TANYA PLIBERSEK MP
MINISTER FOR THE ENVIRONMENT AND WATER
SENATOR NITA GREEN
SPECIAL ENVOY FOR THE GREAT BARRIER REEF
SENATOR FOR QUEENSLAND
MATT SMITH
LABOR CANDIDATE FOR LEICHHARDT
E&OE TRANSCRIPT
DOORSTOP
CAIRNS
TUESDAY, 22 APRIL 2025
SUBJECTS: Pope Francis; Cheaper child care; Daintree microgrid; Yellow Crazy Ants; Cairns infrastructure.
MATT SMITH, LABOR CANDIDATE FOR LEICHHARDT: Good morning, my name is Matt Smith I'm the ALP candidate for the Federal seat of Leichhardt. I would like to begin by expressing my condolences to those of the Catholic faith around Australia who are mourning the death of His Holy Father, the bishop of Rome, of Francis, and our thoughts are obviously with you during this time, he was a great man and a great Pope who instituted many changes to the Catholic Church.
But that's not why we're here today. We're here today under this alarmingly low roof to announce a really exciting investment in child care in Kuranda, up to $5 million for the building of a new child care centre in Kuranda. This goes on top of Anthony Albanese’s commitment to early childhood education. In fact, all education for your child from go through to whoa. So not only is there investment in more child care centres, we've increased the wages of those who work in there by 15%, we've got three days per week subsidised child care for everybody. The means test has been taken away to make sure that working parents have that surety that they will have a child care place for their kids. We also have fee free TAFE - training the next generation of early childhood educators. Early childhood education is one of those careers that you want to do your whole life. It’s the fulfilment of a dream for many of the people working right here, right now, and fee free TAFE is going to open that door for so many people. We've also gone the full Gonski so to speak, Queensland schools will be properly funded going forward. We've got additional CSP places. We're reducing HECS fees by 20% for university students. We are taking care of Australia's future. I'm very, very proud to make this commitment, should the Anthony Albanese government be re-elected. We also have Minister Tanya Plibersek here this is her fourth visit to the region. I'm very thankful for the time she spends up here, and I'll turn it over to you now,
TANYA PLIBERSEK, MINISTER FOR THE ENVIRONMENT AND WATER: It’s lovely to be here in Cairns today with Labor’s candidate for Leichhardt Matt Smith and with Senator Nita Green, the Special Envoy for the Reef. And like Matt, I want to express my condolences on the death of Pope Francis. I was very sad last night when I heard of his passing. I think Pope Francis has made an enormous contribution for Catholics in Australia and around the world. He really has been an extraordinary Pope, first from the southern hemisphere, first pope from South America, the first Jesuit. He really has made a point of asserting the church's mission amongst the poor and the excluded. And I know that a lot of Australian Catholics today and Catholics around the world will be grieving. I think well beyond the Catholic faith people all around the world people recognise that Pope Francis was a good and humble man, who has made a real contribution.
But as Matt said today, we actually have some terrific news. A re-elected Albanese Labor Government would invest up to $5 million to build a new early learning and child care centre in Kuranda. This is just one example of the sort of investments we're making into early learning for Australian children and to making child care more available and more affordable for Australian families. We've already reduced the cost of child care for around a million families across Australia. The average family is about $2,700 better off this year because of the cost reductions in child care fees. Child care fees are one of the biggest pressures on families after the mortgage or the rent, it's often the child care fees that people have been struggling with most, and that cheaper child care has made a big difference to family budgets.
As Matt said, we've also expanded our child care guarantee – three days guaranteed child care subsidy to make sure that no child misses out. In the past child care has been dependent on parents working but we know that early childhood education is a real benefit for Australian children. When they start school ready to learn, they do better throughout their schooling. So this is really an investment in all children. We don't want any child to miss out on early childhood education because of their parents income or because of their work commitments.
We know, though, that a cheaper child care has to be coupled with more available child care, and there are many parts of Australia where even if you had the money you couldn’t find a place in a child care centre, and that's why we're investing up to a billion dollars across Australia to build child care centres in places of high need. Matt Smith, as the candidate for Leichhardt, has identified that Kuranda is a place desperately in need of early child care places, and that's why, if re-elected, the Albanese Labor Government will invest up to $5 million to build a child care centre in Kuranda.
So it's about affordability, it's about availability, it's also about having enough staff to do the work. And as Matt has said, we've backed pay increases for early childhood educators. We know that early childhood educators are among some of the most underpaid workers in the Australian workforce, and that was leading to dramatic workforce shortages in many parts of Australia. By backing a pay increase, by the end of this year, it’ll be about $155 a week by backing that pay increase for early childhood educators, we've seen many, many additional people come into the sector, and that is great news for those early childhood educators who love their work, who love their work and want to be able to do it, and it's great news for Australian children who get the education that they need and they deserve.
Today, we're just about two weeks out, just under two weeks out from the election and early voting has started. Early childhood education is just one of the areas where you see a dramatic difference between the Albanese Labor Government and a coalition under Peter Dutton. We are for cheaper child care, we are for more places, we are for better wages in early childhood education and care. Peter Dutton has opposed all of that, just as he is opposed all of our cost of living measures.
