Doorstop interview
20 November 2019
Prime Minister of Australia
PRIME MINISTER: It’s great to be here in Queensland with Premier Palaszczuk, her colleagues and the Deputy Prime Minister and our federal colleagues to be talking about a great partnership to deliver $1.3 billion of additional and brought-forward expenditure by the Commonwealth, together with over $600 million from the state government, to put a real boost into the Queensland economy. And what’s good for the Queensland economy is good for the national economy. I want to thank the Queensland Premier as well as all the other states and territories Premiers and Chief Ministers for working so closely together with the Commonwealth to identify these projects that we can bring forward, that we can put additional investment into to both create the jobs and provide the support to our economy as it goes through a difficult time globally as we go through the drought. But at the same time, to ensure that we’re getting people home sooner and safer, that we’re getting on with these important projects. Whether they are in metropolitan areas like we are here today or out in rural and regional areas where we can see the benefits of that not just in the improved infrastructure and jobs it brings, particularly for those areas that are affected by drought, but by making our rural and regional roads safer for those communities as well.
This is part of a broader program of works that we’ve been bringing together as a Commonwealth since the last election, over the last six months, which means we’ll have $3.8 billion in brought-forward and additional investment going into our national economy and $1.7 billion of that will be in just over the next 18 months alone when it comes to the bring forward that investment and a third of that is all coming here to Queensland. There are big infrastructure and transport tasks here in Queensland, and it's important that governments of whatever political persuasion work together to get these projects done on the ground.
So this is the time to get this stuff done. I appreciate the way that Premier Palaszczuk and all of the state and territory Premiers and Chief Ministers have worked together collectively to do what's good for our economy, what's good for our community, to ensure safer and more efficient roads and rail infrastructure, and importantly, to provide support to regional and rural communities who are doing it so tough. So I'm going to ask the Premier to speak and the Minister speak and the Deputy Prime Minister who can talk particularly about where we've got to inland rail today and then happy to take questions. Premier.
THE HON ANNASTACIA PALASZCZUK, PREMIER OF QUEENSLAND: Thanks, PM, and it's great to have the Prime Minister here in Queensland. And as I've always said, we always work best when we work together. And this is a clear signal that we can sit down, we can work through things in the best interests of the people of this great state. And I know that we want to make sure that we continue to build the economy and get people out there into work. What this money means is accelerated money, it means that we can get on with the job of making sure that we have the key infrastructure that we need right across Queensland. It's not just the South East. This package includes money across regional Queensland, whether it's Cairns, Rockhampton, Mackay, the light rail on the Gold Coast, which now means we can get it shovel ready for next year, the extensions to the M1, we know how important the M1 is with 160,000 people travelling that each and every day, 210,000 down the southern end. So this is great news for Queensland. It's a great infrastructure package and I was just having coffee this morning and some people said to me, isn't it fantastic that you and the PM have got a package together for jobs for Queenslanders? And I hope that this is a sign of more things to come. I just want to thank the Prime Minister, the Deputy Prime Minister, Minister Mark Bailey, everybody who's been involved in working on this. It's been a lot of work behind the scenes. But at the end of the day, it's great news for Queensland and I’m pretty proud today. Thank you.
THE HON. MARK BAILEY MP, QLD MINISTER FOR TRANSPORT AND MAIN ROADS: This is a massive day for Queensland. The Palaszczuk Government has advocated for infrastructure funding and the Commonwealth has listened and this is a fantastic agreement for jobs, for roads, for light rail here in Queensland. This means those two M1 interchanges there are at exit 41 and 49 are fully funded. One of the highest growth population areas in the country [inaudible] there doubling the capacity across there. And, of course, light rail on the Gold Coast. What a fantastic boon for Gold Coast residents to see the third stage from Broadbeach to Burley being fully funded across all three levels of government. I'd like to acknowledge the work of Tom Tate the Mayor of Gold Coast who has been very much a part of this agreement. This is fantastic news, but we've taken the opportunity to deal with a whole lot of things here right across Queensland, not just here in the South East. So a massive acceleration of funding into the Cape York package to seal the Peninsula development road there, to open up the Cape and to make a safer road. That means a huge amount to the Cape York community. Acceleration of over $50 million in Mackay, there are accelerations there in Cairns and Rockhampton as well. And we're doing a joint business case to do the planning work for a rail line from Salisbury down to Beaudesert into Gladstone, Yarraville so those kinds of growth areas to get the rail going there as well. So this has been a fantastic and quite widespread deal between the Commonwealth and the Palaszczuk Government. I want to thank all the federal colleagues, the Deputy Prime Minister, in particular, Michael McCormack, has worked closely with us to work our way through a lot of issues. This is an excellent deal for jobs, for infrastructure and for Queensland.
