I’d like to welcome the Prime Minister to this clinic. I’d also like to acknowledge my colleagues, Pat Conroy, the Member for Shortland and Dr Gordon Reid, the Member for Robertson, and to the principles of practice here Dr. Sachin for the work that you’d have done on behalf of our community. And to the doctors, nurses and staff here at Central Coast Coastal Lakes Medical Practice, thank you for the contribution you’re making to our community, including Dr. Rathi, who I just spoke to. Dr. Rathi, welcoming into this practice almost three years ago, where we launched a petition on the Central Coast and collected signatures to improve health care in our community. And now where he is one of the 58 Medicare Urgent Care Clinics that our Government has delivered across Australia, including 14 in New South Wales, and two right here on the Central Coast, one in Umina and one here at Lake Haven. Nationally since the first Medicare Urgent Care Clinic opened its doors last June, more than 180,000 people have received urgent care and all that they’ve needed is their Medicare card. And in our community, where cost of living is front of mind for Australians to be able to walk in with just your Medicare card and receive bulk billed care, that is making a really big difference in our community. And I just wanted to mention as well the tax cuts. In our community 88 per cent of locals will be better off. Every taxpayer in Australia, 13.6 million people, will receive a tax cut. And here in Dobell, 88 per cent of people will be better off. This is what Urgent Care Clinics are about, they’re about urgent care, and they’re about saving people money. And we’ve seen such a difference here. Since we opened here, eight weeks ago, 2,300 local people have received care, about a quarter of them children under 15. And last Sunday, 60 people received care here at this Urgent Care Clinic, reducing the pressure on the already stretched Wyong Emergency Department and providing people with quality care when they need it close to home. I just want to hand over to the PM now, thank you PM for what you have done for our community. And as a local healthcare worker who worked at Wyong Hospital for nearly 10 years, I know that the big impact this has had on the local people in our community. So thank you PM.
ANTHONY ALBANESE, PRIME MINISTER: Thanks so much, Emma. It’s fantastic to be back on the coast. This afternoon I’ll be in Newcastle, this evening. And I love coming to this region because this is a region full of people who want Australia to be a better, fairer place. People who are building a better life for themselves and their families. And what we see here at the Urgent Care Clinic is a practical example of Labor’s commitment to deliver better health care, but to do it in a way that’s also addressing cost of living pressures. These 58 Urgent Care Clinics are now up and running right around the country. This one here has only been open since December, and it has already seen 2,300 people. That’s 2,300 people less going to emergency departments at Wyong Hospital. Making an enormous difference so they can get the care they need, when they need it, and all they need is their Medicare card. On top of that the tripling and the bulk billing incentive has made an enormous difference. What we’ve seen after years of decline in bulk billing rates, is we’ve seen bulk billing rates increase since that came into effect in November. So arresting the decline and heading upwards on a trajectory. And that trajectory has been here on the coast, double what it has been nationally. The increase both billing services being provided by GPs. I do want to give a shout out to our doctors, our nurses, our health professionals who are here as well as the admin staff here making a difference for this local community. But of course, as well yesterday, we had our tax cuts passed the House of Representatives. Labor’s tax cuts are about a fair go. They give a tax cut to every Australian, not just some – all 13.6 million. And for almost 90 per cent of taxpayers here on the Central Coast, they will get more than they were going to get under the Morrison government’s old plan of five years ago. What average workers will get is double the tax cuts they were going to get. What workers who are part time in retail or women going back to work, families working part time or people in areas like aged care earning $45,000 and under, they will get a tax cut. They weren’t going to get a single dollar under the old plan. And this week we saw an opposition that tied itself in knots. I mean, they were like a frog in a sock bouncing around, not sure what they were for, just sure of what they were against. Today you’ve had the coalition once again out there in Sussan Ley, the deputy leader, the person who said that they’d fight these tax cuts, then said they would reverse these tax cuts, yesterday she voted for these tax cuts and today she’s out there bagging these tax cuts. Well, what we need in this country is consistency. My government consistently will address cost of living pressures through our energy price relief plan, through cheaper medicines, through cheaper child care, by addressing cost of living pressures which are there.
