MICHAEL HEALY:
I’m proud to be standing here today with the federal Treasurer and just as importantly, senior ministers at both the state and federal government when it comes to TAFE and when it comes to education, when it comes to more importantly, investing in our future.
Couple of really important things to mention today. Firstly, Queensland will win and it will be a great game. Secondly, just as importantly, the future of this facility and the future of working people in Cairns. Often you will see politicians talk about what we’re investing in and who we are investing in. Today is a very solid announcement, tens of millions of dollars being invested into, not only TAFE, but also the people in and around our region and health care. Expanding our health care facilities and building better futures and building better careers for Queenslanders, particularly in this case, far north Queenslanders. And I want to acknowledge the hard work of both the federal government and the state government in relation to acknowledging what needs to be done. At various levels of government we recognise there are significant challenges, particularly when we are talking about jobs and vacancies and labour shortages. This is an announcement which addresses and goes to the heart of addressing those key issues and what it does do, particularly in regional Queensland up here, it provides significant infrastructure. And in addition to that it provides a far better future, builds a great future for Queenslanders, builds a great health infrastructure which is essential because it’s a growing state we need it. It’s a wonderful investment, and I’ll hand over to Brendan to give you the details, Brendan.
BRENDAN O’CONNOR:
Michael, it’s great to be here, so thank you for that welcome. What a wonderful part of Australia to be in, particularly when we are freezing in Melbourne, being here today with this announcement, such an important investment by the Albanese government and the Queensland Miles government. Upon election the Albanese government knew there were skill shortages across the entire labour market, across Australia, and we had a Jobs and Skills Summit. It was convened by the Prime Minister and the federal Treasurer, who is obviously here today, and that set the tone for the way we worked through this very significant national challenge and we struck a National Skills Agreement, the first of its kind in more than a decade. A $30 billion investment in the VET sector for 5 years, to provide certainty but also to provide reform that’s needed for our education and training sectors. And today’s announcement is an example of the reforms and the investment that’s been made by the federal and Queensland government. This is an investment in a Centre of Excellence, bringing together Queensland TAFE and universities and industry to supply the skills to our economy. We just had a remarkable chat with a bunch of students that are currently in Fee‑Free TAFE courses and they told us about how important it is for them to acquire skills to look after older Australians. Well, this Centre of Excellence will be providing the skills needed to look after older Australians, people with disability, those people in need of our care. If you want to define a good country, you define it by how you look after people that are in need of care. And the best way for us to do that is to invest in skills, to provide qualified carers, whether they’re nurses or paraprofessionals, to look after older Australians, the ones that have built this country.
Today, we had some compelling stories about why people enrolled in these courses but they told us, in many cases, they could not have enrolled in these courses without Fee‑Free TAFE. There’s over 90,000 Queenslanders, over 400,000 Australians since the election of the Albanese government that have enrolled in Fee‑Free TAFE. In the care sector, in manufacturing, the traditional trades, IT, right across the labour market. And we are removing those cost‑of‑living barriers so people not only find meaningful work but we also have a knowledgeable and skilled labour market. The best countries on earth have the smartest and most skilled labour market. And for Australia to stay as we are as a great country or even to become better, we have to have the smartest and most skilled labour market. We have to ensure that working people have skills so they have durable, long term jobs and great careers, whether that’s in trades, whether that’s in the care sector, whether that’s professionals, we need people to have those skills. It’s good for them as individuals, it’s good for businesses that are crying out for skills and ultimately it’s good for this country.
Today’s investment, $35 million investment by the 2 governments, is about providing those skills that are most important for the workers, for the care sector and ultimately for those people in receipt of care. And I’m so proud to be here today, I’m very pleased to be here with not just Michael and Lance but also the federal Treasurer, who has also understood, if you have seen the White Paper that he issued some time ago, he talked about how critical it was for us as a country to invest in skills. I’m very pleased to have him, my colleague, here today, a Queenslander, to talk about this great investment we are making. This is about working together. The Albanese government understands the best way to tackle the national challenges is working together. To work with state and territory governments, to work with business, to work with unions, to work with education and training providers to find solutions to our challenges. And that’s what we’re doing and today’s announcement is about exactly that, providing opportunities for this region, finding opportunities for working people who need the skills, and finding a solution to dealing with older Australians that need care. So it’s a great announcement, I’m happy to have questions after but right now I will just hand over now to Jim.
