Media Releases
Statement, London
4 June 2019
I’ve just been in contact with Chief Minister Gunner and the Commissioner in the Northern Territory. This is a terrible act of violence which has already, I’m advised, taken the lives of four people. There are a number of other casualties but the details of that are still not yet confirmed. This is a matter that will be obviously directly managed and dealt with by the Northern Territory Government and I want to thank the Commissioner and Chief Minister Gunner for the way that they are working with the Commonwealth authorities. Particularly I just want to extend my deep condolences and sympathies to all the people of the Territory and particularly in Darwin. This is a very tight knit community and I know they will be rocked by these events. Our advice is this is not a terrorist act. There is nothing to suggest that is the case whatsoever. The true motivations of this criminal and violent act will become better known. There is a person, I understand, that is in custody and they will work through those normal processes but in the meantime I think it’s important everyone in Darwin, everyone in the Territory understands that the thoughts of Australians wherever they are, whether they are as far away as I am today or closer to home, they will be thinking about their fellow Australians in the Territory.
Doorstop interview Honiara, Solomon Islands
3 June 2019
PRIME MINISTER: Well it’s my great pleasure to be here with my wife Jenny and Alex Hawke, the Minister for International Development and the Pacific and the Assistant Defence Minister, to hold meetings today with Prime Minister Sogavare and his senior ministers and advisers. And I want to thank them very much for their very warm welcome here in Solomon Islands.
Australia has a very special relationship with Solomon Islands and that relationship goes back generations of course, and we were reminded of that earlier today when we laid a wreath at the memorial for the HMAS Canberra, going back into the Second World War. And most recently, since 2003, as leading the international team through RAMSI has restored peace and stability in Solomon Islands, and laid the foundation for what has been a very significant election here post-RAMSI with the election of the new Prime Minister. This election was the ultimate test, if you like, of the success of RAMSI in that those elections were able to be held in a peaceful way and then in response to some unrest that followed, the Royal Solomon Islands Police Force were able to address that challenge of the public disorder and ensure that the democratic outcome of that election was sustained. And now we have a government that has been established, and it is my great privilege to be able to congratulate the Prime Minister on his election, but also to congratulate today the Royal Solomon Islands Police Force for the great work that they did working with many others, including our own Australian Federal Police, who have been working so closely together. So this is a relationship that is not just in the current, it’s a relationship that goes back generations, and particularly over the last two decades where we have played a central role. And so it is not surprising that in Solomon Islands, we are welcomed as family, not just as friends, not just as partners, but very much as family. And that is the spirit in which we come here today. To continue that partnership, to continue that family partnership. Now, Solomon Islands, is our third largest recipient of overseas development assistance from Australia and those programs go across the broad nature of relationship; health programs, education programs, in justice and law and order programs, and importantly in economic development and infrastructure. And the discussions that we’ve had today, we’re able to confirm that over the next decade a quarter of a billion Australian dollars be dedicated to infrastructure projects here in Solomon Islands. Now this is important because having secured the stability it’s now time to really build into the economic success of Solomon Islands. A peaceful, independent, sovereign, economically-sustainable and successful Solomon Islands is in the region’s interests. It’s in the Pacific’s interests. It’s in certainly Solomon Islands interests, and it’s very much in Australia’s interests as well. We’re there to assist with that goal. That is the nature of the relationship. It is about ensuring a peaceful, independent, sovereign Solomon Islands. As is indeed our objective, for all of our Pacific family, right across the region and that is the objective of our Pacific step-up program. We are not new to the region. Not by any stretch. We have been investing and partnering for many, many years. But in coming here today and in the visits I held before the election, this was signalling a new level, a ‘step-up’ as we’ve called it to those relationships, adding a whole new layer and giving a real priority to where Australia’s focus is, which is in the Indo-Pacific and particularly in the South-West Pacific, through the Pacific step-up program. We also announced today in our discussions a $2.7 million program, which is the labour mobility program, ensuring that the Solomon Islands are in a position to better access those schemes. There has been, as we’ve seen with other nations, in recent times some blockages in terms of getting the appropriate certification and other things that need to be done to facilitate people taking up the opportunity from Solomon Islands through the labour mobility scheme. Labour mobility is a key priority for the Sogavare Government, and so they were very pleases that we could have those discussions today and put in place another layer of that economic development that would be so important.
Now the relationship goes beyond the economic, you joined us this morning for part of the sports program here. Later today I’ll be meeting with church leaders, which is another important part of the depths and breadth of our relationship, and I’m looking forward to that. But I particularly want to thank the Police Commissioner here, Commissioner Varley. He has done an outstanding job in leading the Royal Solomon Islands Police Force; an Australian here, and that’s part of our program, part of our support, and that’s proven to be a very successful part of our partnership. And so I really do want to commend them, congratulate them on what’s been achieved here. It has been hard won over a long period of time. Australia has been there throughout that period of time. And we will always be here, as family to support Solomon Islands in their national interest objectives.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, the United States says that China is undermining regional stability by trying to convince nations like the Solomon Islands to cut ties with Taiwan. Does Australia agree with that?
PRIME MINISTER: Well unlike others, ourselves and Solomon Islands for that matter, are not viewing our relationship in those sort of binary terms that others are from well outside. I think we gotta be careful not to see what are ongoing and upgrading relationships here for Australia and the Pacific through those binary terms of the United States and China. They have their interests in the region, as do others. Our relationship with the Solomon Islands, our relationship with the Pacific transcends all of that. And I think there is a great risk and a great danger in an analysis that only can see the world through such a binary prism. I certainly don’t. Australia certainly doesn’t. Australia welcomes the economic growth and advancement of China; with their economy, their record in lifting people out of poverty is second to none. It is one of the most extraordinary achievements of the modern world and something they can claim due credit for. So whether it’s their success, our longstanding relationships with the United States, these are relationships we continue to pursue enthusiastically. For us, it is not a binary prism through which we see our involvement.
JOURNALIST: With the China Taiwan issue discussed with Prime Minister Sogavare, and what did you advocate to him? (Inaudible)
PRIME MINISTER: Well decisions on those issues are entirely the province of the Government of Solomon Islands. They are an independent, sovereign country, who will make decisions in their national interests. And our relationship, our family relationship, with the Solomon Islands is to support them in the decisions that they take as an independent, sovereign government. And so, they will work through their process on that issue. It is not our place to provide advice or guidance on those decisions. We will assist them with any questions or other issues they want to raise with us, because that's the nature of our relationship. And the Assistant Defence Minister and Minister for International Development and the Pacific, Alex Hawke, will be present right across the Pacific to provide support and assistance. But the goal is independence sovereignty and economic sustainability. And where we're able to encourage decisions made in that context that doesn't undermine those things and that’s positive for the region.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, you talk about China lifting the middle class out of poverty, but you’ve also got to [inaudible] in detention camps and the Defence Minister say that Tiananmen Square was a correct decision. Australia certainly couldn’t possibly condone that?
PRIME MINISTER: Well that has been the position of the Chinese Government for a very long time. That's not a new position that's been articulated and the Foreign Minister has made comments on that today. And I endorse those comments. And in the course of the next few days the government will express its views through the Foreign Minister on that matter. There are certainly challenges in all of our relationships and there are issues that are raised within those relationships in a respectful way. As part of, I mean we have a comprehensive strategic partnership with China. We have our single largest trade agreement with China. They are single largest trading partner. We have a deep, there are 1.2 million Australians of ethnic Chinese heritage. So this is a, this is a broadening and increasingly deeper and more complex relationship that goes well beyond the economic. But similarly we have a relationship of longstanding with the United States on all the same sort of levels.
JOURNALIST: Is that going to be a hard balance given what we're seeing in the region? And given the comments from the officials in the US?
PRIME MINISTER: I think it's very important for countries like Australia and other independent sovereign states in this part of the world in the Indo-Pacific to maintain a very keen focus on their perspective and insights into the world and not be drawn into this binary analysis that others might be. I thought that Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong gave a very insightful presentation last Friday in Singapore – a very insightful presentation from an Indo-Pacific perspective, and there are many insights there that Australia would share.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, what do you think is the greatest security threat facing this region?
PRIME MINISTER: I think what we've been focusing on has been the most significant and that is to ensure the continued civil peace and stability, particularly with the more recent history here in Solomon Islands. I mean, the stand-up with the Royal Solomon Islands Police Force I think has been a significant success and 70 officers a year are being sworn into that service I think is extraordinary. When I was in Vanuatu early this year there was around 20, 25 I think from memory, who were sworn in each year. It's obviously a small country, but ensuring that there is the capability within their civil police and others to maintain the stability of these countries; similar challenges which we've been working with Papua New Guinea for a long time. That is the basis for building the prosperity of their people. And that's why we've put so much of our effort, and the Australian Federal Police does an extraordinary job in training and mentoring and support. But this is a two-way street. I was I was talking to a senior member of the police force here last night. A female senior member who is now mentoring Australian officers back in Australia. This is a two-way street. Challenges that are dealt with here, public law and order, are not what you might see in Australia on a regular basis. And so there are lessons that our Police are learning from the experience of our Pacific family. And so this is very much developing into that two-way relationship of those issues.
JOURNALIST: Broadly speaking in the region is there a single security issue that stands out from your Government’s perspective?
PRIME MINISTER: We've set all these issues out in the White Paper.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, so the United States is our closest ally. They’re saying very clearly that Chinese coercion in the Pacific is a problem, and very clearly any moves by China to coerce nations like the Solomon Islands, away from Taiwan, would undermine stability. Are you saying that we don’t agree…
PRIME MINISTER: I’m saying that’s their commentary.
JOURNALIST: What’s Australia’s commentary?
PRIME MINISTER: I’ve already made it.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, can I ask briefly about the recalibration of [inaudible] program in the Solomon Islands. Money being taken out of what we’d call traditional aid and being ploughed into infrastructure increasingly. What’s the rationale behind this? Is it [inaudible]…?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, I wouldn’t share your analysis on the recalibration. We have always been involved in infrastructure. And we continue to be very heavily committed to health and education. Heavily committed to health and education. Not just here in Solomon Islands but across the Pacific. And we have partnerships with countries whether it's Japan, United States, New Zealand, China, across the Pacific where we're pursuing those objectives. The purpose of our programs is based on the shared objectives with the (inaudible) country. And so the programs we work up are done in consultation and partnership with the Solomon Islands. Understanding their priorities, understanding where we can bring technical expertise and experience, and applying those to the needs that are here. Now those needs change over time. Here in the Solomons a big focus of our investment has actually been on the law and order side, for very obvious reasons. But as that continues to improve then that frees up opportunities to do other things. But right now having one if you like the civil peace, a very important priority we discussed today is to really do what we can to improve living standards by boosting the sustainability of economic growth here. That is really the objective, because with that economic growth, comes a greater capacity to invest in health and education. That's as true in the Solomon Islands as it is in Australia, which is the point I was making throughout the entire election campaign. You've got a stronger economy. You can invest in schools and hospitals, and your own civil peace, and that's what we want to see here – that’s what an independent, sovereign, sustainable Solomon Islands looks like. It looks like a country with what has already proven in this most recent election to be a stable democracy. With a good level and a very good level of civil peace. But now it's about building the rules and the pillars of economic growth for the future.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, the White House is considering tariffs on aluminium imports from Australia. Were you aware of that? And does it show the escalating trade war between the US and China could have an impact on us?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, we have an arrangement with the United States and we are working within that arrangement and working closely with the US officials in the White House on all of those issues.
