MARIA KOVACIC: Hello my name Maria Kovacic and I am the Liberal candidate for Parramatta. Welcome to Western Sydney. Welcome to Parramatta. Welcome to Rydalmere. Welcome to Rheem. This is the Australia and New Zealand HQ of Rheem, where we make these fabulous products everyday Australians have in their home. We are very fortunate to have a facility like this in our electorate that employs almost 600 local people. It is an outstanding centre of R&D excellence and a very impressive demonstration of the great things we do here in Western Sydney, and that’s something that we want you all to know about and to be as impressed as we are in terms of what the people in this community are delivering for the broader community. So thank you and welcome, and I’d like to introduce the Prime Minister.
PRIME MINISTER: Thank you. Well, thank you very much, Maria. It’s great to be here at the centre of Sydney. Parramatta Road only here. We are right in the middle of this metropolis, and everything that happens in Sydney happens right here, in Parramatta, in the electorate of Parramatta. The things we make, the great service industries that we have, it’s all here in Parramatta. So much of our economy is driven by the very things that happen right here in Parramatta. And you know, it’s great to also be joined to guide not just by Maria, but of course, Josh Frydenberg, the Treasurer, and Marise Payne, the not just the Minister for Foreign Affairs, but the Minister for Women. Together with the Treasurer, we have formed an economic partnership that has ensured that at this election, we can present a very clear choice. And this election is a choice. It’s a choice between the responsible economic and financial management that has enabled Australia to be coming through this pandemic stronger than most of the advanced nations in this world. With unemployment down to 4 per cent, with the biggest turnaround in our budget of over $100 billion just the last 12 months, the strongest recovery in some 70 years. Maintaining our AAA credit rating, which puts downward pressure on cost of living, puts downward pressure when it comes to the pressures on interest rates. And it ensures that we can go to the Australian people and be confident about the things we’re offering them because we have the economic plan, most importantly, to keep that strength in our economy into the future. And there’s a choice and the alternative of a Labor Party, that we know, and Australians know, can’t manage money -that is unproven, that is untested, and we know does not have an economic plan that can ensure that we can continue to emerge strongly from this pandemic. Australians have worked very hard to come out of this pandemic. Businesses like this, plants like this. Small businesses, large businesses, cafes, gas plants, resources industry, they’ve all worked incredibly hard to take us through this pandemic, and that just fills me with confidence about what’s ahead for us in the economy. We’ve worked hard to get to the point where we can really take advantage of the economic opportunities that this country now has in front of it. It’s the biggest economic opportunity since the postwar era, and we’re well positioned to take advantage of that with our economic plan. And that’s why today we can commit to a 1.3 million jobs target pledge over the next five years. You know, over the course of this pandemic, we’ve not only ensured that we have 375,000 more jobs than at the start of the pandemic. But through important measures like JobKeeper, which the Treasurer and I, night after night, together with the Finance Minister at the time ensured, working with officials that we got that right, and that could be the right intervention at the right time. We knew when to start it, we knew when to stop it, and all the other measures we put in place, has set Australia up, saved 700,000 jobs. And so businesses like this, and so many around the country can be looking forward with confidence. You know, Australia is the 13th largest economy in the world. It is a $2.1 trillion economy. That’s right. Twelve zeros (in a trillion), $2.1 trillion economy. The Budget is some $625 billion in expenditure. The health Budget alone is some $105 billion. The Social Security Budget is over $220 billion. Our defence Budget, including the capital works that we’re doing to rebuild our defence forces, almost $49 billion and then Medicare over $30 billion. These are the big things that Australia has to deliver through a strong economy, and we as a Government have been able to guarantee those essential services because we’ve been able to continue to strengthen the Budget, even in these most difficult times. And the key way we’ve been able to do that is we’ve been able to get people off welfare and we’ve been able to get them into work. You want to have a balanced Budget. You get people off welfare, where they’re actually receiving benefits, and you turn them into workers, where they pay taxes. And under our Government, only paying as much as is necessary, and ensuring they can keep as much of what they earn as they possibly can. That’s what keeps our economy strong. Now through all of that, I have had a strong partner in this economic partnership that has been delivering this strong economy, and it is a team that I lead. And Marise is here, and has done an outstanding job, just having returned from the NATO Foreign Ministers meeting, ensuring that Australia was well positioned to be dealing with the global international security issues. I lead a very strong team, but I’m particularly proud of my economic team, and I’m very proud of my good mate and Treasurer, who has now delivered his fourth Budget. And he knows exactly what he’s doing when it comes to managing a stronger economy. Josh.
