BRIDGET ARCHER: Well, it’s a great pleasure for me to be here in Georgetown, my hometown, today, with this very important commitment here with state and federal colleagues welcoming the Prime Minister here today for this very important announcement of a $70 million hydrogen hub for Bell Bay. It has taken a lot of work by a lot of people to get to this point today. It is really a testament to the collaboration between stakeholders and the State and Federal Government to get to this point today. And I could not be more thrilled. As a former Mayor of this area and a local resident, I know just how important it is for businesses like CPT, where we are here today, to see this heavy industry, industrial businesses continue here in Bell Bay. We’ve had the smelters here for over 50 years and they are the foundation of the economy here. We’re seeing a diversification of the economy here in northern Tasmania and investing in tourism and the like as well. But it still remains the lifeblood of this community. And I’m really pleased to see that this announcement will take that forward long into the future. Prime Minister.
PRIME MINISTER: Thanks very much, Bridget. It’s great to be here with you today. It’s also great to be here with the Premier, the Deputy Premier and the Minister of everything else, Guy Barnett, who is here with us today. Good to be with you, Guy. Particularly in relation to the announcement of the $70 million hydrogen hub, which is right here in Bell Bay. Now, our economic plan, a key part of it is the partnerships that we have. And this election is really about the economy, a strong economy or a weak economy, because a strong economy is what enables us to do the things we aspire to as a nation. The services, the essential services that we seek to guarantee. Investing in our defence forces and all of this, it depends on a strong economy. And so this election is a choice about the economy and what can be achieved. Now, as our economic plan is about affordable, reliable energy. It’s about ensuring that we make things here in Australia through our manufacturing programs. It’s about ensuring that we are taking advantage of and equipping our industries with the data and digital tools that they need to be successful. It’s about lower taxes and cutting red tape and it’s about investing in the infrastructure and skills, importantly that Australia needs. Now today we’re making some important announcements which go further to the partnership that we have, both with industry here in Tasmania and with the Tasmanian Government. Yesterday, near Hobart I was able to announce with the Premier our $50 million commitment to Nyrstar, an important zinc manufacturer that supports just so many jobs, some 1,600 jobs. On a previous visit here, we were able to announce the support for our forestry industry, working together carefully with the State Government here in Tasmania. Two governments that believe in the future of primus primary industries here in Tasmania, together with the Premier committing to ensure that those forestry jobs remain here in Tasmania and have a future. So families can plan for their future with confidence here in Tasmania. Prior to that, with the former Premier and with Minister Barnett, I was able to announce the further partnership we have on the Marinus link and the upgrading of the Tarraleah Power Station. More than $200 million already in partnership with the Tasmanian Government to really ensure that our economic plan for the country has a very strong component which is focussed on an economic plan for Tasmania and ensuring we’re realising the opportunities. And my first visit here over the course of the last many weeks was about the India-Australia Free Trade Agreement, which is creating opportunities for producers and manufacturers all around the country, all around the state. Now, earlier today, when we’re at Lark Distillery, I was able to talk about the $4.5 million that we have invested in the upgrade of their distillery to ensure that they can increase their exports 10 to 20 fold, partnering with that business, and the tour around Wesley Vale, we received just under $6 million of a total project of almost $30 million for a world first technology that processes milk without pasteurisation with resulting milk being nutritionally superior. Now that facility is at Wesley Vale in Tasmania and is capable of exporting around 40 million litres of milk. Alcore in Bell Bay by not far from here will receive $7.6 million of a total project of just over $15 million to develop a world class process to recycle aluminium smelter waste into hydrogen fluoride, which is further processed into aluminium fluoride. And then there is Marinova in Cambridge who will receive just under $2 million of a total project of almost $4 million to increase the production and export of high purity picaridin compounds from seaweed for use in complementary medicines. Now that’s $20 million that we’re investing in the Budget as part of our Modern Manufacturing Initiative, which is ensuring we make things in Tasmania and that we make things in Australia. Our advanced manufacturing sector, our manufacturing sector, just like where we are here today, is going strong. They’re making things, they’re expanding their export opportunities, they’re plugging into supply chains and we’re working with them to achieve that, to get the scale that they need to compete and to ensure that they can ensure a stronger future for them. In addition to that, we’re announcing the $70 million today for the Tasmanian Green Hydrogen Hub project, which has a total project value of more than $300 million when in full operation – trading over its life as it’s built up over a thousand jobs and there’s up to 3 million foreign energy future fuels, a green ammonia project for export, the Bell Bay Project with a total project value of some $6 million. These are the investments you make as part of an economic plan to grow jobs, to increase the capability of our manufacturing sector and ensure that Tasmania is plugged in to future jobs growth opportunities. That’s what our economic plan is delivering and at a time of great uncertainty, a time of real great economic challenge. We’ve just seen overnight the March quarter results for the United States, which saw their GDP fall by 0.4 per cent. These are difficult and competitive and challenging economic times and you cannot risk Australia’s recovery. The growth we’ve been able to achieve, the jobs we’ve been able to achieve as we come out of this pandemic as part of a strong economic plan. We don’t want to turn back. We don’t want to risk Australia’s future and future economy on Labor. Labor is too great a risk to take when it comes to the management of our economy. So we’ll keep investing in Tasmania, we’ll keep investing in ensuring our manufacturing capability is world class so that jobs come, the income comes and you can plan for your future with comments, confidence. I’m going to ask the Premier to say a few words and then we’ll be happy to take some questions.
