MATT GARMAN, CEO, AMAZON WEB SERVICE: Thank you all for coming out this morning, we appreciate having you all here. Welcome to Prime Minister Albanese. Thank you for your visit. We really like having you here in the Spheres. It's a nice sunny day here in Seattle. So thank you all, we appreciate you bringing the sunny weather to us. I'd like to start out by announcing that Amazon is planning to invest $20 billion Australian dollars over the next five years in infrastructure in Australia to support the digital economy, to support artificial intelligence and cloud computing for many of the largest customers in Australia. Now, this is the largest investment ever announced by a global technology provider in Australia, and it's going to support many of the country's AI ambitions over the next decade. Today, in AWS, the demand that we're seeing for cloud computing and AI is massive, and it's remaking every single industry out there in the world, from banking to healthcare to retail, the climate wall, everything. And we estimate that technology over the next decade will drive over $600 billion increases in Australia's GDP out of the year 2030. Now to support this infrastructure expansion, we're also announcing a couple other things. We're announcing the creation of three new large solar farms, two in Victoria and one in Queensland. This will add to the eight renewable projects that we already have running in Australia, and once operational, that is enough renewable energy to power 290,000 homes every year. Now, all of this sustainability is incredibly important to Amazon. I know it's incredibly important to Australia. These investments make Amazon the third largest purchaser of renewable energy in Australia, and for five years in a row, Amazon has actually been the largest purchaser of renewable energy around the world. This has allowed us to reach our goal of being 100 per cent renewable - we hit that target last year, seven years ahead for our original targets. Now, as we think about where some of this investment is going in AI, we think that AI has really the ability to change every industry, and we look at a couple of our customers. First, we look at a customer like CommBank. CommBank is launching an AI factory powered by AWS to completely change how they do innovation. They expect that AI will allow them to drive innovation up to four times faster than they do today. We also want to look at traditional industries. We can look at the Australian National Swimming Team. We used AI to help their swimmers improve, and actually led to improvements in their performance in the pool, helping them win seven gold medals in the Paris Olympics. So AI is changing everything that we see, from sports to industry to the economy. Now, AWS has been operating in Australia since 2012 where hundreds of thousands of organisations use AWS cloud technology to really drive their ambitious thinking and build whatever they can imagine. Customers like Atlassian and Canva were startups when they started building with AWS, and we've allowed them to scale their ambitions globally, exporting their interesting technologies and businesses all around the world to become some of the largest technology companies globally. We hope that our $20 billion investment will help these next set of Australian entrepreneurs and startups become the next Atlassian and Canva all around the world. And finally, this investment that we're making is not just about infrastructure, it's not just about technology. It also extends to people in their communities. Since 2017 we've trained over 400,000 people in Australia to upskill and learn new technologies, and we're just getting started. Through our AI-Ready Institute, we've committed to equipping more Australians with the skills that they need to drive tomorrow's economy. Now, Prime Minister, AWS shares your government's vision, positioning Australia as a global leader in AI and we think this $20 billion investment is going to create a foundation that will allow Australia to really lean forward into the next set of innovations going forward. I hand it over to you for your remarks.