We are for higher wages and lower taxes for working families. Peter Dutton wants to see lower wages and higher taxes on those same families. We are for cheaper child care, cheaper medicines, more bulk billed visits to the doctor, fee-free TAFE, reducing HECS debts, electricity bill relief, we’re for better investment in schools right across Australia. Peter Dutton and says this is wasteful spending. Peter Dutton has got nothing to help Australians with the cost of living pressures they're facing beyond one off bonuses that last for just a year. The difference could not be clearer. Matt Smith and Labor for higher wages, lower taxes and help with cost of living, or Peter Dutton for lower wages, higher taxes and nothing to help with cost of living. Any questions?
JOURNALIST: When would you expect a centre like that to be opened by, in Kuranda sorry?
PLIBERSEK: if we are elected, we'll then work with the local government and state government to identify the best location in Kuranda and identify the operator. The preference we look for are high quality, not for profit, child care operator. But as soon as we've identified the location and the operator, we’ll be ready to make that investment.
JOURNALIST: And Matt, you identified the need for a centre there. Can you sort of speak about that demand?
SMITH: Kuranda is a growth area. You know, there's increasingly more people choosing to live in Kuranda and commute down to Cairns, and it makes more sense for them to be able to have their children and stay close to home for child care. And that's why this was identified as a place to go. If you look around Cairns and find many, many great child care centres. Kuranda was a little bit unrepresented.
PLIBERSEK: Any other questions?
JOURNALIST: I've got some questions on environment.
PLIBERSEK: We might do all the questions to me, and then if you've got any more for Matt afterwards we’ll do them all together so we’re not jumping up and down on the mics.
JOURNALIST: The LNP have recommitted the $18 million to the Daintree microgrid this morning, you publicly applauded that project, saying we're delivering renewables in the Daintree a few years back. How disappointed were you when that funding was pulled?
PLIBERSEK: Look, I was very disappointed the proponent for that project couldn't deliver on the project, but we have a responsibility to spend taxpayers dollars responsibly, and when the proponent is given every opportunity to meet the requirements of the funding agreement they've entered into, and they're not able to meet those requirements, then it's not responsible to keep throwing taxpayers dollars at it. I think this is a broader problem with the way that Peter Dutton is making decisions about taxpayers dollars. Like he's he's decided he's picked a winner here, it's not a responsible thing to do to throw taxpayers dollars at a project that has been given every opportunity to proceed and hasn't managed to do that. If you've got any more questions to me, let's ask them. But I might ask Nita Green to say a few words about the microgrid project afterwards as well.
JOURNALIST: Are you saying Peter Dutton is wasting money by backing this project?
PLIBERSEK: Well, I'm saying the proponent had a funding agreement. They weren't able to meet the terms of the funding agreement. I'm not sure why Peter Dutton thinks it's a wise thing to give taxpayers dollars to a project that has had every opportunity to proceed and hasn't managed to deliver what they've promised up till now.
JOURNSALIST: But are you considering the weather events and how that may have impacted their ability to?
PLIBERSEK: Look I’ll get Nita to make some more detailed comments. But of course, we've considered and given the proponent every opportunity to meet the funding agreement that they've entered into.
JOURNALIST: Warren Entsch has claimed that you did refuse to meet with any traditional owners who are kind [inaudible]. What do you make of that?
PLIBERSEK: Well Warren Entsch says a lot of stuff that I don’t agree with.
JOURNALIST: So did you meet with the traditional owners?
PLIBERSEK: I’m not going to talk about individual projects and the discussions I've had with proponents or other interested parties. I'm not going to do that. It's not appropriate for a decision maker to go into those details.
JOURNALIST: The proponents themselves also said they requested meetings, but you refused to meet with them. Did you meet with the proponents?
PLIBERSEK: I'm not going to answer questions about individual projects. This project has had plenty of opportunities to meet the funding requirements. This is not a project that has been able to meet the commitments that they've made. That's the simple fact of it. We don't we don't cancel funding agreements lightly. What you do is give a proponent multiple opportunities to meet the commitments that they have made as a proponent. I want to see more renewable energy around Australia. So far as the environment minister, I've approved enough renewable energy to power every single home in Australia. Since coming to government, the Albanese Government has added 15 gigawatts of renewable energy to the grid. That is more than Peter Dutton’s nuclear reactors will deliver if they ever get off the ground. It's more than three times the Snowy Hydro. This is the government that has backed renewables at every opportunity. What we can't do is back projects that are failing, and keep giving taxpayers dollars to projects that are not proceeding in the way they have made commitments to proceed.
JOURNALIST: Would you consider like relooking at the plan and kind of readjusting so that it can go ahead? Because it kind of seems like it's an important project?
PLIBERSEK: That's not a decision for me. That's a decision for the Climate and Energy Minister. The role that I have as Environment Minister is to give approvals, environmental approvals, for projects to proceed. And I gave an environmental approval for this project to proceed. What the project proponents didn't do was deliver on the commitments they made for the next steps of that project to go ahead. And I can't be clearer about the fact that we back renewables. As I say, we've added 15 gigawatts of renewable energy to the grid in just the last three years since coming to government. That's an enormous amount of renewable energy, and we've got much more in the pipeline. I've approved enough renewable energy to power every single home in Australia. This is a government that backs renewables every opportunity we get. They need to meet their environmental approvals, and they need to deliver on the commitments they make if they are receiving government funding. That's the bottom line.
