E&OE TRANSCRIPT
PRESS CONFERENCE
DARWIN
THURSDAY, 18 APRIL 2019

Subjects: Indigenous health policy, NT Government bailout, GST, climate change, Government’s tax cuts, Community Development Program.

LUKE GOSLING, MEMBER FOR SOLOMON: Good morning everyone and thanks for coming down to the Esplanade in beautiful Darwin Harbour. It’s a wonderful morning and we are particularly happy to have our leader Bill Shorten in town once again. Bill is a frequent visitor to Darwin and through the Territory in fact, more than any other Opposition Leader has ever visited the Territory, and that’ll continue should we form government. Very proud also to be here with my Parliamentary colleagues Catherine King, Shadow Minister for Health, Pat Dodson, Senator for WA, and really a powerhouse when it comes to Indigenous Affairs, First Nations Affairs in our country, and of course my Northern Territory colleagues, Warren Snowdon, the Member for Lingiari and the NT Senator Malarndirri McCarthy. So thanks for coming down. It’s great to have this attention in the Territory. The Northern Territory has always done better, will always do better in the future under Federal Labor. It’s great to have Bill in town and I’ll hand over to him shortly, but what I’m particularly proud of is that this package of support not only goes out and supports the health of First Nations people in the Northern Territory and around our country, but there’s also stuff in here for the health of people in my electorate. I’m proud to represent the people of Darwin and Palmerston. So we’ve got a great package, we’ve got some great announcements today. Thank you for coming down and I’ll hand over to Bill.

BILL SHORTEN, LEADER OF THE OPPOSITION: Thanks very much Luke. Well, great to be back in Darwin again and the weather’s fantastic. The Territory’s a very exciting place but it deserves a government in Canberra who will get behind the aspirations and dreams of the people of the Territory. Today in particular, I’m really pleased to announce that a Labor Government, if elected, will invest $115 million to improve the health outcomes of our First Australians. We should be a country who ensures that our First Australians have the same health outcomes as other Australians. We want to Close the Gap. Now I understand that talking about Indigenous health mightn't change an election, but it can change the nation. This country has to be the best we can be in the way that we offer the same opportunities to all Australians. When First Australians have lesser health outcomes, then all of Australia is diminished. Our job as the Labor Party is to fight for all Australians and that's what we're doing today with $115 million in an exciting health package to assist Indigenous Australians. I'd now like to hand over to Catherine King to talk further about this important announcement.

CATHERINE KING, SHADOW MINISTER FOR HEALTH: Thanks very much and it's terrific to be here in the Territory with Labor's united team. We have seen Scott Morrison cut over $16 million from our public hospital system here in the Northern Territory and he wants to cut another $69 million out of public hospitals for the Territory. Well Labor's united team wants to change that. We want to invest $92 million in infrastructure here in the Territory, and that will see a second Careflight helicopter, but also it will see $15 million invested in Darwin Hospital in mental health. There is only a 31-bed adult mental health unit for the Top End. That is it for mental health here in the Top End. We want to increase the number of adolescent mental health services as well as increasing the number of adult services. But we're also announcing today our $115 million package to help boost services for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians. Tackling rheumatic heart disease, a terrible disease that is entirely preventable in our Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities. We want to work on prevention. We know when we were last in government, when Warren was Indigenous Health Minister, what we saw was a decrease in the smoking rates across these communities. We want to turbocharge that again with the Deadly Choices campaign. This is a great package, in stark contrast to the huge cuts we've seen in public hospitals, in prevention and in dental under Scott Morrison.

SHORTEN: Any questions about this or other matters?

JOURNALIST: Mr Shorten, the member for Solomon said that there would be a support package for the NT. Will the Federal Government or a Federal Labor Government be bailing out the Northern Territory from their current financial crisis?

