Media Releases
Doorstop, Huonville Tasmania
4 February 2019
THE HON WILL HODGMAN MP, PREMIER OF TASMANIA: I will just very briefly take the opportunity to welcome the Prime Minister and to also welcome back Senator Linda Reynolds to the Huon. There are a number of my parliamentary colleagues who are here today and a lot of community leaders who are wanting to come together and show a community that is under strain and under stress, that the government understands that and we’re coming together to provide support, assistance to show that we are listening and that we care about what’s happening in this community. We’ll do all we can to assist them through what could of course be something that impacts this community for a number of weeks yet. From the very start I’ve been in close contact with the Prime Minister and my federal colleagues to ensure that we’re working in sync and that our efforts are well-targeted so that the Commonwealth is fully aware of the situation on the ground here, particularly in the Huon and to also make sure that state resources are being well-applied to fight the fires and assist local government as well, in their efforts in the recovery process which is now already underway and which will go on for some time yet.
Our focus has always been about providing that support to these communities, not only to show we care, but to take actions that supports people through these difficult times. To protect people and property, to support our hard-working members of the fire service including our volunteer force, to welcome those who have come here in a truly national effort from every state and territory. We thank them and also the local government authority here under Mayor Bec Embers, who continues to do a great job.
Our focus and what we’ve spent our time on, is ensuring we’re working together, collaborating and to show that we are supportive of this community in it’s time of need. That’s why it’s fantastic to have the Prime Minister here today at short notice, a true demonstration that the Federal Government is very much similarly very keen to understand what’s happening here on the ground and also what we can do to support. Prime Minister?
PRIME MINISTER: Well thank you. First of all, can I thank you all for the opportunity to be here with you today and Assistant Minister Reynolds. Linda has been on the ground here for a couple of days now and as Will said, we've been keeping in close contact now for some time about what have been ferocious fires right across Tasmania as it's incinerated wilderness areas.
But I must admit that having received the briefing this morning, I want to tell Australians that here in Tasmania, they’ve done an extraordinary job in trying to mitigate and limit the impact of these fires. Not just when it comes to property and of course, most importantly, lives; and it is one of the points that is worth acknowledging, that despite the ferocity of these fires, that that property damage has been limited in relative terms. But also, we've had no lives lost. That is something that I think we can note today and be very appreciative of.
But there has also been a lot of work to try and protect the natural heritage here as well. Places like the Walls of Jerusalem, Cradle Mountain, all of these are unaffected by these fires. I want Australians to know that, please come to Tasmania again soon. Please come soon. This state will be looking to support - whether it's here in the Huon or elsewhere - communities around the state that have been affected by these fires and the way all Australians can help Tasmanians and those affected here is by coming and visiting and experiencing one of the great natural wonders of the world.
The people are just as friendly, if not more. The coffee is still just as good. The salmon is better than ever. All of this is fantastic. Tasmania is a wonderful place to come and visit. It's important that we get that message out about Tasmania and that we would encourage people to come and visit and stick with their plans to come and have a great time here in this wonderful state.
Of course while the Premier and I and Linda and my other ministers, will be working closely together with the State Government to ensure the rehabilitation and the recovery from these fires, both from a tourism business point of view and more broadly, we're enlisting, I suppose, Australians in that venture as well. We'll be looking forward to working closely with the Hodgeman Government as Tasmania, Huon and other parts of the state rebuild. And they will, they will.
Today marks 10 years since the Black Saturday fires in Victoria. Tonight there will be a memorial and commemoration of that event in Melbourne. It's a reminder that of the devastation of those times, did come a rebuilding, did come a recovery. As I've moved around the Recovery Centre here and I’ve spoken to people and down in the town, spoking to the chopper pilots, the firies and people from parks, what I hear back is the sense of the resilience and community that always comes to the fore in times like this.
I’ve got to say, we'll be seeing exactly the same thing up in Townsville and the surrounds at the moment. While Tasmania is gripped by fire presently, in Townsville, it's floods. And just as all Australians' hearts have gone out to people here in Tasmania, the same is very much with the people of Townsville and the surrounding districts up there in the floods at the moment where they're facing, as we speak, the biggest of challenges. So that's why today, in the same way that Linda announced here yesterday for the affected areas here in Tasmania, we've announced the emergency assistance arrangements for Townsville today, that's been announced up there.
It is always a pleasure to see Australia at its best. Here in the Huon, we're seeing Australia at its best. I want to commend everyone for the volunteer effort they've put in, those who've opened up their homes. Those who have volunteered, to support those who are out fighting the fires. I particularly thank those firefighters who've come from interstate as well, not just the volunteers here who've been turning up, those who've come from across the ditch, the specialist firefighters who've come across from New Zealand. We've had around 1,500 firefighters rotate through this fire and there will be more to come in the weeks ahead. It’s not over yet. That's a tremendous coordinated effort and I saw that in Hobart this morning when I had my briefing on how that is all coming together. They have a good handle on what the risks are. They’ve got a great plan for dealing with it Will and I think it’s a real tribute to the leadership of the Fire Service here as to how they’re staying on top of it and seeking to manage the impacts as best they can. So look, I’m happy to take some questions on those issues broadly, one last thing. I want to thank the business owners who are supporting the volunteers who are here. I want to ask them to continue to provide that support. There are people here whose kids are going back to school and they’ll feel the need obviously and will have need to go back to work. I want to thank the employers who are allowing their firefighters to come and volunteer here and be here. Those firefighters are serviing, you’re service too, by allowing them to be here. I want to thank the business community and other employers who are out there, lending that support by making them available.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister Greens Senator Nick McKim says the fires have been made worse by your love of coal and you should be on your knees apologising to residents. Will you be doing that today?
PRIME MINISTER: I find that a pretty offensive suggestion and he might want to focus on just caring for the community, than making cheap shots.
JOURNALIST: Why has it taken two weeks to get here?
PRIME MINISTER: I’ve been keeping closely updated with what’s occurring here and I’m very pleased to be here today.
JOURNALIST: How much money is the federal Government willing to contribute to Tasmania’s firefighting effort?
PRIME MINISTER: We have a standing arrangement in terms of what is done in terms of in situations like this. We’re following those and Linda you might want to comment on how those arrangements are working. But look, I see this in all these types of events; the states and territories work very closely together with the Commonwealth and there are standing arrangements that kick in.
JOURNALIST: But is there a figure?
PRIME MINISTER: I’ll let Linda make a comment on that.
SENATOR THE HON LINDA REYNOLDS CSC, ASSISTANT MINISTER FOR HOME AFFAIRS: Thank you Prime Minister. As I mentioned to you yesterday, there is no cap, but there are a number of programmes that we’ve enacted in consultation with the Tasmanian Government. So initially the support we’re providing is that needed immediately by the Tasmanian authorities to fight fires and also for the evacuees and other people in the community who need that emergency relief and shelter. So as I announced yesterday with the Premier the Disaster Recovery Allowance has been activated and so people who have had the income affected because they can’t get to work, their sole business for example – we talked to Fiona today who’s café down at Geeveston which I recommend everybody go and visit – so we’re providing that sort of support. It is uncapped, it is by need. As we move forward over the months and years probably to come, given the scale of this disaster, I’ll be working still with the Premier, with Michael Ferguson, your state Minister and the Commonwealth will be providing all the required resources to go through the recovery and reconstruction phase. So there is no cap, it’s as needed and as per our agreement.
PRIME MINISTER: I just want to make a point on top of that; there are other supports. There’s the Building Better Regions Fund which actually can support tourism businesses and that fund is available. I mean the aerial assets that you’re seeing in place, the communications arrangements, these are all joint-funded initiatives that are pout together as part of the standing arrangements to deal with disasters right across Australia. So, these things kick in. So how much? As much as is needed, as much as is asked for under those arrangements and the Commonwealth will just continue to meet all of our responsibilities here enthusiastically, leaning forward into it, working in close partnership.
JOURNALIST: Do you have any idea about how many people may be affected and need that funding?
PRIME MINISTER: Not at this stage and the funding is there to support the demand. It’s a demand-driven programme, so as many as need it will be given it.
JOURNALIST: What are you doing to ensure Tasmania’s wilderness World Heritage areas are being protected in these fires?
PRIME MINISTER: Will might want to comment on that as well, but one of the impressive things I’ve seen here is the way the Parks Services here have been taking those precautionary steps. Linda was just reminding me this morning of some of the work they’ve been doing in terms of the sprinkler system that were put as defensive lines against some of the more sensitive parts of the wilderness assets that are here. So I think it’s a very forward looking, innovative, technology-driven approach and these are responsibilities that sit primarily obviously, with state governments but we’re always keen to support these things where we think we can lend a role. But I’ve got to say Tasmania is right on top of it Will.
PREMIER OF TASMANIA: Yeah and look, I’d just make some observations about what we’ve been doing to prevent bushfires, wildfires, as best we can across a very expansive natural estate. As reticent as I am to, myself, engage in any political arguments, it has been the Greens and environmentalists who in the past have been critical of us undertaking fuel reduction burns. We’ve put about $55 million in and considerably increased our effort to reduce fuel loads across the state for times such as this. It’s been attributed to preventing a broader-scale fire activity on the west coast fires that are currently underway. So we’ve been taking preventative action to reduce fuel loads and to ensure that those communities most at risk – and they’re right across the state – have less of the fuel-load threat to them.
ASSISTANT MINISTER FOR HOME AFFAIRS: Can I just add to that. In the briefings that I’ve had over the last couple of days, I’ve been extraordinarily impressed with the Parks and Wildlife Services’ approach. You’re doing things here in Tasmania that I don’t think any other state or territory is doing. As the Prime Minister has said, it’s the sprinklers in the areas of most natural importance and heritage significance. But it’s also, I saw yesterday firsthand that you’re actually making sure you know where all the raptor nests are, you know where all the beehives are and so it’s not just the trees, but it’s also that they’re doing an extraordinary job making sure that after lives and property, that your natural heritage and those businesses were protected. So it’s certainly something that I’m going to take back to the Ministerial Council and also highlight to other states and territories. Because they’ve done an extraordinary job.
JOURNALIST: Just on other matters [inaudible]?
PRIME MINISTER: Before we go to other matters, I might make a comment about some other matters and then I’m happy to take some questions on those things. But are there any other questions on issues relating to - ?
JOURNALIST: [Inaudible]?
PRIME MINISTER: Yeah, please. I’m very happy to, this is why I’m here.
JOURNALIST: Would you consider calling in international resources to help with water bombing in remote alpine areas, either Premier or Prime Minister?
PRIME MINISTER: Well these arrangements are already being met by the aerial assets programmes we already have in place. We already have around - what was it – I think around 25 kiwis who are here who are part of a specialist firefighting unit. I mean they’re literally like firefighting commandos. They get dropped in to these quite remote areas and they have highly specialised skills. There are Australian firefighters who also have those skills and they’re working together in what is quite an elite team and the coordination of that is, I think, quite impressive. So that need is already being met.
ASSISTANT MINISTER FOR HOME AFFAIRS: Just on that, the Federal Government has committed an extra $11 million this year to the National Aerial Firefighting Centre and it’s done an extraordinary job. So there will be a lot of lessons learned for us nationally again out of this programme. So as the Prime Minister was briefed this morning, Tasmania has seven aerial assets based here on the east coast mostly, in Tasmania. That has been seamlessly supplemented by up to another 30 aerial assets, everything from additional helicopters to fixed wing aircraft, to the very large bombing assets. I think this is going to be one of the as yet untold, great stories to come out of these protracted fires.
PRIME MINISTER: Most pilots who have come – we were chatting with the pilots – there was one here from Brisbane, there was one here from Canada too – so he’s a boot.
ASSISTANT MINISTER FOR HOME AFFAIRS: Yes, so they’ve done an extraordinary job. The very large tankers have been flying in on rotation from Avalon Airfield in Melbourne, so have a talk to them, they’re fantastic.
PRIME MINISTER: The need is being met with our standing arrangements. Anything else on those matters? I particularly want to say that Senator Abetz and Senator Colbeck are here with us as well today and I want to thank you guys for the work you’ve been doing. This is your home as it is Will’s and I’m told he’s run around this park a few times maybe a few years ago maybe not too many and he’s very much a part of this community. So I want to thank you Will for your welcome to your home here today and to Tasmania. I’m here just to stand with the people of the Huon and the people of Tasmania, I want to thank them for their great spirit as I’ve moved around and chatted, that humble resilience that we see in Australian communities all across our country and it’s very much on display here. While this is a difficult time, you always see things to celebrate and the nature of the people and their resilience and their generosity and their grace I think is extraordinary. I thank them and commend them.
JOURNALIST: Just one more on the fires again?
PRIME MINISTER: Sure.
JOURNALIST: We’ve seen so many resources called in from interstate and overseas, is there a need for more funding and more resources based in Tasmania, just to nip things in the bud before they get to this point?
PRIME MINISTER: Well look – Will may want to comment on that but this is the whole point of our national approach to managing the assets that are available. It is meant to be able to actually move and be flexible to bring those assets to bear where they’re needed, to anywhere around the country. So there are assets that are present in the state and there are others that can be called in at very short notice. I think that’s what we’ve seen here today and I think what we’re seeing is that programme and those standing arrangements are working. We’re always boosting those resources and funding.
PREMIER OF TASMANIA: Yeah and it’s something obviously that once this event passes, we will of course take the opportunity to talk with other jurisdictions in the Commonwealth about how we best coordinate our effort. One of the first questions I’ve asked and my minister has asked from day one, is whether or not we have satisfactory capability here in Tasmania and whether with supplementation from forces from interstate, that’s adequate to meet the fire challenge we face. The answer has been unequivocally yes. We do have that capability. It does not mean that there wont be lessons we learn from this experience, there will of course be an opportunity to again revisit this once the event passes. But the most important thing that Tasmanians can be assured of – and this comes from experts, true experts, not those who are in the game of offering political advice and gratuitous advice, this comes from our experts that are fighting the fires, whether it be our aerial capability or on the ground, supplemented by those who have come from other places, which we are so grateful for – we have the capability to fight the fires.
ASSISTANT MINISTER FOR HOME AFFAIRS: Just one final note on that is, again reminds, the question is that these are very important assets. The aerial assets are very, very important and they’ve made a very significant difference here, but still, it is still the men and women on the ground from the Tasmanian fire service that have done an extraordinary job over the last week fighting these fires. The aerial assets are important but they assist the men and the women on the ground. What they have done is they’ve used them in very clever ways, each different aircraft, to actually assist those on the ground to get in and actually fight some of these fire fronts. So they’re an important tool but it never replaces the men and women on the ground.
PRIME MINISTER: Any other questions? Okay, well let me make a couple of comments about other issues. I don’t plan to be making any comments, obviously, on the Royal Commission at this press conference, there is a process in place for that. There is a lockup that is going on this afternoon and the Treasurer will be releasing the Government’s response to the royal commission later today and that’s the appropriate time for any comments on that matter, particularly given that markets are open at the moment. We have a very careful process for managing the release of this very significant report and the Government’s response.
On the second, I just want to confirm again, what the Minister for Immigration has announced this morning. That is, that the Government must remain in control of our border protection regime. It cannot be subcontracted out to anybody, anybody at all. So what we’ve announced today is the Government will be ensuring, solidifying the fact that the Government remains in control of our border protection framework. What we’re doing is we’re putting in place an independent panel to be appointed by the government, by Cabinet, no one else. The Government will appoint those members. This is a process of transparency and assurance over the processes that we have in place to manage medical issues in relation to services and support that are available in Nauru and Manus. We are not taking away the decisions one bit, from those officials and clinical professionals that are currently making those decisions, but I believe it is an improvement to the system, to ensure that there is a review process for those clinical decisions. That where that review process suggests that particular clinical matters should be reconsidered, that can be done. That would be done through the Home Affairs Department but the final decision will remain with the Home Affairs Department and there will be a biannual reporting process for the purpose of transparency, back to the Parliament, through the Joint Standing Committee on Migration. These are improvements to, I believe our border protection framework. Because it gives Australians the assurance and that transparency that no longer will we have a place where people can go and make all sorts of outrageous allegations against those who are providing medical care in these places, there will be the assurance of an independent panel that will report to the Parliament. I think that will provide that certainty and that guarantee but the process will remain as it is and this provides, I think, the right type of assurance for Australians who - like we are all – are concerned about the welfare of any individuals. So what the Parliament does next week is a matter for them. But I do know this and I’m writing to the Leader of the Opposition today, it’s a pretty clear message and I made it very clear yesterday; with the last four of the children who were on Nauru, with their bags packed and ready to go to the United States, we will have gotten all the children off Nauru. That’s what we’ve achieved as a Government and we’ve done it without compromising our border protection framework. Secondly these new transparency and assurance arrangements for the delivery of health services which includes additional mental health services in Papua New Guinea, will mean that Australians can be very confident about the way that those services are being delivered. The bill that Labor currently supports would see offshore processing regional processing abolished as we know it. It would basically render it useless in our border protection framework because it would subcontract out those decisions from the Government, to any two clinicians on Skype. There wouldn’t even have to be, wouldn’t even have to be an understood treatment requirement only the need to be able to see the patient in person. These patients are being seen in person by clinicians in each of these countries and the independent process with the panel will give Australians the assurance that will now be oversighted. So there is no reason whatsoever for Labor to abolish offshore processing as we know it and I would urge the Leader of the Opposition to change their position on this. Because what will happen, the advice we have received from our security agencies is, that this will see detention centres reopened in Australia, hundreds of people being transferred from regional processing locations to Australia within weeks and months. This will come at great cost and then we will see the boats start again. There is no reason to support these amendments other than cheap politics of trying to pull on a vote in the House of Representatives next week. So that’s what that issue is about. Bill Shorten should reconsider his position and put the national interest first.
JOURNALIST: Did Cabinet approve this change?
PRIME MINISTER: Yeah it was approved by the National Security Committee of Cabinet.
JOURNALIST: Have you had any, regard from independent Cathy McGowan? Has she indicated to your Government whether she backs this change?
PRIME MINISTER: I’ve been in discussions with Cathy for months -
JOURNALIST: You said in December; “We’ve got a clear policy, it’s working it’s worked for five years.” What has actually changed between now and then?
PRIME MINISTER: Well nothing has changed, I’m simply providing a layer of assurance and transparency. I think we’re adding, adding to this. I mean I think these debates over the last few months have said that the public are looking for greater assurance. Now I don’t have a problem with that and I’m happy to provide it. But the border protection framework is unchanged, it is not compromised one inch. I would never compromise a border protection framework that I built.
JOURNALIST: So is it actually necessary, this kind of …?
PRIME MINISTER: I think it provides an assurance to the health services that are being provided, to Australians and it actually protects the border protection framework from I think, the spurious and unfair commentary that is made on the delivery of those services. So I think it improves public confidence in the integrity of the system.
JOURNALIST: Are you announcing this to avoid possible embarrassment next week when Phelps’ bill is debated in Parliament?
PRIME MINISTER: No, it is a decision of the Government that is proceeding, it is made in it’s own right. What I’m saying to Bill Shorten is, don’t blame the independents if you’re going to go and dismantle Australia’s border protection framework.
They’re already going to get rid of temporary protection visas and provide permanent visas to people who have illegally entered Australia.
They have already made that decision. Now they’ve already made a decision to abolish offshore processing and regional processing, by contracting out the powers over that to people other than the Government.
So two of the key planks are gone under Labor and Labor should reconsider their position. I’ve simply provided further assurance about the medical processes that are already in place. I think that adds to the system and I consider it a step up, not a step back.
JOURNALIST: But why announce it now, one week out?
PRIME MINISTER: Because I had to take it through Cabinet.
JOURNALIST: Are you confident in Ian Goodenough’s position?
PRIME MINISTER: Yes.
JOURNALIST: Can you guarantee he’s done nothing wrong?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, that’s a matter for the independent processes that have been set up to investigate any of those matters, so I’m not going to prejudice those, I’m not going to prejudice Ian either. I don’t think it’s a good thing to do to jump to any conclusions, there’s an independent process for that and I’m sure it will do its job and Ian, I know, will be very happy to work with that.
JOURNALIST: Are we close to getting a final signature on the Hobart City Deal?
PRIME MINISTER: Yes.
JOURNALIST: Any idea of the timeframe for that?
PRIME MINISTER: Soon.
JOURNALIST: We’ve been saying that since before Christmas.
PRIME MINISTER: Yeah well that means it’s even sooner.
[Laughter]
Will knows, we’ve been working closely together on this. You know, it’s the first week of February and we’ve been working very closely on this. So has Eric and so has Richard and we’re very close on this front and I’m looking forward to that. But to be honest I didn’t come here today to as you know, to talk about Hobart city deals and other issues in Tasmania. The reason I’ve come today is to stand with the people of Huon and to stand with the people of Tasmania and let them know that all Australians are supporting them and backing them in.
Great, thanks very much.
Restoring trust in Australia's financial system
4 February 2019
Prime Minister, Treasurer
Today, the Government releases its response to the landmark Royal Commission into Misconduct in the Banking, Superannuation and Financial Services Industry.
The Government has agreed to take action on all 76 recommendations contained in the Royal Commission’s Final Report and, in a number of important areas, is going further.
Commissioner Hayne’s recommendations and the Government’s response advance the interests of consumers in four key ways:
Strengthen and expand protections for consumers, small business, rural and remote communities.
Raise accountability and governance standards.
Enhance the effectiveness of regulators.
Provide for remediation for those harmed by misconduct.
In outlining its response to the Royal Commission, the Government’s principal focus is on restoring trust in our financial system and delivering better consumer outcomes, while maintaining the flow of credit and continuing to promote competition.
Today, the Government is announcing it is taking further action by:
Establishing for the first time a compensation scheme of last resort and expanding the remit of the Australian Financial Complaints Authority (AFCA) so that they can award compensation for successful claims going back 10 years, consistent with the period examined by the Royal Commission.
Compensating those individuals who had a prior unpaid determination in their favour by the predecessor bodies of AFCA, which will see almost 300 consumers finally receive compensation totalling around $30 million as a consequence of prior misconduct.
Extending the jurisdiction of the Federal Court to cover corporate criminal misconduct, which will expedite cases that are considered by state courts and commonly take over two years to be heard.
Commencing a capability review of the Australian Prudential Regulatory Authority (APRA) to be led by Graeme Samuel AC and conducting further capability reviews every four years.
The Government is confident that the actions announced today will put in place the necessary legislative framework, providing regulators with the power and resources to hold those who abuse our trust to account.
The Coalition Government, through both its actions to date and its response today, is demonstrating its commitment to ensuring a financial system that is working for all Australians and is one they can trust.
The Government would like to thank Commissioner Hayne for the outstanding manner in which he has conducted the Royal Commission and express its gratitude for the tireless work of those involved. We also wish to acknowledge all of those individuals who provided submissions and came forward to give evidence.
