STEPHEN JONES:
Firstly, great to be here in Newcastle, a beautiful city in coastal New South Wales, visiting here with friends and family. I want to make a couple of comments regarding some stories around this morning. Firstly, in relation to Medicare, Australians would know that after 9 years of Coalition government, Medicare had been smashed. We’re doing everything we can to put that system back together again. And we said that we know we can’t repair the damage that was done by the Coalition in one term. It’ll take more than that. Our priority has been children, our priority has been pensioners and restoring bulk billing arrangements for children and pensioners. Significant success in that. Also significant success with the rollout of Urgent Care Clinics, which are providing hundreds of thousands of bulk billed urgent appointments for Australians in need of urgent care every week. We’ve got more to do, but we know that Medicare, an important Labor invention, an important national institution, we’ll be doing everything in our power. And there’s more to come to ensure that we can restore Medicare to a level that Australians expect.
On energy, interesting to see overnight that major industry representatives have come out and called for policy clarity. They’ve got that for the first time under Labor, for the first time in over a decade, we’ve got long term industry policy, which is encouraging investment in generation, which we did not see under a decade of Coalition government. We understand the concerns of industry, of investors who are seeing on a daily basis, the madness of the Coalition: their nuclear fantasy – which won’t turn on a new watt of electricity for well over a decade when we need more generation now – and their plans to roll back all of the reporting which ensures investors know how to invest in clean and renewable energy. So, we joined with industry, calling on the Coalition to drop its crazy nuclear plan and to ensure that businesses and investors have all the right signals to ensure we can have further investment in energy, renewable energy, for now and into the future.
As Australians come out of Christmas and into the new Year, lots of us are making New Year’s resolutions to get fit, to eat better, to learn a new language, to ensure that we can expand our minds. And we welcome that, it’s a fantastic thing. Most Australians will be thinking about how they can have a better 2025. Unfortunately, we’ve seen a lot of dodgy business practices grow up with the invention of digital platforms. We’re seeing subscription traps in particular – where it’s really easy to sign up to a new gym membership, a new streaming service, a new meal delivery service – but almost impossible to get out. It’s a dodgy practice. Other countries are cracking down on it and so is Australia. We’ve already announced that we’ll be introducing new laws to keep these sort of dodgy practices out of the Australian economy. Business doesn’t have to wait for the Labor government to introduce these new laws prohibiting unfair trading practices. They can move immediately to ensure that when they’re signing customers up, it’s as easy to get out of a service as it is to sign up. Happy to take your questions.
JOURNALIST:
We understand you’re trying to warn Australians about subscription traps, but what about you know, when will you actually be able to introduce legislation on this? Will it be in the first sitting week of the year?
JONES:
We’ve done a consultation over the last few months. We’ve got all the results in from consumer groups, from business, from stakeholders, working through that stuff over the Christmas break and throughout January and February. We want to get the laws introduced as soon as possible, but we want to ensure that they’re right. So, it’s a this year project. We want to ensure that Australians are safe when they’re shopping online and they’re not subject to these unfair trading practices.
JOURNALIST:
Will you be able to legislate before the election?
JONES:
We’ll be working as fast as we can to ensure the laws are fit for purpose and that they can be introduced into Parliament when they’re ready. That’s why we’ve done the consultation. We’ll have draft legislation out in the first quarter of this year, if we can’t get it done before the election. It’s certainly a high priority for an Albanese Labor government after the election.
JOURNALIST:
And just on – the government was saying there’s been a rise in these dodgy practices. What are you hearing? What are you seeing?
JONES:
We’re seeing people signing up to a gym membership where it’s almost impossible to get out. We’re seeing people signing up to a streaming service where it was very easy to sign up, impossible to get out. We’re seeing people sign up for a 2 week free subscription to something where it’s almost impossible for them to get out of that trial. We’re seeing people automatically renewed on these services, often without their knowledge and almost impossible for them to stop or remove the subscription. They’ve got to go online, they’ve got to ring a call centre which is never open or nobody ever answers the calls. Lots of tactics are used by poor business practices which are making it harder for Australians to change their mind when they sign up to one of these services.
