ROB MITCHELL, MEMBER FOR MCEWEN: It is fantastic again to have the Prime Minister down here. This Prime Minister has been to this seat more than any other Prime Minister before him. And every time he's down, every year he comes down, there's always a positive announcement. It's great to have Catherine King, the Minister, and of course Gabby Williams, our state minister, as well as Basem Abdo, Jared Bell, the Mayor, and of course, Lauren Kathage, the member for Yan Yean. This is a fantastic day for us all to be here. It's another time where we get together and talk about how the Albanese Labor government is Building Australia's Future. So with that I'll pass directly across to the Prime Minister.
ANTHONY ALBANESE, PRIME MINISTER: Well, thanks very much, Rob, and it's great to be back in McEwen today for another important infrastructure announcement. It comes on top of the investment that we're already making here and the investment that we're making in Victoria to make sure that Victoria gets its fair share of infrastructure funding after the 10 year deficit that occurred where Victoria got at one stage, 8% of the national infrastructure budget. We want to make sure that Victoria and Melbourne's growing suburbs get support. That's why this weekend we've had the Minister out there announcing support for regional roads funding to deal with level crossings. And that's why today, as part of our $1.2 billion suburban roads blitz here in the outer suburbs of Melbourne, we are making these commitments to make a difference so that productivity can increase, so that people can spend more time at home with their family and their kids rather than stuck in traffic. And this important project, a $125 million upgrade to the Donnybrook Road and Mitchell Street intersection, is a part of making sure that we keep up with this growing community. The project will transform the current roundabout that I've just been through, delivering additional lanes, a fully signalised intersection and a new bridge over the creek here. So, this is an important project. It'll deliver jobs in the short term, but importantly deliver an improved quality of life. It's part of the substantial infrastructure commitments that we will have in tomorrow evening's budget, a budget that will continue to have responsible economic management whilst making a difference, providing cost of living relief and always having our eye on the future. Backing up today's announcements that schools will be fully funded for the first time right throughout Australia. Victoria, earlier on, had signed up to our Schools Funding Agreement. We now have every state and territory signed up in our $16.5 billion of improved funding to make sure that every child gets their best opportunity in life. And I thank the Allan Government for signing up very early to that Schools Funding Agreement, which will see increased funding between now and 2034. But for this project, it's an important one, it will make a difference. And I'd ask the Minister to make some comments as well.
CATHERINE KING, MINISTER FOR INFRASTRUCTURE, TRANSPORT, REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT AND LOCAL GOVERNMENT: Thanks, Prime Minister. Well, it's terrific to be here in Kalkallo. You can see the growth that is happening around here. What once was farmlands, country roads, actually now housing hundreds and hundreds of people and more to come. You can see the trucks that are coming through these intersections, developing and building these new suburbs. And one of the things we've been at pains to do with the suburban road blitz alongside the Victorian Government, who's putting in $200 million to our billion dollars, is to make sure we can get these suburbs, people to and from work safely, to and from schools safely and childcare centres, and to work and make sure that we upgrade some of those country roads that used to carry tractors and are now carrying hundreds and hundreds of people on their daily commute. This $125 million is exactly that. Fixing the roundabout, putting signals there, adding additional lanes, fixing the bridge over the Kalkallo River. Again, really making sure that we're investing wisely in order to make sure that our suburbs are liveable, but that they are also safe. It comes alongside the money we've put into Camerons Lane intersection as well, the Wallan ramps through this region. But also - which might have got missed as part of the announcement on the Sunshine precinct - is $7 million to look at the rail line, to look at Craigieburn, look at the Upfield, look at the northern lines and really see what we need to do next for growth in terms of whether it means better signalling, more stations. And again, that is all about our infrastructure investment, going into making sure we're keeping up with these new housing estates and bringing more homes to the community. I want to thank, again, the Mayor who's with us today, who's been working really hard with us to understand some of the issues that are happening in these suburbs and has been a great advocate alongside the state government, Rob and Basem, to make sure we bring these projects to fruition, which will be all in the Budget on Tuesday night. Thanks, Gab.