INTERJECTIONS
PRIME MINISTER: I’m happy to talk about it. How about we talk to the journalists and then I’m happy to have a discussion with you as well. Okay?
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, we’re hearing that an asylum seeker boat has arrived off to the Western Australian coastline. Do you know anything about that?
PRIME MINISTER: I’ve been travelling in the car, so I haven’t been advised about that. But our policies are very, very clear. Our policies are clear, which is that boats that arrive in that fashion, we have policies in place to ensure that they’re dealt with.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, in April 2022, you promised that these Urgent Care Clinics would be open seven days. 8am to 10pm. Of the 58, 42 of them are not operating these promised hours. Can you explain why?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, what they’re doing is operating appropriately. We are talking with the professionals who are running Urgent Care Clinics like this, and based upon what the need is in a community, we are delivering it. We promised 50 Urgent Care Clinics, we’ve delivered 58. And in the Budget we are delivering, in May, we’ll be delivering additional support which was agreed to through our National Cabinet process, as well. An additional $1.2 billion for primary health care.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, why is it then that we’re seeing, I know it isn’t in these types of centres, but still wait times, 7 hours or more in emergency departments, there’s ramping of ambulances, et cetera, still a problem.
PRIME MINISTER: That’s what this is about. This is about taking pressure off those emergency departments. Dr Reid certainly knows about pressure in emergency departments. Both Emma and Gordon worked at Wyong Hospital. What this is about, this has taken 2300 people who would have been waiting at those emergency departments, giving them the health care that they need when they need it.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, congratulations on your engagement.
PRIME MINISTER: Thank you very much.
JOURNALIST: Jodie is a Central Coast girl. Are we likely to see a Central Coast wedding?
PRIME MINISTER: I did pop the question on Wednesday night. Since then, I’ve been in parliament in Canberra. I’ve been, travelled to the Central Coast here. We will take our time and what we will do is, whilst this has been a public announcement, we’ll have those discussions as appropriately, between myself and Jodie. And with due respect to the media, who all have a view about where it should be, we’ll have those discussions privately, as you would expect. But can I take the opportunity to thank people for the very warm wishes that we have received, which have been delightful and Jodie and myself are very happy.
JOURNALIST: On a more serious note, overseas, obviously Rafah, the situation there. Prime Minister, what are your thoughts?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, I have issued a statement with the Prime Minister of Canada and the Prime Minister of New Zealand. The consequences of a ground action in Rafah would be catastrophic and we are very concerned, which is why we’ve repeated the call that we made weeks ago now for a humanitarian ceasefire. It is required. We need to value every single innocent life, whether it be Israeli or Palestinian. And that is why we have made this very clear statement to the Israeli government that we are very concerned about the consequences of any proposed action on the ground in Rafah. We have over a million people who have been forced, due to the actions in Gaza, to flee to this very area for safety. Given that circumstance, and there is nowhere for them to go safely, the consequences of an invasion are dire.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, I know bulk billing is important to you, but I’d like to know, is it realistic to think that everyone, or even most people, can get bulk billed to see a GP in this day and age?
PRIME MINISTER: We support bulk billing. We support Medicare as the foundation of our health system. When Peter Dutton was the Health Minister, he tried to introduce a GP tax of $7 for every visit to the doctor. That would have destroyed bulk billing. He also tried to introduce fees to visit emergency departments. He tried to introduce an increase in pharmaceutical costs as well. We believe that Medicare is the foundation of the healthcare system and that is why we tripled the bulk billing incentive and we’re pleased that already that has seen some positive outcomes.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, do you reckon I could ask you about the Hobart Stadium. Do you think the AFL needs to chip in more money here? Your government has pledged $240 million to get the Hobart AFL Stadium off the ground. The Tasmanian government had pledged a capped $375 million, but it might not be enough to actually build the thing. Is the project in doubt, in your opinion?
