The Albanese Government has today announced a $75 million investment in flood mitigation and infrastructure resilience programs for New South Wales.

The support will be delivered across the 62 local government areas (LGAs) which were disaster-declared after the February-March flood event.

The program is wholly funded by the Commonwealth Government’s Emergency Response Fund, but will be delivered by New South Wales Government agencies, including Resilience NSW, the Department of Regional NSW and the Department of Planning and Environment.

The program includes:

Today we announce that the Government has appointed the Hon Virginia Bell AC to lead an Inquiry into the appointment of former Prime Minister, the Hon Scott Morrison MP, to administer departments other than the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet and related matters. 

The Solicitor General found that the principles of responsible government were fundamentally undermined by the actions of the former Morrison Government. The Government is holding the Inquiry to restore and strengthen public trust in our Australian democracy.

PRIME MINISTER ANTHONY ALBANESE: : Good afternoon. The government has established an inquiry into the appointment of former Prime Minister Scott Morrison to administer various ministerial portfolios. The inquiry will be led by the Honourable Virginia Bell AC. Virginia Bell was appointed to the High Court of Australia in 2009 and served for twelve years.

PRIME MINISTER ANTHONY ALBANESE: Good morning. Today we're met with Mr Shaquille O'Neal, talking with him about the Voice to Parliament and about constitutional recognition for Indigenous Australians. Shaq is someone who is well known to younger people, and one of the things that we have been doing is trying to mobilise support for the Voice to Parliament by talking with sporting figures. We know that Mr O'Neal does a lot of work in the United States about social justice and lifting people up who are marginalised, including through sporting organisations.

NICK CERRONE, CERRONE JEWELLERS: Well, ladies and gentlemen, this is a very big honour for me today – me and my family and my staff. It is a day to remember because for the first time a Prime Minister acknowledged the wonderful job that we do in this country, to be able to be creative and be part of the artisan world. And thank you, Prime Minister to visit us today and to acknowledge what we do for our country. Thank you.

ANTHONY ALBANESE, PRIME MINISTER: Thanks everyone for joining us. Yesterday I received the Solicitor-General's opinion on the matter and validity of the appointment of former Prime Minister Morrison to multiple portfolios over 2020 and 2021. Today, given the highly extraordinary and unprecedented nature of this issue, I am releasing that opinion as a one-off. It should not be considered to be a precedent.

Yesterday, I received the Solicitor-General’s opinion in the matter of the validity of the appointment of Mr Morrison to administer the Department of Industry, Science, Energy and Resources (SG No.12 of 2022).

BEN FORDHAM, HOST: The Prime Minister is on the line this morning, Anthony Albanese, good morning to you.

ANTHONY ALBANESE, PRIME MINISTER: Terrific to talk with you, Ben. It's a beautiful day today.

FORDHAM: Congratulations. It is the biggest job in the country. I know it seems like you've been in the job for a while now, but we haven't had you on air yet. How are you settling in?

The Governor-General His Excellency General the Honourable David Hurley AC DSC (Retd) has issued Letters Patent establishing a Royal Commission into the former debt assessment and recovery scheme commonly known as Robodebt. 

The inquiry will examine, among other things: 

ANTHONY ALBANESE, PRIME MINISTER: Today I am outlining the terms of reference for the Royal Commission into Robodebt that we committed to while in Opposition. Robodebt was the Coalition's brainchild - a computer program to find out if someone owed the Government money rather than involving a real person. One of the commitments that I made was to put the humans back into human services, to make sure that this can never happen again. We know that almost 400,000 Australians fell victim to this cruel system, a human tragedy with very real consequences for its victims.