Asylum seeker children off Nauru
3 February 2019
Prime Minister, Minister for Immigration Citizenship & Multicultural Affairs
Every asylum seeker child has now been removed from Nauru or has had their claim processed and has a clear path off the island.
Our strong border protection policies mean we’ve been able to stop the boats and work through the backlog of cases Labor created when 50,000 people arrived on 800 boats on their watch.
There were 109 asylum seeker children on Nauru at the end of August 2018 at the time we took on our respective roles as Prime Minister and Minister for Immigration.
Since then, and as was made clear at the time, we have been working quietly and methodically through this process without compromising the integrity of Operation Sovereign Borders. There are now only four asylum seeker children on Nauru and they have all been approved for departure to the United States of America with their families.
We have got all the children Labor put in detention centres out, and we have shut down all the detention centres Labor opened, including on Christmas Island.
Australia has one of the most generous humanitarian immigration programs in the world, but we can only do it by maintaining strong borders and insisting people come the right way.
We have secured our borders, we stopped the boats and the tragic drownings at sea. And we have been supporting children compassionately without putting our strong border security at risk.
We have got the balance right.
You don’t get all children off Nauru by putting more on. That is why we must maintain the integrity of Operation Sovereign Borders. Labor’s policies will unravel the strong border protection framework we have put in place.
Labor’s laws currently before the Parliament would end offshore processing as we know it, tearing apart our strong border policies. This would only see the horror start all over again.
On our watch we will never let Australia get back into the mess Labor left us when they locked up nearly 8,000 children in detention.
$130 million to bust congestion on M1 and Mount Lindesay Highway
1 February 2019
Prime Minister, Minister for Cities Urban Infrastructure and Population, Assistant Minister for Roads and Transport, Member for Forde
Photo: AAP Image/Dan Peled
The Morrison Government will invest $130 million to fix traffic headaches at exits on the M1, Mount Lindesay Highway and Ipswich Motorway corridors.
The projects will improve the local economy and importantly provide a safer journey home for motorists.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison said making it easier and safer to get to and from work was the focus of the $1 billion Urban Congestion Fund.
“Getting stuck in traffic means you miss dinner with loved ones, or you can’t help the kids with homework. I want to give that time back to hardworking families,” the Prime Minister said.
“We’re tackling traffic trouble spots right across the State to help improve the lives of Queenslanders.”
Two of the most congested exits off the M1 - exits 41 and 49 - will be upgraded with $50 million to improve traffic flow and access.
In addition a corridor with one of the poorest safety records in Queensland will get an upgrade, with $30 million of improvements for the Mt Lindesay Highway.
RACQ has identified the corridor as having a very high rate of fatal and serious crashes on the road.
And $50 million will be used to upgrade the Ipswich Motorway corridor which suffers from multiple bottlenecks at the Cunningham Highway, Warrego Highway and Logan Motorway Interchanges.
The congestion busting projects form part of a $244 million package of works which is being announced across South East Queensland this week.
Federal Member for Forde Bert van Manen said the upgrades to Exit 41 and 49 were vital and one way the Government was easing overcrowded exits to reduce congestion and get the people of Forde home safer and faster.
“This is a welcome addition to the $1.2 billion we’ve already committed to the M1. Forde is one of the fastest growing electorates in Australia and while Labor talks, it is your Coalition Government that is delivering by investing in infrastructure here and across Australia,” Mr van Manen said.
Federal Member for Wright Scott Buchholz said the congestion busting announcement would go a long way in getting the people of Wright to and from work quicker and be a massive boost for our region.
“This will help improve safety on the Mount Lindesay Highway, allow local residents to spend more time with their families, and let local tradies spend more time on the tools rather than being stuck in traffic,” Mr Buchholz said.
“A stronger economy means more locals travelling to jobs and freight on the roads but the downside is increasing traffic congestion, which is consistently raised with me in Wright and I’m pleased this announcement will help bring some relief.”
“My community is linked to the Coast and many families make the trek down the M1 to head to the beach on the weekends or visit relatives and friends.”
“Many local Wright residents, especially our residents who commute and our tradies who travel to jobs along the Gold Coast corridor will welcome these improvements to the M1 that will bust the congestion”
Minister for Cities, Urban Infrastructure and Population Alan Tudge said estimates put the cost of congestion in Australia’s capital cities at $25 billion per year in 2017-18, projected to increase to $40 billion per year by 2030.
“The Urban Congestion Fund will deliver a more reliable road network for commuters and freight, and support critical access to employment centres and freight hubs,” Minister Tudge said.
“This is as much about hitting those local traffic headaches as it is about the major highways and providing a safer journey home for motorists.”
The new local congestion busting infrastructure projects complement an existing $7.2 billion investment by the Morrison Government into major urban infrastructure projects in South East Queensland.
This includes Bruce Highway upgrades; the Brisbane Metro; M1 Pacific Motorway upgrades; the Ipswich Motorway upgrade between Rocklea and Darra; Cunningham Highway upgrade; Gold Coast Light Rail Stage 3A; Gateway Upgrade North; Beerburrum to Nambour Rail Line upgrade; and Toowoomba Second Range Crossing.
Interview with Ash, Kip, Lutsy and Susie, Nova Brisbane
1 February 2019
PRIME MINISTER: It’s been great to here in Brisbane all week actually, we’ve had a really, really strong week and great to see so many wonderful people out and about.
HOST: Before we have a proper chat we should take care of business because we’ve been saying that we’re going to do ‘Smarter than Suse’ so let’s do that first and then we’ll have a proper chat after, see how you go against Sue.
PRIME MINISTER: Sure this is, you know, this is crunch time.
SUSIE: Yeah it’s cattle stations
HOST: Are you aware of the stickers? There’s that one if you win.
PRIME MINISTER: Well my secret in life is to always have assumed that I’m never the smartest person in the room. Plenty of people assume the opposite and usually get themselves into trouble.
HOST: Either with the honest part or Suse sticker-
HOST: A lot to play for.
HOST: I’m not smarter than Suse either.
SUSIE: Here we go.
[Introduction music audio played]
Australian swimming legend Susie O’Neill versus Australian Prime Minister Scott ‘ScoMo’ Morrison.
HOST: So Suse is in the sound proof booth, you can testify to that ScoMo.
PRIME MINISTER: [inaudible]
HOST: It is legit she can’t hear us in there. Now I don’t if your people behind the scenes have explain the rules or I’ll go through it here.
PRIME MINISTER: Go through them.
HOST: So what you’ve gone on, I’m going to ask you five questions. You’ve got 30 seconds to answer those five questions, OK? Now if you want to you can pass and we’ll come back to it.
PRIME MINISTER: OK.
HOST: But Suse never gets beaten on time and if it’s a draw the person with the quickest time wins.
PRIME MINISTER: Sure.
HOST: So don’t pass, just say you don’t know and move on.
HOST: If you say don’t know I’ll just go straight on to the next question.
HOST: Won’t come back to it.
PRIME MINISTER: OK let’s see how we go.
HOST: Alright, Prime Minister you’ve up against Susan. Prime Minister you’ve got 30 seconds on the clock and your time starts now. What is the capital of New Zealand?
PRIME MINISTER: Wellington.
HOST: Name the comedian who withdrew from hosting the 2019 Oscars?
PRIME MINISTER: Pass.
HOST: Spell vacuum.
PRIME MINISTER: V A C U U M.
HOST: What kind of animal is the Disney character Dumbo?
PRIME MINISTER: An elephant.
HOST: What is 176 minus 86?
PRIME MINISTER: 90.
HOST: Name the comedian who withdrew from hosting the 2019 Oscars? Dunno?
PRIME MINISTER: Dunno.
HOST: So stop, stop. Yeah so we had to go back because you said pass.
PRIME MINISTER: Oh sorry.
HOST: You burnt some time there, that’s what I’m sort of saying but that’s alright. Not bad, not bad on time you had five seconds left.
HOST: It was pretty good.
HOST: So if it comes down to it that could be enough-
HOST: She sometimes struggles on the spelling too.
HOST: Here she comes now by the way PM you are playing for Brenda from Aspley so if you beat-
HOST: She’s one of your constituents. Is Aspley one of your seats? I don’t know what that would be um, I don’t think is.
PRIME MINISTER: No, no it’s a long way north.
HOST: You could win, you could a win a vote here.
PRIME MINISTER: Cronulla is a long way from Aspley.
HOST: Yeah I think Aspley might be within a Labor seat.
SUSIE: I was just checking my previous results against ah, I beat Turnbull.
PRIME MINISTER: Yeah.
HOST: Oh did you?
SUSIE: I lost against Shorten.
HOST: Oh OK, alright.
PRIME MINISTER: I’m not planning to do that.
[Laughter]
HOST: This could be a benchmark here, let’s see how we go.
HOST: [Advertising read out].
Now this is tradition Prime Minister that Susie has her own song.
HOST: Pump her up for code of conduct? In general terms don’t put a balaclava over your head when you’re in the same room as the Prime Minister but he has to do this as a thing.
[Music played]
HOST: We’ve got to explain to the Prime Minister why you’re wearing what you’re wearing right now.
HOST: Susie says it distracts from the fact that I’ve got a huge nose and I’ve got a forehead, a massive forehead and googly eyes and I sometimes put her off so she’s asked for me to wear the ski mask-
SUSIE: It’s self-explanatory you didn’t really need to explain it.
[Laughter]
HOST: It’s really ugly, that’s what it is, yeah.
HOST: Do you do that with any of your employees, do you ask them to wear a ski mask?
HOST: There’s one in every office.
PRIME MINISTER: No.
HOST: Don’t do it?
PRIME MINISTER: No.
SUSIE: Don’t answer that.
HOST: Alright, Susan O’Neill up against the Prime Minister you’ve got 30 seconds on the clock and your time starts now. What is the capital of New Zealand?
SUSIE: Christchurch.
HOST: Name the comedian who withdrew from hosting the 2019 Oscars?
SUSIE: Jimmy Kimmel.
HOST: Spell vacuum?
SUSIE: V A C double U M.
HOST: What kind of animal is the Disney character Dumbo?
SUSIE: He’s an elephant.
HOST: What is 176 minus 86?
SUSIE: 90.
HOST: Stop the clock.
HOST: Quick, that’s good on time. You had ten seconds left Suse. Prime Minister had five so in the event of a tie breaker Susie wins.
PRIME MINISTER: Well done Susie, well done.
HOST: [inaudible]
HOST: Only in the event of a tie breaker.
PRIME MINISTER: Oh we’ve got to go again?
HOST: No, no. We just go through the score, yeah.
PRIME MINISTER: Let’s go through it.
HOST: OK the capital of New Zealand, Prime Minister said it was Wellington. Suse you said it was Christchurch. It’s Wellington.
SUSIE: Is it? How do you know that?
HOST: Because he’s the Prime Minister.
HOST: He went to Sydney Boys High.
PRIME MINISTER: If I didn’t know it would be a problem.
[Laughter]
HOST: How offended would New Zealand be?
HOST: Can you imagine if you answered that incorrectly? That would have been worldwide news today.
HOST: The New Zealand PM on the phone. You what? You said what?
HOST: It’s one nil to the Prime Minister. Name the comedian who withdrew from the hosting the 2019 Oscars. PM passed and then came back and didn’t know. You said it was Jimmy-
HOST: Jimmy Kimmel or something.
HOST: Kevin Hart.
SUSIE: Oh, that’s right.
HOST: It’s one nil Prime Minister. Top of the third spell vacuum, you both said V A C U U M. You’re on the board Suse. Two one to the PM. What kind of animal is the Disney character Dumbo? You both said elephant it’s three two to the Prime Minister. 176 minus 86 is 90 you both said that it’s a four three victory and the PM has done what Malcolm Turnbull couldn’t and what Bill Shorten did and that is prove that he’s smarter than Suse.
HOST: Well done.
SUSIE: Well done Scott.
PRIME MINISTER: Well-
HOST: And we hand over the official sticker which I’m sure you’ll appreciate.
PRIME MINISTER: She’s the bigger legend there’s no doubt about that.
SUSIE: She’s the cat’s mother [laughter] sorry that’s a private joke.
HOST: Brenda out at Aspley picked up 100 bucks too and maybe a vote for you I’d have to say.
PRIME MINISTER: Good on you Brenda tell your friends.
HOST: And we’ll come back and chat with the Prime Minister right after this.
[Advertisement/traffic advice/music break]
PRIME MINISTER: That’s what this stuff is about I mean, I mean I’m you know families are important, families should have meals together at night and not spend, you know, the evenings-
HOST: [Inaudible] in traffic, what you realise is how quickly Brisbane is growing, I mean Ash drives from the coast every day I did it this morning from down at Coolangatta and if you’re not past Springwood by 20 past 5 you’re done, like it’s gridlock at that hour, people are up early, there’s so many more people on the roads so it’s moving, the wheels keep moving.
PRIME MINISTER: That’s the big thing I think in Brisbane say over the last ten/15 years I mean, you know, I grew up in Sydney and it’s always been congested and we’ve got to do a lot there too and Melbourne is the same but Brisbane has been growing really rapidly and that’s been great because people’s businesses have been growing and they’ve been doing well and there’s lots of jobs and that’s all fantastic but you’ve got to keep the congestion busting happening.
So I was at Indooroopilly public school yesterday and we’re upgrading the drop off area there as well so these really small things in the scheme, these aren’t you know billion dollar projects they’re just $7 million here, $5 million here, $12 million here and they’re going to make a big difference to those intersections. Safety as well, as well as getting home and getting on the site, you know, plenty of tradies I’m sure listening this morning they don’t make any money sitting in traffic they make it when they get on site.
HOST: Have you noticed the scooters around? Because Brisbane is like the test city for those electric scooters.
PRIME MINISTER: Oh yeah, I saw a bloke zipping along Story Bridge yesterday.
HOST: Yeah, they’re everywhere.
PRIME MINSTER: He was fanging it, he was-
HOST: I don’t get it quite frankly.
HOST: I reckon they’re brilliant, yeah. So what do you reckon about them? Do you have an opinion on them yet?
PRIME MINISTER: Oh I don’t really care but so long as they’re safe and they don’t run into people.
HOST: I mean you could have idiots riding ‘em because that’s human nature but you know on the whole they’re getting people off the roads you know, getting people scooting-
HOST: So is that only Brisbane?
HOST: Only Brisbane at this stage.
HOST: It’s a test for Australia, yeah.
PRIME MINISTER: Kids like Segways and these things, I mean Segways are important tools for people with disabilities.
HOST: Yeah, yeah that’s alright, yeah.
HOST: I would never step on a Segway, it seems incredibly dangerous to me.
HOST: And the PM was telling a story, sorry Suse, PM was telling us off air that you swim every day, like you started incorporating swimming into your, into your routine now.
PRIME MINISTER: Yeah I do well it’s for exercise but I’m a firm believer that politicians’ exercise should be kept very, not done in public, it’s not a pretty sight.
HOST: Well how do you do that then?
PRIME MINISTER: Oh you make the time, it’s a good head space and it’s also, you know, good exercise and you know you’ve got to do that in these sorts of jobs and I’m enjoying it.
HOST: DTs or boardies?
PRIME MINISTER: As I said it’s done in private.
[Laughter]
HOST: It’s very much done in private.
HOST: I want to say nude?
HOST: What’s a tip Suse, what’s the tip?
SUSIE: Not a tip I was going to, I was actually going to say don’t wear budgie smugglers-
[Laughter]
HOST: It’s been done hasn’t it?
SUSIE: [Inaudible] I love it, it’s great stress release isn’t it?
PRIME MINISTER: Yeah it is I just got to get the breathing right and I’m getting it there, I’ve got up to about 600 metres a day so that’s, if I can do it all in one go it will be even better.
[Laughter]
HOST: Good on ya.
HOST: How long are you in Brissy for?
PRIME MINISTER: Oh I’ve been here all week, I’m heading back down to Sydney tonight.
HOST: Thanks for coming in.
PRIME MINISTER: No, no it’s great to be here, thanks for the fun and thanks for the opportunity to-
HOST: You might have to race Susie in the pool next time.
SUSIE: Oh that’s a good idea because I’d win that one.
PRIME MINISTER: I’ll just take this one, I’m not faster than Susie right now.
HOST: And finally we all saw a picture of Shorten during the week making his kids’ lunches which I’m sure he does every day, I’m sure that wasn’t a photo op-
PRIME MINISTER: The strategically placed Vegemite sitting there. I didn’t think there was anything contrived about that.
HOST: No, no it seemed very natural.
PRIME MINISTER: Really fair dinkum.
HOST: But he was making his, that was the worst picture by the way, but he was making his kids’ sandwiches with wholemeal bread. Don’t do that to your children.
PRIME MINISTER: I don’t make the kids’ lunches.
HOST: You don’t?
PRIME MINISTER: I don’t make them. They’ll be happy about that. I can cook them a great curry which I often do on a Saturday night with the kids and they help but no, no, I don’t make the lunches.
HOST: Have you ever said when a kid goes Dad can you do something, you go gosh I thought I was the Prime Minister?
[Laughter]
HOST: I’d be dropping that every day.
[Laughter]
PRIME MINISTER: That’s true at most places but not my house.
$33 million to bust congestion in Brisbane's East
31 January 2019
Prime Minister, Minister for Cities Urban Infrastructure and Population
East Brisbane motorists will spend less time on the road, with the Morrison Government investing $33 million in local congestion busting infrastructure projects.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison said the $1 billion Urban Congestion Fund would be put to work in East Brisbane, upgrading roads and fixing trouble spots in the area.
"Better roads get us all home faster. They make it easier to commute, easier to do business and easier to live in our cities," the Prime Minister said.
“Throughout Queensland and Australia we are building roads and tackling trouble spots so you can get home sooner and safer.
"Getting stuck in traffic means you miss dinner with loved ones, or you can’t help the kids with homework, I want to give that time back to hardworking families."
The congestion busting projects form part of a $244 million package of works which is being announced across South East Queensland this week.
Panorama Drive and Wellington Street in Thornlands and Cleveland will see $15 million put towards upgrading three intersections.
Federal Member for Bowman, Andrew Laming, said the upgrades would unclog nearby roads and improve safety in the area.
"For two State elections, the LNP has committed to the duplication of Cleveland-Redland Bay Road, with Labor refusing," Mr Laming said.
"It is clear Labor refuses to invest in this City, and that is why we are investing. By working with Redland City Council to upgrade Wellington Street, we will ensure safe access to the hospital via Weippin Street and provide a high quality north south arterial that directly connects Wellington Point down to Redland Bay."
The Morrison Government is also spending $12 million to upgrade the Newnham Road and Wecker Road intersection in Mount Gravatt, which is listed as one of the top five worst intersections in the state.
The Newnham Road and Wecker Road intersection has been the site of seven serious crashes and nine serious casualties between 2014 and 2017.
Federal Member for Bonner, Ross Vasta, said he had heard from several people who had witnessed or been involved in near misses and crashes at the intersection.
"Hundreds of commuters go through here every day and students pass through on the way to Mt Gravatt East State School," Mr Vasta said.
"Over 1500 people signed my community petition to fix the intersection, which is an amazing result. Thanks to their support, the Liberal and Nationals Government has agreed to fully fund an upgrade for the intersection that will save lives and get people home sooner and safer."
An additional $6 million will be spent on safety improvements at the intersection of Rickert Road and Chelsea Road in Ransome.
Minister for Cities, Urban Infrastructure and Population Alan Tudge said estimates put the cost of congestion in Australia’s capital cities at $25 billion per year in 2017-18, projected to increase to $40 billion per year by 2030.
"The Urban Congestion Fund will deliver a more reliable road network for commuters and freight, and support critical access to employment centres and freight hubs," Minister Tudge said.
"This is as much about hitting those local traffic headaches as it is about the major highways and providing a safer journey home for motorists."
The new local congestion busting infrastructure projects complement an existing $7.2 billion investment by the Morrison Government into major urban infrastructure projects in South East Queensland.
This includes Bruce Highway upgrades; the Brisbane Metro; M1 Pacific Motorway upgrades; the Ipswich Motorway upgrade between Rocklea and Darra; Cunningham Highway upgrade; Gold Coast Light Rail Stage 3A; Gateway Upgrade North; Beerburrum to Nambour Rail Line upgrade; and Toowoomba Second Range Crossing.
$15 million boost for women's sport in Queensland
30 January 2019
Prime Minister, Minister for Regional Services, Sport, Local Government and Decentralisation
The Morrison Government will provide $15 million to support the construction of a new state-of-the-art sports and events venue in Springfield, Queensland to get more women into sport.
Female participation in sport has surged on the back of successful competitions such as AFL Women’s and the strength of our national teams on the world stage in netball, soccer and cricket.
Additional facilities are required to ensure codes and clubs can meet this upsurge in demand and the Government is committed to fostering that growth.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison said the new facility in Springfield would provide a home for the Brisbane Lions AFLW team and include a high-performance training and administration centre to support male and female elite athletes.
"Young girls, all over Queensland, know that there is a home for them in AFL. That there is a future for them in AFL," the Prime Minister said.
"This project will be a real shot in the arm for women’s AFL in Queensland and it will inspire the next generation of players."
Minister for Sport, Bridget McKenzie said you can’t be what you can’t see and an expanded AFLW competition will make a significant positive impact for the profile of women’s sport.
"When young girls can see women competing at the elite level, on the major arenas, it shows them what can be achieved," Minister McKenzie said.
"Our top level female athletes are setting the pace on the Aussie sporting scene and that positive story flows right down the line to our grassroots sports clubs."
“It is so important for our elite female athletes to have access to purpose-built high performance facilities to develop their full potential as champion athletes.”
Local congestion busting projects funded in Brisbane's North
30 January 2019
Prime Minister, Minister for Cities Urban Infrastructure and Population
Parents will be able to get home to their families sooner and tradies will spend less time in traffic jams following an $80 million injection for local congestion busting projects across Brisbane’s north.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison said the seven projects will make a real difference to the lives of people living in Brisbane’s north.
"I want people to spend less time stuck in traffic jams and more time at home with their families and working in their businesses – that is what matters," the Prime Minister said.
The investment includes $50 million for upgrades on the Gympie Arterial Road to meet the significant increase in vehicle traffic and improve the connection to the southern end of the Bruce Highway.
New park and ride facilities will be created at Mango Hill and Ferny Grove train stations through an investment of $15 million, helping more commuters to travel by train into the CBD.
Future flooding events at Youngs Crossing will be prevented through a $7.75 million investment to help raise the level of the road.
Bracken Ridge residents will benefit from $7.5 million for three projects including: the upgrade of the Barbour Road and Norris Road intersection; upgrades to Norris Road between Telegraph Road and Bracken Ridge Road; and upgrades to Hoyland Street between Kluver Street and Bracken Ridge Road.
The funding forms part of a $244.25 million investment in South East Queensland through the Liberal and Nationals Government’s $1 billion Urban Congestion Fund which was announced at the 2018-19 Budget.
