: Can I start by thanking the Prime Minister for being here today, and of course, being here with my successor candidate, Alice Jordan-Baird. Can I say, two months ago, I announced my resignation from the Cabinet and my impending retirement from Parliament after spending more than 20 years in this electorate. And I just want to again record my deep gratitude to the constituents of Gorton for supporting me for so very long. Allowing me to be their advocate in representing this constituency in Canberra and fighting on their behalf, and also allowing me to do other jobs as well, on behalf of not only the Albanese Government, but other governments. So I feel very grateful and very appreciative, and today, of course, I’m very pleased that the Prime Minister is here on the day before the Grand Final, the magnificent spectacle in the Australian sporting calendar. But also being here with Alice, who will be an absolutely passionate advocate for this area. What we need to see in this fast growing region of Melbourne, indeed, fast growing region of Australia, are local champions who advance the interests of this community in Canberra, and that’s what we will have in Alice Jordan-Baird. So I’m very pleased that the Party has made a decision to find the right candidate to succeed me, and obviously it’s now up to the electorate of Gorton, but I’m very confident that she will find the support that I found. I just want to say one other thing. Things haven’t been easy for the constituents, indeed, not just in Gorton, but across the country, in terms of cost of living pressures. But I want to make this very clear – it was the Albanese Government that has ensured that things have been made a little easier because of policy decisions. It was reducing medicines, reducing energy prices and indeed introducing tax cuts for all taxpayers. What it’s meant for the electorate of Gorton, the Labor plan for tax cuts, has meant that 88 per cent of the constituents of this electorate are better off under Labor’s tax plans and the tax cuts that they were afforded and they would have been under the Opposition’s proposed plan. And we’ll continue to ensure that we make it as easy as we can when people are dealing with these cost of living pressures. And that’s why it’s really important that we have a Labor member representing the interests of this constituency who do need Labor to fight for them, whether it’s tax cuts, whether it’s reducing the cost of medicines or energy prices, whether it’s affording opportunities like Fee-Free TAFE, we need to make sure we have those policy initiatives. And I know that Alice, if elected, will be able to continue to advance those interests. Now I just want to hand over to the Prime Minister, it’s great to you here in Melbourne today.
ANTHONY ALBANESE, PRIME MINISTER: Well, thanks very much, Brendan, and I want to begin by paying tribute to my mate here, Brendan, who – we’ve basically grown up together, almost. We’ve known each other since way back when we were in our late teens, literally. And over that time, we have worked together in partnership to make things better for Australians, has been the objective. And Brendan has been a passionate advocate for this local community here in Melbourne’s west. He also has not just been a great local advocate, but of course, as a Minister in particular in the current Government for Training and Skills, what he has done in Fee-Free TAFE is that nothing less than save TAFE. It has been revitalised under this Government, and that’s good for every individual, the more than half a million Australians who have benefited from Fee-Free TAFE, but it’s also good for the businesses in which they work and good for our national economy as well. So to Brendan, we wish him very well. This is a long farewell, mate. I’ve got to say – the festival of Brendan will continue until the next election, because I know that Brendan will continue to work each and every day. But in Alice Jordan-Baird, we have a fantastic replacement. I was with Alice and her husband this morning at Keilor, just up the road at Sweet Lulus, enjoying a coffee and talking with the locals there about issues. They’re enjoying the public holiday here in Melbourne prior to Grand Final day, and it was a real opportunity to engage with local families who are out and about on this beautiful Melbourne day in Melbourne’s West. Alice is someone who will be a strong advocate for this community. She has a background working in environmental and water issues, of course, and climate change, and these issues are important to people in this country. Alice also understands the importance of cost of living relief, and my Government has been determined to make a difference in what are difficult global economic times. And this week, we saw the figures where the monthly inflation rates for August to August dropping from 3.5 per cent down to 2.7 per cent. Within the RBA target band. A performance that in part, is due to the direct government decisions that we have made. The decisions that we’ve made for Energy Bill Relief, for cheaper medicines, Cheaper Child Care, Fee-Free TAFE. The decisions as well that we have made to produce what were previously anticipated Liberal deficits, turn them into Labor surpluses, not once, but twice. A $78 billion deficit into a $22 billion surplus. $100 billion