CATHERINE KING, MINISTER FOR INFRASTRUCTURE, TRANSPORT, REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT AND LOCAL GOVERNMENT: Thanks everybody. Can I thank very much the Prime Minister for attending the 20th anniversary here in Ballarat of the Australian Ex-Prisoner of War Memorial. This is such a significant memorial to all Australian ex-prisoners of war. Their stories, their voices, their families are so grateful that we've had the first Prime Minister to ever visit this memorial as a serving Prime Minister. Twenty years, we have had this memorial here each year, in February we commemorate the stories of our ex POWs. It's a great testament to the families and the community that built this memorial that their stories live on. And I do want to thank the Prime Minister very much for being here today.
ANTHONY ALBANESE, PRIME MINISTER: Well, thanks very much, Catherine. It's been a great honour to be the first Prime Minister to be here at what is a very important ceremony. One in which we ensure that the stories continue to get told of our former prisoners of war who served our nation, the men and women who wore a uniform, also those who are nurses or in other parts of serving our nation overseas, and who were captured, incarcerated and subject to such hardship. This is a great Memorial, because it is an opportunity for families and friends of those people to come and to pay tribute and to pay their respects to the former prisoners of war. I congratulate all those who've been associated with keeping their memories going for twenty years now. And it was a great opportunity for me to be here today. Can I also say here in Ballarat, my thoughts are with the family and friends of Samantha Murphy. It is, has been I’m sure just such a difficult time. And I thank all those people who are involved in the search and hope that it has a good outcome. But I thank those who are out there working every day. Thank you.
JOURNALIST: Just quickly, your Treasurer said that the government is not considering changes to capital gains tax or negative gearing. Why won’t you personally simply just rule out that if it’s not something you’re thinking about?
PRIME MINISTER: Well I saw what the Treasurer did this morning and the Treasurer spoke about the tax cuts that we are putting in place. What we're doing is putting in place a tax cut for every Australian worker. All 13.6 million taxpayers will get a tax cut and 84 per cent of Australians will get a higher tax cut. Peter Dutton wants to talk about anything but what's happening. He wants to talk about what's not happening. And today he promised to roll back the industrial relations changes that were through. Let me say this, Peter Dutton wants Australians to work longer for less. Peter Dutton wants Australians to work longer for less. He opposes their tax cuts. He opposes the measures that are put in place to lift wages. What Peter Dutton wants is lower wages, more taxes on low and middle income Australians, and to continue to wind back any reforms that are made in the interests of working people.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, do you believe that the budget is currently too reliant on personal income tax?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, we have, what I know about the budget is that we have a budget that's in surplus for the first time in fifteen years. What we've done is have a responsible economic policy. And we want Australians to earn more and to keep more of what they earn. Peter Dutton wants Australians to work longer for less. That is the great divide in Australian politics.
JOURNALIST: Peter Dutton also said he will repeal the right to disconnect laws if the coalition wins the next election. Are you worried about the impact that could have?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, that's because he wants Australians to work longer for less. That is consistent with what the Liberal Party did last time they were in government, where we saw real wages falling, where we saw no support. Even when they received a Royal Commission findings in the interim report saying that the wages of aged care workers needed to be lifted, they did nothing about it. What we've done is in the past two national wage cases, support increases in the minimum wage. We've provided a 15 per cent wage increase for aged care workers. We've seen real wages increase during the last two quarters. And we're seeing as well, Australians being able to keep more of what they earn because of our Labor's tax cuts, which are aimed at addressing cost of living for low and middle income earners. Peter Dutton just wants people to work longer, for less.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, Angus Taylor says the government's language around negative gearing has been ‘wishy washy’. Can you be clear about your intentions in regards to negative gearing?
PRIME MINISTER: I'm pretty clear about the intentions that we do have. Angus Taylor needs to get his own act in order. You had Sussan Ley this week making comments about not ruling things in and out. What we're doing is working, working on the tax change that we have before the parliament. It's not through the parliament yet. And who knows what the Liberal Party will do. They've changed their position three times over the period of a week. First, they said they were against it and they’d fight it. Then they said they'd roll it back. Now they're saying that they support it, because it will provide assistance, but they're busy criticising it, and then trying to talk about things that aren't happening, rather than what is happening. I'll continue to talk about the measures that the Labor government has in place, which is the tax cut changes for low and middle income earners. That will make an enormous difference. Now, I went to the National Press Club and outlined very clearly what my tax policy was. I outlined it for all to see. I took questions on at the National Press Club, somewhere that Peter Dutton has never been, has never been accountable. I did press conferences day after day after day. We've introduced the legislation. We've been accountable in question time, and we haven't got any questions on it. Peter Dutton won't say what his tax policy is. Our tax policy is before the parliament. Peter Dutton just says, ‘oh, we'll have changes, we’ll be the party of lower taxes’. But then wanted to maintain, says he wanted the principle that was there, in the old stage three, that would have left Australians behind. People under $45,000 would have got not a single dollar. Average workers wouldn't have got the tax cut that they need. And even the figures that he uses are completely wrong. The truth is that average workers will get double the tax cut under our changes.
JOURNALIST: Can you rule out any idea around the changes to negative gearing or capital gains –
PRIME MINISTER: I'm telling you what we're doing, not what we're not doing. What we're doing is legislation that's before the parliament. That's the critical issue, legislation that is before the parliament. Peter Dutton wants to talk about anything but. Peter Dutton wants people to work longer, for less. We want Australians to earn more and to keep more of what they earn.
