Media Releases
Sulawesi Earthquake and Tsunami Assistance
3 October 2018
Prime Minister, Minister for Foreign Affairs, Minister for Defence
Australia will provide an additional $5 million package of humanitarian assistance to support the Government of Indonesia and humanitarian partners to respond to the devastating earthquake and tsunami in Central Sulawesi.
This follows the Prime Minister’s announcement of an initial $500,000 to the Indonesian Red Cross for food and essential relief items such as blankets and tarpaulins.
The additional funding to the UN and local humanitarian partners will provide temporary shelter, access to safe drinking water and health care for injured and displaced people.
Australia is planning to deploy a medical team and is currently working with the Government of Indonesia to determine where this will be best deployed to support relief efforts.
Australia is also in a position to provide humanitarian emergency relief supplies including shelter, water and hygiene kits.
Australia has offered Australian Defence Force assets to assist the Indonesian Government with their response.
The remoteness of the area and loss of communications infrastructure continues to make it difficult for Indonesian authorities to assess the full scale of the disaster at this stage.
The Australian Government stands with the Indonesian Government in offering support to the people of Indonesia affected by this tragedy.
Doorstop - Guildford, WA
2 October 2018
PRIME MINISTER: Well, it’s great to be here at People Who Care with people who care. It’s a tremendous organisation and does a great job, not just in supporting senior Australians here in WA and Perth in particular, but it’s supporting Australians right across the aged spectrum, from homelessness services, right through the many needs that exist, work for the dole groups and so on. So, it’s great to be here Ken in your electorate, you're very familiar with the work that they do.
Before I sort of talk about the issue I’ve come here to talk about today, I would just like to say in relation to Indonesia, we have over 840 people who are confirmed dead in this terrible, shocking disaster that we've seen in Sulawesi. This is a very remote part of the country. I've been in regular contact with the Foreign Minister about this issue. We have several million, potentially, people that will be affected by this crisis. We've got many people who are injured. We've got a lot of people working in a very dangerous situation, not just because of the physical conditions, but obviously the risk of disease and these sorts of things. It's a very, very significant crisis.
The Australian Government has already provided $500,000 of support immediately, through the Indonesian Red Cross and that's to support the most obvious emergency aid needs, tarpaulins, things of that nature. But our ambassador has been working closely with the Indonesian Government to be looking at a second round of support. We're currently working together with them on that now and we'll have more to say about that when some decisions have been made. But that's being done consultatively and cooperatively with the Indonesian Government. Australia has some expertise, it has some resources in particular areas where it can deploy and we're looking to see how best we can fit the need, to ensure we can do whatever we can to support our Indonesian friends and neighbours in this time of very genuine need.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, is that boots on the ground, not financial aid?
PRIME MINISTER: I'll have more to say once the arrangements are settled. I don't want to get ahead of ourselves here. We're still working through some of those details and once they have been confirmed, then I will be in a position to announce soon.
JOURNALIST: Is that likely to be today? Given the urgency of the situation –
PRIME MINISTER: Well the sort of responses we're going to be making won’t just deal with what is needed right, today, but also over some period of time as well. So I'll leave it until I think those arrangements have been confirmed.
But on a more positive note, I should say it’s great to be here to announce that the Commonwealth Government, our Government is providing $50 million a year for the next two years, $100 million to support the Commonwealth Home Support program. This is a program, that as you can see from the people we've just been meeting outside, enables them to have the choice to stay in their home for longer. It's the entry-level level – if you like - of support for senior Australians. It deals with everything from meals to transport, to domestic help, to help around the house and in the garden and these sorts of things and it means senior Australians have those choices. Now there are many other needs that are necessary to fulfil. Our support for in-home care places, 20,000 announced between the last half-year update and the most recent Budget. The work we're doing to deliver that on the ground, which is the next level of care which enables Australians to stay home for longer. This is about allowing senior Australians to age with dignity, with choice, with independence and to be able to live the life that they want to live; surrounded by their friends, family and community and to stay connected.
People Who Care are an important part of delivering those services here in Hasluck, in Ken’s community, but there are just so many other providers. Well over 800,000 senior Australians benefit from the Commonwealth Home Support program. I know from my own family's case many years ago, when my elderly relatives had support from that program, it does give them choices. So we’re very pleased to make that support available. The decision was taken in the Budget this year for announcement and we're announcing that today. I particularly want to commend Ken on the great work he's done here, in looking across the range of needs that are essential to deliver for senior Australians. Whether it's how they want to continue their education or how they want to continue their work opportunities or how they can remain connected in their community. These quite specific level service needs that are delivered through this program, or indeed the more advanced care needs in the residential aged care sector. Of course you know we've announced we’ll be holding a Royal Commission into that sector. I'll have more on that in the not too distant future as we seek the terms of reference and the Commissioners.
But none of this wouldn't be possible without a strong economy. That’s why we can invest in these services, ensuring also that the State Government here has the support they need. Our GST package, our GST reform, our changes; $4.7 billion extra for Western Australia, but every single state and territory is better off with a more than a billion-dollar a year guarantee, not just out over that next eight years, but into the future and indexed. That's the guarantee that demonstrates that all states and territories are better off under that arrangement.
As I said yesterday, we'll be legislating that when we come back to the parliament in a few weeks’ time. That is a decision of the Australian Parliament, it doesn't need the agreement of the states and territories for that to proceed. There's a meeting happening tomorrow, where I'm sure those details will be discussed. But we appreciate those states that have been working with us and the work has demonstrated once again, as the Productivity Commission showed, all states and territories are better off.
So Ken, tell as more about People Who Care, from someone who I know cares very much.
THE HON KEN WYATT MP, MINISTER FOR SENIOR AUSTRALIANS AND AGED CARE: Thank you very much Prime Minister. What we see is the translation of policy and budgetary commitment at the national level, translate down into the community, where people who live within this community receive the benefits that are derived from our Budget commitments. We see is senior Australians out there this morning who received ramps in their homes, they have railings put in, they have someone who delivers meals to them. If you’re up in Kalamunda, the nuts that fall on their driveways are swept off those driveways to make it safe for them. It’s about social connectedness. It is about having somebody who connects with you at least once or twice a week, provides you with meals, but also checks on you.
Commonwealth programs are there for all senior Australians. Right across Australia I’ve seen outstanding delivery by organisations like People Who Care, who take that little bit of extra time to provide the level of support, to enable people to live at home much longer. It's a great initiative by our Government.
PRIME MINISTER: Thank you, Ken. Happy to take questions, why don’t we talk about questions about the things I've raised and then if there are other issues, happy to do that.
JOURNALIST: Is it new money Prime Minister? Are we talking new money here?
PRIME MINISTER: Yeah it was, the new money was created in the Budget, so $50 million for two years, $100 million in total. That’s over and above what was already being spent on the program and overall we are spending billions in this area. In aged care in particular we're spending $1 billion extra, every year.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister on aged care, COTA is calling on the Government to provide 30,000 more high-level home care packages over the next financial year. Is that something the Government will consider?
PRIME MINISTER: Well we’ve already provided 20,000 extra in the last 12 months, in the last two Budget updates; the Budget update before that. It's an over 80 per cent increase over the next four years, particularly in the level of higher care places. Now, we know that that need is growing and that demand is increasing and it's an area of priority for the Government. But obviously these things have to be paid for. What we are doing is managing with the other places that we have, while people mightn't be able to get the highest care level place initially, then they might be able to move into a lower level of care package and then graduate to the others. But it is a priority for our Government to increase the number of in-home care places that are available and wherever we can do that in the future, beyond what we've done, then we will.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister just on GST? Two issues, first you’ve got Bill Shorten holding out, that he might not support parts of the package –
PRIME MINISTER: So, the crab walk begins.
JOURNALIST: What do you say to that? You’ve also got the states including your home state of New South Wales raising some concerns about it, what do you say to them?
PRIME MINISTER: Well Mark McGowan and I are on a unity ticket when it comes to the GST changes. But it seems the Labor Party is not on a unity ticket when it comes to this issue.
He said he was and now, when I’ve sent him the legislation, which he received yesterday, Bill Shorten, the crab walk seems to be starting from him, when it comes to the fairer deal on the GST that WA deserves. The package we put together leaves all states and territories better off. Now that is a matter for the Commonwealth Parliament to determine. It's not a matter that will be determined through the Council of Financial Federal Relations or any other state and territory or Commonwealth arrangement. This is a matter directly for the Commonwealth Parliament.
So the only person standing between a fairer deal for GST and Western Australia, is Bill Shorten.
JOURNALIST: Nevertheless, your home said New South Wales seems to have concerns about it?
PRIME MINISTER: No, I’ve spoken to Dom Perrottet many times about this, Dom’s broader point is that New South Wales, like Western Australia, has been a donor state for a long period of time and he's keen to see other states match their reforms and their changes. I think Dom makes some good points about that, but New South Wales hasn't raised concerns about the overall package. They've raised more concerns about other states catching up to their level of economic leadership.
JOURNALIST: Are you saying it can’t be derailed?
PRIME MINISTER: The only person who can derail the better, fairer deal for WA, is Bill Shorten. If Bill Shorten supports the legislation I sent to him yesterday, it is done.
JOURNALIST: But if you can't get it through to the Parliament, what will you do?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, Bill Shorten will have to explain that to the people of WA and I’ll take it to the election.
JOURNALIST: Are you worried about the downturn in house prices when combined with huge household debts? Is that a ticking time bomb for the economy?
PRIME MINISTER: On the housing market, as the Treasurer has explained, we've had a soft landing in the housing market to date and that has been welcome, that it has only been a soft landing. I mean particularly specially in Sydney and Melbourne, house prices were running very hot. I mean Sydney house prices at one time were running at about 18 per cent growth a year. In Perth, you all know that's not been happening here. Adelaide and other parts of the country, the housing market has performed very differently from what it has in Sydney and Melbourne. It was in those markets that was really driving up the increased levels of debt and that's why as a Government, we took the decision and then it was enacted through the actions of the regulator, to constrain interest-only loans and some other changes that were made that basically ensured that the housing market had a soft landing.
What I'm worried about is that if the Labor Party were able to increase the taxes on housing through abolishing negative gearing as we know it, increasing the Capital Gains Tax on housing by 50 per cent, then that's when you would have a serious impact on the housing market, well beyond what we've seen today. For all those hundreds of thousands, millions of Australians actually who own investment properties, even the ones you own, they’ll be impacted by the effect on the housing market and the effect on housing values - where small businesses effectively have their superannuation in investment properties, locked up in that - Labor's increased taxes on housing will have a very negative impact on the Australian housing market. It will negate the sort of improvements that we’re seeing in other states like Western Australia, as the Western Australian economy rebounds. In the other states, it is a real threat to the savings of mums and dads who have worked hard to get themselves an investment property to ensure that in the future, their finances can be more secure. So that's what worries me about what's happening in the housing market; the prospect of a Labor government will have serious consequences for the savings and the biggest asset that most, if not all Australians own, their home.
JOURNALIST: The newly-named captain of the Australian Rugby League team has been charged with drink driving and speeding. Do you expect more from an Australian captain?
PRIME MINISTER: Sorry, do I … ?
JOURNALIST: Do you expect more from an Australia captain.
PRIME MINISTER: I love my NRL and I’m happy to leave the running of the NRL to the NRL.
JOURNALIST: Yes, but –
PRIME MINISTER: I’ve got lots of views you know, I’m not a big fan of the bunker either in the NRL, but nevertheless, they pick the teams, they make the choices and I don't think it's helpful for a Prime Minister to be engaged in that. I'm sure the NRL will manage these issues appropriately.
JOURNALIST: Petrol prices in Perth are at an all-time high, you mentioned the ACCC yesterday does have the power to take action?
PRIME MINISTER: They do.
JOURNALIST: Do you know why they haven't and will you push them to take action?
PRIME MINISTER: Well they’re an independent authority, the ACCC. They are an independent cop on the beat and because they're independent, that means the Government isn't in a position to direct them in the way that your question asks. So I expect the independent cop on the beat to do their job where there illegal activity occurring. We've given them increased powers and resources to address this and I expect Rod Simms and his team – who I’ve got a lot of respect for – to be out there doing their job on this one.
JOURNALIST: What do you think about Labor’s push to increase the Royal Commission into banks, claiming not enough victims have given evidence? Is this just political?
PRIME MINISTER: I think Bill Shorten is already getting caught out on this. I mean it seems that the only reason Bill Shorten wanted a Royal Commission into the banks, was to play politics with it. I mean he's basically attacking the independence of the Royal Commissioner. I think he’s acting very recklessly in calling into question the actions of the Royal Commissioner. I mean he's an independent Royal Commissioner, let him do his job. I think it's an insult to all staff of the Royal Commission, who have pored over the 9,000 submissions they have received. You can see quite clearly in the interim report that been released by Commissioner Hayne that all of these issues that have been raised in these submissions have been taken up in what they're finding. There have been a number of people who have had the opportunity to appear, but everyone who has made a submission to that inquiry, has had the total respect given to that submission by it being fully considered by the Royal Commissioner.
So you know, Bill Shorten, he’s got to stop playing politics with everything. We have a Royal Commission into the banking and finance industry. Now what you don’t do is go out there and attack the Royal Commissioner's independence and start trying to second-guess him and tell him how he should be doing his job. That's not what I'm doing, I didn't do it as Treasurer.
I initiated this Royal Commission as Treasurer and I want to see it do its job, free from political interference and free from political grandstanding. Bill Shorten needs to respect the Royal Commission and allow it to do its’ job.
What we've been doing while the Royal Commission has been going on, is to ensure we do our job; that is to increase the penalties that are out there for those who do the wrong thing in the banking industry. We've increased the authority for APRA, the banking regulator, to be able to throw banking executives out of the industry. Those laws have already been passed. We've increased the powers for ASIC. We've ensured that we now have a Deputy Commissioner of ASIC, the corporate watchdog, whose job is to prosecute those who do the wrong thing. As you saw in the interim report, that was one of the key issues that was raised by the Royal Commissioner.
So my message to Bill Shorten is stop playing politics with a Royal Commission that is supposed to be independent. Respect the Royal Commissioner and his independence and respect the hard work of the Royal Commission staff who are doing their job. To suggest they have been ignoring the submissions that have been provided to the Royal Commission I think is offensive. I think Bill Shorten should apologise to the staff of the Royal Commission for suggesting they haven't been doing their job properly. Stop the politics, Bill.
Thank you.
Interview with Gillian O'Shaughnessy, ABC Perth
2 October 2018
GILLIAN O’SHAUGHNESSY: Prime Minister Scott Morrison, welcome to ABC Perth.
PRIME MINISTER: G’day.
O’SHAUGHNESSY: You’re announcing $100 million for seniors this morning, is this a distraction from the aged care royal commission Prime Minister?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, I initiated the aged care Royal Commission and I’m pleased that it’s going ahead. We’ll have a bit more to say about that and the terms of reference and the Commissioner soon. I think it’s very important that we have that residential aged care royal commission, which looks at in-home care as well as looking at young Australians living in an aged care setting with disabilities as well. So that will be a wide-ranging inquiry and I’ll have a bit more to say about that soon.
But today, we’re extending further the support we provide under the Commonwealth Home Support program. That does everything from meals, transport, home maintenance, home modifications, supporting the choices of Australians to remain in their homes for longer, which more Australians are doing. We’ve also backed it up with the increase in in-home care places in the last Budget and the mid-year statement before that.
O’SHAUGHNESSY: When would the money start to flow Prime Minister?
PRIME MINISTER: Well this money starts in the next financial year, from January 19th, so that’s the 2018/19 year. This was announced as part of this year’s Budget.
O’SHAUGHNESSY: Can we look at this then, essentially an election promise, given how close we are?
PRIME MINISTER: It’s not a promise, it’s actually money. It’s going to flow, it’s happening, it’s our Government doing things that were in our Budget. We’ve provided for it because we want to ensure that senior Australians have more choices as they age and that they can age in their own homes. So they can be home, you know, for the kids’ birthday parties and the family meals and all the things that make up a full life. We want them to have that opportunity for as long as possible.
O’SHAUGHNESSY: Prime Minister your Aged Care Minister Ken Wyatt has been hit by accusations of bullying in his office. How much does that concern you?
PRIME MINISTER: Well there’s an independent process going on with that, which is appropriate. I don’t think it’s sort of fair to prejudge that or cast aspersions. I think there’s a process, but it actually involves a member of his staff, an allegation against that member of staff. So I think it’s fair to everybody involved that the process be done independently without any suggestion one way or the other.
O’SHAUGHNESSY: Given the allegations, the wider allegations of bullying within the Liberal Party, is it not part of your role as the new leader of the Party to deal with these kinds of allegations though, directly?
PRIME MINISTER: Well the other ones you refer to are being addressed by the Party organisation. I dealt with that some weeks ago and this is a matter which is appropriately referred to the Department for a proper review and that’s how it should be done. I don’t think people should beat these things up. I think they should just wait to see what the independent process delivers and that requires you to respect all the parties in the process.
O’SHAUGHNESSY: Is that how you see allegations of bullying within the Party, as a beat up?
PRIME MINISTER: No, that’s not what I said. You were referring to the matter involving Ken Wyatt and what I’m saying is, I don’t think those matters should be beat up, or discussed particularly given there’s an independent process. Surely people that are part of this independent process should be given the respect of allowing that to be done without any conclusions being drawn.
O’SHAUGHNESSY: Prime Minister on the other royal commission, into the banks, the Labor Party has said it’s clear more time is needed. Has Kenneth Hayne asked you for an extension yet?
PRIME MINISTER: No, he hasn’t and if he asks for one, he’ll get one. I am very concerned at the way the Labor Party and Bill Shorten and Claire O’Neil are starting to really attack the Royal Commissioner here and the Royal Commission staff. I mean they have reviewed, personally, 9,000 submissions. They’ve gone through every single one of them and you can see that they’ve taken a lot from that in the interim report that they’re released. So to suggest that the Royal Commissioner and the Royal Commission staff has not been looking seriously at those submissions, I think is very disturbing. I think it really questions the independence of the Royal Commission and I think that’s very disappointing.
O’SHAUGHNESSY: Yesterday Prime Minister, you promised to legislate changes to the GST. When you announced those changes, you said legislation wasn’t needed. Why did you change your mind?
PRIME MINISTER: Well the last time I was here, I actually said I was considering legislation, when I was in Perth a few months back. I was open to that and I believe that’s the best way to move forward. I mean Bill Shorten says he’ll support the legislation, now that wasn’t the case when I first announced those measures. We announced our plan and he subsequently said he was on a unity ticket. Well, we’ll see if he is on a unity ticket. The legislation will come into the Parliament and he’ll have the opportunity to support that plan and I certainly hope he does so. I sent him the full legislation yesterday, so he’s got plenty of time to look it over. It’s exactly what I announced some months ago as Treasurer. It provides $4.7 billion specifically for Western Australia, but that’s part of a broader deal which leaves every single state and territory better off, which is the way that you need to make these changes. Because you need to deal with it nationally, not just for any one state.
So we’ve delivered the plan that others in the past have not been able to. I look forward to it getting supported by the Parliament and by the Labor Party, given they said that’s what they’d do. I mean he is the only one standing in the way now, of this deal becoming law.
O’SHAUGHNESSY: Prime Minister, I wanted to ask you about remote community funding while we’ve got you. It’s been three months now since Federal funding for remote Indigenous community housing stopped, no new agreement has been reached. I understand our Premier Mark McGowan has written to you asking the Commonwealth to contribute further funding. Can you confirm whether you’ll be doing that?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, we’re looking at that, but at the end of the day, housing is the responsibility of the state and territory governments. We’ve provided support up in the Northern Territory because there are quite specific responsibilities we have, because it’s a territory and the nature of the Commonwealth leasehold arrangements around the housing in the Northern Territory. But for states like Western Australia, like Queensland and others, they actually have the responsibility for dealing with those issues. You know, my view about the Federation is we’ve all got to do our own jobs. We’ve all got to fund our own responsibilities and just on the GST alone – I’m not talking about the $4.7 billion extra which is coming to WA under this arrangement – but on the changes we’ve made to the GST and how it deals with digital transaction and things like this – the states in total are getting $6.5 billion more than they would have otherwise got, because of the changes we made. So the states are really getting a lot of support from the changes we’ve made at the Commonwealth level, to enable them to make these investments. We’ll consider the proposal from Western Australia but ultimately it’s the West Australian Government’s responsibility to look after housing, particularly that type of housing, social housing and so on, within their state.
O’SHAUGHNESSY: The decision was made by the Abbott Government, is it one you agree with? The states should be responsible for housing?