SHORTEN: Well whilst I'm not running for Chief Minister of the Northern Territory, especially as Michael Gunner is doing such a good job, gee the new Gunner Government was left with a lot of problems by the outgoing administration, the CLP-run people. You know, the CLP managed to do the double - the daily double. They managed to sell government assets, the assets of the people, the TIO, lease out the port for 99 years, so they got a whole lot of money in. So they sold assets that belonged to the people of the Territory and they still ran up massive debt and deficit. So the Gunner Government’s certainly got its work cut out for it. We will be announcing more details about further support for the Northern Territory. But if you want to talk about a Northern Territory package, Labor has already begun to outline our meaningful support in tourism, in roads, in health and education. Only Labor can be trusted nationally by the Territorians to make sure that you get a fair go.

JOURNALIST: Will that include GST top-ups?

SHORTEN: Well, what we'll do in our way is we’ll put more investment in the Territory. I get there's a legitimate concern to make sure that no one gets disadvantaged in GST, and it was Labor nationally, working with the McGowan Government in Western Australia, who ensured the West got their fair share. So our door will be open to talk to Western Australia, not about changing the GST formula, but making sure the Northern Territory gets its fair share of investment.

JOURNALIST: Will there be any cost to business under Labor's climate change plans?

SHORTEN: Our climate change plans will grow the economy, they'll create jobs and they'll lower power prices. I notice there's been a bit of a debate and a bit of a scare campaign by the News Limited papers talking about international offsets for carbon pollution reduction. And I thought this was something which both sides of politics had agreed on so I did a little bit of homework and I found this very interesting quote, which I think goes to the baseless, fraudulent scare campaign of the Morrison Government, backed up by their allies in some parts of the media. And it says, this quote says, "When it comes to helping the environment, it doesn't matter if you've reduced a tonne of CO2 here in Australia or in another country." I thought, well that makes sense. But I was surprised to find it was Josh Frydenberg who said that. So what we have is the government’s now scaring you about their own policies they used to have and support. When it comes to carbon pollution reduction, our strategy is the lowest cost abatement using a combination of international tools and domestic tools and might I also say plenty of incentives. Did you know that if we properly invest in renewables, there would be tens of thousands of new jobs? And did you know that if we don't take action, we're going to have a greater cost on our insurance on and arising from natural disasters. 

JOURNALIST: Mr Shorten on the question of tax cuts, there's a report in newspapers this morning suggesting that Labor has taken a decision not to offer additional tax cuts for people on incomes between $90,000 and $120,000 or $125,000 a year. Can I – one – ask, can you confirm that Labor has taken that decision? And - two, if you can – what’s that say to people on those incomes? Doesn't it say, "You've got enough money and you're doing well"?

SHORTEN: Well, let's go through the whole position on tax and I'll be as brief as I can. But let's just state some facts. First of all, there's the first round of tax cuts proposed in the next term of government, whoever forms a government. Labor’s said that we have the same position. In fact we have a better position for 3.6 million people who earn less than $40,000. And in fact we've led the tax debate. In my Budget Reply speech of 2018, I proposed bigger, better, fairer tax cuts and the government then gradually, after a year of kicking and screaming, matched us. So on the first round of tax cuts, it's all the same except we're slightly better for people under $40,000. On the second and third round, they don't come in for a number of years and what we found when you study the fine print of the fraudulent claims of this government on tax is that they're promising people a tax rise on the never-never and they never explain upfront with how you pay for it. And let me, let me explain therefore how they pay for it - cuts, cuts, cuts. This government is addicted to cuts. We've had six years of cuts. You know, I never lose sight of the fact that current Prime Minister was the Treasurer for the last three years. He's the cutter-in-chief. Cutter-in-chief of schools, cutter-in-chief of hospitals, cutter-in-chief of services. How this government pays for these future tax cuts, which would require you to vote for the current government at least twice in two more elections, what it does is it requires billions of dollars of cuts. The Grattan Institute exposed this, called out the secret. The other thing is that let's look at the priorities of this government on their tax cuts. Did you know that there's $77 billion hidden away in the Budget to give tax cuts to the top three per cent of taxpayers? Or, put another way, in even more plain English, if you are a millionaire in Australia, you will get an $11,000 tax cut from the Morrison Government in 2024. If you are someone who earns $40,000 a year, you get $11 a week. For me, tax reform is about priorities. Yes, we would like to see more personal income tax reform, but what we won't do is sacrifice the schools, sacrifice the waiting lists, sacrifice the hospitals to make an unfunded promise, and this is the inherent lie of the government's position: they want to look after the top end of town by cutting services to everyone.