JIM CHALMERS:
Thanks very much Brendan. It is great to be here with Brendan but also with Michael, an absolute champion of this part of the country, and also to be here with Lance. I wanted to thank friends from TAFE Queensland here in Cairns, thanks for having us and for introducing us to some pretty remarkable students as well, we really appreciate it. Thanks so much. I’ve got a few things to cover off, one local and national, but first I wanted to really give a shout out to the emergency service workers and the SES volunteers who had the really difficult job of retrieving the bodies of the 2 young men who were lost in Far North Queensland. And to let their families know that we are thinking of them at what must be a really difficult time. This place is a beautiful part of Australia and we want people to enjoy the natural attractions in tropical North Queensland but it’s another reminder for people to be really careful as they enjoy everything that this region has to offer. I also wanted to shout out DCE and Billy and the boys to wish them all the best for tonight. Brendan is struggling here because he can’t believe that this is such a central focus of a press conference but this is how we roll in Queensland.
O’CONNOR:
What is Origin?
CHALMERS:
I wanted you all to know that don’t let this blue shirt fool you. We consider anyone who is not from New South Wales to be a Queenslander. And we consider Brendan to be an honorary Queenslander, welcome to the fold Brendan and we are also conscious that [indistinct] went to school across the road here and Billy played a lot of football up here. I think Nanai as well played a fair bit of footy up here as well, so a really important part of the country and tonight, a really important part of the most important thing that’s happening tonight, but we really are behind Billy and DCE and the boys and we wish them well tonight.
I also wanted to give a shout out to Brendan. Whether it’s Fee‑Free TAFE or whether it’s this investment that we are announcing today or the work that we do together to make sure there was another half a billion dollars for skills and training in the Budget, I really wanted to pay tribute to Brendan. We are really here because of his hard work and his vision for TAFE and training, his belief in TAFE and training. And so I wanted to acknowledge that and I’m here because he sent me a text message saying you have to get up to Cairns and do this together. I’m really pleased he did so thank you very much Brendan, thanks for all your hard work and your vision and your commitment when it comes to TAFE and training.
This is a $30 million vote of confidence in the local care economy workers and the educators of a really important part of Australia. This is all about more skills and more opportunities in one of the most important parts of our communities, but also of our economy. This is about making sure that we teach and train the care economy workers of the future, not just in Sydney and Melbourne, but right around Australia. And so this is a Centre of Excellence but it’s also a centre of opportunity. And we see Cairns and the tropical far north Queensland as a really crucial part of the future economy and I think this announcement that we are making today, working closely with the Miles government and the colleagues here is all about recognising and grasping that opportunity in regional Queensland, the opportunity of the care economy. If you think about the last 5 years or so, the jobs growth in the care economy has been 3 times faster than jobs growth overall and that gives you a sense of the magnitude of this opportunity, so to meet these future care workers, to meet the educators and the students here was a real buzz, because you can see the future, you can see directly the future of our economy, the future of our regions, the future of Cairns and the surrounding areas as well.
If you think about the resilience that we’ve seen in the labour market over the last couple of years, a big part of the story is the care economy. And one of the reasons why the Albanese Labor government has created more jobs than any other first term government in history is partly because of the growth in the care economy sector and that’s really important. Now we’ll get more jobs numbers tomorrow and we’ll see what they say, we already know that higher interest rates are weighing on the labour market, on the jobs market, people understand that in their own communities but the labour market has been really resilient until quite recently. And almost 900,000 jobs created by this Albanese Labor government as I said, a record by some multiples of a new government in this country, we’ll get the numbers tomorrow, we have seen in recent data that higher interest rates has put pressure on the jobs market and we’ve seen that and we may see that tomorrow, we’ll see what those numbers say.
