Radio Interview – ABC Goldfields Esperance
IVO DA SILVA, HOST: Good morning, Prime Minister and welcome to Kalgoorlie-Boulder and thank you for bringing a bit of rain to us from Sydney because that’s something that we desperately needed.
ANTHONY ALBANESE, PRIME MINISTER: The Mayor just gave me credit.
DA SILVA: Just a few weeks ago, you were in Alice Springs to address concerns in the Red Centre about crime and alcohol fuelled violence, now you’re in the Goldfields which has virtually identical issues with social problems. So Prime Minister, our listeners want to know what you’re going to do to tackle these issues?
PRIME MINISTER: What we’re talking about here is intergenerational disadvantage in many cases. So we will work with the State Government, we will work with local government, I just met with the Mayor, I’ve been with the state local MP, Ali Kent today as well as with Madeleine King, and we’ll continue to work through these issues. So a lot of it is about creating opportunity for people, overcoming educational disadvantage. As I said, it comes down in many cases to an intergenerational issue. You don’t solve that with a media grab, you solve that with hard work, with listening, and then being prepared to act.
DA SILVA: Now, the statistics from the Department of Social Services show that 98 per cent of the 2,400 Goldfields participants in the cashless debit card trial have now transitioned off the cashless debit card. There’s only 55 people left and there have been concerns about the new smart card, which you are going to introduce, of its voluntary nature. This is what Rick Wilson, the Member for O’Connor did have to say about the issue, ‘The fact that it’s voluntary is means that this card will be a complete waste of time and money because the people that are causing the problems, the anti-social behaviour in the northern Goldfields at the moment are not going to be the people that volunteer to go on this card. Now, I understand that only 50 per cent of income will be quarantined to the card. So even if they do voluntarily go on the card that’ll still leave plenty of their welfare payments to be spent on booze and gambling and other vices that don’t leave money for the family, for the kids and that’s what breaks my heart’. So what why would anyone sign up for the card?
PRIME MINISTER: Because it is improved on what was there before. The problem with the CDC, which was found in the surveys and the reviews that were done is that it didn’t provide for any medium-term transition here at all. It did quarantine income, but it also, like a lot of the Northern Territory intervention, took away power from people as well. One of the things that the smart card will do is not just quarantine some income, but also provide for a range of services and ongoing support. One of the things that we’ve done is put some $13.1 million into increased services in the Goldfields and the Kimberley. On top of that there’s $17 million for economic development. What we’re trying to do here is to not say, ‘Okay, we’re going to leave people just on welfare and not give them hope of a better future of employment and training and the things that really lift people out of despair and poverty’. And so we’re working through those issues. We’re working with the state government, we will work with local government. I just met with the Mayor here…
DA SILVA: Speaking of which, Pat Hill, the Shire President of Laverton when we spoke to him last said there weren’t the wraparound services up in the northern Goldfields, that the services all came from Kalgoorlie-Boulder. He wants to see Laverton as a regional hub, is that something you’d entertain?
PRIME MINISTER: You need to balance up provision of services. You can’t have the same level of services in every town as you do in the regional centres. And the regional centre here, if you look at the figures, so 2,400 people on the CDC in WA, more than 1,700 of them were in this local government area. So it does make sense that a lot of the base was here, just like there’s an ABC studio here but there’s not one in Laverton. The Laverton Mayor met with Justine Elliot, the Minister at the end of last year and we will continue to engage with communities as I have today, as my Government continues to do. This is my ninth visit to Western Australia as Prime Minister, I was only elected on the 21st of May last year. So that’s nine visits in nine months, including to Albany.
DA SILVA: Will you go to the Northern Goldfields?
PRIME MINISTER: I will go everywhere over a period of time. But I don’t have a TARDIS and I’m here, tomorrow I’ll be in Port Hedland. I’ve been to Broome, I’ve been to Fitzroy Crossing, I’ve been to Albany and that compares with some of my political opponents. I’ve been to Western Australia more than the leadership group on the other side have combined by many times, and I get out and about as much as possible. And this visit I’m here and as I said tomorrow I’ll be in Port Hedland.
DA SILVA: If we can get back onto the cashless debit card. Was it a mistake to remove the card without having the wraparound services already in place?
PRIME MINISTER: Well it was based upon the advice that we received. We said that it would occur in the in the lead up.
DA SILVA: It was an election promise, it was something to the removal of it, but should have these wraparound services been in place for places like Laverton?