TREASURER: Well, thank you very much, Prime Minister. Thank you, Maria, for the invitation to be here, and it’s great to be here with Marise Payne. As the Prime Minister said Australia has come so far in just the last couple of years. We were literally staring into the economic abyss. Treasury thought at the height of the pandemic that the unemployment rate in Australia could reach as high as 15 per cent. And today we have an unemployment rate at just 4 per cent – the equal lowest in 48 years. Female unemployment today is at its lowest level since 1974, and in the Budget we printed an unemployment number with a 3 in front of it. And we expect to see unemployment three-and-three-quarter per cent by the September quarter, which will be the lowest level in 50 years. If you think this is luck, you are wrong. It’s the product of an economic plan that is working. But the Budget laid out the next stage in our economic plan. A plan which will help create 1.3 million new jobs over the next five years. An economic plan that’s investing in skills. Already, we’re seeing 220,000 Australians in a trade apprenticeship – the highest on record – and we are providing $5,000 payments to apprentices and up to $15,000 payments to employers who take them on. We’re investing in small businesses because we know that the backbone of our economy with a 120 per cent tax deduction for small businesses that either reskill their workers or go and invest in new technology, hardware and software. We’re investing in the new frontiers of economic growth in our regions, with a $21 billion package that will support our regions. Whether it’s telecommunications infrastructure, water infrastructure, transport infrastructure and energy infrastructure, as well as getting more doctors into our regions. We’re backing manufacturing, and this is something the Prime Minister has led so strongly on. It’s not only creating jobs in manufacturing, but it’s also ensuring that we have supply chains that are resilient in the face of greater geopolitical risks. And in our manufacturing plans, everything from a new MRNA facility in Victoria – the first in the southern hemisphere – to ensuring that across a whole range of sectors, we’re seeing more people working in manufacturing. That’s our economic plan. Backing small businesses, investing in skills, investing in our regions, backing manufacturing and of course, energy, as well as being a key driver of economic growth. Getting down the cost of energy whilst ensuring we have affordable and reliable energy. Now this election, as the Prime Minister has rightly made very clear, is a choice. It’s a choice between a Liberal and National Coalition, led by Scott Morrison, and a Labor and Green Coalition. And yesterday, Australians were reminded, by Anthony Albanese, of why he’s out of his depth. On budget night I said very clearly, the unemployment rate was its equal lowest in 48 years at 4 per cent. He simply was not listening or maybe he didn’t want to know. The unemployment rate under Labor, was 5.7 per cent. Under us, it’s 4 per cent. And based on the Budget, we’re hoping to put a 3 in front of it before the end of the year.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister.
PRIME MINISTER: Marise.
MINISTER PAYNE: Thanks. Thanks, PM. And it’s great that the Prime Minister welcomed everybody to the centre of Sydney, hear in Parramatta.
PRIME MINISTER: Here here.