JOURNALIST:
I have a few questions from my Canberra colleagues, but is there anymore on subscriptions?
JOURNALIST:
I do have, sorry I have another question on subscriptions just in terms of the drip feeding, the drip pricing –
JONES:
Drip pricing? Yep.
JOURNALIST:
Is there anything in the, is there anything in the consultation that, now that that’s closed, that has surprised you when it’s come in about the way those practices have been rolled out and that and, you know, have there been any surprises? I guess, in what’s coming in.
JONES:
Australians are angry about these really deceptive trading practices, really dishonest practices, where a price is advertised for a concert, for a sporting event, for a travel package. They go online to purchase that service and the price just keeps going up. It’s deceptive, it’s misleading, it’s dishonest. Not yet unlawful, but it will be.
JOURNALIST:
That’s great, thank you.
JOURNALIST:
Mine are related to ASIO.
JONES:
Sure, let’s go.
JOURNALIST:
Is ASIO reconsidering Australia’s terror threat level?
JONES:
Obviously, we don’t discuss the sorts of advice we get from our security agencies, but we have faith in them. They are some of the best in the world. They’re continually monitoring what’s going on in Australia and the impact of international events. And of course, after this terrible, terrible attack in New Orleans in the last 48 hours, every Australian’s heart goes out to the families of the victims and the friends of the victims. We don’t want to see this happening anywhere in the world. And we have faith that our security agencies are providing continuously the government with the best information to ensure we can keep Australians safe.
JOURNALIST:
What is the government doing to keep Australia safe from Islamic State and the other terror threats?
JONES:
We act on the advice of our security agencies, among the best in the world. They’re a part of international partnerships, intelligence sharing partnerships, to ensure that we have access to the best information in the world. We don’t discuss publicly the details of this information and this intelligence, but Australians can be assured that that the Albanese government is continually monitoring the situation, is getting access to the best information in the world and is acting on that and acting on that as and when is necessary.
JOURNALIST:
I just have a question with my Canberra colleagues. In December, you announced changes which would see social media and search engine giants pay for Australian news. What have you learnt from those initial meetings with these companies? Has any progress been made there?
JONES:
We announced our plan to ensure that social media companies make a contribution to the news gathering and production effort in Australia. Quality journalism, absolutely critical to the health of our democracy and our society. We want to ensure that social media platforms are making a contribution to that. We’ll have a consultation paper out in the next month to ensure that we get the details of our legislation right. But the policy parameters have been announced. We’ll be ensuring that that contribution, there is a great emphasis towards ensuring that we have voluntary contributions through voluntary agreement making. That is our preference. A new news media charge, will be established in the event that those voluntary agreements aren’t struck. Of course, we don’t want to see a single dollar being raised by these new taxation arrangements. We want voluntary agreements to be made and entered into by the social media platforms and the Australian publishers.
JOURNALIST:
And any indication at this stage if Meta or Google or some of the others are willing to adhere to these proposed changes or is there any pushback yet?
JONES:
Obviously we’re in ongoing conversations with the platforms, won’t be discussing publicly the nature of those conversations. But what I can assure you and your listeners is that the Albanese government is determined to ensure that we’re supporting a vibrant news media industry and journalism in Australia. And that’s what these laws are all designed around.
JOURNALIST:
And on bulk billing. You’ve touched on this before, but would increasing the bulk billing incentives for GPs actually address the falling bulk billing rates?
JONES:
We’ve done a range of things in our first 2 and a half years. Firstly, increasing the bulk billing incentive for children and for pensioners. That has been our priority. Also rolling out the Urgent Care Clinics. More to come.
JOURNALIST:
And last one for me, thank you. What government support is being offered to the 2 Australian airline crew members in Fiji right now?
JONES:
We’ve got our consular officials working with them, won’t be commenting too much on this given the nature of the allegations that have been made, but they’re having the full support of the Australian Government.