IN FULL: Prime Minister Anthony Albanese addresses the National Press Club | ABC NEWS

Well, thanks very much, Jane. And I begin by acknowledging the traditional owners of the land on which we meet. And I pay my respect to elders past, present, and emerging. I want to acknowledge all my wonderful colleagues who are here with me today, particularly the deputy prime minister, the treasurer, the foreign minister and other ministerial colleagues and members of the caucus, members of the diplomatic corps who are here with us today as well and importantly members of the business community as well as of course as you would expect at the National Press Club, members of the press gallery. This is a testing time for our nation. The war in the Middle East has caused the biggest increase in petrol and diesel prices in history. Australia is not an active participant in this war. We did express support for the original objectives, preventing Iran from ever obtaining a nuclear weapon and degrading its capacity to endanger its neighbors. Despite its indiscriminate attacks across the region, Iran's air force is degraded. Its navy is degraded. Its military industrial base is degraded. And so too is its capacity to launch missiles. That is a good thing. And now those objectives have been realized. It is not clear what more needs to be achieved or what the end point looks like. What is clear is that the longer the war goes on, the more significant the impact on the global economy will be. Not just the price of fuel, but everything that relies upon fuel. Literally everything that moves. We started seeing those price spikes the day that the Strait of Hormuz closed. And we will still be dealing with these challenges even after it is open. This war may be on the other side of the world, but it's causing real pain here for farmers, truckies, small businesses, and families. Our government understands this and we're acting on it. While we cannot control when this conflict in the Middle East will end, we can determine how we respond here in Australia. And we can decide how we work together to help each other through. We can choose what we build together so we come out of this stronger, more self-reliant, and more resilient. And that is what I want to focus on today. The immediate actions we're taking to secure our fuel supply and to shield our economy, the preparations we're undertaking as the situation evolves and every bit as importantly the changes we need to make to prepare our economy for the future. We do not need to wait for this global crisis to be over to learn its lessons. We can and we must act now to keep jobs here and create new ones to strengthen our economic sovereignty, our energy security and our national resilience, to make the most of our resources and make more things here so that Australia is not always the last link in the global supply chain. That instead we stand on our own two feet. We navigate global uncertainty our way, the Australian way, looking after people, holding true to our values of fairness, aspiration and opportunity for all, and holding on to everything that brings us together as Australians and sets us apart from the world. Everything that makes this the best country on earth.

Now, I understand that when people hear the economic impacts of this moment compared to the pandemic, they flash back to the harsh restrictions of those times. That's why I'm taking every opportunity in the parliament, at press conferences, on social media, in last night's address, and here at the National Press Club to make it clear to all Australians that while there are significant challenges ahead and common sense changes required, this will not be like COVID, partly because the nature of this global crisis is very different, but also because we've learned from that time and we are deliberately taking a different approach. You can see that with the national fuel security plan adopted by national cabinet, making sure that leaders at all levels of government and from both sides of politics are on the same page, taking sensible steps now so we're better prepared for what is ahead and being clear about what we want life to look like here in Australia even as the global situation becomes more challenging. So we do not have a repeat of the social dislocation of COVID when people's financial stress and anxiety about the world was compounded by being cut off from family and friends and community and trusting government and institutions was eroded by rules that seemed both completely inflexible and constantly changing. Our focus is keeping Australia moving and keeping Australia open. Keeping our schools open, keeping national and local sport going, major events and community festivals vibrant and strong, keeping hospitality, and all those industries that rely on people getting together open for business, making sure we can still spend time with our loved ones and friends at Easter. And that we come together as a nation to pay our respects on Anzac Day. Keeping Australia moving means keeping our truckies on the road, our miners and tradies on site, making sure essential workers can be there for the people who count on them, and making sure our farmers and growers and producers can keep getting their food and fiber into supermarkets and onto ships for export. We're encouraging a voluntary common sense approach. Take working from home for example. For many families, this is already an essential part of the weekly routine. And where it works for businesses and individuals, it makes sense. We're also encouraging people who can catch public transport but currently choose to drive to make the switch because that builds our reserves and saves fuel for people who have no choice but to drive, people in areas without reliable public transport, hospital nurses and shift workers commuting at all hours, or trades who need their ute to do their job.

