CORINNE MULHOLLAND, SENATOR FOR QUEENSLAND: Welcome to the sunny Sunshine Coast, particularly to our Prime Minister Anthony Albanese. It is wonderful to have you here at the Caloundra Urgent Care Clinic. Can I also say a big welcome to the team from Ochre Health, including Hamish and Dr. Eric, as well, and Ashley, who's going to be the new nurse here at the clinic. It's wonderful to have you all here. It is exciting to be here for a sneak peek through the soon to be opened Caloundra Urgent Care Clinic. The Labor Party promised two new Urgent Care Clinics at the last Federal Election. We've already delivered one at Buderim, which has been open since December. It's seen over 6500 patients, and we're just about to open this new centre here at Caloundra, which is going to be seeing thousands of patients very soon. So, we're very, very excited for this announcement. I'm so excited to have the Prime Minister here for a very sneak peek through. But to hear a little bit more about the clinic, can I please introduce Hamish from Ochre Health.
DR HAMISH MELDRUM, DIRECTOR OF OCHRE HEALTH: Yeah, look, thank you. This clinic opens on the 17th of June, that's in ten days' time. It's going to be open for nine hours, from eight to five, and then in four months we're going to go to extended hours, 14 hours a day. And then in one year we're going to move to a new site about ten minutes south of here, in Aura, where there's a lot of new housing development and huge amounts of population growth. So that's exciting for the region and the communities of in this area. Ochre’s has had a long, as a company, we've had a long association with GPs doing emergency medicine. We staff rural hospitals with GPs, which have emergency medicine skills. We have 19 contracts for that. We have another – this is our fourth UCC in Australia. We have two in Tasmania, two on the Sunshine Coast. We also have a private UCC in Tasmania as well. We think that there's a real space for urgent care in Australia. We think this is, you know, I'm from New Zealand, and I started my urgent care journey 30 years ago. I worked as an urgent care doctor in New Zealand, so it's great that 30 years later I'm here opening an Urgent Care Clinic in the Sunshine Coast. It's kind of like, you know, just the circle being fulfilled. So, we think that there is a real space between GP care and hospital care, right. And there's this little space, and you know, we're thankful for the Labor Government seeing opportunity, running with opportunity and developing opportunity. I think it's good for healthcare. I think it's good for all Australians, and you know we're excited to be part of it.
ANTHONY ALBANESE, PRIME MINISTER: Thank you very much. And it's been fantastic to have a couple of days here on the Sunshine Coast. I welcome the New Zealand Prime Minister here, Christopher Luxon, and his delegation, and we had a very successful Annual Leaders' Dialogue. And today it's fantastic to be here to declare that in ten days' time we will have delivered all 137 Urgent Care Clinics that we committed to at the election campaign, and then at previous election campaign in 2022, right around Australia. As the doctor has said, this fills a really important gap, a gap between GPs and a gap in hospitals. Because if you go to an Urgent Care Clinic right here, you can get the care that you need when you need it, and all you need is your Medicare card. Makes an enormous difference and takes pressure off emergency departments, while giving people that really important care. If you have a health issue, a broken arm, or an issue that needs to be dealt with, that isn't life-threatening, this is the place to come. And here, now, this will be the last of the 50 additional Urgent Care Clinics that we promised at the last election campaign. We said we'd get them done within this financial year, and indeed, in ten days' time, we will have delivered on that commitment. If you look at our health program, we have delivered in the Budget the additional $25 billion for hospitals that we committed to at the election campaign to get a deal done with states and territories. And we delivered that at the end of last year. In the beginning of this year, we put the funding in the Budget, which is now, will make a difference and flow through to hospitals right throughout Australia, but particularly here in Queensland. With GP services, we committed to the tripling of the bulk billing incentive, and that's had an extraordinary impact. Already, bulk billing is up above 80 per cent nationwide. There are now 3,800 clinics that fully bulk bill. Now the target, the target was expected to reach 3,600 by 2028 so we're exceeding and reaching towards that 90 per cent figure, which is the target, much sooner than the 2030 target that we committed to at the election campaign. And thirdly, the Urgent Care Clinics have been an enormous success. More than 3.1 million visits to Urgent Care Clinics, over 630,000 of those right here in Queensland, that have provided that care for people when they need it with just their Medicare card, making an enormous difference, helping to take the pressure off the hospital system. If you look at our entire program, when it comes to strengthening Medicare, at the core of our health system, we're delivering on the commitments that we took to the last election, and importantly, it's making a difference for people's health. It's giving them that peace of mind. The signage here is fantastic, I've got to say. So people who drive past here, if your young son or daughter has an accident on the weekend at weekend sport, people know where to come and get the care that they need with doctors and nurses with other facilities here before – and this is just a temporary facility, it's pretty good temporary facility, I've got to say, before it moves up the road on a permanent basis. So, this is very exciting to deliver that free urgent health care for Australians and for locals, but also, of course, the many people who visit this beautiful part of Australia here on the Sunshine Coast. Happy to take some questions.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, this morning the Queensland Premier said your announced change to disaster funding will ruin your relationship with the State Government here. Will you reconsider those changes?