Now our job when it comes to inflation in our economy and the labour market is to try and get on top of this inflation challenge in our economy without smashing jobs and without smashing the economy, that’s our job and that’s the Reserve Bank’s job as well. We got a report overnight from the International Monetary Fund which points out that inflation has been persistent right around the world and we know that whether it’s the pressures on shipping costs or from the conflicts in a couple of important parts of the world, that’s putting extra pressure on inflation here at home, it’s one of the factors which is adding to the inflationary pressures here in our own economy at the same time. So, our job is to get on top of that inflation without smashing jobs and without smashing the economy. One of the ways we do that is we provide cost‑of‑living relief. Already 10.1 million Australians have got Labor’s tax cut to help them with the cost of living, another 100,000 will get a tax cut today, check your pay slips. Another 100,000 tomorrow will get Labor’s tax cut here in the federal electorate of Leichhardt 79,000 people, every single one of the 79,000 taxpayers here in the electorate of Leichhardt are getting a tax cut from this month. And every household is getting energy bill relief as well. This is how we provide substantial and meaningful cost‑of‑living relief in the most possible way.
We’re also providing this cost‑of‑living relief at the same time as we are turning big Liberal deficits into big Labor surpluses in our Budget. It’s a powerful demonstration of our responsible economic management, $100 billion turnaround in our first year, $70 billion or thereabouts turnaround in our second year. We have been turning those big Liberal deficits into big Labor surpluses. The Reserve Bank Governor has said that those 2 surpluses are helping in the fight against inflation. We will know for sure how big the second surplus was, we will know that in September, but we know enough already to expect a surplus in the mid‑teens of billions of dollars. There’s a bit of interest in that of course and we’ll finalise all the numbers in September, but the really important thing to point out, contrary to some of the commentary you hear from our opponents and from others, is that the improvement from the May Budget, the $9 billion surplus to something in the middle teens, is not actually more tax than what we were expecting it’s less spending. The improvement from 9 to the middle teens from May to the Final Budget Outcome, is not about collecting extra taxes in that period in fact we collected less than we anticipated, it’s actually about spending less as well. And so that’s an important point that you will hear more about when we release the Final Budget Outcome. I’ve covered a lot of ground there, I appreciate your patience I’m going to throw to Lance and then Brendan is going to take all your tricky questions.
LANCE McCALLUM:
Thanks very much Jim and nothing matters more than looking after the health of our communities and that’s why it’s so fantastic to be here today to announce this investment in what matters for Queensland and what matters for the future of Far North Queensland, with a Centre of Excellence in health and care. As we know, health and care is the fastest growing sector in our economy. It means jobs, it means good, highly skilled jobs and we want Far North Queenslanders to be right at the front of the queue for those great jobs. The Miles government, working with the Albanese government, is proud to back locals in with the skills and the qualifications that they need to get the jobs that we are creating. Queensland is the job creation powerhouse of the nation and we want to make sure that we are getting Queenslanders into the good jobs that are being created. Now what we have here today is state Labor working with federal Labor to back Queenslanders into good jobs using our proudly publicly owned TAFE and working with the sector. What it means is that locals can get trained up in nursing, mental health, aged care, maybe they want to get into hospital administration, we want to back people into the skills so that they can get the jobs in the healthcare sector. So, it is wonderful to be able to collaborate with the Albanese government so that we can get more Cairns locals and Far North Queensland locals into the good jobs that we’re creating.
Unfortunately, all of this is at risk under David Crisafulli and the LNP should they win government in October. When David Crisafulli sat around Campbell Newman’s cabinet table they took an axe to TAFE. They sacked over 2,100 hardworking TAFE workers in Queensland, they closed down campuses and they had plans to close over 30 TAFE campuses. Now our future, Queensland’s future and the jobs that we’re creating cannot risk David Crisafulli and the LNP. They’ve never been to a TAFE campus that they haven’t thought about closing, well under Labor we’re going to back TAFE, we’re going to back Queenslanders in with skills, and we’re not going to cut.
