SAM RAE, MEMBER FOR HAWKE: Good morning, everyone. It's fantastic to be here in Sunbury Gumboots Early Learning Centre at Jacksons Hill and to be here with Prime Minister Anthony Albanese. It's a very important day, it's the first day of pre-poll voting for the Voice. But of course, as this Labor Government always is, we have a laser-like focus on cost of living issues and their impacts on families, both here and across the country. We're here in an early learning centre today. We've introduced cheaper child care recently, that's making child care cheaper for 6,800 families right here in Hawke. From the first of September we're starting to see cheaper medicines rolling out. And indeed, coming up in November, we'll start to say the tripling of bulk billing incentives. We're always focused on keeping cost of living down for families here in Hawke and across the country. It gives me enormous pleasure to introduce Anthony to speak both about cost of living issues and other things we need to talk about today.
ANTHONY ALBANESE, PRIME MINISTER: Thanks very much, Sam. And thanks to Gumboots Early Learning Centre, both the staff, but particularly some of our youngest Australians, for the very warm welcome here, to the centre in Jacksons Hill in Victoria this morning. It is great to be here as well with Sam Rae. I have not been back here as Prime Minister, so I came and campaigned for Sam and I can say that he is doing an extraordinary job as a first term member, making a real contribution to the Labor Government and making sure as well that my Government is always focused on what is happening in our outer suburbs. And that's why it's particularly good to be here. We know that making child care cheaper was one of the core commitments that we made. It was the centrepiece of my first Budget Reply, and we've implemented that policy from 1 July. That has benefited some 6,800 families here in Hawke. Across Victoria, 300,000 families have benefited. And right across the country, more than 1 million families have made a difference. We know there's more to do. There's been an ACCC report that was released yesterday speaking about the need for more regulation, the need to examine a range of measures in the interim report. It recommends considering changing in the activity test, supply side funding for centres in child care deserts, as they call them, areas where there simply isn't enough child care being provided, the issue of the design of the hourly rate cap. The competition watchdog is encouraging everyone to have their say on these draft recommendations and I do the same here today. This is so important. This goes to the three Ps of economic growth. Productivity, it is a massive boost to productivity if we increase the second P, which is women's workforce participation. And the third, of course, is population. If you make child care more affordable, you will encourage people to be able to be in a position to have the security of having either their first child or having an additional child going forward. So, this is a critical economic reform. This has never been about welfare, which is why, together with the increases in paid parental leave that will increase up to six months that we have put into legislation will also make a difference. And this is just one of our cost of living measures. We have our Energy Price Relief Plan, $3 billion between the Commonwealth and states and territories. We have our plans to increase housing supply. And in Victoria, they've had some significant announcements recently, talking about 800,000 additional dwellings being built into the future with better planning and making sure that you can have appropriate levels of density, making sure that you can make a difference. Our first program from our social housing accelerator was announced just a couple of weeks ago. When it comes to healthcare, whether it's our to the bulk billing incentive, the tripling of it that comes into play in a month's time or whether it be our 60-day dispensing of medicines that will literally cut the cost of medicines for those people who need regular medicines for diabetes or heart conditions or other conditions that they may have. 60-day dispensing means less visits to the doctor as well as less visits to the pharmacists and making it cheaper will make a difference on top of the decrease that we had on January 1, the first ever decrease in the PBS from $42.50 down to $30, making an enormous difference. Or whether it be fee-free TAFE. I'll be at a TAFE tomorrow in Tasmania. We promised 180,000 fee-free TAFE places this year. We've already delivered more than 220,000, making ensure that people can be trained either for their first job or retrained for a new job in areas of skill shortage, making an enormous difference and doing it for free, addressing those supply side challenges which are there. All of these measures together are a part of my Government's commitment to make sure we have an economy that works for people, not the other way around. Now, today is the first day for early voting on the referendum. There is a clear question before the Australian people and that is what this referendum is about. Just two changes, the first is recognising, finally, First Australians in our nation's founding document. Something that should have happened 122 years ago. But if not now, when are we going to do this necessary change? We remain the only colony that has not done that in our nation's