Doorstop Interview – Brisbane | Prime Minister of Australia
ANTHONY ALBANESE, PRIME MINISTER: Well, look, it’s fantastic to be back in Brisbane and back in Queensland. This is my third visit in a week. So, I kind of almost am a local here, Annastacia. It’s fantastic to be here with Tony Burke, my Minister for Workplace Relations, and Premier Palaszczuk, Deputy Premier Miles, Minister Grace and all of the team. But most importantly, today is a celebration of workers’ rights. It’s a commemoration of all that has been achieved over such a long period of time of working people struggling to achieve decent wages and conditions, to deliver changes in occupational health and safety to make sure they can return home at work after putting in a fair day’s work with a fair day’s pay. This is, May Day, is always a big celebration in Queensland. I’ve attended May Day marches here, and in Gladstone, and in Townsville in the past. And last year, I was here during the federal campaign, and I promised that if I was elected, I would come back as Prime Minister. I also promised that we would be a Government that delivered for working people. And one of the first things we did was put in a submission to the Fair Work case for a pay increase. Remember, the famous $1 increase during the election campaign that Scott Morrison and the Coalition all said would bankrupt the economy, the sky would fall in. We know that increase occurred as a result of the decision of the Fair Work Commission. The sky didn’t fall in. We have unemployment at 3.5 per cent. We have an economy that’s continuing to grow. But we have greater fairness in the system. We also, of course, put in a submission for a wage increase for aged care workers, a 15 per cent increase. That will make an enormous difference for people in the aged care sector and also make a difference for the sector continuing to be viable to attract workers in that area. We said we’d change the legislation to allow for 10 days paid domestic and family violence leave. And we’ve done that as well. We said we would allow for greater fairness to lift wages. And with our industrial relations legislation, making equity and gender equity an objective of the Fair Work Act, making those changes for fairness that were passed with our industrial relations legislation last year. We said we would address better skills and training for working people. And we did that with our 180,000 fee-free TAFE places. I’m proud to lead a Government that is delivering for working people. Today is a celebration of that. And I’m proud to be marching with my union today, the AMWU, and the union movement of Queensland. I’m very proud of the friendship and relationship that I have as well with the Queensland Labor Government, that’s continuing to deliver. Last week, we delivered, through the National Cabinet, a way forward on strengthening Medicare, on improving housing, and on so much more as well. Thanks.
ANNASTACIA PALASZCZUK, PREMIER OF QUEENSLAND: Thanks, PM. It’s great to have the Prime Minister here. And of course, it was our Government that restored Labour Day to its rightful place here. And there’s going to be between 10,000 and 30,000 people that will come out today. And we have absolutely focused on workers. We’ve got perhaps the lowest unemployment rate our state has seen. A thousand jobs are being created each and every day. But we’ve also made issues such as wage theft a crime. We’ve also made sure that we have paid leave for people who are the victims of domestic and family violence. And we will continue to work with unions and with workers across this state to ensure a better standard of living for all.
TONY BURKE, MINISTER FOR EMPLOYMENT & WORKPLACE RELATIONS: This Government, when we came to office, made clear that people needed more job security, that we needed to get wages moving, that we needed safer workplaces, and that we needed to take action to close the gender pay gap. From when the Prime Minister was Opposition Leader and I were here 12 months ago, in the same march, we were saying that it was possible for these things to happen while the other side, the government of the day, was saying that the sky would fall in. Well, a whole lot of those changes have started. And what today’s march is about is a whole lot of workers from Queensland saying we need to continue that pathway for more secure jobs, getting wages moving, closing the gender pay gap, and delivering safer workplaces.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, just on the point of job security, an official recently addressed delegates and said through all the profound economic restructuring underway seeking to reduce emissions, there was a critical element missing, that is support for the workers who were most imminently affected by decarbonisation. (Inaudible).
PRIME MINISTER: You’ll see some further measures in our Budget, which is only eight sleeps away. And we’ve been working with the union movement as well as with employers and industry to make sure that as the transition occurs, we seize the opportunities that are there. I’ve got to say, I look to Queensland for the great example. You look at Maryborough with rail manufacturing and what’s occurring there as a catalyst then for increased jobs with battery manufacturing. You look at hydro and what will occur there with jobs created in central Queensland with the visionary proposals of the Palaszczuk Government that are being driven. I’ve attended Gladstone, as well as where we announced our changes in legislation with Chris Bowen for the safeguard mechanism. What that’s about as well is giving industry that certainty to invest. And that’s why our plans have been backed by the Business Council of Australia, the Australian Industry Group, the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, every state and territory government in the country. The only outliers are the No-alition, who’ve learned nothing from the defeat last May, who continue to say no to absolutely everything. If we seize this, this will create more jobs, which are secure, with good wages going forward and see growth, particularly in the regions. And there’s no more regionalised state in Australia than Queensland, which is why I think Queensland in particular, will be a great beneficiary.
JOURNALIST: The infrastructure pipeline, why has it taken a year for you to review that and how many projects will need to be axed?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, we’ve been reviewing some of the big projects. Like Inland Rail was promised with a single digit budget cost. The blowout from the review from Kerry Schott shows that it would now cost $31 billion, without knowing where it was going to go to. It still doesn’t go to a port of either Brisbane or Gladstone or Melbourne or anywhere else. When people spoke about Inland Rail, they didn’t think that was to be taken quite so literally. The former Government was obsessed with pork-barrelling. What we’ve been obsessed with is delivering productivity enhancing projects. And that’s why we’ll be working with every state and territory government. There are no cuts in the Budget in eight days’ time. All the funding that had been allocated is still there. But we want to make sure that the sort of disasters that have occurred, whereby projects that might have cost hundreds of millions of dollars, $80 million or $50 million dollars attached to them, with no prospect of it being included. The other thing that was occurring was that projects were being announced with no consultation with state governments, with no state government funding, that couldn’t possibly be delivered as well. The National Party should never be in charge of building anything. Because the only thing they try and build is support for their mates. What my Government’s determined to do, and I’m an Infrastructure Minister who worked with Annastacia when she was the Infrastructure Minister on projects like Cross River Rail would have been open a long time ago, had we not been defeated by projects like the Ipswich Motorway, the Gateway Motorway, the Gold Coast Light Rail project, the Pacific Motorway, the Bruce Highway, where we contributed four times the amount in half the time that the former Howard Government had. Labor is the party of nation building. We are the party of infrastructure. We will get it right.
JOURNALIST: Would you encourage Australians to swear allegiance to the King and would you like to see the King come to Australia for a Royal tour?
PRIME MINISTER: I would like to see the King come to Australia. And I’ve invited the King. And other members of the Royal Family are always welcome here. I look forward, later tonight after I visit Darwin, I’ll be travelling to London to represent Australia at the Coronation. That’s an important event. And it’s important that Australia be represented. And myself and the Governor General, and prominent Australians will be represented at the Coronation. I’m very pleased that Sam Kerr, a great Australian, who is a great athlete, who will be here in Australia as one of the leading players for the Matildas when it comes to the soccer World Cup, in just a short period of time, the third biggest event that will be held around the world in any period, will be the flagbearer at the Coronation. One of the things that occurs, of course, when we get sworn in to Parliament as Members of Parliament, is that you do swear allegiance to the Crown. And I’m very pleased that the first person who will do that is Mary Doyle, on the 9th of May, as the Member of Aston. Thank you very much.