ANTHONY ALBANESE, PRIME MINISTER: Today President Biden has made the difficult decision to not seek re-election at the Presidential election that will be held in November. As he's done throughout his entire time in public life, he has acted in what he considers to be the best interests of the United States of America. He is someone who, in January, will be able to retire from public life with an extraordinary record. It was one of my first events as Prime Minister, was to travel to the Quad meeting, that was held in Tokyo within days of my election in May of 2022. It was wonderful to reacquaint myself with President Biden, who I had met when he was Vice President under President Obama. And since then, we have had a number of meetings on the sidelines of international summits, but also during my official visit to the United States last year, where President Biden and Jill Biden were gracious hosts at an official state dinner, as well as us having dinner, the four of us, with my partner Jodie Hayden and Mr and Mrs Biden in the West Wing. We also met with his entire cabinet just outside of the Oval Office. And it was a very gracious reception that President Biden hosted myself in recognition of the important relationship between our two great nations. The alliance with the United States was forged, of course, under another Labor Prime Minister, John Curtin, back during World War II - during our darkest hour. Since then, the United States has been our most important ally. President Biden has a record of engagement in the Indo-Pacific and increasing the relationship through AUKUS, which was, of course, finalised at the meeting that we held in San Diego also at the beginning of last year. The AUKUS relationship is just one aspect of the closeness between Australia and the United States. It's also been a period in which President Biden has presided over an increase in the economic relationship between our two great nations, but also the important cooperation that has taken place in climate change action. The Inflation Reduction Act is no doubt the most significant piece of legislation to reduce emissions introduced anywhere in the world. And in President Biden's legacy of support for the international rule of law, support for international human rights, support for the people of Ukraine in their struggle against aggression from Russia with its illegal and immoral invasion. But also, President Biden's presiding over a recovery of the United States economy after the long legacy that Covid has left. But also the impact of that Russian invasion of Ukraine on international energy prices, and on international inflation, has meant that he's presided over an economy that has seen jobs grow, that has seen wages increase, and that has seen the transition proceed that is occurring as the world moves towards net zero. As well as he's standing up on issues such as gender equality. President Biden has been a great friend of Australia and that will continue. And I look forward to meeting with President Biden at the G20 and at the APEC summits that will be held later this year. President Biden deserves today, I think, to be recognised for once again not putting himself forward first, but giving his first consideration to being what he believes is in the interests of the United States of America, as he has done his whole public life. And I pay tribute to him today. Happy to take your questions.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, obviously we've had one of the biggest outages, well, the biggest outage in history. How is Australia recovering and what does that look like going forward?
PRIME MINISTER: We know that over the next week or two there will be some legacy issues that we continue to deal with. I think we can be quite proud of the way that all levels of government as well as the business community have responded to this global event that occurred last Friday. By and large, things have been back on track. I again call for people to be patient where there are legacy issues that are still being dealt with and make sure that they don't take out what is understandable frustration on frontline workers at our supermarkets or in service delivery. But I think the response of government agencies across the board as well as business, shows how resilient we are as an economy and as a people, and that we can be quite proud of the fact that this very significant global event was dealt with in a way that minimised the impact on the Australian people, was recognising that many people were, of course, inconvenienced, but it was dealt with in a way that was efficient and in a way that tried to minimise that disruption.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, up here in the far north. I'm not sure if you're aware, they have the highest rates of diabetes across the country. How can the Federal Government or Australia move forward from that?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, this is one of the challenges that we need to deal with. In particular, the indigenous population here in far north Queensland have a much higher proportion of impact of diabetes than the general population throughout Australia. What that requires is education, but it also requires a response from all levels of government, working with community health organisations to make sure that we reduce the impact of this disease.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, it's been seven months now since ex-tropical Cyclone Jasper hit the far north. Talk us through what recovery has been like for so many communities devastated by the impacts of the flood and cyclone.
PRIME MINISTER: Well, this, of course, was a devastating impact and I visited places like Holloway's Beach, I visited Wujal Wujal. I made two visits to Far North Queensland at that time and worked with our Emergency Services Minister, Murray Watt. Bill Shorten was here within days. We had the Australian Defence Force make a contribution as well. But most importantly, it was the resilience of the local community here who picked themselves up and worked so hard to get things back on track. Of course, there are some families still suffering as a result, in part as well, of the shortages of the skilled workforce which is having an impact here. But the fact that the energy sector was on the ground here and I met workers who'd come from all over Queensland to help their fellow Queenslanders at this time of need was quite extraordinary. How quickly power got put back on to most households and how hard the SES and volunteer organisations all pitched in to help. So, I just say thank you and pay tribute to all those who made that contribution to getting this community up and running again. I've talked with the community sector as well as the tourism sector while I've been here on Friday. The Cairns Show, of course, was a great success over those three days, including what was the public holiday here on Friday in Cairns, where I launched our candidate Matt Smith's campaign for Leichardt. And I know that all those people who've worked hard deserve our praise. There is still a legacy issue - I'm aware of that. But I'm very confident that the economy here will be completely back on track and that people will be able to get their lives back on going forward as a result of the commitment that's been shown by this local community.