turnaround in that year, as well as – we’ll get the final figures for the surplus – but we know that the debt that has been saved is around about $150 billion, already making a major difference as well. So, our objective has been to put that downward pressure on inflation whilst looking after cost of living measures. And of course, part of that is getting people to earn more through the increases in real wages that we’re seeing, and getting them to keep more of what they earn through our tax cuts for every single taxpayer. They’re measures that make an enormous difference here for the people of Melbourne’s west, and we’ve been determined to do that. My Government has been focused on delivery at the same time as the Liberal Party fail to come up with a single costed policy going forward, and too often, just combine with the Greens political party to just say ‘no’ and to be negative. What my Government has is a positive vision for the future. One where the economy continues to grow, one where we add to the more than 980,000 jobs that have been created since we were elected. One where we continue to look after cost of living. One where we also shape the future through our Future Made in Australia plan which is about making more things here and setting ourselves up on that road to net-zero, which presents so many opportunities for us as a nation. I’m very pleased that the Government is renewing itself. And part of that renewal is a few retirements that that happens in every, in between every election. But in Brendan’s choosing to go at a time of his own choosing, not everyone gets to do that. But in Alice, we have an amazing candidate who will make a real difference and will continue to be a strong representative for this community.
ALICE JORDAN-BAIRD, LABOR CANDIDATE FOR GORTON: Thank you, Prime Minister. Hi everyone. Thanks so much for coming out here on the public holiday. So I’m Alice. I’m 31 years old, and I’m a really proud Westie. It’s an honour to be here today beside the Prime Minister and Brennan O’Connor as the Labor candidate for the federal seat of Gorton in the upcoming election. I care deeply about my community and the communities that live here as well. I am really excited to raise a family here with my husband, Chris. I’m the youngest of three girls, and I’ve been brought up in a family that has always championed Labor values. Throughout my career, I’ve worked really hard to improve education opportunities, public transport and water policy for a growing Melbourne. I’m running for Federal Parliament because I want those in Canberra to hear our needs in our diverse, growing communities we have here in Melbourne’s West – loud and clear. I know the cost of living is really hard for families at the moment. Times are tough, you know, with families paying rent, mortgages and, you know, getting groceries at the supermarket. I’d like to acknowledge the work done, the great work done by the Albanese Government to ease the cost of living pressures for families, but I know there is still more work we can do together. I’m so excited to continue Brendan’s amazing legacy through his 20 years of serving the community here in Gorton, and I know I’ve got really big shoes to fill, and I’m looking forward to working really hard for working families and for the people of Gorton. Thanks so much.
PRIME MINISTER: Happy to take some questions.
JOURNALIST: Just on Gorton, do you see this as a battleground seat? As demographics shift, as the cost of living crisis bites, do you see this as more in play?
PRIME MINISTER: Every seat matters, and we take nothing for granted. And Brendan O’Connor has been such a strong advocate for a long period of time. We wanted to make sure that we got a very strong candidate and in Alice we have that. We want to reach out and represent every part of Australia. And in suburbs like this, a growing community, the people I was talking to this morning in Keilor are really optimistic though, about the future. People are raising families in this community, and the policies that we’re putting in place are making a difference. Whether that be Fee-Free TAFE, Cheaper Child Care for families making a difference, cheaper medicines for pensioners in this area as well. And of course, the tax cuts that we put through the Parliament this year have made an enormous difference for people in this community. In addition to that, of course, we’re want to look after our youngest Australians and our oldest Australians. Here in a growing community like this, child care is really important, and our 15% pay increase for early educators – 10 per cent this December, five per cent the December after – will make a difference. Just like for our oldest Australians, the aged care changes that we’ve made, 99 per cent of time there’s a nurse in nursing homes. The Coalition said that was impossible and too ambitious and couldn’t be achieved. Well, we’ve done it. We’ve provided increased wages for workers in the aged care sector. We’re making sure that the increased time, literally, of minutes every day of care is happening as well. And of course, we’ve introduced our significant aged care reform into the Parliament. So this is an electorate that we certainly don’t take for granted. This is an electorate that we seek to represent their interests of and I’m confident that Alice will do that.