PRIME MINISTER: Well that was a terminating agreement, there was no suggestion that agreement would go beyond the existing profile for that. The Commonwealth and the states do this quite frequently; they’ll come to agreement for a couple of years – and that was for a couple of years, it wasn’t suggested that would be a permanent arrangement – so it’s important that once those arrangements come to an end, yes you can reconsider them, but first and foremost it’s the responsibility of the state government. We keep providing them with, well, I don’t think anyone can say we haven’t been supporting Western Australia when it comes to resources. I mean the GST deal for WA is what they’ve been wanting for a decade. This enables them now to go and take up those responsibilities that they have. I’ve agreed in the past they’ve been really struggling because of the poor GST outcomes they’ve got. Well, I’ve fixed that and so that should enable them to better deal with the responsibilities that they have.
O’SHAUGHNESSY: Former Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has been doing lots of tweeting from New York. What would your advice be to him?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, to enjoy his time in New York, enjoy his time with his family and I look forward to seeing him when he comes back. I’ve been in contact with him, as many of my colleagues have and you know, he’s a good friend and I wish him all the best. I am looking forward to catching up with him and Lucy when he gets back.
O’SHAUGHNESSY: Thanks for your time Prime Minister.
PRIME MINISTER: Thanks very much, all the best.
Interview with Clairsy, Matt & Kymba - 94.5 Big Breakfast
2 October 2018
HOST: The 30th Prime Minister of Australia, Scott Morrison, welcome.
PRIME MINISTER: Well, I just thought I’d pop in, you know? I was wandering by and I saw the light on.
[Laughter]
HOST: Welcome, welcome.
HOST: Could you have brought us a coffee Scott?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, I was hoping there was one in my future, but maybe there is in yours too.
HOST: We’ll work on it, welcome to Perth mate. How are you?
PRIME MINISTER: I’m great. I mean the place is buzzing after West Coast’s win on the weekend.
HOST: It certainly is.
PRIME MINISTER: I mean grand finals are awesome –
HOST: You were there weren’t you?
PRIME MINISTER: I was there and I was barracking for West Coast. As you know I don’t follow AFL but it’s a great game and Julie was sitting behind and she was going off completely.
HOST: Yeah!
PRIME MINISTER: You know there were a lot of Western Australians there and they were having a great time. But you know, as I said to the boys yesterday when I went and saw them, it’s a massive achievement for them obviously, just as professional sportspeople and they work all their lives to achieve that. But I think the thing that always really blows them away is just what it means for the fans and the supporters.
HOST: Yeah.
PRIME MINISTER: They really see it and they go; “Gosh, we’ve really done something huge for our community.”
HOST: It changes people’s lives.
PRIME MINISTER: For the fan base, they get so excited and that’s the great thing about sport; you just forget all the other stuff going on maybe, for a little while.
HOST: Yeah.
PRIME MINISTER: You escape it a bit, that’s –
HOST: But here you are, come on mate, come up with the goods.
PRIME MINISTER: Yeah, yeah.
HOST: How is the gig working out?
PRIME MINISTER: Well look, I’m enjoying getting around and talking to a lot of people, but importantly it’s been about getting the show back on the road very, very quickly. I think we’ve done that and the focus is there, the Ministers are all getting about their tasks. We’re dealing with issues around the drought, we’re making some further announcements today around how we’re supporting people in their homes as they get older. We’re going out there with Ken Wyatt today to make some announcements there. So that’s everything from making sure they’ve got household assistance around the place, even mowing the lawn and that sort of thing. So it means they get to stay in their home for longer. We announced the Aged Care Royal Commission, we’ll be putting the terms of reference out for that fairly soon.
HOST: That independence thing is a big deal for people isn’t it?
PRIME MINISTER: It totally is. I mean, look, I’ve got elderly parents. My Mum is very healthy, I mean, Dad is not so well, but you just want them to be able to age with dignity.
HOST: Yes.
PRIME MINISTER: And with choices and the family can just sort of relate to them normally and preferably not in a residential aged care centre if you can avoid it. But if you do, you make that as accommodating as you can.
HOST: There’s currently a Royal Commission into the banking industry as well as the Royal Commission on aged care. Can we get a Royal Commission on petrol prices please? It’s like $1.64 on average in Perth today and it’s just … people can’t afford it.
PRIME MINISTER: I saw that and we’ve been seeing similar prices more recently over in the east coast as well, they’ve been there for a little longer. But there basically already is, with the ACCC. They are the cop on the beat and they do have the powers to bring actions when the prices have been gamed and not just people doing it at the pump and locally; I gave them powers when I was Treasurer so they can look back behind the pump and see what’s doing back in the head office. They get access to documents and things like this, so it’s Rod Simms job, he’s the cop on the beat. So I’ll be expecting him to do that job.
HOST: Now, Prime Minister welcome firstly and of course, it’s been a weird kind of decade, let’s be honest.
[Laughter]
PRIME MINISTER: It’s been a weird bit of gear.
HOST: Yeah, now you said yourself last year that the electorate was infected with entrenched cynicism etcetera, that’s all true. So here you are, you’re blank sheet of paper in terms of how people view you, but you come from a marketing background. What can you tell me? Lie to me, give me something.
[Laughter]
HOST: What?
HOST: Hang on, that’s the first time ever people have openly said to a politician; “Please lie to me”.
[Laughter]
PRIME MINISTER: Well, I won’t be doing that, I can assure you of that.
HOST: All I want is a kernel of something that I can hang on to, to think we’re moving in a grown-up direction in this country.
PRIME MINISTER: Well right off the bat, I talked about making sure Australia remains strong, safe and together. But look, what I hope people understand from me is, I’m just a guy who gets it. I get it that they want their taxes to be lower and that’s why I lowered them. I get it that they want their jobs to be secure and they want the economy to be strong, not just so they can be confident about their job, but everything we do – hospitals, schools, all of this – depends on the economy being strong. That’s why I think Australians want that and I get that. You know, you can’t pay for Medicare if you can’t run an economy and you can’t run a Budget. I’ve been able to achieve that both as a Treasurer and in other portfolios and now as Prime Minister. But keeping Australians safe, that’s really important to me and whether it’s bullying in schools or it’s threats of terrorism, the Government has to work across all of these things. But the one area I’m finding people are responding really well to – and it goes to the point you were making – Australians are so over everybody fighting, about everything.
HOST: Yeah.
PRIME MINISTER: Do we really have to fight about everything? Can’t we just agree on a few things? I think that’s why people responded really well to the strawberries issue. Because they just, for once, saw well, here’s problem and we actually got it legislated in 36 hours.
HOST: Yep.
PRIME MINISTER: I was up with some strawberry farmers last week and the response – you know, I put it all down to Jen’s pavlova personally –
[Laughter]
But putting it to one side - people responded. I went to one roadside shop, you know, a fruit shop up on the Sunshine Coast. They went from what is normally 20 trays a day of selling strawberries, to 94 in one weekend. And that was just Australians going; “Yeah, we get it, we’ll turn up.”
HOST: Just putting out strawberries for the country.
PRIME MINISTER: So I’m a guy who gets it and I’m also a guy who gets it done.
HOST: Okay now, you are getting it done. You’ve got the job now and you worked closely obviously with Malcolm Turnbull and you are friends.
PRIME MINISTER: Yeah.
HOST: But in the job so far, is there one thing, one little thing or even a bigger component of the job, where you were surprised? Something you’d only know if it’s hard or easy, when you’re the PM? Is there something in the job that’s surprised you?
PRIME MINISTER: Well you know, having been a pretty senior member of the Government for the last five years, you do have a pretty direct insight into the running of the country particularly working closely with the former Prime Minister. Look, the biggest frustration is just always, whether it’s state and territory governments or, it’s just trying to get everybody to work together. That’s actually one of the biggest jobs of the Prime Minister. When you’re the Treasurer, you’re putting a Budget together –
HOST: Of course.
PRIME MINISTER: When you’re the Immigration Minister, you’re running the immigration program, you know, you’ve got line responsibilities. But as a Prime Minister, it’s your job to try to bring the whole orchestra together.
HOST: Yeah.
PRIME MINISTER: And not just your own team, but as the leader of the nation, outside of government as well. I mean for the drought at the moment, Major General Stephen Day he’s coordinating our response to the drought. One of the biggest areas he’s identified – and I know this more effects the eastern states, less here in the west. The west have been doing great and actually getting feed across to the other side of the country and thanks for that. But coordinating the charitable support, so making sure that - we don’t run that – but making sure all the charities work together so it gets to where it needs to get to. I mean one of the problems we had is, people were sending tins of food and all these sorts of things; that’s great for the farmer but then the local greengrocer and the local shop there goes broke. We want the towns to remain viable.
So that is the job, you’ve got to bring everybody together to focus on the big challenges.
HOST: Can you work with Bill Shorten?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, yeah. We did the strawberries thing the other day. But look, politics in Australia is always going to be … the Westminster system is based on there being an Opposition and a Government. So I don’t think we should be unrealistic about it, but there have been occasions where we have. But there will be other occasions where we don’t.
I certainly hope he’s going to work with me on the GST. I mean we’ve got $4.7 billion in extra support. Deserved, it’s not charity, it’s what WA deserves and has always deserved. So, I’m going to be introducing legislation when we go back, to make sure that WA GST deal sticks. He votes for it, it’s done. Ten years to 15 years, but ten years at least, this has been an issue, I recon. This is all done when we go back to Parliament, all he has to do is vote for it.
HOST: Okay alright. Scott Morrison, get out there and go and do it. You said that you get it and it’s time to go and do it. But before you go, we’ve been taking calls this morning on the little things that annoy people, that has to be just right. For Matty, he hates when people are late.
HOST: Sorry about that.
[Laughter]
HOST: You’re forgiven.
HOST: I straighten shoes and Kymba doesn’t get on a treadmill if it’s crooked. What’s the one thing that you have to get right before you leave home or work, or the office?
PRIME MINISTER: Oh you know, it’s a simple rule; pants first shoes second, that always usually works for me.
HOST: Yep, a good start.
PRIME MINISTER: If you get that right, I think you can get the rest right. But can I tell you one of the coolest things I’ve got to do over the last month? I got to meet will.i.am.
HOST: Yeah?
HOST: Oh right, the Black Eyed Peas!
PRIME MINISTER: Yeah, because they played at the Grand Final and look, I like a lot of these reality television shows, I’ve always loved the Voice. I don’t know if that breaches any sort of commercial arrangements –
HOST: No, no.
HOST: We’ll just shut you down there.
[Laughter]
PRIME MINISTER: I really like will.i.am and I was like a kid, going up and we got a selfie and all the rest of it. He was a really lovely bloke, he was a really, really nice guy and he loves, he just loves Australia too. So he was just really happy to be there. So, it’s a very serious job, I know that and I think everyone knows I do take it seriously. But every now and then, like meeting will.i.am –
HOST: Some perks.
PRIME MINISTER: It was cool.
HOST: Nice.
HOST: Good one.
PRIME MINISTER: Even for a big Tina Arena fan like me.
[Laughter]
HOST: Let’s get it started, right there, for the Black Eyed Peas. The 30th Prime Minister Scott Morrison, all the best.
PRIME MINISTER: Thanks guys, great to be here.
Interview with Jerrie Damasi, Nine News Perth
1 October 2018
JERRIE DAMASI: We cross live to the Prime Minister now. Scott Morrison is in Perth on a GST mission, vowing to lock in, as law, his Government’s proposed changes to the goods and services tax.
Mr Morrison, welcome to Nine Live Perth.
PRIME MINISTER: Hi Jerrie, good to be here.
DAMASI: Very good, firstly, let me get your opinion on this fuel hike? We just heard the average in Perth tomorrow will be almost $1.70 a litre. That’s a record high here. The ACCC says it’s price gouging, what can be done?
PRIME MINISTER: Well that is very high and we’ve seen similar outcomes over in the eastern states as well. The ACCC, if they can make the case, then they will need to bring forward some actions and that’s their job. They are the cop on the beat and when I was Treasurer, I gave them the powers to actually look not just at what was happening at the bowser but the extent to which this price-setting was happening back in the boardrooms as well. We’re still waiting for their final report on that. But they are the cop on the beat. We have given them more resources to look at these things specifically, so I’ll be looking forward to the recommendations that come from Rod Simms as to what action they propose to take as that cop.
DAMASI: Alright. Now let’s talk GST which is why you’re here in Perth. How do you plan to fix WA’s GST woes?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, back in July people will know that I made good on my promise as Treasurer to change the formula, put a floor in, increase the amount that was being put in by the Commonwealth and provide those early top-up payments over the next couple of years. Now, that’s $4.7 billion for Western Australia specifically. That means schools, that’s hospitals, that’s law and order, happening out over the next eight years. And when we come back into Parliament we’ll be introducing legislation to give effect to all of that.
So, from changing the formula and putting the floor in, to the extra investment we’re putting in to make sure that all states and territories will be better off. It wasn’t just a matter of fixing this for WA, it was about fixing this nationally and in the national interest. That’s what we were able to announce and we’ll be taking that into law when Parliament returns in a few weeks’ time.
DAMASI: Right and Prime Minister, it’s been a contentious issue in WA for a long time, is this move a bid to secure votes here?
PRIME MINISTER: This is a bid to secure a fair deal for Western Australia and to ensure the way we distribute the GST is done on a fair go principle. So it’s still supporting some of the smaller states like Tasmania and South Australia, but at the same time, recognising that states like Western Australia or indeed New South Wales or Victoria who have had a stronger economic performance, don’t get the raw end of the stick. So it is important that we have a fairer system. This is the biggest set of changes to the GST since it was first introduced all those years ago and it’s been a long process to get to this point. There’s a lot of work being done and I appreciate the patience of Western Australians as we’ve worked through this issue. From Colin Barnett to the current Premier, we’ve all been working on this for some time.
This is the fair deal that WA has been waiting for. It’s being delivered by our Government.
DAMASI: Alright Prime Minister, I understand you caught up with Julie Bishop this morning?
PRIME MINISTER: Yeah we were out at West Coast. We were just talking about the big win for the west when it comes to the GST, but also, a big win for West Coast on the weekend as well. Julie is their number one ticket holder and we went out there to see the boys today. That was a lot of fun, I mean I’m not an AFL afficionado, Julie certainly is. She was sitting just behind me at the Grand Final on the weekend and she was pretty excited, I’ve got to say and so she should be. It was a tremendous game.
DAMASI: It was fantastic. Scott Morrison thank you very much for joining us. Hope you enjoy Perth, make sure you check out the beaches.
PRIME MINISTER: Thanks very much, great to be with you.
Interview with Geof Parry, 7 News Perth
1 October 2018
GEOF PARRY: Amelia, thanks very much. Prime Minister, thanks for joining us.
PRIME MINISTER: Thanks, Geoff.
PARRY: I’ve lost count on how many stories I’ve written on the GST. Is there light at the end of the tunnel?
PRIME MINISTER: Well absolutely. There’s $4.7 billion of additional support or thereabouts for WA over the next eight years, and we’re putting it into law. We’re changing the formula, we’re legislating the floor on the system, and we’re putting additional funds in.
PARRY: The legislation is important to Western Australians, because you know the last thing they want to do is they have it sort of plucked away from them in a couple of years’ time. It’s not going to happen is it?
PRIME MINISTER: No it won’t, and that’s why we’re going to put it into law. I mean, we came up with the plan to change the system, not just provide top ups, not just provide a floor, but to change the way it was actually calculated. Change the formula, and that was the big change, and we’re going to make those changes law.
PARRY: In previous years, and we’re very familiar with this, we get whingers from other states about any attempts to change it. Why do you think that you’re going to get it through now?
PRIME MINISTER: Well we’ve got a more than a billion dollar a year guarantee. That means no state… all states and territories are better off. And so we’re making that investment so we can make the change, and so all states and territories will get more support for their hospitals, for their schools, for their police officers. So this is as good a deal as you can get, because we knew we had to invest in making the system fairer, and that means investing to ensure all states and territories are better off.
PARRY: Western Australians are pretty savvy about the GST. Is there real structural reform here?
PRIME MINISTER: Yeah there is. This is the biggest change to the GST since it was introduced, and this is why we took our time to get it right. I mean, we knew you just couldn’t do top ups and we know others were just suggesting that. The Labor Party was suggesting that. We said the formula had to change. They didn’t agree with us, but I’m pleased to hear now that they will and so they should come and support the legislation that we’ll be introducing into the Parliament in a few weeks’ time.
PARRY: This has been a very long, sad, sorry story, GST in Western Australia, over many years. Different Premiers, different Prime Ministers. Why have you pulled this off, why have you been able to pull this off?
PRIME MINISTER: Look I believe in a fair go for those who have a go, and WA has a go. You know, they’re a great entrepreneurial state, they’ve been getting the rough end of this deal for some period of time and we’ve been able to get ourselves in a position where we can right this. And the legislation will right it. The change in the formula, which is what we have championed and we’ll get this right, and I’m pleased that we can deliver it. We’re keeping our promise.
PARRY: Labor’s claiming a little bit of credit for this.
PRIME MINISTER: Well they were nowhere on this Geoff. They didn’t even want to change the formula. And I’m happy for them to play catch up and support our change, and I’m happy to work very closely with the WA Government here. It’s all about getting the right outcome and you know, when you get it right like we have, everyone wants to be part of it and that’s great.
PARRY: Prime Minister, enjoy the rest of your time in the best state in Australia.
PRIME MINISTER: Well, and congratulations to the West Coast Eagles. It was good to see the boys a little earlier. So that’s two wins - West Coast and the GST.
PARRY: Back to you Amelia.
Doorstop - Malaga, WA
1 October 2018
Prime Minister, Attorney-General
THE HON. CHRISTIAN PORTER MP, ATTORNEY GENERAL: Welcome everyone and welcome PM. PM, we’re now standing on the biggest project in the history of the Main Roads Department in WA. Over $1 billion, 80 per cent funded by the Commonwealth, in fact in one of your earlier Budgets. When this is completed, as we were informed this morning, we’ll be able to travel, or anyone in Perth, will be able to travel from the point that we’re standing on to Darwin, without a traffic light.
For my electorate, what it means, for all the good people of Ellenbrook, is that they will be able to drive in the outer suburbs of the city of Perth with 16 less traffic lights, 21 less speed changes and we get rid of two railway crossings. We estimate that that will reduce the travelling time by about 20 minutes or 50 per cent. So, for the people of my electorate, this is just an amazing project. It’s also a project which has created 5,500 direct jobs in construction. When it’s completed, it activates an entire an employment hub where the road trains assemble and disassemble. We've already had Linfox and others buy land out there, the employment has already started. So saying this project is huge is an understatement PM and you're very welcome here. Thank you very much.
PRIME MINISTER: Well thank you very much Christian. It's great to be here with the Attorney and of course the Finance Minister, Mathias Cormann and our Small Business Minister the irrepressible Michaelia Cash and Dean Smith as well as the patron Senator and Senator from Western Australia for surrounding electorates.
This is an exciting place to be. When we talk about congestion-busting, economy-growing, freight-linking infrastructure, this is what we're talking about. Our Government has been in this show for some time. As Christian was just saying, over $800 million invested in an 80-20 arrangement here and working in very good partnership, as Mathias knows, with the state Government, to deliver this important infrastructure for Western Australia.
It's great to see the Western Australian economy starting to bounce back. It's great to see the optimism. It's great to see the spirit that is here and I'm looking forward to seeing more of that over the next few days while I'm here. It's that great enterprising, entrepreneurial spirit which is the reason why I've always believed very strongly that WA needs to have its’ own fair share of GST.
It was a great win for West Coast on the weekend. But there had already been a very big win for Western Australia when it came to our Government's commitment to ensure a fairer distribution of the GST. Now, last time I was here, I said I was very open to the idea of legislating our Government's fairer GST deal. Today, we're announcing that we will be proceeding to legislate that deal when Parliament returns. I'm pleased to hear that the Leader of the Opposition says he's on a unity ticket with this. Well, we'll wait and see, I hope it's true. He says he's on a unity ticket with our plan. I'm sending the full legislation to him today and it's already been sent, I understand, to the state and territory Treasurers who are also meeting this week to consider a whole range of issues as they do from time to time.