MINISTER PAYNE: … Because that is absolutely where I have focused my work over more than two decades now. And it’s an absolute pleasure to be working with Maria Kovacic in her campaign, to win the seat of Parramatta for the Coalition to make sure that she is able to deliver for the people of Parramatta. And importantly, for our communities right across this great city of Western Sydney. This is one of the most diverse communities in Australia. You walk outside the Rheem factory, up the street, to Rydalmere, down into Parramatta itself, and you will see Australia’s diversity writ large. It has a world leading university in Western Sydney University, just up on Victoria Road. Producing students who are overwhelmingly, for so many of them, the first in their family ever to go to university, and Western Sydney University makes that possible. I’m immensely proud to work here and to be part of this community. Here at Rheem, we’ve met people on the factory floor today, again who’ve come from all over the world to work in this part of Australia and to live in this part of Australia. And whether it’s Rheem, or whether it’s the small businesses up and down Church Street who’ve taken advantage over the years of our instant asset write offs, the sorts of supports that the Treasurer has referred to – I can literally pick them off the streets as you go around town – they know that our commitment to driving the strongest possible economy is absolute. It’s what has given us, in large part, a women’s workforce participation rate of 62.4 per cent of the lowest women’s unemployment rate at 3.8 per cent since 1974. And we have more work to do, but the gender pay gap has narrowed to 13.8 per cent. We were at 13.4 per cent in November of 2020. More to do there, but the focus that we have on engaging women in STEM, ensuring they have paths into higher paid roles and trades, is very much part of our absolute focus on women’s economic, security, on women’s leadership and of course, on women’s safety. Can I finally say, there are extremely concerning reports out of Ukraine this morning, in relation to the use of chemical weapons by Russia. If they are confirmed, that will be a further wholesale breach of international law. A further indication of President Putin and Russia’s absolute violation of every single value and every single rules-based aspect of the rules based global order, which has stood us in such good stead for so many decades now. Australia will be working with our counterparts to determine the veracity of these reports and we’ll have more to say on that later.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, can I ask about a shocking incident that happened overnight at Easter Show here in Western Sydney. And it was a 17 year old boy that was stabbed to death. A 15 year old has been arrested, another 16 year old boy is in hospital. What, firstly, what’s your reaction to that? We’re seeing an escalation of teen gang crime in Western Sydney. It’s a sad inditement of what society has become.
PRIME MINISTER: I’m deeply distressed about this terrible incident at the Royal Easter Show. All our kids are going to be going to the Royal Easter Show. My kids are going to be going to the Royal Easter Show. We want them to be safe. And so, this is a very distressing event. I have no doubt that New South Wales Police Force and the relevant state authorities are moving very quickly and we’ll be ensuring that they are doing everything, within our power, to make sure that the Royal Easter Show is safe. And I have a lot of confidence in the New South Wales Police Force. They are one of the largest police forces in the world, and they’ve got an outstanding reputation, and they’re well led. Always have been. And so, I would, to the family of the young boy who was killed in that terrible incident – the fight and the violence that is there, that has no place, it has no place in this country. It has no place at an event where people are coming to enjoy themselves, with families are there, to celebrate and for the first time to be able to come together in such large numbers – which I think is tremendous. So I would say to the family of those who have lost their son, my heart goes out to you. Your hearts just must be shattered and broken. But equally, I would be asking all parents, obviously, to be taking care and making sure that their kids are doing the right thing and making sure they’re staying safe and being very aware of their surroundings. The Easter Show should be safe, and I have no doubt that the Police Minister in New South Wales and the Premier will have more to say about that. But I have a lot of confidence in the New South Wales Police Force. But this is a terrible, terrible incident.
JOURNALIST: There’s a high proportion of religious people in this electorate. You promised before the last election that Religious Discrimination Bill. It never happened because you couldn’t get the support of your own MPs on the floor of the House of Representatives. So will you revive that legislation if you win? What’s the timeframe and will it be the same legislation, the same package that did not pass the House and the Senate in the second last week of Parliament?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, as promised, I put that legislation into the Parliament, and I was hopeful that it would have bipartisan support. But it didn’t. The Labor Party used it as a Trojan Horse to seek to make other changes on other acts. And I found that very disappointing. That Bill would have passed, had the Labor Party supported it, and the Labor Party didn’t support it. My views about protecting people against religious discrimination are well known, and my credibility on those issues are not challenged or under question. And I hold those views just as strongly today as I always have throughout my entire life. Unfortunately, those strong views are not shared by my political opponents.
