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We’ll stay in Townsville because the Prime Minister, Anthony Albanese, he’s there and he joins us live now. PM, I’ve got a thousand questions to ask you but you are on the ground there. Help has been announced as we just heard from Lauren. But as you know with natural disasters, more problems emerge weeks, months later. So firstly, how would you describe things?

ANTHONY ALBANESE, PRIME MINISTER:Things are tough here but North Queenslanders are tough and they know that we will get through this together. At the worst of times we always see the best of the Australian character and we’re seeing that on the ground here. I met with the Queensland Premier last night, we went through the issues that we’re dealing with. Income support was triggered at the beginning of this week. I signed off last night on local government support in eight different areas. We have the ADF on the ground here with chopper support, choppering in supplies. We also have a generous offer from Singapore of two additional Chinooks that they have here in North Queensland for training at the moment that they’ve made available to us. ADF personnel are on the ground, of course there’s a major garrison here in Townsville so they have been helping out. We’ll have a meeting at the Emergency Management Centre here in Townsville this morning that will involve the Premier and myself. Our Minister, Jenny McAllister, has been here all week on the ground so that we get that face to face cooperation between our two governments along with local government – the Acting Mayor will be at the meeting this morning. And we’ll provide whatever support is necessary. One of the things that you point to is the need for more than just short term. So we’ll visit the bridge that’s been knocked out here. There’s temporary construction that will occur today to allow that opening up of the Bruce so that people can get access – north, south. But clearly we need to build back better as well, that’s one of the lessons. If you look at the photos that are there, the bridge is too low, frankly. And in the past when things were washed away, they were built back exactly the same. Now that defies common sense. And one of the things that we’ve spoken about is making sure that we do build back better, build more resilience into the highway.

STEFANOVIC: OK, we’ll see how things go after that meeting. Elsewhere this morning, PM, you’ve backflipped over mandatory sentencing. Why?

PRIME MINISTER: No, we want people to be held to account. We’re the first government to introduce legislation about hate symbols and about people displaying the Nazi swastika or other hate symbols. We’ve introduced the legislation about hate crimes and we want people to be held to account. So we are supporting having people held to account. There’ll be a review of that through the Joint Parliamentary Committee. We’ve worked through these issues. I want people who are engaged in antisemitism to be held to account, to be charged, to be incarcerated for what is a serious series of crimes.

STEFANOVIC: It has been long standing Labor policy though to oppose mandatory sentencing, though. So I’m just wondering why there was this late night backflip last night.

PRIME MINISTER: There’s nothing late night about it. We’ve been working through these issues. We want to make sure that there’s the strongest possible laws in place. We’ll be doing that today.

STEFANOVIC: Okay. Super is also up today, PM. Can you clearly explain how your tax changes would affect the Defined Benefits Scheme, including your own generous pension as a long serving MP and now PM.

PRIME MINISTER: Sorry, what are you –

STEFANOVIC: Do you want me to ask the question again?

PRIME MINISTER: Sorry, yes. I didn’t hear the question. Sorry.

STEFANOVIC: Superannuation is up today –

PRIME MINISTER: It’s a bit loud here with the rain.

STEFANOVIC: I understand. Can you clearly explain how your tax changes would affect the Defined Benefit Scheme, including your own generous pension as a long serving MP and now PM?

PRIME MINISTER: It would have an impact on it. It would mean that for a very small percentage of the population, a very small percentage indeed, that they would make additional contributions to revenue. That is how it would impact the system. Overwhelmingly people would not be impacted. And it is a fairness measure to take into account that the superannuation system is very important, but it’s very generous at the high end and that is why we’re proposing this change. At the moment it doesn’t have support of the Parliament.

STEFANOVIC: How will you personally be taxed under your proposed changes, PM, when you retire?

PRIME MINISTER: I would have to out of the contribution, that is the payments that I receive, there would be greater taxation.

STEFANOVIC: You mentioned there you don’t have the support. If the Senate blocks the plan to tax unrealised gains this afternoon, will this remain Labor policy heading into the election?

PRIME MINISTER: Look, this is our position. Labor will always stand up for fairness and equity. But we’ll announce our policies when we go through the election campaign. But at the moment we have this plan before the Senate, it’s been there for some time. We’ll wait and see what occurs today with the senators. I haven’t had discussions with them. And where I am today is dealing with floods on the ground for North Queenslanders that are doing it tough.

STEFANOVIC: I understand. But if it’s unsuccessful, would you junk it? Would you junk the policy?

PRIME MINISTER: Well, you asked the question, Peter. With respect, I just gave the answer. We’ll announce our policies when the campaign is on and beforehand. But at the moment we have policy before the Senate. There’s an opportunity to inject greater fairness into the system in the Senate and I hope they do so.

STEFANOVIC: Will you be down for Question Time today, by the way?

PRIME MINISTER: No, I’ll be on the ground here in Townsville with the Premier of Queensland. That’s where I’ll be and that’s where Australians expect me to be, on the ground providing that support, making sure I see firsthand. I’ll go to the emergency management meeting this morning in Townsville. I’ll travel with, I’ve got a meeting with the Mayor. I met with the Premier last night. I’ll be with the local MPs who also, the local LNP MPs aren’t in Parliament, and I assume I’ll be paired with them. They’ve been on the ground here working, along with Bob Katter as well, who I’ll be with this morning when we visit the bridge looking firsthand. Our Emergency Management Minister, Jenny McAllister, has been on the ground here all week. We want to make sure that there is seamless cooperation between the national government and the Queensland government and local government here. And that’s what we’re getting.

STEFANOVIC: I know you’ve got this meeting to get to and you’ve been generous with your time, so thank you. But I just got to ask you because there’s been more global reaction overnight to Donald Trump’s plan for Gaza. The White House has doubled down on rebuilding it, but it says there will not be boots on the ground. Do you support America’s intervention here?

PRIME MINISTER: I support the same position I had yesterday morning, Peter, which is a two state solution in the Middle East. That’s been long standing bipartisan policy.

STEFANOVIC: Alright, but there wouldn’t be, would there be a second state if Palestinians were forced to move from their territory?

PRIME MINISTER: Well, quite clearly the President’s announcements that he’s made speak for themselves. What I’m saying is that Australia’s position, which has been bipartisan for a long period of time, yesterday morning is the same as it was yesterday afternoon. I note a Coalition spokesperson confirmed that that was the case. It remains our position and overwhelmingly it’s the position that the United States has held and that the world has held for some period of time. We want to see peace and security for both Israelis and Palestinians in the Middle East with both being able to live with that peace and security, because that’s how you can ensure prosperity. And if we can get a peaceful solution in the Middle East, that would obviously help the entire globe.

STEFANOVIC: Okay, we will leave it there, but thank you again for your time this morning. Prime Minister, Anthony Albanese, live in Townsville.