The Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and his Cabinet colleagues are in WA this week. Why? Because they know how important our state is to the outcome of the next federal election. And there are some big differences between the two major parties on policies which affect many Western Australians, like our energy future and the live export trade. Prime Minister Albanese is with me in the ABC studio. Good morning.
ANTHONY ALBANESE, PRIME MINISTER: Good morning. Great to be here.
GIBSON: What are we up to, number twenty, what?
PRIME MINISTER: Twenty-three or twenty-four – I’m not sure which.
GIBSON: A lot of trips to WA.
PRIME MINISTER: A lot, but it’s always great to be here. And yesterday I was the first Prime Minister to visit Collie in 40 years, apparently, since Bob Hawke. So I was there at what is now a coal-fired power station, but it’s being converted, under construction, a massive battery with enough power to be able to be stored to power over 850,000 homes. And there’s another one being built just over the hill, also will be connected up to transmission lines of about the same size. So the energy transformation is certainly underway, and Collie is certainly at the forefront of that. And we went to a graphite institution as well that’s being built, a new business that’s been up and running just in the last few years – a critical mineral. Looking as well at what they’re doing. They’re looking at a massive expansion to not just supply domestically, but importantly as well globally. And it’s one of the critical minerals that will, of course, benefit from our production tax credits that we now have. And another difference between the parties is we support production tax credits and the Coalition and the Greens don’t.
GIBSON: Well, it’s a coal town at the moment. That’s going to be phased out. It would be home to a –
PRIME MINISTER: It shuts down in 2027.
GIBSON: It’ll be a nuclear power plant under a Dutton government.
PRIME MINISTER: Well, that’s right. Nothing will happen under Peter Dutton, if you believe him, until the 2040s sometime. They can’t say how much it’ll cost. They can say that taxpayers will pay for it. And it really is a fantasy. The transformation is underway right now and what we were looking at was the construction and jobs that are being created there right now, 500 people on site doing this transformation. It’s an enormous project and it will bring great benefits. So, allowing clean, cheaper energy, as opposed to the Dutton plan, for more expensive energy, more expensive power bills and sometime in the future.
GIBSON: What about today? You’re off from here to Rockingham and talking jobs for subs. What’s the announcement you’re going to make today about jobs for West Australians?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, we’re going to have 200 jobs for West Australians in apprenticeships looking at the maintenance of nuclear-powered submarines. We’ll be talking with people on the ground there. There’s a US sub visiting and we’ll be having a look at that and talking to the workers there who are learning the skills that are required. This will be high paid, high value jobs here in WA, just part of the thousands of jobs that will be created in the defence industry as a result of the AUKUS program.
GIBSON: Rockingham was also voted Perth’s best beach by ABC Radio Perth listeners, so enjoy that while you’re down there.
PRIME MINISTER: It is a great spot. On my first visit to the West, way back in the 1980s. John Cardell will be known to you probably, a former President of Legislative Council here. He had a flat, I didn’t even know him at the time. Myself and my then girlfriend stayed down in Rockingham there. We didn’t have any money as students, we got a lift with someone across the Nullarbor and had a great time.
GIBSON: Now, Mr Albanese, you’ve launched an advertising scare campaign warning again that WA’s GST share is under threat from the Liberals. Why are you doing that when Peter Dutton has said it’s not under threat?
PRIME MINISTER: Yesterday, just yesterday on ABC Insiders, one of his shadow Ministers, Senator Bragg, was out there threatening the GST, saying that he wanted to have a plan, they were considering to hit the states hard where it hurts, was what he said –
GIBSON: He was talking about housing –
PRIME MINISTER: He was talking about holding back GST payments. And what we know as well from Malcolm Turnbull and from Julie Bishop was that at the time these measures were put in place, Peter Dutton was opposed to it. They were the Leader and Deputy Leader of the Liberal Party at that time.
GIBSON: But aren’t you going back into ancient history? Peter Dutton keeps reaffirming they will not change it.
PRIME MINISTER: Well, yesterday his spokesperson said that they would change it on ABC Insiders program. It’s there for all to see.
GIBSON: All right, I want to ask you about the ³Ô¹ÏÍøÕ¾s, they continue to ramp up their campaign over the live sheep trade. I just wonder, they’ve said they would reinstate it under a Coalition government. Is this an issue that affects a lot of regional Western Australians that is worrying to you in the lead up to the election?
PRIME MINISTER: We’ve been to two elections committing to this. We have time for a phase out and for a transition. This is an industry, to put it in perspective, the live export trade is worth around about $80 million a year. The sheep meat export trade is worth about $4 billion to Australia. $4 billion. So this is a very small portion of the industry. We have $107 million on the table for transition. We don’t want communities to be left behind. We want to work with the industry and through the state government as well and the authorities to make sure that people are looked after, that we can have this transition occurring. But we’ve seen, and we got a reminder of it when the boat carrying all those sheep was turned around from the Red Sea and was offshore here. We got a reminder of the problems with this trade. And, you know, we have a clear mandate. It’s now gone through the House of Representatives and the Senate, and I can’t see any future government overturning that decision.
