Bush Summit Q&A

CHRIS JONES, HOST: Well thank you, Prime Minister, and welcome to Townsville. You wouldn't want to be anywhere else today.

ANTHONY ALBANESE, PRIME MINISTER: Absolutely. I'll be going back to cold Canberra after this.

JONES: Don't know why you don't stay the weekend.

PRIME MINISTER: Very, very pleasant. I'll speak to my diary people about my schedule.

JONES: Go up to the Frosty Mango this afternoon. You didn't need any arm twisting to come to the Bush Summit when we messaged a few months ago and said it's back on. You've been at every one since 2019, as I said. What is it about the Bush Summit that makes you prioritise it in your diary?

PRIME MINISTER: Because there's an opportunity that's bringing, I look around this room and I know there are people from Townsville, but there's people from throughout North Queensland, but from other regions as well. It's an opportunity to talk and to engage and to listen as well. And last night's dinner was terrific. I got an opportunity to meet people, the people from Tully, if they're here, were particularly excited and it was just, it is so important. But one of the things I'm conscious of, and of course, Australia's largest inland city is Canberra. I mean, it's the Bush Capital of the nation. And, you know, I've made the decision that I think all Australian Prime Ministers should, to base myself there. One of the great privileges that you have as Prime Minister or as indeed other Members of Parliament can as well, is to get out and about. And you've got a responsibility to meet people wherever they live and to engage with them. So sometimes that can mean people coming to Canberra, but it's important to show respect as well by going to people. This is my 34th visit to Queensland as Prime Minister since, in two years. It's my 14th visit to regional Queensland, to North and Central Queensland in that time as well - and it's enjoyable. You know, you get to go, 'Here's an enjoyable engagement'. The Mount Isa Rodeo, I think I was the first Prime Minister to go there. Bob convinced me to go there, I don't know if Bob's here yet. But getting out and about is so important -

JONES: Robbie is -

PRIME MINISTER: There's Robbie. Bob's late in a shock announcement. But it's a great opportunity, so when I'm invited as well, to go, regardless of who invites me across the regions. At the risk of damaging Keith Pitt's career, I had a beer with Keith at a pub in Bargara. It's terrific to get out and about and to engage with people, and this Bush Summit, why wouldn't you, when everyone's in one place? And I think it's a great event and big shout out to Ben for starting it, but it's terrific that it's now a national program.

JONES: When you get out and about and you talk to regional Australians, what do you discern is the difference compared to the people who live in the city?

PRIME MINISTER: Yeah, I think there's a couple of things. One, it's important to say there's not a regional view - every region's different. You know, here in Townsville is very different from a place like Dubbo, which is different from a place like Griffith. I mean, Griffith is, I think, was last year or the year before, two years ago, very much about agriculture. You know, the Murray Darling, water, those issues. This city is such a diverse economy. Its future is in agriculture, but it's also about the export potential here at the largest port in the north at all, by a long way. It's about manufacturing. It's about the new economy and clean energy driving that manufacturing. The programs like CopperString, which will provide power from Mount Isa through to Townsville, through the range of places along, like Hughenden and others along that route, is going to make an enormous difference to this city. And I think getting out there though, something that is in common, is that people in regional Australia are much more likely to just come up to you and be friendly and just talk to you on a one on one basis. Like, it doesn't matter what your title is. When you're, you know, at the footy here or just walking around the streets, people engage in a respectful way, but in a way that's not, you know, not confrontation. So, they want to chat and they want to engage. This morning, at the risk of giving another radio, another media company, some advertising. I said I'd do one of the FM radio interviews and it was in the driveway of someone, Jodie, not my favourite Jodie, my second favourite Jodie I said to her. Her 40th birthday and she's got this live radio broadcast from a driveway in Mundingburra with, you know, Kyle Feldt's there from the Cowboys and they've got a coffee machine out the front. That wouldn't happen in a city. That is just so good about what happens in regional Australia. It's a welcoming place.

JONES: I bet also, though, what you hear in regional Australia is that people come up to you and they say, 'Why can't we have this or that?', 'Why do we not have the same services as people in the city?'. Whether that's perception or reality, it exists, right? Like that's a real challenge for you as a politician when you come out into regional communities. How do you get through that and convince them, or how do you give the focus that's required?