JOURNALIST: Are you confident, though, you’ve got people that understand this local area, both in this seat and also in Maribyrnong, given that there was issues within the party about Jo Briskey being pre-selected, and Maribyrnong given her ties to Brisbane and not essentially, not being a local. Are you doing a Kristina Keneally in these seats?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, what we have is two fantastic candidates in these seats. And the truth is that in Australia, in 2024 it’s not unusual that people have lived in more than one state over their working life. That is what happens. But Alice was telling me she’s a ruck rover and plays in the forwards for the Roosters team based in Footscray. So whilst I’m not a great fan of the Roosters in another code, this is a Roosters team that I can support. And so Alice’s roots here in west, so she met her husband, we were at in the coffee shop, she met her husband in the Keilor Hotel, where you were taking photos, or he was taking photos?
JORDAN-BAIRD: Yeah, I was taking photos, that’s right.
PRIME MINISTER: Taking photos there as part of, so she’s very much embedded in this local community. Her husband brings something that’s dear to my heart, an Italian connection that’s important I know in this area as well. And that means that the food they had at their wedding earlier this year was pretty good.
JOURNALIST: Yeah, just on negative gearing. Questions yesterday were around whether you were considering changes. You said, no, no, you’re not. We then heard the Minister saying that means future changes have been ruled out. The question was very much in the present tense around considering those changes. Just for clarity, are negative gearing changes off the table before the next election and in subsequent –
PRIME MINISTER: Just for clarity, what we are doing is what we have before the parliament. So I talk about what we’re doing, not what we’re not doing, and what we’re doing is trying to get our legislation through the parliament as part of our $32 billion ³Ô¹ÏÍøÕ¾s for Australia Plan. Now there are two key pieces of legislation. One, is Build to Rent. Now what that’s about is providing incentives for the private sector to make sure that there’s increased supply. And the second is our Help to Buy Scheme. That’s about 40,000 people getting assistance to buy their own home. Now the Housing Australia Future Fund, that’s the third part of just one, there’s more than three parts, but that goes to social housing. That was held up by the Coalition government. Now we promised and delivered 13,700 homes is what was in the first tranche that I announced just a week ago. That was held up. Those homes could have been well under construction, if not completed by now, had the Coalition and the Greens, this new no-alition, just saying no to everything, not held up that legislation. So we want more public housing to be built, more private rentals to be built, and more home ownership to be built. The Coalition and the Greens are holding that up. That’s my government’s focus and our concentration, as well as measures such as the actions we’ve taken this week on the ACCC. Announcing, of course, the legal action against Woolworths and Coles, alleging that more than 500 products were increased in price and then a slight decrease, leaving them higher than they were before, but pretending they were specials. Now at a time when people in this electorate are out there looking for bargains, looking for specials, looking for value, it is a breach of trust for supermarkets to be behaving like this. And today, we’ve released the ACCC interim report, again, indicating that supermarkets need to do better, and indicating the ACCC’s concern at what they regard as a virtual oligopoly when it comes to supermarkets. We want to make sure that supermarkets deliver value and that consumers are looked after, which is why we are mandating the code of conduct, unlike the former government that had a voluntary code.
JOURNALIST: On negative gearing still, there’s a question around the future potential for changes. There’s no answer there. We’ve heard yesterday –
PRIME MINISTER: Well, I’ve said what we’re doing, and I’ve said what we’re not doing. What we’re doing is very clear, which is our ³Ô¹ÏÍøÕ¾s for Australia Plan. That is –
JOURNALIST: You’ve still not ruled out –
PRIME MINISTER: That is what we are doing. I am saying what we are doing, and I’m saying that is our focus, and our only focus is on that.
