Media Releases
Doorstop - Western Sydney, NSW
24 September 2018
PRIME MINISTER: Well that was exciting. That rig was what I would call a big unit, I thought that was very exciting. I also want to thank Gladys Berejiklian for the great work we’ve been doing together as a state and a Commonwealth. I’ve already made mention in my earlier remarks about the former Prime Ministers and their role in bring us to where we are today and Paul Fletcher the former Minister who did so much great work in this area. Stuart, it’s great to have you here with us today, a champion of Western Sydney. So why don’t we just go straight to questions?
JOURNALIST: Where is the Premier, Prime Minister?
PRIME MINISTER: She is represented today by the Minister. Today is a Commonwealth Government announcement, that’s what we’re doing here today. So I’d have to refer you back to her office.
JOURNALIST: But she was coming today, did she pull out late?
PRIME MINISTER: I’d have to direct you to her office.
JOURNALIST: There’s obviously talk about a Liberal spill in NSW. What do you think the likelihood of that is?
PRIME MINISTER: I’ve got no idea, I’m not in the NSW Parliament. I don’t stick my nose in other parliaments’ business.
JOURNALIST: It is a bit bizarre though that she’s not here, such a massive piece of infrastructure for NSW.
PRIME MINISTER: I think today is a very exciting day for Australia. What we’re announcing today is the Commonwealth kicking this project off. You’re on the Commonwealth site, and it’s the Commonwealth Government’s initiative to get this happening. Over $5 billion invested in making this happen, and it’s great to have Stuart here who has been a champion of this project for a very long time.
JOURNALIST: Why has it taken five decades?
PRIME MINISTER: Because frankly, people kept kicking it down the road for too long and our Government didn't. People talked a big game on Western Sydney Airport for years and years and years. And our Government stopped talking and started doing and that's what we've been doing for the last five years, is getting to this very day. We started right off the blocks, we had to resolve the initial issues around who could do it and in what circumstances and we were able to resolve that. Then we got the Corporation together, and then we got moving and today, we've been able to get to this point within five years of being elected. I think that's a real testimony to our determination as a Government over that period of time to make Western Sydney Airport a reality.
JOURNALIST: There's been a lot of issues with it, noise, transport; are you confident that you’ve sorted out all those issues around it?
PRIME MINISTER: Many of the issues will still require a lot of close community consultation and working together. But you know, it's a huge project and huge projects require you to work through a lot of issues. We're not scared of big projects, we're not scared of investing in the nation's future. We're absolutely passionate about it. So we will take on all of those challenges. Others in the past have run away from Western Sydney Airport because it was all just too hard. Our Government has actually been committed to it from to get-go. We're making it happen. This is a reality. This is actually now finally happening. I mean, this issue has been around longer than I have been living on the planet. And you know, it's great to see this happening. Maybe it took a Gen-Xer to finally get us there. But look, everyone has been involved in getting us to this point in our Government over the last five years. And it's so exciting to now see these dozers moving. 22 million cubic metres of earth is going to be moved around on this site and I think that’s tremendously exciting. For all who believed, all who had a vision about this, that vision is now a reality here in Western Sydney.
JOURNALIST: It's a big deal for a Prime Minister to be here and do this. 2026, I suppose you would love to cut the ribbon then?
[Laughter]
PRIME MINISTER: I'm just excited it's happening. I really am. Because as I said in my earlier remarks, I have had an interest in seeing this happen since in early 1990s when I worked in the tourism industry. I have always known how important it is. I’ve also known how important it is representing a part of Sydney that I’ve seen an airport there over many, many years become the heart and soul of its economy. I know what can be achieved here for the Western Sydney economy, because I know what it's achieved in my backyard in southern Sydney. This is the biggest game-changer I think for the city of Sydney since, you know, we built the Harbour Bridge. That’s how big a deal this is.
JOURNALIST: Are you confident that people are going to get here? The Federal Government has committed to half the train line to get out here. Do you think people are actually going to be able to get here?
PRIME MINISTER: We'll have more announcements about what we’re doing in all of these areas. We're totally committed to the success of this airport and what is required to make it a success. That is a constant, daily project. To make it work. Now we're committed to making it work. We're working with the State Government who is committed to making it work. We're committed to others who are here, the councils and others who are making it work. Not far from here, if you go down to Liverpool, Western Sydney University has actually built a vertical campus in Liverpool because of this. The reason they decided to go and invest in Liverpool was because this was happening. That's what I mean by game-changing, city-changing infrastructure investments. It is leading investment right across Western Sydney and the other infrastructure will come. It will be planned and provided and done in partnership because everyone is committed to making this work. And there will be people who will complain along the way, and there will be people who will raise concerns and that's fair enough. There will be concerns and there will be complaints to be addressed, but you don't stop. That's how great cities are built, by doing this.
JOURNALIST: You talk about progress, in six weeks, the polls are out today, you have made some progress there.
PRIME MINISTER: I'm just sticking to my job mate, basically. My job is to ensure that our Government continues to deliver a stronger economy, to guarantee the essentials that Australians rely on, to keep Australians safe, and importantly, to keep Australians together. This project here, I think, is going to tick all three of those boxes. It will bring people together here in Western Sydney, as Tudgey was saying, and I know that Stuart is passionate about this as well, to be able live, work and play here in Western Sydney. Not to have to be on that commute into the city. I mean, that's how the city is being reshaped and what the State Government is doing up around in the north-west as well, they’ve got the south-west, all of these corridors for growth, and I know what Alan is working on, particularly down in Melbourne, where there's similar growth corridors where we have to plan for that. In south east Queensland, massive challenges that we have, but our investments in the M1 and north of the Bruce Highway as well, coming out of Brisbane, you know, this is a Government that understands what you need to do to make our cities work better.
You bust congestion. You build the infrastructure. You manage the population growth and make sure it gets to the places where it needs to and doesn’t apply the pressures where it causes concern on services. So that’s what our Government is doing.
JOURNALIST: On your point of sticking to your job, the ABC has made a big change in terms of jobs there. What do you make of the change at the top?
PRIME MINISTER: Well the ABC Board, that’s their job, to decide how well that show’s being run. They’ve made a decision about that and it's for them now to go through the process and recommend a new appointment.
JOURNALIST: You give a lot of funding, have you asked for a “please explain” as to why they booted out the MD?
PRIME MINISTER: Well I spoke to the Communications Minister last night who advised me about the decision of the Board. Let's not forget, they're an independent board. It's their job. It’s their job and they will need to have gone through all the proper processes to make the decision they have. I want to see an ABC that's strong and doing its job and that's well run and the Board does as well, that's what they’re responsible for. I’ll hold them to account for that.
JOURNALIST: On Newspoll, it says, look, you’re not going to win, but it says that you’re making some ground. I mean, are you pleasantly surprised by those findings today?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, I’ve always thought Jen’s pavs were popular, but you know clearly they were more popular than I thought.
JOURNALIST: The board said that it wasn't in the best interests to keep Michelle Guthrie in the job. Do you agree with that assessment?
PRIME MINISTER: It's not for me to agree or not agree, it's their job. They’ve made their decision and they're responsible for it.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, the Financial Review is reporting that members of big business had dinner with Bill Shorten the other day or the other evening. Do you see this as a sign that they perhaps believe you're not going to win the next election?
PRIME MINISTER: All I know is that if Bill Shorten is Prime Minister, everyone is going to be paying higher taxes. The economy will not grow as strongly. What I do know about Bill Shorten is he thinks he's already got the job. Bill Shorten thinks he is already there. He's strutting around, whether it’s Melbourne or Sydney or Brisbane or anywhere else around the country, as if he's already in the job.
I have no such arrogance or complacency, I know of the big task that’s ahead of me and my team. But I do know this; our Government has been delivering a strong economy, which means we can do things like this. You don't get bulldozers moving and earth-moving equipment, whether it's here or on the M1, or up in Brisbane or out on the Monash Freeway where we’re looking to have those projects, or over in Western Australia. You don't get this happening, unless you're running a strong economy.
Last week, our AAA credit rating was upgraded, in one of the toughest periods of time as a government we’ve ever had, to ensure we retain that AAA credit rating. I mean, 70 to 80 billion ripped out of the Australian economy on the other side of the mining investment boom, enormous pressure on the national finances as we brought the Budget back into balance projected for next year. This has been a big task for our Government and we've been getting about that big task. We have been able to retain the AAA credit rating.
It’s something the Labor Party said you couldn't do. In fact they seem to be wishing it on the Australian economy, that it would go. But we were able to retain it through our strong financial management.
We are keeping Australians safe, we are keeping Australians together and that's what we're saying to the Australian people. We'll continue to say that from here to the next election and they will decide. But Bill Shorten has already decided that he's in the job, that’s the way he’s behaving.
JOURNALIST: Last night Julie Bishop aired, there was an interview with Julie Bishop that aired, talked about the civility of Question Time. Do you agree with her, will you consider changing how Question Time operates?
PRIME MINISTER: Ultimately they're matters for the Speaker. I thought the Speaker last night provided I think, some good responses and some good measured comments, as Smithy always does. I think Tony Smith has been an outstanding Speaker of the House of Representatives. He's well-respected right around the chamber. I thought it was interesting in the piece last night that they were able to bring in the strawberries bill, which showed that for all the to-ing and fro-ing, we were able, last week to get a bill through the House in about 36 hours, to deal with an issue of real concern to Australians.
I mean farmers, strawberry farmers particularly up there in Queensland but in other places around the country, were having their livelihoods threatened. We had mums and dads worried about what they were putting in the schoolkids’ lunches. We were able to act swiftly and get that through the Parliament in about 36 hours. I thought that was the Parliament doing its job.
So of course, there's going to be criticisms and there's going to be sledging of the Parliament and all of that. People will write lots of articles about it. But when it really mattered last week, when the strawberry farmers of Australia and the mums and dads of Australia needed our Parliament and the Government to step up, our Government did. I thought that was a good demonstration of the Parliament and the Government at work for Australians.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, we were expecting to see Marise Payne here today, she's been an active campaigner against the airport. So what has changed?
PRIME MINISTER: Marise is of course an active supporter of the airport.
JOURNALIST: Well no, according to articles and reporting?
PRIME MINISTER: I‘ll tell you who hasn't been for the airport; the shadow treasurer has been against this airport. The Member for Chifley has been against this airport. There are many Labor members of federal Parliament who have been against the airport. That's for them, they can explain that to the people.
But today is not a day for that. Today is a day to say; "How good is this? Welcome to the future of Sydney.” We're really pleased to be stepping up and doing our part as a Government. Our Government has delivered on our promise to get this project off the ground.
We keep our promises. We're going to keep keeping our promises and demonstrating to the Australian people that we’re right there for them, we’re on their side. You only have to look around at whats happening here today to see just how true that is.
So thanks very much for your attention, a great day. Cheers.
Breaking Ground on Western Sydney Airport
24 September 2018
Prime Minister, Minister for Finance and the Public Service, Minister for Cities, Urban Infrastructure and Population
Construction on Western Sydney Airport will begin today – boosting jobs, creating much-needed infrastructure and strengthening the economy.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison said the Western Sydney Airport will provide a gateway to the world, not just for people but for job-producing freight as well.
“For half a century Sydneysiders have talked about a second airport. By tomorrow, bulldozers will be moving and work on the Western Sydney Airport will be underway,” the Prime Minister said.
“This airport will remove the handbrake from the Western Sydney economy.
“This is job generating infrastructure. Most times when infrastructure is built, there is job creation in the short-term and then it tails off when the project is completed. But with this project, job creation will accelerate when the airport is completed.”
The Prime Minister said the Government had achieved all the approvals over the last four years and congratulated Western Sydney Airport Company, which it established to make the airport at Badgerys Creek a reality.
Minister for Finance and the Public Service, Senator Mathias Cormann said the Government’s investment of up to $5.3 billion in equity in Western Sydney Airport will have long-term economic returns.
“The airport will be at the centre of the Western Sydney Aerotropolis, which will be a global hub of innovation for sectors including defence and aerospace, freight and logistics, agribusiness, pharmaceutical and biotech industries,” Minister Cormann said.
“We have already seen industry leaders Qantas and Virgin commit to being at the airport from the day of opening and significant investment from the defence and science sectors already committed.”
Minister for Cities, Urban Infrastructure and Population, Alan Tudge, said the project is not just about building an airport, but about bringing jobs, education, industry and innovation together to create a prosperous and sustainable future for the people of Western Sydney.
“Western Sydney Airport is all about boosting jobs, busting congestion and bringing opportunities to the region,” Minister Tudge said.
“Around 11,000 jobs will be created during the construction phase and around 28,000 within five years of opening.
“The airport is already driving further investment in the region, including billions of dollars of Commonwealth and NSW Government investment in road and rail connections, including the M12 motorway and North-South Rail Link.
“The rail link is part of the historic Western Sydney City Deal, a 20-year agreement that will make the region around the airport a better place to live, with better transport, education, liveability and job creation.
“Through the City Deal, all levels of government are working together to deliver a modern and vibrant Western Parkland City, an employment-generating Aerotropolis, and congestion-busting road and rail infrastructure, all of which will enhance liveability for people in Western Sydney.”
Western Sydney Airport will cater for up to 10 million passengers when it opens, but a gradual expansion to two runways means it will eventually cater for up to 82 million passengers, the size of London Heathrow and JFK in New York.
Initial earthworks are due to be completed by the end of 2019. Western Sydney Airport has called for expressions of interest for the first of three major earthworks and airside civil works packages, which is expected to be awarded in mid-2019.
FAST FACTS:
The initial earthworks phase of the project involves moving 1.8 million m3 of earth to level the site.
There is currently around 40 metres between the lowest and highest points on the site, the equivalent of a 12-storey building.
Major earthworks are due to start in 2019 and will involve moving 22 million m3 of spoil on the site.
Workforce targets:
30 per cent local workforce during construction
50 per cent local workforce when fully operational
10 per cent diversity target including 2.4 per cent indigenous workforce
20 per cent learning workforce including apprentices, graduates and trainees
Doorstop with Minister for Health and NSW Minister for Health
23 September 2018
PRIME MINISTER: It’s great to be here with Brad, the New South Wales Government and the Commonwealth Government are working together very closely across a whole range of issues. Of course the New South Wales Government has signed up to our better hospitals plan, that's $9 billion of investment going into New South Wales hospitals as a result of that agreement, in addition. That's welcome.
But what I'm here to announce today with Brad and with Greg, is our commitment to $175 million over the next four years, for an additional 30 MRI licenses. That's ten we're announcing today, that includes right here at Mount Druitt Hospital and another nine around the country. These have been independently assessed on the basis of need and distance and all the normal criteria which is used to assess where these MRI licenses go. That's going to support 400,000 people over the next four years, who are going to get access to these procedures using Medicare. That means in a place like Mount Druitt Hospital, where we have the highest bulk billing rate in the country at 99 per cent, that means you’ve got Australians that are able to access important medical treatments. I want to commend the New South Wales Government for putting the machine in and we're turning up and doing our bit by putting the license in. We've already seen what it means in nearby hospitals, where they can get 10,000 people through these procedures when they've got the MRI license in place. I know the team here at Mount Druitt are doing their best to make sure they can reach a similar level of treatment and service.
So our Government is absolutely committed to ensuring quality health services all around the country. We're committed to Medicare and we're not just saying that, we're doing it. The reason we can invest $175 million, whether it's in MRI licenses or $30 billion in the future of our hospitals is because we are running a strong economy. It was only just this week that Australia's AAA credit rating was affirmed and updated onto a stable footing. When you can manage your health budget, when you can drive a strong economy, that's when you can make these investments. That's what the Australian people - whether it's here in Western Sydney, or anywhere else around the country - they can rely on our promises on Medicare, our guarantee on Medicare, because we know how to drive an economy that can pay for it.
Greg, why don’t you take us through the announcement, mate?
THE HON. GREG HUNT MP, MINISTER FOR HEALTH: Thanks very much to Scott and to Brad, but also to our incredible staff here. Whether it's James, or Andrew, Sue Anne or Brett, or David or all of the others, it's just a privilege to meet and work with them.
MRIs are about saving lives and protecting lives. Here, at Mount Druitt, they're already being used for cancer diagnosis, for stroke detection. We saw examples of where the MRI was able to detect a stroke where other forms of diagnostic procedures were not able to do that. They’ve been used for neurology, they’re being used for musculoskeletal trauma. So, really critical and in some cases, life-saving or life preserving activities and diagnosis.
As part of that, I'm delighted that the Prime Minister has agreed and announced that we'll invest $175 million including new MRI licenses. On average these will be in the order of up to $1.8 million a year of investment in local health services. But above all else, it's about better diagnosis and better treatment. As the Prime Minister said 10 licenses, commencing as of 1 November, which have already been identified on the basis of need. Another 20 licenses to be allocated through an expression of interest process which will be opened tomorrow for applications. So, these are critical.
Here in New South Wales, we know that there is Mount Druitt as well as Northern Beaches, the extraordinary new hospital there. We have two in Queensland, including Pindara and Toowoomba. Royal Darwin Hospital. We have St John of God Midland in Western Australia and Kalgoorlie, Mount Barker in South Australia and Monash Children’s and Sale Hospital in Victoria. But we’re now opening it up to the country. You can only do these things, as the Prime Minister says, if you’ve got a strong economy and good analysis. I would note with a degree of sorrow that the ALP has budgeted $80 million for 20 machines. The actual cost is probably $120 million on our work, our analysis and our budgeting. To be short by 50 per cent is a major black hole and if you can't get your figures right on the hundreds of millions of dollars, you can never get your figures right on a trillion dollar economy.