PRIME MINISTER: Oh, it is. Well, you've got to deliver. I mean, one of the things that governments need to do, and I think my government's done, is put away colour coded spreadsheets and deliver resources wherever people live. Regional comms, for example, is so important. I mean, people, I get that would drive people mad if they're driving along a highway and they get blackout areas. So you've got to work to fix that. You've got to make sure that people have the same education opportunities as well here. You've got to make sure health, I mean, our Urgent Care Clinics have been rolled out, prioritising regional areas. I mean, that's essentially in between a GP and emergency department, how do you have something so if your kid falls off the bike or you cut yourself, you've got somewhere to go to get the care that you need. It's not life threatening, but it's pretty urgent, better get fixed if you've got a broken arm or something. And the Urgent Care Clinics is that idea of taking pressure off of communities. The other thing about services is keeping people here. If we didn't do something about fixing the wages of people in aged care and childcare, aged care joints would shut. You can't exist. When we promised to put nurses back in the nursing homes, people said, 'Oh, you know, that's impossible'. Ninety-nine per cent of the time, there is a nurse in every aged care facility in the country. We have done that in two years. That helps, particularly in the regions, because it's a lot easier to have staff attracted to Marrickville than it is in Biloela or Mount Isa. Similarly, in early childhood education, the fifteen per cent wage increase we've announced is a part of the research, the experts all tell us, unless you fix wages, you won't fix the system. So there's more to come in terms of reform. But those things particularly help people in the regions, because there is frustration - why can't I have the same services that people in Marrickville can have access to? And one of the things my government's determined to do is to make sure that wherever possible that is the case.

JONES: One of the big benefits of the Bush Summit is getting out, as you've been saying, and listening to people in the regions. Last year in Queensland, our event was in Rockhampton, and those of us who blew in for the day were surprised to see a protest outside of farmers who were concerned about the proliferation of wind farms on their properties and what they say is a lack of the normal, sort of, green tape, red tape regulation that needs to come in place. In the last week, your government's used Section 10 of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Heritage Act to reject, to override an existing approval of a tailing dam at a gold mine. Why is it that the government tends to attack mining proposals, whereas renewable energy seems to get a free ride?

PRIME MINISTER: Well, that's not right. And indeed, the mining proposal that you talk about, the mine remains approved. There's no blocking of that. It's a matter of where the tailing dam is located and when the proponents of the project put it forward, Tanya Plibersek's here, she advises that they had a range of options for where the tailing dam would go. So, a common sense approach. If you're sensible, you can get good environmental outcomes as well as getting industry going ahead. And that is something that - I mean, my government, in terms of the resources sector, has worked very closely with them. We have projects like the critical minerals, the production tax credits that currently are being blocked by the Coalition and the Greens, they've said. That will be a transformative measure. It pays on success. You only get the production tax credits when the project is delivering in critical minerals. And we'll continue to work productively. When it comes to issues like wind farms and solar farms, there does need to be proper community consultation. But just to give one example in this region, from farmers talking about the positive nature of it, you know, some sheep farmers who take advantage of the fact that when you've got a solar panel on your farm as well, it changes the temperature, it makes it less cold at night and takes away some of the heat during the day as well. And there can be real productivity benefits as well. So, there are examples of the interaction working well. Does community consultation, you know, can it be better? Of course it can. It can always be better. But the income stream that can be got as well can be a very important source for people in regional communities. And when it's combined with a bit of vision as well. I mean, Robbie, I know, has been pretty keen on the CopperString project for a long period of time. That's an example of essentially how you take the renewable energy projects that - I've been near Hughenden, there's 'Big Kennedy' and 'Little Kennedy', and there's also an old copper mine that's been converted into hydro with storage. How do you connect that up to the grid to make sure that potentially - we have this huge space. I mean, I speak to people, ministers and leaders from Japan and the Republic of Korea and these countries where our resources go from under the ground. They are so envious of the big thing that we have here that they don't have, which is space. And what space does in the new economy is enable you to take advantage of those renewables and potentially those renewables as well powering green hydrogen. The amount of investment in this city from the Republic of Korea is - I don't know what the figure is off the top of my head - but it is absolutely enormous and that's about economic opportunity here as well. So, yeah, we need to get it right. Yes, community consultation can always be better, but the eye on the main game is how does Australia's economy benefit, and particularly the regions. The big two states that will benefit from the shift in the global economy are Western Australia and Queensland. And Queensland is so much stronger in terms of its positioning because you've got cities like Townsville. Because you've got this port. Because you've got the most regionalised of states, as you've said, and that's a big plus.

