ANTHONY ALBANESE, PRIME MINISTER: Good morning. Australia has lost one of our brightest lights and our biggest hearts. Professor Richard Scolyer was a truly remarkable man. He was a personal friend, a neighbour of mine in Camperdown for many years, a proud inner Westie, a great Australian. As a joint 2024 Australian of the year, Professor Scolyer took his place in the national spotlight with determination with purpose as he publicly dealt with an aggressive form of brain cancer. The cancer specialist who became his own subject, Professor Scolyer walked his uncertain path, as he called it, with courage, determination and grace and his legacy will always be with us. The recently established Richard Scolyer Chair at the Chris O'Brien Lifehouse proudly bears his name and one day when a cure is found, Richard's name will be spoken. The hearts of all Australians go out to his wife, Dr Katie Nicoll, who I spoke with this morning and offered a state funeral for Professor Scolyer, which has been accepted.
It also goes to their children who they love so dearly, Emily, Matthew and Lucy. Richard's mother and father in Tasmania, brother Mark. In his final letter, he left us with an incredible insight into what an extraordinary character he was. He said he wanted to be remembered as a proud everyday Aussie who gave it a crack, but did so with humility, love and compassion. He says this in his final letter: 'we all have a responsibility to try to change the future for others and leave the world a better place.' The world is a better place because of Richard Scolyer's contribution. That's a contribution that will go on through the work done in his name, but also the work that he has done, which advanced the cause of finding a cure in such a practical way. He continued to work right up until the very end until it was impossible, but spent, as I spoke with Katie this morning, his final days with family, still in good humour and with the strength, determination and character that defined what is an extraordinary legacy. May he rest in peace.
JOURNALIST: How do you reflect on those words, 'we have a responsibility to try and change the future for others.' And is that proving more difficult in the current political climate for politicians to follow that suggestion?
PRIME MINISTER: It's what we all have a responsibility to do. Professor Scolyer, when I lived in Camperdown-Newtown, I got to meet him as just a neighbour. I wasn't aware of what he did. He was just this bloke who always said hello, who was friendly. I wheeled, then, my now 25-year-old around in a pram. He was a really down-to-earth person who was determined to make a difference. I hope that Australians get inspiration from Professor Scolyer. This was someone who had been diagnosed with an aggressive form of cancer, who even experimented essentially on new methods on himself, using his extraordinary intellectual capacity to try to make a difference for others. I think that often when people consider day-to-day lives, things can be difficult for people, but wow, this guy, what an inspiration. He just wanted to still continue to make a difference for others and for his life to make a difference. And it did.
JOURNALIST: Is there more your government could do to help support cancer research, which was obviously a big commitment throughout Professor Scolyer's life?
PRIME MINISTER: The Chris O'Brien Lifehouse, I unfortunately have been to many times because of where it is just on the edge of my electorate as part of Royal Prince Alfred Hospital. It does incredible work and we should be so proud of the researchers that we have not just there, but right around Australia working on support for those medical breakthroughs. I was at the Murdoch Children's Research Institute in Melbourne, attached to the children's hospital, to commemorate their 40 years just a short time ago, a few weeks ago, and there meeting with the young kids and their families. The research that's taking place there is quite extraordinary. We punch way above our weight when it comes to research, and one of the things that we had in the recent Budget was increase funding, expenditure for medical research, including for cancer. The Richard Scolyer Chair is about research there at that facility and it makes an incredible difference. I was with the Prime Minister of New Zealand just on Saturday, and we just ran across a family there on the Sunshine Coast. There was a young child, just months old, who'd just been through chemo. Very cute young baby. They just said, as a matter of fact, that their child had been through the latest round of chemotherapy. This is a child just months old, and they were getting support as well from Redkite. Jodie plays a role and we've used Kirribilli House for many functions raising money for Redkite. What they do is they look after the families, the siblings of children with cancer and provide them with incredible support. This family had received really practical support from Redkite. So, there's much that we can do, but we should also, I think, be really proud of people at research institutes, the people with extraordinary intellectual capacity who choose to try to make a difference for others. I mean, cancer is something that's affected everyone at this media conference directly and indirectly or indirectly through members of their family, friends. It is something that we do need to shoot for the stars and shoot for those solutions. Professor Scolyer's life should inspire us to just double down on determination to do just that.
