Well, what a beautiful day here in sunny Brisbane. It certainly is the Sunshine State today, and I’m very excited to be here. I’m excited to pay tribute to my friend Graham Perrett firstly. Graham Perrett was elected in 2007 as part of our coming into government, and over 17 years now, Graham has been an enormous fighter for the people of Moreton. I know firsthand that when I’ve spoken with Graham, whenever I’ve been in a position of being a Government Minister or now Prime Minister, it’s always been to advocate for major projects like Mains and Kessels. I remember when we announced that, I think it was about a $300 million project, and it made an enormous difference. And now, every time I go through that intersection, I recall the passion which this bloke had for a project that was really complex. Buildings had to be purchased and moved. It was an extraordinarily difficult project with an underpass an overpass, a complex infrastructure project, but one in which Graham was absolutely determined to make a difference on. There are others as well of course. The Coopers Plains rail crossing that will be under construction soon that he’s ensured that funding has got there. The significant school infrastructure that was delivered as part of the building the education revolution. When I met Graham, he was he was working through TAFE, he was always very passionate about. And Graham was one of the people who advocated so strongly for our Fee Free TAFE that has now seen half a million Australians benefit and our economy benefit as well as a result of that policy. Graham’s also passionate about social justice and equity. The work that he did on the NDIS, advocating for a Human Rights Committee and for human rights to be an element of every bit of legislation that comes before the parliament, as well. The work that Graham did as an Assistant Shadow Minister as well in education and training was quite exceptional. And Graham will be sorely missed in this electorate. I’ll miss our banter about St George and Souths and State of Origin, of which Graham’s been much more successful on most of the occasions. But also on the floods that have impacted here in Queensland, Graham hasn’t just been an advocate. He’s got down and dirty and helped people to clean up during the two major floods that have occurred in 2011 and 2022. So to Graham, you are much loved, respected across the parliament, but you choose the time of your departure. And that is to your great credit. You have held this seat for election after election, 07, 10, 13, 16, 19 and 22 and you get to choose which most people in politics don’t choose the time of their departure. But in Julie-Ann Campbell, we have an outstanding representative. Someone who will continue Graham’s tradition of standing up for the people of this electorate. This electorate is one of the most multicultural in Australia, and certainly right up the top there when it comes to Queensland. Julie-Ann Campbell, with her background, half-Chinese, is particularly well suited to engaging with the community here, like Graham has at many multicultural events that I’ve been to with Graham over many, many years. Julie-Ann’s someone who works at EY, she’s someone who is passionate about economics, about making a difference, about cost of living pressures which are on people in this electorate and indeed right around the globe actually because of global inflationary pressures. And I’m so pleased that in addition to, we’ve already got, we’re up to a majority of our caucus are women. But with the candidates that we’re announcing, a new candidate in Capricornia and our candidate here in Moreton, as well as candidates in seats like Brisbane and Ryan, what we’re seeing is that Labor will continue to be a party that recognises that gender equity and it’s probably a good idea to have a parliament that looks like the Australian public. It’s something that the LNP here seem incapable of doing. They’re incapable of selecting women in winnable seats. And indeed, they’re going backwards at the next election after Karen Andrews departure from the parliament, and they never miss an opportunity to miss an opportunity to select a woman in a range of seats, including, of course, in the Fadden by-election as well. We are proud that we do represent that diverse community. And Julie-Ann raising her family here with her partner and young one, very young one, is someone who will also understand the needs of families in this area. Now I’m going to ask Graham to speak first, and then Julie-Ann, and then we’re happy to take some questions.
GRAHAM PERRETT, MEMBER FOR MORETON: Thanks Prime Minister, and thank you for the great support you’ve shown me over the years, going right back to 2004 and for the infrastructure that you brought about in Moreton, including the Elizabeth Street overpass here in Acacia Ridge, and some signals that you understood that I didn’t really understand on the train line. You’ve been a great supporter throughout and I just want to thank my community so many people that have turned out to help me over the years, including Jules Campbell, one of my campaign directors, who you know has done all sorts of things for me, including supervising my son’s first date in a shopping centre, going back a long time ago. So you’ve been a big part of my family, as the Moreton family has worked hard to make sure that the people of this multicultural electorate have a voice down in Canberra that is listened to, and Jules is a fighter who I know will continue that, and I look forward to making sure that Moreton stays in Labor hands with Julie-Ann Campbell as the Member for Moreton after the next election. I’ll hand over to Jules.
