PENNY WONG: Its great to be here in South Brisbane with my dear friend Jackie Trad who is such a fantastic local member and such a great Labor woman.

I want to make comments today about the Prime Minister's announcement. Obviously the first thing I would say is Labor is very supportive of any measures that we can take together to further combat domestic violence and we welcome the renewed focus on this that the Prime Minister has announced and look forward to COAG meeting to progress this further as soon as is possible.

I would like to make a few comments, however, about the Prime Minister's own words at his press conference today. He kept telling us all that he had learnt a lesson. Well, the problem is he keeps telling us this. He keeps telling us this, and not only are Australians getting tired of this excuse, his own colleagues are getting tired of this excuse, because this is a bloke, this Prime Minister, he just doesn't listen and he just doesn't learn. He just doesn't listen and he just doesn't learn. This is a bloke who keeps saying one thing and doing another. Whether it's giving knighthoods to British royals or cutting family benefits to Queensland families and families all around Australia, this is a bloke who just doesn't listen, doesn't learn and just doesn't get it.

Happy to take questions and then Jackie may want to take a few more questions on the campaign, the great campaign that Annastacia is running up here in Queensland.

JOURNALIST: Do you think the Prime Minister has learnt his lesson in relation to the controversial announcement (inaudible).

WONG: Well, all I can say is we've heard this before from Tony Abbott. We've heard him before do something that he said he wouldn't do and then ask for forgiveness, and he continues to do that over and over again, and I think what has been pretty clear from what has been in the press over the last few days, even his own colleagues have had enough of that.

JOURNALIST: Just a question about higher education. Christopher Pyne says he wants to sit down with Labor to thrash out a deal to deregulate higher education. Will you sit down at a table with him and what aspects would you be willing to talk to him about?

WONG: Well, one thing Labor will never do is to make education, higher education, university degrees in this country harder to get for ordinary Australians, and that's at the heart of Tony Abbott's plan. Look, whether it's federally or here in this State, you see the values difference between our parties. Our party believes passionately in education. We believe passionately in the power of education to transform lives. We understand that to be the first person in your family to finish university can transform the opportunities for a family. This is something Tony Abbott and frankly Campbell Newman, they just don't get it. They don't get the importance of education and Jackie might want to say something about that.

JOURNALIST: John Dawkins (inaudible) support the deregulation of fees. Why wont you sit down and discuss it?

WONG: John is a respected member of the Labor Party, but I read his comments today, and his comments are clearly not in support of the entirety of Mr Pyne's package, and it comes back to a values proposition. We don't agree with putting education out of the reach of ordinary Australians. Simple as that.

JOURNALIST: Mr Pyne also indicated that if negotiations with the crossbench mean that university reforms are so watered down that they are effectively worthless then the Government will not go ahead with them. Considering most universities do not want the status quo (inaudible).

WONG: I saw Christopher Pyne after his bills went down in the Senate at the end of last year telling everybody how well he had done. Well, in Christopher Land, maybe he did, but I think in Christopher Land, what we also know is he wants to make higher education less accessible, and that's not something Labor is going to support.

JOURNALIST: Mr Abbott has said that he hasn't made an appearance in the Queensland campaign because he is aware that Mr Newman wants to run his own race. Does that mean that Annastacia Palaszczuk is incapable of running her own race?

WONG: Oh, come on! I think anybody watching this campaign knows how well Annastacia has been doing, and I think anybody watching this campaign knows that Campbell Newman is running away as far as he can from any mention of Tony Abbott and any mention of the cuts that Mr Abbott is imposing on Queensland schools, hospitals, pensioners and families.

JOURNALIST: (Inaudible question)

WONG: Look, I have no knowledge of that other than what's in the public arena. Did you want to say anything?

JACKIE TRAD: It's great to be here today with Penny Wong who is a dear friend. Today I announced earlier on 4BC Radio that Queensland Labor, if elected this Saturday, would investigate extending criminal provisions against the behaviour that we've seen, the outrageous behaviour we've seen from the Queensland Premier Campbell Newman. Over the last few days Premier Newman has stipulated that local projects, local frontline service injections will only be funded to those local communities who vote for an LNP member. Labor believes that this equates to either blackmail or electoral bribery, and if we win government on Saturday, we will be seeking advice on how best to proceed to make this sort of outrageous behaviour illegal into the future. I'm happy to take questions.

JOURNALIST: (Inaudible question)

TRAD: Well, Queenslanders on Saturday have a very, very powerful opportunity to send Campbell Newman and the LNP a very strong message; a strong message about asset sales, a strong message about the lack of jobs in Queensland because of his disastrous economic management, and also a message about what they think about this electoral blackmail, and I encourage Queenslanders to take that opportunity and send Campbell Newman a very clear message.