JOURNALIST: On the visit by the Chinese ships, that wasn’t publicly flagged, it was a bit of a surprise to everyone as they came steaming through the heads. Can you tell us about that and when did you know about that?
PRIME MINISTER: We’ve known about that for some time. And this was an arrangement it was a reciprocal visit because Australian naval vessels visited China. This was a program of a reciprocal visit. They were returning from counter drug trafficking operations in the Middle East. And that is a further demonstration of the relationship that we have, and this had been in train for some time. So it may have been a surprise to others, but it certainly wasn't a surprise to the Government.
JOURNALIST: The timing is interesting on the anniversary of Tiananmen massacre. Do you see that as problematic at all?
PRIME MINISTER: No. I think in his reading into timings, is could be subject to a bit of over-analysis.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, you’re obviously bucking the trend but an Australians Prime Minister hasn’t been here to the Solomon Islands since 2008. Is that embarrassing for Australia?
PRIME MINISTER: Australia's certainly been here. There's no doubt about that. And, but it is true that as Prime Minister, I had the first bilateral meeting in Fiji – of any Australian Prime Minister. Same is true in Vanuatu. I'm pleased to be here today. It was Prime Minister Rudd who was last here. And it was Prime Minister Howard that was Prime Minister when we took the leadership of the RAMSI initiative. So there's never been a lack of interest I think from Australian Prime Ministers in Solomon Islands. And I'm pleased to be here at this level. And I know Minister Hawke will be pleased to return on many occasions to work through our program of support and assistance.
JOURNALIST: Yesterday, the former Prime Minister of the Solomon Islands…
PRIME MINISTER: I met with him.
JOURNALIST: Said he thought the Pacific Step-Up by Australia’s anxiety about China, as well as a desire to help the region deal with its challenges. Do you share that analysis? Is it disingenuous for Australian officials and Australian leaders to pretend that China plays no role (inaudible)?
PRIME MINISTER: Well I’m a pretty straight-up sort of person. And the reason I'm here is because I value the relationship of Solomon Islands. Because it is an important part of our region. And this relationship predates and will post-date all of those sort of binary considerations. We're here because we are family with the Pacific. And as Prime Minister I made it clear before the election that I wanted to make this a mark of our Government, that we were keenly interested, at a very deep level, about this relationship. You know Australia can have views and opinions on places that are far beyond our shores. And then there are places that we can make a material difference to people's lives. And Solomon Islands is one such place. That's why it is our third biggest recipient of overseas development assistance because we can make a tangible difference to the living standards of people living in Solomon Islands. That's what it's about. Thank you.
JOURNALIST: Can I ask Minister Hawke about your priorities in the role in the Pacific? How you see Australia’s role in the Pacific family?
MINISTER HAWKE: Well, thank you. As the Prime Minister has just said I'm very pleased to be appointed to this role and that our first visit, the first visit of Prime Minister Morrison, a re-elected Prime Minister, is to the Pacific. I mean you've seen our Defence Minister in Singapore. You’ve seen our Foreign Minister in Fiji. And you have us here in the Solomons. You couldn't put a higher priority on our region, than what this government is doing, what the Prime Minister is doing in our region. Obviously what the Prime Minister has said our regional priorities are, the Prime Minister’s priority, is the step-up program. The work we're doing, the partnership we've had with countries like the Solomons for so many years now. We are here today. We met with the Prime Minister and his wife and we visited the war memorials reflecting on a period where Australians, we lost 74 Australians on the HMAS Canberra. I mean we've been here a long time and we've been with our family a long time in this neighbourhood and treating our family right and making sure we have a good neighbourhood is our priority.
PRIME MINISTER: Well, and we can’t be late for a family lunch. So, thank you.
Honiara
3 June 2019
Thank you Prime Minister (Sogavare). And thank you very much for your welcome and on behalf of our delegation, and my Minister for International Development and the Pacific, Mr Alex Hawke joins me, also on his first visit in this capacity to the Pacific.
To come over to the Solomons is incredibly important given the length of our relationship, and the importance of that relationship.
Can I congratulate you on your election as Prime Minister and can I also congratulate the Solomons on the elections. We were very pleased to play our role, amongst others, in supporting the conduct in those elections, and it would be the first post-RAMSI, and I think it speaks volumes about the track that the Solomons is on and we welcome that.
Our objective as we’ve just discussed, whether it is here in the Solomons or more broadly, is for the peaceful independence and sovereignty of all Pacific Island nations. This is what we celebrate. This is what we wish to continue to encourage and provide whatever humble assistance or support, technical or otherwise, that we can to assist the sovereignty and integrity of all Pacific Islander states, and to address the many challenges that are present in our region.
And for the family relationship, that family relationship is one that truly does seek to protect the independence of each member, regardless of where they exist.
To that end, we’ve together invested a great deal in the stability and peacefulness in the Solomons. And that peace and stability, now gives rise to the opportunities for prosperity in the Solomons.
That is why our program, through the High Commissioner, and the work of that they do here, we very much want to continue to invest in that development of the Solomons and the Solomon’s economy, the living standards here, and education and health services to further build that prosperity.
Over the next decade, we’ll invest particularly a quarter of a billion Australian into infrastructure with more important cooperation, we look forward to those projects we will be able to pursue, and I know there are quite a number we just already discussed. But bringing that prosperity is something that we’re very keen to pursue and grow that relationship a bit further to follow.
So thank you very much for your welcome.
Joint Statement
3 June 2019
Prime Minister, Prime Minister of the Solomon Islands
Prime Minister Scott Morrison and Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare met today in Honiara to celebrate Australia and Solomon Islands’ partnership as ‘true wantoks’.
As two proud sovereign nations in the Pacific family, Australia and Solomon Islands enjoy a close friendship and a shared history that was further strengthened by our partnership in the 14-year Regional Assistance Mission to Solomon Islands (RAMSI). As Solomon Islands celebrates the success of its first democratic election since RAMSI, Australia stands proudly as a partner and a friend.
Consistent with the Australian Government’s enhanced Pacific engagement, Australia and Solomon Islands will continue to work closely together to boost our engagement by strengthening community bonds and tackling common challenges.
We will work together to enhance economic growth and development in Solomon Islands. Australia will establish a bilateral infrastructure program, worth up to A$250 million in grant financing over 10 years. The program will support key national and economic infrastructure and will complement the Australian Infrastructure Financing Facility for the Pacific.
Australia will partner with Solomon Islands to commission a scoping and cost-benefit assessment of the national transport core (NTC) initiative, which would connect 74 per cent of the population and 37 constituencies in its first 10-year phase and ultimately link all 50 constituencies and 100 per cent of the population by 2035. Australia will also support the build of a new Prime Minister’s Office/Ministry of Foreign Affairs and External Trade complex. Australia will work on an initial design for a new, modern building to meet Solomon Islands vision of a transformed Honiara CBD.
Solomon Islands recognised the crucial importance to the country’s economic future of sound management of its mineral wealth, and to that end committed to enacting reforms that will ensure global best practice in the governance and regulation of the mining sector.
Working together to enhance opportunities for labour mobility delivers benefits for both Australia and Solomon Islands. Labour mobility helps fill labour shortages in rural and regional Australia while helping Pacific workers develop valuable skills and take up work opportunities. To ensure that the opportunity to work in Australia is available to all Solomon Islanders – including those in remote provinces and rural areas – Australia will provide A$2.7 million over three years to deliver additional support for recruitment and mobilisation of Solomon Islands workers to Australia.
We agreed on the importance of holding commercial operators to account for the oil spill caused by the wreck of the bauxite mining ship MV Solomon Trader in Rennell in February. We will raise the lessons learned from this near miss at the upcoming Pacific Islands Forum Leaders’ Meeting, to start discussions to progress reform in both shipping practices and mining governance in Solomon Islands and the Pacific.
In line with our bilateral security treaty, we commit to deeper cooperation on defence and security. Australia is providing technical assistance to help Solomon Islands develop a border security strategy, which will be used to inform possible future collaboration in this area. Australia is also pleased to provide infrastructure and communications upgrades to existing police outposts in the western border region. This support will be provided in accordance with the Solomon Islands’ three-phased approach to strengthening surveillance, response capability and protection of the country’s western border.
The links between our communities, including our religious, sporting and cultural institutions, are the crucial, enduring ties that bind us to each other. Australia is pleased to announce additional funding of A$260,000 for the ‘Get into Rugby’ Plus Program, which will initiate a women’s/girls’ Rugby 7s competition and develop highly trained coaches who can facilitate equal participation of boys and girls in rugby.
Australia will also assist Solomon Islands to develop its elite athletes through supporting elite sports training in Australia, as well as strengthening in-country capability to provide such training for a select number of Solomon Islands’ athletes to prepare for the 2023 Solomon Islands Pacific Games and the refurbishment of classrooms to help accommodate athletes and officials in 2023.
As part of the Pacific Churches Partnership initiative, we are pleased to announce that Australia will work with Solomon Islands churches across denominations to strengthen ecumenical exchanges with Australian church partners.
Recognising the importance of education, today Solomon Islands, Australia and New Zealand launched the Extraordinary Learning Resources Project at the Bishop Epalle Catholic School. The project is the most ambitious book distribution project ever undertaken in Solomon Islands, and will distribute over 580,000 books to boys and girls across the country.
Australia will continue its investments in the health sector and will work with other partners to support Solomon Islands in its endeavour to eliminate malaria by 2030 and to halt and reverse the non-communicable disease crisis in the country by 2030. Solomon Islands confirmed its commitment to maintain government investments in health, education, including by meeting agreed national recurrent budget allocations.
Together we will continue to exchange views, discuss our mutual priorities and monitor progress and implementation through regular high-level consultations between our two countries.
Through these initiatives and more, Australia and Solomon Islands will build on our strong relationship, and work together to make the Pacific region secure, prosperous, and stable.
Visit to Solomon Islands, United Kingdom and Singapore
27 May 2019
A key part of getting the Government back to work following the election campaign is re-engaging with our neighbours, partners and allies around the world. That is why next week I will travel to Solomon Islands, United Kingdom and Singapore from 2-7 June.
My first overseas visit following the election will be to a key member of our Pacific family, Solomon Islands, which is one of Australia’s nearest and most important neighbours.
I will be accompanied in Honiara by the Minister for International Development and the Pacific Alex Hawke. This trip will show our Pacific Step Up in action.
The Pacific is front and centre of Australia’s strategic outlook. I look forward to meeting with Prime Minister Sogavare as we set out a partnership of deeper engagement and build on the family and community bonds Australia shares with the Pacific.
During my visit to the United Kingdom I will represent Australia at the 75th anniversary commemoration of the D-Day landings. I will pay tribute to the service and sacrifices made by Australians, and those from allied nations, in preserving our freedom, values and way of life. D-Day symbolises our commitment to standing together to meet the challenges Australia and our international partners face.
The visit to the United Kingdom will also be an opportunity to meet with other leaders to build support for our proposed G20 initiative to stop terrorists exploiting the internet and social media. Following the shocking terrorist act in New Zealand in March, we must do what we can to ensure it does not happen again.
My Government is strongly committed to deepening Australia’s relations with Southeast Asia. I look forward to meeting Prime Minister His Excellency Mr Lee Hsien Loong again in Singapore for our Annual Leaders Meeting. I will be joined by the Minister for Foreign Affairs Marise Payne and the Minister for Trade, Tourism and Investment Simon Birmingham and our focus will be on enhancing the excellent economic, security and strategic cooperation between our two countries.