JOURNALIST:
We’ve heard about what you can study here but I guess what will it actually look like; what is a Centre of Excellence?
O’CONNOR:
Well, it’s bringing actually 2 tertiary sectors together, right. So what’s happening to the labour market is it’s becoming more complex and more complicated and so this delineation between the acquisition of skills and knowledge is no longer suitable. So, we have to have universities and TAFE working together with industry, because if you look around the world whether it’s its energy sector, whether it’s traditional trades, the labour market is changing. And so whether we’re dealing with paraprofessionals in the health sector or professionals like nursing, we do need these 2 tertiary sectors, the VET sector and the universities to collaborate. And they also have to be very receptive to industry, whether it’s public providers or private providers, and whether that’s the care sector or whether it’s the energy sector. The energy sector right now is going through enormous transition and I’ve announced Centres of Excellence in the energy sector and today it’s about the care economy because you are seeing the need to absorb different skills and knowledge across what has been traditionally a delineated path.
People either enrol in university or they enlisted in TAFE and that was the end of it, but that’s not the case today in a complex labour market as we now confront. So that’s the first thing, collaboration is everything, working together, allowing people to acquire skills and knowledge across the 2 sectors. I think one thing that’s been most missing which I think the Albanese government’s focussed on is understanding the labour market better, so when we invest billions of dollars of taxpayer’s money in education and training, whether that’s universities or TAFE, we have to invest it in areas of growing demand of the economy, of the labour market, the emerging trends of demand and we have to understand it better. That’s why the first piece of legislation that the Albanese government introduced into the Parliament was Jobs and Skills Australia. Why? Because we need the architecture to understand where we invest in education and training because of the emerging demands of the labour market. And because now we have that in place with Jobs and Skills Councils, which provides real economy insight, we have a better way of investing, knowing where the future jobs are. And that’s critical. And we have a labour market that’s changing faster than any time in history, and so we have to anticipate more precisely the emerging areas of demand, that includes the care sector.
Technological change is such that it’s disrupting a lot of jobs. So, when you are asking what this investment will do, this investment will provide the right skills to people in the care sector. This will bring universities in regional Queensland together with Queensland TAFE, to work with the sector to make sure we get it right. And that is the exemplar, the best examples in the world is where this is happening. And frankly it should have happened earlier than the election of the Albanese government but we only got in 2 years ago and we are moving as fast as we can. Whether it’s the care sector, whether it’s moving to renewables and the transition of the energy sector, whether it’s a Future Made in Australia, creating sovereign capability for Australia so we make things here. Wherever it is in the labour market and the economy we have to have our universities and our TAFEs and business, industry, working together to match what is needed. That’s what today’s announcement is about, investing in areas in the care sector to create the supply of skills in areas of emerging demand.
JOURNALIST:
Will there be a physical place that people can go and how can they access it?
O’CONNOR:
So there’s Queensland TAFE here, it’s not infrastructure. In fact, too often we cut ribbons on buildings, this is about investing in people. Think about the care sector what is it about? It’s about thousands upon thousands of Australians working to look after the care of others in this country. It’s about investing in skills, not cutting ribbons on buildings. This is bringing together the different institutions of education and training to supply the skills needed for our economy. Too often we’ve had them in isolation of each other, about supplying skills, and too often we’ve had a false delineation, an antiquated divide between the 2 sectors. They have to work closer together and they have to work closer with industry and that’s what this will do.
JOURNALIST:
Obviously it’s important to have it here in Cairns, will it go across all of Australia or are they already happening?
O’CONNOR:
We are announcing Centres of Excellence everywhere I can assure you, the Queensland Miles government and the Albanese government will be announcing more Centres of Excellence in Queensland. I’ve announced a Centre of Excellence in Western Australia and I will be making more announcements in other states, we will be doing this with the partnership of state and territory governments.