JOURNALIST: John Howard says, “so what?” Labor says this isn’t a memory test, it’s a leadership test. What do you think it says about your opponent that he didn’t know the unemployment rate?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, look, I agree with John Howard in that, you know, leaders will not get every single figure right. And that’s not really the issue here. The issue is there’s something Anthony Albanese should be apologising for. It should be that he doesn’t have an economic plan. That’s the real problem with Labor, that they don’t have an economic plan that can underwrite the things that they will talk about at this election. They don’t have the economic experience. They are not proven and tested. Last time they were in Government, unemployment was higher, interest rates were higher, electricity prices were higher. And what we know from the Labor Party today and the information that has been released by the Finance Minister and the Treasurer, and the Treasurer may wish to comment on this, is that they can’t stop spending and they don’t know what their promises cost. But the other thing it says about yesterday, sure he didn’t know the number, but he didn’t miss it by that much. He missed it by that much. And what matters about that is he thought unemployment had a five in front of it, not even a four in front of it. And it’s going to a number with a three in front of it. And what that tells me, is his working assumptions about our economy and what Australians are achieving in our economy, he doesn’t know and he doesn’t understand. Now Australians have worked hard to ensure there are now 375,000 more Australians in work today than there was before the pandemic. He hasn’t seen that. He hasn’t recognised that. He hasn’t acknowledged that. In fact, it was the Labor Shadow Treasurer who said that the real test of our Budget is what happens to unemployment. Well, it’s gone to 4 per cent. And he’s not acknowledging that, and he hasn’t noticed it, despite the fact that the Treasurer made fairly clear in the Parliament, that’s exactly where it went. But it’s not just on this issue. I mean, his assumption that unemployment had a five in front of it, that is what I found more staggering. If he said 4.3 or 4.2 or 3.8 or something like that, yeah, it was a memory slip. But what this showed was, is he had no idea what has happened with Australia’s economic recovery. Now, he’s also wrong on another thing. He’s been going around at the union’s behest talking about rising rights of casualisation in the workforce, and he’s been caught out there again. His fundamental understanding of the economy is wrong. He doesn’t know what’s happening in the economy. Casualisation, as it’s been set out in the Fin Review today, shows that it’s actually been trending down, and it’s been about the same level for about 20 years. So you’re going to hear a lot of claims made by Anthony Albanese in this election. Another one he makes is about Medicare. Medicare bulk billing rates have lifted from 82 per cent when we came to Government, they’re now at 89 per cent. Here in Parramatta, they’re 98 per cent Medicare bulk billing. I mean Medicare has never been stronger than under this Government. And when you go back to 2016 and they tried to say that if a Coalition Government was in charge of Medicare, all would be lost. Medicare has never been stronger than under a Liberal-Nationals Government.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, you’ve started your campaign obviously in New South Wales. There’s been various polling that suggests in WA you could be on track to lose as many as four seats. There’s also been polling suggesting you could be losing votes in Queensland. Is your plan essentially to focus on New South Wales and pick up seats here to counteract losses in states like WA?
PRIME MINISTER: I’ll be all over the country, and I’ll be making very clear what the choice is. And the choice in Western Australia is no different to the choice in new South Wales or up in the Northern Territory, where the Deputy Prime Minister, or down in Tasmania, where the Leader of the Opposition was yesterday. It’s a choice between a Liberal and Nationals team. Together, the Treasurer and I, working together to ensure our economy has come through stronger than pretty much all of the advanced economies in the world, with a AAA credit rating stamped, right on our Budget. In addition to that, the biggest economic recovery we’ve seen in the last 12 months, over $100 billion, which means right now people are paying less on fuel because of the cost of living relief. I was chatting to one of the workers here today. I said, “what did you fill up at?” He said, “$1.80”. Anthony Albanese said he was filling up at $2.20. He mustn’t have filled up for some weeks. That’s what people are actually experiencing right now, and we were able to do that because of the strong economy we’ve been able to manage and the economic plan, whether it’s investments in apprentices, investments in infrastructure, investments in the services that Australians rely on, investments in our manufacturing industry, in our defence industries – all of that is creating the jobs and setting up the opportunities that Australia has. We have a massive economic opportunity coming out of this pandemic. You can’t risk it with a Labor Party and a Labor Leader that can’t manage money and has no economic plan. Johnno.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, you talk consistently about how Australians know you over the last three years. They don’t appear to like you. At the last campaign, you campaigned on your own. Today, you campaign here with Foreign Minister Marise Payne and the Treasurer Josh Frydenberg. Is it a sign that your popularity is on the nose? That you are damaged goods across Australia?