But our GST plan is about ensuring a fairer share, to ensure the important services - the schools, the hospitals, the law enforcement, as well as the infrastructure and the other important projects - can get underway to support the strength of the West Australian economy here and all around the country. As I said, as an eastern states Member of Parliament, it's important to deal with this issue of the GST because it is a national issue. It's not just important to fix the GST for Western Australia. It's important that this system, the fair-go principle, which underpins how we distribute the GST, means a fair go, also for Western Australia, but all the states and territories. We've got a more than a $1 billion guarantee a year, ultimately in this program, which means all states and territories are better off under our plan. So that's why I'm looking forward to that plan being legislated so the certainty is there in what the Commonwealth, what the Federal Government puts in to top up the GST pool, so all states and territories are better off. So Western Australia knows that the floor on the GST is there and it's hard law. And on top of that, that the formula is changed. We were for a change to the formula. The Labor Party was against a change to the formula. We believe that the formula needed to change and our legislation will make that change law, which will give everybody the certainty they need to get on and do what they need to do at a state and territory level, to provide the essential services that all Australians rely on.
There was only one other topic that I wanted to talk briefly about today and that is the continuing worsening situation in Indonesia. This is just a terrible tragedy and as I said yesterday, I've been in direct contact with President Widodo about this. Australia stands ready to assist as is needed. But I think it's important that all of our empathy and thoughts are with them in what must be a most horrific time for them. The Foreign Minister is working closely with her counterpart in Indonesia to correspond with any assistance which is necessary. But right now I think, as a good friend of Indonesia, it's important that all Australians, I think, continue to show their strong empathy and support, which President Widodo indicated to me very clearly that they have very grateful for.
JOURNALIST: Just on the earthquake if I can pick that one up. In Aceh there was a military, a sizeable military contribution. Is that what is being considered here? Are we anywhere along the path to committing?
PRIME MINISTER: There's been no request made as yet, so we're standing ready to assist with any request that may come. But at this point, we are having some contingencies in place, but at this stage, they haven't been initiated.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, in terms of the GST, I believe back in July that you said that the legislation may not be needed. So, what's changed in that time?
PRIME MINISTER: Well back then, the Labor Party were all over the place on this issue. They didn't even support a change. I didn't want to get us into a situation where this whole process could have been disrupted by people playing political games. As you've seen in the Senate, as Mathias knows better than anyone, as Michaelia and Dean know as well, I didn't want to see the important changes we were making to the GST get disrupted by those games in Canberra.
But given the Labor Party says they're going to support our plan, well, that means that we can go forward with legislation and we can lock it in and we don't have to go through any alternative arrangements.
JOURNALIST: So is this a bit of a tactic to put pressure on the Labor Party?
PRIME MINISTER: Well there shouldn't be any pressure, he says he's on a unity ticket. So, well, let's see what he says. But if he's on a unity ticket, in my book, that means that you turn up and you vote for the unity bill.
JOURNALIST: Will it be comforting to have it off the agenda come the election time next year?
PRIME MINISTER: It’ll be comforting for Western Australians to have the certainty that they have got a legislated GST fair deal. I think that that’s something that they've been waiting a long time for. I've known that and again, I want to thank the people of Western Australia, as well as my colleagues, who when I was Treasurer, gave me the time to work through this issue. It was a long process and Western Australians were very patient as we did that. But I think their patience has been rewarded with an arrangement, a new set of mechanisms for distributing the GST, which is fair to Western Australia, but it's fair to all states and territories.
I mean, a deal does not get better than this for all states and territories when they all end up being better off as a result of the change. So we look forward to support for that legislation as it moves through the Parliament.
JOURNALIST: Just to clarify, you're legislating the floor and the allocation?
PRIME MINISTER: The floor, the allocation and the change to the formula, the transition period and how the transition period is broken up over those six years. It's the whole package I outlined back at the end of June as Treasurer, the whole package is in law.
JOURNALIST: Will you make that commitment that the package will, sort of, look the same even if you did come across any problems passing the legislation?
PRIME MINISTER: There should be no problems, Labor should support the plan. They said they were on a unity ticket with the plan. We’ve made no secret about our plan. It was set out in our response in some detail. So it's there, we are simply legislating what I announced back in June, 100 per cent.
JOURNALIST: Can we just ask you, Malcolm Turnbull has made some comments in relation to something about "ghosts”, that Tony Abbott and Kevin Rudd continue to be, haunting ghosts I think is the term he used?
PRIME MINISTER: Look, I'll leave all of the ghosts in the past I think, that's where ghosts best remain.
JOURNALIST: Including the former prime minister?
PRIME MINISTER: Look, we’ve got a new generation of leadership now in the Liberal Party, our Government has done a good job for Australia, particularly on our economy, on ensuring that essential services that Australians rely on - because of that strong economy - can be guaranteed. We're keeping Australians safe. We're keeping Australians together. That's what we're doing as a Government. That's what we've done as a Government and we'll continue to and that's where our focus is. I know others will go off on some tangents in commentary, but that's not our focus.
JOURNALIST: Would you rather that the former prime minister just zipped it? Just zipped it up?
PRIME MINISTER: Look, I talk to Malcolm quite regularly actually and we keep in touch. I was very pleased that recently he was able to represent Australia at my request, at the recent United Nations forum that I understand they were running there. So we really appreciated his involvement in that. He's shown a preparedness to continue to do things like this where there's an opportunity to do so. I want to thank him very much for continuing to serve his country in that way. I mean, he's no longer in politics, he's made that pretty clear and he's not interested in offering political commentary. But he still has a lot to offer the country and I have no doubt that he will make a big contribution in his post political career.
JOURNALIST: Should Abbott leave Parliament?
PRIME MINISTER: He's running in the next election, he's running for Warringah. He's out there right now in remote and regional Australia, working on one of the most - and in Western Australia, you know this better than most states - one of our most intractable problems we have; that is to ensure that we get and keep Indigenous kids in school. I mean, here in Western Australia, I'm visiting one of them tomorrow morning, the Clontarf program. Born and bred here in Western Australia. In fact one of our late colleagues, Don Randall along with Gerard Neesham had been very involved in the formation of the Clontarf program. That program is in high schools now in my electorate in southern Sydney and doing a tremendous job. Getting young Indigenous kids in school and keeping them in school all the way to Year 12, that's what Tony Abbott is working on, so I'm glad he's running again.
JOURNALIST: Don’t you think he’s your version of Kevin Rudd?
PRIME MINISTER: Tony Abbott is Tony Abbott's version of Tony Abbott and he's out there doing what he's passionate about and what I've asked him to do; that is to get Indigenous kids in school and keeping them in school. Come on, I mean, isn't that a great job to be doing?
JOURNALIST: From a couple of my colleagues in Canberra, Prime Minister, Queensland has received almost half of the amount of hospital funding, I think, it was announced on Friday by the Health Minister. Is that because Queenslanders are getting sicker or because you’ve got a raft of marginal seats up that way?
PRIME MINISTER: No, the health funding formula is pretty straightforward and there are reconciliations done on those from year to year, we're just following the normal process.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, you've taken responsibility for the Great Barrier Reef Foundation?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, I and my colleagues. We all –
JOURNALIST: Do you concede in hindsight that if would have been better if it, that claim, had gone through a proper tender process?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, it did go through a proper process. I want to stress this; what I’ve said about that matter is that we knew that the position in 2017/18 - Mathias Cormann and I - had improved and that gave us the opportunity to actually make the biggest investment in the future of the Reef in one go. Now, had we not taken that decision, I think it would have been a lot more difficult to do that over a number of years. So we took the right financial decision when it was brought to us that the Environment Minister at the time, Josh Frydenberg, wanted to make this investment in the reef. We worked out the best way to do that financially. Now, that's what Treasurers and Finance Ministers do. I mean you don't do it in a way which is going to blow the Budget and undermine your other fiscal objectives. Do you it in a way where you can deliver on the objective - which we are doing and have done - by making sure that we’ve made this very big investment in the future of the Reef. At the same time, doing it in a way which doesn't impair the Budget over the longer term.
So if you ask me, it seemed to be like pretty good common-sense in how you manage the finances and ensuring that is now in place to support these projects into the future.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, Mr Turnbull said that he was behind 51 to 49 in the published polls but actually ahead by four points in the internal tracking polls across all your marginal seats. What are your thoughts?
PRIME MINISTER: I expressed my views on that yesterday.
JOURNALIST: Can I ask you about the controversy over the ABC chairman? Do you think, given what happened last week, it would be appropriate to maybe consult with Labor before appointing the next Chairman?
PRIME MINISTER: No. There's a process for appointing chairs and board members to the ABC. We'll follow that process. The elected Government makes appointments to these boards. I'm sure if they have suggestions, they'll make them, but the Government runs that process.
As I said on the weekend, the ABC has got to stop talking about itself and get back to work and do its job. That's what people expect of them and I think when it comes to the issues that are really of burning interests to Australians, it's the drought, it's jobs, it's electricity prices. It's all of these things. That's what they're focused on.
You know, the ABC is a very important institution, but frankly there are a lot of other issues out there that I think are really burning through kitchen tables as topics of conversation, than that one.
JOURNALIST: Perhaps another one from my Canberra colleagues about resistance to antibiotics? What is the Government doing to manage patients who are resistant to antibiotics?
PRIME MINISTER: Yeah, I think that they can take that up with Greg, I'm sure that he’ll give him an adequate response.
JOURNALIST: Are you going to hang around, there's a parade for the Eagles sometime this week. Does your agenda fit into that?
[Laughter]
PRIME MINISTER: Look, I'll let them celebrate their win. They've had a great win. I was there on the weekend and you know, it says something, doesn't it? You can be behind in the first quarter by a fair way.
[Laughter]
But what matters is where you are when the siren sounds! Even if that means that you've got to put in a pretty amazing kick from right on the boundary line there, that was an amazing kick, I've got to say. I mean West Coast missed a few that they probably should have got a lot easier, but to kick that one from that boundary, was an extraordinary effort.
So it just goes to show that when you have someone who is in front of you and they think they've got it all sewn up, you never know, do you?
JOURNALIST: So are you Dom Sheed or Adam Simpson in your team?
PRIME MINISTER: I don't look like either of them, as you can see, plainly. But I thought it was a great game on the weekend. You know, I'm not an AFL fan - I mean, I appreciate the game - I was there to see the Roosters knock over the Storm last night and that was another great contest. We've had the women's codes as well having their grand finals and the Broncos won that game against the Roosters in the NRL. So it's great to see. This is a great time of sport for Australia. I hope everyone is enjoying it, as I said at the North Melbourne breakfast. You know, with these things, Australians can just sort of forget what's going on for them right at that moment, when they get taken up in the game or the contest that they're interested in. They can forget their daily cares maybe just for a little while, get caught up in the moment. So if you're going out to the parade, enjoy it. Have a great time. I think it's part of the resilience and I think the great recovery and resurgence we're going to see here in the west, not just when it comes to football, but when it comes to the economy and the state really coming back strong.
JOURNALIST: And Cronk, were you impressed with his performance?
PRIME MINISTER: He was a real general last night, Cooper and he showed a lot of courage. I think as one of the papers said, they were the icebergs last night, like the Bondi icebergs down there at Bondi Beach. They were a clinical outfit and they did an extraordinary job, it was quite a display. I don't think anyone would have beaten them, even my Sharks wouldn't have beaten them last night.
Great, thanks very much, good to be here.
Legislating a Fairer Way to Distribute the GST
1 October 2018
Prime Minister, Treasurer
The Liberal and Nationals Government will legislate a fairer and more sustainable GST deal for everyone.
As the Productivity Commission outlined, the effects of the mining boom created extraordinary volatility in the GST distribution that tested community confidence in the system.
To address these shortcomings we announced our intention to:
Introduce a new Horizontal Fiscal Equalisation (HFE) benchmark
Introduce a permanent in-system GST relativity floor
Provide transitional assistance
All states and territories will be better off under these changes with an additional $9 billion over the next ten years. This is on top of the extra $6.5 billion in GST revenue our government will deliver states and territories to 2021-22 as a result of policy decisions taken since the 2015-16 Budget.
Unfortunately it became clear some states intend to grandstand and play politics on this issue, including in the lead up to this week’s scheduled meeting of the Council on Federal Financial Relations.
We will now introduce legislation that locks these reforms into place, providing the certainty needed for the new GST distribution system. It prevents the system becoming a political football.
The Government is not going to get into running multiple GST arrangements. The new system is fairer and because of the $9 billion over the next ten years in additional contributions by the Federal Government, all states and territories benefit.
These changes are overdue, and it’s time we lock them in. Our government’s position is clear.
Both the Commonwealth Grants Commission Act 1973 and the Federal Financial Relations Act 2009 will be amended, with legislation introduced as a priority.
Our government’s reforms to be legislated will deliver a fairer GST system that leaves every state and territory better off.
Interview with Barrie Cassidy, ABC Insiders
20 September 2018
BARRIE CASSIDY: Prime Minister, thank you for joining us in the studio.
PRIME MINISTER: Thanks, Barrie. Commiserations yesterday but it was a great spectacle and well done West Coast.
CASSIDY: Thank you for that, doesn't help. On the Royal Commission, recommendations still to come of course, but Labor says extra time and they're talking about that because they want the Royal Commission to consult with the banking sector and with the victims before the reforms are made.
PRIME MINISTER: Well, it's an independent Royal Commission. I'm not going to lecture the Royal Commissioner about how they should do their job. The Royal Commissioner Hayne has made a number of comments about this. He is, I think, trying to very carefully balance ensuring that he gets to the issues - and I think he's been doing a very good job at that - over 9,000 submissions and pieces of communication and all of that has been gone over by the Royal Commission in coming to their views to where they've expressed them today. But he's also highlighted the need to deal with these issues to ensure that you can maintain stability and confidence in the economy and the banking system and so on. So he's trying to balance those issues up. So I'm going to be more inclined, frankly, to trust the judgement of Commissioner Hayne, who clearly has no barrow to push here other than the interests of all those he's listening to and working for, in conducting this inquiry. Rather than, frankly, the political commentary.
CASSIDY: But if you see a problem, though, you don't rely on the Royal Commission to take the initiative. You can do that, as the Government?
PRIME MINISTER: The Royal Commissioner has not yet said that they need any extra time.
CASSIDY: No but that’s the point. Why do you need the Royal Commissioner to do so?
PRIME MINISTER: Because it's an independent Royal Commission.
CASSIDY: Yeah but they've raised a separate issue here about maybe the Royal Commission should be consulting before the recommendations, consulting with the banking sector.
PRIME MINISTER: Well they are.
CASSIDY: They're grilling the banking sector, they’re not exactly consulting with them about reforms.
PRIME MINISTER: I don’t think that a Royal Commission is set up to give a leave pass to the banks. A Royal Commission is called to ensure that they interrogate into the conduct and misconduct of the banks. And you know, there is a process here where they make recommendations and then there's a process for the Government and we've already stood up a group within Treasury that had happened while I was there to deal with any of the recommendations of the Royal Commission. But at the end of the day, I don't want politics to drive this. The Royal Commissioner is in charge of the Royal Commission. And if the Royal Commissioner needs further time, then they will get it. They will absolutely get it.
CASSIDY: What about the separate issue though that there were more than 9,000 submissions and only 27 of them actually got an opportunity to tell their stories?
PRIME MINISTER: All of the submissions have been carefully considered, is my advice by the Royal Commission. And they've looked at every single one of them and you can see that in the reflections that I think Commissioner Hayne has made. I mean, I think he's made some very insightful observations at this point and I think he'll deliver some excellent recommendations. But at the same time, what I think he's done is highlighted the areas of concern where the Government has already been taking action for the last two or three years here.
CASSIDY: Around the regulators?
PRIME MINISTER: Well not only the regulators but issues of accountability. I mean, the legislation we introduced to allow APRA, one of the regulators, and that's a very clear message from me at that time to the regulators, we expect you to be regulating and not just working with the sector. But on ASIC, we have a new chairman in James Shipton. We’ve got Dan Crennan in there as the deputy commissioner, and his job is to prosecute.
CASSIDY: It wasn't so long ago that you said that the banking sector is a well regulated sector.
PRIME MINISTER: Well it is a well regulated sector and we’ve well regulated it.
CASSIDY: That's not what the Royal Commissioner has said in the interim report.
PRIME MINISTER: Well better regulating...
CASSIDY: They’re not doing their job.
PRIME MINISTER: Kicking banking executives out of the banking industry when they've been doing the wrong thing is the regulation that I introduced and passed through the Parliament. That's good regulation and APRA needed to increase its attention on those sorts of duties. Now ASIC, I think, has been found wanting and I'm glad we've made the change in ASIC in its leadership, I’m glad that we’ve got James Shipton in there, I’m glad that we’ve increased its powers, its penalties, its resources and in particular its focus on prosecution with Dan Crennan in there as, effectively, the chief prosecutor.
CASSIDY: But it looks as if nobody is going to jail over anything here.
PRIME MINISTER: Well let’s wait and see. I mean, that's the job of ASIC. It’s ASIC’s job, and this is why…
CASSIDY: ASIC has been shy in that regard.
PRIME MINISTER: Well I think that has been the finding and that's why we've already taken the decision, Barrie, to put someone like Dan in there, as the deputy commissioner, with the job of going to court.
CASSIDY: Before we go on to other issues, this disaster in Indonesia, both the earthquake and the tsunami. Once everything is known about this, the numbers, the death toll could be horrific?
PRIME MINISTER: It is horrifying and I've been in direct contact with President Widodo overnight and expressed Australia's deep sympathies and concerns and our readiness to stand with them and support them as needed. They haven't asked for any of that, but the President was very appreciative of Australians' empathy. But the numbers at the moment, I understand, well over 400 deceased and over 500 very seriously injured. But it's the remote parts of the country and the next challenge will be, as you know, when you have these disasters, that it can compound very quickly, and so, providing support, as needed, to secure the scene and make sure that issues do not deteriorate further, I think will be a very big challenge. But I know that President Widodo will be taking a very direct and close interest in how these issues are managed and if he needs our help, he'll have it.
CASSIDY: On the economy, the forecast at the moment for 2019-20 is a wafer-thin surplus, but a surplus of $2 billion. It’s looking like it’ll be better than that now?
PRIME MINISTER: No I don’t… look we'll wait and see what it says in MYEFO. But we haven't changed, I haven’t changed my view about when we will return to balance. I mean, the 2017-18 year we knew was going to be better, it's down to the best result we've seen in a decade on the underlying cash balance and that's down around $10 billion and that's down from almost $40 billion in what I inherited as Treasurer. So look, I'm pleased to see that we're on the right path, we’re getting there as we said we would, but we'll continue to make the decisions that are necessary to make sure we continue to land it. And that's basically why, Barrie, our Triple A credit rating was taken off negative watch because we said we did what we said we would do.
CASSIDY: Yeah and with the revenue now coming in, do you still commit to matching all spending with corresponding savings?
PRIME MINISTER: That's the Budget rules.
CASSIDY: That is the discipline but will you commit to it?
PRIME MINISTER: That is the Budget rules, our Budget rules remain Barrie.
CASSIDY: So you'll continue to adhere by that principle?
PRIME MINISTER: Yeah we do. But as with those rules in the past, where there are exceptions to those rules, the Government reserves the right to exercise that discretion, but they are the rules. When Ministers bring forward proposals, they are required to bring them forward with offsets.
CASSIDY: Ok so you've got this revenue coming in, you’ve got a growth rate of 3.4%. Jobs are strong. All of this is Malcolm Turnbull's legacy.
PRIME MINISTER: This is our Government's legacy.
CASSIDY: It's Malcolm Turnbull's legacy. And I'll ask again - why would you sack a leader with a record like that?
PRIME MINISTER: Well Barrie, I've been part of this Government for five years. I've been on the ERC for four of the five.
CASSIDY: Not the leader.
PRIME MINISTER: I know, I was the Treasurer.
CASSIDY: Malcolm Turnbull was the leader.
PRIME MINISTER: This is a Coalition Government. We've stopped the boats, we've balanced the Budget, we're driving the economy forward. We’ve got unemployment for young people down to 11.2%, the strongest it's been in years. This is our Government. Yes, we've had three leaders over that period of time and I'm proud to have served in all of that period of Government. I acknowledge Malcolm, I acknowledge Tony, I acknowledge Joe, I acknowledge Marise, I acknowledge Julie. What a great team we've had.
CASSIDY: Just before Malcolm Turnbull lost his job, there were three consecutive polls where he was on 49-51. In my experience, if you go into an election campaign as the Government on 49, you usually win. Were you confident at that point that the Government would win the next election under Malcolm Turnbull?
PRIME MINISTER: Yes.
CASSIDY: So then why is he gone?
PRIME MINISTER: I didn't vote for the spill, Barrie.
CASSIDY: No, but your Party did. Why do you think your Party took this position? You were in a winning position, you just conceded that you were in a winning position. So it wasn't Newspolls. What was it?