JOURNALIST: Just on some global affairs, given the events in Lebanon and in the Middle East overnight. What is the government’s position on calls for a ceasefire that the US is trying to broker at the UN?
PRIME MINISTER: We have, Australia supports the call by the United States and other like-minded countries for an immediate ceasefire in both Israel to Lebanon across those borders, as well as an immediate ceasefire in Gaza. We want to see an end to this conflict. We have called consistently for that. We want to see the hostages released that Hamas has taken. We want to see an end to innocent lives being lost. And we again repeat the Australian Government advice for Australians who are in Lebanon to return home.
JOURNALIST: What do you say to Benjamin Netanyahu, though, about his counter efforts towards Lebanon?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, I say to Prime Minister Netanyahu that he needs to listen to the international community. Just like the other players in that region need to listen to the international community. The calls are very clear. When you have the United States, Australia, the United Kingdom, Canada, other nations all calling for a de-escalation of this conflict. We are very concerned, and the world is concerned about the escalation that is continuing here and the consequences for it.
JOURNALIST: Fair bit of chatter about infrastructure in Victoria over the last 24 hours. We saw a state project, Metro Tunnel blow out even more by almost a billion dollars. Now I know the Feds aren’t contributing to that one, but does that make you nervous about thinking about further contributions for Airport Rail and Suburban Rail Loop?
PRIME MINISTER: Well what, I’ll make this point that funding was in the Budget, $3 billion for the Melbourne Metro Project in an agreement done by myself as Infrastructure Minister and the former Liberal government here in Victoria. That funding was pulled by Tony Abbott the, and we even had someone on the Board. It was a joint project, $3 billion had been committed to that project, and had that funding not been pulled as part of the cuts that were introduced by Tony Abbott, when the last time the Coalition formed a new government in Canberra, that Metro, we wouldn’t be talking about any costs, we’d be talking about how many people were riding on the metro today, because it would have been completed years ago. It’s again a reminder of what happens when the Coalition forms new governments. They come in and they make cuts. Now the Shadow Treasurer, the Shadow Finance Minister, a number of their spokespeople, are all saying that there is $315 billion of waste in the Budget. Now what that means is infrastructure investment that would be decreased. The Housing Australia Future Fund – gone. The ³Ô¹ÏÍøÕ¾ Reconstruction Fund – gone. The increases in pensions, normal indexation, does that go as well? Cheaper medicines, does that go as well? They have made it clear on repeated occasions that they regard that investment as waste, and that’s why we can’t trust them. They’ve got to, of course, come up with eventually, some form of costed policies. And I find it extraordinary that Peter Dutton gave a speech on Monday about nuclear power without coming up with any costs whatsoever.
JOURNALIST: My question about the Feds contributing more to SRL and to Airport Rail, is the government still nervous about it? Because Catherine King’s still seeking documents on the Suburban Rail Loop. Are you, as a former Infrastructure Minister, nervous about putting more money into Victorian infrastructure?
PRIME MINISTER: We’re partnering very successfully with Victoria on infrastructure projects, both road and rail, and we are committed to making a difference, because infrastructure investment is how you boost productivity and how you make it easier to get around a great growing city like Melbourne.
JOURNALIST: Do you think your mate, Daniel Andrews, deserves a statue? There’s talk today that the government started to commission one out the front of One Treasury Place just down the road from your offices here in Melbourne after his 3000 days in office.
PRIME MINISTER: That’s a question for Jeff Kennett, really. My, someone who I have only one thing in common with, Jeff Kennett, which is we’re both Hawthorn supporters, and both of us, Jeff was texting me before the Port Adelaide game, and we engage in very positive banter about the Hawks. Other than that, we have nothing in common, and I can confirm that I was not a part of Jeff Kennett’s decision about you get a statue after 3000 days. But I reckon this bloke here deserves a statue in this park because he’s been great representative for more than 3000 days. So thank you very much.
