ANTHONY ALBANESE, PRIME MINISTER: Good morning, everyone. We know the real value of what happens in here is the difference that it makes to people's lives out there. And my government has always been focused on making Australians lives better. We know that we have more work to do on cost of living, but we're making progress. We understand the pressure that people are under as a result of the global inflation surge. But the action that my government's taken, led by these two fine economic Ministers here with me this morning, is making a positive difference. We started the year by delivering a tax cut for every single Australian taxpayer and we're ending it by delivering more help for households. The number one priority of my government is to continue providing support. My message is 'we have your back'. This week we continued to deliver our agenda, working hard to make Australians lives better. Holding supermarkets to account to get fairer prices at the checkout. 80,000 new homes for renters, helping 40,000 Australians to be able to buy a home. Historic aged care reform to give Australians the dignity and respect that they deserve in their later years. Fairer child care fees for parents and fairer wages for child care workers. Tens of thousands of new jobs in manufacturing powered by clean energy through our Future Made in Australia plan. World leading action to make sure social media companies meet their social responsibility. Social media is doing harm to our children, and today as a direct result of our legislation passed through the Parliament, yesterday through the Senate and confirmed in the House today, parents can have a different discussion with their young ones. A different discussion that will result in better outcomes and less harm for young Australians. Platforms now have a social responsibility to ensure the safety of our kids is a priority for them. We're making sure that mums and dads can have that different conversation today and in future days. We've got your back is our message to Australian parents. Now I want to pay tribute to Katy Gallagher, not just here as Finance Minister, but as the Manager of Government Business in the Senate. This week the Senate passed 45 pieces of legislation and I think 8 of them, I think, were Treasury Bills – 11 were Treasury Bills, making a real difference as well. So, I'll turn to Katy and then Jim and then we'll take a few questions.
KATY GALLAGHER, FINANCE MINISTER: Thanks very much, Prime Minister. Well at the beginning of this parliamentary fortnight, the final fortnight, the PM made it clear that he wanted to see legislation get through the Senate and we were able to do that. So I took those instructions seriously, we worked hard across the chamber and got an extraordinary result. I think many of you have watched how the Senate operates. Sometimes it's a frustrating chamber, to say the least, and difficult to progress legislation, particularly when you've got an opposition that doesn't want to see any reform passed. And so, working across the chamber with the PM's leadership, we were able to convince a majority of the Senate that those 45 bills were important bills to get through. And as the PM said, they cover a range of areas, but important reforms in aged care, in social media, in wages for early childhood educators, in a whole range of Treasury areas. These were really important bills, and now that certainty has been provided we are able to get moving in all of those areas where that legislation applies. So it was a big night. You don't often get a 37 page guillotine and about six hours of voting with the bells going. I don't know if any of you were in here, but they rang pretty consistently from about 6:00 until 11:30 last night. But at the end of the day, we passed 31 bills yesterday and 45 bills through the week, which I don't think is quite the record, but it's certainly right up there with, you know, getting important legislation through and getting the job done and delivering on the PM's clear message, which was we need this stuff through the Senate.
JIM CHALMERS, TREASURER: Thanks very much PM and Katy. I really just want to pay tribute to these two, the PM for his leadership and Katy for really the most extraordinary effort last night. We are grateful every day for the opportunity to work with Katy Gallagher, but especially last night. For those of us who don't speak fluent Senate, it is such a wonderful opportunity for us to work closely with Katy to deliver the government's agenda, particularly when it comes to our economic policy agenda. So I take responsibility for 11 Treasury bills that passed last night, but I take absolutely none of the credit for their passage. The credit for that belongs to Katy and to the Prime Minister as well. This is a very big week for economic reform right across the board. Tax reform, housing, super objective, Future Made in Australia, consumer protections in buy now, pay later, competition policy, getting a better deal for people at the checkout, and the Reserve Bank reforms as well. This is what progress and delivery looks like. We've been able to focus primarily on the cost of living and the fight against inflation, at the same time as we keep the wheels of economic reform turning. Our strategy has three parts, relief, repair and reform - and last night we took huge steps when it comes to economic reform in our economy. Later today, I'll also be hosting the State and Territory treasurers to advance our very substantial agenda of economic reform. We will be progressing the Productivity Fund with the states, which is all about productivity reform, but also housing and competition policy as well. So, a huge week for economic reform. We've done a lot. We know that there is still a lot to do. But what we saw in the Senate last night was really the triumph of outcomes over politics. The triumph of outcomes and delivery and progress over the kind of petty, nasty, negative politics being played by our opponents. The Coalition has completely vacated the field on the economy, completely vacated the field on the cost of living and on economic reform. Now we are at the end of the last full parliamentary year before an election and they still don't have any costed credible or coherent economic policies. And I raised that to make the contrast with the really quite amazing progress that Katy and the colleagues were able to make in the Senate under the Prime Minister's leadership. I thank them again for the progress that's been made. I also acknowledge the work of all of our senators and the crossbench as well. The best kind of economic reform is bipartisan, but when the Coalition has vacated the field, we have no choice but to make progress with the crossbench. I acknowledge them and I acknowledge these two in particular.