Federal Member for Dickson Peter Dutton said he had been fighting for extra funding to help reduce congestion on local roads.
"I’m very pleased to deliver $15 million funding to help with these two important local projects," Mr Dutton said.
"This simple solution for Youngs’ Crossing will raise the level of the existing road and not extend it beyond the existing footprint. It will have no impact on the local environment or residents and retains all our wildlife corridors."
Federal Member for Petrie Luke Howarth said he was really pleased that the Federal Coalition Government is delivering for Mango Hill and Bracken Ridge residents.
"Because of our growing economy, we are able to deliver the services and infrastructure our community desperately needs."
Minister for Cities, Urban Infrastructure and Population Alan Tudge said estimates put the cost of congestion in Australia’s capital cities at $25 billion per year, projected to reach $40 billion by 2030.
"The Urban Congestion Fund is helping to deliver a more reliable road network for commuters and freight, and support critical access to employment centres and freight hubs," Mr Tudge said.
"This is as much about hitting those local traffic headaches as it is about the major highways."
The Liberal and Nationals Government has invested more than $20 billion in Queensland roads and rail since 2013, including over $5 billion provided in last year’s Budget.
Major urban infrastructure projects already underway across South East Queensland include: the Gateway Upgrade North; M1 upgrades between Brisbane and the Gold Coast; and the Ipswich Motorway upgrade between Rocklea and Darra.
This is in addition to major future planned investments such as Brisbane Metro and Gold Coast Light Rail Stage 3A.
Interview with Leigh Sales, ABC 7.30
29 January 2019
LEIGH SALES: Prime Minister welcome to 7.30 for 2019.
PRIME MINISTER: Great to be back Leigh.
LEIGH SALES: The Coalition has been in an election losing position in the polls for virtually its entire term. You have members of your frontbench choosing not to contest the election, high profile independents are running in key Liberal seats, cashed up groups like GetUp! are targeting you in vital marginal seats, all this against the recent backdrop of Coalition disunity and instability.
Is the kind of talk you’re engaging in today of re-election and ten year plans wishful thinking?
PRIME MINISTER: No, Leigh, I mean, just as well I’m a fighter when you listen to what you’ve just relayed out there which is I think is a particularly pessimistic way to look at things. I’m not looking at things like that at all.
What I’ve announced today is that we’ve got a goal, a pledge in fact of one and a quarter million new jobs and that’s not a vague promise because we’ve already delivered 1.2 million jobs as a government since we were first elected so that’s what I’m focussed on; a stronger economy to guarantee the essentials that Australians rely on.
That’s our record as a government, a good strong policy record and a clear plan that I announced today to take us into the future. Not a future with higher taxes but a future of a stronger economy which Australians need.
LEIGH SALES: When you’re talking about, as you say 1.25 million jobs, also income tax cuts, more spending on health and education, return to surplus, a ten year plan to eliminate debt. For you to achieve all of that you have to assume a continual best case scenario on lots of economic external factors instead of a pragmatic one. That is the definition of wishful thinking.
PRIME MINISTER: No that’s actually not true, Leigh, I mean doing what we’ve pledged today on jobs would actually not be at the peak rate of jobs growth that we’ve achieved over the last couple of years so I think that-
LEIGH SALES: But it’s the environment with all those other factors-
PRIME MINISTER: No, no not at all, Leigh. One of the marks of our economic management is that we’ve always exceeded expectations. One of the reasons that as Treasurer I was able to ensure that we maintained our AAA credit rating is I said we would hit a surplus in 2021, well we’re going to hit it in 19/20.
I have a track record of under promising and over delivering whether it’s on the economy, border protection, welfare reforms Leigh. My record, our government’s record is delivering and today we’ve set out new plans to deliver in the future for the stronger economy which enables us to list lung care medicines and get meningococcal vaccines to young Australians.
LEIGH SALES: On this point though that you’ve exceeded, that your government has exceeded expectations the Coalition record, doesn’t that pitch simply confuse voters along the lines of ‘well, hang on if your record is so good why did you need to dump Malcolm Turnbull?’
PRIME MINISTER: Well that was last year, Leigh, and what we’re focussed on is the plan we’re taking to the next election. It’s a plan based on our policy successes as a-
LEIGH SALES: [inaudible]
PRIME MINISTER: …government over the last five, I know your point is-
LEIGH SALES: My point is that-
PRIME MINISTER: Your point is about politics-
LEIGH SALES: [inaudible] aren’t you confusing, no aren’t you confusing voters? You’re saying our record is so fantastic, we’ve exceeded expectations it’s confusing to people, they just saw a Prime Minister get dumped a matter of months ago.
PRIME MINISTER: My break over the summer involved talking to people who were sharing with me about their need for having their job secure, being able to get home in time to spend time with their families which is why today I announced another $240 million going into urban congestion busting projects here in South East Queensland and that’s what we’re focussed on; the things that actually improve people’s lives. We’ve got a great track record of delivering on infrastructure because people can see the earth machine, moving machinery on sites now.
We’ve got a great record on tax cuts because we’ve passed that through the Parliament with legislation. We’ve got a great track record on bringing the budget back to surplus because we will have the first surplus achieved by a government in 12 years when Josh brings that down on the 2nd April this year.
So that’s our policy record. What you’re talking about is politics. That’s a different thing.
LEIGH SALES: On policy you also have a plan you were discussing today, a ten year plan to wipe out debt, but that would mean for that plan to reach fruition the Coalition would be re-elected three times, there would be no external shocks. What do you say to the suggestion that that’s a plan at best based on rose coloured glasses and at worst a fantasy?
PRIME MINISTER: No what I said today is my goal is to see that debt gone, net debt gone by 2030. Now the decisions that made in the next three years in the budget will determine what happens with that budget over the next ten years. How do I know that? When Labor last came in 2007 the decisions they took in their first term actually led to the debt position we are in today.
So no it’s not fantasy, it’s fair dinkum. The decisions that are taken and in the next budget, the budget after that, the budget after that will determine the debt trajectory of our nation and the tax trajectory-
LEIGH SALES: Sorry, just while you’re on debt, you’ve been in office now for six years, you point out that Labor had a debt problem. Net debt at the end of their term in office was $202 billion, net debt today is $341 billion, you’ve taken it in the wrong direction.
PRIME MINISTER: Well because we’ve had to wind back the deficits of Labor and get the budget back into balance. You can’t reduce debt, Leigh, if you’re still running deficits. And so we’ve had to take down, from the record deficits of Labor, to bring the budget back into a surplus position for the next financial year. Now you can’t pay down debt until you get back into surplus and it has taken us the last five and a half years to wind back the baked in spending excesses of the Labor Party, to get the budget under control, and now we’ve turned the corner on debt and if we keep making those decisions that’s why my goal is you keep making those decisions and you will wipe out debt within 10 years. If you go down Labor’s path, you won’t.
LEIGH SALES: While we’re on Labor, you’ve said repeatedly today that the Australian economy will be weaker under a Labor government because it will impose higher taxes.
PRIME MINISTER: Correct.
LEIGH SALES: Where’s your evidence that higher taxes weaken an economy?
PRIME MINISTER: Well I think it’s just fundamental economics 101, Leigh.
LEIGH SALES: But the Howard Government imposed a very big new tax on Australia, the GST, are you saying they weakened the economy?
PRIME MINISTER: No, they abolished taxes at the same time, Leigh. They actually lessened the overall individual tax burden on Australians. That’s why I don’t want to see, and I’ve legislated it at this end, in 94 per cent of cases, more than 32.5 cents in the dollar in tax. I’ve already cut taxes for small business. Today, I announced we’re cutting taxes further for small business by increasing the instant asset write off to $25,000 and that’s over $750 million worth of small businesses’ own money that they get to keep.
Lower taxes have been a key part of our economic plan that has generated record jobs growth, 1.2 million. The strongest growth in a year for young people, for people over 55, for women, right across the board, getting people off welfare and into work and a key part of our economic plan has been lower taxes. Labor wants to put a sheet anchor on the economy in $200 billion in higher taxes.
LEIGH SALES: But by your logic, if higher taxes in and of themselves generally weaken an economy, a country like Norway should be weak but it has some of the highest taxes in the world and yet the average Norwegian is richer and has a higher standard of living than the average Australian.
PRIME MINISTER: Australia has had 27 years of continuous economic growth. We are at the top of the leader pack when it comes to advanced developed economies in the world for economic growth, the world is looking to us in terms of how we’ve been able to succeed and how we’ve been able to succeed as a government is by keeping taxes low, backing small business, investing in infrastructure so people can get home on time and tradies can spend more time on the time and not in a traffic jam, expanding our export markets, defence industry procurement plans. I mean, this is how we’ve been growing the economy and the plan I announced today builds on that success.
LEIGH SALES: On the 1.25 million jobs that you’re promising if re-elected, of those how many will be filled by migrants?
PRIME MINISTER: Well migrants form part of the overall population flows into the country, we don’t have a breakdown of that, Leigh.
LEIGH SALES: Of the million jobs you’ve created how many have been filled by migrants?
PRIME MINISTER: I don’t have those figures to hand, Leigh. What I do know is that population growth has not run as high as jobs growth. So that means jobs growth has been at a higher rate than population growth and has been running at a higher rate than migration growth.
LEIGH SALES: Would it surprise you that half of the million jobs you’ve created were filled by migrants?
PRIME MINISTER: What I’m saying, Leigh, is that all Australians who are living here are getting more jobs today than they were before. When we came to office, the rate of jobs growth in Australia under Labor was 0.2 per cent, today, it’s 2.2 per cent. It’s 11 times higher. We inherited a basket case of a jobs program under the Labor Party and we’ve turned it into one of the biggest jobs generating governments in the history of the country.
LEIGH SALES: Let’s quickly run through some other issues before we run out of time. The Banking Royal Commission, does your government commit to implementing all of Commissioner Hayne’s recommendations?
PRIME MINISTER: Well in principle this is what our intention would be, but we’ve obviously got to see a report before we make a decision on that and that’s why the Treasurer has announced today that in a very measured process, over the weekend, once we receive that report which will be in the middle of a market day so you wouldn’t go and release it while the markets were open, the government will consider that over the weekend and provide an interim and initial, if not final, response on the Monday after the lockup after markets close. Now that’s important to ensure that there’s stability in the financial system, you don’t go shocking financial markets, you take your time on this. But I think that is a reasonable timeframe to ensure the Royal Commission report is released in a timely way and done so in a way which maximises stability for the financial system.
LEIGH SALES: We’ve seen evidence in those hearings of banks effectively stealing from customers, for example charging people for financial advice that they never intended to provide, would you expect criminal charges to flow from the Royal Commission?
PRIME MINISTER: I’m going to wait to see what he recommends, I’m not going to speculate on it. But I want to commend Commissioner Hayne for the outstanding job he has done. He has kept it in the time frame, he has got it done. He has also been very mindful, I think, of the impact of this Royal Commission on the financial system, and I think he’s been very careful not to exacerbate problems, particularly around credit restrictions. Now we have seen a fair bit of that happening. That has been impacting on the economy. So it’s important we ensure stability on how we respond to this report, and making sure the economy can continue to kick along without any unnecessary shocks.
LEIGH SALES: Three of your ministers, as I mentioned earlier, have said that they won’t recontest the federal election. You’ve said today that it’s offensive that their stated personal reasons for leaving are twisted into politics, for a political motivation.
PRIME MINISTER: It is actually.
LEIGH SALES: Perception is everything in politics, and three ministers quitting gives voters the perception of rats deserting a sinking ship.
PRIME MINISTER: Well who is creating that perception? The Labor Party have.
LEIGH SALES: Well haven’t three ministers in a row by saying they… [inaudible]
PRIME MINISTER: No they haven’t, because they have made very clear their personal reasons for doing that. Just like Gai Brodtmann did, just like Kate Ellis did, just like Jenny Macklin did, just like Wayne Swan did, just like Jacinta Collins has done, and what I find upsetting is, you know me Leigh, I’m for family values and when people raise issues like miscarriages with me, I’m not going to be so insensitive as to not understand fully the reasons for that decision. I think it’s pretty disappointing that Bill Shorten would cast a slur on Liberal members for genuine family reasons for leaving, but when it comes to Labor members it’s ok, I think this shows a failing of character, he should have just wished us well. He should have just wished Kelly O’Dwyer well. It’s ok for Tim Hammond, a bloke from Western Australia to say he is not going to stay one term of parliament, but for Kelly, who has served the parliament for almost 10 years, for her to leave because of quite personal reasons, particularly relating to issues that I’m sure all Australians would want to wish her well, I just find frankly quite disappointing.
LEIGH SALES: Just quickly, if the Coalition loses the election do you commit to staying on as leader of the party and therefore opposition leader?
PRIME MINISTER: I’m committed to winning the next election, and in the Liberal Party…
LEIGH SALES: If you lose though? As you said before it is a tough job.
PRIME MINISTER: It’s a tough job. That’s not my plan. Australia can’t afford Bill Shorten as a Prime Minister so I’ve got every energy flying into that and the leadership of the Liberal Party is always the gift of the parliamentary Liberal Party and I never make any presumptions upon it.
LEIGH SALES: And just finally on this programme recently Mr Shorten committed to doing two prime time interviews with 7.30 during the election campaign, would you be prepared to commit to the same?
PRIME MINISTER: We’ll go through the normal process of setting those Leigh, I’ve always been very available to 7.30 and always enjoy our friendly chats.
LEIGH SALES: Well in that vein I look forward to seeing you twice in the election campaign, thank you very much.
PRIME MINISTER: Good on you Leigh. Good to talk to you.
Schools encouraged to take action against bullying
27 January 2019
Prime Minister, Minister for Education
Everyone can take action against bullying, as the Morrison Government urges all schools in Australia to join the fight.
The Prime Minister and Minister for Education have written to schools across the country to encourage students, teachers and school leaders to sign up for the ninth National Day of Action against Bullying and Violence on Friday 15 March 2019.
More than 4,750 schools have already committed to taking action with around 4,650 schools across Australia yet to register.
The National Day of Action is a national movement against bullying and cyberbullying.
Bullying is something we all need to be aware of. It is an issue that is sadly affecting more and more of our kids and everyone in the community can do something about it.
Around half of all students in Years 3 to 5 report some level of bullying and more than 20 per cent are being bullied for two years and more.
One in five young Australians have experienced cyberbullying, according to research from the Office of the eSafety Commissioner.
Parents want to know that students, teachers and school leaders have the best tools to deal with bullying and cyberbullying.
Our Government is focused on keeping our kids safe, which means providing support and resources to combat bullies as well as educating everyone about the impact of bullying.
We want to see more and more schools across Australia taking a stand against bullying, and we have already surpassed the two million students who took part in last year’s event.
Students, teachers and principals can all take action against bullying by registering their school to take part in the ninth National Day of Action against Bullying and Violence.
Registrations are now open for schools to become a National Day of Action school and receive new anti-bullying materials and teaching resources.
For more information and to register your school, visit www.bullyingnoway.gov.au.
More anti-bullying resources can be found atwww.esafety.gov.au, www.studentwellbeinghub.edu.au and www.beyou.edu.au.
Interview, Hit 103.5 Cairns
23 January 2019
PRESENTER: ScoMo, how are you?
PRIME MINISTER: Good, Shad and Carly, it’s great to be back here and with you guys again today. We’ve had a great couple of days up here in Far North Queensland and thanks to all those who gave us such a warm welcome.
PRESENTER: Now more importantly, how is the first pup, Buddy, doing?
PRIME MINISTER: Buddy is doing great, he has made a number of appearances. When we had the Australian and Indian cricket teams around on New Year's Day, he took to howling every time Kohli spoke and he got himself on the news that night. But he was quite a hit with the entire Indian cricket team, I’ve got to say, as he was with the Aussies. Buddy is doing great.
PRESENTER: Can we chuck him on the team, because I think we’re struggling a little bit out in the field.
PRIME MINISTER: He’s a pretty good fielder, he gets after those quick ones towards the boundary I think. Very, very fast.
PRESENTER: Now, you’re also here for a big announcement around Cooktown and Captain Cook’s voyage around Australia. ScoMo, what is going on?
PRIME MINISTER: It’s an important part of our history and up in Cooktown, they’ll tell you all about it. I mean, if you go back to that day when they called him the ‘little old man” who came out of the bushes with the rest of his mates and they reconciled with Cook over a dispute that they’d had, it’s a beautiful story. And these stories are important about reconciliation in Australia, and they’ve been doing this in Cooktown for 60 years. So the voyage that will go up along the east coast of Australia, which is what Cook did obviously, so there’s a re-enactment element to that and Captain Cook is a big part of that, he’s a big part of the far north coast and Far North Queensland. It’s a big part of our tourism sector as well and I want to see those stories told. I’m proud of Australia’s history. I see Bill Shorten is out there today, he is sneering at Australia’s history today. This is the problem, he sneers from behind his...
PRESENTER: Can I just be honest here, ScoMo. I was questioning whether this Government’s priorities lie, because as a woman in this country living through a domestic violence epidemic, coming fresh off the back of the latest horrific crime that has happened against a woman, I was waiting to hear kind of the next move on that and then this kind of come out of left field. You know, then we’ve got what’s happening down you know in New South Wales with the Murray Darling and this just seemed to come out of left field and a lot of people were going where is this Government’s head at, why is this funding going towards this when we have way more pressing issues going on in this country?
PRIME MINISTER: We can do more than one thing at a time. We’re investing...
PRESENTER: I understand that, but it’s priorities.
PRIME MINISTER: $350 million to combat domestic violence. That’s what we’re doing on domestic violence. Almost half a billion dollars to invest in the Reef, we’ve announced further work that we’re doing on the Murray Darling Basin. All these things are happening at the same time. But focus on the things that matter Carly, and it’s good for you to raise the things that do matter.
PRESENTER: Well I hope so, because we want to keep you accountable, we are all voters.
PRIME MINISTER: Sure.
PRESENTER: And as a woman in this country, as a woman that watches these news reports time and time again, I just hope that this epidemic is really being taken seriously.
PRIME MINISTER: We have had three national action plans now on countering domestic violence in Australia. That’s been $350 million, we’re going to announce the fourth one. Now I was down in Melbourne on the weekend and I took my daughters and my wife and we went along and we went to the memorial for Aiia down there - I know there has also been a terrible murder here up in Far North Queensland as well - and I met Aiia’s father. I reached out to him and we had a private meeting that afternoon and, you know, as one dad to another, what do you say? I’m a father of two girls. The women of my life have been everything in my life and I fear for them as well, but in these horrific attacks, they start with disrespect of women. Disrespect of women doesn’t always, as Malcolm Turnbull used to say, doesn’t always end in that violence but it’s certainly where it starts. And that’s why respect for women is incredibly important and that’s why we’ll continue to invest in domestic violence initiatives and I really don’t want to see that issue - I’m not suggesting you are saying this, either - I don’t want to see that politicised at all. Because there is, I think, a bipartisan commitment to address domestic violence in this country. I don’t question any other MP’s commitment to that and I would be very disappointed if any other MP did likewise to another.
PRESENTER: Well, now we’ve covered the big topics, that got a lot more heated. Can we do the fun now? Let’s have some fun, ScoMo.
[Inaudible]
What I want to know is, and we were having a discussion about this in the office, what’s the toilet situation for MPs? Is there like a big group urinal area? You’re the PM, does Malcolm give you the keys to the fancy throne? What’s the sitch?
PRIME MINISTER: Well there is one in every MPs office.
PRESENTER: So they’ve all got their own?
PRIME MINISTER: They do.
PRESENTER: So there’s no joint urinal?
PRIME MINISTER: Well if you’re walking around the building, yeah there are those as well. And you can often have a quiet conservation.
PRESENTER: Is that where some of the secrets are all done?
PRIME MINISTER: There’s often the odd chat.
PRESENTER: Do you ever look?
[Laughter]
PRIME MINISTER: No.
PRESENTER: Oh everyone has had a look?
PRIME MINISTER: No, no.
PRESENTER: Just a peek, just a little, even an accidental look.
PRIME MINISTER: I think you’re sort of self-revealing there, mate.
PRESENTER: Has anyone ever looked at you?
PRIME MINISTER: I hope not.
[Laughter]
PRESENTER: What about Bill Shorten, have you ever...
[Laughter]
PRIME MINISTER: No, we’ve never actually found ourselves in that situation to the best of my recollection. He’s probably as thankful for that as me.
PRESENTER: Because if you were yelling at each other across the thing and you know, it’s kind of like, it almost gives you a little bit of a prop up doesn’t it?
It’s the ultimate political move, the ultimate power play.
PRIME MINISTER: I think we’ve got to keep you out of Parliament House.
[Laughter]
And if you do see Shad, cover up.
PRESENTER: If you see me walking the halls of Canberra, I’m having a look. Go to the cubicle.
I do often wonder this, about you and Bill, because obviously you’re both doing a job and obviously that job requires you to be constantly in this debate against each other. But is that a personal thing? Would you have… if he invited you around for a barbeque, would you accept the invite?
PRIME MINISTER: Oh look, Bill and I, many years ago, before we were in politics, we travelled to Israel together on a joint delegation.
PRESENTER: Really?
PRIME MINISTER: Many years ago. And there are some pretty embarrassing photos of, you know...
PRESENTER: Got a bit loose, did you?
PRIME MINISTER: Ah no, more because we were… our wardrobes back then were a little different to what they are today.
[Laughter]
PRESENTER: And we both had a bit of a tease of each other about that. But look, politics is a serious business and you respect people professionally. Doctors disagree with each other, lawyers disagree with each other. Professional respect is always important/.
PRIME MINISTER: So would you go to the barbeque?
PRESENTER: I mean, Chloe and Jenny get on quite well, actually, because they’re conscripts to what Bill and I do.
PRESENTER: My last question for you - might have more after that though - is there a red phone in your office that you’re afraid if it rings?
[Laughter]
PRIME MINISTER: No there’s not.
PRESENTER: There’s no such thing as that?
PRIME MINISTER: There’s not. There’s one phone, and it’s this one, and it rings all the time.
[Laughter]
But you know, if Jen’s name comes up, obviously, or the girls - well they don’t have phones - but if Jen’s phone comes up, that’s the one that gets answered.
PRESENTER: That’s the one you answer straight away.
PRIME MINISTER: Not all the time, I’ve got to say, on occasion I have… that’s been raised with me on occasion.
[Laughter]
PRESENTER: Well ScoMo, it’s been a pleasure having you in the studio this morning.
PRIME MINISTER: Thanks guys.
PRESENTER: Good luck with running the country.
PRIME MINISTER: Well look, we’re getting stuff done, the economy is going well, but there is a lot of… you know, this year is going to be a tough year in the economy, so we can’t take this stuff for granted. And that’s my number one priority, because it pays for everything else.
PRESENTER: 100 per cent. Well don’t forget, make sure some of that money keeps coming up here.
[Laughter]
PRIME MINISTER: Well as you can see, Entschy has nailed that for a long time.
