Doorstop - Malvern, Victoria
19 January 2019
PRIME MINISTER: Well it’s a difficult day in Melbourne today for many reasons. In particular, on the way here today I and the family had the opportunity to stand and pay our respects and grieve with all Melburnians, indeed all Australians, for the terrible and tragic loss of Aiia. Murdered here, in Melbourne, in our suburbs. Later today, I’m going to be meeting with her father. The words will fail me, I’m sure, as one father to another. But I know Kelly and all our members I’m sure, our members of Parliament no doubt, to stand in silence, in grief. And I want to thank those other families, those other Australians who have just been quietly passing by and paying their respects and laying down the flowers, leaving cards. I had the chance to read some of those messages and talk to them. It’s just very quiet and I think that the country is very shaken by it. But at the same time, as always, reaches out and seeks to comfort and I want to thank those Australians for doing that and I was pleased to be able to, with my family, simply do the same.
But that is another matter. Today I am very pleased to be here, standing with Kelly O’Dwyer. Kelly and I have known each other for a long time, worked together closely and I’m pleased that I can be here with her as well as John and Edward and Olivia and have Jenny and my family here. Family is so important. You hear it a lot. But the decisions you make about family is what proves it and what demonstrates it.
I have been blessed to have amazing women in my life, three of them are here with me today and a fourth I have had the great pleasure to work with. Women who I want to have choices. They make their choices, they make their choices. That’s what shows great strength, that’s what shows, I think, the real ability for women in our society to have their choices, make them, live their lives the way they want to live them, have the choices they want to have. And there has been no one I have known in our Parliament who has worked harder, and I believe has achieved more, than Kelly O’Dwyer, in working on those issues. We worked together in Treasury portfolios, we worked together in other portfolios. We went into Parliament not that far apart from each other, and over that entire period of time Kelly has been a champion for every cause. Whether it’s been locally here in her electorate, for whom she has been an absolute champion, or with her detailed knowledge and expertise when it comes to economic management serving on the ERC, serving with me as both firstly an Assistant Treasurer and then as the Minister for Revenue and Financial Services. And now, I had the great privilege and pleasure to be able to appoint her as the Cabinet Minister for Industrial Relations and continuing the role as Minister for Women.
Kelly has an announcement to make today. She makes it with mine and Jenny’s full support. I support her choice. I support all women’s choices. I want them to have more and more choices and that independence and freedom that comes with that. And so here is a great woman who has done a great job for her country and her community and she is making the right choice for family.
THE HON KELLY O’DWYER MP: Thank you very much. I hope you can forgive me for having a few notes. First, I want to join with the Prime Minister in thanking him for his comments about Aiia and the terrible events that have occurred here in Victoria. Our Government has been incredibly focused on ensuring the safety of women, whether it’s on our streets, in our homes, or online or in the workplace. And it is a terrible reminder of how we must always, together as governments and as a community, ensure that we never lose focus on that.
But I have got a very personal announcement that I’m making today. I joined the Liberal Party when I was 17 years of age because I belief it’s important for people to be able to choose their own paths in life. That they should be rewarded for their hard work and their effort and enterprise and that everyone, regardless of their background or experience, deserves the respect and opportunity to live their best life. I have been profoundly grateful for the opportunity to be able to represent those values and the great privilege that I have had to represent the issues with my local community, those big and small issues, as the Federal Member for Higgins.
However, today, after much agonising and with a heavy heart, I am announcing that I will not be recontesting for the seat of Higgins at the next election. This decision has been made both harder but also easier because of my great friendship and profound respect for the Prime Minister. He is someone who I am absolutely confident will lead out Government to victory in May. I need to be honest about the fact that I can’t commit to another three years and continue to deliver the quality of service that my country, my Party and my community are entitled to expect. There have been too many by-elections of late and I have no intention of causing a by-election in the next Parliament.
The reasons are complex and most compellingly, the decisive reasons are very personal. Normally, of course, I wouldn’t canvass them at all. But there will be some who try and use my announcement today to advance their own agendas and I absolutely do not want that. My two smart and loving children, Olivia and Edward, who are here with me today, will reach primary school age during the next Parliament. In compiling photobooks and in looking at all of those special moments over the Christmas period, I have seen how many of them I have missed and I know how many I will miss. Everyone makes sacrifices for their work and I know that I am in a more fortunate position than most. But I no longer want to consistently miss out on seeing my children when they wake up in the morning or go to bed at night and I want to know that when I am around, my time with them is not constantly disrupted. And it’s clear to me that they also want to spend more time with me as well.