So I think the point there is, they can't even manage one program. Mr Shorten needs to explain why he got his figures so dramatically wrong.
PRIME MINISTER: Thanks Greg and Brad will be very happy about the Northern Beaches, I'm sure. A great local member up there, I’ve known Brad up there for a long time. Happy to take questions, or would you like to make any comment yourself, about today’s announcement Brad?
THE HON. BRAD HAZZARD MP, NSW MINISTER FOR HEALTH: Just that it’s great. It's amazing, excellent for the community.
PRIME MINISTER: Fantastic, wonderful.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister yesterday, Labor announced more money for MRIs, has that pushed you into this announcement today?
PRIME MINISTER: No. As Greg just explained to you, they couldn't get even the numbers right yesterday.
Our process for doing this has been going for some time. There is, as you’d imagine, quite a deliberative process to assess on the basis of need and identify the 10 locations that we have announced today. That doesn't happen in 24 hours. That happens over a much more extensive process. So this is part of our commitment to health services across the country.
You know, I don't set my agenda based on what the Labor Party is doing. I set it based on what the needs of the community is doing and what our comprehensive process is for delivering what is $175 million investment. Properly costed, properly thought through and laid out for these first 10 and another 20 to go. Those 20 will become operational, those licenses, at the beginning of March next year.
JOURNALIST: Since 2013, the Coalition has only issued five of these licenses, why have you been so slow to –
PRIME MINISTER: Just before the 2013 election in the dying days of the previous government, they made a commitment to over 200. So we’ve been rolling that out. I mean for years and years, there wasn't much happening and then just before the 2013 election - and we welcomed it - the previous government had made that commitment. So we have been implementing all of those. Now, we're adding more to them. I think that's a good thing. I think it's great that everybody on all sides of politics wants to have these MRI machines out there. I think it's fantastic, but the only way you can actually do it - you can make all the promises you like - but you’ve got to be able to pay for it.
Under our Government, with our record of economic management, we can.
JOURNALIST: What’s your reaction to Tanya Plibersek's announcement?
PRIME MINISTER: Can I stay on MRIs for a minute, I know we’ve had a couple of questions but before we sort of move off MRI of health matters. Happy to talk about other issues, but … if there are no others? Obviously not, okay then, politics.
JOURNALIST: What’s your reaction to Tanya Plibersek's announcement on the gender pay gap?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, our Government has got a very good record here. We've taken the gender pay gap, since we came to government down from 17.2 per cent to 14.5 per cent. Now, when Labor were in power, it went from 15.5 per cent up to 17.2 per cent.
So let's be clear; under Labor, the gender pay gap got bigger.
Under us, under our Government, it's gotten smaller.
Now there's more work to do, there's more to be done here. The reason we've being able to get the gender pay gap down is because we've got more women in work than ever before. We're investing in affordable child care right across the country and that's making an impact. The stronger economy is creating more economic opportunities, so lower taxes, stronger small and medium businesses.
There is already a reporting arrangement that is there for companies with more than 1,000 employees to report on how they're tracking. As a Government we're very pleased we have there fact that we have female representation on government boards at a record level, a higher level than it was when we came to government. We track those sorts of statistics as a Government when we look at board appointments. Half of the top public servants running our Commonwealth agencies, it's a 50/50 split now male and female. So we take those types of things, we monitor them and we make sure we’re always improving in that area and I would be hoping that companies would be doing the same thing. They're already collecting that information.
So we're narrowing the pay gap. Under Labor, it blew out. Under the Coalition, it's contracted. Again, there's more to do. But the way I want to do that is by actually getting everyone to work together. I think that’s the way, I don't want to create tensions in workplaces. I don't want to set one set of employees against another set of employees. I don't think that's the constructive way to do this. We're open to all suggestions but these things are already reported at a sector-wide level and at an economy-wide level. I would be encouraging companies where they wish to and on that basis, to be an employer of choice. They can tell that as part of their story, if they wish. But before you went down that path, I think you’d want to be confident you weren't just going to be setting up conflict in the workplace.
What matters is narrowing the pay gap, that is what matters. That what we're achieving. That's what I'm focused on.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, you’ve committed to continuing aged care reform already, without going into the Royal commission. Does that include the other 20 recommendations [inaudible] review?
PRIME MINISTER: Greg may want to comment on this as well, but we're going to walk and chew gum when it comes to aged care and we have been. There's been some pretty useful bipartisanship on aged care changes over the last eight years. When we were in Opposition, we supported some unpopular changes of the previous government and that has been returned in some measure by the Opposition. But I was concerned this was starting to wane. This is why I think the Royal Commission provides a very good opportunity to provide a platform outside of politics, so we can all focus on the things that need to be focused on and give Australians the assurances they expect to have.
So yes, we'll continue to make changes. We will continue to make the system better. But we’ll also at the same time, ensure the Royal Commission provides a basis out of over the next 10-20 years and the terms of reference will reflect that, about what the future demands are.
Because, you know, the country's demography is changing. You’ve got people going into residential aged care later, in more acute areas of need. You’ve got more people through our in-home care investments being able to stay home for longer and that's changing how it works. We need to be conscious about what those changes are going to mean for the system in in the future. So the Royal Commission into aged care has also importantly has a very proactive element to. Yes, it's looking at things that have happened, but it's importantly looking to the future and what we need to do in the future for the system to work well for everyone.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, back on the pay gap issue? Labor is promising to make large businesses release pay parity data to the Government. Why haven't the Coalition announced a similar policy?
PRIME MINISTER: Look there are industry codes and others that do this. I'm not saying no to it, I'm not ruling it out. What I am pointing out is that under our policies, the pay gap got smaller and under Labor the pay gap got bigger.
So you’ve always got to look at what people do, not just what they say on this issue. It is, I believe, a commitment, I would hope, from everybody who serves in politics to see that pay gap narrower. But I don’t want to set one set of employees against another. You’ve got to think through this as to how that will that play out on the actual ground? What will that mean? Will people in companies, when they look at each side of each other, from desk to desk, go: “Did I not get a pay rise, because you got one?”
At an aggregate level, an industry level data, I think you can still have a good idea where you're tracking on things and you need to. As I said, under us, the pay gap has gone from 17.2 to 14.5. 14.5 per cent is better than what the Labor Party inherited back in 2007. So we've got it back to levels that Labor allowed to run away with. We've got it back and it's coming down. But I want policies that bring Australians together, I don't want to create tensions and anger and anxiety in the workplace. That's not how you achieve these goals. You’ve got to bring everybody with you.
I mean - I know this isn't the Labor Party has said, or maybe it was, I just saw it reported - this idea of “shaming” and all these sorts of things. I don't think that's how you get people to work together.
JOURNALIST: What about transparency in the workplace?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, transparency is important and I think there are a lot of opportunities for companies to do that. So I’ll have a close look at this, but what I want to be really satisfied about is, will it actually help people achieve the goal? Will it actually help companies work together to achieve these goals? Will it actually get us to where we want to go?
If it does, well, you know, I'm open minded to these things. Our track record as a Government demonstrates that we're getting results here. We don't talk this, we walk it. What we've achieved over the last five years through a stronger economy is record levels of female participation in the work force. We're getting movement on this. We're heading in the right direction and we want to keep heading in that direction. I'm open to any suggestion that will help us get there. But it has got to be something that I think is going to work.
JOURNALIST: Speaking of working environments, what do you make of these claims of bullying involving a woman in Ken Wyatt's office?
PRIME MINISTER: Well as you know the claims are being made against a woman in that office. They're just that and there's an independent process that is being pursued to look at those matters, as you expect. I don't think it would be very helpful for me or anyone else to prejudge that. But the claims relate to a female member of Ken's staff and other members of staff who have made claims against her. The appropriate place for that to be settled is through that independent process. I think everybody involved deserves the respect of allowing that process to follow without jumping to any conclusions or doing anything else like that. I think that would be very unfair if that were to happen.
JOURNALIST: The Australian Education Union is threatening to campaign in marginal electorates against your schools funding policy. Are you concerned about that?
PRIME MINISTER: I'm just going to brace these guys for a shock; the union movement is going to campaign against the Liberal and National Party and tell lies. You know, that's what they do at elections. I mean, honestly.
We are increasing funding for state schools at record levels, record levels.
Only under the union movement and the Labor Party, can one plus one equal zero. When you increase funding, they say you're cutting funding.
Labor lied at the last election about Medicare, they lied.
Labor are going to lie at the next election about everything else.
Don't believe Labor's lies. Don't believe the unions' lies.
Believe what you're seeing here today, $175 million commitment to ensure Medicare bulk-billed access to MRI treatments, which will take the treatments here or procedures here from 4,000 up to around 10,000 a year. That's a fact. That's a fact and that's happening because of what we're doing.
That's our commitment to Medicare. We're making the same commitments to schools, we're making the same commitments to aged care. We are delivering the essential services that Australians rely on, because we know how to run a strong economy. You can take that promise to the bank.
Thanks very much. Great to be here.
Interview with Fitzy & Wippa, Nova
21 September 2018
FITZY: Well, this man’s life has changed, he’s become the 30th Prime Minister of Australia, the Prime Minister Scotty Morrison. Welcome to the studio.
WIPPA: Welcome to the studio.
PRIME MINISTER: Great to be here fellas.
WIPPA: I can hardly hear Scott, what’s happened there? Have we got Scott’s microphone working? We need you closer to it Scotty.
PRIME MINISTER: How we doing?
FITZY: That’s better.
PRIME MINISTER: I had one job, one job.
[Laughter]
WIPPA: I know you’re nervous mate, because tonight is the night. The Sharks - Storm. Let’s cut straight to that. Gal’s out, how you feeling?
PRIME MINISTER: Yeah. Well I know these guys step up when guys like Gal go out of the play. So guys like Jayson Bukuya and these guys, I mean Bukuya had this amazing run which actually set up Chad Townsend’s field goal last Friday night.
FITZY: Yep.
PRIME MINISTER: So Flanno always, you know, he sets the same standard every week regardless of who’s playing and they know that. So I’m very confident they’re going to step up tonight, they like playing in Melbourne.
WIPPA: Yep.
PRIME MINISTER: They like the challenge. They’ve beaten them in Melbourne, they know they’ve got the psychological edge on them –
WIPPA: Geez, you’re into it aren’t you mate? Number one ticket holder. That’s why he’s got it.
PRIME MINISTER: Try and stop me. I wish I was going to be there tonight, but I’ll be down in the Shire tonight watching it with some locals at the local pub.
FITZY: Well, that’s not what you said off air, you said Gal was soft and he should be playing with his shoulder tonight.
[Laughter]
WIPPA: You weren’t meant to mention that mate.
FIZTY: Can I ask you about your tie, you’ve got your Sharkies ties on now.
PRIME MINISTER: I do.
FITZY: Is it a complete urban myth about powerful people wearing certain coloured ties? Like we talk about Barack Obama, he wore the light blue quite a bit as well. Does it always have to be a blue tie? You’re in Nova at the moment, could you ever wear a red tie Scott?
PRIME MINISTER: No, I don’t really care what tie I wear.
[Laughter]
FITZY: Yeah, alright.
WIPPA: It’s not tactical?
PRIME MINISTER: I put my pants on first, shoes on second, that’s my sort of dress rule of a morning. I find that helpful. That’s my wardrobe hint to everybody this morning.
FITZY: You like a trucker hat as well, you like your hats. You’re not going with an Akubra, you’ve gone with the sort of a trucker hat and a Cronulla hat every now and then?
PRIME MINISTER: I look like a pretty weird bit of gear when I wear an Abukra. I have got my Haines hat and that sort of thing and that’s what I wear. I look like a bit of a dag but that’s alright.
WIPPA: That’s okay.
PRIME MINISTER: How else would my girls recognise me?
WIPPA: Prime Minister, can we talk about the moment you got the top job? I’ve got a couple of questions for you. Firstly, what world leaders contacted you? How did that roll out?
PRIME MINISTER: Well first of all, happy anniversary mate.
WIPPA: Oh for last Friday? Thank you!
PRIME MINISTER: Last Friday five years ago, I remember we caught you just, it was on election day actually.
WIPPA: That’s right.
PRIME MINISTER: We were down there at Gymea North and that was a lot of fun, I gave you guys your visas to visit the Shire at the time.
[Laughter]
FITZY: That’s right!
PRIME MINISTER: They’re due up for renewal by the way.
WIPPA: Are they?
PRIME MINISTER: Come and get them stamped. But no look, I spoke to the President, Donald Trump, on that weekend.
WIPPA: How was that call?
PRIME MINISTER: It was good. It’s funny because, look, I speak very - as people know, I have a lot of colloquial expressions. So I think we’re going to need a different type of interpreter when I’m talking to others.
WIPPA: Sure, sure.
PRIME MINISTER: No one knows what a “numpty” is, for example, no one knows what a “big unit” is.
[Laughter]
FITZY: You didn’t call him a numpty did you?
[Laughter]
PRIME MINISTER: No, I didn’t call him a numpty, I said I was a “rubbish golfer” and he thought that meant I was a good golfer.
WIPPA: Oh, come on!
PRIME MINISTER: So I had to explain that no, Joe Hockey is a good golfer. I am a rubbish golfer and that means not very good. There’s a few things like that, so I’ve just got to be a bit careful. I called one of the foreign finance ministers when I was chatting to the leaders and I said; “Yeah he’s a really big unit.”
FITZY: Big unit!
[Laughter]
PRIME MINISTER: So he’s now known as the “Big Unit” over there.
WIPPA: Isn’t that awesome? Was there a moment, like you know with LBJ, you have that moment where Kennedy gets killed, right? Everything happened in a strange way for you right? The rollout for you to end up in this position. It’s like hang on a minute, there’s Dutton, there’s Turnbull, he’s gone now and we’ve got Morrison. Was there a moment when someone referred to you as the Prime Minister and it sunk in?
PRIME MINISTER: Look, it sort of creeps up on you. For the first few weeks I kept looking around to see who they were talking to. In Question Time when they put questions to the Treasurer, I almost stand up every time.
WIPPA: Yeah I bet.
PRIME MINISTER: Then Josh reminds me that it’s him. But apart from that, no. Look, you feel the responsibility, I’ve got to say, very quickly.
WIPPA: You wouldn’t have time to stop.
PRIME MINISTER: No you don’t and you’ve got to step up. That’s what you have to do. It was a very, I know, it was a pretty confusing, bewildering, strange set of things that happened several weeks ago. It was to me too.
But in that situation, people called on you and you step up and that’s what you’ve got to do. Just like Jayson Bukuya is going to do tonight for Paul Gallen.
[Laughter]
SARAH MCGILVRAY: How are the family holding up? Do you get to see much of them anymore?
PRIME MINISTER: It has been a bit tougher over the last four weeks. I did get home last night which was good. Abbey had been at dancing that night and she got picked up by a friend. So we’ve had a lot of support from friends in the meantime. We’re starting to get into a bit of a routine, the girls will keep going to their own school, they’ll keep hanging out with their own friends and we’ll do all of that, because you’ve got to keep your kids life as normal as possible.
WIPPA: You do.
MCGILVRAY: So they don’t have like now their own PAs that they can send out to get things for them?
WIPPA: Oh yeah, if you want a pie –
[Laughter]
PRIME MINISTER: Nah that’s me and mum.
MCGILVRAY: Middle of the night, yep.
PRIME MINISTER: Or its Nanna or its Aunty Linny or it’s whoever. We’ve got a lot of family support.
You know look, families out there have far more strains on their family life than I do and Jen do. We get a lot of help and I know there are a lot of families listening right now and they go; “Yeah, yeah, good on you ScoMo. If you want to go and spend a week in my house, you’ll know all about it.” I think they’re right about that, so I agree with them.
FITZY: You were talking about stepping up before. We’ve got something for you that we would like you to step up to now. Wippa, do you want to start this?
WIPPA: Yeah look, this has been a big one, because we know the farmers and the drought has been a bit of a challenge and now our fruit industry is under attack. It’s been unbelievable what’s been going on and we need some leadership here. What we thought we’d do today, we’ve got a platter here and we need faith brought back to the industry.
PRIME MINISTER: Excellent, excellent.
WIPPA: Now Prime Minister, there is a tray of strawberries right here. It would be - just be very careful, there could be a needle in any one of them, it would be highly unlikely - but what we wanted to do also, Tommy, if you could pick up your first aid kit. Sarah you take this one, we’ve got some metal detectors here as well.
TOM IVEY: I’m the nurse on call today ScoMo.
PRIME MINISTER: All you need is a butter knife.
WIPPA: Just step back from the strawberries, they’re going off.
[Beeping]
FITZY: Well, they are, why is that going off mate?
[Laughter]
PRIME MINISTER: There’s a ten year jail term for putting ridiculous stories up on YouTube.
WIPPA: We’re just, what we’ve got here, it’s hard to say what’s in there. The slogan getting around at the moment is: “Cut them up, don’t cut them out”. Do you want to just?
PRIME MINISTER: Absolutely.
WIPPA: Will you try one of our strawberries here, just with confidence.
MCGILVRAY: They look good.
WIPPA: Show us how it works.
PRIME MINISTER: Just like this. Cut them up, don’t cut them out. Make a pav this weekend, Jen’s making one. I’m making curry.
MCGILVRAY: Yum!
WIPPA: Make a pav!
PRIME MINISTER: Not a strawberry curry by the way. Some numpty thought I was making a strawberry curry this week. I mean who does that?
[Laughter]
FITZY: Or, Mr Morrison, you could have the courage of Gal and actually just pick up a whole one and have a crack.