PRESENTER: He kills it, he is a very tall human being as well. He intimidates me every time he steps into studio. Alright, thanks.
PRIME MINISTER: Good on you, thanks Shad, thanks Carly.
Interview with John MacKenzie, 4CA Cairns
22 January 2019
JOHN MACKENZIE: Scott Morrison, good morning.
PRIME MINISTER: Great to be with you John, I’ve always enjoyed coming in to be on your program. I remember once I called into you from Christmas Island on one occasion.
MACKENZIE: Well you just reminded me it goes back to 2005.
PRIME MINISTER: Correct, yes.
MACKENZIE: When you were just out of school.
[Laughter]
PRIME MINISTER: I was a little bit out of there I’ve got to say but mate, it’s good to be back here with you.
MACKENZIE: Before we doing anything seriously, you went to Hemingway’s. Tell me, you went down there to have a few drinks with people down at Hemingway’s?
PRIME MINISTER: Yeah we had a Politics in the Pub last night and then sort of moved more generally. This is the great thing about Cairns and about tourism in Cairns; it’s constantly reinventing the place. The city experience, the town experience here just gets better and better. Hemingway’s is just another example of that. But know you’ve got the cultural performing arts centre, you’ve got the new Aquarium. These are things that we’ve supported as a Government and Entschy in particular. I mean, Entschy goes all the way back to the boardwalk. It’s being redeveloped now because it’s been around for so long. But the constant reinvention of Cairns is the key to its success and Hemingway’s I think was a great example of that. Private investment, coming and reimagining a whole new part of that riverfront area. I met people, locals, people from other states, international visitors. Tremendous, great stuff.
MACKENZIE: Please tell everybody. By the way, do you keep your finger on the pulse of tourism? I mean, you were involved up to your neck for years?
PRIME MINISTER: Yeah I do because I know how important it is obviously to the country, particularly in regional areas. I’ve got to say, that’s one of the things that - I mean, Labor are proposing to get rid of the second year backpacker visa, if they’re elected. Now, I want Australians in Australian jobs, we all want that and that’s true. But you know, in places like Cairns we understand that that doesn’t always happen. If you don’t have the backpackers coming and being able to work in regional areas, whether it’s in the ag sector or the hospitality sector, particularly when you get further away out of Sydney and Melbourne, well that will have a devastating impact on the regional economy here. That’s lifeblood stuff.
So if you want a job in Cairns, you do not want to see that policy come to light with the election of a Labor government.
MACKENZIE: Now we’ve got to get stuck into some of the matters of the day and of course there’s $60 million you’re pledging to build this so-called Cairns Tropical Enterprise Centre. We’re talking about tertiary hospital status. Talk to me about the benefits that can accrue from that?
PRIME MINISTER: Well 150 beds at Cairns hospital for a start. You know that means you won’t have to go south to get treatment and this is important. This is recognising the real status and needs of the local Cairns community in terms of the health services they expect and should get and will get under this plan. It’s being paid for, not with higher taxes, it’s being paid for by running a stronger economy. I know that others are proposing the same thing, but you know, they’re going to charge you for the privilege, some $200 billion in higher taxes over the next decade. So we don’t think that’s a good idea for the economy. We think you should be able to support these things by good, strong economic management and we see that here in Cairns and far north Queensland.
We’ve seen the youth unemployment rate here fall from 28 per cent to 15.6 per cent since the last election. That’s what happens when you run a strong economy. So the hospital project is very important for the local health needs but the other thing is this; Cairns is a tropical capital and not just for Australia but for our region. The tropical capital status extends not just from a tourism point of view but an economic point of view, a health and medicine point of view. I was out there at JCU yesterday, talking to the scientists cracking everything from dengue fever to tuberculosis. Also a really important project they’re running on Malaria and there were scientists there from Sri Lanka, from Germany and we’re bringing the world’s best here to study these things. That is going to be a real hub and so we’re excited about the 150 beds, but we’re also excited about what’s being built in terms of the health and medical research status of Cairns as a tropical centre for excellence in medicine.
MACKENZIE: Do you know what we’re excited about up here? It’s the 48 day party to celebrate the 250th anniversary of James Cook and the Endeavour. Let me just read this from the Cairns post today, a likeness of the; “little old man whose gift of a broken spear to Captain Cook is considered Australia’s first act of reconciliation.” That’s going to be cast in bronze, that’s part of the $5.75 million infrastructure commitment to Cooktown from the Federal Government. They say you’re going to visit today, we know all about that.
PRIME MINISTER: Yep.
MACKENZIE: A whole lot of people, including myself, didn’t know the ins and outs of that first - not confrontation - it was a genuine expression of getting on together. It goes back 250 years, it’s a great story.
PRIME MINISTER: It is a great story and these are the stories we’re looking to be told with this re-enactment of that voyage. So yes, we’re putting around $5.5 million dollars in a lot of those projects which we’ve talked about, the Botanical Gardens in particular the initiative you’ve just mentioned. But 39 stops along the Australian east coast, that is going to be an opportunity for people to come, for tourists and it’s going to support local tourist industries and it’s also going to create the opportunity to refresh a lot of stories, things that people didn’t know, as you say.
So when Cook went into Cooktown - this is what Entschy tells me – Entschy tells me that the whole shipwreck thing was just an excuse, because they just wanted to come to North Queensland and go to Cooktown.
MACKENZIE: Yeah, yeah.
[Laughter]
PRIME MINISTER: The historical record may say something different. But that was the most perilous part of Cook’s voyage, what happened there and their ability to be able to engage with local Indigenous peoples and have those stories was no doubt key to their survival at that time.
So I think it is a wonderful story. The view from the ship, the view from the shore, that’s what that re-enactment is all about. Telling Australian stories, engaging Australians, promoting tourism and it being a togetherness, I think, voyage.
MACKENZIE: Do you know - I don’t know how old you were in 1988 - but when the big event, the ships around Australia, those beautiful sails when they came into the inlet the place was chock-a-block. So many people remember that day. There’s another voyage this time, it’s the replica Endeavour around the country, the voyage around the country, tell us about that?
PRIME MINISTER: As I was just mentioning, it’s 39 stops and we’re looking forward to that program and we’ve ensured it can go the full distance. It’s an opportunity for people to come along to each of those little towns and each of those ports. The National Maritime Museum is running this and who actually was responsible for the replica, I have been on the replica of the Endeavour because my electorate down in southern Sydney, Kurnell was the first place they stopped. The skipper for many years - I think he still is - he’s a local from Kurnell. The vessel itself is quite amazing when you wander around it and see what they actually crammed in there. I mean, Banks had the place stuffed full of botanical specimens and he had a few dogs on there and a few other things too. How they all squeezed in there, who knows.
But the thing about Cook is, I think we need to rediscover him a bit. Because he gets a bit of a bad show from some of those who like to trash our history.
MACKENZIE: Yes, very fashionable now.
PRIME MINISTER: Very trendy to talk down James Cook and all that sort of stuff. But this guy was an enlightened man for his generation and his time. He was a scientist above anything else and he was fascinated with his engagement with the Indigenous peoples, whether it’s in Australia or whether it was in New Zealand or whether it was across the Pacific. Being able to tell the stories of how he was seeking to find understanding I think, is very important. I mean, it was a long time ago, 250 years ago and those people who want to try to judge people for what they did 250 years ago, you know I think that’s a bit harsh. I think you’ve got to try and look at him in the context of his time.
MACKENZIE: Let’s go to a couple of serious matters now. Last time you were up here we had that incursion there up at the Daintree, people trying to get into Australia, the boat sank, you know the story. It’s a sensitive matter up here. We’re closer to the coalface that Sydney and Melbourne. So now we’re hearing about, well, the possibility of these people smugglers getting active again in Indonesia and Malaysia. Once again the commitment to keep our borders safe up here in the north?
PRIME MINISTER: Nothing will change under our Government because we know what we’re doing works. I know because I designed it and we put it in place. It was hard going, particularly over those first six months when we stopped the boats and what Bill Shorten and Labor don’t understand is how these things all work together.
See, they voted in the Parliament last year to basically get rid of offshore processing as we know it. They don’t even understand what they’ve done, they don’t even understand the implications. On top of that, they’re also going to abolish temporary protection visas. Now that’s two planks of the three plank strategy which stopped the boats and they have no appreciation of the impact that will have. There are over 10,000 people in Indonesia who will get on boats if they get the green light from the election of a Labor Government. Whether it’s here on the North Coast, north Queensland or across the top or out towards Christmas Island, that threat is ever present. We have held that line for the last five years and we must continue to hold that line. You’ve got to have the ticker and you’ve got to have the resolve to do it.
Kevin Rudd said he would turn back boats and what happened with that? The day, I remember it, it was 4 August 2008, the Labor Party abolished Temporary Protection Visas that were put in place by the Howard Government. That’s what started the madness.
MACKENZIE: I want to take you to another matter basically it’s self-interest, but we are talking about the future of our port at Trinity Inlet. Now there has been a lot of talk about the expansion of Naval Facilities up there at Manus Island. You, the last week or so have been reported talking about bolstering our influence, if you like, out in the Pacific with the incursion more and more of Chinese interest there. Now talk to me about the potential, if indeed you’re going to be bolstering facilities up here, like naval facilities, will there be benefits for our port? Warren Entsch has been talking for some years now about the need for special facilities to be included here. We have been fighting for years to get a fair go as far as the future expansion where our port is concerned. What could be in store given the prospect of the expansion up at Manus, the need to support that and to support what you believe now is the need to bolster our influence out in the Pacific?
PRIME MINISTER: Sure, well, we have declared it a strategic port. That’s been done by Home Affairs and by Defence and I mentioned before about Cairns being a tropical capital - it’s a Pacific capital too for Australia’s engagement with the region. We’ll have the four Offshore Patrol Boats which will be serviced out of Cairns and while there is no current plans in front of us, proposals re: upgrading of some of that infrastructure, those issues will undoubtedly have to be dealt with. I think there is opportunity for private investment in that as well, because you create the critical mass once you once you have Offshore Patrol Boats being serviced out of here, that creates the capacity for marine-based industry to do even more. So we want to see the combination of those events between ourselves, the State Government and of course the private sector as well. So whether that’s in fisheries or whether that’s in other areas, we will see an expanded capability here, for Cairns to be a Pacific capital of Australia, a tropical capital of Australia.
Because I was in Vanuatu last week with Jenny and in Fiji and this is very important to our engagement with the Pacific. This is our part of the world. This is where we live. This is where we have those relationships and we have stepped up there and that has been incredibly well-received in the Pacific.
We have completely re-orientated our foreign aid programme and so we have been pulling money out of other places so we can invest it in our neighbours and our friends and our family. Vuvale is the word in Fijian, which some of your listeners I’m sure from Pacific extraction will know exactly what that means; it means family. It’s whanau in Polynesian, in Maori, and these are words that encapsulate the new relationship we’re having with the Pacific. While we have continued to invest in the Pacific, what we needed to step up is in our respect and our engagement and that’s what I am doing. We have got a new head of an Office of the Pacific in the Department of Foreign Affairs, a fella called Ewen McDonald who has a long history in the region. He is coordinating our engagements right across everything from our cultural engagements - like rugby league and rugby union and netball and sports and all of those things because there are huge engagements between our sporting communities - but also right across to our defence and strategic operations. We just turned the sod on the Blackrock facility in Fiji which is training peacekeepers and humanitarian assistance for their defence forces and others in the region. So that is an exciting project, but it can all centre here. It can all centre here just like it can at JCU and the wonderful work they are doing on tropical medicine and tropical health.
MACKENZIE: You used this term “strategic port status” I don’t know if it is going to be strong enough to unshackle the restraints on our need long term for dredging work. Now there is a smaller project underway at the moment, it’s about say a million cubic metres, a lot of people say we need a project of four and a half million cubic metres which was planned several years ago, but we have had our future there undermined. This “strategic port status” I think will not unshackle those restraints?
PRIME MINISTER: At the end of the day those calls will be made primarily made by State Government. Obviously the Commonwealth can’t just go in and override those decisions made by the State and this is why it does have to be a partnership. We see it as a strategic port, as a port of national significance in that context and you’re right John, it’s linked between here and the Pacific as a key part of why we believe that is so strategic.
MACKENZIE: Look we are miles ahead of time, we’ve still got a few minutes time so if you are at home listening this and you want to talk about boarder security or you want to talk about the about the Port,you if want can to ring through and talk with our Prime Minister directly, he hasn’t got a long time so it you want to have a chat get on the blower immediately.
PRIME MINISTER: All good.
MACKENZIE: Can I take you to page one - and I know this is a sensitive matter, I know that, but let’s go to page one of the Australian. “Scott Morrison has urged the Indonesian President to show great respect to Australia in dealing with Abu Bakar Bashir the terrorist,” as survivors of the 2002 Bali bombings describe being quote, “disappointed and numb at the pending release of the spiritual leader of the Islamist group that killed 88 Australians.” I want you to have a listen to this, this came through on my program yesterday from a victim of the Bali bombing. I understand he lives in Perth.
NEWS BROADCAST - RECORDING: Peter Hughes is a survivor of the 2002 attack and says he is angry at the early release.
PETER HUGHES – RECORDING: He just hates Westerners. He just hates the way we are and he just loves the fact that they killed so many people and he was involved.
MACKENZIE: Now you have expressed already, can I say, disappointment in the release, the early release of Abu Bakar Bashir. What can you convey to the Indonesian leadership about our feelings on this sensitive matter here in Australia?
PRIME MINISTER: First of all I want to assure all Australians that I have already conveyed directly, at the highest level, our strong views on this topic and the fact that Abu Bakar Bashir was convicted of crimes under the Indonesian justice system. It’s their justice system and they run it and so there are calls they have to make there. But 88 Australians were killed. This is an issue of very great significance to Australia, that has been conveyed. It was also Indonesians who were killed. I mean Abu Bakar Bashir is a threat to Indonesians as well as Australians and we have a counter-terrorism partnership with Indonesia and it is designed precisely to counteract the influences of radical Islamic clerics. So we are working very closely with the Indonesian Government at the moment and I appreciate that opportunity. We are heavily engaged, both myself directly as well as through our Head of Mission in Indonesia.
Two things are important; one is that respect must be shown for the lives of those who were lost.
MACKENZIE: Yes.
PRIME MINISTER: And it’s important that this character doesn’t get the opportunity to go and spread and incite hatred if under their system - and it’s their system - he were to be released. I would obviously be very disappointed about that, like other Australians would and would register that disappointment and quite strong feelings about that. But we don’t want this character able go out there and incite the killings of Australians and Indonesians preaching a doctrine of hate.
MACKENZIE: Now this is a matter of some celebration up here I would imagine, this is from today’s Courier Mail the rate heart disease and premature death in North Queensland will be targeted under a $12 million Federal Government plan to send cardiology clinics to the bush. This is Greg Hunt, he’s revealing an extra mobile cardiac bus. More services are going to be sent to patients to ensure quicker intervention would save busy parents and workers from travelling to cities for timely care. This is part of a bid to help reverse the shocking health outcomes for regional and remote Queensland.
PRIME MINSITER: This is so important to rural and regional communities. Whether it’s this issue, whether it comes to cardiac conditions or frankly on mental health. One of the things I announced last year was over $50 million extra for Headspace and that was to provide and deliver remote mental health services to young people using digital and other online platforms.
Getting services to where people are, is becoming more possible though a lot of this technology. We were just talking about that JCU yesterday where that technology can be used to make diagnosis for people with tropical diseases, who you are unable to get to simply because their remote location or weather conditions. So we are making great strides here and I commend Greg Hunt on this initiative.
Sadly the state Government wouldn’t put a dime into this, they just completely rejected it. I mean this is part of the problem. We put $39 million, just in the last year, extra into the Cairns Hospital. On top of that, we’ve got the announcement which I’ve already mentioned, of $60 million. So, we’re getting on with and doing things, but I’ll tell you one thing I want do John; that is I’m not going to put taxes up on all Australians to pay for state governments who don’t know how to manage money. Whether it’s here with the Labor government in Queensland, we’re not going to just throw money at them so they can be absolved of their own funding responsibilities whether it’s for emergency departments or anything like that. That’s their responsibility. That’s why you pay state taxes, to fund those services. But also in the Northern Territory, you’ve seen the basket case of fiscal mismanagement there.
So we’re not going to use higher taxes on all Australians just because Labor can’t manage money.
MACKENZIE: Look I’m glad you agreed to take a couple of calls, but we have to snappy or your staff will start waving at me and winding us up. We had John on the line, he’s not there yet. We’ve got Linda on the line. Linda, you’re talking to the Prime Minister Scott Morrison.
PRIME MINISTER: G’day Linda.
CALLER – LINDA: Good morning, good morning. One of the biggest issues that we’re facing in north Queensland and actually most of the northern part of Australia is insurance. You know it’s just crippling us here and we’ve been hearing about Senate inquiries and all sorts of inquiries, but there’s been no actual result. The flow-on effect is that our economy is going nowhere, it’s been going nowhere since the GFC which is a decade now.
PRIME MINISTER: Yeah well there’s a couple of issues there. One of the issues Warren has raised with me about that is obviously the lack of competition. That’s a big problem. The other part of it is, as I understand it, the state strata laws prevent sometimes the type of insurance that you can get which would lead to a lower premium. He’s been raising that issue, which I think is very practical, I think the Assistant Treasurer Stuart Robert has been tasked and he’s been working on this with Warren and a lot of the north Queensland MPs, Matt Canavan and others, right now. I’ve got to say there is no simple solution, I mean when you’re in tropical, remote parts of the country, they’re obviously more exposed to more extreme weather events. That obviously has implications for how insurance is delivered and provided on a costly basis but I think you’re right about it, we’ve got to keep working on it in practical ways. But a bit more competition as Warren often says, would certainly be a good thing.
CALLER – LINDA: Yeah the problem is, if we had the economy that was going and that we had jobs and we could create an income for ourselves, the problem itself we could almost manage. But the problem is because the economy has ground to a halt, you know, we hear constantly that we’re going to move a government department here or we’re going to dredge the channel, we’ve got this project that’s going to start, we’re going to have a tourism hub, we’re going to have all of this. We’ve been hearing it for so long but nothing has really happened. And you know, Cairns is the most beautiful place in the world to live, we’re so blessed to live here, but we have to make money.
PRIME MINISTER: Sure and that’s why I’m pleased that the youth unemployment rate here has fallen from 28 per cent to 15.6 per cent, just since the last election. The investments we’re making, whether it’s in JCU for their Innovation Hub, that’s already happening, that contract is secured, that funding is flowing. The $60 million we’ve just announced for the Tropical Enterprise Centre, that’s an important investment in jobs and the future of Cairns. There’s the investment that we put into the Aquarium as well as the Cultural Centre, there’s the road investments we’re making. I mean all of this and unemployment has been falling here in Cairns. That’s a good thing and it’s pleasing to see the Japanese market turning around a bit for local tourism, I’m pleased to see that the Chinese market has remained strong. You’ve got some very big investments now, coming in here from a very large international investor, three big projects happening here in Cairns. So you’re right - a strong economy is what is needed and that’s what we’re focused on.
MACKENZIE: Linda we’ve got to move on because we’ve got almost no time, we’ve got Phil on the line. Phil, you’re talking to Prime Minister Scott Morrison.
CALLER – PHIL: Hello Scott and thank you for giving the time to me. I prefer to call you Scott and ScoMo just by the way.
PRIME MINISTER: Whatever you like.
CALLER – PHIL: I’ve been a follower, I’m not ashamed to say, I’m proud of the fact that I’ve followed the Liberals for a long time. I’ve always believed in your belief - that a bloke should go out and work hard and you’ll probably get reward for working hard. What really annoys me though, is the fact that – I read an article in the paper about eight months ago called ‘the underbelly of business’. Now fair enough, I believe what you believe, that every business is the backbone of Australia, that they hold the place alive and we’ve got to help them survive and promote them and give what we can to them. But if you’d read that article, you would have seen that there are a lot of businesses – and John Howard’s ideals were “work hard and provide money for your retirement,” and that’s what I’ve done – except superannuation has been made a lark of. When the small businesses – and there’s a hell of a lot of them, a lot – what Bill Shorten promises to do is tighten up on these businesses that aren’t paying their superannuation. They’re forgoing their superannuation funds, they’re using loopholes and saying: “I’m doing everything legally.” But they’re running people back tens of thousands of dollars. People are actually getting sick. They’re dying and the money is still owing to them.
MACKENZIE: Alright.
CALLER – PHILE: It’s just not fair.
PRIME MINISTER: Well two points on that, we’ve been taking action on that very point to ensure that these companies do pay their superannuation. We’ve been cracking down on that. But the other thing in terms of those self-funded retirees in particular, but all retirees including some pensioners - Labor’s plan is to strip you of your rebate for your franking credits, your dividend imputation. Where you get those imputation credits each year, whether you’ve got shares in the Commonwealth Bank, QANTAS or any of these other places, I know how important that is to the income of retired Australians. And those incomes will be hit hard by Bill Shorten’s retirees tax. It’s to the tune of thousands and there will be many people listening here who know that when Bill’s Tax Bus comes around, they will want to know; “Why are they going to be taxed more by Bill Shorten on their retirement savings?”
MACKENZIE: We’ve got to move on because we’ve got little time and the queue starts at Mount Isa, we’ve got John on the line. John you’re talking to Scott Morrison.
CALLER – JOHN: Good morning John, good morning Scott.
PRIME MINISTER: G’day John.
MACKENZIE: Try to be brief.
CALLER – JOHN: I’ll make it brief. We’ve been over-promised to buggery by Warren Entsch and there hasn’t been too much achieved, I’m not real happy with him, two things but – they’re probably ways to sort everyone’s worries; the flag, mate. I’d love to see someone introduce legislation to protect it from Indigenous and any other person who destroys it, urinates on it and burns it and all the rest of it. That’s one thing I’d like to see done. Is there any chance of you doing that?
PRIME MINISTER: First of all, on Warren, over his time here Warren has brought about $4 billion worth of public investments here into Leichhardt, the most recent being the one I’ve just announced yesterday. There’s the $10 million I announced when I was back here last November, there’s the Aquarium, there’s the Cultural Centre, it even goes back to the original boardwalk. I mean this is a bloke who has just been delivering and delivering and delivering, so with respect John, I can’t agree with your assessment. Warren Entsch has been one of the biggest deliverers of any local member anywhere in the country and he’s got a big passion to keep going too. That’s why I’m backing him so strongly. On the flag, I mean it’s the same reason that I feel so strongly about citizenship ceremonies or the way people conduct themselves; we’ve got to protect and respect our institutions. Whether it’s the flag, whether it’s citizenship, these are serious, serious things for Australia and you’ll always have my commitment to ensure that those institutions, whether its our flag, our system of government, our citizenship, these things should mean something and should never be treated with disrespect.