JULIE-ANN CAMPBELL, LABOR CANDIDATE FOR MORETON: Good afternoon everyone, and welcome to Acacia Ridge. My name is Julie-Ann Campbell, and I’m delighted to be here today as part of Anthony Albanese and Labor’s team as the federal candidate. At the outset, I want to take this opportunity to thank and pay tribute to my dear friend Graham Perrett. Graham has been an enormous contributor to our local community. He’s been a fierce advocate of the people of Moreton for a very long time, and he leaves incredibly big shoes to fill. My partner and I moved right here to Acacia Ridge over a decade ago, and the reason we chose to live here is because the south side is a great place to raise a family. We’re now doing just that living in Corinda and raising our beautiful baby girl, Margaret, who’s here with us today. One of the things that we love about the south side is that it is such a multicultural part of Brisbane. I myself am Australian of Chinese heritage and a proud member of the Moo family who immigrated to this country in the late 1800s and later helped establish the very first Chinese Club of Queensland, right here in Brisbane. In my professional career, I’ve worked in professional services, I’ve worked as a lawyer representing vulnerable workers in the manufacturing industry, and I’m incredibly proud to have been the first woman to be State Secretary and Campaign Director of Labor in Queensland. Right now, south siders are doing it tough. Cost of living is the number one issue, and everywhere I go, people are feeling the pressure when it comes to housing costs. They’re feeling the pressure when it comes to utilities bills, and they’re feeling the pressure when it comes to the supermarket checkout. Now more than ever, we need someone with a track record of standing up and delivering. I have that track record. I’ve spent most of my working life fighting and winning for everyday Queenslanders, whether that be through policy, advocacy or running campaigns, and I’m delighted to be part of Anthony Albanese’s team, because Labor are the only ones with a clear plan to tackle cost of living, take action on it and deliver the relief that south siders need right now.
PRIME MINISTER: Thanks very much Julie-Ann, Happy to take questions, all the difficult ones to Graham.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, did you agree with the push to ban card surcharges?
PRIME MINISTER: Sorry?
JOURNALIST: Card surcharges, do you agree with the push to ban those for Australians?
PRIME MINISTER: Look, I think that banks have a responsibility to deliver for their customers, and at a time when there are cost of living pressures on can I say this to the big banks and financial institutions, do the right thing by your customers and they’ll do the right thing by you.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, when will the Bruce Highway be finished?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, the Bruce Highway is a major project. We are contributing $10 billion for the Bruce Highway. I made some comments on this just about two hours ago in Rockhampton. I’m very conscious of the Bruce Highway because as Infrastructure Minister, I turned what was $1.3 billion under the Howard Government into $7.6 billion under the Rudd and Gillard Governments. So five times the funding in half the time. For the first time, a serious approach towards the Bruce Highway. And I’ve taken that same approach as Prime Minister. I was in Rockhampton a short while ago. The Rockhampton Ring Road, I did a study when Kirsten Livermore was the Member for Capricornia, nothing happened. They hadn’t dug a hole when we came to office. It is now under construction, there will be thousands of jobs created. There has been a tragedy at Bororen. I’m very familiar with Bororen. I’ve been to the pub there a couple of times during the road trips I took down the length of the Bruce Highway, driving from Cairns right through to have a look at what was happening on the highway, but also to visit those wonderful towns of regional Queensland. So I want to get things done as soon as possible. Today, I spoke with Steven Miles, the Premier earlier on today about these issues. Catherine King has written to her counterpart about there is some funding available. What we want to do is to make some, bring forward, of priority areas, and we’ll work with the Queensland Government on that.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, last week, you spoke about the same thing at the Bush Summit, your efforts towards the Bruce Highway as Infrastructure Minister. There has been three fatalities since then, and Queenslanders desperately want to know when this project will be done. They know there’s funding, 10 million is there, but can you put a deadline to give Queenslanders reassurance of when the road will be finished?
PRIME MINISTER: What you can do, what Queenslanders have had enough of under the former Government, for example, about the Rockhampton Ring Road was to actually do something about it, rather than put out a press release. Queenslanders know that you can’t drive on a press release. You need to drive on a road. And in order to complete the road, you need workers, you need the concrete and other materials that are required in terms of the supply chain, and you need to make sure that you get all of the planning right as well. So I’m committed to doing things as soon as possible. We’re working through with the Queensland Government, who actually manage these projects, the Commonwealth Government doesn’t manage road projects. The Queensland Government will manage it, and we’ll work those issues through. But I want to see as much progress as possible, as soon as possible.
JOURNALIST: The Treasurer has ruled out a budget spend-a-thon to help secure the next election, but with cost of living the main concern for voters now, do you concede you’re going to have to spend more?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, what we’re doing is making sure that when we invest in cost of living relief, it’s in a way that puts that downward pressure on inflation. And I note this week, inflation further moderating to 3.5 per cent that’s a good thing. We want to see it moderate further, and we want to see at the same time that cost of living relief flow through. We’ve delivered a tax cut for every single taxpayer in Moreton. We’ve delivered, together with the Queensland Government, $1,300 in energy price relief. We’ve delivered cheaper child care, half a million Fee Free TAFE places, cheaper medicines, and we’ll have more to say about cheaper medicines tomorrow. So we’re providing that support, but doing it in a way that ensures that it’s productive, that it’s continuing to put that downward pressure on inflation. That’s the task that we have, and that’s one that I’m absolutely committed to delivering on.