PRIME MINISTER: One of the things that we’ve inherited is, and this was the case certainly in places like Alice but a whole range of places, there was a funding cliff that occurred from the former Government. they funded services that just all ended on June 30 or ended, I used to say that their last budget had all the longevity of a spray tan. It just disappeared once people voted. So you had a Budget in March, where a whole lot of funding and bonuses for a range of services ended in July. And indeed, that was that the case in terms of some of the services right around Australia. So that’s something we’ve been dealing with. We brought down our first Budget in October, we had substantially increased investment for the region here, but right around Australia for service delivery and we’re going through those reforms. We had to deal with as well an enormous waste whereby funding for programs was based upon an electoral map rather than based upon needs. And we’ve been dealing with that as best we can. In our first nine months, we’ve got another Budget coming up in May and that budget will put in place further reforms and further measures.
DA SILVA: Now on February 6, you announced the Federal Government will provide an extra $250 million for what you called a ‘better, safer future for Central Australia’, will you give the same level of support to Aboriginal communities in WA?
PRIME MINISTER: We’re giving support to regional communities everywhere. This morning I’ve been at the School of the Air here in Kalgoorlie where we’re upgrading the National Broadband Network. And in Kalgoorlie, some 4,800 premises are going to benefit. I’ve got to say, there wasn’t $1 went into my seat from the former Government for anything like that. We’re funding services based upon need.
DA SILVA: There isn’t the need in Laverton?
PRIME MINISTER: We’re here funding the National Broadband Network. There’s need right around Australia for services, we are doing that within the constraint of inheriting a trillion dollars of debt. But we’re also prioritising areas of investment that will boost the economy. That investment in the NBN, in the School of the Air will help people. Some of the students were there, and the parents are there for the weekend, some of them were from around Laverton, from stations in Laverton and further away from Kalgoorlie. This will make an enormous difference to those families. That’s an investment, part of the $2.4 billion were putting into fixing up the NBN. The problem that was created because the former Government stopped rolling out fibre and put in second rate copper, last century’s technology, now we’re having to go and fix it up. I’ll tell you what, it will make a big difference for those students, for those families, right throughout regional WA.
DA SILVA: Just a couple of questions, Prime Minister, changing topics. At last count there are over 1,000 job vacancies in the Goldfields region. We’re becoming a critical minerals hub and we need skilled workers to come and live here. But the designated area migration agreement, the DAMA, hasn’t helped, accommodation is needed. What is the Government doing to address these issues?
PRIME MINISTER: We inherited a million people waiting for visas. When COVID happened, in New Zealand what they did was they said ‘if you’ve got skills, you can stay’. In Australia, we told them to leave.
DA SILVA: So there’s something you’re looking at doing?
PRIME MINISTER: We’re doing it. We have got those figures down to just over 500,000, so we’ve almost cut down half the list. And the list continues to grow every day as more people apply, so it’s not like we’ve just done that, we’ve got 450 additional people working on it. We know that skills shortage is a massive issue so we’re doing that in terms of migration. But the other thing we’re doing is training Australians. 180,000 fee-free TAFE places, 18,800 of them here in the West will make an enormous difference in areas of skill shortage. And indeed, this afternoon I’ll be at a centre making the announcement in Perth, at a TAFE about our new energy apprenticeship scheme. That will provide an incentive of $10,000 for people to engage in apprenticeships in the new energy revolution which is going on so that we have the skilled workforce that can build and maintain our renewable energy assets as they become more and more important.
DA SILVA: If you could send a few over to the Goldfields, that would be great. The Indigenous Voice to Parliament is a big issue for the Goldfields region and for people in the lands. How are you going to spread the message about the referendum to all areas the Goldfields, specifically the lands?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, people will be out there, the local Indigenous leadership and of course Pat Dodson, a great Western Australian who has a particular responsibility as the envoy for the Uluru Statement from the Heart – people are very conscious about it. This is something that came from Indigenous communities themselves who gathered at the Constitutional Convention there Uluru in 2017. It’s about two things, it’s about recognising Aboriginal Australians in our Constitution, in our nation’s birth certificate and secondly, it’s about consulting them. That there should be a body, which gives advice to the Parliament, once its met and that national process will be really important. I think this is an important national reform. I’m really heartened by the week of action is starting this week, there’s activity right around the regions, right around the nation. And I’m very hopeful that we will get a Yes vote. I think it will be important to give respect to Aboriginal Australians, but also for us to acknowledge the great privilege we have of sharing this continent with them. And it will also, I think, change the way that Australia is perceived in the world as well, show that we’re mature country that can come to terms with our history. It’s terrific to be here and it’s always good to be to be back. I came here for the first time when I drove across Australia each way, we stopped in here. It is great town. And one of the things that happened this morning, certainly talking to people at the Super Pit but also talking to the Mayor and the State Member and our Resources Minister Madeleine King, I’ve no doubt that there’s a great future here in the Goldfields.