JOURNALIST: The Australian is suggesting that your carbon credits policy would cost Australians $25 billion. I take it it's a figure you reject. How much would it cost? 

SHORTEN: Well first of all, it is just a nonsense claim. It is a nonsense claim and it is built upon the back of a big lie. It says somehow that using international offsets to help abate carbon is a bad thing. Well, if it's a bad thing, why don't go they to Josh Frydenberg, the current treasurer and say, you used to believe it didn't matter where you cut the carbon from so long as you were cutting the carbon. Well that's our view. In terms of the costs, we're relying on the same public modelling that the government has. But you know, these News Corp climate change deniers, and of course their ally, the Prime Minister - a coal-wielding, climate-denying cave-dweller on this issue - they all say, "Look at the cost," well they never mention the cost of the extreme weather events, do they? They never mention the cost of not getting into renewables and they never mention energy prices, do they? This is a government who every quarter used to rush out for the last few years and say energy prices are going down. Well that lie has been exposed. Energy prices are up 15 per cent because we don't have proper investment, because we don't have proper rules around energy. Hang on, I'll come to you. Just over here.

JOURNALIST: Thank you. Isn't this issue starting to get a bit away from you? Is it a bit glib to blame News Limited? Shouldn't you announce the costings, bring that forward, bring voters in on your plans?

SHORTEN: Well first of all, the issue of climate change has been getting away from Australia for the last ten years. The people of Australia are fed up with politics. We want to talk about what has been getting away-- why is this nation paralysed on climate change? It's because one half of the Liberal Party, the bully boys, bully the other half. The reality is, if the Liberals could be trusted on climate change, Malcolm Turnbull would still be Prime Minister. What's been getting away from Australians is the fact that energy prices are going up. We are having a technophobic debate where we're told to be afraid of new renewables technology and keep doubling down and investing in power plants that are 50 and 60 years old. This climate change debate for a decade has been dysfunctional and dishonest and divisive. It's about time we backed the science and we backed the people.

JOURNALIST: Do you have a rough figure at least on how much it would cost?

SHORTEN: Well, you keep going on cost. I want to say to you let's get this straight. What is the cost of taking no action? What is the cost of no action? I can tell you. Energy prices are up. When did this Government get a leave on its own appalling and abysmal track record on energy prices? Australians are angry. They're angry at a Government who can't work out taking real action on climate but want to push all the problems down the road and let our kids sort it out when they actually want action now, and Australians are angry at their power bills. Cost of living is the big issue. Cost of living and wages are the big issue in Australia. The middle class of Australia feel like forgotten Australia. They feel like that Bob Hawke had a view of Australia that looked after them, and they even thought John Howard had a view of Australia. The middle class are looking at this election, and they are saying to the government, "You're promising us nothing now, and you won't take action on climate change, you haven’t got a wages policy, all you want to do is cut, cut, cut." The big question, the big secret, is how does this government pay for its tax cuts on the never-never? Tax cuts which go disproportionately to the most well-off in our society? I will tell you how Mr Morrison pays for looking after the top end of town and the top three per cent of taxpayers - by making you, and every Australian, pay more for your health care and get less services in your hospitals and aged care.

JOURNALIST: A report in the paper today states the McKibbin report estimates that it would cost businesses $25 billion by 2030 to buy the foreign carbon credits. Can you say how much money you believe Australian businesses will have to pay to buy these carbon credits over the next decade? Is this the $25 billion figure accurate? Is it more? Is it less?

SHORTEN: The $25 billion dollar figure is just a lie. It’s using - you can make any number work for you if you pump in the assumptions you want to. It is using top-price EU carbon offset prices and then saying that's the only thing that will happen. That is so intellectually dishonest it does not even deserve to be talked about. What we are going to do is start looking at how we help industry meet the future. You know, the big missing link in this whole debate - it's as if the government never tried to do did climate change. Now they have tried and failed. What we are doing is we are using their industrial safeguards mechanism. We are using their National Energy Guarantee. What we are doing is going to work with our energy intensive trade-exposed sectors: cement, steel, aluminium and other sectors. We have created a $300 million dollar fund to help them invest in new technology. The reality is that once companies - and I've visited the factories and organised the workforce, I've seen the technology, I've sat in the boardrooms - every company who invests in lower carbon pollution creates more productivity and more efficiency and they invest in new technology.