GABRIELLE WILLIAMS, VICTORIAN MINISTER FOR TRANSPORT INFRASTRUCTURE: Thank you, Prime Minister. Thank you, Minister King, and our many local members and candidates here who are with us today to mark what is a very important announcement, and more importantly, an announcement that forms a part of a very important package of works that is all about busting congestion in our outer suburbs and improving safety. Whether that's for people trying to get into and out of the city for work, or into and out of their regional hubs or centres, or getting to local schools to get their kids to and from schools every day. We know how important it is to make sure that our infrastructure is keeping pace with the growth that our outer suburban communities are experiencing. And if we're talking about meeting the needs through additional infrastructure, what we're actually talking about is making sure that we can continue to deliver a higher quality of life for those living in our outer suburbs, continuing to invest to meet that growth, but not just meet it, to make sure that we are delivering quality. I just want to say, as a part of this package, and I've been standing up with Catherine many times recently on a range of different announcements, and what I've taken away from that is how brilliant it is at last to have a partner in Canberra. Victoria has been short-changed by consecutive Liberal-National Coalition governments for the best part of 10 years, to the tune of billions of dollars. That's meant it's left the state government carrying the can, often having to go it alone, and the only people who suffer from that are Victorians. So, as a state government representative, the only choice we had was to step in to ensure that Victorians weren't set back decades by Liberal-National governments that didn't know where we were, didn't know who we were and didn't know what we needed. So, I can't tell you how good it is to have a Prime Minister and a Minister who know where Victoria is. They know who we are and they know what we need. And more importantly, again, they're prepared to invest in it. It's wonderful to have a partner in this project and so many others across our state, and to be able to finally look the Victorian people in the eye and tell them that we have a united state and Commonwealth government that is finally ensuring, from a Federal Government point of view, that they are investing in the projects that matter most to Victorians. And that can't be felt any more than in Melbourne's outer suburbs that are growing fast, where the infrastructure needs to keep pace with the population and where projects like these make a tangible and meaningful difference to the lives of people day in, day out. And so I want to say thank you to the Commonwealth Government for partnering with us in this project and many others. And we look forward to continuing to work with you on the delivery of them.
PRIME MINISTER: Thanks very much, Gab. We're happy to take some questions.
JOURNALIST: Is this sort of funding helping just fix design and planning flaws in this local area? I mean, if you come off the Hume on a Friday night [inaudible] past that service station, it's absolutely banked up every weekend. Go up to the [inaudible] or something, you see it every time. Can't they just design planning [inaudible]?
PRIME MINISTER: I'm going to give a local the opportunity to respond to local roads issues.
ROB MITCHELL: The reason we have these problems at the moment is because there's been no federal investment for a decade. You can look right across this electorate, there is no federal investment in roads and you've got population growth, more traffic moving, which is why the rail study is so important. What we do know that our government is committing to $7 million into rail to help people get to Melbourne. The Coalition want to cut 5 million from that. They haven't even got to the election, already they're talking about cuts. They just can't help themselves. So, what this is about is making sure traffic flows freer. And it means that our families can leave our communities to get to work, to go out and actually do that a lot more comfortably and a lot more safely.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, can I please ask you a question about the new alcohol safety campaign? Why it's so important, and if there is an update on the investigation for Holly and Bianca’s families?
PRIME MINISTER: Can I just make on that comment as well on the previous question, that one of the issues that is really important as well is local funding through local councils, where we've doubled Roads to Recovery. Now, that will make a difference, because what that is, it's untied, it goes to each council in accordance with the Commonwealth Grants Commission formula and just means that local government is in a position to fix some of the smaller choke points which are there. But this funding comes on top of that as well. Can I say in relation to young Australians travelling overseas, firstly, can I say to the family and friends of Holly Bowles and Bianca Jones, who lost their lives so tragically; my heart goes out to their family and to their communities and to their friends. This was a tragedy that shouldn't have happened. And one of the things that we are doing is ramping up our advertising campaign to increase awareness of the alcohol-related risks of overseas travel. For some time, of course, young people have been warned about drugs overseas, but people have thought, I think quite clearly wrongly, that having a drink in a bar, in this case in Laos, but in somewhere, wherever overseas, was a reasonably harmless thing to do. It's fantastic that young Australians do what I did and what a lot of young Australians do. We travel. We're one of the great travelling populations of the world. But it needs to be made safe. And this advertising campaign, funded by the federal government, is about doing that, is about making sure that young Australians who travel overseas are aware of the risks.