JOURNALIST: Many in the medical community have for some time now been calling for more of the Medical Research Future Fund to be distributed each year. In light of that positive aspiration you've just outlined, is your government willing to reconsider the level of distributions from the Fund?
PRIME MINISTER: We did it in the Budget. It was there. And we'll have another announcement on Thursday, to pre-empt one. But it was in the Budget. We've done that.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, how do you explain the rise of One Nation and are you worried by it? And secondly, by the time of the next election, for Australia's sake, who would you rather be up against? Angus Taylor or Pauline Hanson?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, those are matters for the Australian people, effectively. And I respect the Australian people and the judgments that they make. Quite clearly, as I said in a speech on Friday, many people feel that the system isn't working for them, that they're working for the economy, not the economy working for them, that they're working hard, struggling to save, can't get their own roof over their head, for example, which was the backdrop of the decisions, hard decisions that we made on the Budget, that we want to make sure that we put in place mechanisms that do make a difference, not political easy decisions, but the right decisions. And that if governments don't respond to that, there'll be a continued rise in populism, be it of the right or the left. It's something that we're seeing, we're seeing globally occur. It's something that we are very conscious of and I'm conscious of. We'll continue to focus on what we need to do as a government to make a practical difference for people's lives.
JOURNALIST: An extension of that, Prime Minister, there's a bit of a debate about what Australia is and what Australia should look like. Population's just going to tick over 28 million people. What's your population policy? What sort of an Australia do you want?
PRIME MINISTER: I want an Australia that is united, one that has social cohesion at our core, one that respects people for who they are, but is patriotic about all of us being Australians. And we will reduce the net overseas migration over the next couple of years down to 225,000. We think that's the right number. There was an increase. Obviously once COVID lifted, there was of course an increase as Australians came home and as people could enter and leave the country. But I want an Australia that continues to be the best country on earth as well. I'm really optimistic about Australia. If we make the right decisions, there's nowhere you'd rather be. We have the resources under the ground and in the sky that will power the global economy in this century. We have a stable political legal system. Our greatest asset is our human capital, is our people. And the fact that we have people who've come from all over the world proud to call Australia home is something that is a national asset for us. It's something that we see when we engage in our region with the diaspora, whether that be the connections we have with growing economies like India and Indonesia, or whether it be our traditional friends in the United Kingdom, the United States.
JOURNALIST: Do you think one of the reasons for the rise of the extreme left, extreme right, is the financial stress that a lot of ordinary people, particularly those in their 20s and 30s, are feeling at the moment?
PRIME MINISTER: Of course it is. To paraphrase, it's the economy, stupid. It's always the economy that sets the parameters for debate, which is why the argument that says that having delivered our commitments in our first year of our second term, we should sit back and coast for the next two, was one that I wasn't prepared to support. We have made decisions to improve the lives of Australians. And that is why we want to change the opportunity which is there for first home buyers. Australians are frustrated, and one of the interesting things about the debate about our Budget over recent days or weeks, I haven't seen anyone go out there and argue in an opinion piece in an editorial that Australia's current housing systems are working for Australians. I haven't seen anyone argue that. Now, if you accept that the system's broken, you've got a responsibility to do something about it.
JOURNALIST: We're 100 days into the war with the US, Israel, and Iran. You were among the first leaders to unequivocally back the US and Israel in their actions. We've seen the way in which the war has impacted our economy, been a subject of, how you have described, it disenfranchising many young Australians. Do you regret now the way in which you backed in that war, given how much it's impacted Australians?