MACKENZIE: John, we’ve got to move on I’m sorry, we’re right down on time. Scott just before you go – I’m getting dirty looks from your staff out there – this just got handed to me and it’s under the heading “Voters fund north Queensland fight against Medicare Centrelink privatization,” this is CPSU Queensland Assistant Regional Secretary Amy Smith: “We know that people living across north Queensland hugely value their local Medicare and Centrelink services and the decent quality jobs that exist to provide those essential services. That’s why ads are so important,” advertising, “to ensure voters are aware that these services and jobs are under threat from privatization and labour hire”?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, what a load of rubbish. I mean these are unions using union-members fees to promote Bill Shorten. I mean if it’s not bad enough Bill Shorten wants to put his hand in your own pocket to rip more taxes out, the unions - and militant unions, we had a whole bunch of those thugs out there yesterday at JCU, carrying on and screaming and shouting like they do all the time, I mean that’s no way to engage in any sort of civilized debate. But these union officials are using your union dues to go around pushing the Labor Party agenda. These are the facts; we have never had bulk-billing rates at the level we have them now. Medicare has been more secure and more guaranteed under our Government than ever before, including here in north Queensland, where bulk-billing rates are not only higher than the national average, they’re higher than the Queensland average. So, bulk-billing has been secure, $39 million extra into our local hospitals here in Cairns and the state Labor Government cut $600,000. You’ll find similar stories down in Hervey Bay, in Gladstone. I note that Bill Shorten is down in Gladstone today, he’s going to make some announcement down there, the only thing people in Gladstone need to know and north Queensland, is that Bill Shorten’s reckless energy targets on emissions is going to wipe out the Boyne aluminium smelter. That’s 1,000 jobs gone Bill. 1,000 jobs gone, on the basis of a vapor of a promise from a bloke that can’t run an economy. Give me a break.
MACKENZIE: Your staff are on the verge of mutiny here so I’m going to let you go.
[Laughter]
PRIME MINISTER: Well, we’ve got to get up to Cooktown.
MACKENZIE: Well exactly!
PRIME MINISTER: I’m looking forward to that.
MACKENZIE: Have you met Peter Scott up there?
PRIME MINISTER: Not yet, looking forward to it.
MACKENZIE: He’s doing a wonderful job and the other thing I’d love you to do up there if you get half an hour, go to the museum. It is such an eye-opener and you will just love what is on offer up there. You’ll be looking forward to that 48 day celebration next year.
PRIME MINISTER: I will.
MACKENZIE: Scott Morrison, Prime Minister of Australia, thank you for your time in studio today.
PRIME MINISTER: Thanks John, great to be here with you.
Doorstop, Cooktown Queensland
22 January 2019
WARREN ENTSCH, MEMBER FOR LEICHHARDT: Thank you very much indeed to everybody for being here today. It’s been quite an eventful day, we’ve just come from Reconciliation Rocks, as I say, locally through the James Cook Museum. It’s been great to be here with the Prime Minister and of course with our Communications Minister and of course Minister for the Arts who is responsible for this. I think it’s been a bit of an eye-opener for the Prime Minister who is a very, very keen Captain Cook tragic if you’d like to call it that, checking out the anchor and a whole lot of other interesting artefacts here and also listening to some of the stories here, which have been quite amazing. So it’s great to have the Prime Minister here to see this firsthand and he’d now like to say a few words.
PRIME MINISTER: Thanks very much Warren, it’s great to be here with you and Mitch and as the Member for Cook it’s great to be here, not just as the Prime Minister. Warren and I have shared a passionate interest in these stories for a very, very long time and with the 250th anniversary of that historic voyage, it was a great opportunity to come here. I was particularly keen to come here before Australia Day this year, because in my own community back in the Sutherland Shire in Sydney, we have the annual meeting of two cultures ceremony on the 29th of April each year. It’s an opportunity to understand this story from both the view from the shore and the view from the sea; to understand what took place and to build understanding and learning. But importantly it’s a ceremony that actually brings Australians together. I think it brings Australians together. I think it demonstrates how this is achieved around these important historical events, how Australians of all backgrounds can come together, listen to these stories, learn from these stories. That is very true here as well in Cooktown, at Reconciliation Rocks and I want to thank those who were involved in the ceremony today, reminding us of what is possible and how communities in particular work together to keep these stories alive, to understand these stories and to convey the important lessons of the stories.
That is what we take from history. That’s what we have an opportunity to do in a few days' time. Not to walk away from our history, but to understand it, to embrace it, to recognise things that have happened both positively and otherwise.
It's so great here in Cooktown to see that spirit of reconciliation, that spirit of understanding, that spirit of appreciation and respect to be played out. I really want to acknowledge the Waymburr People here. Not only because they helped a bloke out when he turned up here almost 250 years ago and got him back on his ship and on his way, but for the spirit in which they have kept that story alive amongst their own people and to hear it relayed to me today by local Indigenous people, it was incredibly special. So Warren, I really thank you for the opportunity to come here and do that today.
So next year is that 250th anniversary and as you know, there are things we’re doing at Kurnell and equally I was keen to ensure that we’re doing things particularly here at Cooktown and Warren and I have been having the conversations. So today we’re announcing $5.5 million or thereabouts to invest in a number of important projects that are happening here. Upgrading the monument down where we were just at Reconciliation Rocks, the further development of the Botanical Gardens, the Dreaming Trail - not just an important local story, but a great tourist experience for people who come to this part of the word, the stories of that trail are just astonishing – and also, investing more in telling the stories of the Waymburr People.
That will be supported by a broader national program, which Mitch is going to talk a bit more about. That includes two parts of what is an important voyage; there is basically a re-enactment of the voyage along the east coast of Australia which is what I referred to this morning when I was on radio this morning, and then there’s the entire circumnavigation. It does two things; the re-enactment, as you go along the east coast as they call in on various ports along the way, is an opportunity to tell the story of that initial voyage. But it’s also to take the story of reconciliation, I think, around the entire country. It goes well beyond where James Cook went all those years ago, some 39 different places. Around $6.5 million is being invested through the National Maritime Museum to tell that story and for Australians right around the country, to engage with that story and to understand it's real meaning.
I believe it will be a voyage of bringing Australians together, that is why I'm keen to support it. I'm keen for it to be done very much in that spirit. There are a range of other programs that I will ask Mitch to talk to as the Minister, But finally, I want to say thank you again Warren, for bringing me here. It’s a very special place and I encourage Australians from all around the country to come here, to check it out and to listen to the Indigenous stories, to listen to the stories of this amazing town. It wasn't just known for what happened at the Endeavour River all those years ago; whether it is the history of the gold rush or any of those things, this is one of the places in Australia which tells a really special history. To take a moment to remember those fell in service of our country during the Great War, coming out of this small town here in regional Australia, is a great reminder of the great prices that have been paid for the wonderful country we are. But that’s why it’s important for us to come together, understand our stories tell them with confidence and appreciate their messages and their learnings. But Minister, Mitch, tell us more about what's happening next year.
SENATOR THE HON MITCH FIFIELD, MINISTER FOR COMMUNICATIONS AND THE ARTS: Thanks PM. The 250th anniversary is an opportunity for the nation to reflect on a legacy of exploration, of science and of reconciliation. Today with the PM and Warren, we are talking about an important part of that, which is the circumnavigation by the replica of Endeavour, which will start in Sydney in March 2020, go down to Hobart, then back up the east coast and around Australia. This will provide an opportunity for the whole nation to be a part of this time to reflect. Importantly, the Cook Endeavour replica will be looking at things from the point of view of those on the ship and those on the shore at the time that Cook arrived here. There are many other elements of the $48 million that the Commonwealth is putting on behalf of the community to the Cook events, the National Library of Australia, the National Maritime Museum and also the National Museum will have a range of exhibitions. They will be combining together to have a digital platform for the nation to access, to follow the events and the story of Cook and the story of our Indigenous people.
There’s also important reconciliation components to what is being done. There will be a contribution to AIATSIS to enable the repatriation of culturally significant objects from overseas. There will also be a series of fellowships at the National Museum for Indigenous cultural sector workers to get new experiences so they can be great at their craft. So there are a range of things that are being done, but it’s both national and it’s local and the institutions that are supporting this endeavour will be working closely with local communities. As the replica Endeavour goes around the nation, there will be a travelling exhibition which will be at those sites where the Endeavour is stopping. So, an opportunity for the whole nation to come together.
JONATHAN FISHER, CEO QUEENSLAND NATIONAL TRUST: Good morning and again, thank you very much Prime Minister, Minister, Peter Scott and Warren for honouring us with your presence today. The National Trust was fortunate enough to be able to step in and play a major part in the restoration of this convent building some 50 years ago. A lot has moved on since those 50 years and now we’re looking at the future. We’re looking at hoping to make sure this is as much as a museum which tells us about the impact of James Cook as it is a museum that talks about the future of Cooktown. We look forward to investing along with our community partners in this being a centre for the Bama, making sure that they have a voice, making sure that we’re promoting, as the Minister and Prime Minister were talking about. The many experiences you can do here, that you can walk on country that really taps into the mix of authentic cultural tourism and also ecotourism. We hope in the future, the young people of Cooktown will have the opportunity to work here in the museum during the day and maybe the following day take our visitors out on country and really experience firsthand what it’s like to be in one of the most unspoilt and most beautiful parts of the country, if not the world. So, we’re very proud to be part of this and we look forward to working in partnership with all levels of government.
PRIME MINISTER: Thank you. So, this is great for Australia. It’s great for tourism and if you think about all the places the Endeavour replica will go around Australia. It’s great for Cooktown. It’s great for Kurnell and it’s a real opportunity next year, we’re preparing for that and we’re putting the resources in place. We would welcome the support of the Queensland Government. In New South Wales, they have matched dollar for dollar what we have invested in New South Wales for that project. That hasn’t yet occurred yet in Queensland we would invite them and we’ll be inviting them again, the Queensland Government, to participate in supporting places like Cooktown or 1770 or other places and we look forward to receiving proposals like at 1770 where I know there is work being done there. We look forward to considering those proposals when they come forward.
So with that, why don’t we take questions on those issues. We can move to other issues of the day, happy to do that. I’ll have a bit to say before we do that and let’s start with any questions on why we’re here today.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, you’ve spoken a lot about working together for these celebrations. What do you have to say then to people who believe celebrating Captain Cook’s arrival welcomes feelings of discontent?
PRIME MINISTER: I think they’re missing the point, you don’t crabwalk away from your history, you open yourself to it, you understand it. You embrace it, you come together and understand it, which is what we see here. What was so beautiful about the ceremony we had today, is it told the story from both perspectives. I thought it captured a spirit of reconciliation which is what we want to go out right across Australia. That's what embracing your history and understanding your history - and not crab-walking away from it - does.
So we’re not going to make any pretences, we’re just going to be honest about it and have fair dinkum conversations about it. I think that makes Australia stronger. I’m about making Australia stronger, and you’re stronger when you can deal with your past and you can come together around your past and make it a platform to take you into the future.
JOURNALIST: Just a question on the economy.
PRIME MINISTER: Let's just stay on the local announcement and then move on to other issues.
JOURNALIST: Fred, the little old man you met, he had a pretty touching message to you about all being Australian. What did you say back to him?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, I basically just thanked him for keeping the stories alive. I thanked him for the way the local community has just been so much part of what has happened here. This has been a community process here that has been going for some 60 years and it’s done in partnership. I think it’s a great model for the rest of the country, that’s why I thanked him for the spirit in which he engages.
JOURNALIST: Is the best way to celebrate Cook’s voyage with a circumnavigation tour, when he didn’t actually circumnavigate Australia?
PRIME MINISTER: As I explained in my opening remarks, yes it does retrace the steps, obviously, when we go up the east coast, which is what I was referring to this morning. But you know, we’re one large country and it's important that the lessons and the stories that came out of that experience along the east coast of Australia, is shared with the rest of the country. That’s what the circumnavigation is, as the Minister has outlined. It’s important that we do take the story around the country. But at the same time, that process of sailing along the east coast will be quite special, I know it will be quite special in my community. On the 29th of April next year that will be a very special time in our community. Because for a long time, for those who probably haven't had as much engagement with this story as they have in my community or in Cooktown – and they can come in and can make all sorts criticisms of it, but they haven't been part of it yet and I invite them to open themselves up to the story – because James Cook was quite a remarkable person for his time. You know, those who want to engage in judgements of things that happened 250 years ago and ignore the context of the period, I think do history and themselves a disservice. If you look at Cook in his own time, in his own context, he really was quite a legendary figure. He was a scientist above and beyond everything else, wanting to understand, hungry to know and sure he made some mistakes, who doesn't, but he sought to understand and he sought to engage. I think that is something worth recognising.
JOURNALIST: The Mayor behind you has been sweating on this money for a long time, is this ready to spend or is it an election promise?
PRIME MINISTER: No, it’s ready to spend, it’s absolutely committed. It’s already there. Peter, are you happy mate?
MAYOR: Well done mate, [inaudible].
[Laughter]
PRIME MINISTER: Well it’s great and thank you for working with us, because this was a proposal that came out of the community. This is not something that bureaucrats in Canberra dreamed up and said; “This is what Cooktown can have.” No, the complete opposite, just like in my own community in terms of what we are doing down in Kurnell. That has come out of the community and that’s why we’re backing it in. We’re backing it in and it’s coming from the grassroots up. So, I think people want to move to other issues so let me make a comment on those first.
The Treasurer today has been, I think, sounding a very important warning about the global economy that we’re entering as we go into this year. I served as Treasurer for three years and I know the global economy we’re entering this year is going be a lot tougher than the one we certainly entered this time last year. But we have seen these tough times as a government before and we’ve ensured continuous growth. Not just continuous, but growth at the top of the leader board of developed economies around the world in the face of the biggest shock to the Australian economy that – arguably – we’ve ever seen, other than the Great Depression; when we worked through the end of the mining investment boom that pulled $80 billion out of the Australian economy. That particularly impacted places like far north Queensland, north Queensland, central Queensland, in resources communities. This had a massive impact and that’s why I am so pleased today that we can stand here in north Queensland – we’re in Warren’s electorate - where the youth unemployment rate has fallen from 28 per cent down to 15.6 per cent. So what Josh is saying today, I totally back him in. We are going into a tougher environment and now, more than ever, you must be able to know how to get the economic settings right to protect people’s jobs, their livelihoods and to be able to invest in hospitals and schools.
Now, Labor has not demonstrated those skills in the past. Their plans to put $200 billion of higher taxes on the Australian economy - that’s what they’re offering at the next election - that will throw a big wet blanket on the Australian economy at the time you can least afford it.
The decisions that are made about the economy over the next couple of years and the decision the Australian people will make at the next election about where they want their economy to go, that will determine the economy you will live in for the next decade. When Kevin Rudd was elected in 2007, we spent the last five years cleaning up the mess that Labor made over their six years of government.
JOURNALIST: As the economy stands today Prime Minister, is it able to withstand [inaudible]?
PRIME MINISTER: With the right economic management - as we have already demonstrated in government - the Australian economy can continue to prosper. But with $200 billion of extra taxes on the Australian economy - and taxes that will undermine consumer confidence like Labor's negative gearing changes, abolishing it as we know it, increasing capital gains tax, hitting self-funded and other retirees with their retirees tax - these taxes will slow the Australian economy. It will weaken the Australian economy. That's why it's a very negative and dangerous plan, particularly as we are going into these difficult environments.
The other point I'd make about the economy is this: Down in Gladstone, Bill Shorten is down there talking about new plants. That's fine. But don't close down the existing one. The Boyne aluminium smelter will be history, history, if Labor's reckless targets on energy are implemented. A 45 per cent emissions reduction target, which is what Labor has said they will not only introduce, but they will make law, that will wipe out 1,000 jobs alone at the Boyne Island aluminium smelter. How do I know? I was there last year and the workers told me that themselves.
So he can spend $3 million and he can say that he's going to loan money to some proposal which as yet is only in formative stages. That is no compensation for wiping out 1,000 jobs in a viable, competitive, go-ahead industry that is already existing in Gladstone and providing livelihoods for so many families.
JOURNALIST: Just sticking with Labor's announcement of money for hydrogen research, do you back the idea and would your Party have anything to say on the issue?
PRIME MINISTER: Well I'm fine with the issue of hydrogen research, that's not the issue. The truth is, there's only $3 million worth of new money, but they cannot direct the CEFC as to where they loan money, that’s actually an independent organisation. So I think to go along and play that 3-card trick with the people of Gladstone is quite disingenuous, particularly when he's going to rip 1,000 jobs out of the Boyne Island aluminium smelter and undermine the livelihoods of so many Australians.
So, I don't have any problem with the project, but you don't have to choose between the two. You don’t have to shut the industries like the aluminium industry, whether it's at Boyne aluminium smelter or it's down in Victoria. You don't have to do that. That's why we think his plan is a reckless plan for our economy.
JOURNALIST: What do you make of news that Malcolm Turnbull’s former infrastructure adviser has plans to run as an independent against Tony Abbott?
PRIME MINISTER: It's a free country.
JOURNALIST: Did you instruct members of the New South Wales Liberal executive to vote for Warren Mundine in preselection?
PRIME MINISTER: When l have more to say about our candidate in Gilmore, I will say it then.
JOURNALIST: Do you support Warren Mundine?
PRIME MINISTER: I think Warren Mundine is a top bloke. Entschy knows Warren Mundine really well, don't you mate?
WARREN ENTSCH, MEMBER FOR LEICHHARDT: I do I think he’s great. Great name too, by the way.
PRIME MINISTER: I think Warren Mundine has got a lot to offer and has already been offering quite a bit. I've been a friend of Warren for some time, I think he's a great bloke.
Sorry, I can't hear you there's three at once. Now there’s two at once.
JOURNALIST: Would you want another woman in the seat of Gilmore?
PRIME MINISTER: Look, Ann Sudmalis has done a great job and I want to see more female candidates and that's why I'm pleased to see the great, strong field that's already emerging where Kelly O'Dwyer is not going to contest the next election, I'm absolutely confident we'll see another great female candidate come up there. Remembering the last person to actually enter our Parliament I think it was, here in Queensland, was Amanda Stoker and she’s fantastic. So I want to see more Amanda Stokers, I want to see more of these great young women and women with life experience coming into our Parliament. I'm going to be working hard as the leader of the Liberal Party to achieve that in the future. As we go into this election, those processes were largely set and pretty much completed. There's some more candidates, particularly in the seats that will be hotly contested and in existing seats, but it's certainly my intention to ensure that we have the plans in place with me as Liberal leader, to ensure we have even greater female representation in the future.
JOURNALIST: If James Cook were alive today, who would he be voting for?
[Laughter]
WARREN ENTSCH, MEMBER FOR LEICHHARDT: There's only one man, the member for Cook!
PRIME MINISTER: There you go - well put, Warren!
[Laughter]
Look, I admire what - this is why being here is so important to me and Warren. You know, I love Australia's history, I love all of Australia's history. In the first speech, in my maiden speech I gave in the Parliament, I talked about Cook. I talked about the importance of this 250th anniversary. So, you know, I've had a long-held view about this. I think it is so important for the reconciliation journey of this country to get our heads around this and to end this process of having a divisive view of our history. We just need to come around it, understand it, get together on it just like you've seen here at Cooktown. I want to thank the people at Cooktown, the Indigenous people, the community who are here, who are telling this story honestly and in a way that I think speaks volumes to other Australians.
JOURNALIST: Back to the election, how much of a threat are independents in this election?
PRIME MINISTER: Well independents turn up at every election. But what I know is, they always promise a lot and can never really deliver at the end of the day.
You want a strong economy? That's what I want. Because I want to fund lung cancer medicines like I announced on the weekend. I want to fund the $60 million - which we are - for the Cairns Hospital. I want to ensure that we can continue to support our school education right around the country, which we're funding at record levels. We can fund all the essential services Australians rely on, without hitting them with higher taxes. Because we know how to run a strong economy and bring the Budget into surplus, which will be done for the first time in April of this year, before the next election. Australians will be able to see very clearly which party, which leader, knows how to manage money and has a clear direction as to how we're going to keep our economy strong, to keep Australians in their jobs, to keep services and support going into our hospitals and our schools. That's why we believe in a strong economy because it keeps Australians together and strong and having the services that they need.
So I want to thank everyone, particularly Peter, thanks for having us here in your neck of the woods. I'm looking forward to the rest of the day, Warren. I want to thank, particularly, the National Trust here for the work that you're doing in telling the stories in this wonderful place. I'd encourage all Australians who may be watching this or hearing this in some way or shape or form, get yourself to Cooktown. Get yourself here, do yourself a favour.
JOURNALIST: My friends in Canberra also want to know if you’re in Queensland because you’re worried about marginal seats?
PRIME MINISTER: They worry too much in Canberra, they should stop worrying.
WARREN ENTSCH, MEMBER FOR LEICHHARDT: Can I say, when Scott Morrison became Prime Minister, the first place he visited after being elected was Cairns. We sat down and we had dinner on the waterfront and he says to me: "Entschy, something on my bucket list, I've got to go, will you take me to Cooktown?” And I said; "Have I got a deal for you! Of course I'll take you to Cooktown, but I've got Peter Scott's shopping list in me back pocket and you need to tick that off, then I'll take you up here.
PRIME MINISTER: And we’ve delivered. One last fun fact on Captain Cook, little-known fact. If you look inside and look at the quote from James Cook - I don't think you believe me about this - Tony Horwitz wrote [inaudible] and he retraced a lot of Cook’s voyages. He told the story of the contemporary islands and the places that Cook visited. He was here in Cooktown in the pub and in that book, he opens it up by saying that actually, James Cook was the inspiration for James T. Kirk in Star Trek. That's fair dinkum. Look at the words said by Cook and you can see; "Going where no-one has gone before,” all those sorts of things.
So there are many things to commemorate about James Cook, but he was an enlightened individual at a time that needed a bit of light. I think a lot of his light and the experiences he had with the local Indigenous people here in Cooktown, can shed a lot of light on how we can bring Australians together today.
Interview, ABC Far North Queensland
22 January 2019
KIER SHOREY: Scott Morrison, welcome to ABC Far North Queensland.
PRIME MINISTER: G’day Kier, it's great to be here in the studio and great to be here in Cairns again.
SHOREY: Now an election is clearly in the air when the Prime Minister comes to town bearing gifts. You brought some money for the tertiary stage of the Hospital project here in Cairns, heading to Cooktown today. What can they expect?
PRIME MINISTER: Well as you say, this is not my first visit to Cairns. I’ve been here many times and last time I was here last year it was $10 million for the innovation hub out there at JCU. Yesterday, you’re right, we announced $60 million to free up 150 beds, 150 new beds at the Hospital, but which also sees the great work of JCU and their Tropical Medicine Centre continue on, that’s fantastic.