To keep Australia moving, our government has moved quickly. We've cut the fuel excise in half for 3 months, cutting the tax on petrol and diesel by 26 cents per liter. And this morning, importantly, we have reached agreement with the states and territories to deliver a further cut in the fuel tax by returning their GST windfall to Australians. What this means? Yeah, give the states and territories a clap. This will mean a combined saving of 32 cents on every liter. The treasurer, Jim Chalmers, has already signed that change into law because we want this added relief to start showing up at petrol stations straight away. For our truckies, we're cutting the heavy vehicle road user charge to zero. We've taken unprecedented action to underwrite industry and bring ship loads, more fuel, and fertilizer to Australia. We've changed the law so that all the fuel made in Australian refineries stays on shore. We've given the ACCC new powers to crack down on petrol stations that do the wrong thing by their customers. And we will pursue every option to ensure the increases that might be there in coal or gas prices do not flow into electricity prices. Today I announced that under our economic resilience program, we will make available $1 billion in interest-free loans for manufacturing and fuel businesses dealing with the economic costs of this conflict. Truckies, freight companies, and fuel and fertilizer producers. These firms are not just being affected by this global crisis. They are essential to Australia getting through this crisis as well. So our government will extend their credit to help them and the farmers and producers who rely on these supply chains to weather the storm. This is just another way we're acting to get ahead of issues. No government can promise to eliminate the pressures the global crisis will impose. But we can be a buffer against the worst of it. A shock absorber in a time of global shocks. And we will do everything we can to protect the Australian people from what the world throws at us.

Providing stability and security amidst uncertainty does not mean standing still while the world changes around us. It means anticipating and creating change true to Australian values and in Australia's interests. Because if people feel like the economy isn't working for them, if they're putting in the effort, but they're not seeing the reward, if planning for the future feels like a luxury, then government cannot provide stability just by keeping things as they are. There is no security in maintaining a status quo that doesn't work for people. Economic reform that drives growth, boosts productivity, helps tackle inflation, and lifts living standards is always necessary. And in times of uncertainty such as this, it is urgent. We all know the mindset that left Australia exposed to this global shock that said it was okay to cut TAFE and training to let manufacturing and industry go offshore to put multinational firms ahead of Australian gas users to close our refineries, store our fuel reserves in Texas and run the national energy grid into the ground. And that Australia could get away with this because there would always be someone else somewhere else who would sell us what we needed cheaper than we could make it ourselves. This approach put our nation in this position of vulnerability. It certainly will not take us out of it. And that is why our government is taking a different path. Investing in a future made in Australia, creating a national reconstruction fund to back manufacturing. Making free TAFE permanent and creating new incentives for apprentices. Bringing new energy online, cleaner, cheaper power that we generate, store and control for ourselves. Positioning Australia as a destination of choice for the new jobs and opportunities of data centers and artificial intelligence. Establishing our critical minerals strategic reserve, securing the future of our industrial base from the steelworks at Whyalla to the Boyne Island smelter at Gladstone. Strengthening our defense manufacturing and our security cooperation. Restoring Australian leadership in the Pacific and deepening our connections in ASEAN and APEC. Investing in the jobs and skills and infrastructure for AUKUS, a landmark security treaty with Indonesia, a new alliance, our first since 1951, with Papua New Guinea, and importantly, diversifying our trade links and economic partnerships, too, because making more things in Australia doesn't mean doing less in the world. That's why we've been engaging in our region, stabilizing our relationship with China and finding new opportunities for cooperation with India and the United Arab Emirates. The critical minerals agreement I signed at the White House, the Defense Technology Partnership we are expanding with Canada, and of course our new defense and security partnership and our free trade agreement signed just last week with the European Union, giving Australian farmers and growers and exporters new access to a market of 450 million people.

We were investing in Australia's economic resilience well before the conflict in the Middle East began. And for our government, international uncertainty is not an excuse to delay or hold back reform. It is the reason we must press ahead because we will not generate the same prosperity or create the same opportunities if we continue to rely on an economic model designed in a different time and built for a more predictable world. Nor can we go back to those days. And any party or leader who promises otherwise, anyone who pretends that the solution to housing or jobs or wages or health is to somehow recreate the 1950s or 60s or whatever time they imagine everything was hunky dory is simply not being straight with the Australian people. Australia will not find our future security in the past or by copying approaches from overseas. We have to invest in it, build it and create it ourselves. We can, we must, and we will. Because the global shocks we have hit this decade are not passing storms. They are the extremes of a more volatile economic climate where economic policy and national security are bound together and where international supply chains are instruments of economic and strategic competition. Australia can do better than respond to this reality. We can thrive in it by investing in our unique and unbeatable combination of advantages. Our traditional resources, our critical minerals and our clean energy, our trade ties and diaspora connections to our region and to the world. Our stability, our democracy, our standing as a middle power and trusted partner. The investing power of our superannuation funds and the skills and capability of our people from digital technology and advanced manufacturing to agriculture and the care economy. In a world that is less certain, our national strengths are more valuable than they've ever been, but only if we continue to be serious and strategic about building on them. And even as we plan and build for this stronger, more resilient future, our number one priority remains helping people with the cost of living. And that is the balance that we will strike in next month's budget. It is our government's most important budget to date and it will be our most ambitious. It has to be. The scale of the challenge facing us and the breadth of opportunities ahead of us demands that ambition and that urgency and our Australian character demands that ambition too. That's what I mean when I talk about progressive patriotism. Uniting to celebrate what we have but working together to make it better. Recognizing that because we live in the best country in the world, we have a responsibility to build for the best and to empower every Australian with the opportunity to be their best as a matter of national pride and in order to realize our national potential.

