ANTHONY ALBANESE MP
PRIME MINISTER OF AUSTRALIA 

SENATOR THE HON KATY GALLAGHER
MINISTER FINANCE
MINISTER FOR WOMEN
MINISTER FOR THE PUBLIC SERVICE
MINISTER FOR GOVERNMENT SERVICES

ALICIA PAYNE MP 
MEMBER FOR CANBERRA 

E&OE TRANSCRIPT
PRESS CONFERENCE
CANBERRA
SUNDAY, 30 MARCH 2025

SUBJECTS: Cracking down on supermarket price gouging; Federal Election; Cost of Living; Energy; Tax Reform; Southeast Asia Earthquake; Australian Public Service; US Tariffs.

ALICIA PAYNE, MEMBER FOR CANBERRA: Good morning, everyone. I’m Alicia Payne, the Member for Canberra, and it’s my great pleasure this morning to have the Prime Minister, Anthony Albanese, here in the electorate and also Senator Katy Gallagher. First of all, I want to say a huge thank you to Ren and her family for welcoming us into their home this morning to talk about the cost of groceries, and also for the absolutely incredible morning tea that Filomena, Ren’s mother, has made for us this morning. I think that's going to be a highlight of the campaign.
 
Today we are announcing that we're going to make price gouging by supermarkets illegal. People have been struggling with cost of living, but supermarkets have continued to put their prices up, and we want to put a stop to that so that Australians can get a fair go at the checkout. This is just another thing that our Government is doing to help people with the cost of living and I am so proud that we're making this announcement here in Canberra. I just want to say quickly that it means so much to our city and to our community to have a Prime Minister who actually values our city, that he is happy to come and talk with Canberra families and to make an important announcement like this right here in Canberra. Over the time he's been Prime Minister, we have invested in our city. We've invested in our national institutions, in rebuilding our public service and in important infrastructure for our city, including light rail, roads, investing in our hospitals and schools. The alternative couldn't be starker. Peter Dutton does not value our city and in fact attacks it every opportunity he gets. So, I'm so proud that we have a Prime Minister who even, you know, on the weekends sometimes takes Toto out up Mount Ainslie and posts that on his socials. It really means so much to our community to have a Government that values our nation's capital and I want to hand over now to the Prime Minister.
 
ANTHONY ALBANESE, PRIME MINISTER: Thanks very much, Alicia, and I want to also begin by thanking Ren, also thanking Hawkins and Teilo for the welcome into their home, and thank Filomena, the wonderful Nonna who's come to cook an extraordinary feast for us today. The diet for the campaign has gone out the window this morning, but you have to deal with these things. And if that's the worst thing that happens during this campaign then that's pretty good. And also, a shout out to little Dante, their little fox terrier who put hair all over us, which took us a little while to deal with this morning.
 
Look, today we've got a really important announcement for Australians, one which is something that's at the heart of some of the pressures that Australians have felt over many years now. We will make price gouging by Australian supermarkets illegal. This is a practice that is illegal in some countries, such as the European Union, in the UK and others as well. This is another cost of living relief measure from my Government to back up what we're doing with tax cuts for every taxpayer, the energy bill relief, cheaper child care, Free TAFE, all of these measures making a difference. As well as, of course, giving people access to a GP for free and the Medicare Urgent Care Clinics so people can get access to healthcare that isn't life threatening, in between an emergency department and a GP for free. Australians deserve a fair go at the checkout. And my Government will hold the big supermarket chains to account. We will, if we are elected, implement, firstly, the ACCC supermarket inquiry recommendations. That's about improving transparency about prices, about promotions, about loyalty programs, making sure that Australians are getting that value for money. But secondly, as well, we will establish a taskforce with the ACCC, consumer groups, Treasury to identify what competition law needs to be changed. By the end of this year, we will introduce legislation to make supermarket price gouging illegal in Australia. We’ll inform it on the basis of overseas laws where that is in place as well. We want Australians to have this protection. This is good for Australian families, it's good for Australian workers as well, and Australian farmers to make sure that everyone's getting a fair crack, because that's the Australian way and that's what my Government will deliver. We'll hear from Katy then happy to take some questions.
 