Australia and the world face uncertain times and global economic headwinds. Our engagement with our family and neighbours and international partners is more important than ever.
Press Conference, Canberra
26 May 2019
PRIME MINISTER: Good afternoon all. Last Saturday week, the Australia people elected us to get on with the job, get back to work and get about the task of supporting them to realise their aspirations in life, what they want to achieve for themselves, their families and their communities. Since last Saturday night that has been the task that I’ve been focused on with the Deputy Prime Minister. Today I am pleased to outline to you the new Ministry following the election last Saturday week. This Ministry brings together the experience of those who have been serving in roles across the Government for many years now, some more recently, and it brings together some new members who will bring their skills, experience, passion and energy to the Government, as we set about the task of realising the aspirations for all Australians. The Ministry will be tasked to deliver on the commitments we set out in the election. To deliver 1.25 million new jobs over the next five years. To maintain those Budget surpluses, that deliver the first surplus that we announced in this year’s Budget. To keep it there and pay down the debt. To deliver that tax relief for family and small businesses all around the country. To guarantee the funding for services that Australians rely on in the essential areas of hospitals, roads and schools, affordable medicine and to deliver those services, making them accessible to all Australians. And of course to keep Australians safe, keep our borders secure and to keep Australians safe including in the online world.
The Ministry that I announce today maintains the record representation of women in Cabinet for an Australian Government, with seven female members of our Cabinet. It will include the first ever female Minister for Agriculture, Australia's first ever Agriculture Minister who is a woman. Marise Payne will add to her role and responsibilities, the role of Minister for Women. Australia will also have the first Indigenous Cabinet Minister in Ken Wyatt, who will take on the role of Minister for Indigenous Australians. I also note that Ken will be supported by a new national Indigenous Australians agency that will be set up within the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet portfolio and that will provide a direct report to Ken in this important area of responsibility. A key focus for all of my team will be on lifting and improving service delivery for all Australians, for services that Australians rely on. I spoke about it when I brought together the heads of the public service. I want to see congestion-busting not only on our roads and across our major cities; I want to see congestion busting when it comes to bureaucratic bottlenecks and regulatory bottlenecks, so Australian can get access to those services in a more timely and efficient way for them, making better use of technology and better integrating service delivery across portfolios. The goal is to make it easier to deal with services that Australians rely on. And so today we will also be establishing a new organisation called Services Australia, built on the Human Services portfolio. Services Australia will pick up it’s lead from a similar organisation established by the New South Wales Government called Services New South Wales, which I think has been a very important reform in New South Wales and made dealing with government much easier. That’s what we want government to be for Australians, we just want it to be much easier. There are services they rely on and we want them to access those services, as easily as they can and in as informed a way as possible. It’s also about driving better use of information technology and apps that can assist Australians to better access services they need. In that portfolio I’ll be appointing Stuart Robert as the Minister for Government Services in Cabinet. I will also be appointing Stuart to the very important role - and an issue that is very dear to my heart – that’s the National Disability Insurance Scheme. He’ll be the Minister for the National Disability Insurance Scheme and he’ll be responsible, together with myself of course, to ensure that we reach that goal that we set of 500,000 Australians who will be able to access the services of the National Disability Insurance Scheme over the next five years. It’s a very big social reform, it was begun by our predecessors and has been committed to by our Government. It’s fully funded under our Government and the work of ensuring that it meets the needs of all Australians who live with a disability and their families, is critically important. It’s got to be made easier. It’s a very targeted program. Every single Australian with a disability needs a bespoke approach, their challenges are different and they must be recognised as different. You can’t take a cookie-cutter approach to this, you’ve got to [inaudible] each individual member and we need to have a system that can address that.
Moving more broadly, the economic team of course will be led by Josh Frydenberg as Treasurer together with MathiasCormann as Minister for Finance. Within the Minister for Finance responsibilities, that will include what were formerly the responsibilities of the Special Minister for State. They will be taken within Minister Cormann’s portfolio responsibilities and it will be their job to continue to keep the Budget in surplus and ensure that we deliver on those tax cuts for families and small businesses. They will be supported by Michaelia Cash in the portfolio of Minister for Employment, Skills and Small and Family Businesses. Michaelia’s job is to work with the rest of the team to deliver those 1.2 5 million new jobs right around the country over the next five years. The Employment Services portfolio that was previously held by Kelly O'Dwyer, that Employment Services function will go into that new Department of Employment, Skills, and Small and Family Business. Michaelia Cash will be supported by Steve Irons as Assistant Minister for Vocational Education, Training and Apprenticeships. Steve was an electrician, Steve knows what it’s like to get a trade and help people get trade qualifications. He understands the needs of small businesses who want to take people on with trades, as apprentices. I look forward to the great work Steve will be able to do in that portfolio. Christian Porter of course will be Attorney General and Manager of Government Business in the House. He will also take on the responsibility of Minister for Industrial Relations. That will include creating fairer workplaces and enforcing the rule of law in industrial relations, particularly through the Australian Building and Construction Commission.
The Deputy Prime Minister of course will continue in his role in delivering our $100 billion national infrastructure programme which is central to our economic plan. This will include the National Water Grid for which he will have direct responsibility and he will be supported by Alan Tudge who comes into Cabinet and will continue his work in the portfolio he was serving in previously as Minister for Population, Cities and Urban Infrastructure. The economic team will be supported also by Michael Sukkar who comes into the ministry as Assistant Treasurer and Minister for Housing. He will have particular responsibility for the First Home Loan Deposit Scheme which we announced and committed to during the election, as well as more affordable housing. Jane Hume will come in as Assistant Minister for Superannuation, Financial Services and fin tech, Financial Technology. Karen Andrews will continue as Minister for Industry, Science and Technology, working closely with industry stakeholders to create more and better paid jobs and harnessing the great opportunities that are there in science and technology for our industries. Matt Canavan will continue in the role of Resources and Northern Australia. Paul Fletcher will take on the job of Minister for Communications and Cyber Safety and the Arts. I’ll come to the roles that were formally performed by Mitch Fifield and what we have planned for Mitch in the months ahead. Returning to the rest of the Ministry, in social policy Anne Ruston will be elevated to Cabinet and will take on the job of Minister for Family and Social Services. She will also perform the role of Manager of Government Business in the Senate. She will be supported by Luke Howarth who comes into the assistant ministry as Assistant Minister for Community Housing, Community Services and Homelessness. Greg Hunt will lead the charge on our plan to combat youth suicide and youth mental health in this country. He will do that of course as Minister for Health, where he’s done an outstanding job. Greg will pull together an implementation forum of the nation’s experts in coming months, dealing with both youth and Indigenous mental health issues and working through our plan to deliver that on the ground. Greg will also take on the role of Minister Assisting myself for the Public Service and for Cabinet, Greg will play a key role in assisting us with our response to Thodey Review as well as playing a broader strategic role in policy development across the Government. Dan Tehan will continue his role as Minister for Education, it’s his job to deliver those programmes we have fully funded and conclude arrangements with the outstanding states and working closely with them to that end. Richard Colbeck will take on the job in Ministry of Minister for Aged Care and Senior Australians and as Minister for Youth and Sport. His job will be to ensure there’s a strong voice for issues facing both younger and older Australians, across the country, particularly when we’re deal with the Royal Commission into aged care quality and safety, as that continues in the years ahead.
In the area of national security and defence, Minister Payne will continue as the Minister for Foreign Affairs and as I said, she will take on the role as Minister for Women. Former Army Services Brigadier Linda Reynolds takes on the role of Minister for Defence, which I flagged before the election. Peter Dutton continues in his role as Minister for Home Affairs and Simon Birmingham in his role as Minister for Trade, Tourism and Investment. You know all know our passion for the Pacific ‘step up’ program, a very important program in Australia's national interest. I am elevating the role of the Pacific and International Development portfolio to Ministry level and that will be taken on by Alex Hawke, who will become the Minister for International Development and the Pacific and Assistant Defence minister. That will ensure we’re able to integrate everything from our role in our international development program and defence initiatives throughout the Pacific, to ensure that we’re working closely with our Pacific family, our whanau or vuvale across the region. I thank Alex for taking on that role, it will be a very significant role for Australia's future and I think he has exactly the skills to ensure we’re able to deliver. In the Environment, Sussan Ley will take on the role as Minister for the Environment, with a focus on practical and local environmental outcomes as well as waste reduction and recycling. She will be assisted by Trevor Evans who will have a particular focus on waste reduction and local environmental management. Angus Taylor will continue as Minister for Energy and his portfolio will take on the further role of Emissions Reduction; responsibility in particular for meeting the 2030 emissions targets and the Climate Solutions Fund. Warren Entsch will also be appointed in the only of our special envoys, Warren will take on the role as special envoy for the Great Barrier Reef. Warren has a passion across a whole range of issues in relation to the Reef, as you know, he’s the Member for Leichhardt, returned once again and he has a particular passion for oceans policy and the impact of plastic on our oceans. I discussed Warren working in with our Minister and Assistant Minister in both those respects. I should mention that Melissa Price will be taking on the role of Defence Industry Minister, the Minister for Defence Industry, forming part of that defence team. She will also be joined in the defence team by Darren Chester who continues in his role of Veterans Affairs and Defence Personnel.
Now, after consulting with the Minister for Foreign Affairs I intend to recommend to the Governor General that Arthur Sinodinos be appointed as Australia’s next Ambassador to the United States of America and I intend to recommend to the Governor General that Mitch Fifield be appointed our next Ambassador to the United Nations. They will both be exceptional representatives of Australia and our countries interests abroad will be well served in those roles. Both senators have made an enormous contribution in the public service both were given the opportunity to continue to serve in the Ministry. They have chosen to take on these new and very exciting roles.
So our Government has a broad agenda to deliver. We are a Government that is back at work and the Ministry will be sworn in on Wednesday. The Party Room comes together on Tuesday, Cabinet will meet on Wednesday. We're back at work, implementing our agenda to keep our economy strong, to guarantee the essentials that Australians rely on, to keep Australians safe and to keep Australians together. I look forward to working with my new team.
JOURNALIST: [inaudible] you mentioned the Minister for Agriculture was a woman, you didn’t mention who that would be.
PRIME MINISTER: Bridget McKenzie, Bridget McKenzie as the Minister for Agriculture, I'm sorry.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister on your agenda, [inaudible] review into the retirement income system, pensions, superannuation, the whole direction [inaudible]. Will franking credits be part of that review?
PRIME MINISTER: I’ll come back to that because Michelle was asking me about the Nationals. The list has been circulated, or it should be distributed as we speak. But just to go over the other Nats positions in the ministry; it’s Mark Coulton, he takes on the role of Local Government and Decentralisation and Regional Services and continues in the role of Assistant Minister for Trade and Investment. Michelle Landry continues in her role as Assistant Minister for Children and Families and Andrew Gee continues in his role, so many of the Nationals are continuing in their former roles.
JOURNALIST: And David Littleproud?
PRIME MINISTER: David Littleproud is taking on Water Resources together with Natural Disaster and Emergency Management, he’s also taking on the role of Rural Finance and has continuing responsibilities on drought. As we moved around the country, what is very clear is that the impact of natural disasters and emergencies are very connected in a lot of our rural and regional communities. David has done an extraordinary job in the work we’ve done with drought and in assisting me particularly where I’ve been most recently in north Queensland with the Livestock Recovery Agency that we’ve established there. David has shown a real talent I think in getting in and solving problems on the ground as we seek to have recovery and assistance put into place in these areas of Australia. David I think will do an astounding job in each of those capacities, as he has been doing -
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister just on the inquiry into the retirement system, will that be broad-ranging and will it encompass franking credits? Can [inaudible]?