Some of you have probably heard me say before that you have to be prepared to learn something new every day. And one of the things that I've learned in the four years I've had the extraordinary honor of serving as Australia's prime minister is that no matter how consuming an issue appears, you can't just drop everything else. You have to keep up the tempo on other issues. You have to maintain that momentum of delivery. And that's why in the same week that we cut the fuel excise in half, we delivered on our promise to ban surcharges on credit and debit cards. We backed wage rises for 18, 19, and 20 year olds who for the first time will be paid like the adults that they are. We legislated against subscription traps, and today I announce we will build on the reforms that we've already delivered to combat gambling harm. Between 6:00 a.m. and 8:30 p.m., we will cap the number of TV ads for betting agencies at a maximum of three per hour. We will ban all gambling ads on radio during school pickup and drop off. We will ban cross promotion content that mixes commentary with odds. We'll end advertising on jerseys and jumpers and in stadiums and will ban online advertising unless the user is verified as being over 18 and has the ability to opt out. Just as importantly, we will block illegal offshore gaming sites and ban online casino-type products, the so-called pocket pokies, which represent a huge percentage of Australian gambling losses. And we will keep building on the success of BetStop, promoting and strengthening a program that is changing lives. We are getting the balance right. Letting adults have a punt if they want to, but making sure that our children don't see betting ads everywhere they look. Because we don't want kids growing up thinking that footy and gambling are inextricably linked. We want Australians to love sport for what it is. Its joys, its heartbreak, 43 years between comps for South Sydney, its highs and its lows because that is more than enough for any of us to succeed in all that is ahead of us. We need to bring people with us. And that's why when I stood here after the last election, I said that the following 12 months would be a year of delivery, working through the commitments that the Australian people voted for last May and ticking them off one by one.

134 out of 137 Medicare urgent care clinics we promised are open together with 54 Medicare mental health centers and our new Medicare mental health check-in service went live just yesterday. 800 Medicare has been up since January 1 and all 33 of our endo and pelvic pain clinics will be open by the end of this month. Over 1,300 more GP clinics are bulk billing every patient every time driving the biggest jump in the bulk billing rate in over two decades. PBS medicines are at their lowest price since 2004, just $25. 230,000 Australians have purchased their first home with a 5% deposit. When I came to the press club last January, I announced a new $10,000 incentive for construction apprentices. In the last 6 months, 11,000 Australians have seized that opportunity. For the first time ever, full and fair funding for every student in every school in every state and territory is becoming a reality. And over 61,000 nursing, teaching, and social work students have benefited from paid placements. There have been nearly 750,000 enrollments in free TAFE. More Australians are starting university than ever before and 3 million people with a student debt have had it cut by 20%. Saving an average of over $5,000. Over 300,000 homes and small businesses have cut their power bills with a cheaper battery. The gender pay gap is at an all-time low and 14 million taxpayers will get a tax cut on the 1st of July this year and again next year. All these acts of delivery doing what we said we would do helping people under pressure. They also build trust. Not just trust in our government, trust in all governments, in our capacity to make a positive difference in people's lives. In a more polarized and fragmented media landscape that is only becoming more important because there is no speech, no ad, no interview that can make a better case for the value of government than someone being able to see a doctor for free close to home. That's the reality our conversation must be grounded in. Change that people can see positive change in their lives. For a Labor government, economic reform is never an end in itself. It's only the means to an end to ensuring more people know the dignity of a good job and fair wages. Schools and child care that give your child the best start in life. The opportunity of TAFE and university. Health care your family can count on and afford a home of your own. The intergenerational equity at the heart of the oldest and most Australian aspiration of them all. Passing on greater opportunity to your children. That is how we bring people with us. It is also where we want to go to an economy that is stronger and fairer. Stronger because it is fairer. Because people have a share in our nation's success, a meaningful stake in our economy and a stake in their future. And a society that is stronger because everyone knows they're a part of it. People in every part of our country from all faiths and backgrounds valued for who they are and for all they contribute. That has always been the key to the success of the Australian model. It is how we have been able to avoid the worst of the economic and social divisions that have taken hold elsewhere. We take pride in that because we know it's not down to luck or distance or natural immunity. It's because of what we build here for ourselves. A strong minimum wage, universal Medicare, dignity and security in retirement through superannuation. A democracy where nearly every citizen casts a vote. The first place in the world where women could vote in elections and stand for parliament. And just as our national unity is built on respect for each other, it also depends on people knowing the nation respects them, that your effort is worth it, that if you work hard and back yourself, government will have your back. And nowhere is that more important than the great Australian aspiration of home ownership. The foundation on which you can build a better life for yourself and your family. That is an enduring mission that demands constant renewal, continual reform, new effort and urgency to break down the barriers of disadvantage, open the doors of opportunity, liberate the talents and capacity of the Australian people and ensure that every part of our economy nourishes aspiration and rewards hard work. That is the Australian way and it is our way through this global crisis. It is how we make our way forward with no one held back and no one left behind. Thanks very much.