MCGILVRAY: No, he’s done it!
WIPPA: He’s done it! He’s just put one in.
FITZY: You going to go a whole one? Oh no, he’s –
PRIME MINISTER: I’m cutting them up.
FITZY: Yep cutting them up. Smash a strawb.
PRIME MINISTER: Where’d you get these from?
WIPPA: They’re beautiful, they’re from Rose and Tony, just my corner store.
PRIME MINISTER: Yeah, mate they’re great.
WIPPA: Yeah, they’re good aren’t they?
PRIME MINISTER: Go to Rose and Tony’s, get yourself some strawberries.
[Laughter]
MCGILVRAY: Is that their official business name Wippa?
WIPPA: Yeah Rose and Tony, centennial park.
PRIME MINISTER: That’s it.
WIPPA: Oh hang on a minute, careful.
[Beeping]
[Laughter]
FITZY: Oh look you’ve got something sticking out of your lip there, I think it’s a needle.
[Laughter]
WIPPA: It’s not a lip piercing.
PRIME MINISTER: Safe as, safe as, guys.
WIPPA: So what you should do, I mean maybe at the moment we should declare a national pav day?
PRIME MINISTER: I’m up for that.
WIPPA: Everyone is encouraged to cut up their strawberries and make pavlova.
PRIME MINISTER: Why don’t your listeners do this; everyone making a pav this weekend, go and get bananas on it, get strawberries on it, you might even get some kiwi fruit on it and do all that. Share it on social media.
WIPPA: Hashtag ScoMo’s pav.
PRIME MINISTER: There you go, if you like.
[Laughter]
PRIME MINISTER: The funny thing was, I said “make a pav” and I just pulled up a pavlova recipe off the internet, there was a lot of them on there. But I think people thought it was actually Jenny’s pavolva recipe. No no, hers is a secret.
WIPPA: Oh okay.
FITZY: You can’t reveal that.
PRIME MINISTER: I can’t reveal that. But I can tell you, it is the best you’ve ever tasted.
FITZY: Well we know how busy you are.
WIPPA: Hang on, careful mate –
[Beeping]
[Laughter]
FITZY: We know how busy you are, we appreciate your time. Go the Sharks, make sure you knock of the Storm and we appreciate you coming into the studio. Scott, thank you.
PRIME MINISTER: My pleasure, a lot of fun guys. Go the Sharks.
WIPPA: Thanks Prime Minister.
Interview with Sabra Lane, ABC AM
21 September 2018
SABRA LANE: Good morning and welcome to the program.
PRIME MINISTER: G’day Sabra.
LANE: You’ve declared the school funding wars are over, how premature was that given a former Coalition education Minister says you’ve set up a slush fund and a current Liberal State Minister Rob Stokes says he won’t sign because it’s not fair?
PRIME MINISTER: I didn’t make any reference to funding wars yesterday Sabra, they were journalists making those comments. All I did yesterday was I stand up with Dan Tehan and announce that we’d been able to come to a resolution of an ongoing discussion with independent schools and the Catholic school sector to ensure parents would continue to have affordable choice in non-state school education. That’s what we’ve done. In relation to the state governments, there’s no impact on the state government’s arrangements here, the commitment we’ve made to them through those funding arrangements under the needs-based funding arrangements remain completely in place.
So these announcements sit outside of those and they’re true to what the needs-based funding regime is; to make sure we make decisions based on the actual income of parents.
LANE: But Mr Stokes says the agreement doesn’t treat every student with fairness, that’s a Liberal Minister. He’s saying it’s not fair.
PRIME MINISTER: Well I don’t think Rob has yet had the chance to really look at the full details of this. There will be an opportunity for that today and I’m sure once he sees that that he’ll see that those comments don’t weigh up with what we’ve actually announced.
LANE: You’ve been on the record in the past as Eliza mentioned in that package just now, repeatedly saying you wouldn’t do a special deal on education funding. This is a $4.5 billion deal. It sounds like a special deal.
PRIME MINISTER: Two things. First, we had an independent review which said and recommended that for the needs based funding to work, it had to be based on parents actual income. That’s what this does. $3.2 billion is simply implementing those recommendations consistent with the independent review, to be true to those principles. Another important value and belief that we have as a Liberal Party and National Party is that there should be affordable choices for non-state schools for parents. Now, we’re delivering on that belief I think handsomely as well. Because we don’t believe, as I said in Albury, that one set of students have to do worse for another set of students to do better. Everyone here is doing better, there’s more money for state schools, more money for non-state schools, more money for independent schools, more money for Catholic schools. There’s more money for all schools.
LANE: I come back to NSW Minister Rob Stokes, he has put out a press release on letterhead and he says he won’t accept it, because it gives private schools an unfair advantage.
PRIME MINISTER: I’ve had exchanges this morning with the Premier, we’ve had a few text exchanges this morning. I don’t think Rob has the full details and a full understanding of what the package is. I’m sure –
LANE: Was the Premier’s view different?
PRIME MINISTER: Well I’m simply saying that I think the Education Minister in New South Wales, once he has the opportunity to look at the full understanding of the package, he’ll understand that it’s good for all schools to be getting more support. This is a needs-based approach, when it comes particularly to those in Catholic schools and ensuring that the parents’ actual income is what is driving funding decisions. He’d know that in his own electorate, up in Pittwater, in the Broken Bay diocese.
LANE: Let’s talk about this special $1.2 billion fund called the Choice and Affordability Fund. To give funds to independent and catholic schools, how will you actually decide to distribute that money?
PRIME MINISTER: There are a number of priorities. One priority at the moment – and this goes over ten years by the way Sabra, this is not all in one year, this is over the next ten years – so when you’re talking about an Education budget which is in the hundreds of billions of dollars…
LANE: Sure but how will you distribute money from that particular fund?
PRIME MINISTER: Well it’s about focusing on priorities as it’s seen within each of those sectors. Right now one of those priorities –
LANE: What priorities?
PRIME MINISTER: Well let me answer you. One of the priorities I’ve talked to Anthony Fisher about is the priority of supporting children of parents in drought-affected areas across New South Wales, across Queensland and other states that are affected. They share my view about that. So there’s an early opportunity for them to be able to provide in some of that relief. So this is anticipating needs over a decade and it’s anticipating and understanding that no single arrangement can see all the circumstances that come up over the next ten years. This provides an opportunity to respond to those needs and circumstances. The other thing I was to be sure of is that Catholic schools in less fortunate areas, that they continue to get the support. As you know, the Catholic system makes its decision about how it spreads the resources that are provided to it. That’s been a longstanding arrangement. This will ensure that, I think, all of those schools can continue to get the support that their parents would expect them to get.
LANE: Prime Minister onto another issue. Australia already gives a lot of support to our neighbour Papua New Guinea. A regular troop rotation through PNG would ramp up our commitment, why is the Government considering that?
PRIME MINISTER: I don’t go into details about Australia’s national security arrangements and how our troop arrangements, whether it’s troop arrangements in the Pacific or anywhere else. You wouldn’t expect me to do that. We have an outstanding relationship with PNG, and we are strategic security partners of choice. Not just there, but throughout the Pacific and we’ll continue to engage well. I’ve spoken to Peter O’Neill now one a number of occasions and we’ll continue to have a close working relationship. Now right now, we’ve got a particular issue we’re working on and that’s the upcoming APEC Conference. As you know we’ve made some very important decisions to support them in the security arrangements for that important international gathering and that’s a very big deal for PNG. We’re giving them all the support they would always expect from us.
LANE: The Government also is in talks about a new joint military facility on Manus Island. Is that about countering China’s influence in the region or to reaffirm this nation’s commitment to the region?
PRIME MINISTER: Again, you’re talking about speculation in press reports and I don’t comment on national and strategic national security interests in our region on the basis of press reports. So I don’t think you’re going to expect me to respond to that really.
LANE: Still you’re not ruling them out, so –
PRIME MINISTER: Well, I’m not going to do that Sabra. I’m not going to play those sorts of games on national security and you wouldn’t expect me to. I don’t think you’d really want to either. We have an outstanding strategic security partnership, relationship, with PNG as we do with countries around the region. We’ll continue to put Australia’s national interest first in how we engage with those and the strategic security of the region.
LANE: How long will it be before the Government outlines the terms of reference and announces the Commissioners for the Aged Care Royal Commission?
PRIME MINISTER: Oh, I’ve had further meetings on that this week and I said we’d be doing that over the next few weeks. We’ve had consultations over the course of this week with the aged care sector.
LANE: Sure, but will it be next week or a couple of months?
PRIME MINISTER: When we’re ready I’ll be announcing it. We’re not wasting any time on that and I think we’re making a lot of progress. I didn’t indicate it’d be this week and I didn’t indicate it’d necessarily next week. But we’ll be moving to announce that as soon as those arrangements can be appropriately put in place. We want to get those terms of reference right. We’ve got a website where Australians directly can provide their feedback into what that should be. We want that process to continue so we’re absolutely committed to it. We’ll get the terms of reference right and then we’ll get on with the job.
LANE: Many people have had their hopes raised that this inquiry will look at a broad range of issues like abuse in the disability care sector. What do you say to them?
PRIME MINISTER: As I met with the aged care committee this week, which pulls together people from carers to those representing the workforce and those that are providers, they agreed with the Government that we need to ensure the Royal Commission needs a clear focus. It can’t be Royal Commission into everything. If it becomes that, it loses its ability to be targeted in the recommendations it can make. So those other issues are incredibly important and we’ll continue to pursue those through the normal processes of government. But when it comes to the royal commission, it’s into the residential aged care sector which will also include the in-home care. It will also include young Australians living with disability inside residential aged care settings. Now –
LANE: But will, though, people who are disappointed… there will be people who are disappointed that the inquiry ultimately doesn’t look at issues they’re deeply worried about.
PRIME MINISTER: The Royal Commission needs to be focused in order for it to be effective. That’s also the feedback I’ve had from the sector as well.
LANE: Sure, but what do you say to people who will be disappointed?
PRIME MINISTER: I say I take those issues very, very seriously and we’ll continue to pursue those directly as a Government.
LANE: There have been at least thirteen parliamentary and federal inquiries into this sector in ten years and another two are currently underway right now, excluding the Royal Commission. Why don’t you trust yourselves, politicians, to devise a policy that is in the nation’s interests?
PRIME MINISTER: I think that’s pretty cynical Sabra, to be fair.
LANE: It’s not, you said you wanted to take the politics out of this and that’s why you needed to flick this outside of Parliament.
PRIME MINISTER: No just the way you characterized it, I thought that was a bit cynical. I mean what we’re seeking to do is ensure that Australians who are making some of the toughest decisions of their lives about the care of their loved ones, can have the confidence that through an independent review, through a Royal Commission, that this has been fully assessed and that when they make those decisions about care, the issues they’re concerned about have been fully taken into account. Now I think that’s the right thing to do. What we did, was we put additional resources through the types of reviews you’re talking about. But also, into the policing of standards. What that showed was an alarming increase in areas of noncompliance and risk. When you see that information, you can’t walk past it, Sabra. I mean what do you expect me to do, just walk past it and do nothing? Of course I wasn’t going to do that.
LANE: No, I’m pointing out that there are already capable committees here in Parliament that are looking at these very issues.
PRIME MINISTER: I think the public demanded more than that, simple as that. They demanded more. They are making decisions about their loved ones and I wasn’t going to leave them stranded. They wanted to see more, I believe I wanted to see more. So, I did more.
LANE: You’ve got two young girls, how are you juggling family life now as Prime Minister?
PRIME MINISTER: The same way we’ve been doing that for the last decade and more, even before I went into politics. Every family has to make it’s choices about how it manages the demands they have. I mean if there’s two working parents in a family earning about $120,000 a year, I think their challenges are far greater than mine. Jen and I have always dealt with this as a family and she does an incredible job with the girls and we’re going to keep life as normal for them as possible. Sport will continue, school will be the same, friends hanging out together, that’ll all remain and we’ll keep it as normal and natural for our girls as every parent would want.
But frankly, compared to what other families have to deal with and the pressures on them, I don’t think our challenges compare.
LANE: Given those challenges, why would any young woman want to put up their family lives, disrupt their family lives and put their careers on hold to put their hand up for the Liberal Party and what sounds like a very hostile environment for them?
PRIME MINISTER: I think Kelly O’Dwyer has answered that by her own example. I mean she’s the first Cabinet Minister to actually have a child while she’s been in Cabinet. Not physically obviously.
[Laughter]
But during her time as a Cabinet Minister and she’s an amazing mum. Her and John are doing, I think, showing to everybody that this can be done. I applaud Kelly. Kelly is a great example to young women all across the country about what can be achieved.
LANE: But your Party has a big problem in attracting and actually keeping women in Parliament. Look at Jane Prentice, Julia Banks, Lucy Gichuhi, Ann Sudmalis, possibly Julie Bishop. To lose that many women that’s not –
PRIME MINISTER: But at the same time we’ve preselected women in senior positions on our Senate ticket in Tasmania, Amanda Stoker has replaced George Brandis up in Queensland, we’ve got Kate Ashmore down in the new seat of McNamara in Victoria and we’re recruiting more women it come in. So look, I know the media likes to make this point but the fact is it is tough, I think, for women to be in Parliament, it’s a hard life. It is very difficult particularly if you’ve got young families. I know that better than most and through my friends, women in Parliament who have been going through those challenges, I get how hard it is. So you know, it is a challenge for our parties to ensure that we can get the right set of supports and encouragements and preparedness so people can go and do the job. But the best example, the best answer to your question is Kelly O’Dwyer.
LANE: Prime Minister Scott Morrison thanks for joining the program.
PRIME MINISTER: Thanks a lot Sabra, great to be here.
More Choice for Australian Families
20 September 2018
Australian families will have choice and equity in education as the Morrison Government guarantees funding to the non-government school sector.
The Australian Government has accepted all the recommendations of the National School Resourcing Board’s Review of the socio-economic status score, released in July. The new method for calculating school funding will make the education system fairer and more equitable.
Commonwealth funding for non-government schools will be linked to parental income from 2020 using improved data collection and analysis that will ensure non-government school funding is targeted at the students who need it most.
A vibrant, fairly funded non-government school sector ensures parents retain the choice of where to send their kids to school. The non-government system provides an alternative which improves standards and competition across the board, while also alleviating pressure on the state system.
The Federal Government is providing a record $309.6 billion in recurrent funding to all Australian schools from 2018 to 2029. The Government remains committed to sector blind needs based funding arrangements and will provide an additional $3.2 billion over ten years to non-government schools identified as needing the most help from 2020 to 2029, with an additional $170.8 million available in 2019 to give funding certainty.
A further $1.2 billion will be provided for a new fund to address specific challenges in the non-government school sector, such as supporting schools in drought-affected areas, schools that need help to improve performance and to deliver choice in communities.
The Government appreciates the constructive way the non-government sector has worked together to deliver these important reforms.
Interview with David Koch, Sunrise
20 September 2018
DAVID KOCH: The Prime Minister joins us from Royalla in NSW this morning. Prime Minister, thanks for your time.
PRIME MINISTER: Thanks David.
KOCH: Look, you’ve got to have bipartisanship, support on this, wouldn’t you? To get the legislation through?
PRIME MINISTER: We do.
KOCH: Has the other side agreed?
PRIME MINISTER: Yeah, we do. That’s right, I spoke to Bill about it yesterday and that support is there. So we will introduce the laws this morning. No one is going home until they’re passed. I imagine that will happen with that support, speedily through the Parliament.
This is an important preventative legislation as well, because as you just said, many of the things we’re seeing are pranks and things like this. One of the other laws we’re passing today is that if people do this recklessly, as opposed to with serious intent, they will also face potential prison terms for that type of offence.
So if any of you are doing and thinking of doing that and thinking it’s a laugh, it’s not funny.
KOCH: Yeah.
PRIME MINISTER: It’s very serious and it carries very serious penalties.
KOCH: Yeah and it’s a message to get through to kids as well; being stupid or grabbing attention, you are going to get into real strife with this?
PRIME MINISTER: That’s right. That's the very clear message. That’s why we’re moving very urgently to make sure this is passed through the Parliament ASAP. So we appreciate the support of Parliament for doing that. You know, you’ve got to take action quickly on these things.
KOCH: Yep.
PRIME MINISTER: That's what we’re doing.
KOCH: Gee, the other big issue at the moment, it looks so dry behind you there at Royalla. You’ll make a big announcement on the drought today. Can you tell us about it?
PRIME MINISTER: Yeah, well you might be able to see behind that hay truck behind us. There is this quite ridiculous law which says that the truck width is about 2.5 metres, and you put the hay on it and once you travel for a while, it spreads out at the bottom and when they hit a border, they can get a fine. Or, they have to apply for permits so it can be more than 2.5 metres. So, we’re just changing that rule, changing that law right across the country for the states. The states have signed up for this, so there won’t be a need for that anymore. That will remove the need for a 6,000 permits a year.
KOCH: Right.
PRIME MINISTER: It just means that those getting hay to where it’s needed, they can keep on trucking. They don’t have to stop.
KOCH: That’s a very sensible change. Hopefully, the truckies that have been fined recently for that will get those fines revoked as well.
Now while I’ve got you, there are reports out today that Australia is working with Papa New Guinea on developing a joint naval base on Manus Island to prevent the Chinese from building a port there. Can you confirm that? Is that happening?