JOURNALIST:
When do you expect to reap the rewards of these Centres of Excellence?
O’CONNOR:
Well, I think is it starts now if you like. Once you make the investment you will see the benefits flow. But you have to start somewhere and as I say I think this was delayed but the Albanese government from the beginning has focussed on this issue.
JOURNALIST:
How will students access it and I guess what will the student life look like?
O’CONNOR:
Well as I said to you earlier, 90,000 Queenslanders have enrolled in Fee‑Free TAFE and there’s more to come. There’s still hundreds of thousands of places across the country for people to enrol in Fee‑Free TAFE, provided they’re enrolling in courses where it’s in areas of demand. So, where there are skills shortages, there will be Fee‑Free TAFE.
JOURNALIST:
Just on a couple of local matters, Mr Chalmers, in terms of spending; with the Kirrama Range Road, one of the major transport networks here, the state government has committed to rebuilding the Barron River Bridge – but a standard solution as a lot of people say, there is $260 million in government [indistinct] towards upgrading the road but no plan attached to it, a lot of people are calling for just $20 million to do a study so we can work out the best way, can we get $20 million to study the best way?
CHALMERS:
Well first of all, you are right there’s a couple of hundred million already flowing for that project broadly. But I know from speaking to Michael and all the terrific local Labor MPs that we have in this part of the world, this part of the country, that there’s a real focus on what we can do, what’s the best way to do it, what’s the best way to roll out that kind of investment, so we’ll keep working with Michael and his team and with the Miles government to make sure that as we roll out that substantial investment that we are doing it in a way that makes the most sense for locals.
JOURNALIST:
Would that include money towards a study that can directly look at alternative routes as local advocacy bodies are calling for?
CHALMERS:
We’re aware obviously of the calls of the local groups. We listen respectfully when those local organisations put ideas to us, we try and be as consultative and collaborative as we can be and as I said we work closely with the state government. Catherine King in our team is responsible for working through those kinds of suggestions and those plans but I think what we’ve demonstrated with the big commitment that we made is we understand that the roads need to be better in Far North Queensland, the Commonwealth does have a big role to play there, we’re playing that role enthusiastically and not just roads. Last time I was here I was hanging out with Michael at the marine precinct talking about ship lift, we’re making other investments as well. We know that if we want the national economy to be strong we’ve got to invest in local economies like this one, roads is an important part of that, the other economic opportunities are front and centre when it comes to our thinking.
JOURNALIST:
The Cairns regional council’s budget for the Cairns water security project has blown out and they’re coming back to you for more money. The Department of Environment has said that can’t guarantee more funding when this happens, what can you say to that? Will council get more money?
CHALMERS:
Well right around Australia we are dealing with issues which are not unlike this. We’ve got issues whether it’s road projects, water infrastructure, other kinds of projects where the costs have blown out, cost are increasing. Indeed a big part of the Budget that we handed down in May is to try and accommodate some of these cost blow outs. We’re aware of that issue with the water infrastructure certainly my colleague Tanya Plibersek is very aware of it. Again, we are working closely with local communities, local governments, state government, to see if we can afford to do more we’re aware of that issue and we’re looking in to it.
JOURNALIST:
When will you know whether you can afford to stump up the rest of the money?
CHALMERS:
Well as soon as I know you will know, it’s something that we’re looking at, we’re working through it, we’re very aware of it, very conscious of it, and unfortunately it’s one of the number of projects right around the country where the costs are higher than were initially assumed and estimated and so we’re working through that with the state government, the local government here but in other areas around the country too.
JOURNALIST:
Will the federal Labor party stop accepting donations from the CFMEU?