PRIME MINISTER: I’m not making announcements today, but our response to the Productivity Commission will be handled by the Treasurer with support from the Assistant Minister for Superannuation.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister why was Melissa Price moved from the Environment portfolio?
PRIME MINISTER: Melissa and I discussed her role, she asked to be given a new challenge and I was happy to give her one.
JOURNALIST: So she was doing a good job in Environment?
PRIME MINISTER: She’s going to do a great job as Defence Industry Minister.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister just on Arthur Sinodinos, Donald Trump has asked his Attorney General to investigate Australia role in sparking the 2016 FBI investigation into links between the campaign and Russia. Can you tell us; was Australia part of any conspiracy to launch that investigation?
PRIME MINISTER: I don't plan to make any comments on ongoing investigations.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister will you outline a sort of timetable from here? When will the swearing in happen, when will Parliament be recalled?
PRIME MINISTER: I said earlier the Ministry will be sworn in on Wednesday. We are awaiting advice from the AEC as to when the return of writs will be provided. That at present they’re saying that’s the 28th of June and there’s a possibility of that occurring earlier. That presents different opportunities for when might be able to recall Parliament.
JOURNALIST: Just of the Senate vacancies for Arthur Sinodinos and Mitch Fifield?
PRIME MINISTER: There are no Senate vacancies at the moment.
JOURNALIST: Yeah, when he leaves - ?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, let me be very clear about this process. We would make a recommendation at an appropriate time in the future to the Governor General, about who would serve in these two roles. So as a result, when that occurs, at that time, then that is a matter that any possible Senate vacancies will be considered.
JOURNALIST: [Inaudible] Jim Molan to take that spot?
PRIME MINISTER: In the event that there would be a selection in New South Wales or Victoria, they would be matters for the New South Wales and Victoria division.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister just on Angus Taylor’s role, Josh Frydenberg in the Turnbull government had Energy and the Environment, so he was responsible for emissions reductions as well. They were then separated under you, it seems they’ve kind of been brought back together, is that a fair way to say it?
PRIME MINISTER: If you look closely at the Climate Solutions Fund and the other initiatives related to meeting our emissions reduction targets – it’s Snowy 2.0, the Marinus Link, the Battery of the Nation project - these projects fall very much into the role of Energy infrastructure that Angus is closely associated with. So it made, I think, a lot of sense to bring that under the same banner. Angus has a lot of experience in dealing with these issues, a lot of technical knowledge on these issues and I think that will ensure these matters are well integrated.
JOURNALIST: Is there unfinished business though, when it comes to getting emissions down in the energy sector?
PRIME MINISTER: No, we’ve set out our plan before the election as to how we meet our 2030 targets, and in fact, we were the only Party at this election that did. I mean we still don't know what the cost of the Labor’s proposal was and the election is over! Maybe next leadership will tell us. I don’t know and maybe they’ll tell us how they’ll meet the 45 per cent emissions reduction target. I don’t even know if that’s still Labor policy, but they don't have any leaders at the moment so we wouldn’t know.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister on your Pacific ‘step up’, we’ve seen that PNG Prime Minister Peter O’Neill [inaudible] your response today?
PRIME MINISTER: First of all can I just say ‘thank you’ to Peter O'Neill. I have worked with Peter in three different portfolios, I worked with him as the Minister of immigration, I worked with him as the Treasurer and I worked with him as Prime Minister. Peter has been a passionate servant of his country, and I think that was best on show when he led and chaired the APEC meeting in Papua New Guinea, which I attended last year. That was a great moment of great pride for Papua New Guineans and I was so proud of the way Peter conducted himself and showed great – the Maori would say māia - and while that’s not a Melanesian word, it’s one that would be well ascribed to him. The processes of succession there are still in train and I won’t make any formal comment on who may now take that role and how Peter O'Neill now proceeds, but PNG is our closest friend and neighbor. There is just a small body of water that is between us and PNG and we have a special relationship with Papua New Guinea and always will. I will look forward to working with the Prime Minister of Papua New Guinea in the same way I have enjoyed such a strong friendship and relationship with Peter O'Neill. My simple message to Peter O'Neill - and I look forward to passing this on soon personally - is thank you. Thank you on behalf of Australia for your friendship.
JOURNALIST: PM on the economy, do you think the bottom has been reached in the property market?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, I’ll let others speculate on property. I think, without going back into the issues of the election, what I do know is had Labor's very negative property and housing taxes come into being, then there is only one way that people's house values were going to go. Now, we will continue with our sound economic management and I’ll leave it to others to make commentary on the movements in property markets.
JOURNALIST: PM on Mitch Fifield did he choose not to not sit around the Cabinet table and be ambassador to the UN instead?
PRIME MINISTER: Yes he did. As I said, it was Mitch's call about what he wanted to do, I would have been very happy for Mitch to continue to serve in Communications and the Arts. I think Mitch has done an outstanding job in what has been a very difficult task in the NBN. And Paul Fletcher comes to this role no stranger to these issues. He has deep experience when it comes to ICT in this country and I think he will be a great successor to Mitch and he’ll do an outstanding job and I thank Mitch for the great job he has done.
JOURNALIST: Did Michael McCormack choose the people to put into the portfolios the Nats were allocated?
PRIME MINISTER: Yes though he obviously consults me as Prime Minister.
JOURNALIST: But he actually chose -?
PRIME MINISTER: This is the way our relationship works, he makes those assessments.
JOURNALIST: Can I just clarify on the tax cuts, so if the Government won’t split the Bill and it looks like Parliament is not going to come back until after July 1, is there any concern that the offsets, the expanded offsets for low to middle income earners are not going to get through?
PRIME MINISTER: We’re putting our entire tax plan to the Parliament. We just put it to the people of Australia. It’s a plan for aspirational Australians. It’s a plan for tax relief not just now but into the future. If the Labor Party has learned nothing from this election, if their takeout of this election is they should be denying Australians their aspirations, well I think that’s a sad indictment on the Labor Party and it says they weren’t listening to the quiet Australians last Saturday when they spoke up and they seem to be not listening and I would say that they should endorse these measures because they’re good measures. They’ll be good measures for the Australian economy, they’ll be good measures for jobs, and they’ll be good measures for confidence in the Australian economy as we face what are some difficult headwinds into the years ahead. This is an important program of tax relief out over the medium term and it was put to the Australian people as a package, so it’ll be put to the Australian Parliament as a package and I would urge all the Members of the Parliament to listen to the Australian people.
I think their view and their voice was very clear and based on what they’ve asked me to do, they’ve asked me to get back to work and get on with the job and that’s exactly what I’m going to do.
Thank you very much.
Ministry
26 May 2019
Australians have re-elected our Government to get back to work and get on with the job of delivering for all Australians as they go about their own lives, pursuing their goals and aspirations for themselves, their families and their communities.
My Government’s new Ministry brings together the experience and stability of service in key portfolios, while bringing in new members that will add their own experience, skills and passion to the job ahead.
My new Ministry will be tasked with delivering our commitments to:
Create 1.25 million more jobs over the next five years
Maintain budget surpluses and pay down debt
Deliver tax relief for families and small businesses
Guarantee increased funding for schools, hospitals, medicines and roads
Keep Australians safe, including online, and keeping our borders secure
The Ministry maintains record representation of women in the Cabinet, including Australia’s first female Minister for Agriculture, Bridget McKenzie, while Marise Payne adds the role of Minister for Women to her responsibilities as Minister for Foreign Affairs. Australia will have its first Indigenous Cabinet Minister in Ken Wyatt as Minister for Indigenous Australians. Ken will be supported by a new National Indigenous Australians Agency, attached to the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet.
A key focus for all of my Ministers and their Departments will be lifting performance on government service delivery. This will include congestion busting on regulatory and bureaucratic roadblocks, making better use of technology and better integrating service delivery across portfolios. The goal is to make it easier to deal with and access the Government services Australians rely on. Ben Morton be Assistant Minister to the Prime Minister and Cabinet.
Stuart Robert joins the Cabinet as Minister for the National Disability and Insurance Scheme (NDIS) and Minister for Government Services. A new Services Australia agency will be established, along the lines of Services NSW, to drive greater efficiencies and integration of Government service delivery and making best use of technology and digital applications.
Top of the list for improving services will be ensuring we deliver on the National Disability Insurance Scheme, working to our goal of the NDIS supporting 500,000 Australians by 2024/25. The NDIS is a major social reform and there is much work to do to improve the delivery of these services on the ground.
Our economic team will be led by Josh Frydenberg as Treasurer and Mathias Cormann as Minister for Finance; delivering Australia’s first Budget surplus in 12 years and tax relief for hard-working Australians and their families.
They will be supported by Michaelia Cash as Minister for Employment, Skills, Small and Family Business in fulfilling our pledge to create 1.25 million more jobs over the next five years and will be supported by Steve Irons as Assistant Minister for Vocational Education, Training and Apprenticeships. Christian Porter will take on the role of Minister for Industrial Relations in addition to his duties as Attorney-General, to create fairer workplaces and enforce the rule of law through the Australian Building and Construction Commission.
The Deputy Prime Minister will continue in his role delivering our $100 billion National Infrastructure Programme, including the National Water Grid, supported by Alan Tudge, who has been promoted to Cabinet, to continue his work of congestion busting in our cities and implementing our plan for Australia’s future population.
The economic team will also be supported by Michael Sukkar as Assistant Treasurer and Minister for Housing to implement our First Home Loan Deposit Scheme, as well as more affordable housing and Jane Hume taking to the role of Assistant Minister for Superannuation, Financial Services and Financial Technology.
Karen Andrews, as Minister for Industry, Science and Technology will work closely with industry stakeholders to create more and better paid jobs in traditional and emerging industries, and to continue championing science, technology, engineering and mathematics as key career paths for women.
As the Minister for Indigenous Australians, Ken Wyatt will be focused on delivering our Closing the Gap refresh, in partnership with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders and the states and territories.
As the National Broadband Network nears full roll out and social media becomes an even more prominent front in the fight to keep Australians safe, Paul Fletcher, as Minister for Communications, Cyber Safety and the Arts brings extensive experience and insight to the task.
In social policy, Anne Ruston has been elevated to Cabinet as Minister for Family and Social Services and Luke Howarth as Assistant Minister for Community Housing, Homelessness and Community Services.
As Minister for Health, Greg Hunt will lead the charge on mental health, in particular combating youth suicide. In coming months he will lead an implementation forum of the nation’s experts to deliver on the government’s youth and Indigenous mental health initiatives.
I will also appoint a Minister for Aged Care and Senior Australians and a Minister for Youth and Sport in Richard Colbeck who will ensure there is a strong voice for the issues facing younger and older Australians, particularly as the Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety continues.
Dan Tehan, as Minister for Education, will have a laserlike focus on boosting the outcomes of Australian students, working closely with early childhood educators, states, territories and tertiary education providers.
Australia’s regions have suffered through fire and flood in recent months and David Littleproud as Minister for Water Resources, Drought, Rural Finance, Natural Disasters and Emergency Management will serve as an important voice for our regional communities at the Cabinet table. Matt Canavan as Minister for Resources and Northern Australia will continue our government’s work to support our mining and resources industries and help develop Northern Australia.