PRIME MINISTER: Our contribution is capped. We have made a contribution, not to the stadium, to what is a major urban redevelopment project for Hobart. A project that will include a stadium, will include housing, will include as well other private sector investment to make sure that what is a really amazing location there on the Hobart waterfront can be what other cities have done. If you look at Barangaroo, if you look at South Bank in Brisbane, if you look at some of the old industrial areas of our cities – Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane included. What you’ve seen in my lifetime is a transformation so that they’re used. At the moment, Macquarie Point, where we contributed funding of $50 million for work to be done on what could happen to that precinct, back in 2012, twelve years later not much has happened. It needs to happen, and Tasmania as well needs a footy team. A truly national league that doesn’t include Tasmania, which is a great AFL state, would be like having Queensland and NSW without a rugby league team.
JOURNALIST: Peter Dutton has all but confirmed the Opposition will take a nuclear energy policy to the next election. Isn’t this the only sensible path to reach net zero by 2050 if it doesn’t produce greenhouse gas emissions?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, Peter Dutton will have some credibility when he comes up with a single private sector investor who’s prepared to put money into a project that’s the most expensive, that takes longer, that simply doesn’t stack up. Every time the Liberals are in Opposition and sometimes when they’ve come to Government, going back to the Howard years, they come up with this nuclear proposal. It’s never stacked up, which is why it never actually goes anywhere. And what it is, is an excuse to not take action, to not take action on climate change. What will make a difference on climate change is investing in the best and cheapest form of new energy. That energy is renewables. That is the way of the future. Which is why investment is going into renewables. Peter Dutton is putting forward a proposal that would see, once again, just a delay. And we’ve seen the National Party tail wagging the Liberal Party dog again and coming out and saying that they won’t have any more support for renewables investment. What we know is that this is the way forward. Nuclear energy needs two things. It needs investment here and there’s no one coming forward and it needs some local members putting their hand up in the National Party and Liberal Party and saying, “I want a nuclear power plant in my electorate,” which has to be near the water, that has to be near populations as well, in order for them to have any credibility.
JOURNALIST: But regardless of the economics, though, with nuclear, the Coalition are now saying to the electorate that they want to see baseload power at sites like Liddell, where you don’t have to build transmission lines. Are you worried with the federal election next year that that may be a good talking point for key seats like the Hunter, where transmission line building may be increasingly unpopular?
PRIME MINISTER: Now look, people know that my Government has legislated for net zero by 2050, has legislated for 43 per cent reduction by 2030, has seen a considerable investment in renewables, is working to make Australia renewable energy superpower. We want to see clean, cheap energy, power, industrial activity like at Tomago Aluminium, like at other centres, as well as power our houses. And the same logic that has led people in this electorate to put solar panels on their roofs in order to have access to cheaper energy, is the same thing that will lead us, located as we are in the world, with the best solar resources in the world, with one of the best wind resources in the world, with all of the resources like nickel and cobalt and lithium and copper that will power the 21st century, just as fossil fuels were important for industrial development in the 20th century, they know that in order to shape the future, you need to have a plan, which is something other than just saying no to everything, which is what the Coalition are doing.
JOURNALIST: A two part question, first, obviously PEP11, the State moving to say, “hey, not welcome here, we’ll move out to Commonwealth waters,” is what BPH is saying. There’s that question, what are your thoughts on that? Also wind, offshore winds, obviously, there’s quite a bit of opposition. Peter Dutton has been here several times about that. Mixed reaction. Can I get your thoughts on both of those?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, Peter Dutton just says no to everything. And the truth is that Australia’s future is very much tied to the transition with renewables. And the tragedy of Peter Dutton’s position is that we’re able to work very closely with the former Perrottet Government here in New South Wales and now working closely with the Minns Government on what is required. Peter Dutton will just say no to everything. He’s a guy who has no plan for Australia’s future, just saying no. Even when they vote for it like they have for the tax cuts, they’ll say no. On PEP11, Scott Morrison basically stuffed this up, which is why it’s still an issue. When you have applications that require proper environmental approvals, if you pre-empt them, then you ensure that those decisions aren’t legitimate because they get revisited and overturned. We’re determined to get this right.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, you’ve been a big advocate for government transparency. Can I ask why your Government hasn’t released the Cook Report, which 30 years ago looked at the penetration of ASIO by the Soviet Union’s KGB?
PRIME MINISTER: Wow. Not a question I was expecting.
JOURNALIST: I’m an investigative journalist with LiSTNR Podcasts and we’ve been working on a podcast series about this topic. We put in an application over nine months ago, so the deadline is well and truly passed. Can we just at least get a guarantee that we will get a response?
