JULIE-ANN CAMPBELL, MEMBER FOR MORETON:The Prime Minister is here in Queensland this morning because we make things here in Queensland, and I'm not just talking about making it two out of three tonight at the State of Origin, although that would be a great way to top off today. I'm talking about the fact that right here we make trucks in Queensland, the electric truck, the first of its kind to be manufactured right here, Australian Made, and it's because they create good, secure jobs from people in my local community, as well as the Member for Blair, Shayne, and I'll hand over to him to introduce as well.

SHAYNE NEUMANN, MEMBER FOR BLAIR: Well, thanks Jules. It's great. I'm Shayne Neumann, the Federal Member for Blair, and like people like Lee and Sam who live in my electorate in this western corridor in South West Brisbane and through to Ipswich, this is a great manufacturing hub. And so Volvo are supporting up to 800 jobs in this corridor and that's why it's important. This is a fantastic announcement, and like Jules, I'm hoping for two out of three tonight, but I know the Prime Minister might have a different view. But I've got the maroon tie on and I'm supporting Queensland. I'm handing over to, of course, Martin, who's the CEO of Volvo across the whole region and he's going to tell you more about this fantastic investment that's good for the environment but good for jobs in this region as well.

MARTIN MERRICK, CEO OF VOLVO GROUP AUSTRALIA: Thank you, Shayne and welcome everyone to the Wacol production facility. We've been building trucks here since 1972. That's 54 years of investment and commitment to local manufacturing, creating Australian jobs and contributing to the Australian economy. Soon we will be building our 85,000th truck right here in this facility. And that's thanks to our fantastic loyal customers, to 120 local suppliers. and of course our fantastic highly skilled workforce here. We're here today to celebrate a momentous milestone. The very first heavy duty battery electric vehicle built in Australia. With each one rolling off this production line proudly wearing the Australian Made logo. And the first of these electric trucks will get into operation with our really fantastic customer and partner, Linfox. Thank you for putting your trust into Volvo trucks. Here we have three iconic brands, Volvo, Linfox and Australia Made coming together, making Australian manufacturing history. A fantastic achievement. And with us here to celebrate we have the Prime Minister, Anthony Albanese. Over to you.

ANTHONY ALBANESE, PRIME MINISTER: Well, thanks so much Martin and fantastic to be here in Brisbane, and particularly in this western corridor which is a centre of manufacturing. Right behind me, this is what a Future Made in Australia looks like. It's real, it's happening. 85,000 trucks built here at this facility. But importantly as well, blending that the past with the future by building fully electric trucks right here at this facility. This is an important day. We have all of the resources to be a clean energy superpower, under the ground and in the sky. And projects like this show exactly what is possible. This isn't just an Australian Made electric truck. It's an investment in local jobs, manufacturing and local industry. Trucks built right here in Brisbane to keep Australia moving now and into the future. And we know with EVs as well, with the recent issues that have been with global fuel supplies as well, electric vehicles are part of the future, including heavy vehicles. I remember a few years ago a statement about, you know, can't tow your boat, can't tow your caravan. These are big heavy vehicles that are every bit as good as vehicles powered by internal combustion engines, powered by fossil fuels. And that is why the investment here by Volvo, with the support of the Federal Government, the partnership with Linfox, is so important going forward. This is a $70 million investment from the Commonwealth Government through the Clean Energy Finance Corporation. This will see more Australian Made trucks on the roads. And we know that electric trucks are also cheaper to run and maintain over time, which will lower transport costs through the economy and therefore put downward pressure on inflation, which we want to see as well. So, good for the economy, good for the environment and good for your hip pocket. A triple benefit from the very production that we see here at this factory. And I want to pay tribute to the Australian workers who are working here and in good, well paid, secure jobs. This is also about securing the future, about identifying where industries are going to go in the future, making sure that Australia is part of that. And I welcome as well, I do want to acknowledge the Ambassador of Sweden who's with us here today. As demand ramps up, we can expect to see more than a thousand jobs supported right here across traditional operations as well as electric made trucks. There's something else that it does, of course, in the area as well. It supports more than 120 local suppliers. So, when you have a major manufacturing hub such as we see here, what it's doing is supporting all those local small businesses who are supporting their families and their jobs as a result of this investment. So, major global companies in Volvo, a major Australian company in Linfox, partnering together with the Australian Government to make a real difference. We'll hear from Roger Alm and then happy to take some questions.