PREMIER ROCKLIFF: Well, thank you, Prime Minister. And as Premier of Tasmania, can I, along with our local member Bridget Archer, welcome the announcement today, some $70 million into a green hydrogen hub here, right in the heart of Bell Bay, northern Tasmania and for very good reason. Enormous capacity here in terms of our skills base and of course proximity to port and advanced advanced manufacturing capability as well. Very proud of the fact that in, with partnership with the Federal Government and industry that we will also be matching the $70 million commitment. Tasmania will inject $70 million into this project. That aligns very much with our vision. Vision of course, being a global leader in exporting green hydrogen by 2030, doubling our renewable energy capacity by 2040, but can also thank the Prime Minister and the Coalition Government for the investments they have made and are continuing to make in Tasmania. Marinus, the Prime Minister mentioned, and just yesterday, Scott and I were at Nyrstar, employing well over 600 Tasmanians. A business, an industry that’s been in southern Tasmania for over 100 years. That partnership of $50 million from the Federal Government, $20 billion from the State Government backed in with the partnership from industry itself, securing those 600 jobs, providing greater environmental efficiency here in Tasmania of which we are well known for, and securing those 600 jobs, employing many Tasmanians right across this wonderful state. And of course the Prime Minister speaks of our advanced manufacturing capacity as well. And no matter what you do in Tasmania, the highest quality produce, whether that be from the orchards, the farms across Tasmania, all that high end premium advanced manufacturing capability. We can match it in Tasmania, not only with the rest of the nation, but of course, competing globally with the premium products that we produce and indeed manufacture as well. So we welcome the announcement today. Thank you, Prime Minister. The green hydrogen hub for the whole of Tasmania, which is significant not only when it comes to renewable energy and our energy generating capacity, but also developing our skills base here in Tasmania. That just doesn’t benefit Bell Bay and Georgetown, northern Tasmania. But right across our state, lifting our skills base, our capability not only in the area of energy but of course advanced manufacturing as well. So thank you very much, Prime Minister.
PRIME MINISTER: Thanks, Jeremy. Thanks very much. It’s a great partnership. Eliza.