JOURNALIST: Do you and Minister King have any confidence in putting further federal funds in the Suburban Rail Loop following Infrastructure Australia's damning report that encouraged governments to come up with an exit strategy for that project?
PRIME MINISTER: Look, we put funding into Suburban Rail Loop, we've put funding into the Airport Rail Link. We will continue to provide funding for Victorian infrastructure, whether it's roads or rail. One of the things that we have had to do is to recover from the decade of neglect and denial when it came to funding of Victorian projects. When government changed in 2013, there was $3 billion of Commonwealth money, for example, there for Melbourne, the rail in the inner areas to increase the capacity of the entire network. Now Melbourne Metro, they had to go themselves as a result of that. The Victorian Government has had to fund every bit of it. That would have been open in around about 2019-20 if the schedule had of been kept, if the money hadn't been ripped out. So this is a Coalition where the last time they came to office they ripped money out of the Melbourne Metro, they ripped money out of the Cross River Rail Link in Queensland. Wherever there was a Labor government, money got ripped out. Stands in contrast with what my Government has done, which is today to stand up with the leader of the LNP Government in Queensland and provide funding, regardless of whether it's a Labor government or a Liberal government. Provide funding because it's about the people. It's actually not about who has the office holder at any particular time. But what happened was Victorians got punished.
JOURNALIST: [Inaudible]
PRIME MINISTER: Well, we have funding in the Budget.
JOURNALIST: [Inaudible]
PRIME MINISTER: We have funding in the Budget. We have a budget tomorrow night which will have infrastructure investment. Then we're hoping, with the will of the Australian people, to have a budget next year and the year after as well. And we'll continue to invest in infrastructure projects right around the country. That's our objective.
JOURNALIST: Do you share the similar concerns that Clare O'Neil had on Sunday that the Federal Government should take that report seriously in terms of any future federal contributions?
PRIME MINISTER: Well we'll continue to continue to make assessments as they come through. We've provided in accordance with the Infrastructure Australia recommendation, our two and a bit billion dollars that we had said we would do for Suburban Rail Loop. The government, the incoming government in 2013 didn't say they'd take money out of Melbourne Metro, but they did. They didn't say they'd rip $50 billion from hospitals, but they did. They didn't say they'd rip $30 billion from schools, but they did. And as a result of that Australians suffered for the decade ahead. Now Peter Dutton at this election, to be held in May, will no doubt go, and at the moment he's in - I saw a Channel 7 report this morning saying it was a bit like When Harry Met Sally, ‘I'll have some of that too’, was the Peter Dutton analysis of everything that has been announced by the Government that will be in tomorrow night's budget. Well he says that, but there is regret after the fact because Peter Dutton has a record, as he said at the Lowy Institute last week. He said you can judge what we'll do in the future, someone will do in the future by what their past record is. Well his record is ripping money out of health, out of education and out of infrastructure.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, on the topic of infrastructure funding there’s obviously been some big headlines about the CFMEU and alleged corruption. How do we stop infrastructure money and contracts from falling into the hands of bikies? And how do we assure taxpayers that what's happened to the CFMEU is not going to happen again?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, I note that the report, the fellow who was on the 60 Minutes interview the other night is someone who's been engaged by the Administrator that we've put in to control these issues. And so he has been tasked by, as a direct result of the Federal Government's actions with the intervention into ensuring that the CFMEU were cast aside, those officials. So we have taken strong action. We've taken strong action, unlike the former government that was there for 10 years, when someone like John Setka increased the power that he had, not just in Victoria but in other states as well. What I did upon becoming Labor leader is within weeks of becoming Labor leader, expelled John Setka from the Labor Party, took action against the CFMEU and then, then my Government has intervened to dismiss those officials.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, do you have any well wishes for Oscar Piastri?
PRIME MINISTER: I do. A big shout out to Oscar Piastri. This is a great win and he's extraordinary. For those of us who are pretty happy if we, when driving, get to destination B as safely and perhaps as slowly as possible - I regard these people as absolute geniuses, the courage that they show behind the wheel and he does Australia proud in winning the Grand Prix.
JOURNALIST: Do you reckon Monique Ryan's husband should have kept removing the signs [inaudible] in Kooyong?
PRIME MINISTER: I have no idea who Monique Ryan's husband is.
