SIMONE MCGURK, MEMBER FOR SWAN: Thank you. I'm very happy today, very proud to have the Prime Minister here at South Metropolitan TAFE, the Bentley campus. I'm here with Skills and Training Minister, Brendan O'Connor, and local members, Zaneta Mascarenhas and Hannah Beazley. We've been meeting students involved in the hospitality and cookery courses that have benefited from a huge investment by the Federal Government, which we're very grateful for, for fee-free TAFE. Fee-free and 23 has been a huge success.

ANTHONY ALBANESE, PRIME MINISTER: Welcome to what is our second Cabinet meeting held in Western Australia during this term. This is fulfilling another commitment that we made during the election campaign. The first Cabinet meeting, we held in Port Hedland. And now, having another one here in Perth. I know that people have been spreading themselves around the state, making sure that they've been engaged. I was at a TAFE earlier today, I was in Karratha yesterday at the Rio Tinto site looking at iron ore exports and the resource sector.

I begin by acknowledging the traditional owners of the land on which we meet and I pay my respects to their elders past, present and emerging.

I am proud to lead a Government that will give every Australian the opportunity to vote for constitutional recognition of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people at a referendum later this year.

I’m delighted to be here with all of you this morning, on another beautiful day in WA.

I acknowledge all my colleagues here this morning, particularly my outstanding Western Australian colleagues.

The Albanese and Cook Governments have signed a landmark agreement to power the next stage of Western Australia's growth with affordable and more secure renewable energy.

The Commonwealth-Western Australia Rewiring the Nation deal will bolster WA’s energy security by expanding and modernising electricity grids in Perth, the South West, as well as in the North West Pilbara region.

MICHELLE, HOST: Welcome.

XAV, HOST: Welcome, welcome.

ANTHONY ALBANESE, PRIME MINISTER: What a great intro.

XAV: Yeah, I did that this morning at 2am for you.

MICHELLE: A bit of razzle dazzle. He says that all the time.

XAV: Every guest gets that same line, sorry.

PRIME MINISTER: They all get a song, do they?

XAV: Yeah, it's a blend of everything we throw together.

MITSOPOULOS: Well, this morning you've announced $3 billion through loans and equity investments to modernise our electricity grids. What sort of projects will this apply to?

I acknowledge the traditional owners of the land on which we meet and I pay my respects to their elders past, present and emerging.

I am proud to lead a Government which will give every Australian the opportunity to come together and vote for Constitutional Recognition of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people at a referendum later this year.

Simon Trott, Rio Tinto: I'd like to acknowledge the traditional owners of the land, this amazing country that we're on, the Ngarluma people and acknowledge also their elders past and present. Rio has been operating here in Dampier since the 1960s, and over that time we've exported around seven billion tons of iron ore. One of the things I love about my job is the opportunities that it creates, the opportunities for people though employment, the opportunities for business, the opportunities for the society here in the Pilbara, and also right across Australia.

Earlier today a United States Marine Corps MV-22 Osprey crashed on Melville Island, north of Darwin, while supporting Exercise Predators Run 2023.

Our thoughts and deepest condolences are with the three US service personnel who lost their lives, those who have been injured, the rest of the crew and indeed the entire United States armed forces.

Australian Defence Force personnel in the Northern Territory are providing support to our US partners.

No Australian personnel were involved in the incident.

The Albanese Government’s plan to train, retrain or upskill Australians and tackle skills shortages is a raging success with all 180,000 Fee-Free places filled within six months.

New figures show Fee-Free TAFE enrolments have hit more than 214,300 in the first six months – six months earlier than anticipated and nearly 35,000 places more than expected.

The biggest winner is set to be the care sector, with courses across health care, aged care and disability care attracting more than 51,000 students or 23.8 per cent of total enrolments.