GIBSON: I guess my question was, though, about how worried you are about regional WA and the voters and how important they are. Because for instance, the new seat of Bullwinkel, you’ll be announcing a candidate soon I take it –
PRIME MINISTER: We will, this week.
GIBSON: Because there’s a very popular ³Ô¹ÏÍøÕ¾s candidate in Mia Davies. It’s a concern for you, isn’t it?
PRIME MINISTER: Look, we want to get the policy right. When you get good policy, the politics will look after itself and this is good policy, this will lead to a better industry. The community have expressed their views overwhelmingly here. I understand that it doesn’t have unanimous support. I’ve met with families in Kalgoorlie, I’ve also met people in Canberra who’ve expressed their concern – I respect that. I respect the fact there are differences of opinion. But we have a very clear mandate and we want to work with the industry to make sure this transition occurs and that people benefit from it.
GIBSON: PM, a very sad story a few days ago. A 17 year old boy took his own life in juvenile detention, the second suicide by a young person in custody in WA in the past ten months. I know these are state run facilities and you mentioned this yesterday, but has it got to the point, as some people are calling for, that there needs some sort of federal intervention into a system that is clearly broken?
PRIME MINISTER: The problem with the automatic jumping whenever there’s an issue with any state controlled areas, oh we’ll just get the feds to intervene, is that people in Canberra is a long way from here in WA. And Canberra historically as well, the Federal Government, there’s a reason we have a federation in this vast country. Services historically have been best delivered by state and territory governments. Now this is a terrible tragedy. I spoke personally with the Premier about it last night. I know that he has also expressed his concern and his condolences to the family of this young man and his friends. There needs to be, of course, a proper investigation of it. My Minister for Indigenous Affairs, Malarndirri McCarthy, is here, along with all the other Ministers. So she’ll be visiting the facility today to see firsthand, but the Commonwealth isn’t about to take over the juvenile justice system of the states and territories.
GIBSON: Why would you send a federal Minister into the facility then today?
PRIME MINISTER: She wants to see firsthand, she wants to see what the facility is like. She’s made the request before the incident, the tragedy of last week. And so I spoke with her earlier this morning and she indicated that she had, as part of her schedule, I have Ministers out there visiting – the Transport Minister is doing transport, and the Treasurer’s meeting the business community. We have people out there right throughout WA. Chris Bowen was staying down in the Bunbury area overnight looking at energy issues. So Malarndirri McCarthy, as the new Minister, is getting out and about and looking at all of, all of these issues.
GIBSON: Well as I said, all of this relates to the fact that WA is so important to you. Your Government, the Opposition, everyone’s going to be fighting it out over all these different issues come next year, probably. The chances of an election this year seem to be dwindling.
PRIME MINISTER: Look, I’ve said for a long period of time, I’ve said it probably a hundred times, that three years is too short. I’d like to see four year terms. So, you know, we’ll call an election sometime between now and May. But I’ve said that three years is too short. So the idea, there was all this speculation about an August 31st election. Now that’s gone. That was –
GIBSON: Not having that one –
PRIME MINISTER: And I can confirm that it didn’t happen.
GIBSON: November is the last gasp. No, you seem pretty strong in your view that it’s going to be next year.
PRIME MINISTER: Well, as Prime Minister, you would be very unwise to give a lot of, a huge amount of notice of when the election will be. But I think that three year terms are too short, so –
GIBSON: Come on, you’re the boss. Change it. Four years at the state level, three years at federal. It doesn’t seem to make sense.
PRIME MINISTER: Of course it doesn’t. But constitutional change, you might have noticed, is a bit hard in this country.
GIBSON: We need referendums.
PRIME MINISTER: We have tried twice. Twice it has been tried and twice it has been rejected. It’s just another example of how hard it is to change our constitution. I would have thought that less elections are something people would vote for, but apparently not. Not once but twice.
GIBSON: All right, all right. I’ll leave that alone then. No election date from you today. What about a wedding date? You and Jodie any closer?
PRIME MINISTER: That will be sometime in, the likely be the second half of next year. But it will be after the election because I want to focus on the job at hand. And we looked at the diary and there are no gaps between now and the end of the year.
GIBSON: Fair enough. Enjoy your time in WA. A few days with you and your Cabinet and a lot to get through and a lot of people to meet and babies to hold and photos to have and all that sort of thing.
PRIME MINISTER: I’ve got to say, as an ad here for a region – yesterday afternoon I was down at Mandurah looking at the Mandurah Giants, the sculptures – it’s fantastic. I didn’t know anything about it before a few days ago when it was suggested that I pop in and visit people there in the electorate of Canning. And it’s just an amazing attraction.
GIBSON: Careful, because next time you come, you’ll get all these suggestions for places to go. We’ve got wonderful things all over this state.
PRIME MINISTER: That’s okay. Well, I’ve always liked the Sculptures by the Sea that happens in Cottesloe. And Perth has so much to offer, as does the entire state, which is one of the reasons why I just like coming here.
GIBSON: Preaching to the converted here. Anthony Albanese, thank you very much for coming in.
PRIME MINISTER: Great thanks, Mark.