JOURNALIST: $25 billion is a lie, Mr Shorten, you say, but isn't the problem here you don't have a number to put in its place? And as long as you don't have a number to put in its place, why should we be confident that you're taking the Australian economy somewhere where you know how it's going to be affected at the end of the line?

SHORTEN: Tim, you and I know this is a fundamentally dishonest debate. It’s not you or the people asking the questions - it is what the government's saying. It is so dishonest. You all recognise a scare campaign when you see one. I'll give you three numbers. 50,000 more jobs in renewables, if we go down our path. I'll give you another number - $18 billion dollars, the cost of natural disasters, but here I'll even give you a more modest number: When this government, when the current Prime Minister was the loyal Treasurer, of the previous Prime Minister - if you believe that I've got a bridge to sell you - but anyway, when the Prime Minister was the Treasurer, when the current Treasurer was the former Environment Minister and when Malcolm Turnbull was still on top, they said the National Energy Guarantee would deliver $550 in lower household prices on energy. The numbers we're using, are the numbers the experts are given, they're the publicly available numbers, and they're in some cases, Malcolm Turnbull's own numbers.

JOURNALIST: On Indigenous Affairs, Bill Shorten, Labor has said it will abolish the Community Development Program, and is campaigning hard on that issue here in the Territory. What is your new plan, and if you can't tell us today, will that be outlined before the election?

SHORTEN: Yeah, I can, and I'm also fortunate to have people of the calibre of Senator Dodson here and I might give him a run on the ball, but I'll just make this. The current CDP's not working. And if you don't believe me, just talk to the thousands of people in remote communities who rely on CDP. We have got a view that it needs to be reformed and we will reform it, but I might invite Pat to talk about some of the defects in the current scheme, and our thinking about going forward. 

PATRICK DODSON, SHADOW ASSISTANT MINISTER FOR INDIGENOUS AFFAIRS & ABORIGINAL AND TORRES STRAIT ISLANDERS: Well look, if you're penalised for eight weeks, and you have no income, what do you think your kids do? They start to break in, they get into trouble, and you have a problem with kids on the streets, going hungry, and that's what this scheme does. It creates poverty, it creates discrimination, and is totally ineffective in getting any drive towards real work, real wages, and real employment. What we're about is going back to something like the old CDEP scheme. Where the community has a say, over the work, there's real wages, and if you work, you get paid, if you don't work you don't get paid, so the mutual obligation matter will be there, in relation to training, and for skilling up of people in these remote regions. And any of the savings will go back into these remote places, for improving the social opportunities as well as the entrepreneurial activities. So that people will be able to begin small businesses, look at creating opportunities for training, with a hub and spoke type of approach where we bring the skills into these communities, help train people up not only in the trades areas but in the service areas, so that we're keeping people on their communities, and keeping people in control of their own destinies. Rather than trying to extract them out of these places, plunk them on the fringes of some of these towns and where they end up, in the law courts, or in the prisons. So this is about going back to empowering First Nations peoples, giving them real control, and giving them some dignity. This government has totally ripped the guts out of Aboriginal people, it has totally treated Aboriginal people without any honour and any respect, and that's a big legacy we're going to have to turn around. And we start with the reform to the CDP. 

JOURNALIST: The announcement you've made today, about ending and addressing youth suicide, and some of those other issues, isn't the core issue here, though making sure that people can participate in a real economy in some of these communities? And how is the Shorten Government going to change what's going on at the moment to ensure that can happen, and will some reform of the Land Rights Act be part of that? 