PRIME MINISTER: No, look, you know, it’s not a popularity test. Barnaby said this the other day, you go to the dentist, doesn’t matter whether you like him or not like her or not, but you want to know that they’re good at their job. And that’s what this is about. This is about whether people are good at managing the economy and have a stronger economic plan. And yeah, I’ve got a great team. I’m happy to showcase my team every single day. There’s a choice not just between me and Anthony Albanese. There’s a choice between Josh Frydenberg and his opponent. There’s a choice between Peter Dutton and his opponent. There’s a choice between Marise Payne and Penny Wong. There’s a choice between – now you’ve had your question. Thanks. Thanks for your ongoing contributions. My point is simply this, we have a very strong team, and it’s a strong economic team. It’s a strong national security team, and that is the team that has brought Australia through one of the most challenging periods that this country has seen since the Second World War. Now, as we come out of that, and we’ve set ourselves up for success, you can’t risk it on an inexperienced and unproven team that doesn’t have a plan for the economy and, you know, doesn’t know how to manage money.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, on the topic of jobs. Are you open to lifting Australia’s skilled migration rate to meet that 1.3 million? And how much of that 1.3 mil would be skilled migrants?
PRIME MINISTER: Our our migration program that is set out in the Budget, the cap is there at 160,000. There’s no change to that, and we are increasing the proportion of skills components within that.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister on housing. Sydney is at the moment the second most expensive city to live in in the world in terms of housing prices. That has obviously meant that a lot of people are being pushed into the rental market instead. Currently, the rate is 1.2 per cent in Sydney. What are you doing specifically to help renters in Sydney?
PRIME MINISTER: There’s $5.1 billion every year that is paid in Commonwealth rental assistance to 1.4 million people across the country. In addition to that, I established an agency called the National Housing, Finance and Investment Corporation. Now that is a Government agency. On our initiative, I was able to get the support from all the Treasurers at the time, and this agency borrows money at very, very, very low rates, which only governments can do. And it makes that funding available in loans to community housing organisations, including here in Western Sydney. So they can develop affordable housing and make that available to people right here on the ground in Western Sydney and right across the country. And it’s smart financing too, because it doesn’t just say that this is for you. It enables those community housing organisations to work with the private sector. And so when you see these new estates being developed, new housing estates, new new, high rise and new apartments, that they can be making sure that there is affordable housing within those developments. This was a, I started this back in I think it was the 2017 Budget. I know how hard it is to buy a home here in this city. I’ve lived pretty much my whole life here in this city. I love this city. I love being here in the centre of the city today. I know what drives it, but it’s it’s, it can be tough, and it can be really hard to buy a home. That’s also why, in addition to the support we give on income tax relief, and income support to help people deal with cost of living pressures like rents, we also help those who want to get in and buy their first home, and buy a home. 300,000 Australians, we have helped into owning their own home through the Home Guarantee program, and the Home Builder Program, and the National Housing Finance and Investment Corporation, in just the last three years. Now that’s what I said I’d do before the last election. A week out from the last election, I announced that policy. I said that we’d get Australians into homes. And despite the fact that we have seen strong increases in house prices, we have enabled Australians to get into homes by reducing their deposit from 20 per cent down to 5 per cent, and even further down to 2 per cent for single parents. Now I’ve met those parents who bought their homes. They’re here in Western Sydney. They’re up on the Central Coast of New South Wales. They’re over there in Western Australia and up, and up in the suburbs of Brisbane. And I’ve seen the look on their kids, that for the first time in their life, they’ve got a place they can call home. They’re not getting kicked out at six months, seeing their schooling disrupted – that has changed their lives. I’ll tell you the other thing that changes lives in this country, getting a job. You get a young person into a job in their early 20s and their risk of spending a lifetime on welfare – I learnt this as Social Services Minister, I’ve been around a while – you get them into a job in their early 20s, the chances of them spending a lifetime on welfare goes like that. And that’s why getting Australians and keeping them in apprentices has been so important to our economic plan.