JOURNALIST: Would you like to see Kamala Harris as the Democratic nominee?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, that's a matter for the Democratic Party. And the Democrats will have their convention just as the Republicans had their convention last week. I think that the election in November will be one which is watched by Australians but watched by people around the world, because who the President of the United States is has an impact on the world as the world's largest economy and as an important partner of Australia, not just in security issues, but in economic issues as well.
JOURNALIST: So, on CrowdStrike, are we too reliant on too few companies for digital infrastructure?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, those issues, of course, will be examined over the coming weeks and months and years. We know that this has had an impact, but the impact was far less than what was first thought it might be, and that shows that agencies have put in place mechanisms as well as the business community. We've been working very hard on cyber security issues. We have said that the disruptions that Covid occurred could occur in future as a result of cyber. And I think that Australians can take a great deal of heart by the fact that this disruption could have been far worse than what it was. Australian businesses, as well as the different levels of government, acted swiftly and worked together in cooperation to minimise the disruption.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister should Cairns play a role in the PNG NRL bid? And is federal government funding for the franchise contingent on Cairns playing a role in that successful bid, potentially?
PRIME MINISTER: We are working with PNG, as well as working with the NRL and there is no doubt that, if PNG are successful in putting a team into the NRL, that will be good news for Papua New Guinea, for its economic development - but it will also be good news for Cairns, given the location, given the inter relationships. Of course, the Torres Strait Islands, if you are on Saibai Island, you can see PNG. It is very, very close and the relationship between Papua New Guinea and Cairns is very strong and, therefore, a strong PNG has a positive impact on Cairns and far north Queensland.
JOURNALIST: So is funding contingent on Cairns playing a role? The Federal Government, I think, of $600 million?
PRIME MINISTER: We are in negotiations about the range of issues when it comes to PNG entering a team into the National Rugby League. We will continue to have those discussions. The focus very much is on economic development for PNG. But we know that a strong Papua New Guinea will have significant benefits for Cairns and this isn't just about, to be very clear - this is not just about 13 players and four on the bench running on the field for PNG. This is about economic development for Papua New Guinea. It is about increasing the economic activity that occurs there. It is about a team that will be based in Port Moresby - but a team that will go through a junior rugby league, economic development, providing those pathways. We know that Rugby League can be very important as can other sports, particularly team sports as well, in lifting up communities. And we know for PNG that is very important indeed. As to where it plays and all of that, we won't get ahead of ourselves. I should imagine that there will be, from time to time, activity at Barlow Park here in Cairns and in far north Queensland as well. So there will be benefit for far north Queensland, just as Cairns benefits as well from the fact that there is a team based in Townsville. I know that when teams have played the odd game here, including most importantly from my perspective, the mighty South Sydney, what that has done is attract many tourists and people to Cairns with significant benefit.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister post Tropical Cyclone Jasper water security has emerged as a major issue in the region. The Cairns mayor during the election campaign here said she would beg for the money from the Federal Government for its border security project if she had to. I think that's about $87 million. Surely it shouldn't come to that, should it?
PRIME MINISTER: We've already put money into the water security project here in Cairns, as well as the significant other investment that we have made here in Cairns on infrastructure, including for the road to Kuranda that requires fixing. But across the range of issues, I think my record here as Infrastructure Minister and as Prime Minister is significant here, including the upgrade of the city here in Cairns, including support for major infrastructure and economic development here. We know that Cairns has the potential to diversify its economy and that's something that we're very interested in happening as well, through areas like Defence, renewables, the range of projects that we will work on.
JOURNALIST: Will you consider investing a further $87 million?
PRIME MINISTER: We've already invested and we always consider proposals with business cases. What we don't require is mayors to act as you have indicated, what we require is business cases and proper proposals going forward.
JOURNALIST: Are you concerned with poll figures released today? They indicate if current trends continue, you'd be in a minority government.
PRIME MINISTER: No they don’t.
JOURNALIST: You've obviously been here since Friday, talk us through what you've been doing in the region and anything from a personal/professional level.
PRIME MINISTER: Well, I've tried to have a couple of days off, and here I am at a press conference on Monday. Might I say that the Acting Prime Minister Richard Marles has been given a bit of an easy time by the fact that I'm standing up here as a result of President Biden's announcement. I will be on leave till Wednesday. Although here I am at a press conference. This is a wonderful part of the world and a great part of Australia. And it's been a wonderful to be able to engage with people. I watched the Souths Tigers game, to go back to the NRL reference, at a pub here - talked with lots of locals. And I find people here really friendly. They want to engage and say hi and that's been a good thing. As well as I'm happy to be able to contribute to the local economy here. Thanks very much.