Radio interview - ABC North Queensland

MICHAEL CLARKE, HOST: One of the stars of that show, which you can catch on iview now, is the Prime Minister, Anthony Albanese, who is with us today. Prime Minister, welcome to the show.

ANTHONY ALBANESE, PRIME MINISTER: Good morning. Can I say this. So, the stars are the people who are doing the interviewing in this show. It's absolutely delightful and I do encourage people to have a look either in the weekly episodes as they drop out or all are available on iview.

CLARKE: Did they ask you some tricky questions?

PRIME MINISTER: Did they? What!

CLARKE: Did they?

PRIME MINISTER: I won't preempt them, but let me tell you, I was far more nervous about doing The Assembly than I am here at ABC Townsville or anywhere else, I think.

CLARKE: All right, well, that's a high challenge, but it's good to have you here today.

PRIME MINISTER: There were no limits.

CLARKE: We had, the Bush Summit is getting underway today. You're going to be opening that. And we've got leaders from across the country and across the State who are there today. It's not often we get all of those leaders under the one roof. Why is an event like this important for Townsville?

PRIME MINISTER: It's absolutely critical to give a focus on regional Australia as a whole. But, of course, hosting in Townsville, North Queensland's capital, by far the largest city north of Brisbane, anywhere across this great continent of ours. And Townsville as well, has such an exciting present, but an even more exciting future. If you look at what's happening here, with the shift to net-zero, with the growth of renewables, with the growth, potentially here, of manufacturing, you have defence, of course, plays a critical role in this town as well. And we know, of course, with our Strategic Review of defence, that it will require a shift further north of many of our assets, including our people, our greatest asset. But there's so much that this great city has to offer.

CLARKE: Now, you've come today bearing gifts because you have announced a funding for Reef HQ, a long delayed project, and there has been quite a community push to get you to reach into your pocket to see the completion of that project, the rebuild of the Reef HQ facility. Why has it taken so long for you to commit this money?

PRIME MINISTER: Well, that's a question for the former Government. Why did they stuff this up? They didn't have the proper money allocated to fix Reef HQ. It's been shut since 2019. What we've been doing is working through with the Townsville City Council here to make sure that Reef HQ could be rebuilt. It's such an important centre for research as well as, of course, being great for the people who live here and the people who visit here. And, so, this is absolutely vital. Our contribution, an additional $100 million, brings that contribution to $180 million. That will ensure the viability of the project. You can't build a project with half the funding. That's the problem of so much of what the former Government did. We've made sure that it's fixed now.

CLARKE: That was interesting, that funding, though, because initially the funding was promised as a refurbishment of the existing facility and the closure wouldn't be so long. It wasn't until November of 2022, when your Government was in power, that GBRMPA said that they needed to have a complete rebuild of the facility and needed that extra funding. Did the Authority get permission from you and the Government to ask for that money or to change basically the nature of the work on that side?

PRIME MINISTER: What we did was not interfere and not play politics with it. Quite clearly, refurbishment wasn't enough. This wasn't a simple reno. It needed a complete redoing and that should have been sorted out prior to 2019. You don't do a renovation on your house and start works without knowing what you're doing and what's required. You put out tenders, you get it all lined up. And the same applies to an infrastructure project for a public facility. So, the fact that it basically was in abeyance for years, pretty clearly, from 2019 to 2022, it defies comprehension that people didn't know that more needed to be done. That's why the works essentially didn't get started.

CLARKE: Well, if you were aware that that work needed to be done, why not have the money sooner?

PRIME MINISTER: I wasn't the Government. I wasn't the Government. We were elected in 2022. It's now 2024. We've worked through the project with the Townsville City Council. The full funding is available. We want to make sure that this gets done. And in addition to that, today we've got almost $200 million as well for cleaner water into the Reef. And that will be important. A whole series of projects to make sure we deliver on issues like runoff and making sure that the waters around the Great Barrier Reef are as pristine as they can be. Tanya Plibersek, the Environment and Water Minister, is here with me today for a further announcement. We're getting things done in a sustainable way. We're making sure, as part of our measures as well, to deliver whilst we're keeping the budget in surplus, something that the former Government didn't do, because we do need to put that downward pressure on inflation at the same time as we're dealing with cost of living pressures.

CLARKE: With the money for the Reef HQ rebuild, was there federal pressure applied to the Townsville City Council last week to reallocate the City Deal's money that had been set aside for a concert hall and move that to Reef HQ? What happened last week?

PRIME MINISTER: No. They understood that when they looked at the issue of the concert hall, it simply wasn't going to be financially sustainable. It was going to cost $200 million and not produce a return, so be an ongoing drain on finances. So, they made what was, in my view, a very sensible decision. We now have a position where Reef HQ can go ahead with the rebuild. That's a sensible thing to do. What we want to do is to make sure that when we allocate funds, it actually results in something happening. As I said, you don't benefit from a media release, you benefit from things happening, and my Government's determined to do that.