Our experienced foreign affairs and national security Ministers in Marise Payne as Minister for Foreign Affairs, former Army Reserves Brigadier Linda Reynolds as Minister for Defence, Peter Dutton as Minister for Home Affairs and Simon Birmingham as Minister for Trade, Tourism and Investment will help guide our country through the uncertain times and global economic headwinds. They will be supported by Alex Hawke as Minister for International Development and the Pacific and Assistant Minister for Defence helping drive our Pacific ‘step up’ agenda.
Sussan Ley will return to Cabinet as Minister for the Environment with a focus on practical and local environmental outcomes as well as waste reduction and recycling, assisted by Trevor Evans. Angus Taylor will continue as Minister for Energy and his portfolio will take on Emissions Reduction to ensure we have a strong focus on lowering Australians’ power bills and meeting our 2030 emissions targets. Warren Entsch will also serve as Special Envoy for the Great Barrier Reef.
After consulting with the Minister for Foreign Affairs, I intend to recommend to the Governor-General that Arthur Sinodinos be appointed Australia’s next Ambassador to the United States of America and I intend to recommend to the Governor-General that Mitch Fifield be appointed our next Ambassador to the United Nations. They would be exceptional representatives of Australia and our country’s interests abroad. Both Senators have made enormous contributions in their public service and were given the opportunity to continue their service in the Ministry and Cabinet.
My Government has a significant agenda to deliver and we are ready to get back to business. I have high expectations of my Ministry and clear goals for each of their roles.
It is important for the future of our country that we meet those goals and deliver for Australia.
Doorstop, Queensland
24 May 2019
Prime Minister, Deputy Prime Minister
PRIME MINISTER: Well it's great to be here with the Deputy PM Michael McCormack and it's great to be out here in Burke and Wills. It was tremendous to be in Cloncurry last night where I was able to meet with the North Queensland Livestock Industry Recovery Agency and to be able to speak with a lot of locals and here today at the Campdraft, it's a great opportunity to hear back from people how everything is going. We were out at Gypsy Plains this morning with Jacqueline who I introduced people at the campaign launch a little while ago, to see the transformation in the time since the dreadful floods.
A key reason for coming here today with Michael is to just remind the country that there's still a lot of work to do here. There's still a long road ahead and we've had the election and that's had a lot of focus and attention and rightly so. We’re very grateful for the tremendous support that both Michael and I and our parties have received from the Australian people, to get on with the job.
Getting on with the job means getting here. This is a job that needs to get done and the Authority is doing a terrific job rolling out what now will be $300 million worth of grants, which will be there for rebuilding, restocking, replanting, enabling people to move on and get back up on their feet. It's being supported well by organisations like QRIDA and others, where we're working in lockstep to make sure that we really just do rebuild this incredibly important industry and way of life up here in north Queensland. This is what we were elected to do; just to get back to work and get on with it. I want to thank particularly Shane Stone and all of his team and the board members and just the community, for the way that they have responded and they've got around each other. For their optimism and for their resilience and their determination.
When you come here you can only just be filled with pride and admiration for these wonderful Australians. This is such an important way of life in Australia and we're going to make sure that continues. So we'll get around a bit more today and we'll get a bit more feedback. The programme that we’ve set up here with Authority is to be listening all the time, to be responsive. Shane and his team spend an enormous amount of time on the road getting around and listening to people and making sure that our programs are hitting the mark. So far I think Michael, that’s the feedback we're getting; that it is hitting the mark. At a time when people really needed the government to be here, we have been here. Being here has been a great encouragement to people and it's enabled them to get on with the work that they've been doing.
I mean last time I was here there were carcasses on the ground, the smell was overwhelming. Those carcasses have now been disposed of, that was a brutally hard job. Now we were going to the rebuilding phase and we’ll be there for that. So that's why we're here; to listen and to monitor progress and we're here because we're back at work.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister reports this morning that three orphaned Islamic State children will soon return to Australia, can you give us an insight into what involvement the Australian Government has had in that process and what condition these children can expect when they do return?
PRIME MINISTER: No, I'm not going to get into commentary on what are very sensitive matters. These are issues that really do fall under the banner of national security in how they handled. I don't want to put at risk, or compromise the safety of anyone. I certainly won't be doing that in relation to any Australian officials or others who are engaged in these issues. It's a very sensitive matter and we'll continue to manage and manage it very carefully. It's important that we don't compromise anything.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister what's your message to the Queensland State Government on the Adani mine at the moment?
PRIME MINISTER: Get on with it. I mean regardless of who is proposing a mine or what the mine is, it just should comply with the relevant regulation and legislation, like any other project. People should have the certainty about those processes being followed and not being delayed. So that's what should happen. They have a decision to make, they're the authority on these questions and they should make those decisions.
I was talking to Prime Minister Modi last night to congratulate him on his election win. He was kindly returning the favour and India is going to be an incredibly important investment partner for Australia. It's a two way street. India will be an enormously big trading partner for Australia in the future and what does concern me, has been the commentary particularly that came from the Labor Party on this, about the concerns that it was an Indian company. I mean, what on earth has that got to do with it?
They're a company that is investing in creating jobs and they should be subject to the same rules as everybody else and treated with the same respect as anyone else.
JOURNALIST: We hear this morning that Anthony Albanese wants to split up the tax cuts that the Coalition is offering and they will agree to the first tranche but block the second. What's your response to that?
PRIME MINISTER: Well Labor haven't learned the lessons of last Saturday. I mean Bill Shorten did exactly the same thing, this is just Bill Shorten, you know, in a different shirt. I mean did he not get the message from Australians that they want a government that backs aspiration? Legislation that backs aspiration? Tax relief, we took to the Australian people. It sets out a plan over the next seven years and that's what Australians voted for on the weekend. It seems that Anthony Albanese is no different to Bill Shorten.
JOURNALIST: Just finally on a local question if I may, we heard from farmers this morning and last night that they've just suffered through floods and now they're facing the prospect of returning to drought by year's end. When will your Government introduce a comprehensive drought policy and will you keep on a drought envoy? Do you envisage that being Barnaby Joyce?
PRIME MINISTER: Well matters regarding personnel I’ll be dealing with later, but we have a comprehensive drought policy. We had the comprehensive Drought Summit and we have over $6 billion that has been committed to actually dealing with the drought. We have a Drought Fund that we tried to get through Parliament and the Labor Party opposed it. So the only Party in this country that doesn't have a drought policy, is the Labor Party – I’d add a few more actually, the Greens and a few more.
But we have a drought policy and we’ve been managing that policy, both Michael and I at the Prime Minister and Deputy Prime Minister level and right across our ministry because it affects so many different portfolios. So we'll continue on with that.
Great to be here, cheers.
Radio interview with Alan Jones, 2GB
24 May 2019
ALAN JONES: Prime Minister good morning.
PRIME MINISTER: Good morning Alan, how are you?
JONES: Listen, you might have got up on Saturday, but the team didn’t.
[Laughter]
PRIME MINISTER: Well, everybody up here in Cloncurry is pretty pleased, we were having a really great get together last night and that's where I am today. I'm out meeting with some of the station owners and the graziers and pastoralists. I’m up here with Shane Stone and the Livestock Industry Recovery Agency, just getting a bit of feedback on how their programme is going, but they've had it pretty tough up here. But they’ve been very appreciative of the way that the Government has responded and the programmes we're delivering, just to rebuild this amazing, wonderful part of Australia.
JONES: It is a beautiful place. I was there as you know recently, in Julia Creek while you were shearing sheep in Dubbo. But look, it is tough isn't it?
I'm just wondering, when you noted that an area as big as England was underwater up there - I think politics is a bit like playing football; it’s no use having possession if you can't use it. In politics, now you've got this magnificent endorsement by the public. You would know, they're saying to you now; ‘Listen we've got to harvest some water, we've got to provide cheap electricity. We need dams and coal fired power stations’. What do you say to people who are saying that to you?
PRIME MINISTER: The National Water Grid, that's what I say. That the programme we’ve got and that's going to involve building more dams of course. The programme that is running all around the country and that's what Michael heads up. We’ve already got one of the biggest ones of those, already underway up this way actually at Hughenden, that process has already begun. So that is a big part of the challenge in this term, to deliver on that national water grid and take it where it needs to go.
JONES: Just explain that, I mean that's political talk, you understand that but just explain to people out there that are suffering drought that west of the Great Dividing Range they see all this water going into the ocean in Western Australia, north west Queensland, north east Queensland, Clarence River. You’re talking about the ‘National Water Grid,’ how will that provide and guarantee certainty of water supply to areas west of the Great Dividing Range? If they've get water, they could feed Asia.
PRIME MINISTER: Well it’s dams and water infrastructure, simple as that. It’s dams and pipelines, water infrastructure throughout the country. There has been a lot of work being done by our agencies in identifying the priorities and now is the time to get on and start building it.
JONES: See, last week – the reason I'm asking, I’m not trying to put you on the spot here, you've had a hell of a six or seven weeks - but last week nine Murray Darling irrigators launched a $750 million class action in the New South Wales Supreme Court, accusing the Murray Darling Basin Authority of grossly negligent mismanagement causing them economic loss. Basically, this is this release of water for “environmental flows” taking water from farmers, such that the government water buybacks now are about 13 billion or ‘thirteen thousand million dollars.’ The farmers have been deprived of their water. Now they're saying - and I'm saying too I think - that water management in this country is a disgrace. Something has got to be done about this, isn't it?
PRIME MINISTER: Well the Murray Darling Basin Plan is a very complicated arrangement.
JONES: Yes it is.
PRIME MINISTER: It’s the only arrangement we have and it’s finely balanced between the interests of a whole range of stakeholders and four different states. It has a bit of the balloon about it; you push it in one direction and it pops out the other. So it isn't just a simple matter of being able to turn the tap on and everyone does Ok, particularly in drought. So it is a very complicated issue, but it's not one that I'm about to go and rip up and throw away, without understanding what all the full consequences of that are. At the moment, the consequences of doing something like that could be absolutely diabolical for everyone. So we're going to continue, we have to continue to improve these things Alan, but at the same time we can't be reckless about it. We've got to be careful not to be sentimental about it. There are a lot of people's livelihoods - and I've spoken to those farmers down there on the Murray where they've got a different set of challenges to those who are further down, where you get into South Australia and then there's the issues up in Queensland. So there's a lot of competing interests and it's just not a simple issue.
JONES: Not but you see, what I suppose I’m saying to you, is that if outfits like Libya - and we used to laugh at Colonel Gaddafi and they said you know, he was hopeless - but if Libya can water Tripoli and Benghazi from the desert by building pipelines which shift water, why can't we?
PRIME MINISTER: Well of course we can Alan and that's what the National Water Grid programme is all about. That's what we've got the opportunity to really make a lot of headway on in this term and it’s something that Michael McCormack and I will be pushing very strongly to achieve.
I had all the public servants together yesterday in Canberra and told them a couple of important things. One is, their job is not just to do the big things well, but do the little things well, the things that people rely on; returning the phone calls, making sure their services are being delivered, make sure the payments turn up on time.
JONES: Good on you.
PRIME MINISTER: All of those sorts of things, but when it comes to the big things it's about getting these big projects actually happening. I told you and I talked a lot in the campaign about congestion-busting infrastructure. I want a bit of bureaucracy congestion-busting too when it comes to getting a lot of these things going. That's important for investors who want to invest in Australia and it’s future, but it's also important to get these projects delivered on the ground, whether it's the National Water Grid or whether it's the East West Link or whether it's the Rail Link out there into the Western Sydney Airport.