We’re heading up to Cooktown today, it’s the 250th anniversary of the voyage of then Lieutenant James Cook who he went on to be Captain James Cook. He stopped in two places along the east coast. One was in my electorate of Cook down there in southern Sydney in Kurnell and the other one - a much longer stay as Warren Entsch reminds me all the time - up here in north Queensland, he maintains he had a much better time. So I’m looking forward to going up there. There’s a lot of excitement about that 250th anniversary and we’re investing in a range of local projects, upgrades for tourist infrastructure, parks, these sorts of things, which commemorate those events. But also announcing the voyage, the re-enactment of the voyage that will call in all around the east coast of Australia for the 250th anniversary. That’ll be great for tourism and it’ll also be a great opportunity just to talk about our history; the view from the shore, the view from the ship and very much understanding those two stories like we do in my home electorate every year, with our meeting of two cultures ceremony on the 29th of April. I think this voyage will provide an opportunity to tell those shared stories.
SHOREY: And the money that you’re bringing for them, around $5.75 million I understand?
PRIME MINISTER: Yes, it’s about that for both projects.
SHOREY: And do you know what the money will be spent on?
PRIME MINISTER: Yeah, the $5.8 million that we’re spending up in Cooktown, that includes the reconciliation of the Rocks Precinct, the development of the Botanical Gardens, the upgrades to the Gamaay Dreaming Track and the Waymburr Story Project. There’s a range of those local projects that will help people when they go to that part of the country to be able to learn the stories, understand the stories from both an indigenous perspective and from an European perspective. I think that’s one of the things people love coming from Australia to do; to understand our stories. We’ve got great stories and some of them are hard, some of them are magnificent, but we’ve got to tell them all.
SHOREY: As you fly to Cooktown today you’re going to be flying over the world heritage listed Daintree Rainforest. Now, there was a Federal Parliamentary Committee last year that recommended the Bloomfield Track be sealed. Now this is a section of track that runs through that rainforest and there have been plenty of people involved in the initial fight to get it listed 30 years ago on the world heritage list, saying that it shouldn't happen. So should the Federal Government be investing money in conservation of the area rather than development of the area?
PRIME MINISTER: We’re proceeding cautiously here. Warren and I had a good discussion about this, as well as with some locals. There is nothing immediately proceeding there, protecting those conservation values is incredibly important, but also providing the opportunity for people to experience these incredible areas. I mean, the two have to be done together. I know there are a lot of different views here in the community about what needs to be done there, so we’ll keep listening.
SHOREY: Okay you have personally supported the coal industry, people might remember you bringing that piece of coal into Parliament on that occasion a few years ago?
PRIME MINISTER: Well coal creates lots and lots and lots of jobs.
SHOREY: Sure, now in our area though, reef, rainforest, many environmentally sensitive assets as well. Do you think the Government’s approach to environment, to climate change, could potentially cost votes in Leichhardt?
PRIME MINISTER: No I don’t, because we’re meeting our commitments, we’ve set our commitments. We met Kyoto 1, we will comfortably smash Kyoto 2 and I believe we will meet 2030 our targets there which we have set. I’ve reassured Pacific leaders about that just last week as well. We have plans to achieve it, we will achieve it. The thing about Australia and our commitments on emissions reductions is we actually make them and achieve them. You know, I don’t go around talking about them every day, we just go around doing them every day and make sure we achieve them.
So we’ve got those programs in place, we will continue and we share the concerns about the impacts of climate change, not just about addressing its causes but also addressing its impacts her right around our region in particular, where those impacts can be more severe. But also in supporting scientific research that we have up here into the Reef. I mean, the Reef is both one of our most amazing environmental assets and it’s a livelihood for a large number of Australians, particularly living up here in Queensland and managing and balancing those interests is important. But I believe everybody’s job is important, whether it’s working in the mining sector, whether it’s working in the environmental sector, whether it’s working in hospitals, whether it’s working in small business. All of their jobs are important and I want to keep them in all of their jobs.
SHOREY: Okay, so in the Leichhardt fight, Warren Entsch is going up against a female candidate. Do you have enough women running in winnable seats across the country?
PRIME MINISTER: Well I’d always like more. What I want though is the best people to continue to take on the task that we have set ourselves.
Over the last five and a half years we have created over a million jobs as a Government and we’ve had record growth in youth jobs. I mean here alone, in Leichhardt in this part of Australia, we have seen the youth unemployment rate fall from 28 per cent to 15.6 per cent since the last election. Now that’s great news, that’s great news for parents who are worried about their kids getting jobs, it’s great news for people coming out of school. The strength of our economy here supported - not just I should say by the tourism industry and hospitality industry which has always been key to this part of Australia - but the growing and burgeoning health sector, human services sector. This is why we have been investing in James Cook University. I mean this is a tropical capital, not just for Australia but for the region.
SHOREY: But do you have enough women running in winnable seats?
PRIME MINISTER: I’d like to have more.
SHOREY: You say you’d like to have more, so that means you don’t think you have enough.
PRIME MINISTER: Well we have our candidates set as we go in and we’ve got a strong female representation and there are more seats to fill between now and the next election. You know, we've got six women in my Cabinet, that’s the highest number under our Government and they are all very capable women and doing a fantastic job.
But you know what’s important for women? That the gender pay gap has actually fallen to its lowest level on record. That the female workforce participation is at its highest level in record. That we’ve been addressing the cost of childcare, that we’re investing $350 million already in addressing domestic violence as we move forward to our fourth action plan to do just that. Keeping women safe, keeping women having economic choices and opportunities. I want more women to have more choices in life. Many are trying to create those choices themselves and can feel frustrated. I want to be able to break through that barrier so they can live the life that they choose to live.
SHOREY: Jeff Kennett - the oft outspoken Mr Kennett -
PRIME MINISTER: Yeah Jeff’s always good for some advice.
SHOREY: He suggested that people like Kevin Andrews and Julie Bishop should be stepping aside to let new talent come through, potentially some of those new women into winnable seats, potentially. Does he have a point?
PRIME MINISTER: I like the blend of experience. Take Warren. I mean, Warren has been so central, Warren Entsch, in the development of Cairns to what it is today and North Queensland. I mean over his time – and I’m not just talking about big road projects and things like this – he told me yesterday, over $4 billion worth of investment he’s been able to shepherd into this part of the country. He is both a champion for north Queensland and a great mentor to many of my colleagues, particularly those new ones who are coming in. Like Senator Amanda Stoker, she’s our most recent member coming in for Queensland, taking up from where George Brandis went out. So, a bloke out and a highly talented woman coming in. You’ve got someone like Amanda, full of passion and full of vision for the future, you’ve got people like Warren who have got experience and the burning passion still and a plan for north Queensland. That’s why I just back Warren in, because he knows what to do here, because he’s so connected.
SHOREY: Speaking of Julie Bishop, she’s talked about potentially re-contesting as well. Have you spoken to her about that and in fact, would there be a position for her on your front bench?
PRIME MINISTER: Well I offered her one when I became Prime Minister and she decided she didn’t want to proceed with it at that time, so I respect her decision. I respect her choice, she’ll make her choices and I’ll respect those choices. She’s said she’s intending to run and she’s pre-selected and she’s running out there now, that’s what she’s said on the record.
SHOREY: Okay let’s just turn our attention to the current sort of crisis happening on the Murray-Darling Basin as well. That idea that Labor is now going to work with those independent scientists, that plan that Bill Shorten put forward. The Government have knocked back a request essentially for you to be involved in supporting the particular program. Why?
PRIME MINISTER: That’s just politics, I mean the Murray-Darling Basin Plan is a very serious and sensitive issue. It’s been a bipartisan initiative for many, many years. David Littleproud – as your listeners may have heard being interviewed on AM just before this program, was working closely with Tony Burke. I mean the scientific evidence and research that is currently forming the Murray-Darling Basin Plan, was actually done under Labor. Now I’m not criticizing that work, we were using that work that they did and we’ve worked in a cooperative and bipartisan way.
Now an election comes up and Bill Shorten wants to take advantage. I just think that’s the wrong way to approach it. We will be taking advice from the experts and we’ll continue to do that. The Minister will have more to say about that today. But on top of that, as you can see, the meetings have taken place between the environmental license-holders and the water-managers. The New South Wales Government are the ones who manage the water flows in that part of the country and we’ll work closely to support them as well. But it’s a very serious issue and I know it’s very distressing.
SHOREY: So are you worried about what the scientists might discover?
PRIME MINISTER: No I’m not at all, I’d like to be informed by the work that we will do. But I’m not going to engage in those sort of theatrics from Bill Shorten. I mean you just can’t trust him with this stuff, he always flicks the switch to the politics on this. We’ve had such good bipartisanship on this and he just wants to turn it over for political purposes and I find that very disappointing.
SHOREY: Let’s talk a little bit just about the impending election as well. I mean just a few days of Parliament left, the delivery of a Budget and calling the election. What are the priorities in this short time frame that we have leading up to the next election?
PRIME MINISTER: You’re right we will have a Budget, we’ll hand down a Budget on the 2nd of April. It will be the first surplus Budget this country has seen in 12 years. This will be very important for the country and we’ve been pulling this Budget back now over the last five years.
I think one of the big questions in this election is, in 2007 the country decided to go to Labor, to go to Kevin Rudd; we have spent the last ten years fixing that. What they did to the Budget, what they did to the borders, what they did to social welfare and it’s expansion and welfare dependency increasing, we’ve turned all that around over the last five years. So we’ve spent five years cleaning up Labor’s mess.
We want to now get on with the plans for a stronger economy, because you know, if you don’t have a stronger economy, you can’t afford health care, you can’t afford these schools. The reason I can come and announce $60 million for Cairns Hospital here, is because we’ve got a stronger economy.
Bill Shorten will come up here and he’ll say the same thing, but he’s taxing you more for it. He’s going to use federal higher taxes, to subsidise the Labor State Government that can’t manage money. Now I’m not going to do that, I’ll hold state governments to account, not throw money at them when they can’t manage their Budgets, so they want to throw in money from ours. They need to do their job, we need to do our job and we’ll get on with managing the nations’ finances so we can provide lifesaving drugs like we announced for lung cancer on the weekend; $96 million for lifesaving lung cancer drugs. Drugs that help people have a quality of life. I met a patient, Bruno, who has been on it for the last two and a half years, three young kids - $96 million means that an $8,000 script is now going to cost $40.30. That’s why I believe in a stronger economy and that’s why it’s my number one priority, along with keeping Australians safe and keeping Australians together.
SHOREY: We’ve had a few callers ringing in as well, asking about ABC funding. These are people from more regional locations as well, who aren’t serviced by as many other media outlets. So they’re just asking, what is your take on the ABC funding? Would you have plans to restore it, would you have plans to lessen it more?
PRIME MINISTER: Well it doesn’t need to be restored because it hasn’t been cut, it’s funding is not going backwards it’s actually being maintained. But I particularly want to commend the work the regional ABC does. I mean from my Liberal and National parliamentary colleagues who represent regional electorates, I know that they greatly value the work that the ABC does in regional parts of the country. It’s great to have a local regional host here in Cairns, that’s fantastic as well. I think the services it provides here in regional areas is outstanding.
SHOREY: But there has been a reduction?
PRIME MINISTER: No there hasn’t.
SHOREY: There hasn’t been? In real terms?
PRIME MINISTER: There’s been no reduction in funding. I mean we asked the ABC to actually do the same thing that every single Department and agency has to do in terms of an efficiency dividend, which they weren’t required to do for years and years and years. So that’s what impacts on the forward estimates, but the ABC gets a good budget, it gets a strong budget and it does a good job with that budget. But you know if I have to choose between financing and supporting lung cancer drugs and some other opportunities, guess what I’m going to choose? $60 million for the hospital in Cairns.
SHOREY: So Prime Minister, can I ask about the Australia Day stuff?
PRIME MINISTER: Sure.
SHOREY: It’s coming up this weekend, you’re going to be out there in far north Queensland in the heat and the humidity. You know you’ve made those propositions about maintaining it - being when Councils can actually do the ceremonies – this idea of actually banning shorts, thongs, these sorts of ideas, why legislation like that? Why spending time on stuff like that?
PRIME MINISTER: Well it’s not legislation, it’s part of code. What I’m saying is, I used to be the Immigration Minister, you know, it’s my signature on many Australians’ citizenships today. I had someone who bumped into me at Kakadu the other day actually, they mentioned that to me, they wanted to say g’day. I just want the ceremony to be treated with respect. I’ve been to many, many of these ceremonies around the country and the vast majority of new Australians who become Australians on the day, do just that. But just dress appropriately, is my point. Don’t come looking like you just got out of bed, that’s not showing respect.
Citizenship is the most important gift a country can give anyone. Now I wouldn’t turn up to my kids’ graduation in thongs and boardies, I wouldn’t do that. I’d certainly be wearing that at the party afterwards or at the barbeque or down at the beach, of course I’d do that. But this is an important institution. Citizenship should be respected and it’s about respect for your fellow citizens who are becoming citizens on that day, as well as respect for the institution itself. So look, it’s a commonsense rule, I think there should be a standard and I think people want standards for things like that.
SHOREY: Well Prime Minister I know you need to leave so we do appreciate your time this morning.
PRIME MINISTER: No worries.
SHOREY: Enjoy your trip to Cooktown as well and we’ll be hearing more from you as you deliver your announcements there today. And I’m sure we’ll see you again right?
PRIME MINISTER: Thanks a lot, I look forward to it.
SHOREY: Can you put us out of our misery - everyone has to ask you at the end right – when will the election be Prime Minister?
PRIME MINISTER: After the Budget.
SHOREY: After the Budget, okay that’s pretty fair.
PRIME MINISTER: That’s not too bad?
SHOREY: Thank you very much.
PRIME MINISTER: Okay and well done to the Taipans last night, cheers.
Honouring Captain James Cook's voyage
22 January 2019
Prime Minister, Minister for Communications and the Arts, Member for Leichardt
The Morrison Government is backing communities across the country to mark the 250th anniversary of Captain James Cook’s first voyage to Australia and the Pacific.
In addition to $5.45 million to support projects for the Cooktown 2020 Festival, the Morrison Government will provide $6.7 million to the Australian National Maritime Museum so its replica of Captain Cook’s HMB Endeavour can circumnavigate the country, hosting a series of events and activities at each of its proposed 39 stops.
The circumnavigation will be funded from the Government’s existing $48.7 million package to mark the anniversary that includes exhibitions through the National Library of Australia, support for the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies to preserve and celebrate Indigenous culture and assistance for the NSW Government to deliver the Kamay Botany Bay National Park Master Plan.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison said the events would offer new generations an insight into Captain Cook, the Endeavour and the experiences of Indigenous Australians.
“As the 250th anniversary nears we want to help Australians better understand Captain Cook’s historic voyage and its legacy for exploration, science and reconciliation,” the Prime Minister said.
“That voyage is the reason Australia is what it is today and it’s important we take the opportunity to reflect on it.
“From Far North Queensland and the Cooktown 2020 Festival across to Bunbury and down to Hobart, our Government will ensure Australians young and old can see firsthand the legacy of Captain Cook and the voyage of the Endeavour.”
The Morrison Government’s $5.45 million investment in projects for the Cooktown 2020 Festival includes development of the Reconciliation Rocks Precinct, the Botanic Gardens and upgrades to the Gamaay Dreaming Track to not only commemorate the anniversary and local Indigenous culture, but provide a lasting economic contribution to Cooktown. It will also support the Waymburr Milbi project to house artefacts used for the annual re-enactment of the story of Australia’s first act of reconciliation told by the Guugu Yimithirr people on the banks of the Endeavour River.
LNP Member for Leichhardt Warren Entsch said the investment ahead of the Cooktown 2020 Festival would ensure the local region was a focal point for the 250thanniversary events.
“Our region has an incredible connection to Captain Cook’s voyage and we want the rest of Australia to hear our stories,” Mr Entsch said.
“Our Government has listened to Cooktown and we’re delivering.
“This investment will help drive tourism for Cooktown and Far North Queensland. We’re bringing people from across the country to Cooktown not just to experience the Festival and hear our history, but to enjoy the local area’s incredible natural attractions and hospitality.”
Minister for the Arts Mitch Fifield said the Government’s investment in the replica Endeavour’s circumnavigation would be managed sensitively, and will present both the view from the ship and the view from the shore of Cook’s historic voyage.
“The HMB Endeavour replica will set sail from Sydney in March 2020, and head south to Hobart before turning north to commence a full circumnavigation of mainland Australia,” Minister Fifield said.
“The final itinerary, including the nature of HMB Endeavour’s replica visit to each of the proposed locations (anchorage, berth or sail by) and the associated dates, will be announced in the first half of this year following community consultations by the Australian National Maritime Museum.
“The voyage will provide many opportunities for Australians to see the HMB Endeavour replica, either at one of the ports it visits or when it anchors or passes by.”
Construction of the Australian-built replica commenced in 1988 and since undertaking its maiden voyage in 1994 the vessel has enabled hundreds of thousands of visitors to experience how Captain Cook and his shipmates lived.
The HMB Endeavour replica is expected to make the following stops:
Northern Territory – Darwin, Yirrakala
New South Wales – Botany Bay, Coffs Harbour, Eden, Jervis Bay, Newcastle, Sydney
Queensland – Aurukun, Brisbane, Cairns, Cooktown, Gladstone, Hamilton Island, Lizard Island, Mackay, Possession Island, Seventeen Seventy, Thursday Island, Townsville, Weipa, Yarrabah
South Australia – Port Adelaide, Port Lincoln, Port Pirie, Whyalla
Tasmania – Hobart
Victoria – Geelong, Melbourne, Portland, Williamstown
Western Australia – Albany, Broome, Bunbury, Carnarvon, Esperance, Fremantle, Geraldton, Port Hedland
The Australian National Maritime Museum will host a series of events and activities at each stop the HMB Endeavour replica makes throughout its March 2020 to May 2021 voyage.
The attached map depicts all proposed port, anchorage and sail by locations.
For more information, including images and footage of the HMB Endeavour replica, visit: www.sea.museum
Doorstop - James Cook University, Cairns
21 January 2019
THE HON WARREN ENTSCH MP: Well thank you very much indeed for being here. It’s another red letter day for Cairns and for far North Queensland. I have here our Prime Minister Scott Morrison and Professor Chris Cocklin from James Cook University and we are welcoming the Prime Minister to make a statement here today which is going to have a very positive and profound impact on our future, particularly in relation to medical science and for our hospital system in Cairns. So over to you.
PRIME MINISTER: Well thank very much Warren and thanks Chris for having here and to all the amazing scientists here who are doing tremendous work, not just for Australia but right across the regions. It’s tremendous to get a bit of an update on the work that they’ve been doing. Not that long ago I was here, Warren, as the JCU as well announcing $10 million for the innovation hub and I was which is being spent and those projects are happening.
But you know, since the last election, youth unemployment here has fallen from 28 per cent to 15.6 per cent. That's what's happened under our Government. Youth unemployment here in North Queensland, in Warren's electorate has fallen from 28 per cent to 15.6 per cent. Now you might say why are you talking about that? Aren’t you going to talk about hospitals today? Yes I am going to talk about hospitals today. The reason I can announce today $60 million to support the James Cook University Tropical Enterprise Centre, that will free up 150 beds in Cairns Hospital and enable the fusion between the wonderful work we are seeing here done here with a teaching hospital and university here in North Queensland, the reason I can do that is because we're running a strong economy and we're running a strong Budget and with a strong economy youth unemployment falls, you get record employment growth, particularly for young people, which is what our Government, and the careful stewardship of our economy, is being is able to deliver. I am very pleased because we are running a strong economy we can invest and we can guarantee the essential services that Australians rely on.
Yesterday I was talking about critical new PBS listings for Australians suffering with lung cancer. Today, I can talk about freeing up 150 beds in Cairns Hospital here for the health treatment of locals here in North Queensland but also building on the incredible work being done by JCU as becoming an absolute centre of excellence when it comes to all things tropical. Tropical business, tropical research into medicines and diseases. Linking up with other parts of the world. Becoming an internationally recognised hub for all of this which will only further compound the opportunities and grow those opportunities here in far North Queensland. I want to thank Warren, I want to thank Con, I want to thank the whole team for the way they have focused on this project and bringing all the strands together. We're doing this today because we're able to do it because of a strong economy and I'm going to remain absolutely focused on continuing to deliver that strong economy which means we can have Medicare bulk billing rates at their highest on record. We can be funding hospitals here with increased funding. Up here since 2017, I think it is, by $39 million. And at the same time, the State Government has cut funding to hospitals up here. So when it comes to who you can rely on to increase funding for health without increasing your taxes, it's the Liberals and the LNP here in Queensland.
So I want to thank you for the opportunity to be here today and make the announcement today and very happy to be doing so. Great work to Warren and the team up here in the north. And I want to thank, particularly Advance Cairns for the work they have done with in working with us on working up these proposals. We have had many meetings with Advance Cairns. I first met Trent years ago when I was Treasurer and we would come up and talk about the priorities and you can see the vision that Advance Cairns has right across the region. I know Warren has worked hand in glove with Advance Cairns to ensure that we can deliver, whether it is this project, the project I announced last time I was here last time which just means the north can continue to grow stronger and with greater capability in future for the young people getting those jobs, the scientists and researchers coming from all around the world and from just people every day getting who need good quality health care and they're getting it because of our strong economy which I am absolutely determined to continue.
PROFESSOR CHRIS COCKLIN: Thank you, welcome, Prime Minister, to James Cook University. What a great day it is for Cairns today. We are announcing... the Government is announcing a $60 million investment in the Cairns Hospital, which as the Prime Minister indicated is going to free up bed space. But as importantly, it is going to also enable the growth, diversification and strengthening of the Cairns Hospital in a way that really is warranted I think in this particular location and this particular region. It is something that absolutely has to happen.
So, what we're talking about here is the bringing together of technologies and research in health and health-related disciplines, and particularly with the digital enabling of those capabilities, health capabilities. And so, the Prime Minister's used the word "fusion". We will be bringing together the work that is done through our IOT, our Internet Of Things disciplines and putting that together with our health-related disciplines to establish a centre, the Cairns Tropical Enterprise Centre, that will enable us in Cairns to establish this location as a national and indeed an international leader in digital connections with health. And so things like being able to provide remote diagnosis to people at great distance, to using sensor technology to be able to better diagnose and indeed to be able to prescribe treatments for people at large.
The other element of this particular investment from the Morrison Government is that it's going to create a place in which we can advance another national priority which is in STEM education, science, technology, engineering, maths education. What we aspire to with the CTEC is to create a facility in which we can work with the local high school to create a leading edge international capability to provide STEM education to students in Cairns and that's the foundation on which that employment that the Prime Minister has referred to will actually grow and prosper.
So we're very pleased that the Centre not only will bring together the health and the digital agendas but also provide a wonderful facility for young people in Cairns to prosper in their science education. Look, I would also like to express first, thanks to the Morrison Government for this wonderful, inspired, innovative investment in the Cairns region. We are deeply grateful, Prime Minister, for what you have announced today. I express thanks also to our colleague and friend, Mr Warren Entsch, Member for Leichhardt and I would like to express considerable thanks to Advance Cairns who have worked so hard on this particular initiative. So we look forward to working with Cairns health and hospital service in now developing and refining the plans and forging ahead with great speed and alacrity. Thank you very much.