There is another very personal reason. Like so many families, our journey to parenthood has not been straightforward. My husband and I want to give ourselves the opportunity, the best opportunity, to have a third child. We need to be very realistic. I turn 42 years of age this year and everything would have to go right. This does not mean that men or women need to choose between family and public service, they don’t. Of course there are sacrifices and for a time I have willingly made them. With the right support, you can do both and do both well. I am enormously grateful not only to my loving husband John but also to Malcolm Turnbull, to Julie Bishop and to Scott Morrison for leading through their actions, including supporting a breastfeeding mother in Cabinet and on the Expenditure Review Committee.
However, no job is forever, and after four elections and going on a decade in the Parliament, it is time to give someone else the opportunity to serve. There are so many talented Liberals who can bring a new energy to this seat. I look back at my parliamentary and my ministerial career with gratitude and with satisfaction. Superannuation is now on a more sustainable footing and more Australians have an opportunity to unlock its potential through reforms such as deductible personal contributions and also catch-up contributions. I’m proud to have taken on vested interests in the sector by introducing legislation that better protects retirement savings for millions of Australians. By capping fees, by making sure that those fees are low on low balance accounts, by banning exit fees on all accounts, improving insurance arrangements and proactively reuniting lost and inactive superannuation accounts with their rightful owners. The Senate must urgently legislate these reforms in order to save millions of Australians billions of dollars of their own money.
My consumer focus has seen the Australian Financial Complaints Authority established, world-leading whistleblower protections introduced, and our insolvency laws overhauled. Together with the Prime Minister, I am proud to have contributed to legislated tax cuts for small and medium sized enterprises and tax cuts for individuals that will see the 37 per cent tax rate abolished altogether.
As a member of the Expenditure Review Committee, I’m also proud to have been able to play my part in returning the Budget to surplus, whilst also championing key infrastructure projects such as the Victorian Airport Rail Link. Legislation passed recently that sets the minimum standards for the workplace, for family and domestic violence leave, will help so many families. I also hope that last year’s inaugural Women’s Economic Security Statement is an initiative that all governments will commit to. Whether through more flexible paid parental leave or emergency access to finance for those who are experiencing domestic violence. It is essential that we continue to build women’s economic security.
I’m also proud to have been part of securing a permanent home for Australia’s first children’s hospice here in the heart of Higgins. Very Special Kids is one of Australia’s most important and impressive organisations, helping families care for profoundly ill children and being there to support them when the most awful thing happens and a child dies. I’m profoundly grateful for their work and their compassion.
I want to place on record my thanks to the people of Higgins who have entrusted me to represent them. I want to thank Malcolm Turnbull and Scott Morrison for the opportunity to contribute in Cabinet. To my brilliant and very talented staff, to the public servants in my various portfolios, to the wonderful team in our childcare centre, to the Liberal Party and my very dedicated local Party members and the executive and my supporters. Most especially, I’d like to thank my family who have been continuously and always understanding and for their unconditional love. But finally, I would like to particularly thank the Prime Minister and I’d particularly like to thank Jenny. They have given me wholehearted support in reaching this decision, together with John. I have been able to work with the Prime Minister, not only in his current role but also as Treasurer and I am pleased to be able to call him my friend and I absolutely know that he is the right person to be able to lead our nation. And I will work with him every step of the journey, both locally and nationally, to ensure that our Government is re-elected at the upcoming election. Our children’s future and the future of generations that will follow absolutely depends on it. Thank you.
PRIME MINISTER: Following Kelly’s announcement today and when she came to me about this earlier in the week, one thing I made very clear. I wanted her to continue to serve on in the role that she has as a Minister in my Government and she will continue to do that ably as I know and she will continue to prosecute those issues, both industrial relations and Minister for Women and employment services. There is still much work to do there and we’re looking forward to her continuing in that role.
Now, I don’t propose to take a lot of questions on this matter. I think Kelly’s statement has made things pretty clear. I am happy though to deal with any other issues of the day that you would like to raise, because I know you will be upset with me if I don’t. So I should address those, but we’ll do those briefly if you wouldn’t mind.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, have you spoken to the Indonesian Government about the impending release of Abu Bakar Bashir?
PRIME MINISTER: We’ve seen those reports and we have been in contact with the Indonesian Government and we continue to be in contact with the Indonesian Government. Australia’s position on this matter has not changed, we’ve always expressed the deepest of reservations and we will continue to work closely with them on this issue. We are partners when it comes to countering terrorism and religious extremism and we will continue to do that and we will continue to engage directly with the Indonesian Government on this very sensitive matter. But I don’t think it assists matters by engaging in that process in a public way.
JOURNALIST: What do you make of the explanations?