PRIME MINISTER: Barrie I wasn't part of the movement that sought to change the Government.
CASSIDY: I think you probably spoke to a few people. What was their sentiment? Why did they shift?
PRIME MINISTER: Barrie, honestly, I've moved past it and I think that the Australian people have too.
CASSIDY: No I think they're still asking the question, I think they’re still a bit confused by it.
PRIME MINISTER: I think they're concerned about the drought. I think they're concerned about house prices. I think that they're concerned about their electricity prices. I think they're concerned about their jobs and the future of the economy. And that's what they expect the Government to do, not to sit around endlessly talking about themselves.
CASSIDY: Did you sack Malcolm Turnbull simply because the right couldn't abide him?
PRIME MINISTER: I didn't do that.
CASSIDY: Did the Party sack him because the right couldn't abide him?
PRIME MINISTER: The party exercised what every parliamentary party has the right to do. As John Howard always said, the leadership of the parliamentary Liberal Party is the gift of the parliamentary Party and you respect their decisions and you get on with your job.
CASSIDY: Alright, from one leadership problem to another - the ABC.
PRIME MINISTER: Yeah.
CASSIDY: Is one lesson about that that it's not really smart for a government or a Prime Minister to appoint to the chairmanship of the ABC, somebody who is a business associate and a friend?
PRIME MINISTER: Look I think the ABC needs to stop talking about itself and get back to work.
CASSIDY: We never stopped work.
PRIME MINISTER: Well, I think that the last week, I think Australians have doubted that.
CASSIDY: No, we did not stop work. This was all happening at the board level.
PRIME MINISTER: And the board is responsible to ensure that the organisation is well run and I think they had a pretty ordinary week. I think the decisions that were made this week by the former chair were the right decisions. And Dr Ferguson needs to get on, settle the ship down and make sure they get back to doing what they should do in an independent and an unbiased way, to get the facts right and to ensure that they perform the duties as the Australian people pay for them to do.
CASSIDY: Back to the initial question - do you think it's a good idea to appoint friends into that position?
PRIME MINISTER: I think it's a loaded question Barrie, and I don't necessarily agree with the way you've sought to editorialise it.
CASSIDY: How have I editorialised it?
PRIME MINISTER: You're assuming that Malcolm Turnbull gave a job to a mate, and I don’t think that’s what Malcolm did.
CASSIDY: No it’s not an assumption. Malcolm Turnbull was a friend of Justin Milne and he was a business associate.
PRIME MINISTER: That doesn't mean that he wasn't competent for the job or the right person for the job.
CASSIDY: I didn't say that.
PRIME MINISTER: Well I think that was the implication, Barrie. If we're being fair and direct about it, I like to be direct. So I'll call it out if I think you're editorialising. But look, he made that judgement and he made that appointment. And it's turned out to have not worked out very well. So he’s gone.
CASSIDY: Well let me explain why I think it can be a problem. There's a saying in football terms of perceived pressure, it’s not the real pressure but he was clearly feeling some sort of perceived pressure from a friend, from Malcolm Turnbull. He made constant references to Malcolm going "ballistic", for example. He was conscious of what Malcolm Turnbull was thinking about a whole range of things.
PRIME MINISTER: I can't begin to imagine what was in the former chairman's mind, any more than you can. All I do know that is at no time did Malcolm Turnbull ever say that there should be any interference on the basis of staff members in the ABC and the same is true for Mitch Fifield. I mean, let's go back to what happened. There was an article written by Emma Alberici and it was a shocker. And how do I know that? Because the ABC said it was a shocker.
CASSIDY: I didn't say it was a shocker.
PRIME MINISTER: And they pulled it down, they ripped it down because it was riddled with errors. And that was the fact. Now, I raised concerns about that article too. And the news team dealt with it and I was satisfied with the response. And that's where it ended. Now, I can't begin to imagine what was in the chairman's mind, but the chairman is no longer there. And I expect the ABC board to do better. And if they don't, well they can expect a bit more attention from me.
CASSIDY: Can the Government do better by making this merits panel work? You have a merits panel that gives recommendations on board appointments, and up until now, the majority of those appointments are still made by the Minister, on the Minister's recommendations and not on the recommendations of the panel.
PRIME MINISTER: Well Barrie, as you know, you wouldn't know that unless there was a transparency around that process, which required the Government to point out when it made appointments that weren't in accordance with the recommendations. You have a panel and the ABC has quite a different process to pretty much any other organisation the Government appoints members to, but at the end of the day, Barrie, the Government's elected and we're accountable for the appointments we make. Independent panels or reference panels, they're not accountable to anyone. We're accountable to the Australian people for our appointments. Now on this occasion, the chair's appointment previously, by his own actions, alleged, as you said in your own introduction - and the Government still has some work that we're doing on that point right now - proved to not be great. But you know, he's gone. Dr Ferguson is now the chair. We'll go through the very process that you've talked about to look at new appointments and then we'll make that in due course, but in the meantime, you know, I think it's time for the ABC to stop talking about itself.
CASSIDY: It wasn't just the ABC talking about itself.
PRIME MINISTER: All the media were obsessed. I noticed this morning on Macca on the ABC, he’s talking about wildflowers and he’s talking about the drought. I suspect Macca’s a bit more in touch.
CASSIDY: I don't think that we'll be getting on to wildflowers. I’ve got another issue I want to raise with you, it’s emissions. You released the latest greenhouse gas emissions on Friday night, they're up 1.3 per cent, the highest level on a quarterly basis for eight years and yet you'll say you'll reach the Paris commitments in a canter.
PRIME MINISTER: Yes.
CASSIDY: Based on what?
PRIME MINISTER: Based on our assessments and we’ve got emissions per capita are at the lowest level in 28 years, Barrie, and those figures, in particular, for the March quarter, were based on some rather stronger LNG production figures for that period. So look, one swallow doesn't make a summer, and I know that plenty of people will leap on that and they’ll say that you need to do X and Y and they’ll use those numbers for that purpose. But it means that we're going to meet Kyoto 2 and we'll smash that number. We smashed Kyoto 1.
CASSIDY: But that has no relevance to whether or not you’ll reach the Paris targets?
PRIME MINISTER: We will Barrie. Because the investments that are continuing to be made in renewables on the basis of the fact that increasingly, we've hit the threshold point, where the investments make sense, increasingly, without subsidies. We still have the large scale and small scale RET policies in place. We still have the Clean Energy Finance Corporation and we still have the emissions reduction fund for the period that it's currently funded for and we're on track to hit it, Barrie. So we will hit it and I know people can say, “Oh, they know exactly what…”
CASSIDY: They're up 1.3 per cent.
PRIME MINISTER: Yes, based on...
CASSIDY: You're all out of policy levers without the National Energy Guarantee.
PRIME MINISTER: I just announced four different policies that continue, Barrie. So I know people will want to use that one figure and ignore the fact that emissions per capita are at the lowest level in 28 years. That electricity sector emissions are down 13.9 per cent, I think it is, on 2009, on the same figures. So people choose and pick their figures to make their political arguments. We're going to meet those in a canter, our 26 per cent target...
CASSIDY: You do think you'll meet it in a canter?
PRIME MINISTER: I do, Barrie, I do. We'll meet up in 2030 and we can argue the toss then. None of us are Nostradamus on this but we have the policies in place and importantly, the technology, the demand management. All of these issues are pointing to that outcome. And so I'm comfortable with our 26 per cent. I was comfortable with it when we set it, when I was part of the Government that set it, and we'll continue to pursue it. Labor has a 45 per cent emissions reduction target. Now we all know what that will do - it will put up electricity prices by $1,400 for every household in the country. So Labor has that. We’ve got a sensible target of 26 per cent. We'll stick to that and it won't have an impact on electricity prices and we'll continue our track record of delivering emissions reductions.
CASSIDY: Final question on the national day you're talking about for Indigenous Australians. How do you plan to commence that idea?
PRIME MINISTER: Well we've commenced a discussion about it. I’ve had some good feedback. I want to be clear what I'm saying though. Australia Day is for all Australians, First Australians, Indigenous Australians, through to our most recent. That is the day everyone comes together. I've seen this work...
CASSIDY: Now you're talking about a separate day?
PRIME MINISTER: No, I'm saying that there should be an opportunity, separately, to acknowledge the contribution of our Indigenous peoples. That's not instead of Australia Day.
CASSIDY: NAIDOC Week? Doesn't NAIDOC Week do that?
PRIME MINISTER: It can be within NAIDOC Week. I'm happy to have the chat about it. My point is that Australia Day is for all Australians. I'm not saying that we need another opportunity because Indigenous Australians can't participate in Australia Day. Quite the contrary. In my own electorate for a long time on the 29th of April each year, we have a meeting of two cultures ceremonies on the day that Lieutenant Cook landed at Kurnell. Now that manages, and has for some time, to be been able to acknowledge 60,000 years of the Gweagal people of the Dharawal nation being in that place. As well as acknowledging the great scientist and pioneer, James Cook. It is possible, and frankly, it's necessary, for us to reconcile these two stories as a country. We can't do it separately. We've got to do it together. And that's why I'm open to ways that we can do it. But Australia Day is Australia Day and must always remain Australia Day.
CASSIDY: And just finally, one grand final down and one to come. Do you think that the Melbourne-based club will do better this time?
PRIME MINISTER: Well they're a very strong team and we'll see whether Cooper Cronk is playing or not tonight. But I think at least his shoulder will be a bit sorer than it's usually been all season. Sadly for me, my Sharks went out but I’ve got to say the two best teams at the end of the year over the season I think have ended up in the grand final. If it's as good a game as yesterday's one was, which I enjoyed thoroughly, while not understanding all of it, I certainly enjoyed the festival.
CASSIDY: Thanks for coming in.
PRIME MINISTER: Thanks a lot Barrie.
Interview with Jon Faine, ABC Melbourne
28 September 2018
JON FAINE: Scott Morrison good morning to you.
PRIME MINISTER: G’day Jon.
FAINE: What’s going to happen when I infuriate you in this interview today? What are you going to do?
[Laughter]
PRIME MINISTER: What I always do Jon, I’ll argue the toss with you mate.
FAINE: Why is it thought in some circles that the appropriate thing to do when ABC presenters infuriate politicians is to go through back channels to try and get them fired?
PRIME MINISTER: Well I don’t think… no one has done that, Jon.
FAINE: Well it would seem from documents as well as conversations people are having, interviews people are giving and information that’s being leaked that that’s exactly what’s been happening.
PRIME MINISTER: No Jon I’m sorry, no politician to my knowledge or anyone else, the former Prime Minister, me or anyone else, has asked for anyone to be fired.
FAINE: They haven’t asked for anyone to be fired, they’ve said, “Can you shoot him? Can you get rid of them?”
PRIME MINISTER: No no they didn’t say that either John.
FAINE: Well that’s the evidence that’s emerged.
PRIME MINISTER: No it’s not the evidence. That’s the allegation that a politician has said that. The politician hasn’t said that, the former Chairman is reported to have said those things but he has said himself that that wasn’t coming in terms of what should happen to staff. I mean, politicians have every right, Jon, to say if they think the journalist got it wrong… you and I disagree all the time and I call you out when I think you’ve got it wrong and you call me out when you think I’ve got it wrong. I haven’t got a problem with that. I mean, on many occasions in the past I’ve taken issue with what the ABC have done, I’ve raised it through the appropriate channels and on quite a few occasions that ABC have had to apologise.
FAINE: And on some occasions, it turns out we haven’t got anything wrong and let the process be as transparent and as fair and as independent as ever. At the moment...
PRIME MINISTER: Yeah that’s the process. That’s the way I’ve always done it.
FAINE: Good, and you’re committed to that?
PRIME MINISTER: Yeah of course I am, that’s how it should be. But we are allowed to say when we think they get it wrong and you know the ABC don’t always apologise when they do get it wrong by the way. You know, that’s for them, you’re an independent organisation, that’s how it should be. You’re not perfect.
FAINE: You have a number of reviews into the ABC being conducted as we speak. One of them is called the Efficiency Review. At the moment I can’t help notice that there’s no Managing Director of the ABC, there’s no Managing Director of the SBS and there’s a vacancy for the new Chair of the board of the ABC. Are you tempted to merge them as part of this efficiency review?
PRIME MINISTER: Well I’m going to wait for the results of the review to come back Jon. I mean, those sorts of ideas have been floated before but I… look, I will wait to see what the Review says. I think that’s the fair and sensible thing to do.
FAINE: Are you tempted?
PRIME MINISTER: It’s not about whether I’m tempted or not, it’s about what the evidence is and what the report says. So I’ll do it on an evidence base.
FAINE: And what, your personal views will have nothing to do with it? It will be entirely dependent on what’s recommended by the Report?
PRIME MINISTER: We’ll discuss it with our colleagues, that’s what Cabinets do. We receive a report, we’ll consider the report but no, I don’t come into it with any sort of set view on this Jon. I really don’t.
FAINE: Do you concede that the ABC board has become politicised in the last few years?
PRIME MINISTER: Well who is suggesting that?
FAINE: Various columnists, all sorts of commentary about it which is why I’m asking you if you think it’s true?
PRIME MINISTER: I don’t get into gossip. I mean, I’m not going to get into all that. We make appointments to the board, I expect them to do a job and if they don’t do a job they should go.
FAINE: But the ABC board shouldn’t be somewhere where mates get put to basically represent individual views of politicians?
PRIME MINISTER: I think that’s a pretty cynical observation Jon, that’s your view it’s not mine.
FAINE: No no no, I’m asking if we can just affirm that that would be wrong, because it’s fairly clearly not what the board of the ABC is for.
PRIME MINISTER: I think people make some pretty subjective assessments of these things and they’re entitled to make them. I mean, people commentating on people appointed to various board or whatever, they’re entitled to their subjective assessments. But that doesn’t mean I have to agree with them.
FAINE: Have you got anyone in mind to be the next Chair of the board of the ABC?
PRIME MINISTER: No, there’s a process for that as you know and I’ll let that process follow and we’ll be making a recommendation later in the day for someone to step up into the position of Executive Chair which would mean that they would then become the Acting Chair until these issues are resolved. That’s the proper process and I’ll be following it.
FAINE: I understand Vanessa Guthrie, an existing director, is the red-hot favourite there. But can I suggest to you, you’ve got two ideal candidates for the position of permanent Chair of the board. Melbourne University Vice-Chancellor Glyn Davis has finished up this week, he did his PHD on the ABC and political independence. He’s an excellent administrator, has managed a very large and complex organisation, has a track record of independence and intellectual rigour.
PRIME MINISTER: Well I’m sure there’ll be lots of good nominations made Jon, I hear you’re finishing up next year, maybe you want to throw your hat in the ring.
[Laughter]
FAINE: No I would be eminently unqualified for the position. Sydney technology and media lawyer Danny Gilbert’s name is being mentioned as well.
PRIME MINISTER: Yeah there’s lots of names being put up and there’s a process to consider them, Jon, and that’s what we’ll do.
FAINE: Would the ABC have a snowball’s chance in hell of getting $500 million out of your Government to convert it from being the ABC, the broadcasting corporation, to the digital corporation, the ADC as the former board Chair wanted to do?
PRIME MINISTER: Oh look, those sorts of things would be dealt with through a budget process, not in an interview, and you know, we consider proposals from time to time. But look, that’s something we deal with in budgets and that’s not something I’m looking at right now.
FAINE: Do you think it’s a priority for your Government to give the ABC half a billion dollars for a digital transformation project?
PRIME MINISTER: It’s a priority for our Government to deal with the drought, to get electricity prices down, to keep the economy strong, keep Australians safe and to bring Australians and keep them together. They’re my priorities.
FAINE: So half a billion dollars to the ABC is a fair way down that list, in fact you didn’t even mention it.
PRIME MINISTER: Well no, we fund the ABC. I want them to do a good job, I want them to do it in an independent and unbiased way. That’s what taxpayers pay for and that’s what I expect the board to deliver.
FAINE: It was a Malcolm Turnbull-Justin Milne pie in the sky project was it not, Jetstream?
PRIME MINISTER: Well look Jon I’m just not going to get drawn on it, it’s just not something that I’m focusing much attention on at the moment. I’ve told you what I’m focusing on and frankly, the biggest issue for me at the moment and we’re doing a lot of work on it has been the drought. We’ve got the aged care inquiry which I’m finalising the terms of reference for and looking to appoint some commissioners to that, we’ve got the Royal Commission into the banking and financial industry coming out today, so there’s no shortage of very important issues for us to deal with. And as interesting as the ABC is...
FAINE: I assure you we don’t want to be.
[Laughter]
PRIME MINISTER: No look, I was looking at the front pages of the Melbourne papers this morning and I think the Herald Sun has got it right. Most people in Melbourne today are more interested in the AFL Grand Final than the ABC. I think The Age pulled the wrong rein there.
FAINE: No we’re on page two I might say, but you might want to have a look at that when you get here. Speaking of the aged care, I think we just killed off Jetstream if we read between the lines.
[Laughter]
So the aged care Royal Commission, how close are you to announcing the terms of reference?
PRIME MINISTER: Oh look, there’s a little bit more distance to travel on that. We’re doing some more consultation but I want to do it soon but I also want to make sure we get it right. And you know, appointing the commissioners as well is a key part of that. So we’ve been working fastidiously through that ever since I made that announcement last Sunday week, so I think we’re making a lot of progress and I really want to thank Australians for the way they’ve responded and the feedback they’ve been providing.
FAINE: Commissioners plural, you just told us. That’s important. Given how many reports, inquiries, investigations and so on have been done even in recent times on the same topic, there’s not a lot new that’s come out it’s just all being put into an orderly fashion.
PRIME MINISTER: Well that sometimes is what happens with Royal Commissions. I think a bit of that is what we’ve seen with the banking and finance Royal Commission, although there has been some new things there and I have no doubt there will be new things that come out of an aged care Royal Commission which deals as you know not only with residential aged care but in-home care places as well as young Australians living in an aged care setting. So look, I think there will be a lot of bruising information. I know Jon a lot of people have called into your program over a long time raising terrible, terrible stories. So look, I think this is going to be tough.
FAINE: Speaking of Royal Commissions, the interim report by former High Court Judge Hayne into financial services, banks, insurance and the like, the Royal Commission that your party didn’t really want to call, hands down its interim report today. You can’t undertake to implement recommendations until you’ve seen them but it would a fairly big call not to implement recommendations from a Royal Commission that’s been so powerful in its findings.
PRIME MINISTER: We’ll see what the report says today, it’ll come out today, we’ll release it today as I said I would and then we’ll take the next step then I think Jon. But I think Commissioner Hayne has done an outstanding job, I really do. I think he’s got through the work very, very assiduously but also very sensitively and he’s been very focused on making a practical contribution I think out of this and I’m sure he’ll make one and that’ll give us a very good set of recommendations to work with.
FAINE: Last time I spoke to you I asked if would extend the Royal Commission so it could have more time and you said that he had not asked for an extension. Is that still the case, he hasn’t asked for an extension?
PRIME MINISTER: No he hasn’t.
FAINE: He thinks he can get everything done in this quick, once over lightly quick hit?
PRIME MINISTER: No I wouldn’t describe it like that and I don’t think Commissioner Hayne would describe it like that. I don’t think he is giving it a once over quick hit Jon, I think he’s been an outstanding commissioner who has applied what is an amazing intellect to this and an application which I think has given absolute justice to the seriousness of the issues and if he asks for more time, he’ll get it.
FAINE: The gossip in legal circles is that he took the job on the basis it wouldn’t blow out.
PRIME MINISTER: Well he took the job on the basis that he would do a great job and he’d follow the terms of reference.
FAINE: We will see, and today will be an important day. On school funding, I see that your Government is determined to try and get some sort of a deal here but the states are playing hard to get. What’s plan B if they just say no?
PRIME MINISTER: The money will be spent on the schools that we’ve committed. That’s what… we’re growing our state school funding by over six per cent and funding for non-state schools with less than six per cent out to about 2023. We’ve made our commitments to support all schools. There's more money going into all schools, and we’re both preserving choice, we’re making sure the needs-based formula works right across the board and what we had from the Chaney Review was I think a very clear recommendation which said you had to look at the individual circumstances of parents in non-state schools and that’s exactly what we’re doing. So look, I think it’s an improved arrangement than the one we had before. It addresses some weaknesses that were there and I think that’s good.
FAINE: It may be improved but it may not be one that everybody accepts. What’s plan B?
PRIME MINISTER: We’ll spend the money. That’s the plan, and we’ll spend the money on kids’ education. I’m not going to get caught up in the usual state politics and the argy bargy of this, I’m just going make sure we spend the money on kids’ schools.
