Press Conference – Brisbane

RENEE COFFEY, LABOR CANDIDATE FOR GRIFFTH: Good morning and welcome to the Clem Jones Centre, home of the Southern Districts Spartans here in beautiful Carina. Very excited to be here this morning with a special announcement of further funding for the centre, and especially for the Southern Districts Spartans from the Albanese Labor Government. We know that participation in sport is incredibly important to our community. We know the increased participation of women is a positive thing, and the Government is very much wanting to support that, as well as enabling people of different abilities to be able to participate in sport, which is the lifeblood of our community in Griffith. So, I'm very excited to be able to hand over to Senator Murray Watt, who will speak about this announcement.
 
MURRAY WATT, MINISTER FOR EMPLOYMENT AND WORKPLACE RELATIONS: Thanks very much, Renee. It's terrific to be here with you on a beautiful summer Brisbane weekend morning for a really special announcement about sports funding from the Albanese Government. Can I thank also the various members of the local community who've joined with us today. We know as a Government that community sport can't happen without the huge volunteer effort that we see from all sorts of people in our community, and I really do appreciate the representatives of local associations who joined us in coming here today. And congratulations, Renee as well, I know you're already out there working very hard on the ground, and of course, we hope to see you in Parliament after the next election as the Member for Griffith.
 
Now, of course, while helping Australians with their cost of living pressures is the number one priority for the Albanese Government, by bringing prices down, by bringing wages up, and by more than halving inflation since we came to office. At the same time, we're keeping a real focus on the infrastructure and other services that our local community needs, like this one, the Clem Jones Centre here at Carina. I was mentioning to some of the community representatives that I spent a lot of time here as a kid, living about 10 minutes up the road, because this was the only public pool in the area, and we spent a lot of Saturday and Sunday afternoons coming here to cool off in those Brisbane summers. But this centre has just grown exponentially since I was a kid, and that's because of the huge demand that we see from local families for top quality community and recreation facilities. Even as we're standing here now, you can see kids playing baseball, people in the pool, people playing basketball, people using the gym and all sorts of other facilities. And that's why it is important that we do see serious funding from governments to help these facilities grow and be able to meet the needs of their local communities.
 
I'm very pleased today to be able to join with members of the local community to celebrate over $1.6 million in funding being provided by the Albanese Government to expand and renew the basketball stadium here at Carina. The Spartans Basketball Stadium is one of the major basketball facilities, not just in Queensland, but right across the country. And I think the members of the Association would agree that as time goes on, from time to time, things need to be done to renew it and repair it. Already, our Government has delivered $750,000 in funding through a local communities grant to make sure that we were able to replace the roof, install louvers and install wall insulation. What that has meant is the by repairing the roof, it's repaired leaks, it means that the stadium can keep operating and having games going in those torrential downpours that we know so well here in South East Queensland, and it's really cooled the facility as well, enabling more games to be played, more people to be able to participate.
 
But today, I'm really pleased to announce that in addition to that $750,000 the Albanese Government is providing a new grant of $862,000 through our Play Our Way Program, and that's designed to particularly enable greater participation in sport from groups within our community that haven't had those opportunities so much in the past. In particular, this funding will be used to revamp the change rooms and toilet facilities to enable women to be able to participate more equally here, also to provide parents’ rooms and childcare services so that more women with child raising responsibilities are able to participate in local sport. But also there's going to be some infrastructure changes here to widen the number of opportunities for people with a disability to play here at the Clem Jones Centre and be actively involved in sport and their community. The plan for this funding is that once these works take place, we'll actually see a women's wheelchair basketball team based here in Carina participating in the National Wheelchair Basketball League, which is a really exciting prospect to see here in the southern suburbs of Brisbane.
 
So, as you can see, while our focus will always be number one on cost of living pressures. We will also take every opportunity we can to get behind our local community facilities and our community groups and provide them with the funding they need to continue offering the top quality sporting infrastructure that Queenslanders and Australians expect. I'll hand over now to Kevin Cairns, who's the President of the Clem Jones Centre Trust which operates this facility.
 
KEVIN CAIRNS, PRESIDENT CLEM JONES CENTRE TRUST: Thank you, Senator, and thanks for your support. Clem Jones Centre is a not for profit organisation, we’re the custodian of 42 acres here at Carina, we cater for thousands and thousands of kids in sport, plus the elderly and people with a disability. We're very lucky to have bipartisan support for our centre, all levels of government have been very kind to us. And I want to thank Murray Watt and his Government for the $750,000 for the new roof for the basketball stadium, and the very pleasant news that we've got a little bit more money to spend to upgrade the facility for better inclusion for women and also for people with a disability, so, that's right up our alley. I want to thank Murray and his Government for that support from our community. Thank you.
 
MURRAY WATT: I do want to recognise the financial contributions from a range of the community groups who've been here today. As Kevin recognised, government funding has been important here, but we really do value the financial contributions that all of your groups have made as well. So, with that, happy to take questions.
 
JOURNALIST: Inaudible.
 
MURRAY WATT: This is a matter that's arisen in the Department of Employment and Workplace Relations, which I'm of course now the Minister for. In the last few months, it's become clear to the Department of Employment and Workplace Relations that some payment cancellations through our welfare system were arguably done without the legal power to do so. It's arguable that the cancellation of those payments was invalid from a legal point of view. The moment the Department of Employment and Workplace Relations received advice to that effect, they paused the cancelation of those payments. Unlike the former government, which acted and continued to act illegally through the Robodebt scandal, our Government has immediately taken action the moment we received draft legal advice that there was a legal question mark about the cancellation of those payments. At my request, the Department of Employment and Workplace Relations has now begun a process to get an external assurance review of the payment system. We are not going to ignore problems within the payment system that were created by the Coalition Government. We're going to take action and make sure that all Australians are treated fairly, whatever their circumstances are.
 