JOURNALIST: Will you renew the Yellow Crazy Ants program for another two years?
PLIBERSEK: Well, we've been working very well with the delivery partners on the ground for Yellow Crazy Ants. I’m not going to make any announcements about that today, but I am very pleased with how the control has been going for Yellow Crazy Ants. It's just one example of this sort of work that we're doing right across Australia. Yellow Crazy Ants, Gamba Grass, feral pigs, as you know, have been a big problem, particularly after the few wet years we've had, feral goats. We've got a range of programs with NRMs and environmental organisations to deal with feral animals and dangerous insects like Yellow Crazy Ants and we’ll continue to work with those proponents to deliver on the programs. These are serious threats to our environment, and they've been particularly bad after heavy rains, because, of course, we know that heavy rains can add to a spreading of these, these insects, in particular, once they, once they get into an environment, rain waters can spread them very easily.
JOURNALIST: Will you talk to the experts on the ground because they are saying that without this two year commitment of $6 million, the last ten years have been wiped away effectively?
PLIBERSEK: Well, we'll continue to work with scientists, with the delivering partners on the ground, because we see that this is a very serious issue. Okay I’ll give you Nita for the microgrid if you like and then we can lift the mics and you can have Matt, if you've got any other questions for him.
NITA GREEN, SENATOR FOR QUEENSLAND: Thank you, and thank you Minister. And as the Minister has said, this project sits under Minister Bowen's portfolio. I know that Minister Bowen did meet with traditional owners about this project and the concerns that we all have about the project going forward when it didn't have the full funding commitment that it was required and required investment from overseas to deliver the project, which it was never able to find. What we know about the announcement made today is that it will not fully fund a microgrid. It has it will fund a business case. That is what has been announced, and that is concerning to me, because it seems to me that LNP, again, is promising to build a microgrid, but not providing the funds to do that. And the reason that they're doing that is because it will require investment from overseas, and we worked with the proponents, we gave them every chance to get that investment that they required, and they weren't able to do that. So it is, I guess, a concern that another commitment has been made of this kind, which essentially funds a business case, not a microgrid.
The other thing I'd say is, I think this is a bit disingenuous from Jeremy Neal, the LNP candidate. He doesn't support our renewable energy targets. He doesn't support our emissions reductions targets. His plan for taking action on climate change and for dealing with the mess that was left by the LNP when it comes to our energy mix is to support nuclear power, and I'm confident that he didn't talk about that today in the press conference, because he doesn't want people in the Daintree or Far North Queensland to know that he supports a risky, expensive nuclear power plant that would put 2 billion tonnes of carbon into our atmosphere, put the Reef at risk and all the jobs that rely on it. Instead of supporting renewable energy projects that are not fully funded, we want candidates in Leichhardt like Matt Smith, who will stand up for the Reef, stand up for our climate, and as the Minister said, deliver on our renewable energy targets, which the minister has been doing in spades, I think we've ticked off enough renewable energy projects to power every entire home in Australia.
JOURNALIST: Given the failures to Queensland's power network at the moment, do you think the conditions imposed on the private sector trying to build renewable power supply should maybe be eased from the government perspective?
GREEN: I think that might be a question for the minister, because you're asking a broader question about the grid and renewable energy projects. We've ticked off a lot of projects the minister can speak to that.
PLIBERSEK: Sorry can you ask your question again?
JOURNALIST: Given the failures to Queensland's power network at the moment, should it be made easier for the private sector to apply for and use government funding to deliver renewable energy projects?
PLIBERSEK: So since coming to government, we've approved enough renewable energy to power every single home in Australia, the projects can be ticked off in as little as six weeks. If they're well located, if they've got a good environmental footprint, we can tick them off as quickly as six weeks. And we've now doubled on time approvals since I became the environment minister. It is really important when a project proponent puts forward a project that it stacks up environmentally and it stacks up economically. And I think we can do things both quickly and efficiently, and we've proven that.
JOURNALIST: Question for Matt. Do you support unlocking the southern growth corridor to expand housing supply for Cairns?
SMITH: Ultimately, that's where Cairns’ growth is going to have to go. If you look to the Northern Beaches, there's very little room for growth there. There's the Gasparin and land down at Trinity Park. But Cairns is a linear city, so it is going to have to go south. You've got the ocean on one side and the ranges on the other, so there is nowhere to go but south. So yes, we will be supporting that.
JOURNALIST: Will you commit to $150 million requested by the Council and the CEO to implement that infrastructure?
SMITH: No announcement is going to be made today. We're still working through that process with the council. Amy has indicated that it's not the full $150 million that is required first up, and this will be a staged approach. So once we've got better handle on that, we'll be able to have those conversations about funding.
JOURNALIST: [inaudible]
SMITH: We did. We definitely funded the water supply.
ENDS