FAINE: There was a bit of argy bargy earlier in the week about the idea of not Australia Day but another separate day to recognise the contribution indigenous Australians make to Australia and have in the past. I think in the past, well let’s have a listen to how you described critics of Australia Day:
PRIME MINISTER – RECORDING: Well I just don’t know why people have to always bring Australia down and I don’t think engaging in this sort of indulgent self-loathing actually makes our country stronger. I mean, I want to bring Australians together around this day. That’s the date that the ships turned up.
FAINE: What’s the indulgent self-loathing you’re referring to in that?
PRIME MINISTER: Well every time… I mean there are some people who want to change the date who I think do so out of a real genuine empathy for indigenous Australians and I think they have responded well to my suggestion that we also have an opportunity, not Australia Day, but another day not the same as Australia Day to recognise the contribution of our Indigenous people, the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders. But there are others, you know, who just go out there and just want to take a sledge on Australia Day all the time and promote themselves and engage in this “Australia is the worst country on earth.” Well that’s just… I don’t buy into it. I think Australians are just sick of it and I think these guys should pull their heads in.
FAINE: To channel my inner Maggie Thatcher, who are these people?
PRIME MINISTER: Well I thought the Byron Bay Mayor was doing a pretty good job of it. I thought Richard Di Natale was doing a pretty good job of it and I think they should pull their heads in. I mean, we can celebrate Australia Day. We talked about this issue once before Jon. On the 29th of April every year, what we have down in my community is a meeting of two cultures ceremony. That’s the day that Sir James Cook turned up at Kurnell, and that is a respectful, positive, celebration that we have which brings together Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians. We’ve been doing it for years. It’s quite possible to do that you know. We don’t have to have a fight about it, you can bring people together. That’s all I’m saying. And everyone wants to go and have a big blue about this. You don’t have to, we can accommodate everybody.
FAINE: How does Scott Morrison want to engage with Indigenous Australia? Do you want to outsource it to Tony Abbott or do some of it yourself?
PRIME MINISTER: Jon you’re being very cynical today mate. I mean Tony Abbott has showed a passion for Indigenous children’s education throughout his entire public life. So yeah, I’ve asked Tony to go and help make sure we get good policy there to get Indigenous kids into school. I mean what’s the problem with that mate? I’ve got an Indigenous Minister in Nigel Scullion who is working on broader indigenous issues, now I’ve got an Education Minister that’s focusing on this. There is no lack of effort. And if I got someone in my team, whether it is Tony who has a passion and a knowledge of these things, who goes and spends a week of his own time, has for years, up working with teachers aides in Indigenous areas. Well why wouldn’t I ask him to do something?
FAINE: Are you interested in visiting remote communities yourself? Do you want to engage with communities directly?
PRIME MINISTER: Of course I do, and I’ll be there with Tony, I’ll be there with Nige. I’ve been there myself in previous portfolios and I’ve learned a lot from doing that. I am the sort of person that likes to roll my sleeves up, get there and understand it firsthand. And that’s what I’ve always done in all my portfolios, Jon, so absolutely I will and I look forward to doing that.
FAINE: The Labor Party are campaigning heavily on promising to bring in an anti-corruption body. Are you interested?
PRIME MINISTER: The Attorney General is currently looking at some alternative ways of addressing these matters and I will keep doing that work.
FAINE: The bottom line of the Budget has significantly improved and your Treasurer Josh Frydenberg was front and centre stage, trumpeting that and quite rightly so just earlier this week. But has some of the reduced welfare expenditure come at the cost of creating homelessness and poverty by being too tough on welfare recipients?
PRIME MINISTER: No I don’t believe so because we’ve had record jobs growth. The reason the welfare spending has come down Jon is because people have got into jobs and we’ve tightened up on the abuse of the system. So we’ve done the right thing by taxpayers, we’ve done the right thing by people who aren’t in work by getting them into work. The best form of welfare is a job, I’ve always believed that and that’s what our Government has been delivering for five years.
FAINE: Some people can’t get a job and we’ve heard stories this week on this radio program from people who have been rendered homeless because of the now unbelievably difficult regime introduced by Centrelink and compliance for many people is just too hard.
PRIME MINISTER: Well I’ve increased funding for homelessness. I made homelessness funding through the National Partnership Agreement on homelessness permanent. It used to be a year to year proposition and I made that permanent as Treasurer in my last Budget and we’re very committed to homelessness. we’ve set up the National Housing Financial Investment Corporation to provide low-cost finance to affordable housing developments through community housing associations. We’ve provided tax concessions for investment in affordable housing and social housing projects. So Jon we have done quite a lot on this area and I want to see us continue to do more and work with the states and territories but particularly the sector to ensure that the money that is spent on homelessness meets the mark. But the truth is, the number of unemployed people in Australia since the last election has gone down, not up.
FAINE: Which is only ever a good thing. Now just finally, given that you’re on your way to Melbourne for the AFL Grand Final...
PRIME MINISTER: Yeah and I don’t know much about this Jon, so...
[Laughter]
FAINE: No no, I’m not asking you who played on the wing for whatever team five years ago, don’t worry. But before you declared that you were barracking for the West Coast, and everyone should support anyone but Victoria, did you check that with Matthew Guy the State Opposition Leader and your Liberal Colleague?
[Laughter]
PRIME MINISTER: No I didn’t, I just...
FAINE: It may have implications for the state election in November.
PRIME MINISTER: Oh I think that’s rubbish Jon.
[Laughter]
Everyone who goes to the footy sort of, you know, wants to watch the game and you know, have a bit of skin in the game. And look, I’ve been going for Western Australia for a long, long time and I have a great affection for them and I’ve met some of the guys over there. So look, I wish them well but I haven’t got a team in the AFL, I’m not about to get one. I mean Robert Menzies didn’t have an NRL team...
FAINE: Well the NRL didn’t exist when Menzies was Prime Minister.
PRIME MINISTER: Well we actually were playing rugby league back then.
FAINE: You were playing rugby league, but the NRL, it wasn’t a national code then.
PRIME MINISTER: Well there wasn't an AFL back in Menzies’ time...
FAINE: No, he had a VFL team, he watched Carlton every weekend.
PRIME MINISTER: And good for him, I go and watch the Sharks every week, so look, every time they’re playing at home as well I’ll be there.
FAINE: Yeah look I was just wondering, you declaration that people should barrack for anyone but Victoria in both the rugby league and the AFL meant that you’d given up on Victoria.
PRIME MINISTER: Maybe if it wasn’t Collingwood.
[Laughter]
Maybe if it was one of the others, but…
FAINE: At the risk triggering another complaint to the ABC Managing Director, I’m actually on a unity ticket on this one Scott Morrison, so there you go.
[Laughter]
PRIME MINISTER: Maybe not the only thing Jon, who knows.
FAINE: Who knows indeed, it’s one of the great mysteries. Thank you indeed for your time, look forward to seeing you in the studio and I’m sure our listeners would have many questions if you could come and take some talkback.
PRIME MINISTER: Look forward to it, good on you Jon.
Interview with 92.7 Mix FM
27 September 2018
MARK DARIN: Scott Morrison, good morning.
PRIME MINISTER: G’day, how are you going?
DARIN: Really well, really well. I’ll just explain, my normal co-host isn’t here, Caroline, she’s away. But I’ve got Tara Pitt who is a Eumundi mum and a runner up from Survivor from last year. She’s filling in.
PRIME MINISTER: Oh wow.
DARIN: Yeah yeah, are you a fan of Survivor?
PRIME MINISTER: I have watched it occasionally, I can’t say I’ve watched it often.
DARIN: It’s a lot like politics, there’s a fair bit of false promises, backstabbing, you know.
[Laughter]
PRIME MINISTER: That’s a bit harsh.
DARIN: The difference is you rose right to the top, whereas Tara only got runner up, that’s the difference. But you’re in town now, are you in Wamuran right now Prime Minister, is that right?
PRIME MINISTER: We’re heading up at the moment, yeah.
DARIN: Ok good, so you’ve got some good news today for our strawberry farmers. I believe there is an announcement for $350,000?
PRIME MINISTER: Yeah we’re putting $350,000 in to support the industry with a whole range of things like how to investigate alternative tamper-proof packaging options, how they can better train supporting staff to manage some of the issues here, there’s some communications funding to support them to give supply chain assurance. So just a lot of practical things that the industry has identified they need some support to do to deal with this current, this current situation. And we’re trying to right the ship as quickly as we can for them and we’re working closely with them to achieve that.
DARIN: Yeah look, I mean we’ve got the campaign at the moment with chop them up and eat ‘em kind of idea, and I’m also reading too, we’ve been doing our best, we’ve got a big campaign here on the Sunshine Coast trying to eat as many strawberries as we can. Is there anything else the consumer can do?
PRIME MINISTER: Well I think it’s exactly just that, because the way that the industry works is that if you can keep picking them, then you can keep them viable and when you pick you’ve got to be able to sell them. And it really was that crash in demand, very quickly, that had that very severe impact for those farmers. And so the quicker we can get back to business as usual, the quicker the farmers can get back to business as usual, and I think there’s been a great reaction. I mean, there were all sorts of strawberry festivals going on last weekend up in Queensland, particularly around the Sunshine Coast and other places and I thought that was tremendous. But the same thing was happening down here in Sydney and over in Perth and everywhere across Western Australia. So I thought, you know, it was a really good national response and we want to see that continue. Now obviously the Queensland Police and the other agencies and authorities are dealing with the serious component of which idiot was responsible for this and we’re giving them every support to track them down. But at the same time, all the rest of us, we cut them up not cut them out.
DARIN: Now Prime Minister, while I’ve got you there, there’s something else that I kind of have a bit of a bee in my bonnet about and that is the rail duplication between Beerburrum to Nambour. Now Malcolm Turnbull did promise an amount of funding which the State Government has got into a haggle with now. Can you say that funding is still on the table, can you confirm that?
PRIME MINISTER: Yeah absolutely it is. We have committed all of those funds which is 50 per cent of that project. That’s $390 million for the Beerburrum to Nambour rail upgrade. We’d like the State to meet us halfway. Our money is on the table and we’ll get on with things to the extent that we can but to do the whole show, we basically just need the Queensland Government to do their bit.
DARIN: Ok, alright that’s good to hear I mean it’s a step in the right direction. Not much sort of moving just yet, no new trains just yet but it is good to hear that you guys are still backing that funding, that is great news.
PRIME MINISTER: Yeah and Ted O’Brien and Andrew Wallace and all those guys have been great in getting behind that and so the commitment is 100 per cent.
DARIN: That is good news. Now the other thing too, I’ve got to ask you before you go, big weekend in footy grand finals. I know you’re not the biggest AFL fan but can you tip… I kind of have to go for Collingwood, I’ve got a mad Collingwood friend and if I don’t go for them he threatens me so I don’t think you have that problem. Can you give us a tip for either code?
PRIME MINISTER: Well look I don’t follow the AFL closely but I enjoy going to the games when I do. I’m a rugby league fan as people know but in the AFL I hope to see West Coast get up. I think you know they’ve had a great season and I think that’d be great for the West too. So good luck to them. And in the NRL, well my team is out, the Sharkies are out, but I’ll be backing the Roosters this weekend and I hope they do well. I saw Boyd Cordner last night at the Dally M’s and wished him all the best but saw some of the Storm players as well. You know, Sharks and Storm have always had a pretty fierce rivalry and the Storm are a great rugby league team. I mean they play a very punishing game and they’ve been a real powerhouse in the comp for a long time. And look, Billy Slater’s last game, I think that’s going to be pretty special and you know, it could be Cam’s last game as well, who knows.
DARIN: Well look Prime Minister it was great to talk to you, thank you so much for coming out and supporting our strawberry farmers and mate, very happy to see you in town. Thank you for your time.
PRIME MINISTER: Thanks mate, good to see you. Cheers.
Doorstop - Sunshine Coast, QLD
27 September 2018
MEMBER FOR FISHER, ANDREW WALLACE MP: PM, I’d like to welcome you to the glorious Glass Mountains on the Sunshine Coast. It’s fantastic to have you here. This is a demonstration of just how seriously you’re taking the strawberry issues, the strawberry growers issue that we had where some idiots have taken it upon themselves to contaminate and sabotage our food. I want the strawberry growers around the Sunshine Coast and all of Australia to know their Federal Government stands with them. PM, it’s great to have you here on the Coast. We’ve spoken this morning about reiterating your commitment to the Government’s promises to the Bruce Highway, funding of $3.13 billion, unprecedented sums of money for the Bruce Highway. $390 million for the duplication of the rail. The Sunshine Coast is on the map from an infrastructure perspective and we are so very, very excited to have you here. Would you like to say a few words?
PRIME MINISTER: Thanks very much Andrew, it’s great to be here and to John and to Brendon, thanks very much for having us at Ashbern Strawberries, which I understand is named after both of your better halves. That’s fantastic. Look it’s great to be here and there’s a good positive message here. On the way here I stopped by the roadside and I actually bought a punnet of Ashbern strawberries, the larger one too by the way, three bucks. That’s a good price and we’re looking for better prices.
But the good news I found out was is normally that would do about 20 trays. Last weekend, they did over 90 trays of strawberries. Now, that shows you what’s happening in Australia. Australians coming together and responding to a call to say, “Let’s get behind our strawberry farmers.” Whoever the idiot was who started this, his idiocy has been completely, I think, and totally overwhelmed by the good nature of the Australian people who have stood with our strawberry farmers. Whether it is Brendon and John here, or Gavin not far from here, or others all around the country. There is around I think 160 strawberry farmers here. But they’re down in the Yarra Valley, they’re over in Western Australia. And Australians I think have bounced back and this industry has some unique perishable elements to it. It has to be in perpetual motion to keep it going and the best thing that can happen is Australians keep buying strawberries. So the demand is there, which means the fruit can be picked and the fruit can be packed and the fruit can be shipped out. To whether it’s the local roadside or down to Sydney into supermarkets or other places, to keep the industry turning again.
Last week, I announced there would be $1 million going in to the industry to support and range of initiatives. $350,000 of that I announced today is going to some very specific industry-based measures, and that’s everything with support for how they do tampering-proof packaging, how they’re doing that. It’s also supporting their communications through the supply chain to give the assurance. You just saw inside what the metal detector machine which they’re using here and the assurance that can be provided about the products that are coming out of the farms and out of the packing sheds. There’s work also being done to support communications up through the supply chain into our international markets. The balance of the other funds, most of that that’s going into the food standards authority to ensure that they’ve got the resources and the support they need to deal with this.
Another thing which I think is going to be important once the dust settles in this sector is to take a bit of a look over the last few weeks and learn some of the lessons about how, you know, there are other sectors out there where there may be weather-type incidents that produce this sort of result or other types of incidents and how we can ensure that our response is as quick as it needs to be. I mean, this came fast. It was a real flash and it hit the farmers very hard and very early. But I am so proud of the Australian people that they responded in the way they did. I don’t think there has been as many pavs cooked in Australia last weekend in a very long time. It would be Australia Day weekend I think where you would have seen as many pavs cooked as that.
But it wasn’t just that. It was the fruit slurpees down at Ekka and things like this where Australians just, they just showed up. And I think that was both a shot in the arm to our strawberry farmers, but it also has had a very important commercial element to it as the industry quickly moves to restore itself to the good, strong local employing industry that it is.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, there has been a huge amount of focus on what’s going on the farms, but there’s no proof at this stage that the farms are where this food tampering has occurred. We don’t know where it’s happened in the supply chain.
PRIME MINISTER: Well I think what you’ve just seen is that the industry taking the steps that it needs to and I mean, a lot of Australians ate strawberries on the weekend. And what we are seeing is those incidents which had been reported tapering off. I think the strong action we took as a Government to make it pretty clear that any idiot who wanted to go and put something on Facebook or a hoax or something like that, not doing that. Those incidents are falling away and it means that the industry is starting to right itself. So no I don’t agree with your assessment which says that I think Australians are now concerned about this like the way they may have been before. I think there has been good information that’s got out there, I think everybody has worked together to get that message out and I would encourage the media to continue to support getting that message out to all Australians and for the sake of those strawberry farmers.
JOURNALIST: Is 350 grand enough? If every farmer has to put in a $13,000 metal detector, is that actually going to…?
PRIME MINISTER: Well it’s not for metal detectors. Those investments have been made by the farmers themselves as they have here, and that’s a good investment for the business. They’ll make those investments. I mean, these farmers aren’t asking for charity, they’re not asking for subsidies, they’re not asking… they know what their business is, they know how to make their business successful. What they’re looking for is the support to get these messages through the supply chain, to assist even when it’s around training of staff. A lot of the staff who come here are itinerant workers and some support to ensure they have a good understanding of what the standards are. Because these farmers want to maintain their standards, they do maintain their standards. The package we have developed, we’ve developed with the industry. You know, they don’t want to see taxpayer’s money spent more than it has to be. They treat taxpayers money the same way they treat their own investments and I want to thank them for the way they’ve engaged with the Government on that.
JOURNALIST: What exactly will the money go to if it’s not for the…
PRIME MINISTER: Well I just mentioned it. It’s for the supply chain communication, it’s for support for the industry where we are working on tamper-proof packaging, it’s communication up through the international supply chain, and fourthly it’s particularly focusing on training and other standards support for industry programs which ensures that, you know, those who are packing and those who are working in the sector are aware of the standards and they can maintain them.
JOURNALIST: Have you considered compensation for growers in some form or some sort of financial hardship?
PRIME MINISTER: Well for those farmers who are affected, in particular with their own incomes, they have access to the Farm Household Assistance like any farmers would be in this type of situation. That assistance is available right now.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, would you hope for a different response from the supermarkets were this to occur again, given that Coles and Aldi pulled strawberries off the shelves and therefore there was no market for these people to sell to?
PRIME MINISTER: I think they’re the good lessons we need to learn from this. That’s why I just said, I think it’ll be important once the dust settles here to look back on those sorts of decisions and how they’re made and the information. But I mean the thing about strawberries is, as John was explaining to me, I mean the perishability here means your response time is pretty limited. If this happened in a different type of sector where they have more cold storage and they could pause for a while. Well the strawberry industry doesn’t work like that. So there are I think some very specific things here which are quite germane to this sector. And so I think it is worthwhile to go and look at those lessons, and both for the big supermarket chains and how they handle their issues but more broadly, there’s nothing wrong with that. Australians are good at that, you look at how it played out, you learned the lessons, you improve your systems and you move on. I don’t think we have to go through some sort of blame cycle here, I think you just have to ensure we learn from it and get it right and hopefully we won’t see something like this happen for these reasons again. And anyone who does it, it’s fifteen years in jail and if you carry on like an idiot and post something on YouTube because you think it’s a lark, ten years in jail. That’s passed, the Governor General signed it.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, your first visit the Sunshine Coast as Prime Minister. What else do you hope to see while you’re here?
PRIME MINISTER: It’s quite a fleeting visit today. We’re up here particularly because I wanted to see, after what we did last week, what the impact had been for local farmers and to get firsthand a good look at what I was being briefed on last week. You know, my first time in a strawberry field too. But I received a lot of information last week and I just… look, I’m a bit like this. I’ve got to touch it, I’ve got to feel it, I’ve got to see it. And I was pleased to get the briefings from John and Brendon today just to understand how the sector worked. The encouraging thing is that it is as I thought it was working and the briefings I was receiving both from the industry and others proved to be very accurate and it means that the responses that we took last week I think have been very important. But the ultimate response continues to lie in the hands of Australians. And that means cut them up, don't cut them out and keep buying.
JOURNALIST: Do you have any plans to talk to local Government? The Sunshine Coast Mayor on Morton Bay…
PRIME MINISTER: Not today but there'll be opportunities for that. But I am pleased to reconfirm the significant support for the Beerburrum rail line and the Bruce Highway funding. None of that has changed, we're committed 100 per cent to those projects. They're very important for the Sunshine Coast and I know Andrew and Ted have been great champions of those programs and they'll keep rolling out.
JOURNALIST: Does the ABC chairman Justin Milne have your confidence?
PRIME MINISTER: Now that I think we’ve probably covered off strawberries… one on strawberries?
JOURNALIST: How is the hunt for the original saboteur going?
PRIME MINISTER: I'll leave that to Queensland Police particularly to brief you on. I've kept in touch with the AFP but Queensland Police are the lead investigators on that and they're the right people to ask about that, not me as Prime Minister. Obviously they keep me up to date but I think the way you should brief on police operations is by those in the police services. I think that's how it's known here in Queensland.