KATY GALLAGHER, MINISTER FOR FINANCE, WOMEN, THE PUBLIC SERVICE AND GOVERNMENT SERVICES: Thanks very much, PM, and can I also add my thanks to Ren and her family for hosting us here this morning and the delicious morning tea. Well, the announcement today by the Prime Minister about cracking down on supermarkets is another announcement that shows this government, the Albanese Government, is focused on responding to those cost of living pressures. We've heard Australians are under pressure. We know, you know, prices at the supermarkets have hit household budgets. And that's why this Government for the last three years has been focused on doing what we can to take pressure off households without adding to inflation. And we've seen that, whether it be through our investments in early childhood education and care, in energy bill relief, in our investments in Medicare, in cheaper medicines. These have all been ways that we've been put forward, practical ways to help households manage those budget pressures.
 
And this announcement builds on that today, and I think, shows you the contrast that we have between what the Albanese Government is offering, focused on what households are feeling, responding to that where we can, making sure we get inflation down, creating jobs, getting wages going again. All of that has been part of our focus, the Prime Minister's sole focus, over the last three years. It has, you know, households have felt pressure. We've responded to that where we can. And this builds on that. And again, the contrast between what the Albanese Government is offering and what Peter Dutton is offering is real. And we can see that whether it be the cuts that would be faced to Medicare under a Dutton government, whether it be the attacks on areas like cheaper child care, on our work to help people with their energy bills. All of these areas are at risk under a Dutton-led government. We know that because he's told us that he said that our investments, our cost of living investments, are wasteful spending and that they would be on the chopping block. He's already told us that. But then he said, but we won't tell you how we're going to do that until after the election. And we know these cuts are real because he has to cut in order to pay for his $600 billion nuclear reactors that he wants to build around the country. We also know that he'll go to the election wanting to put up your income tax. So where in this Budget we have said we've found room, even though the Budget's under pressure, to top up the tax cuts of last year, he has said he will actually repeal them. He will take legislation to the Parliament to raise every taxpayer's income tax should he win the election. Now, that is the risk we face. The Albanese Government focused on cost of living and helping you with those pressures, or Peter Dutton, who wants to raise your income taxes.
 
JOURNALIST: Peter Dutton has said in an interview that if it gained bipartisan support, he'd hold a referendum on four-year fixed terms. Given that’s something you’ve said is your ideal, do you think that's on now, or is that something you'd commit to? And can I have a question for Katy as well?
 
PRIME MINISTER: Sure.
 
JOURNALIST: Katy, one of the criticisms that both sides of politics on taxation is that both major parties are sort of fiddling around the edges on taxation. How seriously have you considered indexing the tax brackets to return bracket creep?
 
PRIME MINISTER: We, on the issue of four-year term, I've said I support a four-year fixed term. I have no intention and will not be holding a referendum in the next term. The last time around, Peter Dutton appointed a fellow who now doesn't sit on the frontbench as his Shadow Attorney-General and Shadow Minister for Aboriginal Affairs. He is someone who then campaigned against the referendum. Referendums are hard. They've been carried just, I think the figure is eight out of 48, or something like that, times. And there's been a referendum twice for a four-year fixed term. The Coalition, every time they come in, I was working here in Canberra the last time it was held in the Hawke Government. And the Coalition, having said positive things, it was about four-year terms, some basic democratic recognitions, recognising local government and the Constitution. They walked away and they went from voting, I think there were four questions from memory, they went from advocating yes, yes, yes, yes to no, no, no, no. And if there's something that's defined Peter Dutton's leadership, it's saying no. Sometimes he doesn't say no straight away. Usually he does. You know that he is the most negative leader of the Liberal Party that we've seen in my time in politics. And he might say yes and flag a referendum, but we've seen that before. He said that he'd hold a referendum on Indigenous recognition and then walked away from it. He also said recently he'd have a referendum about citizenship, but it's not clear what his position is on that either, whether he is still pursuing that. This is a guy who has committed at various times during this term now, to three separate referendums going forward. So, I intend to not hold a referendum in the next term. I can confirm that. Katy.
 
MINISTER GALLAGHER: Yeah, thanks. Look on tax, we've found ways this term to make and put forward meaningful tax reform to the Parliament. And Peter Dutton, I think, has voted no to all of them. He wanted to hold an election on our changes to income tax, where we actually made sure that every taxpayer gets a tax cut. He said no and wanted to face an election over that. On super, on multinational tax reform, on changes to the PRRT, we've got them through the Parliament, except on super, without the help of Peter Dutton. So, we've made meaningful progress, I think, on tax. The changes that we've put in the Budget, in this Budget just this past week, actually helped deal with bracket creep as well about returning bracket creep to working people, and we think that makes a difference. You know, part of the Prime Minister's focus is how do we make sure that we can give lasting cost of living relief, ongoing cost of living relief? And part of that is through the income tax system.
 