PRIME MINISTER: I'm going to go to the Keynes T-shirt because it's the first time I've ever seen anyone anywhere, let alone at a press conference, with John Maynard Keynes on the front.
JOURNALIST: Finance newspapers lead the world, Prime Minister. This is a question for the Treasurer, how quickly do you think you'll see the reforms for the RBA in place, particularly the separate committee to set interest rates?
TREASURER: Yeah, I want to acknowledge Shane and a bunch of people here who have had a really long standing interest in Reserve Bank reform. And Shane knows, and many of you know who have covered this, that this has been a long road and what we've done over the course of the last couple of years is to try and be as bipartisan as we can to try and land these reforms. It has been a long time coming. As I understand it, the RBA reforms come into effect three months after royal assent. Royal assent will ideally be as soon as possible. And so that means our anticipation and what we've been discussing with Governor Bullock is that the changes would apply after the February meeting of the Reserve Bank. We'll have that clarified. We'll do a lot of work with Governor Bullock. I was in contact with her last night. Governor Bullock's done an amazing job getting her ducks in a row to make sure that we can progress this reform now that it has passed the Parliament. Our expectation, what we're anticipating, is that the new board would be constituted after the February meeting.
JOURNALIST: PM, you've secured the bulk of your legislative agenda in a single day. Are you clearing the decks for an early election?
PRIME MINISTER: Not at all. What we're doing is getting things done. And for a long time there were roadblocks. We held the line on legislation. I saw a report about a meeting that didn't actually happen on the weekend, last night. We were determined to get things done. And on issues, the week began with getting Help to Buy through, that has been in there for a long period of time, got through - no amendments. We are determined to make a difference and we argued strongly for the merits of the legislation that we had forward. We work each and every day to make a difference, and the legislation that was passed will make a difference. It means, one of Jim's bills I don't think he mentioned, was Build to Rent. That's been around for a long period of time. That has the support of the Property Council. That will result in at least 80,000 more rental properties as a direct result of the incentives. We listened and we engaged. We had our amendments ready to go to make a difference to people's lives. The cracking down on supermarkets will make a difference when people go to the checkout. On December 1st, next week, we will have child care workers, in their next pay packet after that, will have a 10 per cent increase and that will make a difference as well by holding down, as part of that, will be holding down prices for mums and dads out there with their little ones in early childhood learning. That will make a positive difference.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, you passed the ban on social media for people under 16. You're now going to work with social media companies on how to implement that in 12 months’ time. Have you got things the wrong way around here?
PRIME MINISTER: No, we haven't. We are very clearly sending a message about our intentions here. And what's more, the whole of the Parliament is sending that message overwhelmingly supported. And this is something that tomorrow on the sidelines of sporting events, whether it be netball or cricket season at the moment, or tennis or whatever, little athletics, mums and dads will be talking about this and they'll be talking about it when they pick up their young ones from school this afternoon and hopefully this morning dropping them off as well. This has been an issue that is raised with me more, or at least as much as any other issue by people when I'm out and about - and what we've done is world leading. We'll work to make sure that it's got right. But the legislation is very clear. We don't argue that its implementation will be perfect, just like the alcohol ban for under 18s doesn't mean that someone under 18 never has access. But we know that it's the right thing to do.
JOURNALIST: Are you not concerned the 31 bills rushed through overnight haven’t had proper scrutiny? Especially migration and social media when they've been criticised as perhaps going too far, but lacking enough detail.
PRIME MINISTER: Some of the legislation that went through last night had attached to it 2023 - that's the hint for how long it has been around. There was legislation last night that has remained in the Senate for a long period of time to literally change the references to Queen Elizabeth II to the Sovereign. Now I would have thought that should have passed the Senate in a minute after it was introduced - but no. The Senate is, Jim and I, neither of us speak fluent Senate, that's why we have Katy. It's beyond my comprehension why that was still around and not just flowed through. So we got our legislation through. It was all good legislation that was supported by the Senate and in the House today. Most of the bills I think there were about four or five divisions, but they carried overwhelmingly.