ANTHONY ALBANESE, PRIME MINISTER: Well, thanks so much, Matt, and it's great to be back here. This is my second visit here to your headquarters, but this is an important announcement that you're making here today, an investment of $20 billion over five years to develop data centers in Sydney and Melbourne, just to add to the investment that you've made in Australia, that's important for our jobs, for economic growth, and importantly as well, something that we've just been talking about downstairs, my Government's agenda for this term is very much about productivity. It was the centerpiece of the speech that I gave just this week in Canberra, and something where I'll be bringing together private sector interests as well as other groups who have an interest in how does the Australian economy grow in the future? How do we make sure that we improve living standards? How do we make sure that the key to productivity growth is harnessing it and making sure that we shape the future, rather than have the future shape us? We know that AI is so important, and this investment will certainly support complex AI and Supercomputing applications as well. It will boost Australia's economic growth, our resilience and our productivity. It will accelerate the development of Australia's growing data center infrastructure and support technology adoption by Australian businesses. Now, an investment like this is vital to Australia's fast growing startup ecosystem and innovative tech industry. And the fact that you speak about companies like Atlassian and Canva that, when I was first coming to Seattle, couldn't have been conceived, let alone that they existed, which are now major companies in Australia, is just an example of how the involvement of AWS in Australia has had such a positive impact on our nation and we thank you for it. I want to make the point as well that the US is a trusted technology partner in the Indo-Pacific and Australia, and Australia is an attractive and a stable destination for international business and investment. I see Australia's future as not just attracting businesses to invest in our domestic economy, but also as being a base for investment in our region - the fastest growing region of the world in human history; the fastest growing middle class that the world has ever seen, just to our north. And with our stable political and legal system, with our stable economy as well, we are, I think, a destination that welcomes investment from the United States and welcomes the contribution that companies like yours will do. My government wants to make sure that Australia seizes the opportunities that are presented by AI and we've spoken about some of the other applications as well in healthcare, in delivering real world differences to individuals in Australia by the work that AWS has done there. We want to make sure as well that Australians are better prepared to capitalize on the opportunities of AI, while making sure that we secure ourselves against its risks. This announcement makes a great contribution to that goal. One of the other advantages that we have, of course, a comparative advantage, is my Government's embracing of our energy future, which means that your investment in renewable energy in Australia is so welcome, including the additional investment that you're announcing here today. Increasingly, as global companies look around the world for where they would invest, they look at the sustainability of that investment. And Australia, with our vast continent that we have, does have an advantage in that we're able to have the large solar and wind and other forms of renewable energy as well, and your investment will certainly make an enormous difference there. We're happy to take some questions on these issues while Matt and I are both here, and then I'm happy to take some broader questions as well.

JOURNALIST: Mr Garman, four days ago Australia's energy regulator warned that [inaudible] costs of energy reported [inaudible] our renewable energy rollout in Australia, projects are blowing up, cost, shortage of material, infrastructure, delayed approvals, etc, etc, and our energy regulator warned days ago it would threaten Australia's push to get onto the global centre market. Is that something Amazon is aware of or has concerns about, or do you think those concerns are overblown?

GARMAN: This is something that we focus on, is just making sure that, I think part of our investment is it comes with these renewable projects, and so we bring coordination, we make sure that that we can build those in a sustainable way. And these brand new projects are projects that it wouldn't happen with us coming there. And we feel confident that with these new wind and solar projects that we're adding, that it brings that new energy to the company, to the country. And we feel good about those.

JOURNALIST: Mr Garman, you've been very forward leaning when it comes to the importance of nuclear power. We know the data centers are very energy intensive, and will become more energy intensive, particularly as we want to develop AI and take that to the next level. I saw some comments you made recently we've also had that mixed renewables [inaudible], and they're trying to develop their nuclear industry. You've got your competitors in Microsoft and Google also living in this space. So I'm just really interested to know for yourself where you see AI getting to in terms of the power that it can harness, and is nuclear, in addition to renewables, something that will be needed to ensure that humanity can get to those next levels?

PRIME MINISTER: I think, to be fair, Geoff, asking a US CEO about domestic energy policies -

GARMAN: I'm okay. Look, I think, you know, definitely the explosion of AI requires a lot of power, so that's one of the things we're thinking about. I think here in the United States, we see nuclear as part of that portfolio. Our investments in Australia are wind and solar, but I think depending on the local setup and economies and other things, it's a global question, but there's no question that we will continue to need more and more power going forward. It's an important thing that we spend a lot of time on. And yes, it's an important topic, but it kind of depends on the place, which sources of properties that we choose. Sometimes it's renewable sources, nuclear, sometimes it might even be hydro, like whatever the location matches.

JOURNALIST: I also have a question about nuclear. Would you describe Australia as an outlier, given that we don't have and don't plan on having any nuclear energy capabilities? And obviously AWS is planning on expanding it to Australia with a $20 billion commitment. Are you concerned that this could restrict the future growth of AWS in Australia?

GARMAN: So the first question is, we 100 per cent think about Australia as an ally. So that's an easy question. It's a fantastic place for us to do business. And when we think about both the friendliness of the environment for us to grow and do business together, as well as the fantastic sets of customers that want to grow there from a technology perspective, Australia is incredibly important and great growth market for us. So we love leaning into the innovation that's in that country. And from an energy perspective, we, like I said, it's a portfolio approach for us, and I don't think any one technology is right for every situation. And we look forward to continuing to grow. And don't really see any limiters to growing inside Australia.

JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, is there a bit of a message in this for Donald Trump that big American companies want to make free and fair trade with Australia and massive investment, and their tariff regimes he's imposed is unnecessary?

PRIME MINISTER: Well, the US FTA has been important. It's enjoyed bipartisan support in Australia and indeed in the United States. And so we welcome very much American investment in Australia. It's important to recognise as well that the United States has a two for one surplus when it comes to the trading relationship in not just in goods, but in services as well. And we want to grow the economic relationship between our two countries. And I'm sure that when I have the opportunity to have discussions with President Trump, we will speak about the important economic relationship between our two countries, which is in the interests of both Australia and the United States.

JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, you've said a lot about how this productivity will help improve living standards, and AI can help do that. But there are also a lot of concerns about generative AI's impact on worker standards, so high paying white collar jobs like software development, copywriting, marketing and also journalism are the ones that will be first on the top and block when AI really kicks in. Whereas low paid work like fruit picking, dishwashing, that's not something a robot or a generative AI can do. What do you want to do to allay the concerns of people like us, I guess, whose jobs are on the chopping block?

PRIME MINISTER: I think the task with AI is to ensure that it works in the interests of people, and we're convinced that it can be. One of the things that I spoke with Matt about was on a previous visit here as part of the Australian American Leadership Dialogue in January 2019, I visited the distribution network that Amazon has just outside of here in Seattle. Now I used to work at Grace Broters packing shelves, and one of the things that we had to learn was pick up a heavy weight without doing damage to our back and our knees and causing physical damage. What I saw at that centre there was people being trained in working essentially with computers, with new technology, harnessing it in the interests of literally liberating that work from being a very physical form of work with everything that comes with occupational health and safety issues into one which was an intellectual work and skilling up the workforce. AWS in Australia trained something like 12,000 Australians with upskilling their work as well. So there are enormous, enormous potentials of AI that we need to harness. There are always risks with new technology. We need to make sure that it works in the interests of our populations, in the interest of economic growth and productivity. And I'm convinced that we can do that. I know that AWS is committed to that, as well as the Australian Government.

JOURNALIST: Mr Garman, a question in a similar mold. A lot of what you've spoken about is hypothetical and into the future. You give a couple of examples of practical changes that will happen in the lives of Australians because of this investment here? And are you concerned that there is the possibility of this gap existing between the people in a society that understand AI and can use it and harness it and those that are left behind without it?

GARMAN: There's a couple things I'll say. One is, practically speaking, I think when you think about new businesses being created, the cloud computing technology is one of those main drivers that is a huge gateway to that. And so companies like Canva, as an example, probably wouldn't have existed without cloud computing. And then we think about AI, actually, we have a great partnership with CBA, and they're thinking about, how do they use AI to do better fraud detection? How do they think about automated credit scoring so that they can do a better job of matching loans with people that are looking for and also completely remaking that experience? So when you log on to their mobile app, it knows who you are, knows what your situation is, and knows what's interesting to you, so you don't always have to start from scratch. And they're really thinking about, how does that really impact what the customer experience? How does it impact how they're able to serve their customers? And how they're able to lower costs from reducing things like fraud, etc? So those are real, tangible results that customers like CBA are seeing already today and we're working actively with them to build and they need this product technology in order to really bring those benefits to citizens. When you think about people being left behind, that's why we've made such an investment in training. It is, I think AI has an enormous ability to increase the efficiency and effectiveness of everything that we do and reduce toil and allow employees to focus on the things that they enjoy doing at work. And I think that this is not a situation where people go away. This is a situation where we can accomplish more and do more. I think it's a massive economic gain for the country, for companies and for people. I think anytime you see opportunity for really large economic gain, we need to have training. That's why we've trained 400,000 people. That's why we're investing and continuing to train people on AI skills. So I do think that is an important part. It is critical that people lean in and learn new AI skills, but they're also kind of fun. You see people interacting with applications out there, whether they're simple chats or kind of building. And actually, AI does democratize technology. It makes it easy for a much broader set of people to engage with technology and to build with technology, and to accomplish some of those things that maybe actually would have taken only the smallest set of trained people that could have been done before. So I'm actually quite optimistic that it can democratize that technology and open up more opportunities for everyone.