JOURNALIST: PM, you've said that you want a government majority. But fresh YouGov polling this morning has shown you're on track just to be one seat short. Why aren't your policies cutting through?
 
PRIME MINISTER: Maybe you saw different polling from what I did this morning, but the YouGov polling showed that we were on 75 seats. The previous polling showed we were on, I'm not sure what the number was, but it certainly wasn't that.  I may leave others to comment on polling. My focus is on winning not just the 78 seats we hold but winning additional seats as well.
 
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, higher supermarket prices aren't new. I think it's been half a dozen inquiries into supermarket prices. Why only now is your Government coming up with this plan to have a plan in six months’ time?
 
PRIME MINISTER: This builds on what we've already done, $30 million in funding for the ACCC to go after supermarkets using misleading pricing tactics. We're prosecuting supermarkets, we're taking action. We're making it easier for new supermarkets to enter the market with incentives for the states to cut red tape and planning laws. We're clamping down on shrinkflation by strengthening the unit pricing code. We have funded Choice, who just in the last week, I've seen the figures that they showed, that showed two supermarkets did okay, one did not. And that information places pressure on the supermarkets. We've made the Food and Grocery Code mandatory. From this week, April 1, 2025, it goes from being this voluntary, nice to have thing into being something that is much more serious with multi-million dollar penalties. And we've made sure that the ACCC is notified of supermarket sector mergers and can scrutinise land acquisition using reforms to merger laws. So, we've taken substantial action. What my Government does, and part of our message during this campaign, is build on the foundations that we've laid. We've been a Government that intervenes, is prepared to take on in a practical way, but build on those reforms. The job of reform is never done, we keep going. On this, I think it's a positive initiative.
 
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, the key question is, can you promise that this will bring the costs of the weekly grocery shop down?
 
PRIME MINISTER: It will certainly have an impact. And overseas experience is that it does just that. Overseas experience is that the pressure that's placed on supermarkets by this law makes a difference. To give you a definition, in the EU, a price is unfair and excessive if, and to quote their law, “it has no reasonable relation to the economic value of the product supplied”. So, there are examples there that we can use. And quite frankly, I got asked today by someone as well, “how do you know what price gouging is?” Price gouging is when supermarkets are taking the piss off Australian consumers. That's what it is. That's what price gouging is. Everyone out there knows. Consumers know. We'll take action here.
 
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, what's the legal definition though, of price gouging in Australian law?
 
PRIME MINISTER: I just gave one.
 
JOURNALIST: Was that not British law, sorry?
 
PRIME MINISTER: I just gave an EU one. I gave a different very Australian colloquialism.
 
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, just on campaign security. How concerned are you about the incident yesterday on Peter Dutton campaign, and will security have to be bolstered on both election campaigns?
 
PRIME MINISTER: Oh look, I have confidence in the AFP. I will make this point, if I may, to here. People who are disrupting, clearly, are there to try and ask a question, probably best not to encourage it by repeating it.
 
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, the ACCC report did not find evidence of price gouging. So, isn't this the threat of a stick that will never be used?
 
PRIME MINISTER: Not at all. I think that what they found was that there wasn't systematic price gouging by supermarkets. What this does is it is a big stick that we intend to introduce, which we're prepared to use.
 
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, you blame international factors for not hitting your $275 pledge. But that same RepuTex modelling forecasts electricity prices from now until 2030 will reduce by $100. Do you stand by that modelling?
 
PRIME MINISTER: It's RepuTex’s modelling.
 
JOURNALIST: But excuse me, you took, that was what you based your policies on.
 
PRIME MINISTER: It’s RepuTex’s modelling from that time.
 
JOURNALIST: You took ownership of that modelling. You don’t support the modelling anymore? This is you walking away from that modelling?
 
PRIME MINISTER: It's RepuTex’s modelling based upon the circumstances at that time.
 