JOURNALIST: On the Solomon Islands, what are you going to do if you’re re-elected to ensure that China can’t establish a military base in the Solomons? Can you pledge in the next three years you will not allow that to happen? Potentially Marise Payne, could you also answer, what was the US reaction to the Solomons China deal when you were on the ground in Brussels meeting with the Secretary of State?
PRIME MINISTER: Sure. I’ll ask the Foreign Minister to comment. Well, you’ve already heard from the Prime Minister of the Solomon Islands that that is not something that they would allow to occur. He’s made that very clear. And we are continuing to press on the issue of rotation. Possible rotation of vessels or others that might seek to go to the Solomon Islands. And that is a serious issue that we will continue to press. Same time, we must always respect the fact that Solomon Islands are a sovereign country. They’re not a state of Australia. They’re not under Australia’s control or direction. They are a sovereign country. And my approach to the Pacific, as the Foreign Minister will attest, has been to always respect the sovereignty of our neighbours and particularly in the Pacific. It was a long time here where Australia used to treat the Pacific as a bit of an extension of our own country, and they didn’t like that. They didn’t like being treated like that and nor should they. And I’ve never treated my Pacific family like that. I’ve always been honest with them and upfront with them, and I am in regular contact with them, and form very close friendships. And I know Manasseh Sogavare quite well. As you know, that was the first place I went after the last election. I didn’t head off to any of the the countries of Europe or the UK or the United States or even Southeast Asia. First place I went, was Solomon Islands with Jenny, and we spent time there talking through the important issues. That’s why the Solomon Islands is still saying, their first call for their security is Australia. But Marise, did you want to make a comment?
MINISTER PAYNE: I think the PM’s covered the Solomons issues very broadly there, but in relation to my meeting with Secretary Blinken, we certainly did discuss the Pacific. And I think it’s worth remembering that after Secretary Antony Blinken visited Australia for the Quad in Melbourne just six or seven weeks ago, he went from here to Fiji and met with Pacific leaders on the ground in Fiji. One of the first US Secretaries of State to do that, in decades, literally. So he’s very aware of the importance of this part of the world. The US is a strong supporter of the Pacific Island Forum, and in that meeting, in Fiji, they also announced the establishment of a new Embassy in Honiara. I think that’s that’s walking the walk and talking the talk in terms of their engagement and investment in the region. And I know from my conversations with the Secretary of State, there’s more to come in that regard, and they’ll be establishing that Embassy as soon as possible.
JOURNALIST: If I could grab you just while you’re there, on Moscow imposing sanctions on members of Australia’s Parliament. What is your reaction to that? Does that mean anything to you?
MINISTER PAYNE: I made my reaction clear in a post on the day that that occurred. It will not deter Australia, in any way, from imposing the maximum possible costs on Russia for the unlawful invasion of Ukraine. A wholesale breach of international law and a wholesale breach of the UN Charter.
PRIME MINISTER: (Inaudible) those sanctions are a badge of honour for Australia standing up for freedom. I’ve copped a lot of criticism, not just from Russia, but from countries in our own region, as you know. I’m happy to wear that as a badge of honour. A badge of honour for standing up for Australia, because Australians know that, you know, I’m no pushover. Australians know that I stand up for what I believe in, and I’ve done that consistently over my entire political life. You can follow a clear, a clear thread of the things that I’ve stood up for over my entire political life, whether it’s on the economy, whether it’s on the borders, whether it’s on national security, whether it’s on social services policy. I’ve always been very consistent. I’m being exactly who I’ve always been going into this election. I’m not pretending to be anyone else.