All of this is important. I'm just keen to get off on the right foot and make sure that these things are being delivered on the ground. No shortage of things to do, but we’re up here in north west Queensland and we've got $300 million that are going into this region in grants - not loans - in grants, which is going to restock, rebuild and replant all the way across north western Queensland. There's still an enormous amount of work to do. I mean basically the topsoil is gone and that means a lot of the green you're seeing up here, isn't the sort of green you want, it's not of the quality that you want to see. So there’s a long way to go and there's a lot of rebuilding, but that's going to happen in partnership. With the feedback I had last night at the Cloncurry Bowls Club - which is a pretty good litmus test I’ve got to tell you, there was a lot of people there last night, I think the whole district had come together - they were really pleased with the way that all government agencies are working together and the way the banks are working in as well. So there's a lot of positivity despite the hardship and despite the challenge. So it's a matter of maintaining that into the future.
So I'm very proud of people in north west Queensland. They are incredibly resilient, I'm very proud of the work that Shane and the Livestock Industry Recovery Agency is doing up here. It's breaking through all the bureaucratic rubbish. They report directly to me and they're getting things done.
JONES: Good on you. Look, I can't possibly articulate - and I hope you've gained this response as well - but what has happened since Saturday night is quite unbelievable. The level of hope and relief amongst Australians worldwide and Australia-wide and the sense of gratitude that they feel towards you for the campaign that you mounted, that you ran and that you won, that gratitude is unbelievable. There are people listening to me who would be glad that I'm talking to you. On their behalf, wanting to say thank you a million times. It's just, people feel as though they've taken their country back and you talked about the quiet Australians. I said before the election; ‘Look I know that you're frightened to speak, you don't answer polls, you've just got a piece of paper and a pencil on Saturday - go in and mark it for Australia’. They did it and they're deeply grateful to you, you must understand that.
PRIME MINISTER: Well that’s very kind Alan I want to thank all your listeners for that. I have had, well, it’s been quite overwhelming frankly, since Saturday night for Jenny and I've. It's lovely what they've said about Jenny too. The whole country loves her almost as much as I do, almost as much as I do.
[Laughter]
She’s isn’t here with me sadly, she’d be taking the kids to school.
JONES: Taking the kids to school, Ok. Now stay away from the barbecue, because you’re a crook cook.
[Laughter]
Now listen, travel safely and we'll talk to you again soon.
PRIME MINISTER: Thank you Alan.
Interview with Paul Murray, Sky News
20 May 2019
PAUL MURRAY: Prime Minister congratulations.
PRIME MINISTER: Thanks Paul, it's great to be back at work.
MURRAY: And that's it – straight in, straight away, no days off, you’re back here. Why did you win?
PRIME MINISTER: Because of, I've called them quiet Australians. They’re just Australians going about their lives every day, and decided that their job, their economic future, the choices they wanted to make, were more important. My pitch to them was; ‘I think your choices and what you want to do with your life, is also more important’. The Government should be there to provide support the essential services the NDIS, the health and hospitals, schools. But ultimately Australians need to be the ones who make the choices about their lives and not have those made by governments.
So I said, this idea of; ‘Give us all your money and we’ll solve all your problems,’ I don't think Australians agree with that and I think that's what they said on Saturday. So very much that’s what it was about, about them, I think, saying; ‘Our choices are the ones that are important, not those that people want to make for us.’
MURRAY: Who is a quiet Australian? What's an example of one that either you know in your life, you met on the campaign trail, who do you mean when you say quiet Australians?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, so many Australians and they're so diverse. It's the mum who is raising young kids and caring for an elderly parent and the whole family is looking to them and it's all on them. They haven't got time for anything else and certainly not themselves, because they're just constantly serving everyone else all the time. It's the family who has got a small business that their parents started and they've inherited it. On a property out there in rural Australia, the next generation or the generation after that, on the land. It’s dads going to work every day, coming home and greeting their kids and just wanting that little bit more time with them that they don't get at the moment, because they're working hard. They've got things they're paying for and mums doing exactly the same thing. It's also young people, starting an apprenticeship. Gav was a bloke I met up at Purcell Engineering in Gladstone and I said; ‘So how long have you been working here?’ And he said; ‘It’s just four years.’ I said: ‘Have you got an apprenticeship?’ He said; ‘Yep.’ I said; ‘Have you got long to go?’ He said; ‘Six months’ and he had his job there when he finishes. He's a quiet Australian. It's disabled Australians and their families and their carers and others, who just want to go. To be able to try and live life like everyone else. So the stories are myriad, migrant families, you know. In this election, I think one of the reasons seats like Banks and indeed Chisholm, seats like Reid, these are highly multicultural community seats. The thing about migrant communities I believe, is they're aspirational. They didn't come here to take something. They came here to give something, to make a contribution with their lives and set up opportunities for their kids. So we were talking to them about keeping more of what they earn, investing in the essential services, keeping our immigration system with integrity which they have benefited from and want to see others do, but in the right way. Speaking to the aspirations of Australians. It's every Australian, I suppose.
MURRAY: I love saying this; the pundits, the bookies, the polls, the psychic animals, were all wrong.
[Laughter]
What did they not see? I mean there were those of us that did see, but what did that wider class not see?
PRIME MINISTER: Well the bubble certainly popped on Saturday night. But it didn't for most other Australians. I mean so many Australians we just talked about, the quiet ones, they're not that engaged in politics all the time, they're not looking for the government to come and tell them how they should live their lives.
So there are some I think, who have that view and they're entitled to that, that's fine and what a lot of what the debate was about, was those sorts of issues. But you know, I had a very clear job to do when I took over the prime ministership last year. I knew that we'd been doing good things as a government, but people were frustrated with what had happened in terms of changing of leaders and all those sorts of things. People were rightly pretty peeved about that and they wanted to be assured that that wasn't going to happen again. That's why I moved fairly quickly to ensure that for our Party that that wouldn't happen again. That was important. But when it came to it, there was a clear path to us being able to win this election. It was a very narrow one. It was a bit like walking along the edge of a razorblade for eight months, it required the discipline of the whole team. So I think when people could see just how disciplined our team had been over that eight months and how much we’d worked together - and there were quite a few setbacks along the way - I think as we have begun, so we will continue.
Now with this fresh opportunity at this election, you know, I was meeting with my leadership team earlier today and we were talking it through. You know, we're all back at work today of course. It was that sense of discipline and unity we've all been able to have again. It’s filling us with a lot of enthusiasm about having been able to get to this election and be successful. Look what we can do now, as a united, stable team.
MURRAY: This is it. I mean look, I always love that the day after the election, we’re the very same people who the day before the election were; ‘This is going to happen because of this issue, this issue, this issue.’ Then when it works out differently, well, now; ‘It's all about this this and this’. I think it's 100 per cent what you identify as the quiet Australians wanting to be left to build the best life for themselves.
PRIME MINISTER: So they don't want; ‘A pay rise, but someone else has to lose their job’. That's not what they want. They don't want these, what John Howard called, class wars. Today they don't want to see those divisions. I think a key point is wanting Australians to disagree better on a lot of these issues as I've said on a number of occasions. It was a victory for the quiet Australians, not for the Liberal Party or me personally. It wasn't actually about politics, it was about them sending a very clear message that; ‘We want to remain in control of our lives’.
So those out on the extremes of politics I think will try and verbal what has happened quite a bit. I won't be allowing that to happen. I think at this election I've been able to connect with Australians in a very personal and special way and it's very humbling. For Jenny and I, it was the same for my colleagues, they shared their aspirations with us and said; ‘We trust you with them, so get back to work and make it happen’.
MURRAY: And certainly in that last week I've noticed an awful lot; ‘I'm not going to be distracted, I'm not going to be distracted, I'm not going to be distracted’.
PRIME MINISTER: Yep.
MURRAY: Now that you have this majority government, now that you have a clean three years leadership rules have changed, personalities have changed - those that have either lost their seats in Tony Abbott or those that bailed and either helped a bit or didn't help at all - but you, when you walk back into that Party Room see a very different picture than the one you had to manage in the last little while. What is your message to them, about how to interpret this election?
PRIME MINISTER: Well it's the same as I've just said. But importantly, from that time when I took over the leadership last year, I said; ‘You've elected me to lead now, now follow please’. And they have. My style of leadership, to keep people together, is not to run off to the left and run off to the right and seek to placate. Just to let them know very clearly where I stand, where they're all welcome to join me. That has been my approach over the last eight and a half months, it’s not in any way to say what my Party is, which is a very broad church. That's fine, that's okay. Different perspectives, different walks of life, that's actually what makes the place vibrant.
But when it comes to the centre of our Government, that's where we all meet. That's where we all combine. That's why it's important for me I think, as the leader and as Prime Minister, is to hold that middle ground and ensure that’s where the direction of government remains. As I've begun, so I will continue. As I said in my last address to the Press Club before the election, that I really did burn for this opportunity to just continue to serve in the way we have. So continuing to bring the Party back to those core ‘whys’.
I mean, we had we had been a very competent Government. We were good managers. You know, we were there with the calculators and the competency and I think, like engineers. Fantastic. But what Australians were saying to us I think, was; ‘Tell me a bit more about the why you want to do that’. And I've spent the last eight and a half months doing that. About what fires me up? Why we want to cut taxes? Because we want people to keep more of what they earn, because we believe their money is better off in their pocket, with their decisions rather than that. You know, higher taxes means we think the government knows what to do better with your money, than you. That's just a fundamental philosophy I have.
So tax is not just for accountants, it's for everybody. Because it tells people who the government trusts.
I said before the election; I trust you, I back you, that's why I'm asking you to back me and they did. It's a very humbling thing and so that's why I think now, Australians just want the politicians that go back to work. They don’t want to see the ads for a while.
MURRAY: Just shut up for a while.
PRIME MINISTER: Yeah just; ‘Go and do your jobs. We're going to go and do ours’. That's exactly what I'm going to do. There's a lot of work to do and we're getting about it straight away. We hope to convene the Parliament again as soon as we can. We obviously have to wait for the writs to be returned and there's a formal process for that at the moment. That's not looking until very late into the back end of June. So that really does make very narrow that opportunity to do it before the 30th of June. I think that's very unlikely, with the advice I've received. But on top of that, there's a minister to swear in and we'll be doing that in due course, I’m not making any rushed judgement there. There are other issues to determine before that, the counts have to be finalized. We’ve got to respect that process. So we're back at work, but we're not in a hurry on a lot of these decisions. We'll make them in the patient, steady way that I think people have sort of come to expect from me.
MURRAY: Is tax and tax cuts, because of that timeline, the first thing you have to do in the Parliament?
PRIME MINISTER: Yes. Yes and there are also some administrative things that we can do which we're taking advice on now, to ensure that that becomes effective particularly for those that kick in on the 1st of July, pretty much to ensure that is achieved. But that is it because at the end of the day, that's really what the election was all about. Not in terms of the technical issue of the tax cuts, but that's my way of saying; ‘I said I trusted you’. That's the piece of legislation which says I trust you with your own money, I want you to have more of it. That's what speaks to aspiration.