JOURNALIST: With the cancellations being paused, can you confirm that all those more than one thousand people are still receiving their support payments then?
 
MURRAY WATT: So, the advice to us is that it would be up to one thousand individuals who may have had their payments cancelled without a legal basis to do so. The Department is currently in the process of confirming exactly how many of those one thousand this affects, and of course, contact will be made with those people to rectify any errors that may have occurred with their payments. But as I say, the entire practice of cancelling people's payments has now been paused as a result of our Government's actions based on legal advice.
 
JOURNALIST: Inaudible.
 
MURRAY WATT: Well, I respectfully disagree with Prime Minister Netanyahu on this matter. Ever since the October 7 attacks, the horrific October 7 attacks, the Albanese Government has taken a range of strong actions to stand against anti-semitism and to stamp it out from our community. You will have seen yesterday that the Prime Minister reacted incredibly strongly to this latest outrageous attack on the Jewish community in Melbourne, we unequivocally condemn that action, and the people who are responsible will be hunted down and will pay a price for what they have done. Our Government has absolutely zero tolerance for antisemitism. We will do everything we possibly can to stamp it out. And that's why, for example, since coming to office, we've provided $25 million to Jewish organisations to upgrade security and safety at Jewish sites, including schools. We have banned the Nazi salute and also other hate symbols. We currently have legislation before the Parliament to take action against hate speech, which we hope to pass in the new year. And only last week in the Federal Parliament, we passed legislation to ban the practice of what's known as doxxing, which unfortunately has resulted in the release of personal information of Jewish citizens in our country. So, in a range of ways, our Government has taken strong action to stamp out anti-semitism, and that will continue.
 
JOURNALIST: Can you please explain why Australia voted for a UN resolution calling for Israel to withdraw from occupied territories? The last time Australia did that was back in 2001.
 
MURRAY WATT: Yeah, so you will have seen that through this week, Australia voted with 156 other countries for that resolution, and those 156 other countries include a range of countries who share our values, countries like the UK, Canada and Germany. So, our view has been for some time that the only way that we are going to see a lasting peace in the Middle East is through the creation of a two state solution. Wherever we see an opportunity to advance that cause and advance the cause of peace, we will support that. Now, there are only about seven or eight countries around the world that did not support that resolution. So, Australia, as I say, has stood with 156 other countries in supporting that resolution as another step towards gaining peace in the Middle East.
 
JOURNALIST: Are you worried about escalating violence though, and the scale of these attacks?
 
MURRAY WATT: Yeah. Look, I think all Australians are incredibly concerned about anti-semitic attacks like what we saw in Melbourne in the last couple of days, and that's why the people who are responsible are going to pay a price for this. We take this incredibly seriously. There is no place in Australia for anti-semitism or hate speech or hate actions against any group within our community. We will do everything we possibly can to stamp it out. And as I say, the people responsible will pay a price for this.
 
JOURNALIST: The Fair Work Commission ruled yesterday the picketing outside Woolies distribution centre unlawful. But that doesn't change the fact negotiations over working conditions are still ongoing. What do you think about this?
 
MURRAY WATT: You will have seen that in the last week or more, myself, my office, our Government, has been in regular contact with representatives of Woolworths and the United Workers Union, encouraging them to find a resolution of this dispute. I acknowledge the decision that was made yesterday by the Fair Work Commission. And as we have done for several days now, we strongly encourage both parties to return to the bargaining table and reach a resolution of this dispute. In our view, it's in the interests of the Woolworths workers, Woolworths itself, and the broader community, that this dispute be resolved as quickly as possible. And I certainly hope and expect that those negotiations will continue over the weekend.
 
JOURNALIST: Do you think Woolworths should scrap the framework they're trying to implement? There's concerns that can create an unsafe working environment?
 
MURRAY WATT: I think it is important that Woolworths and all large Australian companies listen to their workforce around the implementation of AI and new technology in the workforce. The way those technologies are implemented can have very serious safety and other impacts on the workforce. And I think it is important for Woolworths to listen to its workforce on that. Now, I understand in the last few days, there has been some progress made between the two parties to resolve that aspect of this dispute. And as I say, I hope that that can continue over the weekend, so that we can see this resolve as quickly as possible.
 
JOURNALIST: Minister just returning to Israel. Netanyahu’s office has suggested that Australia may no longer be a key ally. Are you concerned that the Government's position on the Middle East conflict is worsening or deteriorating the diplomatic relationship with Israel?
 
MURRAY WATT: Well, it's obviously a matter for Prime Minister Netanyahu and the Israeli Government to make their decision about how they feel about other countries. From the Australian Government's point of view, we have consistently expressed our outrage about the October 7 attacks. We have consistently called for hostages to be released, and we have consistently called for Israel to respect humanitarian law. I think all Australians are really concerned about the immense loss of life that we've seen in Gaza since the October 7 disputes. But right now, what we're focusing on is this horrific attack that we saw yesterday in Melbourne that is completely against Australian values, and we will continue to support the Jewish community to stamp out anti-semitism forever.