We have to be more self-sufficient and less vulnerable. We had fortunately at the beginning of this global crisis, we had the largest fuel reserves that we'd had in Australia for 15 years. And importantly, our fuel reserves were here, not in the United States now. Six of our refineries were open when we left office in 2013. When we came back in 2022, there were two. See, if you look at what we've done, whether it's in Mount Isa, Wyala, Nearest in Tasmania, Gladstone, we have been prepared to intervene and not just say, 'Oh, well, we'll just let the market operate and we won't worry about what happens because we'll be right. We'll get stuff from somewhere else.' We've been prepared to intervene to make sure that we are more resilient and self-reliant. That's what the critical mineral strategic reserve that we announced during the last campaign was about as well. So it's that principle of a future made in Australia that you know I spoke about prior to 2022. I spoke about on this very platform, one of the speeches I gave as opposition leader and yeah, it's that theme that we'll continue to work on. How do we deal with these issues. So partly one of the things we've done this week for example is to increase the finance minister's emergency fund if you like so that she has a greater capacity. There's some smaller improvements that we can make to potentially produce more diesel here where we're looking at all of those options.

Well, we're looking at all of those options, but it all needs to start with the principle of we can't assume, as I said in the speech, that you know we'll get it from somewhere else because it's cheaper somewhere else and that this market will operate. That is the world that we're in. We are not. We're in a world where economic relationships are linked to national security. We need to continue to that. If you like the principle that we were elected on in 2022, which included in I think it was the first or maybe the second budget reply I did, I announced the National Reconstruction Fund. It was about making more things here. It was about being more resilient. And it's that principle that if anything, we need to now turbocharge rather than back away from. We got, I think we were right in drawing that distinction prior to our election. We've been putting in place those measures since then in a range of areas but we'll continue to do so.

I think it needs to be viewed in the context of where we are now. So one of the things that we've been very clear about for example is that just as we expect countries that supply us to stick to agreements which are there, we think it's very important that the contracts that we have be fulfilled completely with countries in our region. That's the quid pro quo if you like and I think that is very important as we go forward. So our priority to be clear, our first priority is supply. Supply depends upon those relationships being adhered to and some of the commentary that is there ignores a whole range of the issues. They take some select areas pretend that there isn't a return to the Australian people from the resources sector which is there, which is a real strength for us. So we'll continue to engage the tax priority. The only tax policy that the government has adopted at the moment of course is the income tax cut that comes in on July 1.

We will be tabling a response to the Murphy report on the first day that Parliament comes back when it returns. Cabinet adopted these positions today. This is a position that we will take forward in legislation when parliament resumes. One of the things that people are looking for here is certainty and the government decides positions not committees. Government can be informed by committees but the government determines positions and one of the things that sporting codes need, dare I say it here at the National Press Club, TV channels that have broadcasting deals all of that is tied up with certainty going forward and what we will do is present a final position that we have. It's informed as well by the key elements going forward. Some of it is about the Murphy report but the Murphy report isn't when it started and ended. And when we look at gambling as well, one of the things that I have said to some of the advocates, overwhelmingly, more than half of problem gambling is about poker machines. That's not covered by any of this at all. And so we will deal with things appropriately with regard to a duty of care. We're considering a duty of care when it comes to online that's much broader than just this. So it's that context of reform is what we'll be taking forward.

