SUBJECTS: Labors National Preschool and Kindy Program; Liberals failure to fund universal preschool access for three and four year olds, Labors $640 million Banking Fairness Fund and Labors financial rights access to justice package, Labors housing affordability reforms, Snowy 2.0 business case, Cardinal George Pell.

NADIA CLANCY, LABOR CANDIDATE FOR BOOTHBY: I'm Nadia Clancy, Labor's candidate for the federal seat of Boothby. I'm really excited to be back at Tonsley today with Chris Bowen and Amanda Rishworth and just seeing some of the amazing innovative projects that are happening in this facility.

CHRIS BOWEN, SHADOW TREASURER: Thank you very much Nadia. It's great to be with one very important colleague Amanda Rishworth and one person who we hope very much will be a colleague after the election; Nadia Clancy our candidate for Boothby, a wonderful candidate, wonderful colleague and a wonderful candidate and hopefully both future colleagues in the Federal Parliamentary Labor Party. As Nadias opponent has been busy bringing down Malcolm Turnbull and signing petitions Nadia has been focused on the big issues in her community and she'll be a strong fantastic voice for the people of Boothby.

It's been a very useful visit for us today here to Flinders University to see the excellent work that's being undertaken and of course this is a legacy of the good planning by the former Weatherill Labor Government and a future Shorten Labor Government is very interested in a future for manufacturing for Australia and we'll have ongoing discussions with Flinders University about ways that the Federal Government, a Federal Labor Government could interact to support what is this excellent facility and preparing for manufacturing in the future.

Just a couple of issues of the day, of course my colleagues Mark Dreyfus and Clare O'Neil are elsewhere launching Labor's better and fairer funding for financial legal centres which is part of Labor's response to the Banking Royal Commission. His Honour Mr Hayne recommended a stable funding source going forward for financial counsellors and financial legal centres and of course only a Shorten Labor Government will deliver that.

I noticed Mr Morrison and Mr Frydenberg out there in the normal huffing and puffing scare campaign saying it was just another tax, it seems to escape them that they put a six billion dollar tax on the banks and said it wouldn't be passed on to consumers with no hypothecation, no allocation of funding to financial counsellors and financial legal centres. Unlike a Labor Government, a Labor Government which on coming to office would apply a levy to the biggest banks but would make sure that that money flowed to financial counselling and financial legal centres which is a crying, a yawning need in the community and a very significantly underfunded part of our financial infrastructure.

And of course today's visit is just also another opportunity to talk about Labor's commitment to human capital, to lifelong learning from universal access to three and four year olds for preschool. Only a Labor Government will deliver and Amanda is the architect of that policy. Australia will fall behind on Josh Frydenberg watch; we will cease having universal access to preschool for four year olds from the end of this year. He's not funded it in the budget. He has one last chance in the April budget to fund universal access to preschool for 4 year olds. He could also extend it to three year olds but I fear and expect only a Shorten Labor Government would do that.

And this is an important investment for the future. From the earliest years of childhood right through university a Labor Government has a better offering, a better offering paid for by important decisions to make our tax system better and fairer. This is the choice facing the Australian people: better pre-schools, better schools, better universities, better TAFE or better tax loopholes and concessions under the Liberal Government. That's a choice facing the Australian people when we go to the election and its the policy offering that Bill Shorten and Labor offer at this election, a very important distinction a very clear choice when it comes to investment in skills and Australia's future. Happy to take any questions.

JOURNALIST: Chris. You said you had discussions here today at the university, what would it mean if you became the next Government in terms of the output here?

BOWEN: Well I mean every university will be better off under a Shorten Labor Government of course because we will reverse cuts and we will invest in higher education both in technical and further education. I note this university has an excellent relationship with TAFE and it's a seamless operation which is great to see. And of course we'll have ongoing discussions with the university about their plans for the future and you don't just make those decisions without coming and hearing about the plans and the proposals. Nadia has been already lobbying me as Amanda has about how wonderful this facility is and we'll have further discussions about what a Shorten Labor Government could bring to the table in terms of Flinders University, an the excellent work thats being undertaken.

JOURNALIST: What are the plans and proposals you've heard today?

BOWEN: Well I've mainly seen what operation is currently underway and that's very impressive. There also Flinders University has been working on other ideas to expand and

JOURNALIST: Can you share further details?

BOWEN: Ill leave Flinders University to talk about those going forward. But I know that they have-- see this as the start of the future for Flinders, not the be all and end all and they have much more to offer.

JOURNALIST: The crackdown on negative gearing, capital gains tax and how can you ensure the new property market thrives?

BOWEN: Well again I see Mr Frydenberg out again huffing and puffing today and working with the Property Council who has a long standing opposition to the Labor Party's policy. Nothing new here, nothing new. Now we will take negative gearing and put it to work by ensuring that it only applies to new properties going forward to spur investment in new construction. Now just like the foreign investment rules work which is focused on new construction, so too we would take negative gearing and say we want it to work to increase housing supply. Now at the moment 96 per cent of negative gearing goes on existing properties. If your policy objective is to spur new construction, it's got a 96 percent failure rate. Now Josh Frydenberg may think that's okay. I don't.

JOURNALIST: The Snowy Hydro Scheme. Are you pleased with the Government's announcements?

BOWEN: We've been long term supporters of it but we note that the business case only stacks up if you had more renewables in the system. I mean, Scott Morrison's one big energy idea is to one: dust off Tony Abbott's failing fund; and two: dust off Malcolm Turnbull's Snowy Hydro. Has Scott Morrison got an idea? No, not one. He goes back to Tony Abbott and he goes back to Malcolm Turnbull. I mean talk about continuity and change as Malcolm Turnbull once famously said.

Well, what we need is an energy policy for the country which is based on a good framework for investment, not throwing more and more taxpayers dollars into a failed fund. which the emissions reduction fund is. And in relation to Snowy, we support the concept of Snowy but we note that the business model only works with more renewables not less.

JOURNALIST: So would a Shorten Government fund the Snowy?

BOWEN: Look we said we support the program, we've said we support the project. I note that the funding is an equity investment and I say this is not a budgetary investment, its an equity investment. And if that stacks up of course that's a good thing. That's a good thing. But it stacks up best with more renewable energy in the energy mix.

JOURNALIST: So you would fund it in addition to other renewable?

BOWEN: Yeah we've got our energy policy out there and the Snowy Hydro Scheme is an off budget investment in equity. It's not one that we oppose. It's one that we're happy with but the business model is predicated and works best with more renewable energy in the mix, not less.

JOURNALIST: Any response to the announcement surrounding Pell today?

BOWEN: Every Australian, every single Australian is subject to the rule of law. Whether you're a Cardinal, or a politician, or a leader of business. Every single Australian is subject to the rule of law. And this will be a difficult day for victims of sex abuse, not just in the Catholic Church but in any institution. But I'm sure victims of sexual abuse will want to see the justice system working without fear or favour, without fear or favour. Any Australian no matter how famous or prominent is subject to law and that is what we're seeing played out today.

ENDS