JONES: The other thing we do at the Courier Mail and all of our mastheads is really listen to our readers. And we asked our readers this week "what question would you ask of the Prime Minister?" The overwhelming majority related to questions about the Bruce Highway. Leyland from Rockhampton says "It's a national disgrace. What are you going to do about bringing it up to national safety standard?" Paul from Zillmere, which is in Brisbane but he drives the Bruce Highway, Paul says "When will the Bruce Highway retain the funding needed to make it dual carriageway and in decent condition?" Our 'Save Our Bruce Highway' or 'Fix the Bruce Highway' has been that - our call has been for a long term commitment from government to finish the Bruce Highway. It's a long road with small communities. To fix it, just like the Hume Highway was fixed 20 years ago. Like the Princes Highway and Pacific Highway in your state have done. What's the fix? Are you going to commit to a long term plan to finish the Bruce Highway?

PRIME MINISTER: Well, it needs to be done. It's the national highway. And, you know, when I was the Minister last time, in the six years in which I was the Minister, we put $7.6 billion into the Bruce Highway, compared with $1.3 billion in double the time in the twelve years of the Howard Government. We did projects right up and down, be it Townsville Ring Road, the area south of Cairns, the Cooroy to Curra project that was finally completed, the fourth stage of it, own around the Gympie region as well. Right up and down the Highway. There's more to be done. We've got substantial funding now on the table. A bit like Reef HQ, the Rockhampton Ring Road was announced but the funding wasn't there. You need all the funding to get it done. So, we had double the Commonwealth's contribution. You can't build a road with a media release. You need to build it with dollars and workers and a plan to get it done. Rockhampton Ring Road is now under construction. I mean that's an example. I did the study when I was the Minister and when I became the Prime Minister, the thing hadn't been started yet. There hadn't been a hole dug. Lots of media releases, no holes. It's now under construction and there'd be pretty close to, if not more, 1000 workers on the ground getting that done as well. We did a range of projects right up and down the Highway. There is more to be done there. It is a long road and it will require substantial funding and it won't be done overnight and it won't be done in one term. But I'm an infrastructure nerd. I know every bit of that Highway. And one of the things happened during the pandemic, we got, I couldn't go to Sydney because New South Wales was shut. If I went there, I couldn't go anywhere else. So, I could go from Canberra and fly over New South Wales to Queensland and go wherever I wanted. So, we did three road trips. I drove from Cairns or to be honest, sitting in the passenger seat, but was driven from Cairns with Prue, who's here with us now as my advancer. We went from Cairns all the way to Brisbane, went from Barcaldine all the way through Blackwater and Emerald and Bilo and down as well. I did another trip from - I'm not sure if I flew into Rocky or Gladstone, from memory, and did that section. So, I'm fully aware of the state of the Highway because I've driven on every inch of it during the pandemic a few years ago.

JONES: So, why don't you give regional Queenslanders confidence that a commitment from you that then the Federal Opposition can match, that you will finish the Bruce Highway by a date? It's already happened in your state for the three highways that service -

PRIME MINISTER: It happened because I was the Infrastructure Minister and we did the Pac Highway at the same time as we were doing the Bruce.

JONES: You're the Prime Minister now so you can direct the Infrastructure Minister.

PRIME MINISTER: Yeah. And we do that and we're getting it done. And we're getting it done. What I don't want to do and people don't need in this country is media releases that make claims that then don't get delivered. I want to do it as soon as possible. I want to work with the Queensland State Government on doing that. And we've been working - areas like Rocky needed extra money from them as well. And we have got that done with the Queensland Government that is under construction and underway.

JONES: Now, I know you could talk infrastructure projects all day, but we are getting the wind up. So, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, thank you so much for your time and for being here today.

PRIME MINISTER: Thanks very much.

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