JOURNALIST: When do you expect to pass the industrial relation laws given they need to be, in your words, fixed up.
PRIME MINISTER: We will be introducing further legislation this week in the parliament. It's extraordinary that the Liberal Party are so negative, so imbued with the gut instinct of opposition to everything whatsoever, that last Thursday they refused to grant leave for an amendment in the Senate that would have fixed this up, for something that they say they support. It once again, is an example of the relentless negativity. This is an opposition that have nothing positive to offer for Australia's future. We have a comprehensive plan. On housing, our housing plan is out there, what we are doing which is tax breaks for Build to Rent, our Social Housing Accelerator, our National Housing Accord, our increased rental assistance is all out there. We have out there comprehensive plans on economic, social and environmental policy. Peter Dutton leads a team that is, quite frankly, just not up to it. And we've seen today as well, we still don't have an explanation for the behaviour of his front bench.
JOURNALIST: On that exact matter, Prime Minister, I'd love to ask you on your reaction to that vision that's come out of Barnaby Joyce. Do you think that's becoming of a Member of Parliament?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, I think people will certainly make their own judgments on that. People will see that footage, they will look for an explanation that is, has some credibility, and they'll look for leadership from the leader of the Liberal Party and the leader of the National Party about this. I think people will also think to themselves, what would the response be if that was a Minister in my Government being seen to be behaving in that way? I think that there just needs to be an explanation of what occurred. And we need to see the response of the Liberal Party and the National Party leaders, people will make their own judgement on it.
JOURNALIST: On that, Lidia Thorpe has criticised the way you responded to this incident involving Barnaby Joyce, in comparison to how you responded to an incident involving her last year. What do you have to say to that? Do you think that’s fair?
PRIME MINISTER: All Members of Parliament are accountable for their actions. And they are, I made a sympathetic comment about Senator Thorpe and concern for her, but she didn't take it that way, so that's a matter of record. But it is up to Barnaby Joyce to explain the circumstances around this. Thanks very much.
JOURNALIST: Obviously, it's been one week now since the disappearance of Samantha Murphy, a fifty-one year old. This has been huge, and there's been a number of emergency services workers that have been out. Is there anything that you'd like to say to them and to the family?
MINISTER KING: Well too, can I echo the Prime Minister's thoughts. This has been a really distressing week for the family, distressing circumstances. Can I say that the Ballarat community has been extraordinary, as they always are. From SES, from VicPol, to CFA, to just ordinary members of the community, we are all desperate for a positive outcome here. But I do want to say thank you to the community and our hearts really do go out to a Samantha's family in what is just an extraordinary distressing time for all of us.
JOURNALIST: Obviously, this is your local electorate, Catherine. So, can you talk me through just how people band together and something like this happens in Ballarat?
MINISTER KING: Well, we have got an extraordinary community here and I'm incredibly proud of people. I know many of the volunteers of the CFA, I know many of the SES volunteers, I know members of schools and Facebook and people who have been talking about what can we do to help. I went out just briefly on Friday to deliver a hamper to the SES volunteers to say thank you. The terrain they've been working through is really difficult. It's beautiful bushland, we all love it, but we know how difficult it is and just for a community like Ballarat, big hearts, very, very big hearts, and we just hope very much that there's a positive outcome for Samantha Murphy and her family.
PRIME MINISTER: If I could just make one further statement. I've been contacted by members of the artistic community who are Jewish about the doxing that has occurred with the release of what was a WhatsApp group of 600 members of the artistic community who are from the Jewish community around Australia. This is a group involved in the arts and culture. And with the releasing of these names and other information, what we have seen is the level of harassment and a targeting of people because they are Jewish, that has no place in Australian society. We are a multicultural society. We are one that respects people, regardless of their faith, regardless of their ethnicity, and we are overwhelmingly a harmonious society. And I just say to people, I understand that there is a lot of emotion involved from different perspectives on the conflict that we're seeing in the Middle East. But there should be no targeting of Australians because of who they are. That is completely unacceptable. And that is what we have seen with this. And I just ask people to turn down the heat. Whatever people's perspectives that they see on what is occurring in the Middle East, conflict should not be brought here to Australia. We should be able to have respectful discussion about these issues. So once again, I understand that people feel very strongly about those issues. But the targeting of people because they happen to be Jewish, is just completely unacceptable and it's got to stop, it must stop. And I'm very concerned, having spoken to members of the artistic community, this is a group that wasn't about political discussion, it was just a group to have positive discourse with each other about how they are feeling and a support network if like, between people as part of this group. And people should be very cautious and I include in that there's a need for people in public life as well, to just tone down some of the rhetoric, which is occurring, because I know people have different perspectives on what is occurring in the Middle East. The government's perspective is very clear. We value every innocent life. And we have opposed very clearly and unequivocally the actions of Hamas on October 7. We have said in addition to that, that Israel has a right to defend itself, but how it does so matters. And we have also, we have also very clearly called for a humanitarian ceasefire and have expressed our concern about what has occurred in Gaza and the loss of innocent lives. We will continue to work through these issues. But I just ask that we take a bit of a step back, because I'm very concerned about the disharmony that we are seeing in this country. That is not the Australian way. The Australian way is to respect each other, to where there are differences, engage in respectful dialogue, but to not target people because of their religion, because of their race, because of their gender, because of their sexuality. Value every Australian and I think that is a really important thought going forward. Thanks very much.