JOURNALIST: Do you think the Queensland Government handled it correctly with our Chief Health Officer Jeanette Young coming out and telling people to throw away their strawberries?
PRIME MINISTER: Look, I'm not going to get into ex-post-facto blame game stories around this sort of thing. All that matters is governments work together to try and fix things when they go wrong. That's what matters. I don't think these guys could care less one way or the other what I say about the Queensland Government or the Queensland Government says about me. We've got a problem and we've just got to muck in fix it and that’s what we’ve been doing. I spoke to Annastacia Palaszczuk about this early last week and she told me about the million dollars she was putting into the marketing fund. I commended her for that. That meant she’s doing that we could do the million dollars on the sorts of things we've been talking about here and the most important thing we could really do is getting that clear message about the penalties and ramping those up very quickly. I mean people you know rightly get a bit frustrated with the national Parliament every now and then but frankly, last week, it all got done in about 36 hours. Everyone came together and that's an important message. At the end of the day, we're there to fix things.
JOURNALIST: On other topics...
PRIME MINISTER: I'm going to let John and Brendan go while we talk about politics. They've got a lot of work to do...
JOURNALIST: Can we ask John and Brendan?
PRIME MINISTER: You might do that separate.
JOURNALIST: So is Justin Milne's position now untenable?
PRIME MINISTER: As you know, last night, yesterday afternoon, the Communications Minister and I spoke and he has initiated through his Department an inquiry into this. I'm not talking about something with 50 officers running around the buildings of the ABC. There are just some simple facts here that have to be established. And I think before anybody races off on anything here, I think those facts need to be determined and I'm in the process of getting those facts. But once those facts are known, then I think, you know, there'll be judgements for people to make, including the Chairman.
JOURNALIST: Were you aware that Malcolm Turnbull harboured hatred for any ABC reporter?
PRIME MINISTER: No, I wasn't. And he didn't. I mean, he didn't. I actually spoke to Malcolm today. I speak to Malcolm pretty frequently. No, what the former Prime Minister did, just like I have as a Minister, and I'm sure others... you know, the ABC isn’t perfect. You know, they make mistakes and it's alright for people to call them out on that and raise those issues with the ABC. We've all done that before. Members of the public do that. Members of Parliament do that. Prime Ministers do it. Ministers do it. But it's not our job to tell the ABC how to run itself and how to then, you know, deal with any complaints. They're responsible for how they do that. The ABC board is responsible for the reputation of the ABC and its independence and we support them in being independent and I want to ensure that, as we deal with this issue, that the independence of the ABC is not in question. But equally, they've got to get it right too. So, you know, they've also got to handle those issues but that's not what the current discussion is about. It's about the independence, which, you know, has the full support of our government and always has.
JOURNALIST: Have you ever contacted the ABC about its coverage?
PRIME MINISTER: Yeah I have because they've got it wrong on plenty of occasions and they've apologised to me for getting it wrong on a number of occasions as well. That's probably the more shocking thing… surprising I should say. But that's my point. There are processes. We use them. And responses are provided and that's how it should work. But the idea that the Government has somehow got some list and is telling the ABC who should work there and who shouldn't - that's just complete rubbish. They've got an independent board. They've made decisions about their Managing Director. They made those decisions.
JOURNALIST: Is it concerning, though, that the Chairman appears to have intervened in a staffing matter?
PRIME MINISTER: That's why I'm seeking to establish the facts around that. I know there are a lot of reports about that, but I'll make my decisions and any further comments I make about the conduct of the Chairman in relation to the actual evidence and I'm waiting to see that and I've got a process in place to gather that. You've got to be fair. I mean, people have made allegations. They're pretty serious allegations, I've got to say. And on the face of it that's very concerning, very concerning. But I'm not going to prejudge it based on some newspaper or internet or, you know, television reports. I'm going to base that on the clear advice and evidence presented by the department.
JOURNALIST: Have you spoken to the Chairman in the last 24 hours?
PRIME MINISTER: No, I haven't. The Minister has, that is his job.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, what happened in Australia on January 26, 1788?
PRIME MINISTER: A flag was raised in Farm Cove. That is what happened.
JOURNALIST: I just have a question for the far north, if you’ve got time. There have been new calls from businesses to do more on climate change for the Reef. What is the Coalition actually doing?
PRIME MINISTER: We are investing half a billion dollars in support for reef research and science, and that is the biggest investment in reef research and science that any government has made for a very, very long time. We support a healthy Reef, we support a Reef which is supporting the livelihoods of north Queenslanders which it has, you know, for hundreds of years, and for the Indigenous population for tens of thousands of years. And we are very, very committed to the health of the Reef. We will make those investments as we have and get those projects done which support the Reef and we will continue to do that. The Government's other climate policies are well-known and we are getting on with them.
JOURNALIST: Have you ever raised any concerns about journalistic standards at the ABC?
PRIME MINISTER: They’re on record, you just have to look up the record. On a number of occasions I have and I don't apologise for it. We stand in front of the media every day and you can ask all the questions, as you should and you can, but if you get it wrong we are also allowed to point that out.
JOURNALIST: And I guess Mr Turnbull has complained about the journalistic standards at the ABC, what do you think?
PRIME MINISTER: Well what the former Prime Minister was saying is that on a quite number of occasions they were just getting facts wrong, and he was pointing that out and he was expecting better. I expect all journalists to check their facts. It doesn't matter whether you work for the ABC or anyone else. I mean the Australian public relies on journalists to check their facts and to report the news, not just give opinions. There are lots of opinions out there, but you know it is the facts is people want to make decisions on and I want to make decisions based on the facts. And that is why I am ensuring that I get the facts about this matter before I make any further comment on the conduct of any of the people alleged to have taken place and where we go from here. But this is the key thing - the independence of the ABC means a lot to our Government. And it should mean a lot to every government. We will be taking decisions in this area to ensure that independence is protected and preserved. But even more importantly today, Andrew, it is it is great to see Australians are buying strawberries, and we want you to keep buying strawberries. You are playing, Australians, a very important part of our response to what has happened here, and I know Australian strawberries farmers, and those who work in the industry, really appreciate what you are doing, so keep the pavs coming. Cheers.
MEMBER FOR FISHER, ANDREW WALLACE MP: Cut them up, don't cut them out!
Backing Our Strawberry Farmers
27 September 2018
Prime Minister, Minister for Agriculture and Water Resources
More support for Australia’s strawberry farmers is on its way.
Our government will invest $350,000 in a new program to restore confidence in Australian strawberries and ensure local produce is safe to eat.
This is real money on the table which will be used to boost markets at home and overseas so growers can sell the strawberries they harvest.
The new package is being developed alongside peak group Strawberries Australia and will look at:
Giving consumers confidence their strawberries are safe with tamper-proof packaging
Developing better safety procedures on packing lines.
A campaign to show shoppers what’s being done to stop needles getting into strawberries.
Further, the project will work with export markets to ensure they understand our improved food safety measures.
Our government has already strengthened export requirements with strawberries being x-rayed and shrink wrapped. So far, nearly 100 consignments have been sent overseas under the new conditions.
The program forms part of the $1 million our government has announced to support the industry, alongside the assistance offered for strawberry growers through the Farm Household Allowance.
The cowards undermining our strawberry industry now face tougher punishments for their actions with an increase in the maximum penalty from 10 to 15 years for intentionally contaminating food and changes to ensure Commonwealth laws capture the sabotage of Australia’s food supply.
We will do everything we can to help our farmers, but we urge Australians to get our strawberry growers back on their feed by getting their products on their plates.
Doorstop - Mascot, NSW
26 September 2018
JOURNALIST: What’s your response to the reports that the ABC Chairman Justin Milne called for journalist Emma Alberici to be sacked because the Government didn’t like her?
PRIME MINISTER: Well I can’t attest to the veracity of those reports or their accuracy. What I do know is that the ABC is funded by the taxpayer, it’s governed by an independent board and its independence is important to me. It’s important to our Government and that independence needs to be maintained.
JOURNALIST: Should Justin Milne resign?
PRIME MINISTER: Well you’re talking about reports the veracity of which have not been established. I’m not aware of him actually having confirmed any of these things. So people are making some allegations at the moment, but what the facts are, I still think is a little unclear.
JOURNALIST: If those reports are confirmed, does that mean –
PRIME MINISTER: Well I don’t get into hypotheticals, I don’t get into hypotheticals.
JOURNALIST: I understand they are accurate though.
PRIME MINISTER: Well, you understand that. There’s nothing before me, I haven’t seen the actual email or it’s veracity or anything like that. My point is simply this; the ABC is an independent broadcaster, it’s funded by the taxpayers. I expect the ABC to behave in a professional way. I expect everyone who works there to respect the fact that they’re funded by the Australian taxpayer and it should conduct itself in a highly independent and unbiased way. That’s what I expect of the ABC. That’s what all Australians expect of the ABC. Now, they’re not a perfect organisation. They get things wrong from time to time, they report inaccurately from time to time and when that happens they’ll get called out for it. There is a process for that happening and that’s the proper process that should be followed. When I’ve had issues with the ABC in the past, that’s where I’ve raised those issues. And how the ABC deals with it is up to them.
JOURNALIST: Do you think that type of conduct is appropriate for a Chairman of the ABC?
PRIME MINISTER: Well again, you’re asking me to comment on conduct which hasn’t been established as a matter of fact. I’ve seen the reports, just like you have but I understand – at least to my knowledge – the Chairman hasn’t made any comment about the veracity of those reports. So I think it would be very unfair and premature for me to be offering opinions about things that are yet to be established.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister can I also just ask, how [inaudible] relationship with China?
PRIME MINISTER: We’ve always had, I think, a very constructive relationship with China and I will continue to engage across the many opportunities that we have. There are opportunities coming up at the forthcoming APEC meeting, I know the Foreign Minister Senator Payne had a very excellent meeting just in the last day or so over in New York. And look, this is an important relationship for Australia. It’s an important relationship for the region and I think we’ve always played a very constructive role about how we’ve gone about that relationship. And people can expect that from me as Prime Minister, to continue and I’ll be having a bit more to say about those sort of foreign policy issues in the months ahead. At the moment I’ve very focussed on the domestic priorities that I’ve been setting. The issues around the drought in particular, our economy, the aged care sector, these are things that are very much dominating my agenda at the moment, infrastructure spending and the like. But when it comes to our international policies, we’ve run a very consistent approach over the last five years as our Government and we’ll continue to do just that.
Thanks very much.
Men’s and Women’s Prime Minister’s XIII Announced
26 September 2018
In-conjunction with the National Rugby League (NRL), I am pleased to announce the Prime Minister’s XIII squads which will take part in annual games against Papua New Guinea in Port Moresby on October 6.
The PMs XIII concept is an annual fixture which was first established in 2005 to help PNG celebrate 30 years of independence.
This year, in recognition of the surge in female participation in rugby league, a PMs XIII squad for women has been named for the first time.
The squads will be led by experienced and exceptional rugby league coaches and captains.
World Cup winning Jillaroo and Indigenous All Stars captain Rebecca Young will captain the women’s squad which is coached by Brad Donald.
Manly Warringah Sea Eagles skipper and Queensland Origin representative Daly Cherry-Evans will captain the men’s squad which is coached by Mal Meninga.
The squads will arrive in Port Moresby next Thursday and are being supported by the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT).
While I would love to be there to cheer on both squads, I will be following the games very closely from home.
I’d also like to congratulate the players who have been selected to play for the PNG Kumuls and Orchids and wish all teams the very best.
Australian PM’s XIII Men’s Squad:
Corey Allan (Brisbane Broncos)
Reagan Campbell-Gillard (Penrith Panthers)
Daly Cherry-Evans (Manly Warringah Sea Eagles)
Jake Clifford (North Queensland Cowboys)
Nick Cotric (Canberra Raiders)
Tyson Frizell (St. George Illawarra Dragons)
Ben Hunt (St. George Illawarra Dragons)
Brian Kelly (Manly Warringah Sea Eagles)
David Klemmer (Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs)
Zac Lomax (St. George Illawarra Dragons)
Jordan McLean (North Queensland Cowboys)
Tyrone Peachey (Penrith Panthers)
Matt Prior (Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks)
Jesse Ramien (Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks)
Reece Robson (St. George Illawarra Dragons)
Gehamat Shibasaki (Brisbane Broncos)
Chad Townsend (Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks)
Jake Trbojevic (Manly Warringah Sea Eagles)
Enari Tuala (North Queensland Cowboys)
Aaron Woods (Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks)
Australian PM’s XIII Women’s Squad:
Keeley Davis (St. George Illawarra Dragons)
Quincy Dodd (Sydney Roosters)
Sally Dwyer (Parkes Spacemen)
Aaliyah Fasavalu-Fa'amausili (Cabramatta)
Najvada George (Werribee Bears – VIC)
Rikeya Horne (St. George Illawarra Dragons)
Melanie Howard (St. George Illawarra Dragons)
Asipau Mafi (St. George Illawarra Dragons)
Talesha Quinn (St. George Illawarra Dragons)
Michaela Peck (ADF)
Patricia Raikadroka (Mounties)
Rhiannon Revell-Blair (Brothers Ipswich)
Hannah Southwell (St. George Illawarra Dragons)
Sarah Togatuki (Sydney Roosters)
Shakiah Tungai (St. George Illawarra Dragons)
Juraea Turner (Ellenbrook Rabbitohs – WA)
Holli Wheeler (St. George Illawarra Dragons)
Eliza Wilson (Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs)
Rebecca Young (CRL Newcastle)
Interview with Fran Kelly, ABC RN
26 September 2018
FRAN KELLY: Prime Minister, welcome to Breakfast.
PRIME MINISTER: G’day Fran.
KELLY: Before we get into it, a few listeners are keen to know how that strawberry curry went on the weekend?
PRIME MINISTER: There’s no such thing as a strawberry curry. I cook the curry, Jen cooks the pav and there were plenty of strawberries on it and it was smashing.
KELLY: Okay, so no strawberries anywhere in the curry?
PRIME MINISTER: Not in the curry, no.
KELLY: Not in the chutney?
PRIME MINISTER: You can do a chutney with a strawberry, but I didn’t get around to it. That takes a bit more time. But no, strawberries, I was pleased to see so many Australians around the country, particularly on the weekend, getting out there and buying strawberries. Please keep doing it, it’s helping the farmers.
KELLY: You’ve been Prime Minister now for one month and two days, you’ve hit the ground running. But I guess the question is, where are you running to? What is the grand vision? Because at the moment, it does look a little like you’re governing by daily announcement.
PRIME MINISTER: No, I reject that. I mean from the very first day I said very clearly that our objectives were straightforward; to keep the economy strong, to guarantee the essential services that Australians rely on, to keep Australians safe and to keep Australians together. And in each of the things I’ve been announcing over the last month, it has been all in that context. And yesterday’s final Budget outcome for 2017/18 was the best demonstration I think, of how our Government over the last five years has been doing the job of bringing the Budget back into balance, keeping the economy strong. Record jobs growth, youth unemployment coming down, unemployment coming down. These are the dividends that are paying off for Australians.
KELLY: Looking backwards, but also looking forward to how you’re going to govern, Malcolm Turnbull lost the job because some of you colleagues felt he’d ignored the more conservative Liberal Party base. He wasn’t speaking to them. Analysts say you can’t win an election from the right. How will you appease the base and persuade everybody that you’re governing for all of us and not a small rump of conservatives in your Party Room?
PRIME MINISTER: Again, I don’t accept that broad analysis.
KELLY: Isn’t that why Malcolm Turnbull lost the job?
PRIME MINISTER: No, no, I’m just simply being myself and continuing to stay faithful to the core values and beliefs of the Liberal Party, which I believe we have been doing over the last five years.
KELLY: Did Malcolm Turnbull fail at that?
PRIME MINISTER: No, I don’t believe so Fran. What I’m simply saying is keeping the economy strong - which is what pays for hospitals, schools, affordable medicines, Medicare, all of these things - that’s what we’ve been doing as a Government. That’s what I will continue to do as leader of this Government and that has always been the mainstay of why Australians trust Liberal and National parties to run the country. Because we run a strong economy. We keep the Budget under control, which means you can believe us when we say we’ve got record funding for schools and hospitals. Keeping Australians safe equally has been a big priority of Coalition Governments and it’s one we’re continuing to deliver on. But also bringing Australians together, around key issues like our social safety net, ensuring that we’re supporting all Australians to do better and we’re not setting one set of Australians against another by saying you’ve got to tax some more, to tax others less, or you’ve got to hit some people’s schools funding, to fund others.
We think everyone should have the opportunity to succeed in this country and we shouldn’t be seeking to punish some, to elevate others.
KELLY: I’m coming to the economy. You had some strong figures out yesterday and I’m sure you’re sick of looking backwards and being asked this question, but all the things you just said there, wasn’t Malcolm Turnbull doing those?
PRIME MINISTER: Yeah we were and it’s our Government.
KELLY: So was it just votes in the Party Room that he couldn’t gather?
PRIME MINISTER: Our Government was elected in September 2013. I’ve been a part of that Government from the day we were elected. From stopping the boats to balancing the Budget and I’ve served under two leaders and have been proud to serve under those two leaders and we’ve achieved a great deal. Our Government is still pursuing the policies that our Government was elected to do, to fulfil the promises that our Government made at the last election and we are delivering on those.
KELLY: Okay let’s get to the economy. There were some strong Budget figures out yesterday, tax revenue is up by $13 billion, welfare spending down by around $7 billion. Will you use this extra money to get back to surplus quicker, or will you spend it on election promises?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, we’ve got our trajectory in the Budget and that’ll be updated at the end of this year, as it always is.
KELLY: That’s the balance.
PRIME MINISTER: That’ll tell us - I mean what the final Budget outcome does, is tell us what happened in 2017/18. And that showed that in just two Budgets, we came from 2015/16 position of almost a $40 billion deficit, down to a $10 billion deficit in just two Budgets. That’s the best outcome for a financial year in a Budget in a decade. And as you say, it’s been achieved by a couple of things; a stronger economy is actually supporting revenues, particularly out of the corporate sector, but getting people off welfare and into work, that’s what’s seeing the social welfare budget come under control. Because when people go from actually receiving taxes in the form of welfare, to paying taxes by being in a job, that’s how we’re turning the Budget around.
KELLY: Okay just on to what your thinking is though, about the surplus? If this trajectory continues it should be possible, shouldn’t it, to hit surplus a year earlier? Do you plan to strive hard for that or do you strive hard to use the extra dollars for spending?
PRIME MINISTER: Well again, I don’t necessarily agree with the assessment about the trajectory you’ve outlined. I mean originally I said when I became Treasurer many years ago, that we would hit a 2021 surplus year.
KELLY: You’ve revised that.
PRIME MINISTER: We’ve said we can do that a year earlier in 2019/20 and I believe that remains the most –
KELLY: A balanced Budget in 2019/20?
PRIME MINISTER: That’s right, in 2019/20. There is about a $2 billion surplus in that year. Now we’ll update those figures at the end of this year to see how things are tracking out over the forwards, but I don’t think there’s any reason at this point to suggest that there would be any change to that trajectory.
KELLY: Let me put it another way; as Treasurer you had a bit of a golden rule that any new spending had to be offset with savings elsewhere in the Budget. Is Josh Frydenberg going to be operating under those rules?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, they’re the Budget rules.
KELLY: Still the Budget rules?
PRIME MINISTER: Yep.
KELLY: The biggest surprise was that lower welfare spending that you talked about. You said partly due to strong jobs growth, also lower than expected uptake of the NDIS. Is now the time to increase Newstart for all those who are still out of work? It’s been going backwards in real terms for 25 years, it’s been described by economist Chris Richardson as; “Unnecessarily cruel”. There’s a widespread coalition of support for increasing Newstart. Do we have the money now to do it?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, we’re still in deficit. We’re in a $10 billion deficit, so while that is the best result we’ve had in a decade, it’s still a deficit and the 2019/20 result is still, you know, it’s still a very modest surplus. So I don’t think you can all of a sudden go; “Oh, let’s make whoopee,” you’ve got to be –
KELLY: No, well there’s savings, there’s savings in the welfare entitlements budget if you like. Will you spend them in the welfare entitlements budget?
PRIME MINISTER: What we will continue to do is consolidate the Budget, get it in a strong position so we’re in a position to support the commitments we have made in additional schools funding, in additional hospitals funding, in affordable medicines funding, these are all big priorities, the NDIS.