CHALMERS:
We’ve got to clean up the CFMEU, it’s clear. Those stunning, unacceptable, abhorrent revelations and allegations that we saw particularly over the weekend are completely and utterly unacceptable to us. We need to clean up the CFMEU. The labour movement in my experience is overwhelmingly a force for good and trade union leaders are typically good and decent people with the interests of their members at heart. What we’ve seen in Victoria under John Setka is neither of those things, neither a force for good, neither led in his case, by someone whose primary concern is members and behaving in a decent and honourable way. So, we’ve got to clean it up we know that. Tony Burke has made it very clear that all options are on the table when it comes to going about that task of cleaning up the CFMEU and you can expect to hear more from Tony in due course, probably quite soon.
JOURNALIST:
What about the Prime Minister; he’s been criticised for not facing cameras in relation to the allegations, can we expect to hear from him soon?
CHALMERS:
He makes himself available around the country regularly and his view is clear, as is mine, as is Tony Burke’s, as is Brendan’s, every single member of our Labor government is absolutely appalled by what we’ve seen and what we’ve seen alleged and revealed in that good journalism that we saw over the weekend. We’ve all got an interest in cracking down on it. That’s the Prime Minister’s view, that’s my view too.
JOURNALIST:
Should the CFMEU be deregistered?
CHALMERS:
Well as I said before, Tony Burke is going through all of those options, we’re looking for the hardest option frankly. We’re looking for the most meaningful action that we can take to crack down on and to clean up the CFMEU. That’s our motivation here. Certainly Tony’s motivation. He’s asked for every option to be on the table and you will hear more about that before long.
JOURNALIST:
The IMF’s downgraded its forecast for economic growth this year, does this know Labor’s planned soft landing is becoming more unlikely?
CHALMERS:
I think what the IMF report made really clear is the global economy is still a pretty uncertain place. You have got conflict in eastern Europe, conflict in the Middle East, extreme political polarisation and dysfunction in other parts of the world. And all of that is playing out one way or another in the global economy and even in our own economy, if you think about global shipping costs for example they’ve more than tripled since November, you see the fact that global oil prices have gone up about 10 per cent since this time last year, you think about the fact that the shipping lanes have been distorted by avoiding the Red Sea. A whole bunch of issues which are playing out in the global economy and impacting us here including our inflation, adding to our inflation challenge in our own economy.
So, I think the IMF did a good job in making it clear that this inflation we’ve seen around the world is more persistent than any of us would like. The same is true here in Australia, we’ve made good progress on inflation here in Australia it’s much lower than the 6.1 per cent that we inherited it’s now got a 3 in front of it. But we need it to moderate further and faster because people are hurting. And that’s why we are rolling out this cost‑of‑living relief in a meaningful way, a substantial way but also the most responsible way, so that it’s part of the solution to higher inflation rather than part of the problem.
JOURNALIST:
What do you make of the IMF warning that suddenly high inflation in advanced economies threatens higher for even lower interest rates?
CHALMERS:
The IMF made it really clear that this global inflation problem is more persistent than many of us would like and as I said, whether it’s uncertainty in shipping lanes, whether it’s volatility in the global oil price, all of this is playing out unfortunately in the global economy and indeed in our own economy as well. We’ll get later this month, we will get the June quarter inflation numbers for the Australian economy. We expect the big drivers to be petrol, rent and insurance and obviously none of that is about government spending but it’s all about pressure that is in the economy when it comes to inflation. The Budget is obviously not the primary determinant of prices in our economy but we can play a helpful and meaningful role. Two surpluses are part of that effort but also the way that we’re rolling out this cost‑of‑living relief in the most responsible way that we can. Millions of Australians already have their tax cut, and more will get theirs in the coming days. In addition to that, help with energy bills, working closely again with the state government who’ve come to the table in really quite a remarkable way, I pay tribute to Steven and Cameron and the guys here for the way that they’re helping people with their electricity bills. All of this is part of recognising inflation is still persistent, in the global economy and in our own economy and we’re helping where we can.
JOURNALIST:
IMF again, they’ve also cut Australia’s growth forecast; does that concern you?