PRIME MINISTER: Thank you, please give our regards to the Vice Chancellor who I was here with last time. Obviously this project is done with partners. One of the great thing about JCU is how they work with partners in the commercial sector and the teaching sector, the hospital sector and so on. But it also needs the support of the State Government, some $90 million for this project, the Commonwealth is stumping up for our part, $10 million for this land and $50 million for the construction of the new facilities for the CTEC. So we just want to get on with the project. It's a great project for North Queensland.
Happy to take some questions on this announcement today. If there are other questions you’d like to talk about, we might excuse the acting Vice Chancellor for that, he doesn't need to be quizzed on those matters but we can deal with those things then.
JOURNALIST: Obviously we’ve seen quite a lot of news about the ramping rates rising here in the far north, would you care to speak about how this development will help resolve some of those issues?
PRIME MINISTER: I missed that start of that question.
JOURNALIST: We have seen a lot of issues with the ramping rate here at Cairns Hospital rising and other staffing issues come up. How will this development help in that regard?
PRIME MINISTER: For a start, we're freeing up 150 beds. If you're out there in Cairns today and around in the region and say what does it mean for me? 150 extra beds that will be there in the Cairns Hospital which is incredibly important. As I said, we’ve put over $30 million extra into hospitals here in North Queensland. It is disappointing the State Government has actually cut funds to hospitals here. So they need to step up, that’s what they need to do. But Warren, you are the local member and might want to comment?
THE HON WARREN ENTSCH MP: Yeah and the other thing is of course a lot of the JCU teaching staff will coming out from the hospital to this dedicated building so it that then provides more opportunities there for the State Government to be able to put more people into front-line services, nurses and doctors etc. Because not only is there space for the beds, those additional beds, but there will also be space for the support to have with it. And I hope and expect that they would take advantage of that opportunity and ramp up the numbers because that's where the problems lie. And so it is a great opportunity and I think this is something to... that we can really grab with both hands. This is a major step forward in becoming a tier 6 hospital and this is what we're aspiring to do. This is what we are all targeting for and of course this then puts us up there on a bigger footing than anywhere else in the country. Because of the location with the international connections, particularly the regional connections that we have, it really puts us into an international forum as well which is very exciting.
PRIME MINISTER: They can also sign up for the hospitals agreement, the State Government, there is $7 billion of funding for the Queensland hospitals in that agreement which they are still yet to sign over the next five years and I hope they take up the opportunities as other states and territories have.
JOURNALIST: What about staffing pressures? How will it alleviate that at the Cairns Hospital, this announcement?
PRIME MINISTER: Again, what we are doing is we’re freeing up the beds, we’re freeing up the room. The State Government, we’ve offered a $7 billion hospitals agreement right across the state so they can get on with the job. This is record funding for hospitals across Queensland. They need to sign and get access to that money, which we want to provide them. We are standing there with the cheque book and the deal and saying, "Sign up, let's get on with it" and then they should exercise their responsibilities to meet the health and needs of North Queenslanders.
THE HON WARREN ENTSCH MP: We provide the money, we do not actually employ the staff. We do not build the hospitals, we just provide the funds. So it is up to them, the money is there, the space is there, the opportunity is being created for what is being announced today. All they need to do now is start recruiting.
JOURNALIST: What was your take on Bill Shorten saying he would match the same funding if elected?
PRIME MINISTER: I would say to the people of North Queensland, don't take Bill Shorten's carbon copy with higher taxes, take the real thing. This is what we have been working on for some time with Advance Cairns and Warren. He can follow me around the country and pretend he can do these things. But I’ll tell you what he can’t do, he can't do it without lifting people taxes and he can’t do it under a stronger economy. You cannot guarantee health services with a weaker economy. If you're going to put $200 billion of higher taxes on the Australian economy, that weakens it. That weakens your ability to deliver these important health and education services, disability services, providing important welfare supports throughout the community. You deliver this through a stronger economy. So what I'm announcing here today, I'm announcing on the back of strong economic management. Any time Bill Shorten opens his mouth, what he is talking about is doing things with you paying higher taxes. So as he gets around Queensland in his tax bus, he should be explaining to people why taxes have to go up because he can't manage money. He can't manage his own Budget so he will take money out of yours.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, will this be - the $60 million - be in the April Budget?
PRIME MINISTER: It is already factored in. The decision has already been taken and it is already in the forwards.
JOURNALIST: Has a school been chosen that is going to partner with JCU? You’d think Cairns High from a proxy meeting would be a logical choice?
PROFESSOR CHRIS COCKLIN: Certainly, Cairns State High is one that we have already had some conversations with about STEM education and the principal is here today. We will certainly be taking those conversations further in terms of partners. It is an important priority for the region, for the city. As you say, proximity counts for a lot in this particular case.
THE HON WARREN ENTSCH MP: And we have the Executive Principal of Cairns State High standing there looking very slim.
[Laughter]
Can I get Advance Cairns to make a comment?
TRENT TWOMEY, ADVANCE CAIRNS: Thank you, Prime Minister and thank you, James Cook University and of course to our Federal Member. This has been a long time in the making. Two years we have been talking to the Federal Government about this, both when you were Treasurer, PM, and now that you’re in the big chair. But what does it mean for North Queensland? A university hospital by any other name is a teaching hospital and is a level six tertiary facility. So what does it mean? What that means for the average Cairns resident, for the average far North Queensland resident is they no longer have to travel south to get the health services that they need, whether it be special orthopaedics, specialty paediatrics or specialty ophthalmology, what it means is you will get the very best, world-class healthcare right here at our own university hospital. So that’s what it means for you. The other point from an economic point that we would like to make is health and community services is the largest sector in the far North Queensland economy. So the Cairns and Hinterland Hospital and Health Service is the largest employer in far North Queensland. So there are more tables in more kitchens that have food on them because of the employer that is the Cairns and Hinterland Hospital and Health Service. So thank you very much Prime Minister, for announcement today. We look forward to working with you.
PRIME MINISTER: Thanks very much Trent. OK, I think Trent has covered that very, very well. In the last Budget, just to pick up on the point that Trent mentioned, the medical industry economic plan was a key part of that Budget recognising exactly that point Trent was making. People are saying, "Where are the new jobs coming from? Where is the record jobs growth coming from?" It has come from sectors like the medical industry, the human services industry, the disability support care sector. A lot more of those jobs are coming out of those sectors and particularly in regional parts of the country. So you make the point very well, Trent. It is one of the reasons why I said at the outset of this media conference, that youth unemployment is falling because of initiatives like this. OK, well I will excuse our friends and thank you all very much for your participation.
JOURNALIST: Can I ask one question if I may Prime Minister, Paul Makin FAB FM Port Douglas. This is a very serious thing. She has encouraged people on Australia Day to wear thongs and shorts in tropical weather.
PRIME MINISTER: She, sorry?
JOURNALIST: Julia Leu, the local Mayor of Port Douglas has said that in tropical weather we need shorts and thongs.
PRIME MINISTER: Look, what is important is that people treat the day with respect. Now, I have been and I am sure Warren has been to even more, and particularly up here, citizenship ceremonies. When I go the citizenship ceremonies, whether it is in hot weather or whether it is in cold weather, the vast majority of people come and they dress a bit like people are dressed here. They do that out of respect.
JOURNALIST: Sorry, Prime Minister…
You are in the minority today. You are the only one here wearing thongs and shorts. I suspect it was behind the question.
JOURNALIST: I apologise.
PRIME MINISTER: Nevertheless, the point is it is a day for respect and citizenship is an important institution. I wouldn't go along to my kids' graduation wearing boardies and thongs. I wouldn’t do that, I would respect the work they have put in and the seriousness of the day and what they have achieved and I am simply making an obvious point that the code and the guidelines are there to ensure that citizenship and its institution is treated with respect. So if other people want to play games with it and make cheap points about it, they can. My point is simple - respect citizenship, respect the day.
JOURNALIST: You have criticised the Canberra bubble in the past. Do you think you are you adding to the culture wars through this Australia Day debate?
PRIME MINISTER: No, I am just calling it as I see it. I have had this view for a very long time. I was the Minister for Immigration. It was my signature on people’s citizenships. In fact when I was at Kakadu the other day I has couple came up to me and they wanted to meet me because I had signed their citizenship form and their certificate that they have. This is a very significant gift given by the people of Australia to welcome someone as a citizen. It is one of the most, if not the most, important thing as a nation we can give to anyone in the world and when you do it, when you provide that gift, we would expect anyone who is receiving it to treat Australia with respect.
THE HON WARREN ENTSCH MP: And it says quite clearly, while you get all of the rights, there are obligations and while you might sort of be light-hearted about an individual in how they want to appear, you also have got to be respectful for all of the others that are standing in line, whether they be in their traditional dress of their homeland. They all fought very, very hard and worked very hard to earn the right to become citizens of this country and I think even out of respect for the other people that are getting that certificate it is not unreasonable to ask that people be dressed in the appropriate manner. Now, would we have a coat and tie up here? Of course not.
PRIME MINISTER: Of course not.
THE HON WARREN ENTSCH MP: That’s be ridiculous. But, you can be smart dressed and appropriately dressed. As I say, it looks great to have the colour of a lot of the original homelands in their traditional dress, but out of respect for those, I think everybody should be at least dressed in an appropriate manner. I 100 per cent support what the Prime Minister says.
PRIME MINISTER: Thank you, Warren.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, how dismayed were you to hear about the release of Abu Bakar Bashir?
PRIME MINISTER: I don't want to make too much comment on that today. We are working and have been in close contact with the Indonesian Government as I said in my press conference on Saturday. That continues. We have been consistent, always, Governments of both persuasions over a long period of time about our concerns about Abu Bakar Bashir and that he should serve what the Indonesian justice system has delivered to him as his sentence. In these cases, when prisoners have served about two-thirds of their sentence, it is not uncommon for them to get parole, but we would be very... we have been very clear about the need to ensure that as part of our joint counterterrorism efforts - we have an excellent counterterrorism partnership with Indonesia - that Abu Bakar Bashir would not be in any position or any in way able to influence or incite anything. Let's not forget that that Bali bombing led to the deaths of Indonesians as well. Australians died horrifically on that night and I think Australians everywhere would be expecting that this matter was treated with the utmost seriousness. Of course by our Government, which it is, and I have had direct contact over this matter, but also that the Indonesian Government would show great respect for Australia in how they manage this issue also.
JOURNALIST: In light of the pill testing debate, New South Wales Greens MP Cate Faehrmann has admitted to taking illegal drugs. Have you ever taken illegal drugs?
PRIME MINISTER: No, I haven't. And look, we go through those questions every time when we get around elections. But what is serious is young people are dying takings these drugs. As a parent, these things always cause you great anxiety. My children, they are young. They are nine and eleven. They will go through that time in high school and those other times when they are older where they will be exposed to all sorts of things which I wish as a father I could shield them from. I met Aiia's father in a completely different context, who was brutally murdered in Melbourne. As a father to father, we sat and spoke and we were dealing with some practical issues, but also just to extend my deep sorrow for him and his family. Look, as parents, it is the best job in the world, but it is also the hardest job in the world, but you love your kids and you want them to be safe. I can assure you that our Government will do everything within our power to keep our kids safe, but and we will endeavour to do that by leading by example.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, more recently at the Australian Open did seem to boo when you did appear on screen is that a concern to you?
[Laughter]
PRIME MINISTER: I don't think they liked the line call.
[Laughter]
It is a great tradition. I would be disappointed if they didn't. Bob Hawke and everyone else got the same treatment at games. I enjoyed being there last night. It was a fantastic game. With the million or so Greek Australians, they would have been pretty excited about the outcome and Jenny and I certainly enjoyed the contest, but nowhere near as much as we enjoyed Ash Barty's win and to meet Ash afterwards, she is delightful. We are looking forward to the return game tomorrow, for the quarterfinal. Hopefully she can go all the way. But let's not put too much pressure on her. She is a pretty focused young Australian and she is a great Queenslander, too. We are hoping for the best for Ash as she goes up in the contest on Tuesday.
But I have got to say, the Australian Open I have got to tell you is the most significant international event that Australia hosts. It is on every single screen throughout our region, around the world and it is on there for weeks and weeks. I know this from my time as being head of Tourism Australia. It is the single biggest event that speaks to the world about Australia and I want to commend the organisers and the work that has been done. It was an outstanding event during my attendance yesterday and I was pleased to be able to announce $12 million to support 3,000 more young girls staying in tennis, playing tennis, making sure they have female coaches and we are bridging the gap having competitions more in their local area. We know that young girls join tennis to play with their friends and spend time with their. That is what the research tells us. The program is around that. So I was there to happy to be supporting tennis, supporting Ash and supporting Australia.
JOURNALIST: As you say, it is an international event that does broadcast globally. It does send a message to the world. Is that message that Australians are not happy with the current leadership?
PRIME MINISTER: No, it doesn't. It doesn't.
JOURNALIST: Kelly O'Dwyer is resigning. Will you insist she will be are placed by another woman in her seat of Higgins?
PRIME MINISTER: That’s what I believe is going to happen.
JOURNALIST: So Peter Costello is not a potential candidate?
PRIME MINISTER: I haven't heard anything to that effect.
JOURNALIST: Have you been given any assurances that Julie Bishop intends to stay on after the election?
PRIME MINISTER: Julie has made her own statement on that. I just refer to her statement on that. Thanks very much.
Interview with Ben Fordham, 2GB
21 January 2019
BEN FORDHAM: Prime Minister, good afternoon.
PRIME MINISTER: G’day Ben, happy new year to you and all your listeners.
FORDHAM: You’re back into it.
PRIME MINISTER: Yeah well and truly, I’ve been back into it for quite a while now and we’re up here in Cairns. We’ve made an announcement about some new hospital funding up here which has been well received. People who live in regional areas should be able to get medical treatment in regional areas. That’s what we believe, so we’re funding that from a stronger economy, not higher taxes like Bill on his tax bus.
FORDHAM: We spoke at the end of last year and I know that you were looking forward to having a little bit of time with your family as much as you could. Did you get a few weeks, how much time did you actually get to down tools and enjoy the family?
PRIME MINISTER: We got a week off, we went down to Shoalhaven heads and I bumped into Mark Leavy actually, he was there.
FORDHAM: I saw that, I saw a photo of you and ‘Piggy’ Riddell as well.
PRIME MINISTER: Yeah they were down there, it was great. Shoalhaven Heads is a top spot, it’s sort of people from all walks of life and we had a great time down there and they had a big, the fishing club, had a huge fundraising afternoon so the family and I and friends went down and enjoyed that and they raised a bit of money for the local rural fire service and the surf club and so on. So you know, it was just Australia on holiday and it was great to be a part of it.
FORDHAM: I know we’re speaking to you because you’re the Prime Minister but I need to ask you a question this afternoon as Cronulla’s number one ticket holder. Coach Shane Flanagan has resigned today, he was deregistered for contacting the club while serving a ban related to players using performance enhancing drugs. Was it appropriate today for him to fall on his sword?
PRIME MINISTER: Well Shane sent me a text actually and let me know he was doing this. I know Shane pretty well and look, Shane always puts the club first. He puts his players first, he puts our community first. Shane, you know, lived his entire married life in the Shire and raised three great kids and he has been so good for our community. I just want to thank Shane for everything he has done for the club. Brought out first Premiership, of course, but he did so much more than that. Things like Make Bullying History, Red Cross, he has just been such a champion bloke. Now I will let the NRL sort out all the other stuff, I’m not going to adjudicate on that, that’s not my job. But I think today is a day to say thank you to Shane and I’m standing with Shane, that’s for sure, and I hope he’s got a role in the game in the future because he is a great coach and he is a great bloke.
FORDHAM: If I can get you to put your other hat on right now as Prime Minister, the former Prime Minister Tony Abbott told my colleague Ray Hadley today here on 2GB that “people would be better off voting Labor rather than an Independent”, he said, “because for all of Labor’s faults, at least they are a Party of government or potential government. Now, I know that you would prefer people vote for the Liberal Party or the National Party but do you agree with Mr Abbott that a vote for Labor is better than a vote for an Independent?
PRIME MINISTER: I don’t think you should vote for either of them. That’s my view, that’s my very strong view. Because neither of them can deliver a stronger economy, neither of them can provide what Australians need. Bill Shorten want to put $200 billion of new taxes on the Australian economy. That’s not going to help it. If you’re running a small business or work for one, how do you think that’s going to impact your business? $200 billion of higher taxes on the Australian economy. It’s a bad idea. So I’m sorry to disagree with Tony, I don’t think you should vote for either of them and I suspect Tony agrees with me on that too.
FORDHAM: There seems to be a lot more detail coming out about what this is going to do, some of Bill Shorten’s changes when it comes to tax. Whether it be relating to retirement or relating to negative gearing, there seems to be a lot more detail that’s coming out in the lead-up to the next election. Is that going to be what you need to get across the line?
PRIME MINISTER: Well we’re just going to make that point really clear Ben and you’re right. I mean, people have always had their question marks over Bill Shorten. He has been their leader for the last five and a half years and people haven’t warmed to him. Now they’re also seeing that his policies are equally as damaging. $200 billion worth of taxes, I mean that includes taxes on housing, that’s taxes on investments, that’s taxes on people’s retirement savings, it’s taxes on their income, it’s taxes on their small businesses. It’s just tax, tax, tax, tax, tax. And that is what Bill Shorten is doing. Because he can’t manage his own budget so he is going to take money out of your budget. And that’s why he can’t be trusted. And I care about health services, we’re up here announcing $60 million for the Cairns hospital. But I’m paying for that from a stronger economy, not by putting people’s taxes up.
FORDHAM: Did I hear you right that you said that people haven’t warmed to him?
PRIME MINISTER: Yeah that’s a very polite and kind way of putting it.
FORDHAM: Have they warmed to you? I mean you’ve been out and about over the summer break, do you get the feeling that Australia is now used to Scott Morrison being their Prime Minister and they like it?
PRIME MINISTER: Well that’ll be ultimately tested at the election and that’s for them to make those commentaries, not be. But I’ve been very appreciative of the kind reception I’ve had wherever I have gone. People are always very respectful to their Prime Minister, whoever that is, and I think that’s nice and I appreciate that. But mate, I know one person they’re warming to and that’s Jenny. They’re loving Jenny.
FORDHAM: Well that’s nice to know.
[Laughter]
Now let me ask you about Kelly O’Dwyer. She announced last week, one of your senior ministers, that she will be leaving Parliament at the upcoming election for family reasons and we wish her well on that front. I see today that Victorian Premier, former Victorian Premier Jeff Kennett has sent a bit of a message to some long-serving Liberal MPs like Julie Bishop and Kevin Andrews, suggesting that they should leave Parliament and make way for some fresh talent. What do you think of Jeff Kennett’s advice?
PRIME MINISTER: Look, Jeff can make those comments. But I actually quite like the fact that we’ve got a blend of experience and new people in the team. I mean, I’m up here in Queensland, I’m up in Warren Entsch’s electorate. Now Warren has delivered season in, season out for the people of North Queensland and he is a great mentor to other members of our team. But then you’ve got people like Senator Amanda Stoker, who has just come in at the last election and she is doing a great job in Queensland as well. So it’s a great mix. You need youth, you need talent, but you also need experience. Now, the individuals in terms of Julie or Kevin or others, I mean they’ll make their calls. Julie has made her statement. But everyone has got a role to play, whether you’re older or you’re younger, you’re male or you’re female. All this identity politics, frankly, is getting a bit tiring.
FORDHAM: I got a few messages today when I promoted the fact that you were going to be calling in, from political journos who said, “Oh look, Scott Morrison kind of dodged a question today about Julie Bishop and when people asked whether or not she was going to run at the next election you said I refer you to her statement.” I have had a look at her statement, she said I am preselected as the Member for Curtin and it is my intention to run so, I’m guessing you don’t have a guarantee from Julie Bishop that she is going to run?
PRIME MINISTER: That’s just what she told you herself. That’s what she said, that’s what her public statement is and that’s a matter for Julie. I would love Julie to continue to remain but if she wants to do something else that’s up to her. But she’s been very consistent in saying she intends to run at the next election and good for her. Julie has got an enormous amount of experience. I have been in the Pacific bolstering our relationships there, particularly with Fiji over the last couple of days and she did a great job as Foreign Affairs Minister. She was an outstanding one and she was our Deputy Leader for 11 years so she has got a lot to offer.
FORDHAM: The images that we saw over the summer break, and I know you’ve commented on this but I haven’t had the chance to talk to you about this. All of those fish in the Darling River, the Australian Academy of Science is now preparing a report for your opposite number Bill Shorten. He is going to present a report to Parliament on this. I know there is still an argument about why the fish are dead, is it the drought, is it poor river management, is it both? Is it something else, what’s your take on the catastrophe that we saw there in the Darling River?
PRIME MINISTER: Look, we’re listening to the experts and I understand that they’ve made it very clear that it’s not a million, that’s not a factual report, it’s in the thousands. And that’s still a great tragedy and something that I know Australians find deeply upsetting. We’ve convened those meetings of managers of the water flows and the environmental licence holder, they’re providing some advice. We’ve put $5 million down to support the native species fish regeneration and they’re issues of drought, they’re issues of management, and you’ve just got to work methodically through these issues. But the other thing you’ve got to do Ben is… the Murray Darling Basin Plan has been a bipartisan initiative for a long time, and that’s one of the reasons why we can all work together to provide the certainty and stability in how you manage the plan. Now, people playing politics with this I don’t think is very helpful for the Murray Darling Basin Plan and I don’t intend to do it. Now, the Labor Party back in 2012, they did a scientific report which has informed the plan and what we’re doing now, I’m not making any criticisms of that, I’m not throwing any stones at that. So I would just encourage Bill Shorten to actually stay on the main game here and that is to ensure that we maintain a bipartisan approach to how we manage this very sensitive issue. I do not want to see this become some sort of political football before the election. It’s too important, and we should just work professionally and carefully, listen to the experts, make the right decisions and work particularly with the New South Wales Government which has primary responsibility for managing water flows in that area.
FORDHAM: I have spoken to, in the first hour of our program today, a mate of ours Jamie Warden who is a farmer in Walgett. He was saying the rivers are drying up around Walgett as well, there’s algae growing around rivers there. He is worried about a similar thing happening where they are and he also said, ‘Look, we’ve got many band aid measures that have happened as far as drought is concerned but we still don’t hear those long-term plans are far as drought-proofing.” I know that you made this your number one priority when you became PM.