PRIME MINISTER: Well David, you wouldn’t expect me to discuss national security issues in an interview like this or anywhere else. The Pacific is a very high-priority area of strategic national security interest for Australia. We work very closely with all our Pacific partners. That’s why we have the Pacific Island Forum recently, we showed a lot of support there. We’ll continue to do that. But I’m not going to comment on speculation on national security issues, that would not be appropriate.
KOCH: Okay, alright Prime Minister thanks for joining us, see you soon.
Interview with Karl Stefanovic, Today Show
20 September 2018
KARL STEFANOVIC: Prime Minister, Scott Morrison joins us from Canberra. PM good morning to you.
PRIME MINISTER: G'day Karl.
STEFANOVIC: More cases overnight. This is a national crisis now, isn't it?
PRIME MINISTER: Yeah, it really is an issue we have to address nationally. Today in the Parliament, those new laws that I announced yesterday, they will be introduced this morning. No one is going home until they are passed. We’ve got bipartisan support for it so I appreciate that. But what’s important is the preventative nature of these laws. The other key factor is this “reckless” charge, this “recklessness” offence. It means that people who go in, you know, copycats and idiots that put things up online, they can be subject to this just the same. So there’s a clear warning; stay out of the grocery shops if you’re going in there to cause some mischief.
STEFANOVIC: Yep.
PRIME MINISTER: Get into the grocery shops if you’re going in to buy strawberries.
STEFANOVIC: The problem is, we don’t know how many of these instances are real, how many are fabricated, do we?
PRIME MINISTER: We don't but you would have heard the press conference yesterday from the Federal Police Commissioner. They’re saying they believe the majority of them are not the original offences, but they’re just copycats and people being idiots. So that’s reassuring but the Queensland Police are leading that investigation and they’re making progress, so I understand. But that’s for them to update you on that.
STEFANOVIC: Okay can you just allow me to drill down a little bit here. In relation to your law changes, how will, for example, you deal the kids who have admitted to pranks already in relation to this crisis? Given they’re juveniles?
PRIME MINISTER: Well they’re not mandatory sentencing laws. They provide up for to 10 years jail but obviously the authorities can use their judgment and discretion, particularly for children. With State and Territory laws there are already arrangements that exist for them.
What we’re talking about here just sets a very clear standard. A clear and unambiguous message, which is what we’re doing. It’s my hope – and I believe it’ll be the Parliament’s hope – that will actually get people to check themselves. People who think it is a lark, should wake up to themselves. It’s not, it’s very serious and I am taking it very seriously.
STEFANOVIC: I like the idea of it, but my question is, a juvenile out there is not going to do any time. I mean therefore, how do you stop them from doing it?
PRIME MINISTER: Well not necessarily. These are things that will be worked through by the State and Territory jurisdictions and federally where it applies to our officials, our officers. So we’re providing this power, but like all of these things, they will be used as the law enforcement agencies think is best.
STEFANOVIC: Are these new laws to deal with this crisis retrospective?
PRIME MINISTER: No, they’re not retrospective. I mean you don’t do that with criminal laws -
STEFANOVIC: So just, sorry, if, given someone is charged with fabricating or copycatting during or in relation to this crisis, they won’t be charged under the new laws? They’re not retrospective?
PRIME MINISTER: This is why I’m getting this passed through the Parliament today. That’s why we’re not mucking around. That’s why it’s so important that these laws pass today and particularly the ones dealing with preventing further copycat acts and things like that. That’s why the hall is booked for today at Parliament.
STEFANOVIC: Yep.
PRIME MINISTER: I want them to vote on it before they go home.
STEFANOVIC: It’s a step in the right direction, well done on that. Now, a Senate inquiry delivered it’s finding on Peter Dutton last night. He’s a liability now for your Government, isn’t he?
PRIME MINISTER: No, a Senate inquiry made up of Labor and Greens passed a motion saying they don’t like Peter Dutton. They could have passed a motion saying the sun didn’t come up this morning, but it won’t make it any more true.
STEFANOVIC: That makes a mockery of Senate inquiries, doesn’t it?
PRIME MINISTER: Well I’ll let others judge about that, but the Labor Party and the Greens are just using their numbers to try and play politics. So I’m not going to get distracted by it, it’s just politics in Canberra. I think people see through it.
STEFANOVIC: There will be a no confidence motion brought against him today. Do you have confidence in Peter Dutton?
PRIME MINISTER: Of course I do. The Labor Party is going on about stopping the au pairs. We’re about stopping boats, criminals and bikie gangs. That’s what we’ve been doing.
If the Labor Party thinks that the worst thing that can happen in Australia is an au pair will come and read someone a bedtime story. That tells you everything you need to know about their views on national security.
STEFANOVIC: So you as Prime Minister, support his use of discretion then?
PRIME MINISTER: Ministerial discretion has been part of the immigration system as long as the Migration Act has been around. I was an Immigration Minister. Those powers are important to give flexibility to deal with any number of very difficult cases which the laws can't cope with.
STEFANOVIC: Did you let any au pairs in?
PRIME MINISTER: I can't recall, but I exercised the intervention powers many, many times, because that’s what you’re required to do as your job. That’s your day job as an Immigration Minister, to use those intervention powers judiciously and appropriately.
STEFANOVIC: Ok in other news, for Aussie farmers this is good news, Woolworths is launching a drought-relief milk range. Now, you are opposed to a milk levy, quoted as saying, “Never solve a problem with a tax.” Are they wrong in helping out our farmers?
PRIME MINISTER: I’ve said that’s my preferred position that you don't do that. But look, I’m waiting for a proposal to come back. There are mixed views about this across the industry and the Agriculture Minister David Littleproud is working through that and he’ll bring back a recommendation. So I’m not going to prejudge that, I’ll wait for him to do his work.
But people should know, my disposition is I never like to solve a problem with a tax. But you know, on the Bank Levy I did just that, so there are exceptions to rules. I will do what I believe is in the national interest.
STEFANOVIC: You’re out at Royalla today, this drought relief is obviously a huge thing.
PRIME MINISTER: Yep.
STEFANOVIC: This is not going away, this going to be worse, far worse by Christmas.
PRIME MINISTER: That's true. We’re not expecting anything until about August next year. We’ve got to knuckle down here and what we’re announcing here today is getting rid of a stupid rule. These trucks, large trucks that carry the hay from one state to another, they’re about 2.5 metres on the base. As they travel along the hay spreads out. There was some ridiculous law which meant they had to stop at the border and pay a fine simply because the hay spread. So we’re getting rid of that stupid law today. That means they can keep on trucking.
[Laughter]
They get they can keep getting the hay to where it needs to get to.
STEFANOVIC: Good job on that too. Now this morning international students, we learned in 'The Telegraph', might be forced to study at regional universities when they enter the country. Boy, you’ve got a lot on your plate at the moment. Have you spoken to the big city universities about that? I mean they really like the colour of that foreign money.
PRIME MINISTER: Look, all I have said is that we’ve got to manage population growth. That means we have to take the pressures off cities like Sydney and Melbourne, but take the opportunities where they want them in rural and regional areas. That also means places like Adelaide, Cairns and Western Australia, all I’ve said is there are levers that you can pull and the Government is prepared to look at pulling those levers.
STEFANOVIC: Okay. Two quick ones, do you really have a trophy in your office saying: "I stopped the boats”?
[Laughter]
PRIME MINISTER: Yeah, no one in the Labor Party has one like that I can tell you, because they didn’t.
STEFANOVIC: Ok.
PRIME MINISTER: It was given to me by a mate down in the Shire who runs a sign business and he loved the fact that we did that so he gave me that many, many years ago. It has been sitting in my office by the way, I think for about five years. So I don’t think there’s anything terribly new about it.
STEFANOVIC: Ok just finally on much a lighter note, given the seriousness of this story, I do think it’s important; how long has it been since you had a strawberry?
PRIME MINISTER: I had one yesterday afternoon and I’m having breakfast with some this morning and Jen is making a pav, I’m making a curry this weekend. I encourage you, share your photos of your pavlovas this week, supporting our farmers.
STEFANOVIC: Oh, hang on, Prime Minister I have to call you on that.
PRIME MINISTER: Yeah?
STEFANOVIC: You’re putting strawberries in a curry? I mean, that’s disgusting.
[Laughter]
PRIME MINISTER: No, no. But mate, I could make a strawberry chutney if you like, I’ll send you a jar.
STEFANOVIC: There you go. I look forward to it PM.
PRIME MINISTER: We’ll go into business.
STEFANOVIC: I think we’ll go out of business.
[Laughter]
Thank you PM, appreciate it, cheers.
PRIME MINISTER: Good on you mate, cheers.
Cutting Red Tape for Truckies Carting Hay
20 September 2018
Prime Minister, Deputy Prime Minister
Trucks will be able to carry more hay and fodder to drought affected farmers because of action being taken today by the Liberal and Nationals Government.
From midnight tonight, longer and higher loads of hay and fodder will be allowed to travel on state and national-controlled roads.
Heavy vehicles up to a maximum height of 4.6 metres and 2.83 metres wide will no longer require a permit to access the existing state-controlled road networks. Previously access was limited for Class 3 vehicles up to 2.6 metres wide and 4.3 metres high.
Today’s announcement is a practical step to support the large amounts of fodder from Western Australia and Tasmania loaded and transported to drought affected areas, particularly to regional NSW.
The Notice will remove the need for up to 6,000 consents a year. It is estimated farming operators will save the equivalent of up to 54,000 days per year applying and waiting for permits.
Permits will still be required through the NHVR Portal (www.nhrv.gov.au/drought) for access to some local government roads.
Today’s announcement builds on the more than $1.8 billion in additional Commonwealth drought support measures already delivered.
Helping our farmers and farming communities remains our number one priority.
Tougher Penalties for Fruit Contamination
19 September 2018
Prime Minister, Attorney-General
Over the past few days, we have seen a very distressing series of events unfold relating to tampering with strawberries, particularly out of Queensland. This is a shocking and cowardly thing to do.
The Liberal-National Government is acting to increase the penalties on the cowards who commit these crimes.
Our priorities are to keep Australians safe and support the farmers whose livelihoods have been put at risk.
We are announcing:
$1 million to make more food safety officials urgently available to increase detection, fast track recalls and assist the strawberry industry to rebuild confidence.
An increase to the penalty for existing offences relating to the contamination of goods. These offences currently carry a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison. Given the seriousness of the offences, this penalty is not high enough. The changes we are making elevate the offence, in terms of penalties, from one similar to forgery or theft of Commonwealth property (which carry a penalty of up to 10 years in prison), to one akin to possession of child pornography or funding a terrorist organisation (which attract penalties of up to 15 years imprisonment).
New offences of being reckless as to whether this type of conduct will cause harm, which will carry a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison.
For the most serious cases that have national security implications, we will amend the Commonwealth sabotage offences to ensure that sabotage of Australia’s food supply is captured by the sabotage offences. The penalties range between 7 and 25 years imprisonment.
The Government will introduce its new criminal legislation tomorrow.
These actions reflect the seriousness with which the Government views the current threats against Australian industry and, in particular, the livelihoods of growers, communities, towns and whole regions.
This Government remains committed to working closely with industry and state and territory law enforcement agencies to ensure that we protect Australian consumers and protect our farmers.
Families need to have the assurance that the Australian produce they are buying is safe for their kids.
A Coordinated Response to Drought
19 September 2018
Helping our farmers and farming communities is my number one priority. Today I am announcing the next steps of my Government’s drought response. I will be hosting a National Drought Summit on 26 October, 2018.
The Coordinator-General for Drought, Major General Stephen Day, and the Special Envoy for Drought Assistance and Recovery, the Hon. Barnaby Joyce MP have been listening to farmers across the nation.
They want coordinated action to support drought-affected families and their communities, and hosting a Drought Summit will unite our national efforts.
The Summit will put our national leaders, key people and organisations together at the same table. We will look at actions to deliver assistance, cut red tape and tackle gaps that need addressing.
We’re ensuring families and communities in drought-affected areas are getting what they need. We need to act and respond to the immediate issues while we are putting in place better frameworks for long-term preparedness and resilience.
Interview with Ray Hadley, 2GB
18 September 2018
RAY HADLEY: He did a fantastic job as Immigration Minister and one of the architects of Border Protection. He’s now the boss, número uno and he’s on the line. Prime Minister, good morning.
PRIME MINISTER: G’day Ray, nice to be talking.
HADLEY: It’s been a while.
PRIME MINISTER: It’s been a while mate.
[Laughter]
HADLEY: I was only thinking about you the other day. You know the stunt you pulled with the coal in Parliament?
PRIME MINISTER: Yeah?
HADLEY: You weren’t channelling me at that particular stage, with stunts? I’ve pulled a couple of stunts, including one with you one day. You weren’t thinking about me when you produced the coal illegally inside Parliament, were you?
PRIME MINISTER: Mate, it was a while ago now but my view hasn’t changed. It’s a big part of Australia’s energy future.
HADLEY: I’m glad you got to that because there’s a story on the front page of The Financial Review and I know you’re pressed for time so this is just a short catch-up. Your Minister for reducing prices, Angus Taylor, on electricity, has slammed greenhouse gas reduction, the policies as “corporate greed dressed up as saving the planet” while a key ratings agency warned the Government-created a vacuum on energy policy was putting it all at risk. Now, let’s cut to the chase. Andy Vesey is gone, AGL, a bit like your Government, is now unharnessed. Can we have any action on Liddell sometime in the foreseeable future? The former Prime Minister said if we have to acquire it, we will. What’s going to happen there?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, Angus is bringing back a package of things for me right now.
HADLEY: Right.
PRIME MINISTER: To see how we can get greater investment in what I call “fair dinkum power”; that’s the stuff that works when the sun doesn’t shine and the wind doesn’t blow. So I’m waiting on Angus to come back to me with those options. One of the things we will be moving to do is creating a divestment power, which is something I initiated when I was Treasurer. The ACCC didn’t recommend it, but I thought it was necessary because the only thing I’ve ever seen make those big energy companies move is when you’ve got a big stick. So you know, we’ve got to create the power to have that big stick. So Angus is working away on that. I think you’ve got a pretty clear indication from him and me about how we think things should be done.
HADLEY: So, you’re as one in relation to this matter?
PRIME MINISTER: Yeah, we want to see more fair dinkum power generated in Australia. We want to see more investment go into it and that’s a big part of getting electricity prices down. I’ve always said that.
HADLEY: Okay, you’ve had a couple of brush fires to put out since you came in.
PRIME MINISTER: That’s true.
[Laughter]
HADLEY: You might need someone from the Royal Fire Service, apart from Tony Abbott. But I noticed Julie Bishop has now confirmed she won’t cross the floor to support some sort of motion against Peter Dutton. So common sense has prevailed there?
PRIME MINISTER: Yeah it has, it has and I’m also pleased that Tony took up my invitation to work on something he’s massively passionate about and that is getting young indigenous kids in school. I mean, Ray, you’ll be aware of the work that Clontarf does both in AFL and rugby –
HADLEY: Yeah, yeah.
PRIME MINISTER: They do a great job. I’ve been involved with them for a long time, but getting indigenous kids to remote and regional area schools is a big part of the answer and you know, Tony is just going to do a great job on it.
HADLEY: Well, as you know, I talk to him regularly and I was very happy that when the offer came and I almost pleaded with him on air to take it.
PRIME MINISTER: Yeah.
HADLEY: Because I thought, apart from the fact that he’s got the expertise and will do a great job, I just thought it was a way of indicating to the electorate the things that the things that have happened in the past, are the past and you move forward.
PRIME MINISTER: That’s exactly it, mate. That’s exactly it, I mean, we’ve got one focus and that is keep our economy strong, we’ve got to keep Australians safe and we’ve got to keep them together too. I think people have had a gutful of all the sort of nonsense that goes on in Canberra. I have and I know my team has and that’s why we’re just focused on delivering for your listeners.
HADLEY: Now, there’s a lot, mate, about your MP Ann Sudmalis and the fact that she’s not going to sit at the next election. There’s much made today about bullying and the like. But yesterday, it’s not a federal parliament matter.
PRIME MINISTER: No.
HADLEY: She accused a Liberal MP in New South Wales, Gareth Ward, of bullying. Look, I would think that, you know, you’ve got Craig Kelly and Kent Johns and you yourself were involved in a rather infamous, you know, pre-selection battle.
PRIME MINISTER: It gets a bit willing.
HADLEY: Well, it does. What I’m saying here is – and I don’t know what Ward did or whether he bullied her or not - but he’s organised the numbers down there and there’s a real estate agent, I think his name is Schultz and he looks like he’s going to be pre-selected. I guess she just thought it was insurmountable odds, that if Ward rallies as a powerbroker in that region to get other people to cross to his way of thinking, that she wouldn’t be preselected. So I mean, it’s the robust way that politics operates, isn’t it? Either in Labor or Liberal.
PRIME MINISTER: Well, it does work both ways on both sides of politics. But she was going to be endorsed as the Liberal candidate that had been made pretty clear, so it wasn’t about that.
But you know sometimes State Members of Parliament stick their nose in the business of Federal Members’ areas. I don’t think that’s a particularly good look, that’s not how we do it around my part of town. We both focus on our jobs and try to work closely together, which we’ve been doing together with Mark Speakman and Eleni Petinos, Craig Kelly and the local councillors there, Carmelo Pesce down in southern Sydney. We all just work together. But, clearly there has been a couple of issues down there and Ann has decided to retire at the next election. That’s her call and I wish her well. We’ll pick another great candidate for Gilmore and the South Coast area where I have got a lot of family and I know very well. It’s usually where I go on holidays with family and have for a very long period of time. It’s a beautiful part of the country. So we’ll just get on with that. I’ll leave those issues to the Party organisation.