PRIME MINISTER: I’m not going to give you a guarantee for something that you have not raised with me or something that happened 30 years ago, and I’m not sure what the national security implications are of that. So, you’ve raised it legitimately, I will ask about it. But I must say I wasn’t expecting to get a question today about something that occurred 30 years ago. But good luck with your research.
JOURNALIST: Just getting back to PEP11 for a second, can you give us any indication of how long it will be before we get a definite ruling from that joint authority on this renewal permit?
PRIME MINISTER: As you’re aware, as was indicated by the question, the applications have changed in their nature. We’ll consider it appropriately and in a way that ensures that it is not then overturned.
JOURNALIST: Science is very clear that we can have no new fossil fuel expansion if we want to prevent climate change, yet your Government has approved four new coal mines or expansions since you came to power. When are you going to stop approving new fossil fuel projects?
PRIME MINISTER: What we do is give proper consideration to things under environmental legislation –
JOURNALIST: And ignore the science.
PRIME MINISTER: If you want to ask a question –
JOURNALIST: You’re very good at dodging questions.
JOURNALIST: Will you consider a national comprehensive workforce strategy for the entire care sector to help address staff shortages with nurses and doctors?
PRIME MINISTER: Sorry?
JOURNALIST: Will you consider a national comprehensive workforce strategy for the entire care sector to help address staff shortages with nurses and doctors?
PRIME MINISTER: We are looking at the whole issue of workforce and what’s required. That’s why we’ve established Jobs and Skills Australia. Jobs and skills Australia will look at what are the jobs that will be required and the skills we need in one year, five years, ten years, twenty years’ time, and to make sure that we’re putting in place training to ensure that can occur. So, we’re looking at that through a range of ways. Fee Free TAFE is targeted at, 300,000 places last year, beginning in areas like aged care, early learning, particularly on the care sector, in order to ensure that those workforce positions can be filled. In addition to that, Jason Clare is doing that through the university sector as well, with what jobs will be required. Now, if there’s no other from journalists, I’m going to ask this woman here to ask a question.
COMMUNITY MEMBER: I just wondered when your Government might stop approving new coal and gas projects? Because I have grandchildren, and I see this as a health emergency as well as a climate emergency and it scares the daylights out of me.
PRIME MINISTER: Okay, thanks for your question. Look, my Government will, and we do, examine all projects in accordance with the EPBC Act, in accordance with the law. So, we look at all of these issues. I say this about gas though, as we are transitioning, you need firming capacity in order to promote investment in renewables in places like Central Queensland, in places like here as well. If you’re going to have a place like Tomago and others rely upon renewable energy, what you need is firming capacity. So, gas will continue to play an important role, particularly in industrial issues. I’m giving a speech tonight that speaks about electrification as being critical. But the idea that you just go from now in 2024, shut things down full stop, means you turn off the lights.
INTERJECTIONS
You asked your question. I heard it respectfully. So, what you need to do is have a plan to ensure transition, to ensure emissions come down as reliability stays there, because the key for your grandchildren that you’re speaking about is making sure that there’s community support for that transition. I was part of a Government in 2007 to 2013 that saw emissions dropping. You know what happened? We lost government, it all got overturned and within six months we went back to, let it rip, in terms of emissions and not having a climate policy, having no legislative targets which my Government has done. What we are doing is putting in place the measures that will see Australia move forward in a constructive way, that makes sure that reliability and consistency for jobs, particularly in manufacturing where gas has an absolutely critical role to play in those.
INTERJECTIONS
We can disagree. Gas has a critical role to play in reliability, in having that consistency that we have seen that is so necessary. We are seeing coal fire power stations are closing according. They closed of course under the former Government as well, in spite of their rhetoric, there were no new coal fire power stations built on their watch. What we need to do is to make sure that we take climate change seriously. I take it seriously. Chris Bowen takes it seriously. Which is why we are making sure that our policies are consistent with an economy that’s growing, consistent with creating jobs. Because if we get it right as well, the transition to a clean energy future is one that sees us positioned with a growing economy, growing jobs and everyone benefiting from it. Thanks very much.