founding document. And it is time that it was done. And secondly, it the form of recognition that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people themselves have asked for, a gracious request to say that they want a non-binding advisory committee. That's all the Voice is, an opportunity to listen to Indigenous communities about matters that affect them. Why? Because if you talk with people who are directly affected, you will get better outcomes. And that's what this positive campaign is about. And I would encourage people to have a look at what the question is there that you're voting on. There's been a great big fear campaign about things that have nothing to do with this referendum. But no country was ever made more great by agreeing to a fear campaign. To enlarge a country, you need optimism, you need hope, you need a vision for the future. And that's what this referendum is: an opportunity to seize the future, to recognise the great privilege we have of sharing this continent with the oldest continuous culture on earth by voting Yes in the referendum, by voting for something that is positive, something that will be uplifting and unifying for the nation, a prospect of which there is only upside. No downside. No one loses from this proposition. And that's why a No vote is a vote for more of the same. It takes us nowhere. No is what we have now. Right now, where we have an eight-year life expectancy gap, where we have a greater chance of an Indigenous young male going to jail than university. We need to do better than that. And that's why it's important that Australians vote Yes over the coming two weeks.
JOURNALIST: In April, Labor voters, 75 per cent, said they were supporting a Voice. It then dropped 69 per cent, 64 per cent and it's now 60 per cent as of September. So, four in ten Labor voters now voting No. Why do you think that happened? Where has this gone wrong?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, I'm optimistic that when Australians focus on what the actual question is, what we've had is a whole lot of disinformation out there, when Australians focus on what it is, and there are four clauses here. The first is very simple, it says in recognition of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples as the first peoples of Australia. Very clear. And then the three points of the Voice are clear as well. There shall be a body to be called the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Voice, that's the what. Then what it will do, it says it may give advice on matters affecting Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. Pretty clear. And the third is how it will function. And that will be subject to the Parliament. And that's important because this doesn't change the way that we're governed. Doesn't change any of those circumstances. It won't be sitting down determining what the interest rates will be and telling the Reserve Bank what they can do. It is a positive campaign. And the feedback that I've had certainly over the weekend is people have noticed the positive nature of the Yes campaign compared with some of the negativity that is there in the No campaign. I was quite shocked by Anthony Mundine's comments, for example, about fighting someone in the Yes campaign and the fact that Warren Mundine thought that that was okay to back in those comments. What we actually need is to come together in the spirit of reconciliation. That's the spirit that has led to the Uluru Statement from the Heart. And that is the spirit that I hope Australians examine over the next two weeks and vote Yes to.
JOURNALIST: My question was about Labor voters, why are they turning away from it? Is it racism? Is it something else?
PRIME MINISTER: Look, I think that people, when they focus on the campaign - you can look at what's online, the suggestions that have been made about this. I've spoken to people about the campaign and they, as Ray Martin said at the Yes campaign launch in my own electorate last Thursday, he spoke about some of the material that he's seen online. Ray's someone who has spent many decades supporting reconciliation. What Australians will focus on, though, I sincerely hope in the last fortnight, is to look for themselves at what the question is here how generous this is. There is nothing to fear from this campaign. And the fact that the No campaign have raised so many issues that have nothing to do with the it - United Nations World Economic Forum conspiracy, about a range of activities have been said. Some of which, frankly, are the sort of words and language which you wouldn't repeat. But Indigenous Australians have asked for this. This is pretty clear. When I came in here today and met the wonderful staff here at this centre, one of the things that happened is that they put out a hand, as you do, to shake hands as a welcome. That's what this is, a hand outreach from the first Australians to non-Indigenous Australia, just asking that it be joined, asking that it be joined in the spirit of reconciliation. And I hope sincerely that people do that. I know a lot of people have not made up their mind, and what I know is that the feedback, when people talk through these issues, they arrive at a Yes vote pretty comfortably. And so, I sincerely think the key to the next fortnight is those one-on-one conversations with people to accept this request of the overwhelming majority of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.
