plant that wasn't going ahead is just one example of the waste which is there. What that does is place pressure on the budget. And we can't do everything that we would like to do in our first term as a direct result of that, because we do have to get the expenditure under control. Because quite clearly, under the former government, they treated taxpayer money as if it was the money of the LNP.
CULLIVER: Prime Minister, welcome back to Central Queensland and thanks for your time today.
PRIME MINISTER: Thanks very much.