PRIME MINISTER: Iran can't be allowed to get a nuclear weapon. That was the position that we took. That's the right position. We've called for a de-escalation. We've called for a clear exit plan out of this and we've done that consistently for a long period of time. This needs to conclude. This is having a devastating impact on the global economy, not the least here in Australia, but it's having an impact as well on countries which aren't protagonists in this war, such as the United Arab Emirates and other countries in the Middle East.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, do you believe Pauline Hanson is fit to be prime minister?
PRIME MINISTER: I vote Labor, so that's the position that I take. And I will continue to vote Labor for the rest of my life. It's the way I came out of the womb. It's how I'll continue. It's up to others to determine what way they vote in our great democracy.
JOURNALIST: Just on the Australia that you want, Julia Gillard once said she didn't want a big Australia, she wanted a sustainable Australia. Do you want a big Australia or a sustainable one?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, word games. I want an Australia that has the right population. Of course, sustainable. Do a survey, see if you can find me someone who says they don't want a sustainable Australia. I'm not sure the basis of the question, frankly. I want everything to be sustainable, including Australia, but I'm not sure the adjectives are appropriate. I certainly want a great Australia, and I think that's what we've got. We have a great country here and one of the things that we have to do is to stop talking Australia down. Media has a responsibility for that as well, but as politicians, we have a particular responsibility to talk Australia up. Be optimistic. That's the way that we will advance our national interest. We have all of incredible opportunities and advantages. And on a day like today, when you reflect on a humble man who just wanted to make a difference, that's the Australia I want, where we're all working in a positive, optimistic way where we're seeking to unite the country, not divide it, where we're seeking to be the best that we can. There isn't anywhere that you'd rather be on earth. Anywhere. Be it the strength of our economy, where the fundamentals are sound. Yeah, there are challenges, but the fundamentals are sound here. This is a country where, I know Richard's beginnings were very humble. Very humble. He grew to be one of the great medical intellects of our nation through our education system that's ours. The kids of everyone here can grow up to be whatever they want to be. They can be tradies if that's the path they go on, they can go to university, they can get that support. They can live a good life, is what people want. I go back to Professor Scolyer and leaving the world a better place. That's a pretty good objective for all of us.
JOURNALIST: When it comes to Iran's attacks on Israel that we've seen launched overnight and through this morning, what's the Australian Government's assessment of the current security situation and has Israel's ongoing bombing of Southern Lebanon contributed to this latest outbreak?
PRIME MINISTER: We want to see a de-escalation. We continue to call for that.
JOURNALIST: Can I ask you about the posters down in Victoria that have been targeting the Premier there? Talking about the tone of politics. What worries you about that?
PRIME MINISTER: Two things worry me. Specifically, what worries me is the misogyny that's involved there. The sexist campaign targeting the Victorian Premier is totally unacceptable and has no place in public life. We want to encourage women to enter public life and it should be a contest of ideas, not personal attacks. But it comes in a context as well. As I've stood in this courtyard so many times and said, 'Turn the temperature down.' We all have a responsibility. I mean, some of the personal ways in which mainstream media as well has characterised people in public life has just got to stop. You can have a disagreement with people's policy position by all means. You don't have to denigrate people in such a personal way. It has got to stop. Young girls will see that depiction of a premier as a witch, just like the denigration that Julia Gillard suffered from as prime minister. And it is just not on. And what I don't want to do is to have a press conference in this courtyard after a tragedy. But unless we turn the temperature down, the opportunity -- have a look at any of the sites. There are multiple people, including some still on remand for threats at our level, at my level, at the moment. Multiple. There was one in court again on Friday, one in court the Friday beforehand. And some of the depiction that goes on, whether it be the extraordinary depiction of Premier Allan or others, I just say turn the temperature down. Either that or accept responsibility for the consequences of it, because the consequences undermine the opportunity and whether people will go into public life and be prepared to make sacrifices which are made for what is an honourable profession going into, no matter where you stand. And this goes across the board. We need to have much more respect for each other and public discourse will be all the better for it. Thanks very much.