JOURNALIST: If you win on May 21, how much will Australians save on their power bills or will they go up? And on their grocery bills, how can you make a lettuce cheaper?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, let me deal with the issue of electricity first. What I do know is over the last few years we’ve been seeing electricity prices fall by about 8 per cent or by over 9 per cent since I became Prime Minister. And there’s a number of reasons for that having occurred and I’d like to take you through how that has happened and what we have done to secure that. What we have done is we’ve put a number of mechanisms in place. One of the most important of those was the price safety net, which Minister Taylor put in place, which protected consumers on the default deals that they got from big electricity companies from being hit with higher, overpriced electricity. Now, our information shows that that saved 680,000 households and small businesses, some $350 million in power bills. This is what we’ve done. That mechanism remains in place. We put it in place. Secondly, we put in place the big stick legislation which Labor and the Parliament mocked. But we pressed ahead with it and we made sure that there were strong protections in place to hold the big energy companies to account when they were seeking to overcharge and price electricity at levels which we didn’t believe was fair. And so we took on the big electricity companies and we put that legislation in place. We had the big stick in place to keep electricity companies accountable for what they were doing. We reined in the power of those networks, which saved some $6 billion under the appeal decision rights that were changed for the Australian Energy Regulator, which if Labor had had done that earlier, it would have saved some $6 billion. And we also took action to put in place the generation capabilities which we’re seeing right now in the building of the Kurri Kurri gas-fired power plant and what we put into the underwriting of generation capacity. $1 billion into that program to make sure that we were getting reliable, affordable energy. In the gas market, we put the safeguard mechanism in and that safeguard mechanism was put in place with the deals we did with the large gas providers, which meant that they had to guarantee supply to the Australian market first. Now we didn’t have to use the stick of the gas mechanism because the gas mechanism stick enabled us to get the supply agreements out of the gas companies, which meant that the gas price that people are paying here in Australia is substantially less than the international price that they’re paying in other parts of the world. Now I mentioned other parts of the world. There’s no doubt that what is occurring with the war in Europe has pushed up the prices of energy. It’s one of the biggest energy price shocks we have seen since the 1970s. Now there are things outside of our control. That’s why we have been focussing on the things that we can control, taking on the big energy companies, putting those legislative mechanisms in place, ensuring that we’re keeping the prices down on gas, and in addition to that, investing in new generation capability, which is affordable and reliable. We’ve seen the coal price go up and we’ve seen that if you look at the AMO reports, you’ll see that it has gone up significantly, particularly in the first quarter of this year. We are now seeing that come down and we can expect that to flow through into prices. But I can tell you what does put those electricity prices up. 46 per cent of your electricity bill is in transmission, not the wholesale price, that’s around about 30 per cent, and the balance of course, is of course, what happens with retail. Now Labor has a plan to gold plate the transmission network to invest in those transmission networks, which the regulator is bound to pass the costs onto you. And that’s why key energy economists, Frontier Economics, all of these groups have said that what this does is pushes electricity prices up. You put it in the wrong place, at the wrong time, what that means is you are forcing electricity prices up. So Labor has a policy just like they did years ago when they had the carbon tax, which put electricity prices up. They’re doing it again by having a policy that gold plates the transmission network that only pushes prices up. That’s not our policy.
JOURNALIST: (inaudible).
PRIME MINISTER: Sorry?
JOURNALIST: The prices are going up under your policies now.
PRIME MINISTER: Because of the coal price, I mean, there is there is a war in Europe that is, that forced up the price of thermal coal.
JOURNALIST: 140 per cent in March quarter though, Prime Minister. That’s before Ukraine.
PRIME MINISTER: Coal prices have gone up around the world and now we’re seeing those thermal coal prices come down. And but to be fair, Mark, over the course of the first quarter of this year, the tensions in Europe were pretty apparent. It’s not like the war in Ukraine just came out of nowhere. Those tensions were building up over the all of this year. I certainly know it, because I sit around the National and Chair the National Security Committee. So we’ve seen a lot of pressures on energy prices and they have gone up and we will see that change in the months ahead. That certainly is the forecasts we’re getting. But what you need is the strength to be able to stand up to the big electricity companies. I mean, Labor opposed having legislation that held the big electricity companies to account. They didn’t just oppose it. They mocked it. But we passed it. We pressed on and ensured we put those protections in place for Australian consumers. We ensured that there was not the sneaky price increases that came through of having consumers to default back to a much higher price contract. We protected those consumers and we’ve kept the electricity companies honest. And that’s why, amongst many other reasons we have seen under our administration, seen those electricity prices fall. You control what you can control, and that’s what we’ve done.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, are you worried about losing North Sydney, Wentworth and even Kooyong, to independents at this election?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, this election is a choice and those decisions are in the hands of the Australian people. And they have a choice between a government that has a clear economic plan, that is investing in manufacturing and investing in clean energy, in keeping taxes low, cutting red tape, investing at record levels in skills and getting apprentices on board that has taken Australia through one of the most difficult times since the Great Depression itself economically. And has a plan to see Australia continue to grow and we’ve outperformed the advanced world, or a Labor Party and Mr Albanese, who has never done a Budget. Labor can’t manage money. Australians know that and a Labor Opposition that people don’t even know. So there’s a choice. And as far as the Independents are concerned, well, that is a vote for chaos in the Parliament. And what Australia does not need at a time of great uncertainty economically and when it comes to international security, is you do not want a parliament that is in chaos – where a government each and every day has to go and bargain to keep Australia safe and to keep Australia strong. One of the great advantages we’ve had as a majority government over these last three years is we’ve been able to get on and do the things we’ve had to do as a majority government. If we had to do that, walking into the Parliament every day, to bargain, well, I don’t think Australia would have had anywhere near the strength of outcome that we’ve had over these last three years.
