LYDIA LYNCH, HOST: Have you done any modelling on the amount of jobs that can be created under your future made in Australia plan?
ANTHONY ALBANESE, PRIME MINISTER: What we know is on a case-by-case basis, that the opportunities are there to grow enormous jobs. Take for example the announcement that we made in Liddell just a couple of weeks ago. This is an old coal fired power station that the former Government we used to hear day after day in question time, it'd stay open and of course it's shut, as did a range of those power stations under the former Government. And there's timetables for a closure, a transition of industry is happening now. There was fear about what that would mean. SunDrive, just one company that can benefit from our Solar Sunshot program, is looking at employing more people there, building the most efficient solar panels in the world in an agreement, a deed that they have with AGL already, there will be more people employed just there in that one company on that one site than were employed under the former power station. And that's just one of the activities taking place on this site. So, we think that in terms of opportunities, one of the things that we know is that without acting, it's not as if things will stay the status quo. Rio Tinto, for example, has just done the largest deal on renewables for the facilities around Gladstone, that's been done in Australia. Either there's a transition and they thrive and employ more people, or they employ far less. One of the things that we have done is look at what the opportunity cost is as well, of not acting, and that's severe. That's a loss of jobs, a loss of communities, a failure to transition, because the rest of the world is moving on this. And so we are very positive that across the board by government putting in place structures that facilitate and provide that catalyst for private sector activity, what we'll see is a great many more jobs grow in the future and a great deal more security as well for existing processes like metal manufacturing, be it aluminium or steel in this country, and that you'll see substantial growth in jobs.
LYNCH: So, it sounds like more jobs, but no firm figure yet. Is there a risk that the energy transition is going to become more expensive or power prices will increase if we're relying more heavily on the high wage Australian manufacturing workforce?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, we know that the market is speaking and the market tells us that the cheapest form of new energy is renewables. And that's what's driving that change through. That's why there's nothing to stop people building a new coal fired power station except reality, except the market. We had over the last couple of terms of the former Government we had here in Queensland at Collinsville, we had proponents of a new plant given seed money to do a study that led nowhere and was always going to lead nowhere because it just doesn't stack up in terms of where that new investment will go. So, we want to create an environment whereby we provide support, but where we acknowledge the importance of market mechanisms. And what that means is that investment in renewables will lead to cheaper power because that's what every economist tells us. That's what the Australian Energy Market Operator tells us as well through their integrated systems plan.
LYNCH: Just moving on to another topic. Last month your Government announced a $4 billion deal with the Northern Territory Government to address overcrowding in First Nations communities. Here in Queensland, we have 17 remote communities and we have two First Nations mayors here today. We've got Wayne Butcher over there from Lockhart River and Alf Lacey from Palm Island. In Mayor Butcher's community, there's up to eleven people living in a two-bedroom house, that's three generations living under one roof. When will your Government announce a similar deal for Queensland?
PRIME MINISTER: We've already got substantial deals for Queensland that are going right now -
LYNCH: But there’s no specific carve out for indigenous housing in that 10 billion.
PRIME MINISTER: What there is as part of the Housing Australia Future Fund, there's money for specifically for fixing up, repairs in remote Indigenous housing. That deal was done specifically with the Northern Territory along with the education arrangements. Currently there are negotiations taking place between our Minister Julie Collins and every State and Territory Government over the future Housing and Homelessness Agreement. That's the Commonwealth-State housing agreement that runs for four to five years. In addition to that, we have 17 different measures worth $25 billion. The Queensland Government benefited last year with a half a billion-dollar Social Housing Accelerator that's available for them to spend wherever the Queensland Government likes was made immediately available to them. That can be either repairing existing housing or created, building new housing that was part of the $2 billion Social Housing Accelerator. The Housing Australia Future Fund is a $10 billion fund that we have substantial over commitments in the first round that closed just a few weeks ago. That shows the demand is there. And we want to work with every State and Territory Government as those State and Territory agreements are done as part of that national agreement and Queensland will be an important component in that.