JOURNALIST: Well, he removed a Liberal campaign sign for Amelia Hamer on Canterbury Road in Hawthorn because it was on public property. I'm not sure if you've seen the footage which has been doing the rounds. Do you -
PRIME MINISTER: So, on a day where we've got a $16.5 billion dollar national education announcement, I'm asked about someone's husband removing a Liberal Party sign on a road somewhere. That has, that has -
JOURNALIST: There’s lots of signage around, you are going to call an election soon –
PRIME MINISTER: Could I ask this, is there any connection whatsoever with anyone in the Labor Party with this alleged event of which I do not know?
JOURNALIST: No.
PRIME MINISTER: No. Okay, I think you've answered your question.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, one from my colleagues in Brisbane. Are you going to redirect the $3.4 billion in federal funding that you've allocated to the Brisbane Arena to other Olympic venues?
PRIME MINISTER: Look, give Premier Crisafulli the opportunity to actually release his report. It hasn't been released yet –
JOURNALIST: Has he approached you?
PRIME MINISTER: It hasn't been released yet. And so Premier Crisafulli will be doing that tomorrow and we await that release by the Premier.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, just a question on the Trump Administration and science. The Age understands that government scientists have started -
PRIME MINISTER: Is there any connection with the Labor Party here -
JOURNALIST: Unfortunately not -
PRIME MINISTER: - or with the Federal or with the Australian Government?
JOURNALIST: I think it's an interesting one, though. Do you mind if I keep going?
PRIME MINISTER: Oh, sure, sure.
JOURNALIST: We understand that government scientists, they’ve started to receive surveys from the Trump Administration about whether or not their research has a DEI or climate component. The Australian Academy of Science is calling for an emergency response. Does your government have an idea about what they are going to do about this?
PRIME MINISTER: Look, I've got a big job as the Australian Prime Minister. So my focus is on what happens here in Australia, and my focus is on tomorrow night's budget and funding like this that's in tomorrow night's budget. Someone had a question for the State Minister?
JOURNALIST: [Inaudible]
PRIME MINISTER: Well, I do have a connection with the Rabbitohs, so can I say this. I was on the board, I was the director of South Sydney in the 1990s which is when Charlie began as South Sydney's mascot. Charlie is a very gentle person. He's someone who's about this tall and weighs, I reckon, if he weighs 40 kilos he must be wet. He's a very small man and he goes in the Bunnies mascot outfit every week. He's a lovely fellow. He's 81 years old. He's 81 years old. He is, I don't know how, I don't want to talk about people's height, I guess, but it's a fact that he's a very small man who goes in that costume. He's 81 years old. He's been doing it for a long time. He would never try to hurt anyone. I'm sure if there has been inappropriate behaviour, he'd be the first to apologise. But he's a lovely fellow, I make that point. You know, he does this, he's a retired, I think he was either a panel beater or a mechanic for a long period of time. You know, he got pushed a couple of years ago and ended up in hospital, right, at ground on Good Friday. Someone pushed him over. And from time to time I know that he as the mascot has been pushed, whacked, you know, because people don't realise that there's an 81 year old fellow in there. So I'm sure if anything wrong has been done, he'd be the first to apologise. He wouldn't want to hurt anybody. And yeah, I've seen nine year olds who are bigger than Charlie.
JOURNALIST: May I just ask one more follow up question on the alcohol poisoning campaign. Is that working?
PRIME MINISTER: Yes, we're doing our - yes and we're doing as well this advertising campaign. It was very clear that we need to really educate young people because I'm sure, like you, I was shocked by the tragedy that occurred. You know, I've got a young son about the same age, he travels, and I think that parents want to know that their young ones are safe. It's a great thing that Australians explore the world. They should be able to do it safely. There's no way of course of guaranteeing those things, but one way that you can assist is by providing proper information, that's what the Federal Government is doing.
JOURNALIST: Minister Williams, just quickly, Brad Battin wants you to cancel the Suburban Rail Loop. It’s a step up from his previous comments the project should be paused. What do you make of that?
MINISTER WILLIAMS: Well, I think if Brad Battin's policy that he's taking into the next election is that he's going to sack 4000 workers, cancel the construction of 70,000 homes, and deny a rail link to two of the largest universities in Victoria, then he needs to come clean and just say that that's his policy.
PRIME MINISTER: Thanks everyone.