There are so many more things. There’s setting up of course the Home Loan Deposit Guarantee with the National Housing Finance and Investment Corporation. You know my commitment to the NDIS and I know people's frustrations with that. We will be I'll be working on that, I just had a meeting about it now before this interview. The issues around youth mental health and getting that programme of combating youth suicide and getting those individuals together. I've already been talking to the head of the North Queensland Livestock Recovery Agency and making sure that the work that we set in train there before the election is hitting the ground and the way we need it. So the drought and the floods still very much foremost in my mind.
MURRAY: Of all of the strange things that are the unique experience of being the Prime Minister on election night; is there a sound, a smell, a word, a hug that you can instantly remember and is going to sear in as a great moment from that night?
PRIME MINISTER: Oh it was the hugs with the girls and Jenny and soon after I walked down from the stage I saw my father in a wheelchair, I hadn’t seen my father in a wheelchair before. He's quite a immobile now, but to see him there, I mean he was my inspiration firstly for entering politics, he was a local mayor and local councilor. From Dad I always got the truism of politics that all politics is local, unless you're making a difference to people on the ground, then what's the point. The overwhelming feeling I had on that night was, in the campaign there was a lot of talk about Australia and a lot of negative views about where Australia was at. But I believed absolutely that Australians always believe Australia is the best country in which to live. Now I’ve gotta say; ‘How good is Australia?’ That's how people feel about it. Sure, they always want it to be better, that's why it is so good. Just because people want it to be better, doesn't mean they think it’s bad.
MURRAY: Correct.
PRIME MINISTER: It means they have always have aspirations to make it better. I believe at the election, that's what I was seeking to connect with. Whether it was J-Rod down in Launceston, who was one of the most champion people I met during the campaign. He’d be a local legend there forever now. But there was another bloke I remember, I talked to you about Johnsy at Sporties down at Launceston.
MURRAY: Was that the mullet?
PRIME MINISTER: No, J-Rod was the bloke with the mullet. There may well be a secret section now in the Australian honours list for the best mullets in Australia.
[Laughter]
But so, John is a tough teacher, he's a builder teaching young kids their trade. He's got young kids and there he is, making his life in regional Australia. Legend at his local footy club, ruckman in his 30s, wants to play into his late 30s I said well, Gal mate, he’s playing and he’s thirty nine. That club atmosphere, that was one of the nicest nights of the campaign. I enjoyed it quite a lot actually, they had to drag us out, because that was just regional Australia at it’s finest.
MURRAY: Amazing and you’ve got a newfound penchant for bingo calling?
[Laughter]
Apparently something I wasn't aware of but Ok, if you’re into that. Also I've got to say congratulations; I think you're the first Prime Minister to be cheered at the footy in a very long time. That must have been weird? The footy team you've loved for a long time at the home ground, they gave you a shout.
PRIME MINISTER: Well, it was special. I want to thank them for the shout out down there and for the announcement and the crowd response. It was very nice, particularly as also we left that night and people were lining the sides of where we were leaving. That was a pretty special moment, because as I said yesterday before I went to church with Jen; my local home community is everything. So many of the values of my local community are what I try and bring to the job. Whether it was the job of the Immigration Minister or Social Services, as the Treasurer or indeed Prime Minister, it's the it's the values of my community that I love so much and they’ve backed me so strongly, over so many years. It was nice to be home yesterday and to be able to spend that time with my home community
MURRAY: Alright final question, there is an awful lot of new blood that enters the Parliament and there's a lot of impressive young women who are joining the party from day one.
PRIME MINISTER: Yeah, we’ve got Dr Katie Allen who has come in, Dr Fiona Martin and Professor Celia Hammond and Angie Bell up there in Moncrieff, we've got some great women. Then you've got Nicolle Flint who's done a great job down there in south Aus and I mean, she had the weight and might GetUp! and the unions against her. I always get quite puzzled, I mean it's okay for Getup! and it's okay for the unions to spend large amounts of money attacking and harassing the Liberal Party or the Nationals, but if anyone else does it, apparently it's a travesty to democracy. But you know, elections are keenly contested. I’ve got to say I think there was an element in this campaign - and I think Bill mentioned it as well - there was an element in this campaign that I wouldn't like to see ever again. There was some real nastiness and it was mainly done by, I would say, those outside the major parties.
MURRAY: Yep.
PRIME MINISTER: It was the third party activists and things like this that I found a bit distasteful.
MURRAY: Well even last night, there was a One Nation van that was set on fire apparently, by someone to do with the Greens.
PRIME MINISTER: Yeah. This is, you know, I think not Australian.
MURRAY: Agreed.
PRIME MINISTER: I would hope that – look, I’ll make this point. We must disagree better. It’ll be my job as the Prime Minister over the next three years to try and lead that discussion in a better way; that we can disagree on things, but at the same time be able to work together. That's certainly as I said the day I became Prime Minister, I want to keep the economy strong to guarantee those essentials, I said I want to keep Australians safe, but I want to keep Australians together. Because when we're together we're strongest. And when my Party which has come together, we've shown that's when we're our best.
So we start this term I think, full of full of juice, full of energy, with a refreshed mandate for the Australian people. We said what we're going to do in the Budget, we laid it out all. That's what we're going to do, people know what we're going to do.
So we're just going to get about it and everyone else can get back to work and go back to the footy or go back to their families and focus on what's important to them. I'll make sure I'm looking after the things that are important to them from the government
MURRAY: PM, congratulations. Thank you for being so available to us during the campaign, we look forward to that in the next little while and well, nothing is inevitable
PRIME MINISTER: Good on you Paul.
Radio interview with Alan Jones, 2GB
20 May 2019
ALAN JONES: The Prime Minister of Australia, good morning to you. I don’t know what to say to you, is congratulations enough?
PRIME MINISTER: It's a very humbling thing Alan. As you know for anyone to be elected as Prime Minister in this country, it’s a great honour. It's a very humbling experience and it's one that has just got me very focused on the job ahead. Getting back to work this morning and getting about the task.
JONES: You spoke - look I'm speaking on behalf of millions of Australians and I don't care if I embarrass you - you spoke splendidly on Saturday night. Absolutely splendidly, off the cuff, no script, away you went. That was after I might add, you didn't do too badly at bowls I see.
[Laughter]
You did all right. I thought the drop kick wasn't too bad. I thought the soccer goal was quite fair. You're a pretty crook chef but you seem to do Ok. And you had said to me last thing on Friday, what did you say? The Sharkies what?
PRIME MINISTER: The Sharks always find a way to win.
JONES: They didn't!
PRIME MINISTER: They didn't on Sunday actually, I was there, but it was that same spirit on Saturday night.
JONES: Yeah, it's very refreshing isn't it, to know that the public when pushed to the limit are capable of making their own judgments?
PRIME MINISTER: Well this is what I was talking about on Saturday night. This wasn't about me or the Liberal and National parties, it was about quiet Australians as I referred to them, just out there, saying; ‘We just want you to do your job. We'll go and keep doing ours. There are some things we want you to focus on and you've talked about those and we appreciate that. Lower taxes, ensuring we're investing in the hospitals and services and just taking action on the things we need to. But we don't want to have this sort of country where we try and hold some people down, to lift other people up. We don't want to set people against each other. We don't want to have that politics of division.’
Today as we know, we start out again, the Government in our third term. I think they just want to see us get back to work. They don't want to see politics in their face or anything like that. They’ve had their say they've made their decision. Now they expect us to get on with it so they can get on with their lives.
That's what the quiet Australia have said and I’m going to honour that.
JONES: Yes, I know you will. By the way this success derives significantly from your capacity to prosecute the case in very simple language. But at the same time, even when it came to the debates we were told you were beaten in every one of them. I just wonder what exactly what the agenda was there. You're going to have to contend now with a very powerful -
PRIME MINISTER: Well, one thing about that. John Howard reminded me over the course of the campaign, he said; ‘I only won one debate, in 1996, the second one’.
JONES: I know.
PRIME MINISTER: And he served as our second-longest prime minister. So it’s interesting, in the campaign, what people think are ‘the’ things.
JONES: Yes, I mean the left haven't finished though. They've told everyone that they're ‘morons’ now for voting for Morrison. The stuff out there… are you confident you've got this job to bring people back to the fold? There was some ugly stuff in relation to many of your candidates, I mean Greg Hunt copped it. Andrew Hastie copped it. Tony Abbott copped it. Josh Frydenberg copped it.
We've got to do better though, haven't we in terms of conducting elections in a civilised way? It's easy to disagree that's fine, but you don't have to do that violently, do you?
PRIME MINISTER: We've got to disagree better Alan. I gave a speech before the election down at the Australia-Israel Chamber of Commerce and I made this point. Yeah, we can disagree about many things, we all have different views. I heard your introduction just coming into this interview; you know, we're all sort of ‘biased’ one way or the other, because we all have a view about things one way or the other.
JONES: Yeah absolutely.
PRIME MINISTER: But that doesn't mean it that justifies the sort of impolite at best and at worst, quite violent behavior we've seen. One of the reasons I've been so outraged by the farmers’ properties being invaded, is because it’s the most extreme version of that. I mean Ok; you've got a different view about being a vegan. I've got nothing against vegans, that's fine. Everybody make your own choices. But just because you think that, it doesn't give you a right to disrespect others and to go and charge onto someone else's farm.
I remember I was out at Dubbo with Michael McCormack, we were announcing one of our Ag policies and I’ve come across this rather disturbing statistic, which said that 40 per cent of primary and secondary school kids, believe farmers were harming the environment.
JONES: Right, right.
PRIME MINISTER: I just went; ‘What is going on?’
JONES: Well, it’s happening in your classrooms.
PRIME MINISTER: Yeah, so ensuring that we teach everyone –
JONES: You would be staggered - I mean you're too busy - but you would be staggered if you saw my correspondence in relation to what is happening in university lecture theatres, I can tell you. But you and I and everybody, we are the subject. No academia, we are the subject. We are and the things that are said about you in the lecture theatres of Sydney University and about me, are unprintable, unprintable.
PRIME MINISTER: Well the personalities have got to come out of it. There are legitimate debates to be had and we prosecute those. But I think, that discourse of civility. We're a great country and we're good people and we really do like each other. We all come together around many things and it's usually sport, but it'd be good to come together around a lot more and when we do disagree, that we just do it in a more Australian way.
JONES: Can I ask you one difficult question or two.
PRIME MINISTER: Sure.
JONES: Will you be building a dam and harvesting water?
PRIME MINISTER: Well I was talking to Bob Katter yesterday and we’re already building one with Bob up in Hughenden. We've got that major water fund which I want to see us actually get on and do some things with. I mean, we've had it there for a while. It was under administration there and there wasn't too many dams being built. Michael and I are very keen to see that agenda prosecuted.
JONES: And you’ve heard Barnaby Joyce nominate the number of families who have had their power disconnected, because they can't afford the bill? We need coal fired power, are you going to give a commitment to that?
PRIME MINISTER: Well Alan, we set out all our energy policies at the election, that's what I'm going to do. I mean, it included a continuation of coal fired power as part of the baseload power in Australia, it also included hydro, it included gas, it includes all of these all around the country. So there's no change to our policies there. What I took to the election, is what I'm going to do.
JONES: Are you going to get a rest between now and cranking it up again?
[Laughter]
PRIME MINISTER: Unlikely, but you know me I've always got plenty of energy. The Australian people as I said last week and on the night; they really do find me up. I was down as we're leaving the Sharks game last night - which was a bit disappointing on the result, but it was lovely to have the reception from the local crowd there - they were lining the sides of the street as I left. They gave me a good cheerio and I really thank them for that. That was a very special moment with my local community.