THE HON. MICHAEL MCCORMACK MP, DEPUTY PRIME MINISTER AND MINISTER FOR INFRASTRUCTURE, TRANSPORT AND REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT: Well, thank you, Mark. And yes, you are right, our officers get on very well and so do we. And we need to continue to do that. Continue to do that for and on behalf of Queensland and Queenslanders. It's a big state and a big state needs big infrastructure and a big infrastructure package we are announcing today. Delighted to be here with Prime Minister Scott Morrison, with Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk, of course, Mark Bailey, the Minister here with whom I've worked so closely. Also, we have a number of Queensland members, local members and ministers. But also very, very pleased, I'm here with my federal colleagues, my federal LNP colleagues, Angie Bell and Bert van Manen. I know they've campaigned and they've fought hard to make sure that we've got a better M1 motorway and I know they've fought hard to make sure that we've got the right road and rail infrastructure in place to get people to where they need to be sooner and safer. And of course, with the M1, there's many, many tradies on it at the moment. We've got the kids to school. It's now tradies turn and tradies time. And the number of utes that go up and down this busy motorway during daylight hours and indeed after hours as well. Time is money for them. They need to get where they want to be as soon as they can, as safe as they can. And the upgrades that we're announcing today are going to be enabling them to do just that. But I'm a regional member and I know how important regional infrastructure is. And as Mark Bailey has just indicated, this package also includes a number of road infrastructure upgrades for Cairns and I know Warren Entsch is going to be delighted with that. I spoke to Michelle Landry and George Christensen last night about the upgrades for the ring roads at Rockhampton and Mackay, respectively. And they were very, very pleased that we're getting on, we’re fast-tracking those projects. What we want to see is more high-vis on the ground. What we want to see is more excavators pushing dirt around. This means jobs. This means an economic boost for Queensland. Queensland needs this boost. It's all about jobs. It's all about making sure we've got the right infrastructure in the right place. I'm delighted that the Queensland Government and the Australian Government have now come to terms for the intergovernmental agreement for the inland rail, that 1,700 kilometre corridor of commerce between Melbourne and Brisbane. And I know that this package also includes money for the Port of Brisbane, but more importantly, that inland rail, the Queensland component of that $9.3 billion nation-building infrastructure is going to benefit Queensland by around $7 billion. The majority of the construction work, 7,200 workers in the construction phase alone and the majority of the benefits are going to come to Queensland. Mark Bailey knows that, I know that, the Premier and the Prime Minister know that and I'm glad we've been able to reach agreement and sign off on that important nation-building infrastructure project. Because when the inland rail was first mooted, there was going to be a $10 tonne per saving for product moving it from inland to port, then, of course, to our export markets. Well, the CSIRO has now identified that that saving could be up to $94 a tonne and indeed an average saving of $76 a tonne. So that means more money in the Queensland economy, more money for the nation and when you have more money circulating around, that creates more jobs, that creates more trade and more opportunities. So well done. I'm pleased that this package today includes money for the Cunningham, the Warrego and the Bruce Highways as well as the M1. This is a great package, not just for the metropolitan areas and south east Queensland, but indeed for regional Queensland. When regional Queensland is strong, so too is the state and when Queensland is strong, so too is our nation. Thank you.