JOURNALIST: I'll stay on the same topic. You don't want to commit to a price reduction this time around because it put you into trouble last time. Would you commit that your energy policies on the whole, over time, put downward pressure on prices? Or is that not what the trajectory of green energy provides for?
 
PRIME MINISTER: All of the experts, be it the Australian Energy Market Operator, people who examine energy prices, and what's happening in this country show that the cheapest form of new energy is renewables, backed by hydro, by gas and by batteries, by firming capacity. That is what they all show. We know that that's the case. CSIRO has found that, the Clean Energy Council, and the Australian Energy Market Operator have all found that that's the case.
 
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, Kos Samaras and Michael Danby, some of your supporters, have questioned -
 
PRIME MINISTER: Yeah. Good start.
 
JOURNALIST: They've questioned the logic of you campaigning in a very safe Coalition seat yesterday. And I noticed you're here this morning in a very safe Labor seat. What would you say to people who think you should be where you're needed? Victoria, some of the seats where Labor is losing support?
 
PRIME MINISTER: That I've won one election as Prime Minister. I don't think either of them have.
 
JOURNALIST: Trying to piece together your answers this morning, is your message to the bosses of the big supermarkets to stop taking the piss with consumers? Do you believe they are taking the piss currently?
 
PRIME MINISTER: I think they're absolutely examples where they have been. What's important isn't that I think that, it's that Australians know that.
 
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, the polls are consistently showing a record number of soft voters. Why do you think that despite all of these cost of living measures that you're putting forward, that people just aren’t convinced? So many people just aren't convinced by either of the major parties and what they have to offer.
 
PRIME MINISTER: Well, what we'll put forward is a very clear choice at this election, a choice between a Labor Government that's prepared to continue to provide cost of living relief, whilst making sure we build a strong economy and build on the foundations that we've laid during this term that include tax cuts for every taxpayer, that include the work that we have done to get real wages rising, to get inflation down to 2.4, to get energy price relief, cheaper child care, Free TAFE, all of these measures in place. And a Coalition that is promising to put up your taxes for all 14 million Australians, that has opposed every cost of living measure and that has a negative agenda for Australia. I'm optimistic about Australia's future. If we can just seize the opportunities which are there. I think there's a stark contrast in this election. What people will focus on during an election campaign is the alternative. Labor’s plan for a better future for Australia. Peter Dutton's plan for people to work longer for less, to take away the gains that have been made in Same Job, Same Pay, the definition of casuals, to go back to the day where they oppose increases in the minimum wage, where they have low wage growth as a key design of their economic architecture. That's what Peter Dutton represents. That's why he's gone into this campaign with very little policy. You know, when the toner runs out on the photocopier, the policy announcements run out as well.
 
JOURNALIST: Just on a different issue, more than 1,600 people are dead in Southeast Asia after the earthquake in Myanmar. Understanding the situation is more complicated by the fact that the Government is now a caretaker mode, what is Australia doing to respond and what can we be doing?
 
PRIME MINISTER: Well, this is a human tragedy and my heart goes out to everyone directly affected by this tragedy. But also, my heart goes out to the many Australians who will have relatives and friends who are impacted by this. We will have already approved $2 million on support, on aid, for this. We'll continue to monitor the situation. And Australia always helps out. We're good neighbours in this region and we will always do what we can.
 
JOURNALIST: Just on the public service. The Commonwealth Public Service has grown in the past three years, and it's clearly going to be part of this election campaign. If you're re-elected, should voters expect the Commonwealth Public Service to continue to grow at the same rate that it has in the past three years, or do you think numbers have stabilised?
 
MINISTER GALLAGHER: I think it's resourced properly now, and I've said that a number of times. We've taken, you know, three years to basically undo the damage of ten years of Liberal attacks on the public service. We have invested where it's necessary. Those additional staff, the vast majority of them are in frontline service positions, whether it be Services Australia, Veterans Affairs, the NDIA, they are defence and the national security agencies. That's where the additional resourcing has gone. And they're all at risk. All of the work we've done to rebuild and rebalance the public service is at risk under Peter Dutton. There is a scandal that we have uncovered in the public service, you know, on par with Robodebt, which was the lack of investment in Veterans Affairs, where in the last two years, because of the work we've done, we have provided an additional $13 billion to veterans who were denied those payments by Peter Dutton and his colleagues, and they can't pretend they didn't know about it. They did know about it, but they refused to put in the resources to clear those backlogs. These are men and women who have served their country, were then served like that by Peter Dutton. So, I think the public service is appropriately resourced now. We've got the rebalance back in. There is a role for consultants, but not 54,000 of them. What they had was the same size public service, they just had them off the books. and they never owned up to them.
 