What it’s turned out, all the issues that have been raised around these things over the last few weeks, they actually, at the end of the day have related to the Party organisation, not the parliamentary Party here in Canberra. That’s why I have asked the Party organisation to come up with a rigorous and confidential process to deal with these things. But I’m not going to get distracted by it. I’ve got to focus, look through the dust and make sure we’re focusing on the things that make a big difference, like getting people’s electricity prices down.
HADLEY: Well, if the alleged misogynistic behaviour doesn’t happen inside Federal Parliament, do we lead to the next thing that there is still a culture hanging over from decades gone by within the Party itself? The Party organisation as you so aptly describe it as opposed to the parliamentary Party?
PRIME MINISTER: Look, that’s true and we’ve got to do better. I want to see more Liberal women in Parliament, but I always want the best candidate. At Wentworth, we got the best candidate. So I can’t complain about that, I think that’s the right outcome.
But I do want to see Liberal women going into pre-selections, being well prepared, getting good support, getting the right sort of training to go and do these jobs. It’s like in any job, if you want someone to go a good job as a chief executive or head of HR or head of planning or finance or something, well you’ve got to get them trained and well-supported to be able to perform and secure those jobs. So that’s where the Party organisation I think has a big job to do to get more women in Parliament. I want the best people for the job every time there’s a preselection. In Wentworth, that’s what we got and he’s up against what it turns out to be – I mean, look, I’ve known Kerryn Phelps for a long time, she’s not a Liberal and we know that because a former Labor staffer is running her campaign.
HADLEY: I dealt with that before I started talking with you and Trent Zimmerman made the point, as has I think it’s in The Australian today. The point is being made that all of a sudden a bloke who has a Labor pedigree that some people within the Labor Party would absolutely clamber for, is now orchestrating her campaign?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, that’s right. It raises two questions; are they doing it to just get the Labor candidate up at the end of the day? Which is often what Labor do, they’ll run an independent like they did down in Braddon and effectively support an independent to knock out a Liberal candidate. We know what that’s all about. So the only way you can ensure we continue the continuity and stability of what’s happening here for our economy as a nation, is to vote for Dave Sharma. He’s the only Liberal candidate in that field and anyone pretending to be or thinking they might be; “Oh, I won’t cause too much mischief.” Well, we don’t want any mischief. We’ve got to get on with the job.
HADLEY: I know you’ve got other things to do and I appreciate your time this morning. But Paul Murray, my colleague from Sky News, had one final crack; a one-seat majority or Cronulla into the grand final over Melbourne? You said that’s the end of the interview and I’m sure that’s what you’ll say again today?
PRIME MINISTER: That’s what we’ll do again today. Up, up, Cronulla. Sadly, I would love to be there on Friday night, but I’ve got other commitments here in Sydney so I’ll be checking it out with some locals at a local pub in southern Sydney. But I wish Flanno and Gal and all the boys, all the best. I think it’s going to be a great game, it really is going to be a great game. Two tremendous sides, it’ll be a great clash.
HADLEY: Well, if it replicates what happened last Friday and Saturday night with one point victories – incredible. I called that game on Saturday night, I don’t think I’ve seen a final ten minutes as we saw as South Sydney overcame the obstacles placed in front of them by St. George Illawarra. So will this be the first of chats we continue to have?
PRIME MINISTER: Yeah, mate of course, Ray of course. I know you speak regularly to Pete too and you know I’m giving him 100 per cent support.
HADLEY: Good, good.
PRIME MINISTER: We’re not going to be intimidated by the Labor Party and following their agenda. We’ll follow ours and get on with the job.
HADLEY: Thanks, Prime Minister. Talk soon.
PRIME MINISTER: Thanks, Ray, cheers.
Doorstop - Greenway, ACT
18 September 2018
PRIME MINISTER: Well it’s a beautiful Canberra morning and it’s great to be out at Louise’s place and great to meet Ray and Wendy here and to be joined by the Minister for Senior Australians, Ken Wyatt and the Assistant Minister to the Treasurer and the Minister for Finance, but importantly today, the Liberal senator for the ACT. It's been great to be here with Ray and Wendy and Louise. Ray is the recipient of one of the level four in-home age care places. They cost around $50,000 a year, we are increasing the number at level 3 and 4 in-home age care places by 20,000 over the last 12 months. Those places will increase from just under 40,000 to round about or just over 74,000 over the next four years. It's part of our increased investment, year on year, in delivering age care services. That includes home age care services.
More and more Australians like Ray and Wendy want to be able to age in their own homes and in appropriate accommodation, where the grandkids can come round and see pop, where they can spend time in just normal family environments, before ultimately if that is required, to move into residential aged home care places elsewhere. So this is an important program. It's one that has is keen priority of our Government, because we know that we want Australians to have those choices and to have those services. I was pleased to hear that they're pleased with the services they are getting. Louise also gets some in-home support which is at a more low level, so that support around the house and changes to the structure of the place to make it easier for her, so she can remain longer and longer in her house. She's getting on with life, she's just married a 91-year-old recently, so good for her. She's the newlywed in there today.
Our government is 100 per cent focused on ensuring that older Australians, senior Australians can age with dignity, keep their choices, stay in their homes and have the choices to live their life the way they want to do it. We’ve got a lot of work to do. The Royal Commission into aged care will be also looking at the in-home age care places, as of course it will be dealing with young people living with disabilities in residential age care. It is a very focused inquiry, it's important that we keep the focus of the inquiries. If they become an inquiry into everything, they become too broad. I want to ensure that this inquiry remains very focused so it can give us some very clear direction. Everything else will continue to keep happening, we’re going to walk and chew gum, aren’t we Ken?
THE HON. KEN WYATT, MINISTER FOR SENIOR AUSTRALIANS AND AGED CARE: Absolutely right.
PRIME MINISTER: When it comes to what we are doing in this space, we are going to keep doing the job of rolling out more reforms, lifting quality and standards, capability in the sector and standards, capability in the sector, building the capacity of our centres. I announced just last week the additional investment for rural and regional centres. We want to make sure the in-home aged care places are also in rural and regional parts of the country.
That’s our plan, that’s our programme. We are getting on with it. The Royal Commission will be, I think, a great assistance to all of this, but we’re not waiting for the Royal Commission to finish before we get on with the plans and programmes we have. The two will be working in concert. Happy to take questions, have we got any questions on aged care before we go to politics?
JOURNALIST: On the Royal Commission, I actually have a question on behalf of an elderly lady called Iris. Her wheel-chair bound son was severely burnt while in the care of a disability organisation and she asked me to ask you; will you consider extending the Royal Commission to disability services? Because a lot of the providers are the same groups doing the same work.
PRIME MINISTER: Well, the Royal Commission will be into residential aged care and it will cover those Australians living with a disability in residential aged care. We are going to keep it focused. The issues that you have raised will have the attention of the government and just the other week I was at a wonderful facility up in Brisbane which was run by Youngcare. We’re doing work with organisations like that to ensure we get more investment in those facilities and those sorts of programs, which can provide the sort of support you are talking about to those young people.
I think there will be implications for how care is provided to young people with disabilities that will come out of this Royal Commission. But equally, there are things we could be doing there right now. Now, the NDIS and disability care services, many are still being stood up around the country. They've been running for a short period of time by comparison to aged care services. So that's why the Royal Commission will focus on those more long-running services, on in-home care, residential aged care. But when it comes to supporting young people with disabilities, this also a very high priority for me. That will be getting the strong attention of the government.
JOURNALIST: Having seen Four Corners now, what was your reaction?
PRIME MINISTER: Well I was in Cabinet last night. Ken was able to watch the program and I want to commend the ABC for the work they've done on the program. I mean, I know Ken did that after he saw the program last night. It's highlighting issues and that was no surprise to me, we were seeing the same issues through the work we’ve done through the increased policing and enforcement which has led me to the decision that I've taken in my first weeks of being Prime Minister. But it is important this is done independently, by a Royal Commission to get to the facts. To ensure that everybody, whether it's the Parliamentarians, whether it's the media, whether it's others, we’re all working off the same impartial information base. But Ken, do you want to make a comment about that?
MINISTER FOR SENIOR AUSTRALIANS AND AGED CARE: Four Corners last night went to some very salient points, particularly in terms of the first individual who was a Holocaust survivor, whose life was impacted by the lack of attention. We’re focused on that and certainly the new commission will be much more rigorous in the way in which they expect and we expect as a Government and society expects age care providers to look after those we have entrusted to their care –
JOURNALIST: But you have been looking after this portfolio for some time, are you saying you were not aware of the revelations that came out in that story last night?
MINISTER FOR SENIOR AUSTRALIANS AND AGED CARE: Yes I am and we’ve been working on it. After Oakden I approached the Prime Minister and suggested we evaluate and assess where the Commonwealth had a role in its’ strengths of providing that level of scrutiny, but where we also failed. Because of the Carnell-Paterson report, we’re now establishing a new commission which brings them all together, so there are no singular silos and they work collectively to provide certainty to senior Australians.
PRIME MINISTER: The Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission legislation comes into Parliament this Wednesday. That will be an important piece of legislation and it's further demonstration that the Government is getting on with the job of protecting senior Australians in their older years.
JOURNALIST: What is the Royal Commission going to tell you that you don't already know?
PRIME MINISTER: If I knew that answer to that question, I wouldn't have commissioned a Royal Commission would I? I want to know the things I don't know. All politicians should want to know the things they don't know. The reason I've asked for this Royal Commission to be done is I want to be assured that the incidences we are aware of, about how widespread they are and potentially - to go with the earlier question - whether they reach into other sectors as well. If that's the case, then that provides a further line of inquiry.
So this is an honest question we are asking with the Royal Commission, a very honest question and we have to brace ourselves for the answers.
JOURNALIST: [Inaudible] extend it to retirement homes? I know it’s a state issue but –
PRIME MINISTER: No, it's a state issue that would require the agreement and participation of the state and territory premiers and their governments. That's an open invitation to them, but that is something for them to consider. I'm not going to allow that process to delay us getting on with the job of this Royal Commission.
JOURNALIST: On Ann Sudmalis, last night the Liberal Party’s Vice-President said some women “just need to suck it up”. Do you think this is part of the problem? That this goes far beyond the federal level down to the state level and there’s a misunderstanding across the board of how serious this issue is for women?
PRIME MINISTER: No, Ann has spoken for herself and what she's referring to - and indeed in my discussions with colleagues about the issues that others have been discussing over the last few weeks - where they have focused their attention and concerns, is what's been happening in the party and organisation.
That's why I've requested the Federal Director and Federal President bring before Federal Executive a programme for rigorous and confidential receipt of complaints and dealing with those within the Party organisation. We have that process within the parliamentary Party, it's the same process that the Labor Party has. What are effectively our pastoral councillors in the whips, David Bushby and Nola Marino, they manage the welfare of our colleagues. That's how that's handled and that's how complaints and other issues are raised within the parliamentary Party. I want to be confident that the Party organisation under their responsibilities, is doing the same thing. Because that's where Ann's complaint has gone to, that's where she's been concerned. I'll leave that to the Party organisation to address.
JOURNALIST: [Inaudible]
PRIME MINISTER: Sorry, I can’t hear over the shouting.
JOURNALIST: Does Gareth Ward have further questions to answer?
PRIME MINISTER: Well that’s for Gareth and the state organisation to determine.
JOURNALIST: You keep alluding to state issues on this. Are you 100 per cent confident that it is not an issue within the federal Parliamentary party?
PRIME MINISTER: I am.
JOURNALIST: Kelly O’Dwyer said the investigation should be independent, do you agree with that and how -
PRIME MINISTER: Well, that's what a rigorous process is, yes.
JOURNALIST: In terms of the discussion that you had with Senator Lucy Gichuhi, what have you promised her and did that not give you some doubt about your claims that there is no problem?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, Lucy directly told me she'd not experienced any of that bullying in the federal parliamentary Liberal Party. She said her concerns were about the state party organisation.
JOURNALIST: Have you been advised be the whip of any issues of bullying within the Party prior to the leadership spill a few weeks ago?
PRIME MINISTER: Prior to the leadership spill? No, I had not.
JOURNALIST: Do you agree that Ann Sudmalis has been subjected to; “bullying, betrayal and backstabbing?”
PRIME MINISTER: Well, politics is a pretty rough business, we all know that, we all know that. Party selections and local party politics can frankly get a bit … not focused on the real issues, people can get all caught up in these little skirmishes in branches. It's not that it only occurs in the Liberal Party, we only have to look in Western Sydney and the Labor Party, you’ve seen what’s happened with the Member for Lindsey and what's been happening out there. This can happen in the local branches of any organisation, it can happen in the local branches of a P&C frankly, though I don’t think it probably gets as willing as what we see in politics.
It's important Party members, like parliamentary members, always remember why they're involved in politics; that is to serve the Australian people, not to carry on with stupid games. Now, I used to work as a party director in New South Wales. It was always - there’s I think a bit of a comradery regardless of what political party you are from, whether you are a General Secretary or party state director - we all get frustrated by the shenanigans and silliness that goes on within political party organisations. It irritates the stuffing out of me, but you know, it doesn't distract me.
It's my job, as the Prime Minister and the leader of my Party, to look through the dust that gets kicked up in politics, whether it's in party organisation or frankly whether it's in the Canberra press gallery or anywhere else. Look through the dust that gets kicked up around this place and focus on the issues that matter to Australians every single day.
That's why I'm here at Louise's place today, that’s why I’m talking to Wendy and Ray. Because what matters to them is their in-home care places and preserving the choices they want to make about their own life. I don't think they’re terribly interested in the branch politics of the Liberal Party anywhere in the country. When it comes to my priorities, what they’re interested in ranks far higher.
JOURNALIST: Why did you take until yesterday to open a letter from Ms Sudmalis?
PRIME MINISTER: Because that was the discussion that Ann and I had, she was considering what she ultimately wanted to do and I left it sitting on the table until we had a further discussion.
JOURNALIST: What do you say to constitutional law experts like George Williams and Anne Twomey who say there is now a stronger case than ever before for Peter Dutton to be referred to the High Court?
PRIME MINISTER: I respectfully disagree. Thanks.
Interview with Paul Murray
17 September 2018
PAUL MURRAY: Prime Minister, how are you?
PRIME MINISTER: I’m good, good to see you.
MURRAY: G’day, we’re live on the television so I’ll hold the swearing back.
[Laughter]
Just quickly on the Ann Sudmalis stuff. Obviously, you tried to keep her in the Parliament.
PRIME MINISTER: That’s right.
MURRAY: She was more than happy to in her statement, while she was leaving today, said maximum love for you. But still, it causes all of the political issues off the back of it here. Why couldn’t you convince her to stay?
PRIME MINISTER: Look, I’ve been supporting Ann for a long time, ever since she’s been in the Parliament. We are good mates and I know her part of the world very, very well. I’ve got a lot of family who live down that way and Jo Gash before her was a great member and they were good friends as well.
But you know sometimes people, they can find this job just a bit too much at times without that support locally from some of the local Party members that she’s identified. That’s unfortunate, that’s really a matter for the Party organisation to sort out. I’d love to see Ann continue, but you’ve got to respect the decisions people make. She’s a good mate, I wish her all the best. I know she’s going to remain here and work hard for her constituents between now and the next election when the Party will be going forward to select a new candidate there in the seat of Gilmore. As you know, it’s a very tight seat, it always has been. But it’s been well-served by the Liberal Party going back to when Jo Gash first won the seat back from Labor many, many years ago.
MURRAY: I mentioned at the start of the show, while you were running the country, I appreciate it, 2010 the Libs won by 9,000 votes. Then it was 4,800 in 2013, then it was 1,500 in 2016. It just seems like she got out of the way of what seems like electoral gravity, rather than some of the stuff that’s been said on the way out the door in the Parliament.
PRIME MINISTER: Well, look it is a very tight seat. It always has been and it’s had some very good members. There are a lot of real important issues down there, whether they’re for seniors or whether they’re for families or for veterans, or indigenous issues that need to be addressed there. A lot of youth unemployment, I know that’s something that Ann’s been very passionate about. Local infrastructure issues, all of that will continue to get attention from our Government and I think Ann has worked very hard for her community. We’ll be seeking to have a candidate who will go above and beyond what she’s been able to achieve, in the same way that Joanna Gash before her did as well.
MURRAY: Alright, now to the stuff our viewers care about and wanted me to ask you about.
Too many veterans kill themselves. They come home, in Queensland the RSL had a report that the unemployment rate of veterans in the first two years of leaving, was 33 per cent. It’s higher than the youth unemployment rate, it’s multiples of the federal number and as you know it’s dozens of people who end up taking their own lives. Everyone stands up and says the right thing on ANZAC Day, the right thing on Remembrance Day and if somebody in uniform is standing in front of them; “We support you, we support you.” But we’re not.
PRIME MINISTER: We’re spending $11.2 billion every year on this and that’s of itself a significant investment by the Australian community to recognise the service of our veterans. These days obviously, our veterans are those who have been serving most recently. In my own community in southern Sydney, with the Holsworthy Base not far outside of my electorate, there are a lot of returned service people living in my community. I’ve listened to their stories and those of their families and in fact Bree Till, whose husband Brett Till was killed back in 2008, I think it was and we’ve been supporting that family for a long time. Bree has been a great advocate for the cause of families who are affected by our engagements.
PRIME MINISTER: But a lot of local people are supportive of the need for these mental health services. Now, we’ve been investing more into mental health services. You serve one day and you get access to mental health services. Just one day and that’s what we do. As we should do that.