PRIME MINISTER: Thank you, Michael. I'll ask the Premier to join me. Thanks for that geographical tour around Queensland too, mate, that was tremendous. He knows his way around, getting stuff done. Happy to take questions.
JOURNALIST: It seems that peace has broken out, why has it taken so long? The Palaszczuk Government has been complaining since the Budget that there’s been no federal money for infrastructure here?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, there's been lots of federal money for infrastructure, but what we've been able to do over the last six months working together, not just with Premier Palaszczuk, but on Monday, I was standing up with Premier Marshall. We’ve painstakingly gone through this process of identifying the projects that could be brought forward, the scoping of works, the scheduling of works, the additional funds that may be required, the movement and things like material prices and things of that nature. And we've been able to arrive at this package of some $3.8 billion. So we've been working on this since the election and you don't just rush into spending $3.8 billion, spraying it around out of a hose. You actually do it carefully and you do it in consultation. And so I very much appreciate the working relationship that we've been able to proceed with to get to this announcement today. And I said, you know, around the country, it's $1.7 billion just in the next 18 months. Now, you add that to the tax cuts we put in place just after the election and the additional investment going into drought-affected communities with stimulus programmes there. That's $9.5 billion by the end of next financial year that would have gone in an extra investment in the Australian economy in a difficult time.
JOURNALIST: So is this a stimulus for a stalling economy?
PRIME MINISTER: This is investment for today with benefits for the future.
JOURNALIST: Given you’ve brought forward the infrastructure funding and Josh Frydenberg says we need to work for longer, is it time to revisit the timing of the income tax cuts?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, I don't agree with your assessment of what Josh Frydenberg said. What Josh Frydenberg has simply said is we want people to have more opportunities in the future about how they participate in the economy. What they want to do is up to them. And we've got an ageing population in Australia and I think people living longer, being more healthy, having more options is a good thing. It's a good thing for them. It's a good thing for our economy and we want to have policies at federal and state levels that support people in the choices they want to make as they age. But our response as a government has been proportional. It's been measured. It's been careful and it's been well planned. This is no cash splash. That's what we've seen previously. What we've seen at the moment is a careful investment in the Queensland economy and the national economy at a time when the Australian Government understands the pressures that are on the economy.
JOURNALIST: Premier, last week you said the greatest threat to the Queensland economy is Scott Morrison. Do you still believe that given this is such a boost for the Queensland economy?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, I'm starting to see some light at the end of the tunnel.
THE HON. MICHAEL MCCORMACK MP, DEPUTY PRIME MINISTER AND MINISTER FOR INFRASTRUCTURE, TRANSPORT AND REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT: There will be many tunnels.
THE HON ANNASTACIA PALASZCZUK, PREMIER OF QUEENSLAND: I'm very happy with the progress today. And look, earlier this year, the Prime Minister put out a call to states about ways in which we could fast-track infrastructure across the state. And as always, we have yearly plans. We have $49.7 billion of infrastructure planned over the next four years. We have our yearly infrastructure plan. So we're able to identify very clearly to the Prime Minister, the Deputy Prime Minister, key projects that we think can get underway faster and sooner. So I'm really happy with the progress and it's a good day today for Queensland. I'm not going to shy away from that.
JOURNALIST: So there's been progress on the roads today, but how about with the hospital? There’s billions of dollars waiting there, are you willing to [inaudible] resolution? Premier, why won’t you sign onto the deal to get the…
THE HON ANNASTACIA PALASZCZUK, PREMIER OF QUEENSLAND: No, no, no, we’re very close to signing that. I think that's a matter of days away as well. And I've indicated that previously that we were keen to get that done as quickly as possible so I don’t have any problems there.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, just back on Josh Frydenberg’s comments…
PRIME MINISTER: Before we moved to more general issues, I'm going to hold a more general federal press conference after this. At the moment, we're going to just stay on the infrastructure. The Premier is going to hold one as well so we can deal with, I'm sure, the many other things you'd like to raise.
JOURNALIST: Can you clarify if every state will have projects brought forward or get new funding as well?
