MERYL SWANSON, MEMBER FOR PATERSON: G’day everyone and welcome to Tomago Aluminium and the sun has turned it on for us after quite a few very wet and hairy days and I just firstly want to say a big thanks to all those people in the SES and across disasters who have helped in our community and really done a great job. 

This aluminium facility here in Tomago never stops. Every day, every minute of every day, it produces 37 per cent of Australia's primary aluminium. And that is because we have some of the smartest, hardest working people here at Tomago making that happen. Not only for their job, the 1,500 or so jobs here directly, but the 5,000 people across our region that make the aluminium possible to come out of Tomago. You've all probably got a piece of Tomago in your hand, in your phone. You probably got it in the windows in your home. You might have it as a piece of foil over the sausages after the barbecue on the weekend. Tomago brings that aluminium to you. And I've never been prouder to be the Federal Member for Paterson, standing up for jobs here at Tomago and working with my amazing Hunter team. And I just want to say a very, very big thank you to Sharon Claydon, Dan Repacholi, Pat Conroy, who is here today with us. We work so hard for you in Canberra to try and bring home the bacon, literally, for people of the Hunter. 

It is my absolute privilege to also welcome today the Prime Minister of Australia, Anthony Albanese, who is leading a Government that is fully connected to the Hunter and the jobs and the prosperity that we create. That'll be the phone, Reg. You better get that. And also I just want to welcome Ed Husic, the Minister for Industry and Science, who has been working very hard alongside me and all of our Labor team to make today possible. And Tim Ayres. The last time I saw Tim was just a few days ago right here at Tomago. Thank you, Tim, Assistant Minister for Future Made in Australia. And last but not least, Kellie Parker, who is the CEO of Rio Tinto. Kellie, thank you for having us in your business. It is businesses like this that create the jobs and revenue that make Australia prosperous. And we thank you for that. Jérôme Dozol, the CEO of Tomago Aluminium – Jérôme, you're a Frenchman. You’ve not long popped out of the box as the CEO here. But mate, you have hit the ground running and we love the work that you are doing. Thank you for doing it. Thank you to the people of the Hunter that get up every day, that make the aluminium that make this country prosperous. Good on you.

ANTHONY ALBANESE, PRIME MINISTER OF AUSTRALIA: Well, thanks very much, Meryl, and it is great to be back here at Tomago. This is my third visit to Tomago, because this is such an important facility. And essentially it's about people, it's about the jobs that are created here. Up to a thousand direct jobs. But when you look at this local community, there's 5,000 jobs depend on this facility just locally. But more importantly than that, it's the tens of thousands of jobs throughout Australia that depend on us being able to make things here. I'll speak a lot about building Australia's future. This is what a Future Made in Australia looks like. Us taking the products that come out of the ground in Weipa at the bauxite mine, making sure that work occurs at Gladstone, and then the final product comes out here at Tomago. That is what having control over the supply chain looks like. And this is a great example here. 

Now, we need to make sure that just as Tomago has produced this incredible quality aluminium for 40 years, it could continue for the next 40 years and beyond. Because if there is a lesson from the pandemic, it's that Australia cannot continue to be just at the end of supply chains, be vulnerable as a national economy by not making things here. We need to be more than a quarry. We need to be a country that value adds ourselves, not that exports the raw material, waits for someone else to create jobs and value add and then import the products back. And we can do it right here in Australia. We have everything under the ground. We have the skilled workforce, we have the capacity to do things here. And if we get it right, as the world transitions to net zero, we can be incredibly successful at making sure that we are taking advantage of where we are in the world. There is nowhere you would rather be. 

This announcement today that the Government will invest $2 billion to supercharge Australia's aluminium industry is an important one, through a green aluminium production credit. What that will do is target support to Australian aluminium smelters, including here, at Bell Bay, Gladstone, right throughout the supply chain process of Portland, to make sure that by providing these production credits, companies can invest with the certainty on what they want to do. Which is to shift to renewable and clean energy, not just because it will help the environment, but because it will lower the costs and make them more competitive and ensure that these high value jobs can continue into the future. Increasingly, the world is looking to import clean, reliable metals like Australian made aluminium. This represents a massive opportunity for growth and that's why today we're investing in Australia's aluminium industry, to provide that certainty for jobs going forward, but also for our economic growth and our national interest going forward as well, to make our economy more resilient. 