ROGER ALM, EXECUTIVE VICE PRESIDENT OF GLOBAL VOLVO TRUCKS: Good morning, everybody. Dear Prime Minister, honoured guests, Ambassador, ladies and gentlemen and customers. This is a big day. It's a privilege to be here when we are announcing serial production of electrical trucks in Wacol, Australia. Volvo Trucks, we are a company that has been operating for close to one hundred years. We started to build trucks in 1928 and since that we have been building and selling 4.3 million trucks around the world to 130 countries. Being part of building economy, being part of building society and driving that innovation and driving progress in the transport industry. But at 2019, we decided that we should be a net zero company in 2040. By doing that we need to then innovate and develop new transport solution that is taking out zero and become zero emission into our transport equipment. Since then, in 2019, we have now sold 7,000 electrical trucks around the world. They have been driven for more than 400 million kilometres in commercial operations. And we have sold these trucks to 50 countries around the world. We have built a massive knowledge about electrifications. We know how to take electrifications into the next era. Now this autumn as well, we're coming into the new level of electrical trucks and we are coming into the new generation with electrical trucks that can drive up to 700 kilometres and having a charging time of 40 minutes. We know the electrification, we drive the innovation. But now we're taking these steps into Australia and we are very proud of doing this because Australia is a very important country and market for Volvo Trucks. And Martin went into it, we have been here for more than 60 years. We have been manufacturing trucks in Australia for more than 50 years. We have built up a strong business into this market that we are super proud of. And now we are making investments to make this happen. But it's not only about building electrical trucks. Last year we announced that we bought a dealer in Western Australia. We are now also done building up a new truck centre in at the Gold Coast that will be ready in the beginning of next year. Tomorrow we will talk about the new distribution centre in Sydney and we will also then set up a new distribution centre of spare parts in Perth at a later point of time. But today it's the big day of electrification. We are bringing electrical trucks into Australia and into Wacol, and we will build the electrical trucks on the same assembly line as we are doing with diesel. And by that we will get the flexibility to then scale volume according to the market demand. This is a big day for Volvo and it is big proud day together with our workers here, and we have such a great workforce in Australia and we are so proud of what you are doing. So, thank you so very much and please enjoy the day with us.

PRIME MINISTER: Thanks so much, Roger. Happy to take questions.

JOURNALIST: Thank you. You'll be meeting with three Pacific PMs later today. What is your pitch, particularly to Tonga, on joining the new Ocean of Peace Alliance? And you'll also be meeting Narendra Modi tomorrow. Uranium will be a hot topic for discussion. What assurances has Australia received from India that our uranium will not be used for nuclear weapons?

PRIME MINISTER: On the latter, I'll have more to say about that with Prime Minister Modi. But we've engaged constructively, and so I look forward to, there'll be a range of announcements that we make together. India is such an important relationship for Australia. It will grow to be the third largest economy in the world. It's part of our region and our engagement. This will be the second time time I've welcomed Prime Minister Modi to Australia. Tomorrow will be a big day, finishing off at Marvel Stadium, which will see the very large numbers of the Indian diaspora who make such a contribution here. They're proud of their heritage, but they're also proud Australians. They are entrepreneurs, they're investors. They're people who've come here to make a better life for themselves and their families. And for many as well, the connection with India through student placement has seen many in the diaspora go back, more than half a million, go back to India making a contribution. So, this is an important relationship. And tomorrow and Friday we'll have some significant announcements. Today we are meeting the Prime Minister of Tonga, the Prime Minister of Samoa and the Prime Minister of Papua New Guinea. It's a particularly significant day for Australia and Papua New Guinea because the Pukpuk Treaty, our alliance, comes into force today. For the first 125 years of Australian history, we had two alliances with the United States and New Zealand. In the last year, we've had Papua New Guinea and then Fiji, that have made a substantial difference. The alliance is, of course, a very high level. But what we want to do with Samoa and Tonga is continue to have engagement about how we can improve the relations and improve the engagement in a constructive way, consistent with what we've done with all of our Pacific neighbours.