JOURNALIST: You’ve been campaigning on what you have done over the last three years on the pandemic, on economic management, on national security. But if you are re-elected, what will you do? What is your vision for Australia over the next three years?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, each and every day I have been making announcements about the very things we are doing. The investments we’re making in manufacturing. The investments we’re making in keeping taxes low. The investments we’re making in supporting apprenticeships and education and training, and reforming that. The investments we’re putting into our medical mental health system across the country, guaranteed by a strong economy. The investments we’re putting in our defence forces and setting out the upgrades of our major bases and major procurements. And the investments we’re making in upgrading the data and digital capabilities of our business, which will determine their success. And the investments that we’re making in reliable and affordable energy, some $22 billion over the next ten years to put us on that clear pathway to hit net zero by 2050. Now, all of that is a vision for a strong economy, because a strong economy means a stronger future, because my vision for Australians is they get to achieve what they want to achieve. That they get to make the choices that they want to make. That they can buy their home, that they can get that job, that they can get that training, that they can raise their kids in the way they want to raise their kids, that they can save for their retirement and have dignity in their older age. That’s my vision. And the way you achieve that is by having an economic plan and a government that knows how to manage the economy and a government that knows how to manage money. If you don’t have a strong economy, you’re just making stuff up.
JOURNALIST: (inaudible) Operation Sovereign Border has released a video warning Australia’s borders are closed to people smugglers. What do you believe prompted the video? And do you agree with Peter Dutton’s comments that people smuggling could restart because of conflicted election messaging around boat arrivals?
PRIME MINISTER: I do agree with Peter. I absolutely agree with Peter. I mean, I’ve lived this over a long period of time. And the decisions of Operation Sovereign Borders to undertake those communications, they are entirely decisions for them. They are not made with any involvement of the Government, particularly in a Caretaker period. That has been done on of their volition and obviously trying to send a very clear message that we might not see as a result of the uncertainty of Labor’s policies. Some drive in encouragement for people to get on boats. But let’s be clear, Labor have a policy which says they will give Permanent Protection Visas to people who come to Australia illegally by boat. That is their policy. And I do not believe that is a good policy to keep borders secure. Now I can say that with some authority, because in August of 2008, Labor, thinking that because the boats weren’t coming any more when Kevin Rudd was Prime Minister, they thought they could abolish Temporary Protection Visas and everything would be okay. They took Australia’s border security success for granted, what had been achieved by the Howard Government, and from August 2008, that’s when you can mark the date from where Australia’s border chaos started and the rest is history. 50,000 arrivals, 800 boats, 1,200 people dead at sea. Labor lost complete control and had no clue about how to fix it. As Shadow Immigration Minister, I developed the policy of Operation Sovereign Borders. How you make offshore processing work effectively, and the restoration of Temporary Protection Visas. And the boats were stopped. What I find amazing is that the Labor Party, even now, after all this time, still don’t get it. And they think granting permanent visas to people who come illegally, illegally enter Australia by boat. They think by giving them permanent visas, that won’t set this off again. History tells another story. Labor is a great risk to border security and they are repeating their mistakes and remain clueless about it.