JOURNALIST: If you don't mind me observing, but your demeanour today and at the moment is a lot different than it was this time last year. You had a rough end of the year last year with the Voice and then the High Court decisions. How important, and I know you'll say what you did yesterday was important for the people of Australia, but equally how important is it to morale inside your government going into over the summer and into the election season in terms of, you know, giving everyone a bit of a kick?
PRIME MINISTER: We've always been positive and we've always been focused on the plan that we have. Not on the 24 hour media cycle, but on the objective of how do we deal with the two challenges. The first challenge of dealing with immediate issues that we're confronted with, the cost of living pressures due to global inflation, decisions of the High Court. You have to deal with things as they are, but always focused as well on the horizon. Always looking out at that and where we want the country to go. And that's why the reforms like the Reserve Bank reforms, the Future Made in Australia agenda is about building a stronger economy, making sure that the million jobs that have been created since we came to office, more than any government since federation, are added to with new industries and new support. Now there's further we've got to do. Yesterday afternoon we passed the Production Tax Credits through the House of Representatives. It is astonishing that the Coalition continue to oppose that. That pays on delivery, it rewards success, but it will bring forward Investment and there's first mover advantage when it comes to the shifts in the global economy. So we're focused on dealing with day to day pressures. Cost of living we understand is the number one issue, and a range of those measures that pass the Parliament deal with that. But we've always kept our eye on the big reform agenda, whether it be the economic agenda I've spoken about, or the social agenda with our social media reforms, which are world leading.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, some Labor members are appalled by the migration changes that have passed the Parliament. Your party made promises to migrants and refugees. What do you say to Australia's multicultural communities that feel like Labor has abandoned them?
PRIME MINISTER: We support our multicultural communities each and every day. We are a government that wants an inclusive Australia, that stands up for that. But we understand as well that our migration system needs to be robust and needs to be not manipulated. On Peter Dutton's watch, there was a huge spike in the number of applications onshore. We had three reviews into the migration system from the former head of Prime Minister and Cabinet, from senior respected authorities in this area. All of them said that the immigration system that we inherited was a mess. So we have to clean up a whole range of issues. We inherited an immigration system that wasn't fit for purpose. We inherited an aged care system that was in crisis and on the verge of collapse. It was summarised in an interim report of a Royal Commission with one word - neglect. We inherited a child care system that if we didn't fix wages, then when parents wanted to participate in work and drop off their little ones at child care centres, there wouldn't be workers there to look after them. We inherited an inflation rate of 6 per cent and rising with a $78 billion deficit plan to pour more fuel on that fire. No plan going forward to actually deal with what was happening in the global economy. We have been determined to turn that around and we've done it in a way in which is completely consistent with what I said we would do, which is to have an orderly migration system to support multiculturalism out there. And I compare this government's record with the rhetorical position that the Leader of the Opposition had across a range of issues against a range of communities over his 20 years in this house.
JOURNALIST: Mr Albanese, on migration, how soon do you intend to strike a third country reception arrangement? Which countries could we pay to take non-citizens from Australia? And will you guarantee that you'll only do such deals with signatories of the Refugee Convention?
PRIME MINISTER: We'll implement our legislation.
JOURNALIST: Are there going to be any safeguards, or is it all bets are off?
PRIME MINISTER: You get one.
JOURNALIST: For the Treasurer, Prime Minister, if that's okay. Is the optics of appointing people to a monetary board for the Reserve Bank so soon before an election problematic? Is there a case for pushing it back? And if I may, is electoral reform going to come back next year?
TREASURER: Do you want to do electoral reform?