MURRAY: Right.
PRIME MINISTER: There’s an added, I think, obligation when we’re talking about our veterans. What I’d add to that is we’re also ensuring that we’re trying to get veterans into work, when they come out. For some, it is a huge transition, particularly for those who have served in multiple rotations of service overseas. “Normal” doesn’t mean the same thing anymore, when you’ve done that. There’s a very hard adjustment. For others who have served in our military, they make that transition a little more easily. What we do know is that their skills and their abilities are very high. But often it’s the adjustment process of moving out of the military environment into a civilian environment.
Now I’ve seen, whether it’s Soldier On that has been dealing with those adjustments for individuals, or other work programmes that have been helping people make that transition. It is achievable, there’s no doubt about that and we’ve just got to keep doubling down and doing more and getting it right. But there’s no question I think about the commitment from anybody.
MURRAY: But it’s this thing where there has been way too many Veterans Affairs Ministers in both sides of politics for way too long. It’s one of those junior ministries that people sort of hop in and out of after a few months, not a few years. The correspondence that I get back from people is that their experience with the Department for Veterans Affairs feels a little bit more like dealing with a private insurance company, where the business model is to try to deny the claim for as long as possible, rather than to help as fast as possible.
I know you have to be judicious about these things but do we have to shake that system up? Do we have to get current, modern day soldiers to be able to have a look at what the DVA does? Because it does great things for older veterans, but what are they doing for the young ones?
PRIME MINISTER: The veteran-centric reforms that we’ve putting in place over the last few Budgets are all about trying to better connect with our modern day veterans. One of the key things that came up was the call wait times. We invested a lot in trying to reduce those call wait times, because you know, those call wait times, if they’re too long, that can have the worst possible of outcomes.
So there’s been a lot of work put in to revitalise the whole infrastructure investment platforms, the ICT platforms, to make sure that they can be more effective and more efficient. Now Darren Chester is a very committed individual as our Minister for Veterans Affairs. I think he’s doing a very good job, but it’s very tough job. Because the expectations are rightly up here of veterans and of the community. It’s a very high standard we have to keep aiming for. So they have my commitment, they have the commitment of our entire Government, but you’ve just got to keep making the investments. You’ve got to connect in with the modern day veteran as they’re making their adjustment to civilian life.
Now I’ll tell you another programme we did which started under my treasurership. This actually relates to the children of veterans. It’s a passion of mine, Kookaburra Kids have been running respite camps for young people who have come from families suffering from mental illness. A number of years ago there were some kids who came along to the camp and the reason they were there is because their father has suffered from PTSD from service overseas. Now the camp didn’t quite work the same way for kids of veterans. So what we’ve done is we’ve invested in taking that programme and applied it particularly to kids of veterans who suffer from PTSD.
Now in some cases these are servicemen and women who have come home, but they’ve never come home. They literally have not walked back in the front door of the family home and their kids are saying, “Where’s dad? Where’s mum?”
I can’t begin to understand what that does to a young life. So we’ve got to look after the veterans and we’ve got to throw our arms around their families as well. That programme, I would hope, is an indicator of how passionately we feel about this. We’ve just got to keep finding better ways Paul, to do this and the task just doesn’t end. Nor should it.
MURRAY: Agree. There was one topic above all that people want you to respond to and it’s the direct question of will you pull out of the Paris Climate Accord?
PRIME MINISTER: It’s not going to change electricity prices one jot. What I’ve said very carefully is that if it’s not going to make any difference to electricity prices, so why don’t you just get out of it anyway?
Well, let’s take a look to the south-west Pacific. This is the number one issue of our Pacific neighbours, our strategic partners, our strategic security partners. This is their number one issue. There are a lot of influences in the south-west Pacific and I’m not going to compromise Australia’s national security by walking away from a commitment that was made a number of years ago to that target. It’s been there for the last four years or three years, just over three years.
Getting out of it won’t make electricity prices go down, but it will highlight a number of other important risks for us which I’m not prepared to countenance in the national interest. So that’s the reason for my decision. As Prime Minister, I have to make decisions in the national interest. I know a lot of people have concerns about it. But frankly, at the end of the day, we’re going to meet this thing in a canter in 2030. We’ve met the other two in a canter, 2021 included, that’s going to be smashed.
So the question is, why would you do it when it’s not going to make any difference to the electricity prices, but it could potentially also create some serious issues for us in managing our strategic interests in the region?
MURRAY: But how do you respond to, or offer encouragement to the people who may be searching for that reason to come back, who didn’t vote Liberal at the last election and who will immediately say things like; “Paris equals a need to cull the herd because of agricultural emissions?”
PRIME MINISTER: But that won’t be required either. I mean, this is what I’ll do; I’ll get electricity prices down, how about that? We’ll get the default price in place, which was policy of the Government, which ensures that once you come off your special offer, your price doesn’t go up to the ratcheted up price, it comes down to the default price. It’s that default price which now determines where all the discounts go from. Putting a big stick on the electricity companies to make sure they do the right thing and that will include legislated powers for divestment if they do the wrong thing. Thirdly, get some investment in some fair dinkum power generation. That’s what you actually have to do to get electricity prices down.
Engaging in the climate wars may tickle the ears of the ideologues, but frankly it makes no difference to what’s going to happen with electricity prices.
But I’ll tell you what will make a difference; if you have an emissions reduction target of 45 per cent. Okay, that’s big. 26 per cent is a low alcohol beer, 45 per cent is a full schooner of single malt, when it comes to it’s impact on electricity prices. Now that means $1,400 extra for every family in the country. That’s Labor’s plan. If people want to get concerned about emissions reductions targets, think about what Bill Shorten is going to do, because that will increase your electricity prices.
MURRAY: So will we see, by the election next year, the Government either underwriting or helping to sign documents about power generation? About making sure that the coal-fired power station is built, or whatever it is?
PRIME MINISTER: Whatever it is for fair dinkum power.
MURRAY: Because going into an election, people aren’t going to cop months of; “Trust me, it’s slightly coming down on the wholesale price, asterisk, asterisk, asterisk.” Because Bill Shorten has, seemingly, won the political lie which is; “renewables are better.” But they cost $60 billion to make, so the question is; will we, by the time we go to an election, see your Government facilitating the creation of more electricity in Australia?
PRIME MINISTER: That’s certainly my plan.
MURRAY: How hard do you think it’ll be to get it done?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, Angus is bringing back the first instalment of that. I’ve outlined the three key things that need to be done to achieve that. The third piece is all very much about whether that’s guaranteeing the take-out price on the back end of the contracts or other things that can be done to firm up the investment proposal to get these projects happening.
Now it also requires people wanting to invest at the same time. So that’s where that investment will come from, that we want to create the right climate for that. We want it to be in fair dinkum power, we want the reliability guarantee, that’s still important. That’s before the states. We do want to ensure there is contracted reliability in the electricity market, because where there is more contracting, there is more certainty and that means you don’t get affected by the price spikes. So we do want to see that happen.
The measures are there. Bill Shorten wants to legislate. You know he’s talking about; “Oh, we’re going to revisit the NEG.” This is what that means - when I take out that BS - Bill Shorten, that is, I should stress – test on this. He’s saying that he wants to legislate a Paris target of 45 per cent. So if you’re worried about Paris, think about that; a legislated Paris target of 45 per cent. I’m not legislating any Paris target, none.
MURRAY: There’s a few other things I want to raise. I know you’ve got to go back to Cabinet, but I want to get a few different ones across here. Do you think that there is such a thing as free speech in Australian universities, anymore?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, it’s been a long time since I’ve been in one, Paul, probably you too.
[Laughter]
MURRAY: But when you see the protests, that when somebody turns up and if they wanted to be pro-traditional marriage during the vote last year –
PRIME MINISTER: There’s free speech for some and not for others.
MURRAY: Yeah.
PRIME MINISTER: I think that’s been an issue. What I’ve always noticed from the Left is that they’re happy to have free speech, so long if you agree with them. If you have a different view to them, then apparently you’re a bigot.
MURRAY: Yeah, so it’s this thing where we give billions of dollars to this sector. Can anything be done to try and guarantee that, regardless of whom is speaking, unless they’re speakers anyone would find detestable or breaking the law basically that there has to be a free facilitation of all ideas being discussed on a campus, rather than just being screamed down?
PRIME MINISTER: That’s what universities are for. Now you and I would have no truck with hate speech or whatever, however that’s described –
MURRAY: Of course.
PRIME MINISTER: People should treat each other with respect and people should act in accordance with Australians values.
We’re a very tolerant society. That doesn’t mean, as someone once famously said, you’ve got to tolerate the intolerable. But at the same time, so long as people act in accordance with those core beliefs and values, there should be free-ranging ideas.
I do get concerned about this. I do frankly get a lot more concerned about people’s electricity prices and what they’re paying for their mortgages and making sure they’ve got a job. Particularly today, I’m terribly concerned about the quality of aged care people are receiving. So I think these issues about free speech and indeed religious freedom - and you know I’m a big believer in that - I think they are important debates. But then there’s the very practical day-to-day part of what I do and what the Government does and that is all the things I just mentioned.
MURRAY: But it’s this thing where - when you talk about religious freedom, in particular - my concerns about it is that I would hate to see the extremes of any faith use religious freedom legal protection to protect the worst parts of their faith –
PRIME MINISTER: Of course.
MURRAY: Because we know what’s happening. We know that underage marriage, they’re not going off and getting registered with the government. It’s happening in the backyard ceremonies. Polygamy is happening.
PRIME MINISTER: True, I cancelled, I think, some people’s visas for doing that.
MURRAY: So what does religious freedom mean, that needs a law around it that you are attracted to?
PRIME MINISTER: Let me give you this example. I send my kids to a Christian school, I think that Christian school should be able to ensure they can provide education consistent with the Christian faith and teaching that I believe as a parent. That’s why I’m sending them there. I don’t think that school should be told who they can and can’t employ, or have restrictions on them in ensuring that they’re delivering to me – the parent, their client, their customer – what I’ve invested in for my children’s education.
Here’s another one. Let’s say you have some particular religious views about something or other that’s deeply held within your faith. It doesn’t contravene national laws or anything like this and a company has a particular policy which doesn’t sit well with your view. You’re a totally competent person to sit on that board of a public company. Why should you be denied a directorship or a partnership, indeed in a law firm or an accountancy firm, just because you happened to have expressed on Facebook or somewhere about a particular religious belief? That shouldn’t happen in this country. Now, I’m not saying it is, necessarily and people say; “Oh well, if there’s not this great problem, why do you need to do it?” Can they guarantee me it won’t happen in the future? I’ve seen where this issue has gone over the last ten years and issues of freedom of speech, I’ve seen where they’ve gone over the last ten years.
Not quite sure I’m pleased with the trajectory. So there’s nothing wrong with a bit of preventative regulation and legislation to ensure that your religious freedom in this country. I mean, what’s more fundamental that that?
MURRAY: Look, I’ve got two questions left. I fully respect what you’re doing with aged care and I fully support the Royal Commission, so I’m not ignoring that issue, but there are two others I wanted to raise with you. The abuse of children in the Northern Territory. I know this is a tough and difficult topic for a lot of people. But one day I would love to see a kid born in Tennant Creek sitting in the very chair that you are, decades down the track.
PRIME MINISTER: Me too.
MURRAY: But we all know that people coming from communities like that, can’t have that opportunity if there’s things that are intervening in their life that are horrific, way too early. What the hell are we going to do?
PRIME MINISTER: This is a noxious problem. Sitting in my office, I’ve had it for many years, is the plaque of a young girl Shirley Ngalkin. Shirley was raped and drowned in a creek in one of these communities. I keep it there as a constant reminder to me of that challenge. This is one of the reasons I asked Tony to take on this job as a Special Envoy on Indigenous education and getting kids into school. There are many things we can do, but you know, getting kids in school and keeping them in school and ensuring they’re getting an education and that their dreams can become realities - I’ve seen this through my involvement in the Clontarf Foundation as well - seeing how those boys’ lives are changed. This is a big opportunity. I think you’ve just got to keep trying to tackle problem after problem after problem.
Now, I know how passionate Tony is about this. I’ve been up in communities with him when there’s no cameras around, sitting down and talking about these issues. I want him to be able to have free reign on this. I don’t want him to be constrained – terrifying thought - as a Minister trying to defend Government policy and all this sort of thing. He needs to sit down and hear it straight and tell it straight.
That’s why I’ve got Barnaby doing a very similar job when it comes to our drought relief and recovery plan. I think both of them, with their standing in the Australian community and their skills - and Tony particularly in this area - I think he’s going to do a cracker of a job. He’s not just going to serve it up to me, he’s going to serve it up to, I assume, the states as well and be able to look at these problems above and outside Government. With his unique experience I think he’s going to add a lot there.
MURRAY: Last question. If you had the choice between a Sharks premiership or a one seat majority in the Parliament, which one are you going to take?
PRIME MINISTER: Dear oh dear. Time to end the interview.
[Laughter]
MURRAY: Prime Minister, thank you for the interview.
PRIME MINISTER: Cheers, Paul, thanks mate.
Interview with Leon Byner, 5AA Adelaide
17 September 2018
LEON BYNER: Let’s welcome to 5AA and across South Australia, Prime Minister Scott Morrison. Prime Minister thanks for joining us today.
PRIME MINISTER: Hey Leon.
BYNER: Look, some would suggest, including the aged care sector, that there have already been so many inquiries and they’re saying; “Why aren’t the recommendations from those inquiries being fully implemented?”
PRIME MINISTER: Well, that’s what we are doing. Just in the most recent Budget and last week I announced $106 million that was going into increasing the capacity of regional, residential care facilities, increasing the resources for the policing of standards and there’s around $50 million to increase the standards themselves. We’ve got over $80 million going into mental health care support in residential aged care facilities. So, we’re going to keep doing all of those things. But what really troubled me Leon, is when I saw those incident statistics of what was happening, with the risks that were there. The con-compliance, I mean, once facility is being closed down a month, since Oakden.
Now that asks one question; “How much more widespread is this?” All Australians deserve to have assurance that answers that question.
BYNER: And what’s happened to those people who were in those institutions that have been shut, where do they go?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, they won’t be allowed to go and set up new ones, that’s for sure.
BYNER: So, where do they go?
PRIME MINISTER: Oh I see, you’re talking about the residents, I thought you were talking about the people running the facilities.
BYNER: Yeah, no, no.
PRIME MINISTER: Well, there’s about 2,000 people who are affected by what was happening across the sector, 300 of them had to be placed in other facilities. The others were able to be accommodated with improvements made in various facilities. That is how the issue has been managed, people aren’t left out on the streets or anything like that, of course that wouldn’t happen. So that’s what’s been managed across the sector.
But because we’ve been doing more policing work, because we’ve been doing unannounced visits, because we’ve been doing the monitoring of the standards, that is what has been showing this up. Now, it may well be that in the past, these things were underreported and the problem was much higher then. But the fact is, we know what it’s like now. For every Australian who has to make a decision about the care of one of their loved ones, who are at the most vulnerable time of their lives, they want to be assured. And it’s not specific to one sector. We know in Oakden, I mean that was a government-run facility for goodness sake. So it’s in the not-for-profit sector, it’s in the for-profit sector, it’s in the government sector. It’s in rural, it’s in metropolitan. It’s in large facilities, it’s in small facilities.
BYNER: How much do you think this Royal Commission is going to cost, Prime Minister?
PRIME MINISTER: We’re currently finalising the terms of reference and how many commissioners and the length. But the banking one we’re anticipating is between 50 and 75. So there’s no reason why we’d be thinking about it in different terms to that at the moment.
BYNER: So $50 to $75 mil?
PRIME MINISTER: That’s what we currently have allowed for the banking royal commission. At the moment we haven’t gone anywhere near those costs in that royal commission.
But look, that’s what we’re working through right now and that won’t come at the expense of frontline service delivery. That will be accounted for in the Budget and that’ll be tidied up in the Mid-Year Statement at the end of the year.
BYNER: Any idea who will head the commission?
PRIME MINISTER: No, we’re still working through those details.
BYNER: Right, I believe the commission will also be looking at young disabled people that are kept in aged facilities?
PRIME MINISTER: Yeah that’s correct. The Royal Commission is 100 per cent focused on the things the Commonwealth is responsible for. For younger people with disabilities who are living in an aged care or residential aged care setting or receiving those types of services, that will also be a focus. Now that may give rise to observations to why people are finding themselves in those settings, which relate to services provided at a state level or in other areas. That’s fair enough. But I said yesterday, retirement villages for example, they run under the authority of the state governments. I’ve said to the states in a statement yesterday and I’ll be in touch with them, that if they want to be involved with this in terms of things that they’re responsible for, well, there’s an open invitation there. But I’m not going to let that slow us down in getting on with this.
BYNER: Your adversaries in the Parliament are saying that you ripped almost $2 billion out of the sector when you were Treasurer. How do you respond to that?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, it’s just a complete lie. We’ve put $1 billion extra into aged care every year since then. It was $17.1 billion in 2016/17 and in 2017/18 it’s $18.6 billion. Over the next four years as it grows by another $5 billion to $23.6 billion.
Only Labor could go; “One plus one equals zero.” I mean that’s their financial management. You know what? I just wish this was something we didn’t have to fight about, Leon. I mean the fact that Labor are already today, when I’m calling for bipartisanship on this issue, want to get into the politics of that, I think it’s disappointing. I hope they reconsider going down this path of telling lies like they always do, trying to scare people about an issue where I don’t want to fight about it, I just want to fix it.