CHALMERS:
They shifted it a little but not a lot. We already made it really clear in our own forecast that I released in the May Budget that we expect growth to be sluggish in our economy. This is why it’s so important that we get on top of this inflation challenge without smashing the economy, without smashing jobs. That’s my job in terms of fiscal policies, it’s the Reserve Bank’s job in terms of monetary policy. We saw in the March quarter that our economy barely grew at the start of this year. We saw that discretionary consumption was almost non‑existent, we’ve seen household savings have gone down quite substantially and we’ve seen softening in our labour market despite its remarkable resilience for a couple of years now. And so all of that tells us, as does the IMF report, global growth is relatively sluggish, certainly the case here as well, and that’s why we need to be careful and cautious about how we go about beating this inflation challenge which is hanging around in all of our economies.
JOURNALIST:
A little side stepping Treasurer. The head of AEMO says the coalition’s nuclear plan will take too long to replace coal and gas should be the backstop, do you agree?
CHALMERS:
I think what they said about Peter Dutton’s nuclear fantasy is absolutely bang on. Peter Dutton’s nuclear fantasy is economic insanity. We’re talking about a nuclear option which will push up power prices, which will cost more to build, which will take longer, and which will do absolutely nothing to replace the ageing coal assets that will come out of the system over the next 15 years or so. It is probably the dumbest and the maddest economic policy that I’ve seen in my time in politics, it makes absolutely no sense whatsoever and that’s what the independent energy experts made clear in their comments.
JOURNALIST:
On energy probably from a local perspective, here in the Far North we, through the Environment Minister’s intervention had [indistinct] withdrawn. What role do you see the Far North playing in the energy transition given such an environmentally sensitive area?
CHALMERS:
I’m going to throw to Lance in a minute but I might me just say a couple of things, if that’s alright. I know Lance wants to add to this too. North Queensland and Far North Queensland have an absolutely central role to play in the net zero energy transformation, absolutely crucial, absolutely central role to play. And I think the state government and the federal government have both made that really clear. We want to see more renewable capacity added to the grid, it’s got to be consistent with our environment regime and our approvals processes, but we want to see more renewables added to the grid and we think Queensland and particularly North and Far North Queensland has a big role to play in that. And you can see from our commitment in the Budget to becoming a renewable energy superpower, you can see from Chris Bowen’s great work, that we see this part of Australia as front and centre when it comes to making Australia an indispensable part of global net zero transformation but we need do that consistent with the environmental rules and processes and that’s what we’ve seen play out here. I’ll throw to Lance.
McCALLUM:
Far North Queensland is absolutely critical to the future of Queensland’s clean energy plans. We’ve got a very comprehensive evidence based plan called the Queensland energy and jobs plan which is going to make sure that we’ve got the investment and the jobs being created that Queensland deserves through the transition to clean energy. Far North Queensland is absolutely critical to that. We’re investing in our existing assets, like Barron Gorge and of course we’re transforming our energy network in to the Queensland super grid. We’ve invested in network batteries, that will continue, we will see more and more storage, all of this is creating good high quality jobs in the clean energy sector and in Queensland and is still publicly owned and it will always remain publicly owned under the Miles Labor government.
It is critical, public ownership is helping deliver the $1,000 of energy rebates that are rolling out right across Queensland right now, including in Far North Queensland. That goes up to $1,300 with the addition of the Albanese Labor government’s contributions to energy rebates. What we don’t need to see in Queensland, what we certainly don’t need to see in Far North Queensland or anywhere along the Great Barrier Reef is nuclear energy. Whether it is being created under the LNP because that’s what they want to do. They want to put nuclear reactors, not one but 2 in Queensland, what is going to happen with the waste? Is that going to be shipped, trucked, railed, right throughout our communities? It is going to drive up electricity prices. I mean leave it to the LNP in the middle of a cost‑of‑living crunch to take the energy policy option that will increase bills by 3 to 6 times. It is absolute madness, it’s not good for Queenslanders, it’s certainly not good for Far North Queensland.
CHALMERS:
Thanks very much.