PRIME MINISTER: I’m sorry, I can’t hear you.
JOURNALIST: What do you think about the explanation in relation to his release?
PRIME MINISTER: Well there are a lot of details which are not yet confirmed and so before I make any further comment on those matters, those details are being confirmed. So once, I think, we have a clearer picture on that then I think that would be the responsible thing to do, to wait for that.
JOURNALIST: On the Aged Care Royal Commission, are you happy… is it acceptable that so few providers had provided responses to the Commissioner ahead of it?
PRIME MINISTER: The reason I called the Royal Commission into aged care, residential care, including for young people with disabilities living in aged care, is because I want the light shone on this sector. I want senior Australians and those who are cared for in that sector treated with respect and that there be a culture of respect. And I have every confidence in the Commissioners to shine that light and to provide a pathway to ensuring that we can be confident about having that culture of respect for senior Australians in this country. I said when I called the Royal Commission that Australians should embrace for some shocking revelations of the way senior Australians have been treated and we’re already starting to see it. Those things upset me to my core, but the reason I am upset to my core is the same reason I decided to call the Royal Commission. So I’m going to let them do their work and then we will continue to get on with the job of delivering the services that senior Australians and Australians with disabilities deserve.
JOURNALIST: On the seat of Higgins, have you canvassed candidates to run at the upcoming election?
PRIME MINISTER: Well Kelly has just made her announcement here, now, publicly today and so this is the first that it has been made public. And I have no doubt, and Kelly you may want to comment because you know a lot of great women candidates who I know are going to emerge to be the Liberal selected candidate here, and I’m looking forward to one of them being selected through the normal process and to ensure they can meet the high standard that Kelly has set. But Kelly, you might…
JOURNALIST: So blokes need not apply, Kelly?
[Laughter]
THE HON KELLY O’DWYER MP: Well look, we’re very lucky in Higgins, we’re very fortunate in the Liberal Party to have a very deep talent pool here and there are a lot of people with incredible, local experience. There are a lot of people who have incredible commitment to our local community who would serve as very, very fine representatives in our nation’s Parliament representing this seat. There are so many talented women in this seat and my phone, I’m sure when I get back to my desk, is going to be filled with quite a number of telephone calls from them. But I am incredibly confident that this seat, which is a seat I have been very proud to represent and I remain absolutely committed to, this seat will be represented incredibly well by one of the very talented people who will come forward. And I have no doubt that it will be a women.
JOURNALIST: Could Peta Credlin be one of those talented women who might come forward?
PRIME MINISTER: We’re not going to get into speculation about the candidates here, but there have been some fine women who have run most recently in elections here around this part of Melbourne and I am looking forward to an outstanding candidate coming forward as I’m sure will. Because last time we ran a preselection in Higgins, we got Kelly O’Dwyer, and that worked out pretty well I’ve got to say. And I’m sure that the people, the Liberal Party members of Higgins will equally do their task to produce a candidate equal to Kelly and she has set a high watermark. So thank you all very much for coming today.
JOURNALIST: Two police officers were shot in New South Wales overnight. Can you just touch on that, your response to that?
PRIME MINISTER: Well as the son of a police officer, I can only respond with heartfelt sympathies for the families and for those who have been injured. And thankfully, by my last report, they were in a stable condition and I reach out to their families. I know how they would be feeling, as coming from a police family myself. But you know, we’ve got to remember, our police officers step up into harm's way every day. I know this. Dad would go to work, and he started off patrolling the Cross in Sydney. And I know this, I know so many police families and policeman around the country. They go out to work every day, and the come home every day, most of them. But some don’t, and some come home after horrific injuries like those that were faced up in Northern New South Wales today. In fact, my uncle was a policeman in Northern New South Wales. So I know about that as well. Some come back having seen the most horrible of things and dealt with the most distressing of circumstances. The same is true of our ambulance officers, our paramedics and our fire officers. You know, we can’t do enough to recognise what they do and so on a day like today I just reach out to them as a fellow Australian and say thank you for what you do for us and thank you to their families as well.
JOURNALIST: Kelly, how much was your decision influenced by your 8 per cent margin?
THE HON KELLY O’DWYER MP: It wasn’t influenced at all. My decision is entirely personal, as I said in the statement. And we live in a country where we want women to not just survive but to thrive. We want women to have real choices about their futures and I’m making a choice about mine. It is a very deeply personal choice. It’s one that is right for me and my family and I am able to make it because I am also incredibly confident about my seat, I’m very confident about the Government and I’m absolutely confident about our Prime Minister and his leadership of our nation.
PRIME MINISTER: Thank you very much, I think we’ll leave it there.