Well, just bear in mind that the 90-day reserve considered by the IEA isn't a reserve for domestic use. It's a reserve, as we've seen at the moment, for a global crisis to be released. So that's why it's there. One of the things about Australia, because of the size of our continent, is that the cost would be around about $20 billion annually. And the other thing is because fuel can't be just kept, it has to be topped up. Then the challenge for us is very different from a smaller country in Europe, for example, that has a larger population. We certainly will consider what we can to increase our fuel security. We've been doing that. That's why at the beginning of this crisis we had the largest reserves in 15 years. So we'll consider all those measures but in a practical way going forward as well, because you've got to look at opportunity costs as well of what the best method is to increase fuel security. That is certainly what we'll be examining. 2019's a long time ago. We've moved on and we'll continue to examine what is the best policy to further increase that security. So there's a range of measures. There's biofuels. There's a range of new technologies as well that can add to our security.

Well, more ads can't be played. That's the point behind having a restriction from the average when we're talking about a couple of years ago in 2024, for example, were eight. So three is obviously cutting it by more than half. It's about getting that balance right. And the nature of it as well is that if a footy player is running around with a gambling company on their football jumper, that's not eight an hour, that is constant for the 80 minutes plus injury time that a game's going on. We think we have got the balance right. I think that going forward this is a significant reform. To be clear, it's the most significant reform on gambling that has ever been implemented, following previously the most significant reform that gambling had ever had, which was what we did in our first term.

Well, with respect, Paul, as much as I trust every journalist in this room, it's a bit hard to comment on President Trump's statement, which was, I think, done in part while I was sitting up here. But my position I've made very clear, which is we do want to see a de-escalation. As I said in my speech, the objectives that President Trump outlined at the time of him launching the action against Iran have largely been achieved and we want to see a de-escalation. We want to also see it taken into account the economic costs that this is having right around the world.

I think that's totally consistent with what we are seeing, of what I've said, which is I want to see a de-escalation. Yes.

I fully respect the reforms that the Hawke and Keating government implemented. They led to decades of prosperity here in Australia because they opened up our economy at a time where we had globalization and global trade and relationships between trading nations which saw the WTO, the emergence of the creation of APEC which was in part an Australian creation, free trade agreements. What we're seeing now is a very different world and Australia has to respond to that. And when it comes to economic resilience, it means two things. It means not being at the end of supply chains. So the establishment of a Future Made in Australia agenda. But it also means, as my speech said as well, it's about that social license and social cohesion as well, giving people a stake in the economy. I think that is very much a part of economic resilience as well. Young people feeling like they can get a fair crack. That's why we did the student debt relief. That's why we need to look at issues including whether younger generations think they'll ever get into home ownership. Those issues are all important of economic reform and we'll examine that intergenerational equity aspect of reform just as we've done an extraordinary amount of work on gender equity, whether it be the largest women's health program that Australia has ever seen by a big margin. You know, can you imagine the other mob coming up with or even thinking or even getting on the agenda endo and pelvic pain clinics? Like it just wouldn't have happened. And so the whole range of things that we have done, I mean, I found it remarkable that there had been no new contraceptives put on the PBS for 30 years. You know, if there's a bunch of blokes sitting around the cabinet room, maybe that's what happens. But it doesn't happen in a government that has a majority of women around the cabinet room and a majority of women in our caucus.

Not at all. You've done well there to sneak in an extra one. But congratulations on that, Greg. Not at all. We'll continue to look for sensible savings. We've had $114 billion, I think the figure is, of savings so far. We've saved massive amounts in terms of where debt would have been and where it was projected to be. We produced two budget surpluses and lower deficits than they anticipated when they handed down their budget in March 2022. We will continue to have savings in this budget as much as there are only two sorts of people in my cabinet. Those who are on the ERC and those who are glad they're not because they have more time.

The US alliance is our most important. That remains the case and we've relied upon it. 1951 was when it was formalized. But the truth is it was really formalized in World War II by John Curtin when he said Australia looks to America and ever since then they're our most important military partner. The AUKUS relationship makes sense for us. If you look at what we are doing, whether it be the nuclear-powered submarines that we'll be building at Osborne in South Australia, whether you look at the work, job creation and flow-on benefit for high-value manufacturing in Western Australia in particular, but also the reports today of my friend the defense minister working with his German counterpart when he was here going to look at Ghost Bat and Ghost Shark, you know, the development of these new technologies, Australia exporting, not just becoming more self-reliant on defense, the relationships are a part of that. So one of the things that my government is really proud of is that we have cemented our relationships with our traditional partners, the United States and the United Kingdom. But we haven't said that's enough. We actually recognize we've repaired the relationship with China. We have strengthened the relationships with ASEAN nations, cemented the ties with our North Asia trading partners, South Korea and Japan, as well as the role that we're playing in the Pacific Island Forum and looking towards the emerging superpowers, India and Indonesia, for the opportunities that that presents.