JOURNALIST: (inaudible) your economic plan will put downward pressure on prices, but economists say that we need billions of dollars landing in people’s bank accounts this week. Plus, you’ve got LMITO coming in after July. Is, that that will only add inflationary pressure. So what, how do you respond to this idea that your plan is actually contributing to the inflationary pressure that we’re seeing?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, the halving of the petrol tax and just to correct something I said yesterday, it was quarter of a per cent reduction in inflation as estimated by Treasury. So that has a deflationary impact by having the petrol tax for that period of time. We’ve also been careful and targeted in the way we’ve done these things. I mean, Labor would have spent an extra $81 billion during the course of the pandemic from their own stated policies. They were going to spend $6 billion giving money to people for a vaccine they’d already had. I mean, it was foolishness. Even they walked away from it. They wanted to keep JobKeeper going beyond the period that we put it in place. But we had the discipline to stare them down. I remember it in the parliament every day saying you cut, you end JobKeeper and the unemployment rate will go up and people will go out of work. The complete opposite happened because we had confidence in the policies that we’d put in place. We’d been very clear that they would be temporary and targeted and would be effective. And they were. Labor wanted to keep going. So could you imagine how much more pressure there would be in the system today if Labor had been in power and spent an extra $81 billion? That’s almost three times what we spend on Medicare each year. So we showed the discipline even though we had to lean heavily to see the Australian economy through. We have very clear principles and rules that were guiding our expenditure and that’s why we continue to hold our AAA credit rating because they could see what we were doing. They could see that it was well-designed, well-targeted and wherever possible, ensuring that it was seeking to put downward pressure on potentially inflationary impacts. Now, the inflationary impacts we’re seeing in the economy, yes, they’re significantly attributable to what we’ve seen with the war in Europe and the impact on fuel prices. I think Australians understand those external impacts, but equally they’re also about the disruption of the pandemic to supply chains and how goods and services move around the world. And we continue to see that right now and we see it particularly with China and in a lockdown and the impact that that has on supply chains, which does put those upward pressures on. So having a government that knows how to manage money, a government that has turned around the Budget by $100 billion in the last 12 months alone from previous estimates. Because our economic plan is working, that is the best way to put downward pressure on rising costs and downward pressure on rising interest rates.
JOURNALIST: Anthony Albanese has accused you of trying to dictate when these debates are going to happen. What’s your response to that and do you think that he’s trying to walk away from going face to face with you?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, I can only take him at his word. He said he wanted to debate me anywhere, any time. Thursday, Sunday, that’s when the dates are. The hall’s booked. I’ll be there. See? Look, Mr Albanese has talked a big game for the last three years. Very big game. He’s had a lot to say about me over the last three years. In fact, he’s had not much more to say than things about me over the last three years. We don’t really know what he stands for. Everything he’s previously opposed, he now supports. Everything he supports, he previously opposed. That’s the definition of having an each way bet by the way. And so now when he constantly said, let’s debate, let’s debate, and he has to step up and do it. All of a sudden he’s not available. Now, it’s unfortunate that he obviously had COVID last week, and I’m pleased that he’s rejoined the campaign trail and I’m pleased he’s well, but we’ve got to catch up some time there. And I think it’s important that we have those two debates before people start voting and they start voting on Monday week. And so Seven and Nine booked the hall. I’ll be there. I’ll get myself a new tie and off we can go. I hope he decides to come because if he doesn’t, well, I don’t know what he’s been saying all these years.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, wouldn’t Australia be insulated from some of these international price increases. If we generated more electricity from wind, from solar, from hydro, wouldn’t consumers have been better off if we made a faster transition to renewable local energy?
PRIME MINISTER: No, I don’t, well we have made a very fast transition. I mean, well, we have had record investments and increases in the capacity of renewable technologies and renewable energies. That hasn’t been the issue. The issue is ensuring that we keep pace with reliable, affordable baseload power that deals with the problem of intermittency of much of our renewable energy generation. And so that’s why we’ve invested in gas-fired generation. Remember when I came out and said that we needed more gas-fire power, that’s to actually enable the renewable energy that is now in the system. Because if you don’t have that supporting power, it’s called firming power, then that actually makes the system break down. And that’s why it’s so important that you’re investing in ensuring that you continue to have that reliable baseload power to support your renewables, otherwise they become redundant. And so that’s why we have invested in Snowy 2.0. That’s why we’re doing battery of the nation. That’s why we’ve invested in gas-fired power in Kurri Kurri. Now, Labor were for gas, then they’re against gas, and they’re for gas, then they talked to the Greens again and they’re against gas, and it’s really hard to find where they stand on reliable, affordable power. And so look, people know where we stand on these issues. We’ve always been consistent. That’s why this election is a choice between a government that you do know and a Labor Opposition that you don’t.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, Solomon Islands Prime Minister, Manasseh Sogavare, today has said Australia’s security treaty with his country failed to contain riots in November. And Mr Sogavare also criticised the Australian Government for not consulting Pacific nations like his for entering AUKUS, saying he found out about the agreement in the media. Are you concerned that the criticism coming from Mr Sogavare? And are these criticism is further signs his Government is turning away from Australia?