PRIME MINISTER: Yes. They've all got brought forward or additional investment coming over the forward estimates.
JOURNALIST: How will you ensure that money is not wasted and you won’t run into capacity constraints with all the money going into these projects?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, that's been the process we've been working through. See, if we’d just rush to these announcements and hadn't worked through them, then you put these projects at greater risk of exactly what you're saying. So we've worked carefully with the state government and at the end of the day, it's the state government that manages the delivery of these projects. And so we listened carefully to their advice and what they believe is possible over this timeframe and to support them in those decisions, to roll these projects out on the ground. So we're backing the work that has been done to assess these projects and obviously, it's a matter for the Queensland Government to deliver them on the ground.
JOURNALIST: Premier, do you feel your stubbornness, I suppose, in holding out for another deal has resulted in what is more money for Queensland?
THE HON ANNASTACIA PALASZCZUK, PREMIER OF QUEENSLAND: In terms of signing up for the inland rail?
JOURNALIST: Yeah.
THE HON ANNASTACIA PALASZCZUK, PREMIER OF QUEENSLAND: Look, no, I actually think that we were very clear with the fact that we believe that there should be a fair share of funding coming into Queensland for infrastructure. And like I said, a total package today of $1.9 billion which will mean accelerated works and jobs for Queenslanders. You know, it's great news.
JOURNALIST: Premier, a few weeks ago you said that you were open to discussing with the Prime Minister a smaller version of the Bradfield Scheme. Have you had any conversations around that?
THE HON ANNASTACIA PALASZCZUK, PREMIER OF QUEENSLAND: No, we haven’t done that at the moment. Our department is still doing some work on that at the moment.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, have you considered or are you contributing to the Queensland bid for the Olympics?
PRIME MINISTER: Yeah, we're putting from memory it was $15 million dollars to support the bid operation, it's not called a bid anymore. But the actual organisation that will come together to manage that process with the IOC and Ted O’Brien, who's been my representative here in Queensland, has been working very closely with the Premier on that project. They were recently overseas pursuing that with the IOC and I think that relationship is working really well. We’ve got a little bit more work to do, which we know before the end of the year. And I think that's progressing well. I think it'd be great for Brisbane, I think it'd be great for Queensland, it’d be great for Australia. Coming from the state that last hosted the Olympics in Australia, it was certainly good for Sydney. And the state government took the lead on it back then and the state government will take the lead on it here.
JOURNALIST: Do you need a confirmation on the number of dollars from the Federal Government and are you still on track for a before Christmas announcement?
THE HON ANNASTACIA PALASZCZUK, PREMIER OF QUEENSLAND: So we’re doing the value assessment at the moment. We expect to take that to cabinet before the end of the year and we have another meeting tomorrow with Ted O'Brien, John Coates and other representatives and there has been great cooperation at all levels of government in relation to this and I think it's been a very clear signal about the Olympics that it does need all levels of government to cooperate, and that's what we are seeing. So I'm very positive at this stage.
JOURNALIST: Just on the inland rail, has the intergovernmental agreement been signed? Is that what today is about?
THE HON. MICHAEL MCCORMACK MP, DEPUTY PRIME MINISTER AND MINISTER FOR INFRASTRUCTURE, TRANSPORT AND REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT: Well, two things there. I've got it in my briefcase and if Mark wants to sign it today, I'll happily give him a pen. But otherwise, we were going to do an official signing at Toowoomba in a couple of weeks, weren’t we Mark? So I look forward to getting his autograph then.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, just one some other questions…
PRIME MINISTER: Ok, we might we might move to other things. Thanks very much, Annastacia.
JOURNALIST: Tim Weeks, do you when he will be coming back to Australia?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, he is currently obviously going through his various health checks and other assessments in a safe place. Tim's in a safe place. He's out and he's coming home and we look forward to that very, very much. Again, I want to thank the leadership in Afghanistan. I want to thank the President of the United States, President Trump, Secretary Pompeo, and all of those who've been working on this for a very long time. And the fact that Tim and Mr King will be actually coming home to their respective countries, I think, is a great relief. And it just goes to show that if you stick at these things and you work at it quietly, you don't seek to showboat around this stuff, that you can get good outcomes for people. It's not always guaranteed. There are tremendous risks. And what has been able to be achieved here with Professor Weeks I think is just tremendous. And I couldn't be more thrilled. The Foreign Minister spoke to Tim's family, it was overnight I think, and they are just rapt and very grateful.