LYNCH: Okay, I think I'll throw over to my colleagues at the back.
JOURNALIST: PM, in Queensland, Labor has lost seats at the last Federal election, the Queensland by-elections, and lost the Brisbane City Council elections. Who do you think is going worse, Labor in Queensland or the South Sydney Rabbitohs?
PRIME MINISTER: Too soon. I remind you that competitions are won in September, not in April. Something I was reminded of during the second half of last year when Souths were on top of the ladder after round eleven. So, I think it's a really smart strategy for us to reverse that this year and to go real bad in the first half and then come home strong. That's the plan. As for Labor, Labor has been, of course, one of the things that Queensland shows through the period of most of the time I've been in government federally or in parliament federally, has seen a Queensland Labor Government here. And I think the last time that Queenslanders took a risk by voting LNP in the state, what they got was mass sackings, mass cuts in education and health and transport and services. And I reckon that the Campbell Newman experiment is something that we’ll see people reminded of that in the lead up to the election in October. And I think that Steven Miles is someone who's a friend of mine, to declare an interest. And I think that Steven Miles is putting forward a vision for Queensland that includes the Energy and Jobs Plan. And at the Queensland LNP seemed to me to be run by the same people who ran the Newman Government and that didn't end well.
JOURNALIST: Steven Miles himself has admitted that winning the Queensland election will be like climbing higher than Mount Everest. And he said he's not even at base camp yet. What is going wrong for Labor in Queensland? And how can the Premier improve so that voters aren't turning away from the party?
PRIME MINISTER: I think Steven Miles will be himself. He's someone who's a compassionate guy. He's someone who cares about his fellow Queenslanders. And he's someone who understands jobs and the economy here and that Queensland can have an incredibly bright future if it seizes the opportunities that are before it. I've spent time with Steven, I've got to say, in a way, in which neither of us would have liked, through the natural disasters that occurred over. I think I had three visits to Far North Queensland at the end of last year and then in January and also to the Gold Coast. And what I've seen in Steven is someone who really cares about people, who doesn't want people to be left behind. And that sort of compassion, I think, will shine through over this year and I wish him well. I'm not a participant in the Queensland state election, but certainly I will be prepared as I always am. I’ve launched a few Labor campaigns around the country and I've launched a few campaigns in Queensland over a period of time as well. So, it's difficult for a long-term government. They've been in government for three terms. Anastasia, I think, retired with an extraordinary record of leading Labor to victory on three occasions. And she deserves incredible respect and is a Labor hero forever as a result of that. But we'll wait and see how it goes. I heard a lot of people write off Daniel Andrews before the last election in Victoria too.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, Queensland's best practice industry conditions have been under the spotlight this week. It's a policy the building industry has warned, drives up construction costs and hurts productivity. A similar policy was successfully added to Labor's binding national platform last year. Will your Government introduce best practice conditions in this term and will it apply to the projects you've talked about today?