PRIME MINISTER: Can I just add a different perspective as well, one was given downstairs about health care. So we speak about the nature of work being changed by AI, but also it's about what AI can produce for people outside of work, and the example of even a real world example of a patient in Australia, who has gone from potentially on some days having three epileptic episodes, down to having three a year because of what AI was able to contribute as well. So there are these applications that will make an enormous difference as well. So it's the product of AI and we have to consider those opportunities as well.

JOURNALIST: Amazon is a great example of a company that, over the last 30 years alone, has been a prime beneficiary of the expansion of globalization. You're a company that transcends national borders. Can I ask you to reflect on the impact that you've seen or that the company has experienced over the last 6 to 12 months with the introduction of new trade tariffs brought in by the US President Donald Trump, how that has affected your business and how you have been able to work around that problem?

GARMAN: Yeah, I think one of the interesting things when I talk to companies out there is that, you know, I'll step it back. One of the things that I remember coming out of the COVID pandemic is that a lot of our customers are saying, you know what I'm looking forward to is the world settling down and everything just getting back to normal, and things not changing. Turns out, that's not the world we live in. And actually one of the benefits for our business is that the cloud actually enables customers and companies to deal with that change. It's one of the things that's really powerful is that we also have this global cloud that allows companies to think about how do they adjust to technology changes, regulatory changes, health changes, whatever those things might be. And so for us, that's our view, and that's how we think about it, is, how do we help others deal with change as they happen? And I think hoping change doesn't happen is probably one of those things that's just it's just not going to happen, and so you're better off preparing yourself. And so if it means moving more clothes around the world, if it means adjusting to different situations, if it means pulling in new technologies, we think that we can be a big enabler for companies to deal with that around the world. And that's what we see as our role.

JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, are you confirming that you're expecting to meet Donald Trump at the G7? The President has a lot on his plate at the moment, war in the Middle East, protests here, even the assassination of Minnesota lawmakers. Is that going to be a hindrance to you getting your message across on trade and AUKUS and these sorts of issues?

PRIME MINISTER: I do expect to meet the President on the sidelines of the G7 meeting in Canada in three days time, on Tuesday. We do have a meeting scheduled. Obviously, there are issues that the US President is dealing with at the moment, but I expect that we will be able to have a constructive engagement as well, and I look forward to building on the very constructive phone conversations that we've had on the three occasions that we've had the opportunity to talk. Obviously, we'll raise tariffs, we'll raise the importance as well of AUKUS, and we will have a discussion as two friends should.

JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, just another international question regarding the conflict in Israel and Iran. At the moment. The UK is repositioning some military planes in the Middle East as a contingency. I'm just wondering if there's been any requests for Australia to support in any way militarily? And if there are plans underway to help evacuate any Australian citizens who might be living there or there are tourists?

PRIME MINISTER: The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, as you would expect, are monitoring and doing what we can always to look after Australian citizens. At the moment, of course, there's an issue with people getting out of the region. We have issued as well a Do Not Travel to the region, to Israel, as well as to Iran, and would encourage, obviously, people to take that up. But the Australian officials are doing what they can to ensure that the interests of Australians are protected, but it's obviously a very volatile situation that they are dealing with.

JOURNALIST: And have any requests for increased support been made?

PRIME MINISTER: No, but as you would expect, we continue to monitor. Australia does not play a role in this military conflict. I wouldn't expect that there would be a request for Australia to play a military role, but we will continue to play a role in terms of looking after Australian citizens.

JOURNALIST: Thank you, Prime Minister. Does it concern you, though, that this conflict now does appear to be drawing in other nations? How consequential do you think this G7 is likely to be in trying to de-escalate this conflict? And does it sharpen your mind on the question of whether or not you will eventually need to go beyond your existing commitment on defence spending?

PRIME MINISTER: Well, we have doubled defence spending over a recent period of time. We have $57 billion of additional defence investment over the next 10 years, and we have more than $10 billion of additional investment in defence over the forward estimates. We will continue to do, as I have said, refer to previous 73 answers, we will give whatever capability Australia needs to defend our national interest. That is a responsibility that government has, and it's one that we take seriously, and it's one that we have implemented with our investments.

JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, given the situation in the Middle East, have you personally or members of the Australian Government, have you been talking to other nations like the UK, or just reaching out to anybody?

PRIME MINISTER: Well, as you would expect, our officials, as well as the Acting Prime Minister, the Defence Minister, I have been, as you know, on a plane with you. And so no, we were not having discussions while we were travelling here. I will obviously have meetings over the coming days with Prime Minister Carney, with Prime Minister Starmer of the United Kingdom, with Chanceller Merz of Germany, with a range of other leaders. I expect to see as well President Trump as part of the G7, and I will be engaging there over coming days. And I'm sure that the events obviously that are occurring in the Middle East will be a topic of conversation.

JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, the United Kingdom entered into an agreement with Donald Trump a couple of weeks ago. Is that a potential model that Australia could follow? Is critical minerals still part of that offer to the United States?

PRIME MINISTER: Australia will follow our model. Australia has a very different economy and potential from the United Kingdom. We have something in the order of 36 I think the figure is of the 50 critical minerals have been identified. Australia is a major contributor in our region to security, and the relationship that we have with the United States is an important one. Our trading relationship with the United States is very different as well. We have different by our security measures, for example, as an island economy, and we have made it very clear that we want to continue to increase our trade with the United States, and we want constructive outcomes, and I'll put forward Australia's national interest. But I do think that the economies of the UK and Australia are different, and hence the engagement will be different as well. Also Australia has the Free Trade Agreement with the United States. And one of the things that I will state privately as well as I state publicly, is that the United States has enjoyed a very long trade surplus with Australia. Now the US has also had a trade surplus, but it's in different products with the UK at various times.

JOURNALIST: On that last point of meeting Mr Trump, your longstanding mantra about defence spending, that we will decide our capability needs and fund them accordingly. Will that also be the thrust of your message to the President in the context of the AUKUS discussions?

PRIME MINISTER: The context of the AUKUS discussions will be what Australia contributes, the potential that AUKUS has to allow for a range of benefits to the United States. It comes from our assistance for the industrial capability in the United States, of which Australia has already contributed $500 million. Australia has currently over 100 personnel in Hawaii working on maintenance, working on skills, contributing there, as well as many more people here in the United States as well. The potential of what's going to occur, the infrastructure investment in Henderson will be important in increasing the capacity of US submarines, as well as UK submarines, to be in the water for longer, and for maintenance to occur there, as well as well as another benefit. The benefit that the presence of US Marines has in the Northern Territory is also important, as well as the fuel reserves that are there in the Northern Territory. In addition, is about making a contribution. So there are a range of ways in which Australia's contribution to the United States, not just through AUKUS Pillar I but in particular AUKUS Pillar I, is very much in Australia's national interest, but it's also in the interests of the United States.

JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, when you do meet with Donald Trump on tariffs, what is your idea on that tariff deal? and is there a scenario that you can see that 10 per cent baseline removed?

PRIME MINISTER: Well, the 10 percent baseline has, of course, been applied across the entire globe. And what I won't do is do what some have done in Australian politics, or formerly in Australian politics have done and make grand declarations prior to any meeting taking place. I will put forward Australia's interests respectfully, because it is also in the interest of the United States for Australia to be treated appropriately. Tariffs across the board, of course, impose an increased cost on purchases of those goods and services. Those goods and services are still being provided here in the United States, and indeed in some sectors, if you look at the beef sector, Australian beef producers have been able to find export destinations as well that have improved the certain sectors. So look, I will enter into those discussions constructively. The discussions that I've previously had with President Trump were constructive, but those 10 per cent tariff supports have been the minimum, importantly, as well - the minimum that have been applied right across the board.

JOURNALIST: To follow up on the comment you just made about Henderson shipyard in WA. Are you suggesting that Australia could look to establish two dry docks there, but two [inaudible] yards, so that US subs and Australian subs can be sort of serviced simultaneously?

PRIME MINISTER: I'm suggesting that what we have provision for already will lead to the maintenance of US subs, and particularly given where it is, will improve. We've had love talk about productivity today. What all this will do is improve the productivity of the defence forces of by the United States and Australia, which is why it is in our interests. Thanks very much.