PRIME MINISTER: Well we’ve announced half a billion dollar water infrastructure fund. We’ve invested in farm water management with the major tax incentives and major financial support for water infrastructure on farms. We’ve provided a million for every single council in every shire in drought affected areas and that money is rolling out now. We’ve provided $30 million to support the charitable sector to ensure they can get funds directly into those areas where they know it’s most important and we’ve been coordinating through Major General Stephen Day to ensure that each of those charities are coordinating so we’re not doubling up and we’re directing the resources. The Drought Summit last year, that was very successful and we’ve re-negotiated the Drought Agreement between the states and the territories and the Commonwealth, we concluded that at the end of last year. So there has been a lot of activity there.
FORDHAM: Sadly, it doesn’t always flow through. The money doesn’t always flow through and I don’t expect you to be able to do anything about this and it’s a very specific case but Jamie has just taken us through Walgett, for example, where you’ve got money that’s been given to the council for a weir or an artesian board to help out with water supply and the council still hasn’t spent the money. I mean, sometimes you can hold the summits and you can hand out the cheques and whatever but it doesn’t always translate into water for the farmers though.
PRIME MINISTER: Well whether it’s water cartage or things like that but I do know those $1 million is getting to those councils and the Commonwealth Government has been working closely with those councils so they can get it ready. And of course there is the $5 billion water future fund that I announced at the Budget, sorry at the Summit, and that is now… we’re taking that through to establish that fund through the legislation and that means there will be funding there for capacity on water management into the future for generations. This is a water future fund. So a lot is being done there, but I can’t make it rain but we can do these things that we’re doing now and Major General Stephen Day our Drought Coordinator sends me a message every single night on the actions that he is taking and the places that he’s going and the people he’s talking to and we continue to listen and act each day.
FORDHAM: There has been a terrible spate of suicides in Indigenous communities. We have had five teenage girls taking their lives in two weeks. I saw a statistic today that only 5 per cent of the nation’s children are Aboriginal but they account for 40 per cent of youth suicides and we’ve got a long way to go, don’t we, when it comes to closing the gap between the lives of black and white Australians, don’t we?
PRIME MINISTER: Ben, you are absolutely right. And mate, I saw those same reports as I’m sure you did over the break and I’m not pleased you’ve raised it for the obvious reasons but I am glad you’ve raised it, if you know what I mean. It’s important that we know what you’ve just said and that has been and continues to occur in Indigenous communities and particularly girls taking their lives. Now, I spoke to Nigel Scullion the Indigenous Affairs Minister just a few weeks ago about this and I have spoken to my own Department, because I am very concerned about it. There are some very serious social issues in these communities and there are distressingly, not as many opportunities where people who are under threat are able to talk about these things. And they find themselves in the most awful of circumstances and these decisions are taken and it breaks my heart, as a parent, and we just have to keep doing everything we can to try and keep these girls safe in these communities.
FORDHAM: There seems to be an annual debate about Australia Day and whenever that debate comes up I think about issues like those young girls and think well this is what we really should be talking about.
PRIME MINISTER: Look that’s true. That is true and we have to confront our inadequacies as a country but we don’t have to be overwhelmed by them, equally. I mean, we’re an amazing country, we have achieved so much and I think that’s what Australia Day is really about. Focusing on Australians from all walks of life, from all backgrounds, Indigenous and non-indigenous, recent migrants, long-term migrants, young, old, the works from all across the country. We are an incredible country but we’re not perfect. But one of the reasons we’re, I think, such a great country is we want to be honest about our failings and we want to fix them. And that’s what I’m about, that’s what Government should be about. But we should never be running down our country.
FORDHAM: Australia Day is Saturday, you’ve changed the rules so that local councils will be forced to hold citizenship ceremonies on Australia Day and you’re also bringing in a dress code for citizenship ceremonies. You’re banning thongs and board shorts. What’s happened to you?
PRIME MINISTER: Well not specifically those things, but what we’re saying is there needs to be appropriate standards of dress. I mean, I wouldn’t turn up to my kid’s graduation wearing thongs. If someone appeared in court in thongs you wouldn’t be too happy and why not? Because it’s not showing proper respect.
FORDHAM: But most people dress up for an event like this right, and if someone really wants to embrace Aussie culture by wearing traditional Aussie clobber, why stop them?
PRIME MINISTER: It’s not a traditional clobber, it should be a respectful ceremony. You should dress appropriately for occasions. By all means put the thongs on and the boardies when you’re having a barbeque or doing what you’re doing later, but you know, citizenship is the most important thing a country can give someone. And when you give something like that, you’ve got to treat it with respect. That’s all I’m asking for, Ben. I know some people, particularly others have mocked me for talking about this thinking I’m a wowser and all the rest of it, I just think citizenship is really important and I have been to so many of these ceremonies. I have signed… you know, it’s my signature on many of these citizenship forms from the time I was Immigration Minister and I know how important most migrants take it and I know most of them turn up when they get their citizenship form. They come, they dress impeccably, often they have a previous national dress on, the kids are there, and then you just get some who turn up and look like they just got out of bed. Now, I don’t think that shows appropriate respect to the others getting citizenship on that day and the great honour that has been bestowed on them for becoming an Australian citizen. I think, you know it’s an adult ceremony and the kids dress like adult too often because they know how serious it is and I think others who don’t feel like that need to know there’s a standard.
FORDHAM: You were photographed over the break wearing rainbow coloured board shorts. Have you thrown them out?
PRIME MINISTER: No, because I was at a community fundraiser at the pub. That’s where you wear them mate.
[Laughter]
That’s where you wear them.
FORDHAM: They were shocking, they were bad mate, they were bad.
[Laughter]
PRIME MINISTER: Well they stood out in the crowd. I’ve had them for a very long time.
FORDHAM: Just ask your daughters, ask your daughters whether or not they should be consigned to the Vinnies Bin will you?
[Laughter]
PRIME MINISTER: I will, I’m sure they’ll have an opinion.
FORDHAM: We’ll talk to you regularly throughout 2019, thanks for joining us from Cairns.
PRIME MINISTER: Good on you Ben. And good luck to Ash Barty tomorrow, I was down there yesterday with Jen and the girls and we got to meet her. She did a great job and it was very exciting. And I think Nine is doing a great job on the coverage too, by the way.
FORDHAM: Well said, thank you so much for joining us, we’ll talk again soon.
PRIME MINISTER: Cheers mate.
Backing young tennis stars of the future
21 January 2019
Prime Minister, Minister for Regional Services, Sport, Local Government and Decentralisation
Around 3000 girls will get support to stretch their tennis skills with a $12 million investment from the Morrison Government.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison said the recent success of players like Ash Barty, Daria Gavrilova, Kim Birrell and Sam Stosur had followed through on the foundations built by Evonne Goolagong Cawley, Alicia Molik and Casey Dellacqua, helping boost grassroots tennis participation. Our Government’s investment in the Community to the World Stage program would help now take this to a new level.
“We want to help more girls follow their passion for tennis and participate at grass roots levels for a healthier lifestyle ,” the Prime Minister said.
“Some of Australia’s best successes in tennis are coming from our female players. Our investment will help use that momentum to inspire the stars of the future by ensuring they remain on court and at community tennis clubs around Australia which must be the lifeblood of any sport.’
“As a father of two daughters I want to help tackle the sorts of hurdles that can make it difficult for young girls to stick with their sport. That’s why this program will be so important for this and the next generations of female athletes.”
The $12 million investment over four years will help close the current 12 per cent grassroots participation gap to equal gender representation with a particularly focus on disadvantaged and hard to reach communities. It will also help increase the percentage of girls participating in competition from 37 per cent to 45 per cent.
Minister for Sport Bridget McKenzie said the investment would target all levels of female participation in tennis from the players to coaches and mentors.
“Our elite female tennis players are fantastic role models that inspire other women to get involved in tennis and other sports,” Minister McKenzie said.
“We know that you can’t be what you can’t see and our current crop of tennis stars are helping to motivate more women get more active, more often, whether it is as player, coach, umpire or volunteer.
“With our support Tennis Australia will be boosting their female coach numbers by 10 per cent and retaining an extra 1000 girls and women in their community leadership and mentoring programs.
“From the grassroots to the top levels, our government is backing Australian tennis and our female stars of the future.”
Help on the way for lung cancer patients
20 January 2019
Hundreds of families across Australia will save close to $90,000 each year from a $96 million investment our Government is making to ensure lung cancer medicine is affordable.
Help is on the way for around 400 patients diagnosed with lung cancer with our Government listing Tagrisso® (Osimertinib) on the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS) from 1 February.
Patients would pay close to $8,000 per script or almost $88,000 per year for this treatment without subsidised access through the PBS. Thanks to our investment, the price drops to just $40.30 per script, or $6.50 for concessional patients.
We can fund life-saving medicines like this because we’re delivering on our plan for a stronger economy and bringing the Budget back to balance. Subsidising medicines like Tagrisso means patients can manage their cancer at home rather than visiting the hospital for chemotherapy.
Unlike Labor who ran the Budget into the ground and couldn’t afford to subsidise lifesaving medicines, this is the latest of nearly 2000 PBS listings worth around $10.5 billion we’ve been able to make since we came to government.
This PBS listing was recommended by the independent Pharmaceutical Benefits Advisory Committee (PBAC).
Our Government continues to list every drug on the PBS approved by the PBAC to ensure that new, essential medicines are affordable for all Australians.
In the Budget update our Government delivered an extra $1.4 billion for new medicines, saving sick Australians hundreds or even thousands of dollars a year.
Our strong economic management means we are providing Australian patients with access to life-saving and life-changing medicines quicker than ever before.
We are now making on average one new or amended PBS listing every single day.
Our commitment to the PBS is rock solid. Together with Medicare, it is a foundation of our world-class health care system.
Doorstop - Malvern, Victoria
19 January 2019
PRIME MINISTER: Well it’s a difficult day in Melbourne today for many reasons. In particular, on the way here today I and the family had the opportunity to stand and pay our respects and grieve with all Melburnians, indeed all Australians, for the terrible and tragic loss of Aiia. Murdered here, in Melbourne, in our suburbs. Later today, I’m going to be meeting with her father. The words will fail me, I’m sure, as one father to another. But I know Kelly and all our members I’m sure, our members of Parliament no doubt, to stand in silence, in grief. And I want to thank those other families, those other Australians who have just been quietly passing by and paying their respects and laying down the flowers, leaving cards. I had the chance to read some of those messages and talk to them. It’s just very quiet and I think that the country is very shaken by it. But at the same time, as always, reaches out and seeks to comfort and I want to thank those Australians for doing that and I was pleased to be able to, with my family, simply do the same.
But that is another matter. Today I am very pleased to be here, standing with Kelly O’Dwyer. Kelly and I have known each other for a long time, worked together closely and I’m pleased that I can be here with her as well as John and Edward and Olivia and have Jenny and my family here. Family is so important. You hear it a lot. But the decisions you make about family is what proves it and what demonstrates it.
I have been blessed to have amazing women in my life, three of them are here with me today and a fourth I have had the great pleasure to work with. Women who I want to have choices. They make their choices, they make their choices. That’s what shows great strength, that’s what shows, I think, the real ability for women in our society to have their choices, make them, live their lives the way they want to live them, have the choices they want to have. And there has been no one I have known in our Parliament who has worked harder, and I believe has achieved more, than Kelly O’Dwyer, in working on those issues. We worked together in Treasury portfolios, we worked together in other portfolios. We went into Parliament not that far apart from each other, and over that entire period of time Kelly has been a champion for every cause. Whether it’s been locally here in her electorate, for whom she has been an absolute champion, or with her detailed knowledge and expertise when it comes to economic management serving on the ERC, serving with me as both firstly an Assistant Treasurer and then as the Minister for Revenue and Financial Services. And now, I had the great privilege and pleasure to be able to appoint her as the Cabinet Minister for Industrial Relations and continuing the role as Minister for Women.
Kelly has an announcement to make today. She makes it with mine and Jenny’s full support. I support her choice. I support all women’s choices. I want them to have more and more choices and that independence and freedom that comes with that. And so here is a great woman who has done a great job for her country and her community and she is making the right choice for family.
THE HON KELLY O’DWYER MP: Thank you very much. I hope you can forgive me for having a few notes. First, I want to join with the Prime Minister in thanking him for his comments about Aiia and the terrible events that have occurred here in Victoria. Our Government has been incredibly focused on ensuring the safety of women, whether it’s on our streets, in our homes, or online or in the workplace. And it is a terrible reminder of how we must always, together as governments and as a community, ensure that we never lose focus on that.
But I have got a very personal announcement that I’m making today. I joined the Liberal Party when I was 17 years of age because I belief it’s important for people to be able to choose their own paths in life. That they should be rewarded for their hard work and their effort and enterprise and that everyone, regardless of their background or experience, deserves the respect and opportunity to live their best life. I have been profoundly grateful for the opportunity to be able to represent those values and the great privilege that I have had to represent the issues with my local community, those big and small issues, as the Federal Member for Higgins.
However, today, after much agonising and with a heavy heart, I am announcing that I will not be recontesting for the seat of Higgins at the next election. This decision has been made both harder but also easier because of my great friendship and profound respect for the Prime Minister. He is someone who I am absolutely confident will lead out Government to victory in May. I need to be honest about the fact that I can’t commit to another three years and continue to deliver the quality of service that my country, my Party and my community are entitled to expect. There have been too many by-elections of late and I have no intention of causing a by-election in the next Parliament.
The reasons are complex and most compellingly, the decisive reasons are very personal. Normally, of course, I wouldn’t canvass them at all. But there will be some who try and use my announcement today to advance their own agendas and I absolutely do not want that. My two smart and loving children, Olivia and Edward, who are here with me today, will reach primary school age during the next Parliament. In compiling photobooks and in looking at all of those special moments over the Christmas period, I have seen how many of them I have missed and I know how many I will miss. Everyone makes sacrifices for their work and I know that I am in a more fortunate position than most. But I no longer want to consistently miss out on seeing my children when they wake up in the morning or go to bed at night and I want to know that when I am around, my time with them is not constantly disrupted. And it’s clear to me that they also want to spend more time with me as well.
There is another very personal reason. Like so many families, our journey to parenthood has not been straightforward. My husband and I want to give ourselves the opportunity, the best opportunity, to have a third child. We need to be very realistic. I turn 42 years of age this year and everything would have to go right. This does not mean that men or women need to choose between family and public service, they don’t. Of course there are sacrifices and for a time I have willingly made them. With the right support, you can do both and do both well. I am enormously grateful not only to my loving husband John but also to Malcolm Turnbull, to Julie Bishop and to Scott Morrison for leading through their actions, including supporting a breastfeeding mother in Cabinet and on the Expenditure Review Committee.
However, no job is forever, and after four elections and going on a decade in the Parliament, it is time to give someone else the opportunity to serve. There are so many talented Liberals who can bring a new energy to this seat. I look back at my parliamentary and my ministerial career with gratitude and with satisfaction. Superannuation is now on a more sustainable footing and more Australians have an opportunity to unlock its potential through reforms such as deductible personal contributions and also catch-up contributions. I’m proud to have taken on vested interests in the sector by introducing legislation that better protects retirement savings for millions of Australians. By capping fees, by making sure that those fees are low on low balance accounts, by banning exit fees on all accounts, improving insurance arrangements and proactively reuniting lost and inactive superannuation accounts with their rightful owners. The Senate must urgently legislate these reforms in order to save millions of Australians billions of dollars of their own money.
My consumer focus has seen the Australian Financial Complaints Authority established, world-leading whistleblower protections introduced, and our insolvency laws overhauled. Together with the Prime Minister, I am proud to have contributed to legislated tax cuts for small and medium sized enterprises and tax cuts for individuals that will see the 37 per cent tax rate abolished altogether.
As a member of the Expenditure Review Committee, I’m also proud to have been able to play my part in returning the Budget to surplus, whilst also championing key infrastructure projects such as the Victorian Airport Rail Link. Legislation passed recently that sets the minimum standards for the workplace, for family and domestic violence leave, will help so many families. I also hope that last year’s inaugural Women’s Economic Security Statement is an initiative that all governments will commit to. Whether through more flexible paid parental leave or emergency access to finance for those who are experiencing domestic violence. It is essential that we continue to build women’s economic security.
I’m also proud to have been part of securing a permanent home for Australia’s first children’s hospice here in the heart of Higgins. Very Special Kids is one of Australia’s most important and impressive organisations, helping families care for profoundly ill children and being there to support them when the most awful thing happens and a child dies. I’m profoundly grateful for their work and their compassion.
I want to place on record my thanks to the people of Higgins who have entrusted me to represent them. I want to thank Malcolm Turnbull and Scott Morrison for the opportunity to contribute in Cabinet. To my brilliant and very talented staff, to the public servants in my various portfolios, to the wonderful team in our childcare centre, to the Liberal Party and my very dedicated local Party members and the executive and my supporters. Most especially, I’d like to thank my family who have been continuously and always understanding and for their unconditional love. But finally, I would like to particularly thank the Prime Minister and I’d particularly like to thank Jenny. They have given me wholehearted support in reaching this decision, together with John. I have been able to work with the Prime Minister, not only in his current role but also as Treasurer and I am pleased to be able to call him my friend and I absolutely know that he is the right person to be able to lead our nation. And I will work with him every step of the journey, both locally and nationally, to ensure that our Government is re-elected at the upcoming election. Our children’s future and the future of generations that will follow absolutely depends on it. Thank you.
PRIME MINISTER: Following Kelly’s announcement today and when she came to me about this earlier in the week, one thing I made very clear. I wanted her to continue to serve on in the role that she has as a Minister in my Government and she will continue to do that ably as I know and she will continue to prosecute those issues, both industrial relations and Minister for Women and employment services. There is still much work to do there and we’re looking forward to her continuing in that role.
Now, I don’t propose to take a lot of questions on this matter. I think Kelly’s statement has made things pretty clear. I am happy though to deal with any other issues of the day that you would like to raise, because I know you will be upset with me if I don’t. So I should address those, but we’ll do those briefly if you wouldn’t mind.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, have you spoken to the Indonesian Government about the impending release of Abu Bakar Bashir?
PRIME MINISTER: We’ve seen those reports and we have been in contact with the Indonesian Government and we continue to be in contact with the Indonesian Government. Australia’s position on this matter has not changed, we’ve always expressed the deepest of reservations and we will continue to work closely with them on this issue. We are partners when it comes to countering terrorism and religious extremism and we will continue to do that and we will continue to engage directly with the Indonesian Government on this very sensitive matter. But I don’t think it assists matters by engaging in that process in a public way.
JOURNALIST: What do you make of the explanations?
PRIME MINISTER: I’m sorry, I can’t hear you.
JOURNALIST: What do you think about the explanation in relation to his release?
PRIME MINISTER: Well there are a lot of details which are not yet confirmed and so before I make any further comment on those matters, those details are being confirmed. So once, I think, we have a clearer picture on that then I think that would be the responsible thing to do, to wait for that.
JOURNALIST: On the Aged Care Royal Commission, are you happy… is it acceptable that so few providers had provided responses to the Commissioner ahead of it?
PRIME MINISTER: The reason I called the Royal Commission into aged care, residential care, including for young people with disabilities living in aged care, is because I want the light shone on this sector. I want senior Australians and those who are cared for in that sector treated with respect and that there be a culture of respect. And I have every confidence in the Commissioners to shine that light and to provide a pathway to ensuring that we can be confident about having that culture of respect for senior Australians in this country. I said when I called the Royal Commission that Australians should embrace for some shocking revelations of the way senior Australians have been treated and we’re already starting to see it. Those things upset me to my core, but the reason I am upset to my core is the same reason I decided to call the Royal Commission. So I’m going to let them do their work and then we will continue to get on with the job of delivering the services that senior Australians and Australians with disabilities deserve.
JOURNALIST: On the seat of Higgins, have you canvassed candidates to run at the upcoming election?
PRIME MINISTER: Well Kelly has just made her announcement here, now, publicly today and so this is the first that it has been made public. And I have no doubt, and Kelly you may want to comment because you know a lot of great women candidates who I know are going to emerge to be the Liberal selected candidate here, and I’m looking forward to one of them being selected through the normal process and to ensure they can meet the high standard that Kelly has set. But Kelly, you might…
JOURNALIST: So blokes need not apply, Kelly?
[Laughter]
THE HON KELLY O’DWYER MP: Well look, we’re very lucky in Higgins, we’re very fortunate in the Liberal Party to have a very deep talent pool here and there are a lot of people with incredible, local experience. There are a lot of people who have incredible commitment to our local community who would serve as very, very fine representatives in our nation’s Parliament representing this seat. There are so many talented women in this seat and my phone, I’m sure when I get back to my desk, is going to be filled with quite a number of telephone calls from them. But I am incredibly confident that this seat, which is a seat I have been very proud to represent and I remain absolutely committed to, this seat will be represented incredibly well by one of the very talented people who will come forward. And I have no doubt that it will be a women.
JOURNALIST: Could Peta Credlin be one of those talented women who might come forward?
PRIME MINISTER: We’re not going to get into speculation about the candidates here, but there have been some fine women who have run most recently in elections here around this part of Melbourne and I am looking forward to an outstanding candidate coming forward as I’m sure will. Because last time we ran a preselection in Higgins, we got Kelly O’Dwyer, and that worked out pretty well I’ve got to say. And I’m sure that the people, the Liberal Party members of Higgins will equally do their task to produce a candidate equal to Kelly and she has set a high watermark. So thank you all very much for coming today.
JOURNALIST: Two police officers were shot in New South Wales overnight. Can you just touch on that, your response to that?
PRIME MINISTER: Well as the son of a police officer, I can only respond with heartfelt sympathies for the families and for those who have been injured. And thankfully, by my last report, they were in a stable condition and I reach out to their families. I know how they would be feeling, as coming from a police family myself. But you know, we’ve got to remember, our police officers step up into harm's way every day. I know this. Dad would go to work, and he started off patrolling the Cross in Sydney. And I know this, I know so many police families and policeman around the country. They go out to work every day, and the come home every day, most of them. But some don’t, and some come home after horrific injuries like those that were faced up in Northern New South Wales today. In fact, my uncle was a policeman in Northern New South Wales. So I know about that as well. Some come back having seen the most horrible of things and dealt with the most distressing of circumstances. The same is true of our ambulance officers, our paramedics and our fire officers. You know, we can’t do enough to recognise what they do and so on a day like today I just reach out to them as a fellow Australian and say thank you for what you do for us and thank you to their families as well.
JOURNALIST: Kelly, how much was your decision influenced by your 8 per cent margin?
THE HON KELLY O’DWYER MP: It wasn’t influenced at all. My decision is entirely personal, as I said in the statement. And we live in a country where we want women to not just survive but to thrive. We want women to have real choices about their futures and I’m making a choice about mine. It is a very deeply personal choice. It’s one that is right for me and my family and I am able to make it because I am also incredibly confident about my seat, I’m very confident about the Government and I’m absolutely confident about our Prime Minister and his leadership of our nation.
PRIME MINISTER: Thank you very much, I think we’ll leave it there.