PRIME MINISTER: Well we have, our industrial relations policy has been carried, so you can see what we've done. We don't have any intention for further IR legislation, but we make no apologies for the fact that what we have done in industrial relations has led to, for the first time in a long while, real wages increasing. We think that that that is important. And secondly, as well, we've made sure that we have targeted areas of most in need. So, we've put forward submissions to the national wage cases to make sure that people didn't fall behind. You might recall, Madura, during the federal election campaign, me holding up a $1 coin and saying that I would absolutely support a dollar an hour increase if the Fair Work Commission decided to do so in their case. The then Morrison Government said the sky would fall in, the economy would collapse and everyone would be out of work. The truth is that we've created, or it's been created on our watch, more jobs than any new Government in Australian history. More than double, around about 1200 or more than 1200 a day, compared with 600 under the period of the Abbott, Turnbull and Morrison Governments. We're very proud of the fact that we've created jobs whilst we are seeing wages increase and while we not only are going to have people earn more, they're going to keep more of what they earn as a result of the tax cuts that will come in place on July 1 that we've legislated. That's a good thing for the economy. What those people will do is to spend money in their local shops and supermarkets and on the necessities of life. The Coalition said that the sky would fall in if we gave people earning under the lowest rate, lowering it from 19 to 16 cents, has made an enormous difference and that is something that we're very proud of and we stand by.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, last year, Queensland had more young people in detention on an average day than New South Wales, Victoria, ACT, South Australia and Tasmania combined. Many of them are Indigenous. How does that sit with you? Is it a badge of failure, as some have described?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, what we need as a nation is to do what we can to make sure that people aren't left behind. That's about creating opportunities for people. We have, one of the programs that we have federally for Indigenous people is justice reinvestment programs. Now, they've operated in places like the New South Wales North Coast and other places that we are rolling them out. That's about bringing together law enforcement, with community leaders, with young people themselves, about talking through issues, about diversion programs, but also about giving people opportunity through education and through employment. One of the great successes of our Fee Free TAFE program is how many Indigenous young people have participated in that program. Getting an opportunity to see a secure future for themselves and a pathway to a career. That is so important. So, these issues, of course, intergenerational disadvantage is a difficult one. It's one that hasn't occurred over a year, hasn't occurred over a term of any government. The truth is that all governments of all persuasions need to do better when it comes to providing opportunity for Indigenous Australians is something that my Government is very committed to and I want to work with the different levels of government to achieve better outcomes.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, how do you expect the plan you've unveiled today to impact the economy at a time when inflation is approaching the RBA's target range?
PRIME MINISTER: I see it as positive. It's about encouraging private sector investment. It's about making sure, as well, that all of the measures that were put in place - including all of our cost of living measures - have been aimed at areas that would not contribute to inflation. So, for example, the tax cut changes I've spoken about today, that will be the major support that we provide to middle Australia in the Budget in a month's time. That's worth $107 billion over the forward estimates. But because it will increase workforce participation, that was seen as countering the higher marginal propensity to spend that people on lower incomes have, compared with higher income people who would take a higher tax cut and just save it. So, we examined all of that through, and I assure you that when all of the measures that we're considering in the Budget come forward through our Expenditure Review Committee process, then Jim Chalmers and Katy Gallagher- and Katy, as the Finance Minister, wields a big stick, making sure that what we're doing is fiscally responsible. We turned a $78 billion deficit that we inherited into a $22 billion surplus. That's something that I remind people. The former Government was elected in 2013 promising a surplus the first year and every year thereafter and didn't achieve it once.
JOURNALIST: You've said this afternoon that you want to make more things here. So, why didn't the government, state or federal, provide Tritium with a lifeline? They've closed their Brisbane factory and moved manufacturing to the US.
PRIME MINISTER: Well, that's an example of a lost opportunity, which is there. Tritium were producing the fastest EV charging stations in the world, and were exporting them. They made a commercial decision based upon the settings that were there, based upon, in part, the incentives that are there in the Inflation Reduction Act. That's an example of SunDrive - if there weren't opportunities for SunDrive to stay in Australia - then they too would have gone offshore. We need to acknowledge that this is a reality, that we are in a global competition for capital, a global competition where there are incentives for companies to be based in the United States, in different economies as well, through the different moves which are there - which is the context of why we are ensuring through what will be one of the centrepieces of the Budget in May. We have put in place a range of mechanisms up to now. We've been in government less than two years and already, if you look at some of the turnaround that we have had in industry development, the positive initiatives, including electrolysers, in Gladstone last Monday - as in three days ago. I'll be back in Queensland next week for another announcement consistent with the future made in Australia. We've been to Liddell, I've been to Whyalla looking at green steel and what's happening there in the Upper Spencer Gulf. There are a range of really positive things happening. The defence industry initiatives that are happening around AUKUS as well. We are working, we've got Queensland - Brisbane Airport, a sponsor today. We're looking at sustainable fuels, as one of the big things that we need to work on, and Catherine King 's working on those initiatives. It's not just one thing we're looking at. We're looking at a comprehensive plan for how we ensure that we make more things here. Now, we won't have every company based here. Companies will make decisions from time to time. They're private sector operators. But what we can do is make sure that we're competitive, make sure that we have mechanisms here that encourage that value add and encourage that activity to stay here.