PRIME MINISTER: I spoke to Manasseh, Prime Minister Sogavare, the day following the announcement, as I spent the two days following the announcement speaking to many leaders around the world. And the princ- and then that was followed up with our Posts immediately going and briefing on the nature of what was a highly secure arrangement, which I think our, our partners and allies understand. And one of the key issues we move quickly to reassure the Pacific about, we were with us and Australia, absolutely without question, meeting our non-proliferation obligations, which I know is a very significant issue within the Pacific. And so I did have that conversation with the Prime Minister the day following the announcement and no issues were raised at that time in that discussion. But obviously, as time goes on and new new relationships are entered into, there’s obviously been some clearly some other influences in the perspective taken by the Solomon Islands Prime Minister. Now, I understand that. But the reality is, when I look at the AUKUS agreement and all of the discussions that I have had about this agreement, and let’s be clear about this is the most significant defence agreement that Australia has entered into since ANZUS. And it took a Liberal National Government to conceive this, to work patiently to achieve it over a pretty much an 18-month period. And because of the highly sensitive nature of this, then it’s not obviously something that was going to have wide discussion before entering into it. That, of course would have been against Australia’s national interests. But once we entered into it and we made our announcement, it was very important that we engaged quickly with our allies and partners in the region, which is exactly what we did. Now, you make the point about the riots and disturbances in Solomon Islands and immediately, upon being requested, to send support to the Solomon Islands late last year we did so. We sent the AFP, we sent the ADF out of Townsville – our servicemen and women, they didn’t stay home for Christmas last year. They went and supported peace and stability in the Solomon Islands, just like our AFP and many others supported that for over a long period of time as part of the RAMSI Initiative. And what I do know is that the people of Solomon Islands greatly appreciate the work that Australia does to suppor,t not only there, but right across the Pacific. Pacific peoples greatly appreciate the direct support that we provide and we will continue to do that. That’s why, as Prime Minister Sogavare himself has said, that Australia is their primary security partner in the region. We’re the first call. We were the first call when those things occurred in December and we would be so again. And it’s our AFP that are on the ground there right now, preserving that peace, which was restored.
JOURNALIST: (inaudible) do you mean when you just said there’s other influences, and so you’re saying, that he’s parroting China’s rhetoric about –
PRIME MINISTER: Well, there’s a remarkable similarity between those statements and those of the Chinese Government.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister?
PRIME MINISTER: Yeah, Mark.
JOURNALIST: Could I just get you back to Eliza’s question, which would be exercising the minds of Australian families today.
PRIME MINISTER: Yep.
JOURNALIST: How long are they going to be confronted with lettuce at $5, beans at $15 a kilo? Is there anything you can do to moderate those prices?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, the external influences on the economy are going to continue for some time, particularly when we see the disruption of the war in Europe and the disruption which comes from the pandemic. Those are things beyond Australia’s control. And so that’s why it’s so important in the Budget we understood the impact that these things were having on Australian families and that’s why we took the decision, understanding those pressures that we had to halve the petrol tax to support families, deal with those higher prices. They’re the things we can do. You can’t necessarily change the price of a lettuce, but what you can do is you can halve petrol tax, and that’s exactly what we did. You can make a $250 payment directly to pensioners and others on fixed income support to help them with those costs, which we did. You can provide $420, well not provide, enabling, Australians to keep $420 of their own hard earned dollars by providing that one-off tax relief, which we’re doing on the 1st of July. They’re the things you can do to help people dealing with those cost of living pressures. But we also have to be upfront about these pressures being real. And that’s why I keep saying this election is a choice. How you manage the economy does have an impact on all of these issues. How you manage your finances and keeping your AAA credit rating, that’s what puts as much pressure down on these forces as you can. That’s what pushes as much pressure down on what is a lot of pressure to rise, increase in interest rates from what are very historically low levels at 0.1 per cent. So, you know, these are real economic issues that Australian families are facing and that’s why I say this election is about the economy. And the issues are real. The economic impacts on household budgets are real. The impact on businesses like this are real. And that’s why you cannot risk the Australian economy with Labor. And that’s why our economic plan is supporting Australians through one of the most challenging times we have had since the Great Depression. Thanks very much, everyone.