JOURNALIST: On the Pacific leaders, we've seen some fairly strong responses already from the Pacific on China's ICBM. Do you believe the Pacific can apply meaningful diplomatic pressure to China on this? And would you encourage, or will you encourage counterparts in Tonga and Samoa in particular during your meetings to speak up publicly on this? And just briefly, sorry, on Telstra, the CEO of Telstra said this morning there was nothing initially to indicate malicious activity, so they’re still investigating. Is that also the Federal Government’s assessment?

PRIME MINISTER: On the latter, at this stage that is our assessment. We are engaged of course with Telstra. This is deeply concerning and it's very disruptive to people's lives throughout the country. This is a national outage that has had varied effects. Some people have been unaffected, but many have been severely disrupted. Telstra are investigating, but we're working closely with them. The Triple Zero Custodian is in constant contact with Telstra and with emergency services, and investigations are underway. At this stage, what Telstra have indicated to the government is that they don't see this as being, there's no evidence of it being malicious, but those investigations are underway. And the first –

PRIME MINISTER:On the ICBM. Look, the Pacific Island Forum, there's a draft statement which is being going around the members of the Pacific Island Forum. It's a very strong statement and I'm hopeful, certainly from Australia's perspective, I've made very clear comments, public comments, but we're hoping as well that the nations of the Pacific join together to send a strong message. The Rarotonga Treaty is of course very relevant here because what that reflects is the concern that has been there in the Pacific for a long period of time about nuclear testing and about the concept which the Pacific Island Forum have endorsed, which is an Ocean of Peace. Pacific of course, derives from the word peace. And so it is appropriate that Pacific leaders issue a strong statement. The Pacific, we want to be responsible for our security. Pacific leaders coming together to provide security for our own region as members of the Pacific family.

JOURNALIST: [inaudible] And is it acceptable that this infrastructure, like the Triple Zero calls, or payments, all collapse with one network? And is this a failure of the first serious test of [inaudible]?

PRIME MINISTER: Well, none of it is of course acceptable because it's disruptive and no one wants to see that occur. I'll let the Telstra CEO to make make those comments. What we've done as a government is we immediately established an ACMA investigation into the Optus outage in September of last year. We've legislated the Triple Zero Custodian. We've raised penalties to telcos. We've introduced realtime reporting of outages to ACMA. We've also forced telcos to test Triple Zero during upgrades, but also place new requirements on providers to ensure that Triple Zero calls still connect with other networks. We'll continue to engage here, we'll engage constructively. But I think people are entitled to get answers. But they also want answers that are accurate and those investigations are ongoing.

PRIME MINISTER:Well, as I said, that's – I'm not aware of the details of the Telstra CEO or the circumstances, so that that is a matter for them to respond to.

JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, on the CFMEU, does your Government support Jarrod Bleijie’s ban on CFMEU agreements for Brisbane 2032 venues and projects? And are you concerned NCIF clash with the proposed Queensland Construction Code?

JOURNALIST: NCIF, National Construction –

PRIME MINISTER: Right. Look, our position on the CFMEU is that we're placed it into administration. The CFMEU, while we were in Opposition, you'll note that under the National Government of the LNP, John Setka and elements of the CFMEU who've been hostile to me personally, I can assure you, because I expelled John Setka from the Labor Party, took the strongest possible action, about three weeks into my leadership in 2019. He took us to court. We won in court. We placed the CFMEU into administration. The CFMEU, of course, any corruption has no place in any workplace and that's our strong position. We put them into administration. The former Government had a Royal Commission that saw no one prosecuted, no one lose their job. Michael Ravbar, stay in charge of the CFMEU here in Queensland. What we've done is take action.

JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, the Opposition and some creative industries are worried that the Government’s open to watering down copyright laws to benefit AI companies. What reassurance can you offer?