PRIME MINISTER: I'll do electoral reform. Yeah, if I could do electoral reform. Look, we sought, we had discussions on electoral reform, as we did on other issues across the parliament, but particularly we thought that the Coalition were going to support the agenda to take big money out of politics. That's what we want to do. Now that path became a cul de sac. We will look for other paths and roads to success. That is what we will do. So, we've already, I've indicated to crossbench members that it is not sustainable in a democracy to have individuals contributing tens of millions of dollars. That damages our democracy because it takes away the principle that everyone gets an equal say in our democracy. And people know that that's the case. People know that over the last couple of elections there's been a couple of hundred million dollars contributed by one individual and that that is not healthy for our democracy. So, we'll engage constructively and I've already had some discussions this week with the crossbench and we'll engage with the crossbench to see if we can progress reforms. We want greater transparency as well. My Party makes declarations that we don't have to in accordance with the current electoral law, because we think there should be greater transparency. Now, if we need to change some of the legislation that's currently before the Senate, then we're prepared to do that constructively. We'll still, if the Coalition changed their mind on issues, you know, we're open to discussions. We have to deal with the Parliament that the Australian people have elected. But I think what you'll see over the break is further discussions certainly, I've committed to the crossbench to see if we can progress that reform. Because I think that it's important in a democracy and I think that that's what the Australian people want. More transparency, more accountability and less capacity for people to put in these massive sums of dollars. And people only find out about it after an election has been held.
TREASURER: The passage of this legislation means that we can get on with strengthening and modernising the Reserve Bank. We have done a lot of work, an independent review, a lot of consultation, to make sure that we can modernise and strengthen the Reserve Bank so that it plays the most effective role that it can in the future of our economy. We will appoint first class, first rate people to both of the new boards of the Reserve Bank. We have put a lot of thought into it already. We will consult with the Opposition in good faith, as we're obligated to do, to make sure that the people that we appoint to the new Governance Board and the new Monetary Policy Board are first class and first rate. That has been our intention all along. The timing of the passage of the Reserve Bank reforms was not in our hands. If it were up to us, we would have passed it a long time ago and we would have already had the new arrangements in place. The first deadline that was missed because of parliamentary shenanigans was the 1st of July this year, and in relation to Shane's question, I've told you about the new timing. So we will appoint good people, we will consult with the Opposition and we'll do the right thing when it comes to these appointments. Now, our strong preference was for these reforms to be bipartisan because we believe that the independent Reserve Bank should be above party politics. We did everything that we could, privately and publicly, to try and reach a bipartisan consensus on these reforms to modernise the Reserve Bank. When the Opposition came to us with about half a dozen concerns, we accommodated every single one of their concerns. We made changes to the legislation to accommodate that, they still said no and that meant that we had to negotiate with the crossbench. That wasn't our first preference, but it was made necessary by the irresponsible behaviour of the Coalition. The mistake that we made for too long was to take Angus Taylor seriously on these matters when his colleagues don't. He wasn't able to carry his own colleagues. And so we put a lot of effort into that, when that wasn't possible, we were forced into the hands of the crossbench. But regardless of the irresponsible position taken by the Coalition, we will continue to be consultative where we can, we will continue to do the right thing and we will continue to make sure that the independent Reserve Bank is, as much as possible, beyond the party politics of this building.
PRIME MINISTER: Last one, just here.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, you repeatedly said that parents can have discussions with their kids to mitigate online harms, but unfortunately, a lot of kids, especially from the LGBTQ community or other marginalised communities, simply can't talk to their parents about this kind of stuff. The only place they find solace and community is on the internet, using social media sites like Reddit and Tumblr. And now banning them from these sites effectively bans them from these communities. What do you say to these kids?
PRIME MINISTER: What I say is that one of the things that I want to see is young Australians, wouldn't mind older Australians as well, having more conversations with each other. One of the things that was said when phones were banned in schools by various state governments was that that would have a negative impact. 'Oh, how will that – how will they engage?' You know what? There's more concentration on what's going on in the classroom with what the teachers are saying. There's more kids playing with each other at play lunch and lunchtime, and engaging with each other in a face to face way as a result of phones being taken out of schools. And we're getting better outcomes, healthier outcomes, physically and mentally. So, we have ensured as well, with the legislation that things which are open for education will still be available. People will still be able to communicate with each other, of course, and be able to communicate with people who they know as well. One of the issues we're dealing with here, some of it is social harm and some of the bullying that can occur as well. Look, the consequences – I've met with parents who have lost and buried their child. It's devastating. We can't, as a Government, hear those messages from parents and say it's too hard. We have a responsibility to act. My Government has done that and I thank you very much.
Can I just say that our thoughts today are – I'm about to, I'll travel to Melbourne. Our thoughts are with the Deputy Prime Minister, our dear friend Richard Marles, who will farewell his mum today at Melbourne University. And Richard Marles is someone who is very well liked across the Parliament and loved by his colleagues. He is such a great person and his mother was clearly an extraordinary Australian as well. Trailblazer in education. And our thoughts will be with him today. Thank you very much, everyone.