I'm going to ask Kellie Parker, the CEO of Rio Tinto, to make some comments and then the Minister for Industry and Science Ed Husic, will make some comments and then we're all happy to take some questions.

KELLIE PARKER, RIO TINTO AUSTRALIA CEO: Thanks very much Prime Minister and thank you to you and your Government for believing in manufacturing, believing in the aluminium industry. This has been a long road to find a pathway for the future for aluminium and I am incredibly proud of the work that my team have done and the aluminium industry has done to work with this Government on finding a future, particularly for this smelter here, the best smelter in Australia with the best technology. We will work with the New South Wales Government now to know what the future could be. I certainly have done an enormous amount of work with Queensland as well, and this announcement really secures the future for Queensland. So, we're incredibly pleased with the announcement. This is a belief in manufacturing, it's a belief in jobs and it's a belief in aluminium industry. So, thank you very much.

ED HUSIC, MINISTER FOR INDUSTRY AND SCIENCE: Thanks so much Kellie. Prime Minister, it is a pleasure to be with you and all the workforce that is here today for a pretty important announcement, joined with all our Hunter colleagues. But if I may, in particular, just give a shout out to Meryl Swanson who has been very focused on ensuring long term that places like this, with Tomago having a long term future. All the jobs that it supports and the great products importantly and vital to our economy continue to be made. So, it is a pleasure to be with them and also with Tim Ayres, the Assistant Minister for the Future Made in Australia. 

The big take out, folks, from today is jobs up, emissions down, long term future secured. We're in a world where the rest, where our competitors, are thinking about how they can make aluminium with less of an emissions footprint and meet customer demand that is expecting the same. We cannot be left behind. We need to think ahead. We need to plan for the future of places like this and the other smelters that the Prime Minister mentioned from Gladstone, Portland, Bell Bay, that they all have a future. I know it's something that Kellie and Jérôme think a lot about and that's the other important thing to point out here. Our Government has worked with industry, with unions, with research to put together through our Green Metals Advisory Panel, a long term plan for us to be able to have Australian made aluminium well into the future, supporting blue collar workers across the country. So, I'm very grateful, too, for the work of that Green Metals Advisory Panel. 

What we are announcing today, as the Prime Minister has indicated, is to work with companies like what we have here and with other smelters. When they want to start decarbonising, we join with them through a $2 billion production credit that will kick in from 1 July 2028, negotiated with individual smelters and importantly helping them, encouraging them to decarbonise. Again, it's jobs. When you think about the jobs here, 5,000. There are up to 75,000 direct and indirect jobs that are supported through manufacturing aluminium and all the products that come out of that. We need to see that well into the future. For the folks that have been here for decades, we want them to work as long as they're able, but also to create jobs for the others in this region that want to take up secure, well paying work. It's about manufacturing, it's about making quality products in this country. It is about ensuring that Australia, which is in the top six of aluminium producers in the world, maintains that. And as the Prime Minister says, you want to see a Future Made in Australia, you can see it right here. We're building the country's future out of jobs like this. The contrast is very clear. Here we are, we have plans, thinking long term to back in blue collar jobs. And what's Peter Dutton and the Coalition done? They have wasted three years not coming up with policy, not done the work, not being prepared to look people in the eye and say we have to be ready for global competition. What's your plan to make sure we protect blue collar jobs? Completely missing in action. It's not good enough to be underprepared going into an election year with no policy and no ability to explain to blue collar communities across the country how you'll back in manufacturing. Those blue collar workers rightly deserve and expect better than what we've got out of a lazy, irresponsible and unprepared Coalition that isn't putting forward the ideas like what we want to see to back manufacturing and jobs into the future. And as the Prime Minister indicated, over to questions.

JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, during a meeting with the Attorney-General, Israel –
 
PRIME MINISTER: Can we actually talk about this issue and jobs and the workers here first, perhaps?
 
JOURNALIST: If some smelters, including here at Tomago, were already on the path to renewables, why do we need to spend taxpayer dollars helping with that process?
 