DODSON: I'm not sure whether you heard what I just said. Because we are about creating the opportunity for people to be trained in their communities, looking for the opportunities to enter into entrepreneurial activities, bringing the skills that are required into those places and upgrade those skill bases. Reforms to the Land Rights Act I'm not sure in specifics what you're talking about, whether section 19 of leasing, the opportunities are there now, for many of these activities to take place. So these opportunities link to the broader agenda about northern development. And there's a whole lot of interest by First Nations peoples in participating in development, and in making sure that the future has got an economic underpinning to it, less dependency on the public sector outlays, and a clear retention of their rights to their land and preservation and protection of their culture. So these are not easy things to work through, but it's not as if there's a whole drive of people going out into remote Australia. It's appalling that people are living in poverty, people are living in unjust situations, and this government, this Morrison Government under Scullion and the rest of them, have caused First Nations people to have a totally hopeless kind of outlook on where we're going. We will turn that around under a Shorten Labor Government. With reform to the CDP, but also to other arrangements that we'll make, in terms of getting more authority back into the regions so people can have a say over the directions of their lives. Through Regional Assemblies, and giving people a sense that they have some capacity to determine how public policy affects them and the direction as to where they want to go. 

JOURNALIST: What are your thoughts then, on the Northern Territory Government handing back the leases on 44 remote communities to the Coalition, then? And what would Labor do differently if they were in Government? Would they solve this housing stoush with the NT Government?

DODSON: Well I'm not sure whether that's happened. I think they've resolved that. 

MALARNDIRRI MCCARTHY, SENATOR FOR THE NORTHERN TERRITORY: No no, it's been resolved.

DODSON: It's been resolved. So in terms of that, I mean obviously, the capacity of the people who own the land, who are the First Nations people, they have got to have respect. And the way you deal with their land, is something you have to do in collaboration with them, and we'd be looking to work closely with First Nations people, through land councils and other entities, rather than just usurping their rights and imposing upon them processes and activities that are not in accord with what they want. 

JOURNALIST: Ms King, can I ask you about chest pain clinics, if that's okay? 

KING: Yeah, sure.

JOURNALIST: Would Labor support BDI or Baker IDI's call for rapid chest pain clinics to be rolled out, is that something you would support?

KING: Yeah, thanks, look I’ve only just sent the reports today and we'll have a detailed look at the proposal they're making, but obviously with our substantial investments in public hospitals, so that $2.8 billion better hospitals package, that will see, more outpatient appointments, more elective surgery, and more capacity for hospitals to innovate as well. So we'll have a look at the proposal but we've only just seen the detail today.

JOURNALIST: Mr Shorten, regarding, on the-

SHORTEN: Just hang on, hang on, gentlemen, ladies, we've a fair go at this press conference, perhaps I'll allow one more question and then we got to finish up, we've got to go to Tiwi.

JOURNALIST: Bill Shorten, regarding your claim that with your climate policies, we'd have GDP growth of 23 per cent in the 2020s, is that business as usual, the same as if you didn't have the climate plan, and where did you get the numbers from, I understand it's from the McKibbin report, but isn't that a bit outdated?
SHORTEN: Sorry what was the last bit of your question?

JOURNALIST: I understand that figure was from the McKibbin report, isn't that a bit outdated now? 

SHORTEN: Well, first of all, it's publicly available, now if we're saying, the campaign against climate change by this government is malicious and stupid. It's malicious because there are elements of this government, the right wing, who have undermined even people in the Liberal Party to take action on climate change, and whenever we talk about common sense on climate change, you just get a scare campaign run by the more extreme elements - just hang on- this is really important, cause climate change is an important issue in this election, and it's a malicious campaign by this government. What they want to do is scare Australians and say that it's too hard to take action on climate change, even though they ignore the fact that two million households have solar on their rooftops. It's also a stupid campaign. And this goes to costs. You know, the world is moving far more investment into energy generation from renewables, it is stupid to want to miss out on what the rest of the world is doing. It is stupid to say to people that you don't need to change. That nothing needs to change, and you can all have it all very good in the future without change. This is a malicious and stupid campaign. And when I hear people say, well the McKibbin report, those figures aren't right, well, you know what in climate change, there will never be enough figures to satisfy the climate sceptics. If you don't believe in the science of climate change, no amount of evidence will ever convince you, because fundamentally it's a stupid position not to take action. Thanks everybody. 

ENDS