THE HON. MICHAEL MCCORMACK MP, DEPUTY PRIME MINISTER AND MINISTER FOR INFRASTRUCTURE, TRANSPORT AND REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT: And given the fact that he has very close connections to Wagga Wagga, I'm delighted as my hometown and I know all Wagga Wagga is celebrating today the freedom, the safety of Timothy Weeks. Well done to everybody who helped make that happen.
JOURNALIST: Just out in the Pacific, there’s a huge measles problem. Are you concerned about what’s going on there in Samoa in particular?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, these are things we'll take advice on from our office of the Pacific and our Post. And we have always been able to respond and assist our Pacific family and friends when it comes to difficult health challenges and things of this nature. So there are established practices and procedures in place for that and we'll be following those as normal.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, I understand Westpac is being prosecuted for some sort of part in money laundering. Are you disappointed by that?
PRIME MINISTER: I'm appalled. I'm absolutely appalled. But what it also shows is two things - the banks need to keep lifting their game, but it also shows that our cop on the beat, AUSTRAC, is doing their job. Just as it was with the CommBank, just as has been again with Westpac. And, you know, they've just got to lift their game on this stuff. And the other thing they've got to do is, you know, they've got to keep supporting whether it's first home buyers or other home buyers or small businesses and others. All of this is not a leave pass to pull up the drawbridge in terms of the credit extension into the Australian economy. We're here today with a big vote of confidence in the Queensland and the Australian economy with a $3.8 billion investment nationally and a $1.3 billion investment here in Queensland. I'm optimistic about the Australian economy. Our economy is outperforming so many of our competitors in other developed nations around the world. You've got countries like Germany who have had negative quarters, Singapore and so on. And here is Australia battling against those headwinds and battling better than others. So I think Australians have reason to be optimistic and we are an optimistic government when it comes to the economy. And that's why we're making the structural investments that we're putting in place. We are investing in Australian aspiration and we're investing in that irrepressible optimism that I know Australians have about their future.
JOURNALIST: AUSTRAC found that Westpac had failed due diligence on transactions in the Philippines and South East Asia. Do you have any concerns that they may be taking part or helping to facilitate exploitation in those areas?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, look, these are sensitive matters, they're matters that will be before the courts. And so I'm not going to make any other observations other than what I've just done. I think that's the responsible thing to do in these cases. Obviously, it's appalling and distressing. The banks need to lift their game. But they also need to keep doing the lifting in terms of the vital channel of financial support that they provide to the economy, both with small and medium-sized businesses as well as with those in the housing market. Two-thirds of the Australian economy is not the government. It's actually the private sector and that's where we want to see the investment. And I know small and medium-sized businesses are wanting to be out there, taking advantage of things like the instant asset write off, the lower tax rates we've put in place, the quicker payment times we've put in place for small business contractors. I mean, if they're on digital payment systems now, they'll get paid in five days by the government. So these things are backing small and medium-sized businesses and we want to see the financial sector similarly doing that. So these events are not an excuse to keep doing the heavy lifting on that side of the economy, but it is a fairly damning indictment about some of the processes and procedures they've had in place.
Just quickly, last time you were here in Brisbane you were flagging those new laws about businesses boycotting other businesses. Has there been any headway with the legislation?
PRIME MINISTER: No, I said that we're working through those issues carefully. We support the right to protest. We also support the right for consumers to do what they ever want to do individually. I think the way that that's been characterised has been deliberately misleading. What we want to make sure is that decent, hardworking Australians working in small and medium-sized businesses here in Queensland in particular are not discriminated against because of the nature of the great work they do and the jobs they create. Thanks very much.