CLARKE: Since that announcement, there has been quite a lot of disappointment in the arts community. And indeed, today, out the front of the Summit, there are going to be those from the arts community making their voices felt that they really feel that they've missed out on an opportunity here. That money has been taken from a project that was planned for Townsville. Can there be an assurance that maybe we will see during an election campaign coming up that there will be extra money for this concert hall, which is seen by the arts community as so vital for events, like the Australian Festival of Chamber Music, going forward into the future?

PRIME MINISTER: Well, the project wasn't going to happen. That's the point.

CLARKE: Why not?

PRIME MINISTER: Because it wasn't sustainable.

CLARKE: People have said they haven't seen the business case as to this. Are you going to release the business case to underline what that's about?

PRIME MINISTER: Well it's not our business case. The Council made a determination that it wasn't financially sustainable. And one of the things that we've done as well, with the funding, it hasn't all been reallocated, is to make sure that there is, with the Council, support for the local arts community as well, so there's some funding there.

CLARKE: The Mayor has said that he is still keen to see that project come to realisation and is hoping there will be funding for it.

PRIME MINISTER: Well, I look forward to the Mayor making a contribution and presenting a business case and making sure that things add up. As I said, it's no good just coming along and saying, "Oh, well, we want this to happen," without there being a business case, without it being financially viable. We'll invest in projects that add up, not because they tick a box on a colour coded spreadsheet based upon politics. What we want to do is to invest in real infrastructure that happens, because that's how you create real jobs and that's how you improve the lifestyle of people. I'd like to see a lot more infrastructure here in Townsville, across the board. It's a matter of making sure priorities are met and business cases are put forward. So, my Government will always receive, as part of our normal Budget processes, a range of initiatives put forward. We make those assessments and then hopefully, if things add up, then they're able to go ahead. But I don't think it's fair either when people in politics just say, "Oh, yeah, we'll go along with that," without making sure that it's actually viable and will happen.

CLARKE: I wanted to ask you, as you say, with that infrastructure issue, obviously more troops coming to Townsville, as we know, with that expansion. Housing is such a key issue in this community at the moment. What assurances or what focus are you putting into housing for a region like Townsville?

PRIME MINISTER: We're putting massive focus on both in terms of our regional incentives for home ownership have resulted in more than 15,000 people participating in that program to increase home ownership. But our $32 billion Homes for Australia plan is more funding from the Commonwealth Government than any government in history since federation. So, that goes to a whole range of programs. Home ownership, we have a shared equity scheme as well, before the Senate at the moment. If the Greens and Coalition would vote for it, that would be good. We have a Build to Rent initiative as well for the private sector to build homes that can then be rented out. In terms of affordable housing, that is held up in the Senate as well. We have our Housing Australia Future Fund, a $10 billion program. We have specific programs as well for women and children escaping domestic violence to house them, 4,000 homes through that program. And we have our social housing accelerator as well. Right around the country, there's so many public housing units and homes that aren't inhabited because they haven't been fixed up properly. We're making sure that we actually use the homes that we have. So, we're dealing all of that as well as more than a million Australians have benefited from our two increases in a row in rental assistance, the most increases that have ever happened under any government.

CLARKE: I think there needs to also be a focus on the building too, as you say, trying to get stock. Trying to get housing into the region.

PRIME MINISTER: Absolutely. The key is housing supply, and that is one of the things that the Build to Rent scheme is all about, boosting that housing supply. And if only the Senate would get out of the way and vote for it, that would go ahead. The Property Council of Australia estimates that will result in an additional 150,000 to 250,000 additional dwellings being built over the coming period. So, we are doing what we can. You can't solve an issue overnight. This is an area where, frankly, the Commonwealth had withdrawn from any engagement, said, basically, "that's a matter for the states and territories." There hadn't been a meeting, and I think there might be a meeting indeed today of Commonwealth-State housing Ministers. There hadn't been a meeting for the last five years of the former Federal Government where Commonwealth and state Ministers come together and talk about, okay, how do we fix housing supply? How do we make sure that people who want to move to the regions have a home to move to?

CLARKE: It is a busy day ahead with the Bush Summit getting underway later this morning and you will be opening that. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, appreciate you coming into our studio this morning and having a chat.

PRIME MINISTER: Great to be here on this beautiful Townsville day. I've got to say, it's a little bit warmer than Canberra, so it's an absolute delight to be here.

CLARKE: You might be able to take the jacket off later on today.

PRIME MINISTER: I can.

CLARKE: Anthony Albanese, our guest this morning on the program. This is ABC North Queensland. My name is Michael Clarke and thanks for being with me this morning as well.

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