JOURNALIST: Is there anything you can do if you dont win power to stop that sort of behaviour?

TRAD: Queenslanders on Saturday have a very, very powerful opportunity to send Campbell Newman and the LNP a very strong message, a strong message about asset sales, a strong message about the lack of jobs in Queensland because of his disastrous economic management, and also a message about what they think about this electoral blackmail, and I encourage Queenslanders to take that opportunity and send Campbell Newman a very clear message.

JOURNALIST: (inaudible)

TRAD: I think that it will be interesting. It has been a David and Goliath battle for the whole period over the past three years. We were reduced to seven members in the Queensland Parliament and picked up two members throughout a number of by-elections throughout the term, so it has been a really big battle for the Labor Party. But we have rebuilt and we've reconnected with communities, and Annastacia has been travelling the length and breadth of the State reconnecting with people, and we think that we have got the right sort of modest policies to put before the electorate on Saturday and that we have earned their support to take on Campbell Newman in a much bigger way than we have over the past three years.

JOURNALIST: Is this election about shoring up your position in the Parliament rather than gaining power?

TRAD: This election has always been about the rebuild. It has always been about taking the devastating loss of 2012 and turning the Queensland Labor Party into a stronger fighting machine. Now, we know, we've always said, Annastacia has always said that this is like climbing Mount Everest and it is going to be a long journey, but we believe with Queenslanders' support, we can continue to take the fight up to Campbell Newman, and if we get across the line on Saturday, then we will govern for all Queenslanders, not like Campbell Newman who has gone out there and said that he will only govern for those Queenslanders who return an LNP member. That is not the way a modern democracy should work, and if Campbell Newman wants that sort of a democracy, then he has left his run for Parliament 50 years too late.

JOURNALIST: Bill Shorten described it as tough arithmetic and you are talking about Mount Everest, that is a tough peak to scale. Have you seen any polling that might suggest you might actually reach that summit?

TRAD: I have seen all of the public polling thats been in the public domain and we all know that it's tightening. We all know that in an election campaign, people are forced to make decisions. That's why Annastacia and every single one of her team is out there working hard every single day of the campaign, talking to real Queenslanders, talking about modest spending commitments and talking about keeping our assets in public hands. These same assets that return $2 billion annually to Queensland's bottom line. If the LNP win on Saturday and they sell our assets, then that will be a big black hole that the LNP has not explained how they are going to fill. Will they be dishonouring election commitments? Will they be taking away more frontline services as they have done over the previous three years? The LNP has not explained how they will fill the $2 billion annual black hole that the Queensland Budget will experience if we sell our assets.

JOURNALIST: Will Miss Palaszczuk keep her job as Opposition Leader if she isnt returned to power?

TRAD: Annastacia Palaszczuk has done a fantastic job as Labor Leader and the Labor Party at a State level, like it has done at a federal level, has embraced new democratic processes that say should the Labor Party find itself in Opposition, then what we will do is we will open up the preselection process for Labor leader to the entire Labor Party, and that means that all Queensland Labor Party members will get a chance to make a decision, and that's a really exciting thing. That's why the Labor Party has grown particularly over the past couple of years because we have opened up our leadership selection process to an open, public process, and it was a very successful process as we saw after the last federal election.

JOURNALIST: Will you see yourself running in the future?

TRAD: No, I have no ambitions.

JOURNALIST: Senator Wong, will you be out in the other electorates helping out in coming days?

WONG: I think the Queensland Labor Party have got this campaign pretty much under control. I'm just here to help out a friend and to meet with some locals, but it's been a great grassroots campaign by Labor here, and as Jackie said, unlike Mr Newman who seems to - you know, he and Tony Abbott seem to have a certain sort of arrogance, don't they? We've seen Labor listening, responding to people, and listening to what matters to Queenslanders and certainly that's what I will be doing today.

JOURNALIST: Is the federal Labor involvement in this Queensland campaign in any way with one eye to the next federal election for Labor.

WONG: I've been here previously for other State campaigns, I've been here last year for a couple of local campaigns, and that's because obviously we want to see good Labor people elected, but it's also because this is a critical State for us at the next federal election and we want to make sure we get out and talk to people about what's important to them. And I think Queenslanders, like people from my own State, South Australia, they're pretty concerned about the approach that Tony Abbott is taking, very concerned about cuts to pensions, about a plan to make Medicare less accessible, about reduction in amounts of funding to schools and to hospitals. This isn't the sort of Australia people want.

Thank you.

ENDS