BYNER: Alright, I just want to list a few issues, because the one thing you need now Prime Minister, to have a hope of winning the next election whenever that’s going to be, maybe May of next year, you need some clear air. First of all, are you concerned that some of your colleagues may decide to support a Labor push to refer Peter Dutton to the High Court, to determine if he’s eligible to sit in the Parliament?
PRIME MINISTER: No, I don’t believe that’s going to happen.
BYNER: You don’t think it will?
PRIME MINISTER: No.
BYNER: Have you spoken to your colleagues, like Julie Bishop about this?
PRIME MINISTER: I just don’t think it’s going to happen Leon. We considered this matter in the Parliament just over three weeks ago and resolved not to do that, as a Parliament. There’s nothing to change that view.
BYNER: Have you been given a briefing on the strawberry contamination which has now spread to SA?
PRIME MINISTER: Greg Hunt made mention of that in our press conference yesterday, so I have basic understanding of it. But no, I’d prefer that any specific inquiries be directed to the Health Minister.
BYNER: I want to ask you about a situation with electricity. Because I know you’ve got your new Minister who is the “Minister for bringing power prices down”. I want to give you a scenario that I’m aware of. We’ve got a local business here who are going to save $100,000 a year on their power bill by going to biofuel generation. He’s going to do it. We’re going to see more of this, what’s your reaction to this?
PRIME MINISTER: I think we may see more of that and it’ll be driven by two things. At the moment it’s being driven by the fact that prices are just too high now and even things which are expensive, seem less expensive, particularly for commercial industrial users.
A lot of that has to do with the availability of gas, Leon. We’ve got gas locked up in New South Wales and Victoria and parts of South Australia and the only state that hasn’t done that, is in Queensland on the eastern states. That’s why they’ve got a lot more gas than everybody else. The Northern Territory is opening up their gas and of course Western Australia always had it. That’s why their power prices are cheaper.
I was in Dallas earlier this year in Texas, their prices are about a third less or half less than what we pay here. That’s because they’ve allowed people to get the gas out from underneath the ground. I think that’s an important issue, particularly for commercial industrial users. But the other part is ensuring that we have a good investment environment for reliable, what I call reliable power supply, which is fair dinkum power supply. Stuff that works when the sun doesn’t shine and the wind doesn’t blow. We’re working to provide a more certain environment for that. The ACCC, when I was Treasurer, the report I commissioned, gave us some very good suggestions of how we can achieve that. Angus Taylor, as you rightly say, the Minister for getting electricity prices down, is pulling that proposal together as we speak.
BYNER: Look I need to ask you about power companies gaming. Because when the interconnector was down recently, they pulled a cool $28 million which cost every South Australian twelve bucks. They were gaming the system, according to the experts. Are you going to make that illegal?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, that big stick on the electricity companies, the energy companies, is part of our plan. Those powers range from everything from the most basic which is warning notices but to forcible undertakings and ultimately that will involve divestment. That’s a pretty extreme power.
BYNER: When is this going to happen?
PRIME MINISTER: Angus is working on all of that right now. So I’m always one to get it right before I take it forward and so we’re going through that process right now. But we’ve already seen, when it came to gas and even with retail electricity providers, that when we put them in the room and we made it very clear what we expected of them, we did get movement. I think we need to get more movement from them.
BYNER: Do you want more female representatives in the Liberal Party?
PRIME MINISTER: Yes.
BYNER: How are you going to get it?
PRIME MINISTER: By ensuring we’ve got candidates coming forward who can be successful at pre-selection. That they have a good understanding of what life in federal politics is all about. It’s very tough. I mean I’m blessed, I’ve got a wonderful wife Jen and we can manage our family life and we can manage our political life together. It’s got a bit tougher of late for obvious reasons. But I’ve worked with a lot of women in Parliament here, Kelly O’Dwyer, Sophie Mirabella, who have been raising young children while they’ve been here and this is why I’ve got so much respect for Kelly. Because she’s demonstrating that it can be achieved. She’s a competent, highly proficient, successful Minister in the Government and she is a great mum as well. You know, she’s making it happen and we need more examples of that. That’s why I’ve always been so supportive.
When I was a state director of the Liberal Party, I was well-known for recruiting women into the Party and getting them into Parliament and ensuring they could get through that process. So I’ll always, if there’s the opportunity to get a good female member into the Parliament, I’ll always do that. But at the end of the day, in the Liberal Party, it’s the best candidate that should be selected and that’s what’s just happened recently in the seat of Wentworth with Dave Sharma, who is an outstanding candidate for there and I know he’ll do a great job.
BYNER: Well Kerryn Phelps, with the preference help, is going to be a formidable opponent isn’t she?
PRIME MINISTER: Well from what I’ve seen, she’s basically supporting the Labor Party. So a vote for Kerryn Phelps is a vote for Bill Shorten.
BYNER: Can you confidently say that there’s no bullying, particularly of women, in the Liberal Party?
PRIME MINISTER: Look, in terms of how people understand that term, there are many different opinions and perceptions about what that term means, but certainly in the parliamentary Party, which is what I’m responsible for, I’ve been talking to my female colleagues and the whips have been managing the issues that arose out of the leadership spill a few weeks ago. They are times of intense lobbying, but we’ve got around the colleagues and we’re dealing with those issues the same way the Labor Party dealt with them when they had similar challenges. You do it through the party whips who are the pastoral councillors in the parliamentary team. In the state divisions and in the organisational wing, I’ve raised this as an issue of concern. It’s one that I would expect the party organisation to deal with.
BYNER: One question, when do you think power prices will start coming down?
PRIME MINISTER: Well we already saw Leon, in the June quarter of this year on the Consumer Price Index, it was a very small change, but it was down just over one per cent. So we are starting to see the worm turn on this. We saw it on wholesale prices as well in gas, which were down quite a bit. We saw it on South Australian prices as well. So we’re already starting to see this turn. The issue is to ensure that we continue that downward trend and that’s certainly what we’re working on.
The alternative that Labor will into law is a 45 per cent emissions reduction target. The target we have and has been the commitment of the Government for many years now, of 26 per cent, that will have a material impact on electricity prices. That’s my advice. But to take it to 45 per cent will pretty much shut down every coal-fired power station in the country and it’ll increase people’s power bill by about $1,400 on average for every single household. That’s Bill Shorten’s plan.
So if you want lower electricity prices, support mine and Angus Taylor’s plan to get electricity prices down.
BYNER: Is CKI going to be allowed to buy the APA gas pipeline?
PRIME MINISTER: One of the changes that has happened Leon, is that when you move from Treasurer to Prime Minister, those are no longer calls I get to make. Those calls are made, actually specifically under the law, by the Treasurer. Now as you know, the ACCC has considered the competition issues and they’ve said that there isn’t an issue there. But there will remain a number of other issues that I know Josh Frydenberg as Treasurer will be looking at very closely. There’s the Critical Infrastructure Centre which we established. I was a key part of forming that to ensure that our national security agencies and other key agencies examine these issues very closely. I can assure that’s exactly what will happen as both the Foreign Investment Review Board and ultimately the Treasurer make their decision.
BYNER: Thank you for coming on Prime Minister.
PRIME MINISTER: Thanks Leon, great to talk to you as always and g’day to all your listeners as well.
BYNER: Good on you. Prime Minister Scott Morrison.
Interview with Georgie Gardner, Today Show
17 September 2018
GEORGIE GARDNER: The Prime Minister joins us now from Canberra. Prime Minister, good morning to you.
PRIME MINISTER: Hi Georgie.
GARDNER: If those polls are accurate, you’re in dire straits.
PRIME MINISTER: We’ve got a big job ahead of us and I know Bill Shorten believes he’s got the next election won. But that just means Australians would be closer to higher taxes and a mismanaged economy. That's why we're working hard to demonstrate that we're focused 100 per cent on the needs of the Australian people. I think what I announced yesterday with the Royal Commission into residential aged care, demonstrates that. We need to get on with the job and that’s exactly what we’re doing.
GARDNER: Yeah, we’ll get to that in a minute. But you are taking notice of this poll then?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, you listen to the Australian people all the time. I'm not surprised that after the events of several weeks ago the Australian public are going to mark us down. But as we continue to demonstrate the Government getting back on with the job, focusing on keeping our economy strong, keeping Australians safe and importantly, keeping Australians together, that they will see between now and the next election, which is not due until next year, that we are the trusted choice for Australians to do all those things.
GARDNER: This poll did deliver you one positive. One on one you are ahead of Bill Shorten by 10 points as preferred PM. What does that say about Bill Shorten?
PRMIE MINISTER: Well, it says that the Australian people have had a good look at him for five years and they don't believe he's the right choice for Australia.
GARDNER: So that feels good?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, it's their assessment, that's for them to make that assessment. It's for me to focus on my job. You know, there's a lot of fighting in Canberra about lots of issues. I'm keen to try to bring Australians together to focus on getting the fix in and the solutions in, on those issues that are most troubling them. Whether that's electricity prices or quality standards in aged care. These are the things I think Australians want our focus on, not on ourselves.
GARDNER: Let's talk about aged care. Your Aged Care Minister Ken Wyatt denied the aged care sector was in crisis when I put it to him on this very program a few months ago. What has changed?
PRIME MINISTER: Well first of all, whether there is a crisis or not will be determined by the Royal Commission, I said that yesterday. What I’m looking to do here is get ahead of these problems. What we've been doing as a Government, a Liberal-National Government, is putting increased resources into the policing of standards. That's what has revealed these rather alarming and disturbing increases in risks and poor standards of care in the sector.
So I asked a simple question; “How widespread is this?” Until that question can be fully answered then I don't have the confidence and I think the Australian public won't about when they make the hardest decision they ever make about their loved ones, they need to do that with confidence. I want to give them that confidence.
GARDNER: But your Government through Ken Wyatt denied a Royal Commission was necessary?
PRIME MINISTER: No, what he said was he would rather see the money spent on frontline services. He was talking about a figure of around $200 million. Well, that's exactly what I have invested in the last Budget in frontline services and aged care. Over $80 million for mental health support and residential aged care. We’ve got over $100 million going into better policing of standards, greater capacity, lifting the quality of residential aged care services and additional residential aged care places in rural and regional areas.
So, we’ve got to do both Georgie. We’ve got to have the Royal Commission to give people the confidence and get to the bottom of the issues. But equally we have to keep on with the strong programme we have been running. A billion dollars in aged care investments every single year since the 2016/17 Budget.
GARDNER: Okay, can you understand though why the voters are cynical when your Government backflips on a Royal Commission when there’s an election is looming?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, that’s not what he did. He said he would rather see the money -
GARDNER: He said it wasn’t necessary.
PRIME MINISTER: No, he said he would rather see money invested in frontline services. That’s what he actually said. But as a new Prime Minister, I have the opportunity to make these decisions and get on with it. That's what our government is doing. I think Australians care about what's happening frankly, not the to-ing and fro-ing of politicians in Canberra.
GARDNER: Yeah they absolutely do care. How much of the crisis the aged care crisis, do you attribute to ripping almost $2 billion out of the Aged Care system?
PRIME MINISTER: We have been putting $1 billion extra into Aged Care every year, so I don't know how one plus one equals zero. I don't understand that math.
GARDNER: But you, you acknowledge that the system is broken.
PRIME MINISTER: I acknowledge that a Royal Commission is necessary to understand the full extent of the problem that our increased policing work in the sector has been revealing. That's why we need a Royal Commission. I mean this week alone we're going to have the legislation for the Quality and Safety in Aged Care Commission, brought into the Parliament. We're lifting the standards, we're policing the standards. The Royal Commission is an addition to all of that work.
Now, as far and wide as this goes, we will see and the recommendations will come forward. But what is clear from the work that has already been done; it's not just in the profit or not-for-profit sector, it's not just in rural centres or urban centres or large centres or small centres. Our work shows that there is a problem potentially and actually in each of these areas. So we want to get to the bottom of it. I don’t want to fight about it. I just want to fix it.
GARDNER: It is wide spread. Authorities have closed one aged care centre a month?
PRIME MINISTER: That’s right.
GARDNER: Since the Oakden nursing home scandal in Adelaide last year.
PRIME MINISTER: They were our authorities who did that.
GARDNER: So what do you put that down to? Why are you having to close them?
PRIME MINISTER: Because they're not meeting the standards. We're policing the standards. That's what happens when you send the police in. That's what happens when you actually take an interest in the care, you find there is a mismatch there and then you act on it. So, we have been acting on that.
GARDNER: So why has it taken so long to call a Royal Commission, is what so many people want to know?
PRIME MINISTER: I’ve been Prime Minister for three weeks, I think that’s a pretty quick time.
GARDNER: But you were part of a government that could have called this a long time ago?
PRIME MINISTER: I can take responsibilities for my actions as a Prime Minister and that’s what I’m doing.
GARDNER: Alright, moving on, allegations of appalling behaviour and bullying towards women have emerged within your Party. Have you spoken to those who’ve experienced that bullying?
PRIME MINISTER: I have spoken to the women of my Party about the events of several weeks ago. We’ve worked that through as a team, with the same process the Labor Party does. What's known as the party whips are effectively the pastoral councillors of colleagues in the Parliament of both sides of politics. That's where that issue is best managed.
But I know that everybody is more interested in the welfare of the Australian people. I mean I have no truck with bullying in any workplace Georgie, in any workplace. That's certainly my standard. That's the one I live to and expect my team to. But I also expect us to not focus on the dust being kicked up here in Canberra, but to look through that dust to the real needs of the Australian people who are our primary focus.
GARDNER: Sorry, can you just elaborate on what you’re doing to address the bullying?
PRIME MINISTER: Supporting members. Well, first of all there are a range of different views about what occurred several weeks ago, I mean it was a leadership ballot. Leadership ballots, there's intense lobbying that takes place. But since that time, people have been getting back to work and getting around each other and supporting each other. I’ve been part of that process and I think that's how it should be addressed.
GARDNER: But when female members of your party say that they have been bullied and they're calling that out, what is your response to that as Prime Minister?
PRIME MINISTER: Ensuring that it if those things had happened - and I should stress that cases that when I have spoken to people specifically, it actually referred to what was happening back in their state divisions of the Liberal Party, it wasn't about what was actually happening here in Canberra. So, I have been raising that with the party organisation itself. I think in the events of a few weeks ago there were some mixed messages about where things were occurring. So that was the result of my own direct personal discussions with people. But honestly, our Party, our team here in Canberra wants to focus on the issues that matter to the Australian people, not ourselves.
GARDNER: We will leave it there for now. Prime Minister thank you for your time.
PRIME MINISTER: Thanks Georgie.
Interview with David Koch, Sunrise
17 September 2018
DAVID KOCH: Appalling cases of abuse against people in aged care have triggered a Royal Commission into the industry. The last financial year saw the number of services with serious risk almost double and non-compliance increase by 292 per cent. The terms of reference and costs will be worked out over the next few weeks. The Prime Minister joins us now. Scott Morrison, thanks for joining us.
PRIME MINISTER: Thanks David.
KOCH: Prime Minister, a couple of weeks ago your Minister said there was no need for a Royal Commission. You brought this on. Is this a personal thing to you, have you had an experience in this area in the past that has made you so passionate about it?
PRIME MINISTER: Well I think it’s personal to everyone David, because Australians all have to make some difficult decisions about their loved ones at their time of greatest vulnerability and frailty. What Ken had been saying is that he wants to see the money go into frontline services and we’re going to make sure that happens as well. But I want to make sure that all Australians who are making these decisions and those who those decisions are being made for, can have total confidence with the care that their loved ones will receive. That’s why we need to get on with this and we need to get on with it now. As the new Prime Minister, it was one of the key things that I thought we needed to move ahead with.
KOCH: How did it get this bad? I was frankly shocked at the statistics. You close one aged care facility a month?
PRIME MINISTER: That’s right.
KOCH: A 292 per cent increase in centres which don’t comply with the rules, this is frightening that it has got to this stage?
PRIME MINISTER: Well that’s what happens when you start policing these things. A couple of years ago, what we started to do was do these visits, do the compliance orders, put the cop on the beat and strengthen those resources. When you take a good look inside, this is what you see. So it may well be that there may have been under-reporting in the past, but what it does show is a level of risk and a level of sub-standard service in elements of the industry that needs to be addressed. So that’s what happens when you put a cop on the beat. That’s what the cop is there to do and then you have to take action when you get that information.
KOCH: This is the greatest fear of a lot of Australians who have an elderly parent in an aged care facility. It sort of haunts you in the back of your mind. What has got to be done in the meantime though, because I agree with the Royal Commission. But that could take forever to come up with recommendations. How are you going to fix the problem between now and the recommendations being implemented, which could be a couple of years?
PRMIE MINISTER: Well I expect that it should be done by the second half of next year. But you're right, we’re not going to sit still and wait for that report to come back.
Just last week I announced $106 million for improving the capacity of particularly for regional residential aged care centres, additional resources for the policing standards. $40 million for the lifting of standards. In the Budget I put $86 million in for increased mental health services into residential aged care facilities. We’ve increased the in-home care places since December of last year, by 20,000. That will increase high-care in-home care places, by over 80 per cent over the next four years. So we’re investing an additional $1 billion in aged care every year, from my first Budget in 2016/17. So we’re putting the resources in. But this is an area of expanding need.
KOCH: Oh yeah.
PRIME MINISTER: Because as you know with the changing demographics, you’ve more Australians going into care ultimately and people are leaving it until longer in life - because the good news is that they’re able to make choices to stay home for longer - it means that when they go into residential aged care, their needs are more acute. That’s changing what is needed from these centres, particularly when it comes to things like dementia and for our multicultural communities. When you suffer from dementia, often you refer to your original language. That means you need a different skills in a lot of these centres to cope with that.