PRIME MINISTER: It's about an investment and making sure that businesses like this one can make investment knowing that they'll get tax credits for it. And importantly as well, it's not just reduced revenue for the Australian taxpayer, it produces revenue. This business here produces revenue for the Australian Government because people, the workers here pay their taxes. The company pays taxes as well. It produces such a significant national investment. This is an investment to produce a return to create jobs, to create certainty for the business here.

JOURNALIST: Why do we wait until 2028 for it to kick in?
 
PRIME MINISTER: Because that's when the arrangements which they have here at this facility conclude in terms of the energy deals that they have. This is the biggest consumer of energy in New South Wales, bar none, right here. And that's why this transition is so important for the state and for the nation.
 
JOURNALIST: The Nationals have come out this morning and said that facilities like this can't really operate on renewables. How do you respond to that?
 
PRIME MINISTER: Well, the Nationals not only want to take Australia backwards, they want the rest of Australia to go backwards and keep them company. Now, when I want to know how this plan operates, I'll speak to Kellie Parker, I'll speak to the CEO here and I'll speak to all the workforce here as well. They know this business. They know, as well, that the world isn't standing still. And if you stand still while the world moves forward, then they go past you. Now, I want to make sure that Australia can seize the opportunities which are here. The Nationals are once again just being negative, like the Coalition are. They – and it's like Production Tax Credits for new critical minerals and rare earths, they're opposed to that as well. They're opposed to Australian industry. And when you look at the nuclear costings that they put out, that were pretty flimsy, but there was one thing stood out. Which is that they are saying under their plan, there'll be 40 per cent less energy use in 2050 than the Australian Energy Market Operator says will be needed. Well, what does that mean? That means businesses like this disappearing, going offshore. And that's what their vision for Australia is. My vision for Australia is optimistic. One where we seize the opportunities, create jobs and benefit our national economy and build Australia's future here.
 
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, it's great to have you back in the Hunter. How do you think – do you think that you will have plenty of success this election in this region in what's traditionally been Labor heartland? How's it looking at this point?
 
PRIME MINISTER: I think with the fantastic Members that we have here, I am certain that they will get the ongoing support of their local communities. Because you can't have harder working members like Meryl Swanson right here in Paterson, who's been to – she's up to double digits in the visit to this facility. She's someone who's passionate about this community. Dan Repacholi has made an amazing difference as the Member for Hunter. He's someone who you have to notice, of course, it's hard to miss him, but he's someone who's dynamic, someone committed to industry, someone who understands this electorate. And of course, in Sharon Claydon and Pat Conroy, we have people who stand up for their community. Sharon's also playing a critical role as the Deputy Speaker in the House of Representatives and Pat as a Cabinet Minister in my Government, looking at, in particular, defence industry and how that can create jobs, including, of course, right here in the Hunter. They are four outstanding members who support jobs, who support industry, who supported a tax cut for every worker here, who supported all the cost of living measures and support a future made here in Australia. And that stands in contrast with the Liberal and National Party who don't support – who've come out without even looking at the detail – they've come out opposing today's announcement. Like they opposed tax cuts for every taxpayer and said we should have an election on it. Like they opposed our Energy Bill Relief, Cheaper Medicines, Cheaper Child Care. Like they oppose every measure that we put forward. I think that any alternative government that goes to an election just saying they want to go backwards, which is their slogan – speaks about going back. At least they're being honest. We'll go back to the cuts. The last time a Coalition won an election, we saw massive cuts to education, to health under Peter Dutton, to the ABC, to everything across the board with their horror Budget. And they described our cost of living support as a sugar hit just last week. Well, these fine people here will stand up for the interests of the greater Hunter and Newcastle and I'm confident that they will receive support going forward.

JOURNALIST: I have a question on decarbonisation, and I just have to point out that it seems that some are suggesting that Labor can be hypocritical when it comes to green credentials. For example, Dan Repacholi recently posted “great news for the Hunter, our mining is as strong as ever,” accompanied by an article about coal exports reaching almost record levels. Does this show double standards from Labor?
 