PRIME MINISTER: These are simpler and fairer changes for Australians. We provide support for Queensland on each and every occasion that they have needed it, and what this will mean is that it will get delivered quicker because we're getting rid of some of the red tape that's there, doing things on a case-by-case basis, automatically providing that 50-50 support for Queenslanders, and indeed right across the country.
JOURNALIST: But our 50-50 funding split is worse than it was previously. So, how is it –
PRIME MINISTER: No, they were one-on-one, every single case had to develop on a case-by-case basis. What we're doing now is that the funding will be delivered quicker, more efficiently, providing support for Queensland.
JOURNALIST: The Greens Defence Spokesperson, Senator David Shoebridge, says Australia should not go down a war path with Washington against China, and that AUKUS takes us into someone else's knife fight. What do you have to say to the idea that we're giving up on sovereign decision making and will one day regret it?
PRIME MINISTER: We won't be taking advice on defence from the Greens political party, with respect. What we'll be doing is providing Australia with the defence assets that we need. Our alliance with the United States is an important one. But we promote peace and security in our region, and the relationship with China is a very constructive one. We engage respectfully with nations in our region, whether it be through ASEAN, through the Pacific Island Forum, through APEC, or through our bilateral relations.
JOURNALIST: There's concerns around AUKUS that Donald Trump's golden fleet of battleships will put more pressure on US shipbuilding yards. Do we need to consider a Plan B for the subs?
PRIME MINISTER: No, AUKUS is full steam ahead. From later this year, there'll be further US mariners arriving in WA as part of the rotational fleet that will occur there. This is about jobs right across the board as well for Australians, engineers, people who work in new science and technology, people who will be provided for, those jobs, particularly in Western Australia and South Australia, we have Osborne going ahead, where we'll build the SSN-AUKUS, and with Henderson and Stirling in WA, this will all bring a big economic boon for those communities. But also importantly, provide the assets that Australia needs. Where an island continent. It makes sense for an island continent to prioritise our naval fleet, and in particular, submarines have a very important impact in deterrence. We can see what is happening with the Strait of Hormuz being closed. The difference that that makes to an economy, in this case to the global economy, is having a massive impact. So, we are developing the assets that Australia needs in partnership with our traditional allies, but also, we're engaging, for example, with Japan to get the Mogami frigates that will make a difference. We're developing advanced manufacturing here in areas like Ghost Shark and Ghost Bat, unmanned fleet craft submarines, and also drones. We're providing that technology, and it's very important. Our Budget put forward in addition to, an additional $50 billion spending going forward in defence over the coming medium term, and we're getting this right for Australia. We want peace and security in our region. The way that we develop that is by making sure we have the right assets, but also by engaging diplomatically in our region and building those good relations, which is what we do.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, if house prices do drop up to 10 per cent which some experts are predicting, will the government consider this a policy win when it comes to your tax reforms?
PRIME MINISTER: Look, you'll have – you can get ten experts, you'll get ten different views. We take the view of Treasury and the Treasury modellings in the Budget.
JOURNALIST: Do you acknowledge lowered consumer confidence will be detrimental to supply, given it’s a key concern of construction and property groups?