PRIME MINISTER: Can I just add one point there, which is that Andrew Gee, when he was Veterans Affairs Minister, belled the cat on this issue. You'll recall, in that 2022 Budget, him, to his great credit, threatened to resign as a Minister over this outrage. And now Barnaby Joyce, as a Shadow Minister for Veterans Affairs, sits silent. And it might be worthwhile someone asking a question for him if he's allowed to do a press conference about what he thinks about their plan to cut Veterans Affairs, because that is what they have said.
 
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, you've said that Australians will be better off under a re-elected Labor Government, but you won't say if energy bill rebates will be extended beyond this year. So how can they believe that guarantee if there could be a power price surge at the end of the year?
 
PRIME MINISTER: Because what we have done is now we've seen per capita incomes increasing right now. We have turned around an economy that was in deficit to $78 billion, where real wages were decreasing five quarters in a row, now they've increased five quarters in a row. We've cut people's taxes, and now we're going to cut their taxes again and again, so that people can earn more and keep more of what they earn. On top of that, the average family has benefited by $2,700 from our cheaper child care. There are 600,000 Australians have benefited from Free TAFE. We have had a comprehensive plan to deal with cost of living measures and included over 1.3 million Australians who have been to an Urgent Care Clinic. That will go. Urgent Care Clinics will be on the chopping block, there is no doubt about that, if our opponent is elected. And the last time they came to office, having promised a surplus in their first year and every year thereafter, the first thing they did in the 2014 Budget was rip $50 billion out of the hospital system, $30 billion from public education, tried to introduce a GP tax and abolish bulk billing, tried to introduce a tax every time people visited an emergency department, tried and introduced legislation to increase the price of pharmaceuticals, not decrease it. We've taken it down to $25. What we are doing is addressing cost of living relief. That hasn't been with the Parliament, that's been with some Members of Parliament, but against the Coalition, who have opposed every one of those measures. And now they are going to an election extraordinarily saying they will introduce legislation to increase the income tax of all 14 million Australians. That is their policy that they have put forward. So, yes, Australians will be better off in three years’ time if they vote Labor and re-elect the Labor Government.
 
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, this morning you said that there was already a system in place that would force gas exporters to direct gas supplies to the domestic market and you would be willing to use those powers. With gas prices as high as they are, particularly for industry, why haven't you done so already?
 
PRIME MINISTER: The spot price is at $13. When we were elected it was $30, $13 is a bit lower than $30. We've taken action, we've increased supply and what we have done is work those issues through. And I must say that every one of those measures was opposed by the Coalition. We brought Parliament back in December 2022 to put a cap on gas and coal prices. We did that in partnership with legislation that was passed by the Perrottet Liberal Government in New South Wales and the Palaszczuk Labor Government in Queensland. Now, Peter Dutton and the Coalition opposed all of those measures that we put in place. You know, these people think that the Australian people are goldfish, that they have no memory. This is the mob that stood up in Parliament time after time and used to speak about the gas-led recovery. And you know what happened? Nothing. Nothing happened. And nothing will happen that is positive if they're elected, because all they have is a negative agenda, and they just hope that people don't remember their record. Their record, not just in government but their record over the last three years, is to oppose every cost of living measure. And now they want to put taxes up for every Australian taxpayer.
 
JOURNALIST: Thank you, Prime Minister. In the US, a Republican Congressman has introduced a bill recommending a 70% tariff on Australian wagyu beef. Is that the severity that you are bracing for, preparing for, and what would that actually look like here for local industry?
 
PRIME MINISTER: I’m not aware of who the MP is. There's some MPs here that I wouldn't want the whole of the Australian Government to be held to account for. I don't want to cast aspersions on some of Katy’s colleagues, but, you know, we're working with –
 
JOURNALST: The Labor colleagues or Senators?
 
PRIME MINISTER: No, no. I was talking about the 76 Senators. They're a diverse bunch. There are the odd Private Member's positions put forward by people not in the Labor Party, to be clear. So, the fact that someone put something forward, look, we deal with the US Administration and not with individuals. So, thank you very much.

ENDS