I remember being on this program as Treasurer a while back and we were talking about, you know, I am guaranteeing full funding of the NDIS based on the improved trajectory of the economy and what that will mean for the Government’s revenues to support the NDIS. So my priorities haven’t changed. Now, the best thing I can do for someone who is not in a job, is get them in a job. And this Government has had the greatest success of any Government at getting Australians into work. And not just those who are middle-aged, but youth unemployment has fallen to its’ lowest level since before the 2013 election. More than 100,000 young people got a job in this same year. We’ve just had the financial budget outcome that is the strongest year of youth employment growth in Australia’s recorded economic history. Now, when a young person gets a job, this is my passion, that changes their life. It changes their family. They don’t live a life on welfare, they have choices, they look at the world differently. They look at Australia differently.
KELLY: Nevertheless, not everyone can get a job. You are not of the mind to increase Newstart? Is that –
PRIME MINISTER: It’s a very expensive undertaking and there is not the room in the Budget at this point to do that.
KELLY: One of your slogans since taking over has been - well not a slogan so much as a mission statement – “the fair go for those who have a go”.
PRIME MINISTER: It’s a belief, it’s a core belief of mine.
KELLY: A belief. But for the millions of wage-earners out there, who are watching company profits go up and their pay not going up, what are you doing to give them a fair go by increasing their wages, while the bosses are earning bonuses?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, we’ve provided tax cuts, that was the first thing we did in the last Budget.
KELLY: Is there any more you can do with business, with corporations, with bosses?
PRIME MINISTER: Ensure that they do well, so they can pay their staff more.
KELLY: Well they are doing well and they’re not paying their staff more.
PRIME MINISTER: They’re starting to do better. You need sustained increases in profitability you know, one swallow doesn’t make a summer. You need to have sustained increases in profitability. These are businesses that for many, many years were not making any profits at all, particularly small and medium sized business. We’ve given those businesses tax relief, quite significant tax relief.
Remember, the Labor Party wants to put up the tax rate for all businesses under $50 million, from 25 per cent to 27.5 per cent. If you vote Labor at the next election, you’re voting for a tax increase for small and medium sized businesses. So, we’ll continue to provide tax relief, investing in infrastructure around the country, I mean $75 billion worth. Combined with what the States are doing that has been one of the key reasons why our economy has been doing as well as it has over the last 18 months to two years.
That has filled a gap that was left by the reduction in investment after the mining investment boom and so that’s keeping people in jobs.
And of course I want to see wages stronger and I think we will see that in the future.
KELLY: You’re listening to RN Breakfast, it’s a quarter to eight and our guest is the Prime Minister Scott Morrison. Well speaking of a fair go Prime Minister, the Banking Royal Commission will hand you it’s interim report on the weekend, or Friday I think. Will you release it immediately?
PRIME MINISTER: That’s the plan.
KELLY: That’s the plan? If the report recommends criminal charges being laid against some of the worst perpetrators, will you make it a top priority of your Government to see that followed up?
PRIME MINISTER: Well I’m not going to prejudge what’s going to be in the report Fran and whether the Royal Commissioner is even proceeding to those types of recommendations at this stage I think is not clear. He certainly hasn’t indicated that that’s where he’d be going at this stage of the inquiry. But certainly, having initiated this inquiry, we’d be seeking to act on the recommendations they make. At this stage I don’t know what’s in the report.
KELLY: Sure.
PRIME MINISTER: I’m not about to prejudge it and let’s just see what it says and then we’ll take things from there.
KELLY: From everything we’ve heard though, would you expect criminal charges would be laid as a result of all of this that we’ve heard?
PRIME MINISTER: Well I couldn’t tell you –
KELLY: We’ve heard some shocking things.
PRIME MINISTER: Well of course we have and that’s why we have a Royal Commissioner, because the Royal Commissioner can make those judgements and they can make recommendations. I think Commissioner Hayne has conducted this inquiry in an exemplary fashion. I think his team has looked at all 7,800 submissions and more that have come in and considered all those cases carefully. So remember, this is an interim report. It’s not the final report and what the Commissioner choses to do in this interim report is really up to him. So let’s see what he has to say and then we’ll take it from there.
KELLY: If the Commissioner asks for more time, will you give it to him?
PRIME MINISTER: Of course, I’ve said that from the get go.
KELLY: The Government has received another report which it’s been sitting on for some time, the report, review of religious freedoms conducted by Phillip Ruddock. It was handed to the Government back in May. When are you going to release it?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, I’ve obviously only had that report as the Prime Minister now for a month –
KELLY: Has Cabinet not looked at the report?
PRIME MINISTER: We haven’t got to that stage yet, so I’m working with the Attorney-General on those issues now.
KELLY: This is obviously an issue in Malcolm Turnbull’s old seat of Wentworth. Are you waiting until that by-election is over before you release it?
PRIME MINISTER: No, I mean the by-election is not the reason. We’re working on the report itself and I’m taking that issue through with the Attorney in a very calm and sober way. But I think people in Wentworth know, people of faith in Wentworth, people of belief and for whom religion is very important to them, know that I have a lot of strong passions in this area. And I want to make sure that their religious freedoms are protected, I mean I was at a function just last night. One of the most upsetting things I saw as a young fellow was when you drive past Temple Emanuel up there in Woollahara and there would be security guards outside. Now, you know, this is Australia. I mean when I go to church on a Sunday, I don’t need security guards outside my church, or when my kids go to Sunday school. That’s the reality for Jewish Australians and I just think that’s appalling. And so religious freedom means something very special to that community and they know I’ll stand with them –
KELLY: Independent member –
PRIME MINISTER: As will Dave Sharma.
KELLY: Independent candidate rather for Wentworth Kerryn Phelps says that, you know, the Government is not releasing it because it’s got something to hide, it’s not being “fair dinkum” with voters in Wentworth.
PRIME MINISTER: That’s rubbish. I mean look, I respect Kerryn, she’s an independent and she’s been around in public life for a long time. But she seems to be spending a lot of time attacking the Government and attacking the Liberal Party. I think that’s a clear message to the people of Wentworth that she’s no friend of the Liberal Party. She’s not looking to do the Liberal Party any favours and as a result she’s not a Liberal and you shouldn’t believe her if she pretends to be one.
KELLY: No but as you say, this is an important issue for the people of Wentworth?
PRIME MINISTER: It is and I think the people of Wentworth know my views on this very strongly. But you know I’m not going to rush into this. I’ve been in this job for, as you say, just a month and two days, this is a very important issue and I’m going to work through it carefully with the Attorney. Then, there will be a process for taking that through Cabinet and then there will be a process of engaging the community on it.
KELLY: Prime Minister, one thing you have got instructed fairly early on flows from the treatment of women in your Party and you’ve instructed the federal Liberal organization to come up with a process to fix it. What exactly would you have them do to stop the backstabbing and bullying behavior that several of your MPs have publically identified.
PRIME MINISTER: Well, for a start I don’t think this germane to the Liberal Party. I mean you only have to go out to Lindsay and see the soap opera that was happening out there with Emma Husar and what was happening –
KELLY: Sure, but within the Liberal Party, clearly you recognize it’s a problem if you’ve instructed your organization to fix it?
PRIME MINISTER: I certainly haven’t seen anything as chaotic as that in my time. But that said, that said I’ve asked for the federal parliamentary Party to look at their processes, to assure that there are complaints processes that are both rigorous and effective. So they’ll look at what’s happening in each of their divisions and then they’ll look at what can be done on a coordinated basis nationally and I’ll leave that job to them. That’s their job.
KELLY: Kelly O’Dwyer says the process should be independent, do you agree it should be conducted by someone outside?
PRIME MINISTER: Well I think that’s what a rigorous process does. I mean I think that’s implicit.
KELLY: Two women in your Party Room have quit ahead of the next election, another two have missed out on preselection in a Senate position and a seat they’ve held for, well one of them, for more than one election. Will you be embarrassed –
PRIME MINISTER: Sorry, you’re talking about –
KELLY: Jane Prentice.
PRIME MINISTER: Jane Prentice, no she’s been there for a while. Lucy Gichuhi came a cross form Family First so –
KELLY: That’s right, one of them has been in the seat for more than one election.
PRIME MINISTER: Yep.
KELLY: Are you embarrassed that you could be leading a Party that could have less than 20 women in it after the next election?
PRIME MINISTER: Well what I find interesting Fran is I haven’t seen much reporting on the preselection of Dr Fiona Kotvojs in Eden Monaro on the weekend, I mean she’s a great female candidate –
KELLY: It’s a pretty tight seat, she’s got to win it yet.
PRIME MINISTER: And that’s what we plan to do. That’s exactly what we plan to do and you’ve got Georgina Downer in Mayo, you’ve got Kate Ashmor in the seat of Macnamara, you’ve got Tanya Denison in the winnable slot in the Tasmanian Senate. You’ve got Claire Chandler, you’ve got –
KELLY: How many of those seats would you describe as winnable seats though? How many of those a re easily winnable seats?
PRIME MINISTER: The two Tasmanian Senate seats –
KELLY: Yeah, but in the House of Reps?
PRIME MINISTER: Oh, but just apart from those two you mean. [Laughter]
KELLY: No, no in the House of Reps. In the House of Reps, will we look at winnable –
PRIME MINISTER: Well we’ve got more selections to come Fran but what I’m saying is, I think it’s fair enough for people to say when a female candidate isn’t selected, but there doesn’t seem to be a lot of focus on when the Liberal Party does select a female candidate. So that’s what we’ve done and we’ll continue to do that. I look forward to more being selected but as always in the Liberal Party, we will always select what we believe is the best candidate for the job, like Dave Sharma in Wentworth. And I know people raise issues with quotas; well the only quota I think the Labor Party has excelled in, more than any, is having union officials fill the ranks of their parliamentary benches. They seem to have done pretty well on that score.
KELLY: Prime Minister, yesterday you came up with the idea of a new public holiday to celebrate Indigenous people and Indigenous heritage. Was this your idea? Where did this idea come from?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, can I stop you again? All I said Fran, was this – and I’m happy to have this debate, I think it’s a good discussion, I think Australians should have a chat – I simply said that I think it would be good, I was making the point that Australia Day is Australia Day and that will be the top national holiday of the year. Nothing else is set out to replace it or to provide an alternative to it. That is the national day where all Australians come together, First Australians, to our most recent. I then simply said this; that I’m happy to have a chat about how we can have greater recognition and honouring of our Indigenous peoples. And we should talk about that. Now, I haven’t said it’s a public holiday or not a public holiday, I haven’t –
KELLY: So you’re not talking about a public holiday?
PRIME MINISTER: I haven’t been so specific, I just think we should have a chat about it Fran. And I think we should and I haven’t got a problem with that, I’m not saying everyone has to agree with me. And if people disagree with me, that’s fine too. I’m not afraid to have this discussion, I think it’s a good discussion to have. We can’t turn our back on our history, but equally we don’t have to be in the mouth about it all the time either. I think we’ve got a lot to celebrate and I want to celebrate the achievements of Indigenous people in Australia, Indigenous and Torres Strait Islanders and in the ACT they have a day on the anniversary of the referendum in ’67. We have NAIDOC Week and a lot of people have said, yeah, we’ve got a lot of these. And so let’s just look at it and are we doing something which sufficiently acknowledges the great contribution and success of our Indigenous peoples? Some may say yes, some may so no. But I’ll tell you, one thing is for certain, Australia Day ain’t changing.
KELLY: Similarly, will you take a look at the Indigenous statement, the Uluru Statement From The Heart? It’s called for a constitutionally enshrined representative body for our First Nations people?
PRIME MINISTER: I don’t –
KELLY: That is a priority for a lot of Indigenous people.
PRIME MINISTER: I don’t support a third chamber –
KELLY: It’s not a third chamber they’re talking about necessarily.
PRIME MINISTER: No, no –
KELLY: It’s a representative body.
PRIME MINISTER: No it really is and –
KELLY: No, it’s not though.
PRIME MINISTER: People can dress it up any way they like but I think two chambers is enough and –
KELLY: But it’s not a chamber in Parliament that they’re referring to.
PRIME MINISTER: But the implications of how this works frankly lead to those same conclusions. I share the view that I don’t think that’s a workable proposal, but I also am passionate about the view – as I have been about reconciliation and about working together to ensure we can bring Australians together around these issues – but that doesn’t mean we have to agree on every proposal. But every proposal will be treated with respect and we will find the way forward.
KELLY: Prime Minister we’re almost out of time, but just on a story that’s in the news today. Are you concerned about the takeover proposal from a Hong Kong based infrastructure company of our biggest gas pipeline network? Some analysts think there could be a national security problem here?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, that issue will be dealt with carefully and the Treasurer oversees that role. As you know, under that legislation I used to have those responsibilities, that is actually a personal decision of the Treasurer under the legislation.
KELLY: I understand.
PRIME MINISTER: Not Cabinet. And There is a strong process that we actually put in place. At the time it was Attorney-General Brandis and I who set up the Critical Infrastructure Centre which looked at all the specific natures of the security aspects of all of our infrastructure around the country. Now the ACCC as you know has considered that issue and hasn’t found that there would be competition issues that would arise as a result of that application. But there’s still a process to go through and we’ll do that in a calm and measured way.
KELLY: Prime Minister thank you very much for joining us on Breakfast.
PRIME MINISTER: Thanks Fran it’s great to be here, cheers.
Doorstop - Auburn, NSW
25 September 2018
PRIME MINISTER: Our $75 billion infrastructure program is busting congestion in our cities, it’s connecting our rural sector to our ports and to our markets, it’s a plan that is building Australia, it’s making Australia even stronger. It’s making our economy even stronger, particularly as we connect up to those markets that we’re expanding through the trade agreements that have been put in place over the past five years as a Government. And every time we talk about what the infrastructure investment means, the dividend of it, you can see right here at Downer. It’s apprentices, it’s people in work, it’s people in jobs. And the long-term contracts that you see here on what is a State Government contract on the maintenance of the new trains and existing ones. That has been made possible by the increasing investment being made here by the NSW State Government following on from their asset recycling program of many years ago.
But that’s just one part of it. I mean Downer has around $2 billion worth of work which is going on, which is a result of their contracts with the Commonwealth Government. Everything from defence through to the Gold Coast Light Rail, all of these projects. So our investment in infrastructure is driving jobs, it’s driving economic opportunities, it’s leading to the investment in new facilities. And that’s what makes our economy strong, and when your economy is strong, you can do important things. You can invest in more MRI licences, as I announced on the weekend. You can invest $52 million in free vaccines for 14 to 19 years olds which we’ve also announced today, which will affect the lives of one million Australians over the next four years. You can invest in health, you can invest in schools, you can invest in affordable medicines. That is what a strong economy delivers. Later today, the Treasurer and the Finance Minister will be updating you on the final Budget outcome for the last financial year, which will show that we have continued the strong work of managing our finances to bring the Budget back towards a balance, on schedule for 2019-20, a year ahead of time. And so it is that strong economic management, it is that strong financial management, it is that focusing on investment, working together with states and territories to get this nation-building infrastructure on the ground that is making the difference.
Yesterday we were out turning the sod on Western Sydney Airport, and today here we’re looking at what’s happening in rail infrastructure and what’s happening in maintenance works and the investment being made in rail networks across the country. So planes yesterday, trains today, and Tudgey’s got a long list of road infrastructure projects for automobiles as well. And that’s the sort of thing that we need to continue to drive as a country, as an economy, and working very closely together with states and territories. I particularly want to commend the New South Wales Government, the Berejiklian Government, because they’ve been such a great partner with the Commonwealth on investing together in major infrastructure. So when we do things together, it frees them up to do even more things like you’re seeing here with the rail and stock programs that they’re rolling out in New South Wales. So I’ll ask Tudgey to make a few comments and then we’ll take some questions.
THE HON ALAN TUDGE MP, MINISTER FOR CITIES, URBAN INFRASTRUCTURE AND POPULATION: Thanks PM. Our Government has $75 billion worth of infrastructure being rolled out across the country. Now that includes huge projects such as the Western Sydney Airport, Tulla Rail down in Melbourne. But it also includes a lot of smaller congestion-busting projects around Australia as well. But it’s projects in every single major capital city across the country, every single one designed to bust congestion, make it easier for residents to get around our major cities, but it also as the Prime Minister says, creates valuable jobs for people to be able to come to places like this to work and then to be able to go home easily on those roads.
The Prime Minster mentioned the major roads which we’re doing. Just right next door from here WestConnex is one of those very big ones which we are jointly funding with the New South Wales Government. Stage 1A is already open, stage 1B is going to be open early next year, and then following stages there after that. The New South Wales Government has been a particularly strong partner for us at the federal level to be able to work on these big infrastructure projects. The Government here has worked hand in glove with us in designing the projects, co-funding the projects and getting those projects done on time and on budget, so I’d like to commend them. But of course we try to work and we do work cooperatively with all State Governments around the country as well.
It’s great to be here at Downer, thanks so much for having us here today in your 120th year of operation and it’s great to meet so many of the workers here who do terrific work servicing the fleet. They service 60 per cent of the fleet here in Sydney and they do absolutely mighty fine work.
PRIME MINISTER: Thanks. Just to point it out, Downer used to have about 40 per cent of their work which was out of the public sector. That’s gone up to 60 per cent and the investment in public infrastructure at both a Commonwealth and a State level has been a key driver of what’s been happening in our economy over the last few years in particular. And that’s enabled us to maintain the Triple A credit rating, it’s enabled us to ensure that the jobs growth has been at record levels, and so we have been pulling those levers. Whether it’s lower taxes, or increased infrastructure investment – that is what has been ensuring our economy remains strong. So congratulations, particularly those apprentices. I met Luke earlier today from out at Campbelltown, he’s been here for a few months, he’s just one of almost 1,000 apprentices, 60,000 employees for Downer across the country. That’s a great company doing a great job and they’re building Australia.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, why not move the date of Australia Day? Many people have a problem with that date, not necessarily creating another date.
PRIME MINISTER: Australia Day is the 26th of January. That was the day that Australia's course changed forever. It was 60,000 years of Indigenous history before that and modern Australia effectively started on that day. You can't change that. That's just what happened. That's just a fact, and I want Australia Day to be even more so a day where all Australians can come together. You look at your own life's experience, you look at the whole thing. You don't pretend your birthday was on a different day. What you do is you look at your whole life's experience. Your achievements and a few scars from some mistakes and things that you could have done better. And as Australians we need to reflect on all of that on Australia Day, but you know what, we have a lot more to be proud about than we have to be not so proud about. I mean Australia is the envy of the world and what I have announced today is two things. One is that any councils who want to misuse citizenship ceremonies, I mean that is a trust we give those councils, they are authorised to do that on behalf of the Commonwealth Government. Their job is to book the hall, conduct the ceremony with dignity and respect in accordance with the rules. Now, if they want to abuse that privilege and if they want to use it as a political football, it’s simple, we'll get someone else to do it. And that’s what we’ll be doing up in Byron Shire. But the vast majority of councils do respect that and I think it is a great day to celebrate Australia. It is a great day for new citizens in particular to become Australians and we want to preserve the integrity and respect of that. The other thing I've said is, you don't have to bring one day down to acknowledge other things happening in the country
And so I am open to a chat with the Australian people about how we could better acknowledge Indigenous Australians and our Indigenous peoples. There’s a lot to celebrate there too and I think we can do it with an optimistic spirit as a country. I think we can celebrate the fact that this is the world's oldest living culture and it is living here in Australia today right across the country. There are a range of opportunities to do that and I welcome the feedback. So look, we'll start that discussion. In the ACT, they already do celebrate a day in the ACT on the anniversary of the ‘67 Referendum. I'm sure there will be many other suggestions.
But you know, you don't have to bring some things down, to raise other things up. That's not how you build a stronger Australia. That's not how you keep Australians together.
JOURNALIST: [Inaudible] having a new day and taking on Ken Wyatt’s suggestion about having it within NAIDOC Week?
PRIME MINISTER: We can do, can absolutely have a recognition day during NAIDOC Week. I think NAIDOC Week, as time has gone on, has been a real positive experience in the schools, in communities and lots of people get more involved. I think it’s turning into quite a positive experience for Australians.
So I'm open to those suggestions. But Australia Day is Australia Day and that's the day all Australians come together and we recognise everyone from our First Australians to our most recent Australians becoming citizens on that day.
You can't pretend your history isn't your history. That's the day the flag went up in Farm Cove. That's the day the course of the nation changed. And from that point on, that's when the modern Australia began and we respect the 60,000 years of history before that and what Australia has become today, bringing us all together as one country.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister have you consulted Tony Abbott on this proposal?