PRIME MINISTER: No, I acknowledge that what we are doing is boosting supply. People can still negatively gear properties. What they will have to do, though, if they want to negatively gear in the future, just like in the past, that has assisted them to build their assets and their wealth, by having it just available for new properties, not existing properties, that's does two things. One, it means that young couples or young home buyers, whoever they are, whatever their family structures, who come along to buy a place here on the Sunshine Coast – and what a wonderful place to live – they won't be competing with an investor if it's an existing home. And what that will mean is that the balance has shifted. Balance has shifted towards people buying their own property. Bear in mind, property first, first and foremost, is about a roof over people's heads, that's what it's first and foremost should be about. And the Australian dream of home ownership was drifting away. No one in this debate is saying that the existing housing market and structure is working. Everyone says it's broken. Well, we're doing something to fix it. The other thing that it will do, though, is if people do want to invest in property and negatively gear a property, it's got to be a new one. That will help to boost supply, to boost supply, and we're already seeing from developers the word that it's making a difference with the number of inquiries that people looking at boosting supply, and that comes on top of our $47 billion Homes for Australia Plan: increased social housing through the Housing Australia Future Fund, increased amount of rentals in the private sector being built through our Build to Rent program, the increased access to home ownership through Help to Buy, a shared equity scheme, or the more than 250,000 Australians who benefited from the five per cent deposits – all of these measures are important. The other thing that we're doing, which will be particularly important for growth areas here in the Sunshine Coast, is we're providing a $2 billion fund for last mile or last kilometre infrastructure. So things like water, energy, that last bit of a road to build a cul-de-sac into an area, that will make a difference for supply as well. We're throwing everything at supply because that's the key, and that's why we're making this change as well, in a way that will also boost supply.
JOURNALIST: What are your thoughts on the, some of the noise limits being removed at the Sydney Opera House?
PRIME MINISTER: I'm a member of the fun faction, so I think that, you know, the Opera House is an asset that should be maximised. It brings enormous economic activity, and it brings enormous joy for people who are able to see, I've seen concerts on the forecourt there, the Pixies, Florence and the Machine, are all fantastic. It's a great asset for the nation. I only regret that I don't get to do as much as I would like to when it comes to live music and live activity, that the Opera House is something that is so symbolic of Australia as well. We should be using it, and it should be bringing in that economic activity, as well as joy to those people who get to go to the concert or play, or whatever other activity is taking place there.
JOURNALIST: The coalition says that the tax changes warrant more than a two day inquiry in Parliament. What do you say to them?
PRIME MINISTER: They combined, the Liberal Party, the National Party, and the Greens Political Party had an inquiry into Capital Gains Tax. They had an inquiry that went for a long period of time that they together voted for. Labor didn't. This was a Greens, you know, the old no-alition was back together of the Greens, the Liberals, and the Nationals. And now we have a different coalition of people of the Liberal One Nationalists, where it is increasingly difficult to see a difference between what the Liberal or National parties are saying and what the One Nation party are saying. I do note that there’s been some criticism of Barnaby Joyce for not knowing the details of what they wanted to do with permanent residents or whether they could have housing. But why wouldn't Barnaby Joyce think that that was no different from what the Liberal Party said with the questions they asked in Parliament this week, where they went down this rabbit hole, which is, I guarantee you, when it comes to permanent residents, with the wanting to deny them any services, any assistance, and treating them, even people who've been here, some of whom have been here for 20, 30, 40 years. People who came from the United Kingdom, more recently people who've come from China, India, who don't take up citizenship because there's no dual citizenship available to them, they've got to renounce their citizenship in their country of birth, and that might lead to consequences for them and the relationship they have with relatives back in their country of birth, to treat them differently is something that began with Angus Taylor's rather extraordinary and divisive speech that he gave on his Budget Reply. One thing that you won't hear from me is drawing a distinction between Australians and migrants who are permanent residents. Permanent residents are people who've made a commitment to Australia to be permanent residents. Go into a hospital here, see what happens if all the permanent residents go. See if you have a nurse, an orderly, someone who's cleaning, someone who's looking after those health facilities. Go into an aged care facility and see how our older Australians would get the services they need if somehow we throw out all the permanent residents, don't allow them to have a house, don't allow them to have any access to services. This is the divisive route that the Liberal One Nationals want us to go down. My government seeks to bring Australians together, seeks to unite Australians, seeks to defend the national interest, and that's what we'll continue to do. Thanks so much.