PRIME MINISTER: Not at all. Not at all. We support the mining sector. Dan Repacholi does. So does Meryl, so does every Member here, and so does every member of the Labor Party. Mining is important to create jobs. What the world is doing now is transitioning. We know that, increasingly, gas will play an important role as well going forward. I note that Madeleine King, our Minister, has had some important things to say there as well. But we need to take advantage of the transition that's occurring and there's nowhere you'd rather be than Australia. Historically, coal mining and other mines have been important. Increasingly, the resources that will power the 21st Century – vanadium, lithium, copper, cobalt. All of these resources we have in abundance. And there's huge opportunities for Australia.

JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, during the last election campaign, you committed $700 million to create a green hydrogen power project over at Kurri. That project has now been commissioned. It's blown out to about $1.4 billion, that's not your fault, but it's generally agreed that green hydrogen isn't on the radar any time soon, do you think that was a wise commitment?
 
PRIME MINISTER: Well, we're working through those issues. But our commitment was a sensible one to make sure, it's one that we inherited from the former government. The former government used to say that, first of all they said that coal fired power stations would continue forever. You might recall Josh Frydenberg talking about Liddell and then he stopped talking about it when it announced its closure. The truth is that if you don't shape the future, the future will shape you, and we've been determined to do that. We're working through all of those issues. We think it's an important vital project for Kurri and we'll continue to work those issues through. Our funding is set, is there in the system. It won't require extra taxpayers input but we think that, along with other projects, are important.
 
JOURNALIST: Israel's deputy Defence Minister says she believes antisemitic attacks have been caused in part by the Australian Government's ongoing campaign against Israel. Is she correct?
 
PRIME MINISTER: Well Australia voted in the United Nations along with 158 countries. We voted for a ceasefire that is now in place. We wanted to see hostages released and I welcome the fact that today the hostages have begun to be released. And we voted in favour of aid for people in Gaza that is going to flow more freely. That's what Australia put forward. We continued, of course, were one of 158 countries that did so, along with our Five Eyes partners, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and Canada.
 
JOURNALIST: Just earlier today Peter Dutton is promising a mandatory jail time of 6 years for anyone who attacks a place of worship. Will you also support those tougher penalties?
 
PRIME MINISTER: Well, Peter Dutton of course will continue to do what Peter Dutton does. What I'll continue to do and what people are looking for when it comes to antisemitism is the country to unite against what are abhorrent instances. We will continue to take strong action under the laws. I note that he was the Minister for a long period of time responsible for national security issues. We'll continue to ensure that we work with state and territory governments to stamp out. There's no place for antisemitism and those who are engaged in it should face the full force of the law.

JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, will you convene a National Cabinet on antisemitism?
 
PRIME MINISTER: Well I've convened a meeting with New South Wales and Victoria - that took place last week in order to take that strong action. And what people want to see isn't more meetings, they want to see more action. And I noticed last Thursday night, Operation Avalite that I established announced the first arrest under that operation.  Thank you. We will be going to –
 
JOURNALIST: Just one more Hunter based question if that’s okay. You would have noticed –
 
PRIME MINISTER: You can come to the uni if you like. We're going to the University of Newcastle after this to announce the Future Industries Facilities. So happy to take some local questions there as well.
 
JOURNALIST: Just a question regarding the storms in the Hunter. The Hunter’s been quite badly lashed, there are people homeless. Some suburbs seem to have missed out on assistance. Could you tell me what the Federal Government is doing in terms of financial support at this point?
 
PRIME MINISTER: What we do is the way that the scheme works is that state governments make recommendations to the Commonwealth. And at the moment we've activated the disaster support for communities in the Maitland, Port Stephens as well as Snowy Valley's local government areas following these severe thunderstorms and the intense rain that has occurred. We could see that firsthand coming in. This support will ensure that communities have that Commonwealth support to clean up and to make sure that restoration occurs. In addition to that, when that occurs, individual support for people who are left without access to their homes kicks in as well. Local emergency services are still responding and assessing the impact where it's safe to do so. We're working with local government and as that occurs, the damage from the event in coming days ahead, there's opportunity to expand the local government areas that are impacted and we'll do that. Just two further thoughts on that. One is my thoughts go to all those who've been impacted by this event. We do have a lot of extreme weather events here in Australia and at those worst of times we always see the best in the Australian character. And so a big shout out to our emergency services personnel and volunteers who once again have pitched in to help their fellow Australians here in the region. They always step up, every single time and they deserve our thanks and they deserve our praise. Thanks very much.