JOURNALIST: You mentioned in your speech that Australia needs to get cracking. How does, how do we market Australia to the rest of the world in terms of manufacturing, when we've got the likes of China and many southeast Asian countries that are already doing it and far cheaper compared to cost of labour here?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, the end of your question goes to why the game has changed, because you go to the cost of labour - and it's true that in the seventies and eighties, we saw a lot of manufacturing leave Australia because of the cost of labour. But production is changing. So, for the same output, because of advances in productivity and technology, labour is less of the cost of production, less as a proportion, and that means that the other inputs are more important. Transport - we have here in Queensland all of the minerals that go into just about everything that will be important for the 21st century. Vanadium, cobalt, copper, lithium - all here. And that means that in many cases now what makes economic sense - rather than take all of those inputs, manufacture somewhere else and then import it back, the cost of transport, the cost of all of that - it's changed the commercial nature of manufacturing here in Australia. And particularly with new and emerging industries as well, like green hydrogen - you have a capacity for it to be producing because we have an advantage: space, put simply. You can't have the same size solar plants in a crowded, in Java, that you can have here in Queensland - a bit more space. Similarly Upper Spencer Gulf, that's why that makes it commercial in South Australia. The work in the Pilbara and other areas as well. The CopperString Project is about taking various projects and linking it up in terms of the grid. So, there's a range of things that you can do. Certainly Rio are very explicit about what they're looking at here, and unless that occurs, then we will lose industries. But companies like Rio and Bluescope and others are very engaged in this and that's what changes the dynamic. That's why it makes a lot of sense here to have battery manufacturing, for example, because you have everything in the one spot that can be manufactured here. But we need to work with the private sector, and government needs to be engaged and part of the message in the region, and it was a message done by Nicholas Moore - the former head of Macquarie Bank did the report on the Southeast Asia Economic Strategy to 2040 for Australia - if you look at that report, it goes through every country and where Australia's engagement can be greater. So, Indonesia, Malaysia, Vietnam, Brunei, Singapore - it's not one size fits all, but our comparative advantage in different industries means that you can have a really positive outcome, which is win-win for our trading partners. And that was one of the themes as well of the business side of the ASEAN Summit that we held in Melbourne last month where the leaders of all of those countries came. And that was a really positive sign about how Australia was positioned. I mean, last week I was here in Queensland, in Ipswich, looking at the Boxers - that's a German company manufacturing vehicles here in Queensland and exporting them in a $1 billion deal back to Germany. That shows what we can do because of the range of advantages that we have. We need to not talk ourselves down, we need to talk ourselves up and be optimistic about seizing the opportunities which are there.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, you mentioned as a part of your future made in Australia today that you are wanting to help every Australian, whether they are in regional, rural, remote or urban communities. This morning in the Federal Court, AgForce had their hearing, their first hearing regarding their opposition to Glencore's subsidiary wanting to use the Great Artesian Basin for carbon capture storage. And there's hundreds of thousands of Australians who are impacted by that very issue. And one of them said, we feel like we've been left behind, we feel like people don't understand what's going on, they don't really know what this is going to mean. And they're very concerned they tell me about the irreparable damage to the Great Artisan Basin. Does that mean that your Government talking earlier about the great national treasures we have in Australia, you'll do something to a great national treasure that is underground so it can't be seen like the Great Barrier Reef or the rainforest, but it is, if it gets damaged, you know, it's going to really impact the future of every Australian and future generations to come.
PRIME MINISTER: Thank you. I'm going to be careful about the answer here because of the way that you framed the question, which was…
JOURNALIST: That’s my job, Prime Minister.