PRIME MINISTER: Look, copyright laws are very important and it's important that we support the creative sector and that people, if they have any intellectual property, whether it be writers, whether it be journalists, the actions that we're taking on the News Bargaining Initiative, for example, shows our credentials for backing the creative sector. Backing you fine people as journalists, making sure you should be paid for your work if someone is using that to gain profit. And so we need to learn a range of lessons from the rise of social media, for example, where there are consequences there that we're now dealing with with our social media ban. It's a pity that the Coalition didn't support the increased powers that the eSafety Commissioner has called for and the increase in fines. And I would say to the Coalition that they need to support that on day one, when the Senate comes back, or indeed bring the Senate back tomorrow to pass these laws if they want to keep it safe. We'll take the same approach to the creative sector, including issues of copyright. These are complex issues, we're working it through with the sector. But my Government, I think, has a strong record of supporting people; one, having control over things that they have created, and secondly, if things are being used, being paid for it, being properly compensated for it.

JOURNALIST: To go back to Stephen's question about Telstra, very quickly, so there's no evidence of any kind of malicious activity. I'm interested in your response to what Barnaby Joyce said earlier this morning about him hoping that there isn't any connection to China's outrage over security agreements. Is there any evidence to suggest that Telstra outage [inaudible]?

PRIME MINISTER:Oh look, I find it a good thing to not comment on things that people tell me Barnaby Joyce has said.

JOURNALIST: Are we likely to see more mining to manufacture these -

PRIME MINISTER:Hang on one tick. I'll just come to this guy here who's been very polite, and then we'll come to you. And now that the rain, who did that, that was pretty impressive whoever stopped the rain there.

JOURNALIST: Thank you for your time, Prime Minister. Is Labor’s support of Welcome to Country ceremonies a direct response for when [inaudible] requirement, and the Opposition saying they're overdone? Is this an issue the Labor Party thinks most Australians should debate right now?

PRIME MINISTER:I'm not focused on culture wars, never have been. But I tell you what, I don't think it hurts anyone for people to be polite. And if I come into your home, I'll knock on the door and I'll say, “is it okay if I come in?”, and you go, “yeah, welcome”. And Indigenous people have been doing this for thousands of years when people entered from one country to another. There are 400 distinct First Nations around, around Australia. I don't think it hurts anyone. And that's all it is. It's an act of politeness. It's someone saying, is it okay if I come onto your country and respect the land and waters that you have looked after, and people welcome them. You know, it's a good thing. And can I say, there's a couple of your friends here from the fourth estate were with me in Fiji. And the presence there of Yuin Elder, from Gumatj Elder from northeast Arnhem Land, together with First Nations people from Fiji, it added something. It was really important in how we engage in the Pacific as well. Just cultural respect. Just like when I arrived at the Volvo factory here today. I said thank you to the people for welcoming me.

JOURNALIST: Obviously, are we likely to see more money to support the manufacturing of these electric truck factories? And where are we most likely to see those lines going in?

PRIME MINISTER:Well, the resources sector is very important. There's steel in this, there's aluminium. We've had, can I say this, the deal that we did with the Crisafulli Government about Gladstone was a very good deal. A very good deal. And we've worked constructively there. We've also worked constructively with the Queensland Government on a number of mining issues around Mount Isa and most recently Dyno, an issue up there as well, where I again, had constructive discussions with the Premier about supporting jobs here in Queensland. So, Queensland is of course a great resources state, as is WA, but right throughout the country is important, where currently we want to see Tomago Aluminium Smelter, which is Australia's largest, continue to exist going forward. And I note that Premier Minns made constructive discussions about that as well on Saturday and myself on Sunday at the NSW ALP Conference. All of these things are important resources, such as iron ore and alumina, bauxite, all of these. But the other thing that's really important is that we have some of the resources that will go into these electric vehicles. We've got everything here in this country. You know, we've got vanadium and all of cobalt and copper and everything that goes into an electric battery. And so there's huge opportunities here. I'm really optimistic about Australia's future. I, I think that, you know, quite often we talk ourselves down sometimes. I'll tell you what, there's no country you'd rather be than Australia. And that's why we're attracting investment from significant companies like Volvo, moving towards them, moving towards net zero by 2040. The commitment that they've got, it's real. It's not woke. It's real. And you know what? It's good for the environment, but it's also smart business practice. It's how they're going to grow and how they'll compete in this century. And I'm really looking forward to competing. Now I'm going to go see my three Pacific Island leader friends, and here I will quietly, quietly say at this conference in the middle of Queensland, go Blues.