SENATOR PENNY WONG, CAMPAIGN SPOKESPERSON: Thanks very much. Today I'm here, on day 52 of the campaign to talk about Labor's plan for schools. Today, Bill Shorten will be announcing the next tranche of Your Child, Our Future, our emphasis on education in schools funding. Today, we'll be talking about kids in the regions and in country schools.

Now we know that children in regional Australia, children in country schools, are up to two years behind their city peers when it comes to reading and mathematics. One of the things Labor will be announcing today will be a focus on how we bridge that educational divide. I think the question for Barnaby Joyce and the Nationals is this: how is it that you can justify this educational divide between the people you represent and their city peers? Labor wants to bridge that divide.

The second thing I wanted to talk about today was the front page of one of the papers which talks about the Panama Papers. We've had a big discussion in this country for over the last few years about tax avoidance and Australians are deeply concerned about tax avoidance, to the extent that we finally see the government following Labor's lead and trying to do something about tax avoidance.

On the front page of one oftoday's major papers we haveMalcolm Turnbull listed as beinginvolved in a company establishedin a tax haven, a company whichMossack Fonseca established and acompany that's involved in aSiberian gold mine, a company whichallegedly made payments to Russianpoliticians about its activities.Well, I see in the papers that MrTurnbull has had a spokespersonanswer questions. Those answersseem to suggest, I don't know, Idon't recall it was a long timeago. Well, this is a man who is thePrime Ministerof the country and he's runningto be the Prime Ministeragain. The standards which are expected of him are high standards and he shouldprovide a full and frankexplanation of his involvement inthis company which was establishedin a tax haven.

But more than that,we shouldn't have to wait for agood journalist to tell Australiansabout this. We shouldn't have towait for a paper to run a storyabout the Prime Minister's involvement in thiscompany. The Prime Ministershould be full andfrank with the Australian peopleabout his business affairs. Heshould be clear.

How many othercompanies was he involved in whichwere established in tax havens? Howmany other companies was heinvolved in that Mossack Fonsecawas involved with? He should bevery up-front in answeringquestions about what he did ordidn't know about the activities ofthis company in relation to theSiberian gold mine. Happy to takequestions.

JOURNALIST: What specific questionsdo you want him to answer,especially in relation to theRussian link that you just spelledout?

WONG: I think I've outlined themalready. I think he should be fulland frank about his involvement. Heshouldn't be hiding behind hisspokesperson, he should stand upand say to people, this is what Iknew about this company,established in a tax haven, this iswhat I knew about the Siberian goldmine activities and he should bevery clear that he had no knowledgeof any of the activities which arealleged in the paper.

But as Isaid, I think it's more than that.We ought not have to wait.Australians ought not have towait for a good journalist to dotheir job and expose these matters.The Prime Ministershould do what David Cameronand others have done which is to befull and frank with the Australianpeople, with their electors abouttheir tax affairs. Which othercompanies has Mr Turnbull beeninvolved with that have beenestablished in tax havens?

JOURNALIST: Is thisa smoking gun for him and how hardwill Labor push on this?

WONG: I thinkthe issue is Australians expectpeople to pay tax, they expecttheir politicians to be open andtransparent about their financial arrangements. That's why we haveministerial standards, that's whywe have disclosure arrangements. So I think the first step is for Mr Turnbull to answer questions and todisclose fully.

JOURNALIST: His ministers havecome out today saying that this wasin the 1990s, it was a long timeago so isn't it fair, given thatChris Brown also says this issomething that happened to him whenhe was 18?

WONG: If the test is how longago things occurred then I supposethat Malcolm Turnbull and TonyAbbott will be apologising to JuliaGillard for the pursuit of her formatters which occurred 20 yearsago.

JOURNALIST: Can I just get you also onChris Brown?

WONG: Sure.

JOURNALIST: How do you feelabout that situation?

WONG: Well look, I understand Mr Brown isdisappointed. These are ultimatelymatters for the party organisationand the national executive and theymake decisions in the bestinterests of the party and that iswhat has happened.

JOURNALIST: This isobviously damaging to Labor, someof your candidates have come outspeaking out on asylum seekerpolicy and now you've got someonewith this criminal record?

WONG: I thinkthere's a bit of a long bow there.But firstly on asylum seekers, Iknow that the Government, who don'twant to talk about their cuts to health, their cuts to education,don't want to talk about howthey're going to fund their companytax cut - they want to talk aboutasylum seekers. We've settled thisissue. We've been very clear in ourposition which was argued in frontof all those who wanted to watch atthe national conference last year.In relation to Mr Brown, I'veanswered that question.

JOURNALIST: All thesecandidates that are coming out,they're obviously damaging theLabor campaign in the first week?

WONG: Idon't agree with that. I think thatyou know that the Labor Party isfull of people who want to do theright thing and we've made it clearour position at nationalconference. There is a humanitariancrisis. Australia should play abigger part in that. We should takemore refugees, but they should comehere safely and we've resolved thatdebate.Thank you.