PRIME MINISTER: I'm consulting everybody. I mean I'm just starting a discussion today. I haven't suggested a day or how it should work or anything like that. I'm just simply saying that I know there are some people who have expressed views about our current national day, based out of a deep empathy for Indigenous peoples and I think that's fair enough. There are others who are just doing it to showboat and I'm not going to have a truck with that. And if they want to use citizenship ceremonies to sort of promote that, well we're just going to say “no”.
But I think we can have both conversations. We can uphold Australia Day with great pride and at the same time, work together as a country to recognise the wonderful contribution of Indigenous peoples across the country.
JOURNALIST: Just in relation to aged care if I might, obviously more revelations last night. Two questions on that. Firstly the submissions close in relation to the Royal Commission, I think very shortly. Is that enough time that’s been given to those, to allow submissions to that royal commission? Secondly, what’s your thoughts on people filming? Filming their own loved ones and making sure that they’re alright, do you think that’s okay?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, two things. On the Royal Commission terms of reference, we're still working through that and I haven't given a hard and fast timeline as to when the terms of reference will be finalised. I'm working through that with the Minister for Health and the Minister for Senior Australians and Aged Care and of course the Attorney-General. And we're making quite a lot of progress on that and there is a lot of consultation that is occurring right now. And once we believe we're in a position to make an announcement on the terms of reference, we will. But I'm keen to ensure we get it absolutely right.
When it comes to the issues you've raised, look, I mean all Australians need to exercise their own judgement, their own judgement about how they engage in these sorts of things and it’s not for me to go around passing judgement on them.
JOURNALIST: Just on the departure of Ms Guthrie from the ABC, are you satisfied with the explanations the Board have given for Ms Guthrie’s departure?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, that's for the ABC board. They’re accountable for that, they’re an independent board. They employ the Chief Executive and I expect them to follow all their normal processes and protocols for that to occur. No one has advised me that that hasn’t occurred. Through the Minister, as I said yesterday, I was advised of the board's decision on Sunday night and they have taken that decision. And I look forward to them getting on with the job of recruiting and recommending a new managing director for the ABC.
And the ABC does important work around the country and particularly when I’ve been out in drought-affected areas, I mean the work the ABC does in rural and regional areas I think is incredibly important. In fact in the first few days in the job, I commended Macka for the incredible job he does on Australia, all over. Every week, he’s been doing it forever. He has been a voice of comfort and counsel and encouragement to rural people all across the country, but particularly as they’ve gone through this tough time. So these are important services that are delivered to the Australian people and I think Macka personifies all that's best about the ABC.
JOURNALIST: Just back on aged care, if I might, there’s a [inaudible]?
PRIME MINISTER: Sorry I just didn’t quite hear.
JOURNALIST: There’s a union proposal to see staffing ratios legislated? Obviously, very expensive, what’s your take? Would you support something like that?
PRIME MINISTER: Well the Royal Commission is going to look at all of these sorts of things. There have been two enquiries which haven’t supported that recommendation, so look, I’ll wait and see what the Royal Commission says. I’m not going to prejudge it. There have already been some enquiries which haven’t gone down that path. But you know, it’s not for me to prejudge what the Royal Commission thinks is a good way to go forward. And remember, the Royal Commission into Aged Care, yes it’s going to look at what has happened and it should. As I said, the country has to prepare itself for some bruising information about what has happened in residential aged care. But equally the Royal Commission is not just about that. Its about looking forward and understanding the big shifts that are happening in our community where you’ve now got Australians who are now going into residential aged care at a much more acute level of need. We need to get our heads around that and what is going to be required to ensure that Australians in the future can expect high standards of aged care in those facilities for the next 20 or 30 years. So there’s a very strong future focus to what we’re doing with this Royal Commission. But equally it’ll be addressing and shining a light on the things that will be, I imagine, pretty hard to watch.
JOURNALIST: Labor have got a future fund for universities, about $300 million is accounted for that. Do you, is there an idea that some of those universities [inaudible]?
PRIME MINISTER: Well we invested I think it was $1.9 billion in research infrastructure in our universities in the last Budget. If Labor want to spend, is it $300 million on sandstone in universities? Well, that’s for them to make those judgements. We’re investing in research infrastructure. We’re investing in supercomputers and quantum computing. We’re investing in the Bureau of Meteorology’s ICT platform, so they could better collect and disseminate the data to farmers, to universities, to research institutions, so they can be researching climate into the future.
We’re investing in not just the roads and the rail and the airports of Australia, we’re investing in the university research infrastructure which produces the technology and the discoveries that are going to drive our economy into the future. So you know, we announced that in the Budget, we’re getting on with investing in the infrastructure of our universities and the stuff that actually generates the knowledge. Buildings are fine but the research infrastructure that generates that knowledge is what is necessary and we outlined that in this year’s Budget. So anyway, it’s great to be here isn’t it Tudgey at ADI?
MINISTER FOR CITIES, URBAN INFRASTRUCTURE AND POPULATION: It sure is.
PRIME MINISTER: I wish you well for your 120th and it’s great to be seeing a lot of the guys here today. We’ll get out of their way so they can get back to work and keep the trains running. Good on you guys, cheers.
Interview with Keiran Gilbert, Sky News
25 September 2018
KEIRAN GILBERT: We’re joined live now by Prime Minister Scott Morrison. Prime Minister, thanks very much for joining us.
PRIME MINISTER: Hey Keiran.
GILBERT: Australia Day obviously a focus today for you, are you proposing a new national day for our Indigenous people, what date are you thinking and how would you see it being honoured?
PRIME MINISTER: Well all I’ve said is we should have a chat about that. I mean what I have particularly been saying today is that those Councils that want to use citizenship ceremonies – which are supposed to be about new citizens, bringing Australians together – those Councils that want to use that as some sort of political football to make some other political points, well, we’ll get someone else to book the hall and run the ceremony. That’s what we’ve said to Byron Shire Council, they won’t have the opportunity to run those ceremonies. Whatever else they do is their business, but Australia Day is our national day. It’s on the 26th of January. We don’t have to tear down Australia Day to ensure that we’re also acknowledging Indigenous Australians, our Indigenous peoples, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders. And I’m happy to have a chat about how we can do that.
I mean there are already things like NAIDOC Week and things like that and I think that’s all good. In the ACT they have a day on the 27th of May to recognise the ‘67 Referendum. But it is our oldest living, the world’s oldest living culture and I think we’ve got a story to tell about how that culture continues to live successfully and as such a key part of our nation.
But Australia Day, 26th January 1788, that is the day that our history changed in this country. And so to pretend there was some other day where that happened, I think, is just not being honest. That’s the day and we’ve got to come around together and deal with everything.
GILBERT: Yep. The former Prime Minister John Howard used to use the term “a black armband view of our history”, do you think those Councils like Byron Shire are adopting that view of our history?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, you know, I don’t think it’s helpful. Self-loathing doesn’t make the country stronger. I mean I said in my first speech that I’m for a full, high-definition, technicolour, you know, look at our history. We’ve got to look at it all and there are some scars, some deep scars of our history over the last 230 years. But there is so much to celebrate. I mean we don’t have to be so down on ourselves all the time. I mean our country is the envy of the world, we should celebrate it and we don’t have to bring, you know, days like Australia Day down, to actually raise others up. I mean this is why I think it’s the same when I talk about taxes and the economy. You don’t have to punish some people for others to do better. I mean, you bring Australians together and we’ll all do better.
GILBERT: On a few other issues, I know you’ve got an announcement to make this morning, but I want to ask you about a few other things that have been developing the last few days. The New South Wales Education Minister Rob Stokes said the funding deal that you announced doesn’t treat every student with fairness. You suggested that once Rob had the chance to look at the details you were sure that he would see that his comments doesn’t weigh up with what you’ve announced. But he hasn’t changed his view, have you spoken to your New South Wales counterpart the Premier Berejiklian?
PRIME MINISTER: Yeah we’ve had a few chats about this and Dan Tehan has been talking to the Minister and I’m sure they’ll see the benefits of this programme which will see, you know,$1.5 billion invested in schools in addition, in New South Wales. That’s on top of the record funding we’re putting into state schools in New South Wales. I mean there’s more money for state schools, there’s more money for independent schools, there’s more money for Catholic schools. So that’s what I think parents want and that’s what we’re delivering. And the only reason we can do it, is because we’re running a strong economy. I mean it’s the reason why today we’re announcing $52 million for vaccines for meningococcal for young people, between 14 and 19. That’s going to benefit 1 million Australians over the next four years. You can only do this if you run the strong economy. And so whether it’s on education, hospitals – on the weekend I announced the MRI licenses, $170 million, 30 new licenses. A strong economy delivers that not politicians’ promises.
GILBERT: So you’re confident you’ll get them across the line in the end, that NSW Liberal Government?
PRIME MINISTER: Yeah I am.
GILBERT: Okay, the final Budget outcome for 2017/18 is out today. Is it the plan for a return to surplus, to balance, in 2019/20 and that pre-election promises will be funded from extra revenue and a growing economy rather than further cuts?
PRIME MINISTER: Well we have been focusing on growing the economy and getting investment moving in the country. And that’s why we’ve seen and we’ve been focusing on getting people off welfare and into work. These have been the key reasons why we’ve seen the improvement in our bottom line as a Budget. We’ve taken strong decisions on expenditure, we’ve taken strong decisions around how we’ve tightened up entitlements. All of this together has improved a much stronger Budget position so we can do the things that I’ve just been talking about, whether it’s our infrastructure investments, our investments in health services. We’ve had a trajectory to get the Budget back into balance first in 2021 and in this year I announced that would come forward to 2019-20 and we remain on track for that. We’ll just continue to stick to that plan. By running a strong economy, we are able to stick to that plan, that’s why we’ve kept our AAA credit rating, which last week was upgraded. As you know Kieran, that was under a lot of pressure, ever since the last election. Straight after the last election in July they put the AAA credit rating on a negative watch, said you’ve got two years. Well, we spent those two years and we’ve got it back up at a stable, through the effective financial management and you’ll see some of the dividends of that today when the Treasurer and the Finance Minister outlines that final outcome for 2017/18.
GILBERT: President Trump said this morning on North Korea that a lot of very positive things are happening with Kim Jong-un and he’s going to be meeting Kim Jong-un again in the not too distant future. Do you welcome that development?
PRIME MINISTER: Well of course I do and to quote the President on so many other issues; “Let’s just see what happens.” And I commend him for his efforts and I’m looking forward to catching up with him later in the year. But this is a very significant issue and I’m pleased that he feels he’s making that progress.
GILBERT: Do you plan to visit the White House anytime soon, is that on the agenda?
PRIME MINISTER: I have no immediate plans no, I have got plenty to do just here. I’ll have the opportunity looking forward to that at the G20 later this year, as well as catching up with Vice President Pence at the other major summits. I mean I haven’t gone off to the United Nations this week, it’s their General Assembly Week. I’m represented there by the Foreign Minister. There’s a lot to do here Kieran and I’m 100 per cent focused on right here.
GILBERT: There’s a big focus on the weekend, I’ll get in early, it would be remiss of me if I didn’t ask you your tips for the big ones?
PRIME MINISTER: Well I’m backing the Roosters in the NRL and I would love to see Perth bring it home in the AFL. My team is out, Cronulla is out in the AFL, they were taken out by the Storm. The Storm were the better team last weekend, sadly for us. But I think the Roosters will come home on the day, I think they’ve been the consistent team all year and I don’t know whether Billy Slater will be in or not, we’ll see. Cooper Cronk will be a big loss but Latrell Mitchell being back in for the Roosters I think will be a big bonus for them. I can’t give you much commentary on the AFL because as you know I’m not an expert on that game by any stretch, but I think it’ll be a great spectacle and I’m looking forward to being there with the thronging crowds in Melbourne.
GILBERT: Yeah should be superb as always. Thanks so much Prime Minister, we’ll talk to you soon.
PRIME MINISTER: Thanks mate, cheers.
Interview with Georgie Gardner, Today Show
25 September 2018
GEORGIE GARDNER: Prime Minister Scott Morrison joins us now from Auburn in Sydney. Prime Minister, good morning to you.
PRIME MINISTER: G'day Georgie.
GARDNER: What offends you about that decision?
PRIME MINISTER: Well I just don't know why people have to always bring Australia down and engage in this sort of thing. I mean we have citizenship ceremonies, they’re held all around the country, they’re supposed to be about new citizens. But when Councils want to use these as a political football, well I’ve decided we’ll just remove their ability to hold those. We’ll get someone else to do them, who are prepared to do it with the dignity and the respect that it should be done.
Australia Day is our national day. That is the day that Australia's history changed and it should be a day to recognise all Australians, from our first to our most recent. I don't think engaging in this sort of indulgent self-loathing, is how I described it, actually makes our country stronger. I mean I want to bring Australians together around this day and that’s why I’ve also said today that I’m very open to the idea of having a national day where we can particularly focus on the achievements and the success of our Indigenous peoples in a very positive way.
So you don't have to bring one down to raise another up. We should raise everybody up and bring everything together.
GARDNER: And everyone would, I guess, embrace such a sentiment, but the chief executive of Reconciliation Australia, Karen Mundine once said; “Changing the date of Australia Day is a relatively small task and asking Indigenous people to celebrate on January 26 is like asking them to dance on their ancestor's graves”. It’s the date that is the issue, isn't it?
PRIME MINISTER: But that is the date, that is the date the ships turned up. That is the date that 60,000 years of history in this country moved in to the most recent, modern form of our history. We can't pretend it was some other day that that happened. That is the day it happened. That is the day where we have got to deal with everything and we’ve got to embrace it all, warts and all. Accept our successes and acknowledge where we haven't done so well. There are scars from things that have happened over the last 200 years and more and we look at that like anyone looks at their entire life. I mean, is it not all perfect. It doesn't always go the way you would want it to and our national day is an opportunity to reflect on all of that, but ultimately to be positive. So I do want to acknowledge the incredible success of Indigenous culture - which is the world's oldest living culture – and modern Australia. And we can do both. We can come together around both of these things.
GARDNER: No, no one wants to fight, you’re right about that. But I guess there will always be those who see January 26 as “Invasion Day”. You’re proposing a new day altogether to honour Indigenous Australians, just explain how that would work? Who have you consulted about that, in terms of indigenous leaders?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, I am just opening a chat on that, Georgie, we’re starting that process. That’s what we should have a chat about. I’m keen to have the views of Australians, Indigenous Australians, the States and Territories. I mean we should have a chat about that and I think that’s fine. But the key point I’m making today is, when Councils want to go and play politics with citizenship ceremonies - I mean if they want to put their local day on another day, that is up to them. But they don't get to say when citizenship ceremonies are used and they don't get to use citizenship ceremonies as some form of taxpayer-funded GetUp! exercise.
What it should be about is those new citizens, the celebration of our national day and embracing all Australians and ensuring we can all come together. When it comes to this other opportunity, well, I’m open to suggestions. In the ACT they do this I think on May 27 which is the recognition of the Referendum back in 1967. That’s already happening in the ACT. So let's have a chat about it, that is all I am saying.
GARDNER: Alright, let's add that to your to-do list Prime Minister, because you’ve been in the job for just month and boy, oh boy, you haven't stopped! From the drought, to aged care, Catholic school funding, strawberry sabotage saga, you have been described as a man in constant motion. “ScoMomentum” they’re calling you, fair assessment?
[Laughter]
PRIME MINISTER: Ray Price, when he used to play all those years ago, they used to cause him “Mr Perpetual Motion”, when he was out there on the field, that’s what I remember when I was a kid. But you know, I think Australians expect you to be getting on and doing things. That’s what we are doing as a Government. We have been doing that over the last five years and we are getting a lot done. I mean I am particularly pleased today that we’re announced $52 million for the meningococcal vaccine program which is going to be great for 14 to 19 year olds. I remember when I was that age I had a bit of a scare around that and the fact that today we’ll be able to do that, a million Australians over the next four years will get an opportunity to have that free vaccine. So that’s a great thing.
But you can't do that stuff without a strong economy and that’s why our Government is so focused on making sure our economy is strong, so you can pay for things like those vaccines or other affordable medicines, Medicare, more funding for schools and hospitals.
GARDNER: Alright, I want to get to that just, again in just a second. But the latest Newspoll shows you have clawed back some ground. Your Government, still though, is in big trouble and headed for a huge defeat. How are you going to shift people's mindset?
PRIME MINISTER: Sure, look, we have a long way to go. I know Bill Shorten thinks he’s already got it sewn up and wrapped up and he is measuring up the curtains and all the rest of it. But look, I’m just going to keep calling it as it is Georgie. I’m just going to be myself. Over Government has done a lot over the last five years.
We’ve been balancing the Budget, getting that back into balance. Investing in important services. $75 billion we’re investing in infrastructure which is supporting jobs all around the country including where I am today. That’s what I think Australians are looking for; that strong economy, the services they rely on, keeping Australians safe and keeping Australians together. So that’s what I’m sharing with the country and just being myself.
GARDNER: You’re on a roll. When are we heading to the polls, then?
PRIME MINISTER: That’s next year. There’s plenty of time for that. That’ll be next year and we’ll continue on with the job of governing in the interests of all Australians.
GARDNER: When next year?
PRIME MINISTER: Next year, 2019.
Interview with Samantha Armytage and Natalie Barr, Sunrise
25 September 2018
SAMANTHA ARMYTAGE: Prime Minister Scott Morrison joins me now from Auburn in Sydney's west.
PRIME MINISTER: Good morning Sam.
ARMYTAGE: Shouldn't local government have the right to decide what is best for their community when it comes to celebrations?
PRIME MINISTER: Not when it comes to holding citizenship ceremonies. That is a responsibility of the Commonwealth Government. Citizenship ceremonies shouldn’t be used as a political football. They are about new Australians becoming new Australians and becoming part of our national family. It’s the job of councils to book the hall, run the ceremony with dignity and respect and not use it as a political football. If councils want to get into that, well, they won’t be given that opportunity to host those ceremonies and we will be stripping that responsibility from the Byron Shire Council for that very reason. There are other people who can do them, who want to do it properly. If councils want to act up like that, well the Commonwealth can always go somewhere else. Citizenship is about the citizens. It’s not about the egos of counsellors.
NATALIE BARR: You also want to create a new national day for Indigenous Australians. Do you have a preferred date for that?
PRIME MINISTER: I have said just today that it would be good to have a chat about it. We should think about it. I mean, we don't have to pull Australia Day down to actually recognise the achievements of Indigenous Australians, the oldest living culture in the world. The two can coexist. And so, Australia Day was that fulcrum point. The 26th of January 1788 - that was the day that Australia changed forever. We can't just pretend like it wasn't that day something else happened. We should be acknowledging, I think, the great work of Indigenous Australians and their contribution to our nation. I think there’s opportunities about that. I'm happy to have a consultation about that, talk to the states and territories, Indigenous communities, hear back from Australians. But you don't have to tear down one group to raise up another and that’s something I feel very strongly about that. We can recognise the contributions of all Australians from our first to our most recent.
BARR: But I guess Mr Morrison, we've been talking and maybe arguing about another Indigenous day for several years now. So to put this out in the public arena, haven't you got an idea for another date?
PRIME MINISTER: Well I’ve got some private thoughts but I'm more interested to know what other Australians think. I mean in the ACT, for example, they note May 27, which is the anniversary of the ‘67 referendum, which recognised Australian people in our Constitution. I mean that’s a pretty significant day I think for Indigenous Australians. But it is not a day for being down in the mouth. It should be a day for celebrating and acknowledging and respecting our Indigenous peoples, our Aboriginal peoples, our Torres Strait Islander peoples, and what they've been able to achieve over 60,000 years plus. And particularly in a modern Australia.
ARMYTAGE: Do you see this, Prime Minister, as being like Australia Day? As being a public holiday and a huge national celebration?
PRIME MINISTER: I'm not getting too far ahead of myself on this, or the country. I think it’s important, states and territories, they decide ultimately what a public holiday is. There gazette those and there are implications for businesses and so one and I'm sure they’d have views. I'm happy to have a chat about it but my point was this. You’ve got a whole of people who are trying to tear down Australia Day. I know some people are motivated by the fact that they want to recognise Indigenous people more and I get that. There are others who are just being goons about this. We’re not going to cop that. That’s why we’ll take citizenship ceremonies away in those circumstances. But we… you don’t have to do drag some people down to lift others up. It's the same when I talk about tax. Why do you have to tax people more to tax others less? That’s not how you bring Australians together. I want to bring Australians together about this, not drive them apart.
ARMYTAGE: Ok, alright Prime Minister, well we appreciate your time today telling us this idea. We will let you get back to the trains. Yesterday was it was planes, trains tomorrow, automobiles no doubt.
PRIME MINISTER: That’s right, it’s great to be here, thanks for your time.