31.53JOURNALIST: Andrew Charlton, Labor’s candidate for Parramatta, has hosted a $200 head fundraiser in Sydney’s CBD. Does that show he’s out of touch with the electorate he’s trying to represent here? And perhaps Maria would also like to respond after you.
PRIME MINISTER: Sure. Look, Maria Kovacic, come up here Maria.
JOURNALIST: The question was for you –
PRIME MINISTER: No, I’m, I’d just like Maria to join me. Maria Kovacic started her own small business. She’s a mortgage broker, but you know, a lot of people will do that. But Maria did more than that. Maria understood that as a woman in Western Sydney, that she wanted to encourage other women in Western Sydney to realise their hopes, their dreams, their ambitions for what they could achieve for financial independence and ensuring that they could step forward with their own entrepreneurship. So she founded, with a friend, Western Sydney Business Women. She sits on the women at Eel’s Board out at Parramatta. They had a good win on the weekend, didn’t they?
KOVACIC: They did.
PRIME MINISTER: It could be an Eels Sharks final, but I’m sure Marise’s Penrith has got something to say about that. But this is what Maria has done. She’s from Western Sydney, she’s run businesses in Western Sydney. She’s raised her family here in Western Sydney.
KOVACIC: That’s right.
PRIME MINISTER: She is Western Sydney through and through. Now her opponent used to work for Kevin Rudd, sure. I’ve known him for some time, but he’s not from Western Sydney. He’s not of Western Sydney. Maria Kovacic, she’s the real deal, she’s the real Eel.
KOVACIC: And 2022 will be the year that Parramatta wins the Grand Final, post 1986. Well, thank you for your question, and it’s really lovely to be here today. This community is really important to me. I love Western Sydney and I love Parramatta. I’ve spent, as the Prime Minister said, many years working here and advocating for the community. So, what I’m trying to do here to represent this community is an extension of what I’ve already been doing over the past decade. And you know, I can’t say more than I’m totally committed to delivering for this community and that’s why I’ve been out every day talking to constituents, talking to small business owners; Marylands, Parramatta, Dundas, Telopea, Parramatta CBD, up and down the Church Street strip and listening. People want to be heard and I’m here to listen. Thank you.
PRIME MINISTER: You can see why she’s my pick. I know who Anthony Albanese picked. Okay. Last question.
JOURNALIST: What is your message to Anthony Albanese?
PRIME MINISTER: What is my message to Anthony Albanese?
JOURNALIST: Yeah. Following yesterday’s blunder. Do you think that’ll have an impact on the polls, you know after everything that’s happened over the past couple of years, do you think voters haven’t already made their minds up?
PRIME MINISTER: Well look, I say good morning again to Anthony, as I did the other day. But you know, this election is a choice. And, you know, for the last three years, he’s had plenty to say about me. He’s had plenty to say from the back seat. Now he’s had final say on the Monday morning after the game on the weekend. But when you have to actually step up and put your hands on the wheel, it’s a lot easier. It’s a lot easier sitting in that back seat, and it’s a lot easier sitting there on a Monday morning passing judgement. Sledging me, making criticisms of me, seeking to attack me over these last three years, that’s not a substitute for having an economic plan. It’s not a substitute for knowing the things you need to know about what’s going on in the Australian economy. It’s not a substitute for the strength you need to stand up to the many challenges that are going on in this country. It’s not a substitute. You know, he talks about being, he raised as one of his great credentials as being the Acting Prime Minister in this country. I don’t think he got through a total of 48 hours in that job. If he thinks filling in for 48 hours is preparation for this job, he’s got no idea. This is a tough job and it won’t be easy under Albanese. Thank you very much.