KOCH: All the best, I think you have a lot of Australians supporting you with that.
Now while we’ve got you, a Fairfax-Ipsos poll out this morning has you well ahead of Bill Shorten as preferred PM. But the Coalition is still well behind two-party preferred. How are you going to change that around? Obviously, the public like you. They liked Malcolm as well. But that two-party preferred you can’t seem to get up, what is needed?
PRIME MINISTER: It’s one step at a time and there is no doubt we have been marked down from the events of several weeks ago and that’s totally understandable. So I’m in the business, my team is in the business of demonstrating to them that we’re back on the job, we’re focused 100 per cent on the needs of the Australian people. I’m looking through the dust of all the things that get kicked up here in Canberra. This place can get very distracted by itself. I am not distracted by it.
KOCH: Alright.
PRIME MINISTER: It’s just week after week, as Flanno at the Sharks always says; “Put a month of good footy together and you never know, you’ll find yourselves in the finals.”
[Laughter]
And that’s where we are, in the Sharks anyway.
KOCH: Oh alright, boasting about your football team. Fair enough too, good luck with the finals. Alright mate, take care.
Interview with The Project
16 September 2018
HOST: Prime Minister Scott Morrison joins us now. Prime Minister, welcome back to The Project. Why of all days are you announcing this today?
PRIME MINISTER: Over the last three weeks, you can imagine as a new Prime Minister you get a lot of briefings about a lot of things that are up happening. When you saw the figures that I saw in the reports, of what was happening in the aged care sector, you need to move straightaway. I mean, the decisions that you make about your family going into nursing homes, residential aged care and equally for young people with disabilities going and living in residential aged care, these are tough decisions that Australians make. They need to be assured that the quality and the standards are as best as they can be.
I want to be assured about that, I want all Australians to be assured about that. So, I just wouldn't delay it. I said; “Get on with it.”
HOST: The issues though are well-known, they’re well-documented. Members of your own Government have said that description of “crises” are “fear mongering” in the past. We know there is going to be a television expose of the industry, tomorrow. Has that got anything to do with the timing?
PRIME MINISTER: Nothing, I mean the media doesn't explain everything, Hamish. I mean this is a serious issue. Whether there's a crisis or not the Royal Commission will determine that. I want to be assured that the incidences of what I’ve seen, we’ve got a tougher cop on the beat in the aged care sector. There have been unannounced visits, compliance audits. We’ve been putting a lot of resources into that.
What it’s revealing is a rather alarming increase in the non-compliance, the risk factors that are there and we need to get to the bottom of it. And we need to get the politics out of it. I don't want to fight about this issue, I want to fix it.
HOST: Prime Minister, jumping topics now to the Wentworth by-election, you have said that you wanted a woman and the best candidate to run in Wentworth. Could it be that the best candidate is a woman named Kerryn Phelps?
PRIME MINISTER: Not the Liberal candidate and I don't believe she's the best candidate for Wentworth. Because in Wentworth, voting for anyone other than the Liberal candidate which is Dave Sharma, brings Bill Shorten closer to running the country and people’s taxes going up and small businesses not getting support they need. The financial management which has produced the over 100,000 jobs for young people over the last 12 months, all of that will be put at risk.
Now, I’ve known Kerryn over a long period of time, she's been a person committed to many issues over her lifetime but she's not a Liberal, she's standing as an independent because she's not a Liberal. She doesn't support what the Liberal Party does. Our candidate, Dave Sharma, was the best candidate in the field.
Now, I don't recall from wanting to see more women in Parliament and more Liberal women in Parliament and next time, I hope to see that there will be. I will have encouraged Liberal women to step forward and put themselves into the preselection race.
HOST: Prime Minister, I need to ask you about the Fatman Scoop video that you posted. To be honest I thought it was funny, but then you took it down because some people found it a bit … you know, I don’t know. Do you think people are getting a bit too precious about things?
PRIME MINISTER: Look, I think there is a lot of that, but it's my Facebook and social media sites where it was posted. I can't have as Prime Minister, lyrics like that on my site, that doesn't sit with my values. That's why I took it down.
But I thought it was a bit of fun. I thought for many people, that was the first interesting thing they’ve seen come out of Question Time in a long time. If that's how that works, I'm good with that. But you know, hip-hop is not necessarily my thing. I mean I’ve got to back to Run-D.M.C for when I was interested in that sort of stuff.
[Laughter]
I don't even know if they qualify anymore. You know Walk This Way? They did a great track with Aerosmith as you’ll remember. But maybe your listeners can’t remember Aerosmith either, I’m not 100 per cent sure.
HOST: Mate, they can, everything that’s old is new again.
PRIME MINISTER: Excellent.
HOST: We’ve got the Salt-N-Pepa on R&B Fridays Live, are you going to come along and be front row with me? Going [descriptive sound]?
[Laughter]
PRIME MINISTER: Yeah, you won't be getting any Milli Vanilli from me, I can assure you.
[Laughter]
HOST: Prime Minister - or Milli Vanilli whatever you want to be called - thank you very much for your time, we always appreciate it.
PRIME MINISTER: See you guys, all the best.
Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety
16 September 2018
Prime Minister, Minister for Health, Minister for Senior Australians and Aged Care
Today, I am announcing the Government’s decision for me to ask the Governor General to establish a Royal Commission into the Aged Care sector.
This Royal Commission will primarily look at the quality of care provided in Residential and Home Aged Care to senior Australians, but also include Young Australians with disabilities living in Residential Aged Care settings.
We are committed to providing older Australians with access to care that supports their dignity and recognises the contribution that they have made to society.
Funding for aged care is at record levels. In 2017-18, alone, aged care spending is estimated to reach $18.6 billion. Over the next five years funding will grow by $5 billion to $23.6 billion.
$1.6 billion has been provided to create an additional 20,000 higher needs home care packages since last December. In excess of $50 million is being provided every year for dementia-specific programs. And in my last budget, a further $5.3 million has been committed over four years to pilot improvements to care for people living with dementia, with an emphasis on use of innovative technologies.
Our aged care sector in Australia provides some of the best care in the world. And we are looked to as a leader in the field. Aged care services and training has become an important service export industry for Australia.
There are thousands of extraordinary operators, facilities, care providers, nursing and other clinical staff, volunteers, cleaners, cooks, therapists out there improving the lives of senior Australians every day. They do it for love and out of a deep professional commitment.
But the best teams will always want to do better, and will always want to be honest about the performance of the sector as a whole. If you care about aged care, which those who work in the sector do, you will want it to be at its very best.
Next week will mark twelve months since South Australia’s Oakden aged care facility was closed.
When the Oakden tragedy was revealed publicly in May 2017, Minister Ken Wyatt commissioned a review into quality across the aged care sector and asked for increased inspection and compliance work.
We have already taken steps to improve the system. In 2017 we commissioned the Review of National Aged Care Quality Regulatory Processes.
We have worked through the 2017 Legislated Review of Aged Care, and responded in the 2018 Budget with the More Choices for a Longer Life package that encouraged active ageing and provided an extra $1.6 billion for home care.
We have legislated for new Aged Care Quality Standards, the first upgrade of standards in 20 years, and introduced a Bill to create the Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission, supported by $106 million to support better facilities, care and standards in aged care.
When I became Prime Minister just over three weeks ago, I was advised that as a result of the increased audit work we had commissioned as a Government to deal with this problem, the Department of Health has closed almost one aged care service per month since Oakden, with an increasing number under sanction to improve their care.
Putting in place clear requirements for better standards and providing the resources and powers to police those standards will always shine a light on the problems that exist. That is the whole point. These findings demonstrate the effectiveness of the measures we have been taking.
However, incidences of older people being hurt by failures of care simply cannot be explained or excused. We must be assured about how widespread these cases are. I also want to be assured about the care provided to younger Australians living in the residential aged care facilities.
As a community we expect high standards for the quality and safety of aged care services. Our Government shares these expectations. This Royal Commission will be about proactively determining what we need to do in the future to ensure these expectations can be met.
If you want to deal with a problem, you have to be fair dinkum about understanding the full extent of it. Whether there is a crisis in aged care or not is to be determined. That is the point of holding a Royal Commission. It is not to pre-determine outcomes.
The evidence shows that the problems are not restricted to any one part of the aged care sector, whether it is for profit or not for profit, large or small facilities, regional or major metropolitan. The Royal Commission will look at the sector as a whole, without bias or prejudice. It will make findings on the evidence. As a Government, and a Parliament, it will be our job to act on these findings together.
What matters most is fixing and getting ahead of the problems.
We also need to get a better handle on what more needs to be done to prepare the system for the increase in demand that will occur in the next decade as the ‘baby boomer’ generation reaches an age where they will need support from the aged care system.
With more Australians exercising their choice to stay at home for longer, this means that when Australians are entering residential aged care these days they are doing so with more acute needs. This will continue to have a big impact on our residential aged care model in the future. We need to get ahead of this.
Despite the further reforms underway, including the coming establishment of a new Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission, there clearly remains areas of concern with regard to the quality and safety of aged care services.
For this reason, our Government has decided to establish a Royal Commission into Australia’s aged care system. I should stress that conducting the Royal Commission will not impact any existing or planned actions to improve the standards and quality of care being provided in aged care facilities. We need to continue to get on with these initiatives.
The Royal Commission will be in addition to, not instead of, the actions we are taking.
Australians must be able to trust that their loved ones will be cared for appropriately and the community should have confidence in the system.
The Terms of Reference will be determined in consultation with the community, including residents and their families and aged care providers. We expect that it will cover:
The quality of care provided to older Australians, and the extent of substandard care;
The challenge of providing care to Australians with disabilities living in residential aged care, particularly younger people with disabilities;
The challenge of supporting the increasing number of Australians suffering dementia and addressing their care needs as they age;
The future challenges and opportunities for delivering aged care services in the context of changing demographics, including in remote, rural and regional Australia;
Any other matters that the Royal Commission considers necessary.
Interview with Jonesy and Amanda, WSFM Pure Gold
14 September 2018
AMANDA KELLER: Scott Morrison, good morning, are you still Prime Minister?
PRIME MINISTER: I can confirm.
KELLER: Excellent and welcome to the show.
PRIME MINISTER: Hey Amanda, how are you?
KELLER: I’m very well thank you. Now Jonesy has been boasting.
BRENDAN JONES: Not boasting, not boasting.
KELLER: That he is you best friend and he bought you chips and therefore he is on easy street now that you’re Prime Minister.
[Laughter]
PRIME MINISTER: He did get Lilly and I a bucket of chips at the last game of the season that I was able to get to. Yeah so mate, if you’re coming tonight, I owe you a bucket of chips. Happy to return to favour.
JONES: Well you know, it’s so confusing now because I can’t call you ‘ScoMo’ anymore, you know what I mean?
PRIME MINISTER: Yes you can.
JONES: Really?
PRIME MINISTER: Of course you can.
KELLER: Mr ScoMo, please.
JONES: I’ll just tell you, the weird thing was we were at that game and you gave me no indication, and I truly believe that you had no idea what was about to happen with Malcolm.
PRIME MINISTER: Correct.
JONES: All of a sudden, boom, almost within 24 hours, you are the Prime Minister of the country. I just find that extraordinary.
PRIME MINISTER: Well it was an extraordinary week. That’s exactly the situation Jonesy, but when you find yourself in those situations and people look to you, you’ve got to step up. That’s what I’ve done.
The last three weeks we’ve just been hard at work on pulling the team back together, getting the focus back where it needs to be. As you know the first place I went was up to Western Queensland to talk to farmers about the drought. I’ve been right up in North Queensland, from Cairns and down to Townsville. In Townsville, we announced a big project up there to get the port moving.
So we’ve just been getting on with it as fast and as quickly as we can. Sure, there’s going to be a bit of water that is still going to go under the bridge, a bit of dirty water under the bridge. But look, that’s just how things are, and the Parliament was quite straightforward this week. We all turned up, we won all the votes and people just got on with it. That’s what I’m focused on doing.
KELLER: Can I ask you this, secret squirrel, hand on heart – did you, have you secretly always wanted to be Prime Minister? Like, does everyone secretly want to be Prime Minister?
PRIME MINISTER: Anyone who goes into the House of Representatives hopes to serve at the highest level they can, that’s true. Anyone who tells you differently, I don’t think is being very up front with you. But the question is how do you end up in that job? In my case, it was quite an extraordinary series of events but I wasn’t seeking to change the leadership as everyone knows, I stood very strongly with Malcolm. But the Party formed a different view, so then they turned to me and I took up the call.
So what matters is all our people stop talking about themselves and each other and we’re absolutely focused on what the public want; that’s the price of their mortgage, the price of their electricity, it’s the drought, all of these issues. That’s where my head is, I’m a mortgage-belt Liberal.
KELLER: Can I ask you, can you partake in a joke with me that I heard during the week that made me laugh?
PRIME MINISTER: Yeah.
KELLER: Knock knock.
PRIME MINISTER: Who’s there?
KELLER: Peter.
PRIME MINISTER: Peter who?
KELLER: Scott Morrison. That sort of summed up the entire week!
JONES: This is Amanda’s material.
KELLER: Don’t you think?
JONES: ScoMo has been elevated now, he can hang us for treason.
[Laughter]
KELLER: No, we’re his chip friends.
JONES: No I’m his chip friend, not you.
[Laughter]
PRIME MINISTER: Chip buddy.
JONES: Chip buddy, are you getting the cool stuff now you’re the PM? Are you getting the green light corridor, have you got that yet?
PRIME MINISTER: Well they’ve got to sort of come around you and you get the same security that turns up when you go into a job like this. That happened to me many years ago when I was the Immigration Minister and we had to live with that. With the girls, that’s a bit of a change for the family and they’ve been really good. So at the footy, there’s a few extra seats I have to account for now, when I come. As you know when I go along it’d just be me and Lilly or friends and we’d sit there and have a great time.
JONES: Sure.
PRIME MINISTER: But that won’t change, you know how much I love going and doing that. I’m going to love going out there tonight with my daughter, she’ll have her flag all ready to go tonight and looking forward to a really good game. We’re going to miss Wade Graham though I reckon.
JONES: And Josh Dugan is out as well.
PRIME MINISTER: Yep, Josh is out, but the strength of the Sharks has that they’ve always had other who are going to step up into those roles. That’s what they’ll be doing and I’m sure that Flanno will have them raring to go.
JONES: Well I’m buying hot chips for everyone mate, I’m not made of hot chips.
[Laughter]
KELLER: Not for security people.
JONES: And have you been to the footy stadium? It costs a fortune, hot chips, it’s like about $50 a cup.
PRIME MINISTER: Well that’s why I’ve got to buy you one tonight mate, if you’re coming? There you go, I’ll return the favour.
JONES: I might bring my crew.
[Laughter]
KELLER: Jonesy’s security.
PRIME MINISTER: The Jonesy posse.
JONES: The Jonesy posse. Well, it’s always great to talk to you. You’re doing a great job
PRIME MINISTER: Thanks mate.
JONES: Stay in it! Because I’ve never really been on first name basis with a Prime Minister.
KELLER: No and you’ll have to move out of the Shire now?
JONES: Yeah, are you going to move out of the Shire?
PRIME MINISTER: Well we’re looking at that at the moment, it’s not something we really thought much about. The girls go to school locally and they’ll continue to do that and that’s really important. Jen is keeping family life very much the same. But I’ve got to tell you, I don’t know whether you saw that ACA interview where Jenny and I were interviewed and she said she wished I was a plumber.
[Laughter]
PRIME MINISTER: I bumped into our plumber down at Cronulla Mall on Sunday, Warren and he looked at me and said; “Hey ScoMo, Jenny likes plumbers,” and he put his thumbs up.
[Laughter]
KELLER: I think maybe you should be moving.
[Laughter]
PRIME MINISTER: So on that note, we’ll get the removal vans in this afternoon.
[Laughter]
JONES: Get the plumber doing spadework mate, because –
PRIME MINISTER: He’s a good plumber too, I’ve got to say and much better him doing it than me.
JONES: He probably makes more money than you as well, they make a fortune.
PRIME MINISTER: They do well, they work hard so good for them.
KELLER: Alright well Prime Minister, please keep the Party in check. Please as you say, get them to focus on the country and not themselves.
PRIME MINISTER: Will do, absolutely. Absolutely will do that and we’ve got Dave Sharma who’s been selected as the Liberal candidate in Wentworth last night and he’s a great guy. He’s a former Australian ambassador to Israel and he’s got a lot of experience. He’s actually got three daughters, but two of them the same age as mine. I think he’s going to do a great job there. As people know, I’ve always wanted to see more women in Parliament and more women winning Logies too, Amanda.
KELLER: I know and I appreciate you backing me in for that. I didn’t even buy you any chips.
PRIME MINISTER: But you know, you’ve always got to pick the best candidate.
JONES: Exactly.
PRIME MINISTER: That’s how we do things and I think Dave’s going to do a great job.
JONES: Good on you.
PRIME MINISTER: Thanks for having me on. You going to be there tonight Jonesy?
JONES: I’m there, I’m a bit nervous, I’m wearing my lucky wristband. It’s all there.
PRIME MINISTER: Excellent. Well I’ll send you a text and mate, come round and I’ll buy you those chips.
JONES: Really?
KELLER: The Milky Bars are on the Prime Minister today.
JONES: Prime Minister Scott Morrison, or Prime Minister ScoMo, thank you.
PRIME MINISTER: Thanks guys.