PM answers key questions for Far North Qld ahead of election
In a wide-ranging interview, the PM exclusively spoke about rugby league’s future in Far North Queensland, World Heritage listing in Cape York, an abandoned renewables project in the Daintree and how he believes Labor can win the pending federal election.
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An election has yet to be called but Prime Minister Anthony Albanese is hitting the hustings in earnest, sweeping through Cairns as part of a whirlwind tour of northern Australia this week.
Mr Albanese started in Gympie on Monday, then trekked to Rockhampton before flying to Cairns on Tuesday morning with stops in Mt Isa and the Northern Territory scheduled for Wednesday.
In a wide-ranging interview, the PM exclusively spoke to the Cairns Post about rugby league’s future in the Far North, World Heritage listing in Cape York, an abandoned renewables project in the Daintree and how Labor can win the pending federal election.
You said the last election was about trust. What will the key theme of this federal election be from your perspective?
It’s a choice between a government that cares about families and the country. It’s why we’ve provided cost-of-living measures. It’s why we’re doing the Bruce Highway, why we’re having a future made in Australia and a future agenda. Then there’s an opposition that isn’t ready to return to government, hasn’t put forward any alternative views, has opposed every cost-of-living measure that we’ve done and would take Australia backwards.
Do you think you’ve earned voters’ trust over your term?
We’ve done to the best of our endeavours everything that we said we would do. We have dealt with challenges. The global impact of inflation has affected the cost of living globally. But we’ve kept the economy growing. There have been a million jobs created on our watch, we’ve turned inflation from having a six in front of it and rising, to having a two in front of it and falling. Unemployment’s 3.9 per cent. We’ve got real wages increasing for the last four quarters and we delivered tax cuts to every single taxpayer.
We’ve dealt with the challenges before us but we’ve also laid the foundations for dealing with future challenges.
The transition to net zero – climate change is a serious challenge. We can’t afford to walk away from it. We have record investment in renewables. But we’re also committed to rebuilding manufacturing, particularly here in Queensland and using the potential of critical minerals, rare earth, to seize that opportunity going forward.
You’ve inherited a different political landscape to the last election. A lack of support from unions hurt both Labor at the Queensland election and the Democrats in the US presidential election. Are you worried that a lack of campaign support from key backers might hinder the Labor Party this time?
We’re out there campaigning on our merits. In (Leichhardt hopeful) Matt (Smith) we have an outstanding candidate who’s embedded in the community and I’m very confident people will be out there campaigning for him.
But we’ve seen key players walk away. How are you prepared for the challenge that presents?
We will campaign. What I see wherever I go are enthusiastic party members determined not just to support what we’ve done but what we will do. I’ve done two major speeches in the last two months. One on HECS and free TAFE becoming permanent. We’re taking 20 per cent off the HECS debt of people. That will benefit millions of Australians. Three million people will benefit by a measure of $5500 each. There’s our childcare guarantee of three days’ support and $1bn of childcare infrastructure in areas of need.
The Queensland LNP says they’re not convinced World Heritage listing sites in Cape York will provide an economic benefit or that stakeholders have been adequately consulted. Has Labor dropped the ball or do you reject that assertion?
There’s nothing wrong with making sure that we get consultation right but this isn’t about to immediately happen. There’s a long process to any World Heritage assessment.
But a review could slow this process down significantly. This was first brought up about 15 years ago.
It’s a long process. It’s not about to be ticked off with a decision before the election. The Great Barrier Reef listing took a long period of time and this has got a long way to go. There has to be an international assessment. Inevitably, people have to be able to put forward their views. I’m fine with that.
You met with Warren Entsch around the time $18m in funding was pulled for the Daintree Microgrid Project …
It was never actually there. It wasn’t pulled.
There was a commitment for $18m from the federal government.
From which federal government?
The Morrison government and that was carried over and announced by (Environment Minister) Tanya Plibersek.
They didn’t provide it (the funding). It’s something that Warren is interested in. We do proper assessments for any project. Today we’ve had $50m in projects announced. They’re real and ready to go. I have private conversations with members of parliament and they stay private but I confirm that he raised it with me.
There has been a significant investment in soft diplomacy in the Pacific by Australia during your term but defence experts consistently highlight the lack of funding to better protect our borders throughout Cape York, the Torres Strait and Cairns. Is it time that changed?
The Defence Strategic Review looked at that and what you’re seeing is increased expenditure in Northern Australia. You’ll see that … right across the Top End. It’s something that we’re very conscious of. We need to invest in our capability but we also need to invest in our relationships and we’re doing both.
On the Pacific, the initial aspirations for the Papua New Guinean NRL franchise was that it would be a joint bid between Cairns and PNG. That didn’t materialise but do you think Cairns still plays a role in the PNG NRL franchise?
Of course it will. I can see games being played here. Training occurring here and a close relationship with benefits for Cairns. People who go to Port Moresby for games, the logical thing for them to do is come to Cairns for a while. I see it as a big plus.
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Originally published as PM answers key questions for Far North Qld ahead of election
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