JOURNALIST: How do you approach the final stretch of this campaign? Do you feel like you need to change the approach you have taken?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, I'll continue to be positive. I'll continue to be positive. I'll respect the views that Australians have. Everyone has one vote in this referendum, but I certainly will appeal to the facts. I'll continue to go back to what the question is before the Australian people. And if people focus on that , I think overwhelmingly people will vote Yes. And when people wake up on October the 15th, they will feel the same way with the Yes vote that they did after the apology to Stolen Generations or after the marriage equality vote. All the fear campaign will have no substance and we'll get on with dealing with the range of issues that are before the Australian
JOURNALIST: We have had a people reporting have received extra postal ballot form. Are you aware of any issues with the AEC? How will they make sure people haven't voted twice?
PRIME MINISTER: No, I haven't. But the AEC do an extraordinary job. I do note early in the campaign we had Peter Dutton being critical of the electoral process. They're an independent body. They run elections and run referendums. Democracy is precious and it certainly shouldn't be taken for granted.
JOURNALIST: Do you think cost of living voters are marking the Voice down because they're concerned that Government is not focused on cost of living issues?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, we're focused each and every day on cost of living issues. We're focused. Last week the Employment White Paper noted that since the change of government there's been 560,000 jobs created in this country, more jobs than under any new government in Australian history. We have had unemployment with a three in front of it. It's now 3.7. 18 times since records began, 15 of those have been under this Labor Government. We have cheaper child care. We're dealing with TAFE and additional education places as well. We've had our energy price relief plan. We have Medicare bulk billing incentives being tripled. We have all of these measures taking place. The Employment White Paper spoke about having TAFE centres of excellence and the need to have our skills upgraded so that skill shortages are dealt with. In the last sitting week of Parliament, we passed the Housing Australia Future Fund, the last of the major commitments that we made in my Budget Replies, in the days when Oppositions actually had policies. The current Opposition just say no to everything, including this. They don't have any alternative plans. They don't have any policies. They just have a commitment to destruction from the Tony Abbot playbook. Recently Peter Dutton went to a function celebrating Tony Abbott and that style of government. I think that style of government is the reason why Tony Abbot didn't last for two years as Prime Minister. Because if you just say no to everything, you don't actually have an alternative agenda going forward. Governments need to be proactive. Governments need to shape change or else change will shape the country. The future will shape the country. We need to seize the opportunities that are there. That's something that my Government is doing. At the same time on trade issues, in the last week, we've had yet another of the impediments that were there to trade with China being lifted, joining the previous decisions on areas like barley and timber and others. We are working here in Australia every day, but we're working in Australia's national interest every day as well. And that's why we're being positive. And I do note that the Opposition in Parliament in recent times, the Treasurer would be the only Treasurer in my time that I've seen sit in Parliament and he could channel Bob Carr by reading a book, frankly, because he doesn't get asked any questions about the economy by Angus Taylor. The Opposition have been obsessed by destroying everything that they see, whether it's voting against the Housing Australia Future Fund or their activity on the Voice, where they've asked questions in Parliament that they know are not true. No one in the Opposition actually believes that a non-binding advisory committee of Aboriginal Torres Strait Islander people is going to sit around and say, where do you think our nuclear powered subs should go? What do you think the Reserve Bank should do about interest rates? They know that's a nonsense. And yet they've raised these scare campaigns obsessively and have ignored cost of living. If you look at what's happening around the country, we will continue - as I said, I'll be in a TAFE tomorrow - I've continued to engage on issues. I met with the new Victorian Premier just last Friday, talking about the issues there. I was opening the Pies new centre for AFLW there on Friday as well. I'm continuing to be out there engaging on the full range of issues whilst the Opposition just showed themselves to be wreckers. And that is not providing a genuine alternative. That just leads to nowhere.