JOURNALIST: How difficult is it managing, I guess, the needs of Australians with the difficulties in the Budget and not spending too much?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, one of the things that we have done is to deliver not one, but two budget surpluses. The budget surplus will be confirmed, I think next month, I think the final figures come out to the year to June 30, but I’m confident that what you’ll see at that time is a double digit surplus on top of the $22 billion surplus that we delivered last year. Now we turned a $78 billion deficit into a $22 billion surplus. That is how you make a substantial difference and put that downward pressure on inflation. But I make this point as well, that during this week, the Coalition have made it clear that they have $100 billion of cuts, they just won’t tell Australians where the cuts are going to hit. But we know about some of them. We know that they’ll cut housing funding at a time where there are pressures on housing supply. It is madness to cut funding to housing. They are blocking legislation in the Senate, together with the Greens, the No-alition of the Greens and the LNP blocking legislation, which would lead to increased home ownership through the Shared Equity Scheme, increased rental housing through the incentives that are there for build to rent. All of those schemes being blocked by this No-alition. Now that makes no sense whatsoever, but the LNP need to say where their $100 billion dollars of cuts will hit besides housing, because that’s not what Australians need.
JOURNALIST: This week, a 23 year old Tamil man committed suicide in Melbourne. Twenty five crossbenchers have sent you a letter asking to secure permanency for asylum seekers. Have you received the letter and will you consider their request?
PRIME MINISTER: I haven’t seen the letter, but people write to me. I’ve been on the road this week at the Pacific Island Forum, so I haven’t seen the letter. I haven’t been back to Canberra as yet, and I’m travelling to Perth tomorrow. But any suicide is a tragedy, and my heart goes out to the gentleman’s family.
JOURNALIST: Regis says that they wrote to your office three months ago about the Blayney Goldmine decision, warning you that it wouldn’t be viable is the Government didn’t go ahead. Why did you not intervene?
PRIME MINISTER: Because the law, the law says that the Environment Minister makes a decision, and I don’t break the law. So the Environment Minister is responsible under the EPBC Act, and I think that is well known.
JOURNALIST: Is it appropriate for Tanya Plibersek to overrule the Government’s Indigenous Culture Assessor? What’s the purpose of having the independent assessors if the Government overrules them?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, on the mine, importantly, there has been no blocking of the mine. The Minister has made that very clear, it’s a question of the tailings dam. I do want to see projects go ahead. I want them to go ahead in a responsible way. My understanding is that the company have met with the New South Wales Government this week. I hope they find a way through.
JOURNALIST: After the second recorded death of a child at the Banksia Hill Detention Centre in WA, do you think there’s a need now for Federal Government intervention?
PRIME MINISTER: I haven’t seen that report. It’s obviously a terrible tragedy, the death of any child. I’ll be traveling to WA tomorrow. I’ll be seeing Premier Cook on Monday. I’ll ask him for his views. I’m not aware of the detail, but obviously the death of any child is tragic.
JOURNALIST: Just going back on your time as Infrastructure Minister. With your experience, how long do you think the Bruce Highway will take to finish?
PRIME MINISTER: Well what you need to do is to put in place proper planning –
JOURNALIST: How long? How many years?
PRIME MINISTER: Proper planning. And what you don’t do is finish it by making a declaration or a media release. I go back to my previous comments. You can’t drive on a media release. What you need to do is to have proper planning, have the labour, the contracts in place and get it done. So that is the way that infrastructure projects work. They don’t get built by people talking off the top, making a declaration without having a proper study and proper planning work. That is the way that infrastructure works.
JOURNALIST: When can we expect that part to be done then?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, that is the way that infrastructure works. There’s a program of delivery at the moment. There’s a $10 billion program, $10 billion of Commonwealth funding for the Bruce Highway as part of our more than $20 billion of funding that we have in Queensland.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, are you going to Riverfire tonight?
PRIME MINISTER: I’m going to have a look at it. Yeah, I’m here. I go to Perth, I go to Perth tomorrow. I’m told it’s a big event, and certainly I’m looking forward to mixing with some Queenslanders over the next little while. My office is full of Queenslanders. One of Nambour’s favourite daughters is standing there behind the camera, and she has told me that it is indeed a great event tonight. So I hope everyone has a good time and enjoys it safely as well. Thank you very much.