PRIME MINISTER: I understand that. But it's my job not to comment on things that are before the courts, and your opening statement said before the courts this morning. So, I'm always cautious. There have been a few issues with politicians and court cases you might have noticed in recent times, and so I will be cautious. I will say, though without referring to any of the specifics, obviously the Great Artesian Basin is a great national asset and is very important. But I won't comment on something that has, in your own words, been before the courts this morning.
JOURNALIST: Peter Dutton has blamed police and Labor for the rise in anti-Semitism. He said police were going soft on people and that you had been too weak. What do you think of those allegations and of Mr Dutton using the Gaza issue to make domestic political criticisms?
PRIME MINISTER: I think that Peter Dutton's reference to Port Arthur - I think people will draw their own conclusions there about that. I did see those comments and was somewhat taken aback by those comments, and it's up to him to explain that. I'm someone who has spent time, including recently in Parliament House with the family of victims of Port Arthur, and I think that sometimes what Peter Dutton does in his comments is to think about how hard you could possibly go and how angry you could possibly be, and then go one step further. I think when it comes to the Middle East, these are complex issues. They do not need people talking up the heat. They need people turning it down. That is something that my Government has done and will continue to do here in Australia. I am very concerned about the rise in anti-Semitism. I'm concerned about Islamophobia. I'm concerned about any division in our community. And I'm concerned that there have been occasions where there have been attempts to politicise this or weaponise these issues in a way which, in my view, isn't appropriate. We are an incredibly successful multicultural nation, where someone, where in my local community and in communities here, I'm sure in Queensland as well, I know that people can live side by side, whether they are Jewish, Catholic, Muslim, Buddhist, Hindu, and be enriched by the diversity which is here. I’ve long been of the view that our multiculturalism is a strength, not just for ourselves, but that we can be a bit of a microcosm for the world. And we can show that diversity is a strength. We can show that justice is possible for people to live side by side. I've got, in my Marrickville house, people of different religions either side of where I live. That's a good thing. That's a great thing. And I think that one of the reasons why that's important isn't just it for itself, but that you can take that spirit to its logical conclusion. If that is possible, it is certainly possible for Israelis and Palestinians to live with security, stability and prosperity side by side with states - two states - a two state solution, that everyone knows has been speaking about for the entire time that I have been alive. That this has been an issue of conflict that needs a resolution. And that's why Australia, and like-minded partners, including - this is no different from the United Kingdom under David Cameron. Or the joint statements that I've made with the Prime Minister of Canada and New Zealand, who's a conservative. David Cameron obviously is as well. Or, indeed, President Biden's comments as well. We need to move beyond the cycle of conflict, and that means Israel living within secure borders, being recognised by its neighbours in the Middle East as well. It does mean justice for Palestinians as well. And that is something that we have taken a principled position on. We've been consistent on every innocent life matters, whether it be Israeli or Palestinian. The actions of the Hamas terrorist group mean that it has no role to play in the future of a Palestinian state, and we've been very consistent about that. But I do think that political leaders here need to be responsible about the way that they discuss these issues and the language that they use.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, your proposed green energy future relies heavily on local workers. What further incentives can the Government offer young Queenslanders to train in this industry through TAFE and university, amid cost of living pressures? And for workers in existing carbon industries, how would the Government assist them in a shift of industry?
PRIME MINISTER: Fee free TAFE is a pretty good start, because I've met people that makes an enormous difference as well. We have our clean energy apprenticeships, incentive from the Federal Government for engaging in clean energy jobs. We'll need an enormous amount of electricians in the future in these new industries as well. And the second bit was - just the second part?
JOURNALIST: The second part was for workers in existing carbon industries.
PRIME MINISTER: We have our Net Zero Economy Authority. That is precisely legislation before the Parliament about how communities can't be, don't get left behind, to provide that support through business and unions to every worker to make sure that they can transition. And that legislation was introduced on the last sitting day of the Parliament.
LYNCH: Thank you. That brings us to the end of our lunch. Could everyone join me in thanking Prime Minister Anthony Albanese.