JONES: Well people are very grateful to you. Proud yes, but very grateful. Because the economic suicide note was written, but you managed to rip it up.
PRIME MINISTER: Well Alan, there weren’t too many people eight months ago who thought this was achievable .
JONES: No!
PRIME MINISTER: You one of them.
JONES: Thank you. I was sure it was.
PRIME MINISTER: There were others like Paul Murray and a few others who did understand that.
JONES: Yes! I used to send this bloke texts to say; ‘You can win this!’
[Laughter]
PRIME MINISTER: And you educated me about Winx.
JONES: I did.
[Laughter]
PRIME MINISTER: Didn't know much about Winx eight months ago, didn’t know much about the horses but now –
[Laughter]
JONES: It’s become a metaphor, a metaphor for the occasion. Good on you, you go, well done. Congratulations, very proud of you.
PRIME MINISTER: Thanks a lot Alan and thanks to all your listeners and to all those who were out there supporting us on the weekend. Now, we’re going to govern for everybody.
Terrorist attacks in Sri Lanka
22 April 2019
Prime Minister, Minister for Foreign Affairs
Australia is deeply shocked and saddened by the horrific terrorist attacks in Sri Lanka.
Sadly our High Commission in Colombo has today confirmed that two Australians were killed in these attacks, and two Australians have been injured.
Our hearts go out to their family and friends at this very difficult time. Out of respect for the privacy of the family, we will not provide any further comment at this time.
We have both been in contact with our counterparts, Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe and Foreign Minister Tilak Marapana, today to convey Australia’s deepest condolences and to offer any support that they may require.
Australia stands with the people of Sri Lanka as they continue to come to terms with this senseless and barbaric attack. The Australian Government utterly condemns all acts of terrorism and violence.
The Department of Foreign Affairs has updated its travel advice to Sri Lanka to “Reconsider your need to travel”. Travellers are encouraged to go smartraveller.gov.au for the latest information and advice.
Media Statement - Sri Lanka
21 April 2019
The Australian Government condemns these further terrorist attacks that we’ve seen, bombings in Sri Lanka of Christians as they went to worship on Easter Sunday and bombings in hotels, all coordinated as part of a deadly terrorist attack.
Sri Lanka hasn’t seen this form of violence since 2009 when the hostilities ceased in that country and there are many Australians who are regularly travelling in Sri Lanka. Our mission in Colombo will be following through on the safety of those Australians. I would encourage any Australians who have any information about their family or their friends who may be travelling in that area or who are seeking further information, to call the 1300 555 135 number and pass that information on to them.
We’ve been in contact with our mission staff in Sri Lanka and been able to confirm their safety. But as I said, there are many Australians who do travel in this area and the information that is coming out of Sri Lanka is very confused at this point, as you’d expect it to be after such an horrific incident. But there are reports of 138 deceased and over 400 injured.
As the day passes and the night passes, as we move into the next few days I’m sure the information will become even more sickeningly real. The devastating nature of this horrific attack on innocent lives simply going about their day, going to worship on the holiest of days on the Christian calendar, is just absolutely devastating.
So I reach out particularly to our Sri Lankan community here in Australia and I know they will be feeling it very deeply. To the beautiful people of Sri Lanka, Australia sends its heartfelt sympathies and our prayers and our support - and our offer to do whatever we can to support you in this terrible time of need. The information at this stage is just too inconclusive to provide further details. But as further details are received, obviously we’ll be looking at them carefully. I’m being kept up to date regularly on events, particularly as they may apply to Australians who may be in the area. I’ve ensured that the Leader of the Opposition has been fully briefed also this evening, we’ll be keeping them advised of developments as they proceed.
But at this time, at this time as Easter Sunday draws to a conclusion here in Australia, our heart goes out to those Christians and all of those other innocents who have been slaughtered today in this horrific terrorist attack. We still don’t know what or who was responsible for this or what their motivation was, but we do know that innocent lives have been stolen once again. Our heartfelt sympathies go out to all of those who are bereaved tonight, us included as we just share their sorrow.
Thank you.
Boosting health services in Tasmania
10 April 2019
Prime Minister, Minister for Health
The Morrison Government is investing almost $92 million to support better health care for all Tasmanians, improving waiting times for elective surgery, boosting mental health and maternity services and increasing cancer diagnosis scans.
The Tasmanian Health Plan also provides greater support for Tasmanians in rural and remote locations while increasing a wide range of vital services, from GPs to hospital care and specialist health services.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison said this investment would improve the health of all Tasmanians.
“Our strong economic management means we can provide record investment in Medicare, public hospitals and medicines, delivering more doctors, more nurses and more services to Tasmanians.”
“We can deliver this record investment in health without raising taxes for hard-working Tasmanians.
“We will invest $34.7 million to reduce surgical waiting times by providing an additional 6,000 surgeries and endoscopies and for primary care support for Tasmanians in rural and remote locations through TazReach.”
$10 million will support the Menzies Multiple Sclerosis Flagship Program to improve the quality of life for the more than 25,000 Australians living with MS by conducting research into cures and prevention of the disease.
$10 million will be invested in a new residential eating disorder clinic in Hobart, to provide in-patient specialist care for people experiencing eating disorders.
Health Minister Greg Hunt said around one million Australians live with an eating disorder, which is a complex condition with a high mortality rate.
“This treatment option will be an Australian first, providing diagnosis and treatment of eating disorders across the state, through training, education and advocacy,” Minister Hunt said.
“Eating disorder patients will also benefit from our historic decision to provide Medicare benefits for up to 40 psychological and 20 dietetic sessions per person per year.”
$10.5 million will be provided for a new walk-in mental health centre in Launceston, providing an environment where people can receive psychological, counselling or other mental health services without a prior appointment.
The centre will cater for people in crisis as well as those at risk, providing an alternative to the hospital emergency department.
$3 million will fund two new diagnostic mammography units, one in Hobart and one in Launceston.
These new machines will ensure that Tasmanian women do not have to wait to obtain x-rays to check their breasts for cancer. Earlier diagnosis and treatment of breast cancer can save lives, especially for women over 40.
A further $400,000 will support upgrades to new birthing suites in Launceston General Hospital to better support women giving birth.
In Tasmania, funding for public hospitals will increase from $425 million a year (2018-19) to $525 million (2024-25) under a new agreement with the Tasmanian Government, which has primary responsibility for public hospitals.
This is in addition to the $730.4 million we provided to support Mersey Community Hospital.
Our Tasmanian Health Plan will result in new health initiatives, new infrastructure and new medical research, with real benefits for the people across Tasmania.
Radio interview, LAFM
10 April 2019
ROB FAIRS: It’s wonderful to welcome the Prime Minister Scott Morrison live in the studio. Welcome to the programme how are you doing?
PRIME MINISTER: I’m doing great Fairsy and thanks for having us in here today. It’s great to be back in Launie.
FAIRS: It’s nice to see you down here. Let me ask you off the top, hey, you’ve really got in and met some of the locals, including I believe one of my favourite places, Sporties last night? Is that true?
PRIME MINISTER: Yeah, we were at Sporties last night with Johnsy who cleaned me up on the pool table, he’s a bit of a local legend there as I understand. It was great to spend some time there last night, just chatting with people with Bridget Archer, our Liberal candidate here in Bass. But I also got down to do my laps yesterday at the Launceston Aquatic Centre and so a big cheer to all the kids out there at the South Esk Swimming Club, the national swimming club of the year back in 2015, they proudly proclaimed. So it was nice to meet all of them, you guys keep swimming. A lot of local champions down there at that pool.
FAIRS: Ariarne Titmus of course, a Tasmanian local really kicking serious backside nationally and internationally too now, which is wonderful. Alright Prime Minister, there’s a lot to get through and I know your time is tight and I really appreciate you popping in.
But let’s start off with Bass, starting off with Bass because obviously to retain power this is one of the seats that you’re going to have to win. A recent poll showed it was neck-and-neck, so that gives you a lot of heart. Announcement-wise with the election, May 18 is being thrown around. Now that’s going to put me out because that’s when my charity fundraiser is. So thank you with that today, but is that the date that you’ve decided on?
PRIME MINISTER: People won’t have to wait too long to find out. But obviously, there were three dates, the 11th, 18th and 25th and those options are now narrowing, so I don’t think people will have to wait too much longer. Yeah, the election will be in May and we’ll call that in the not too distant future.
But here in Bass, I mean, the number one stand-out reason for supporting us here is Bridget Archer. She is a first-class candidate, she has been great over there as a local Mayor and I think that she’s really going to bring a lot to the job. She’s got a great heart and passion, she’s a mum raising a lot of kids. She’s really juggling and doing it all and I’m just thrilled to have her in my team. But we’re backing her up with great policies. The thing I love about coming down to Launceston more recently, particularly over the last few years, has been just how positive people are. I mean the northern Tasmanian economy has really, really turned around.
FAIRS: Yes.
PRIME MINISTER: And you can just feel it. I mean just talking to people at Sporties last night, talking to local tradies, talking to people in the building and civil construction industry. I met a couple last night that has moved down from Melbourne, they’re working down here and I’m sure they’ll start a family here. These are the choices people are making about northern Tasmania and what is making it happen is the strength of the economy and the great partnership I think, that we’ve formed here with Will Hodgman. The State Government, the Commonwealth Government, working together to get people into trades, to get the projects moving. We’ve got to keep this going and I just found the optimism here the last few years, coming down here, intoxicating. It’s tremendous.
FAIRS: I totally agree with you Prime Minister on that for sure. There are a lot of concerns as we know, health being one of them. Now you’re announcing or going to announce today I believe, a $92 million package?
PRIME MINISTER: Yeah that’s right. It’s going to focus on elective surgery, it’s going to focus on mental health care, maternity services, breast cancer diagnoses. These are the priority issues and its’s a range of initiatives. A new birthing suite here at the Launceston Hospital, further across the north we’ve got a new linear accelerator machine at Burnie, that’s so breast cancer patients will save $1,500 on MRIs and PET scans that are now covered by Medicare. We’ve got $4.5 million going into cancer infrastructure. We’ve got an additional 6,000 surgeries and endoscopies that are going to be provided under a $20 million services and infrastructure plan. There’s going to be here a new adult mental health centre here in Launceston and mental health is a huge priority for me. Many people will know in the Budget - and if you didn’t then this will be good news for you - $461 million is being invested in tackling youth suicide and the youth mental health challenge in this country. It’s the biggest package of measures a Government has ever handed down to really take on these issues.
Greg Hunt is here with me today in Launceston and he’s really been championing that cause. More Headspace centres around the country, we made announcements last year for more Headspace centres and we do know that turns things around for young people. So we’re going to keep investing in the mental health of our nation, starting with our youngest, but all the way through. As I said, a mental health centre here and we’re also going to have one treating eating disorders, which is another priority. I mean, I’m a parent and what parent with kids going into teenage years - or even sadly sooner now - isn’t that just your worst nightmare? So together, we can confront all that.
But you can’t do it unless you’ve got a strong economy and that’s what is so exciting about northern Tasmania. It’s economy is going forward and we’ve got to keep that going.
FAIRS: Prime Minister, one thing, looking at this in a nutshell; aged care. We’re an ageing population, it’s a sector that I believe from personal experience is drastically underfunded. There is so much that needs to be done there and well, what about that? I mean, are there plans in place for that or are we focusing on that?
PRIME MINISTER: The Government has been putting a $1 billion extra into aged care every single year, $1 billion extra. We do have an ageing population and a priority for us particularly over the last 18 months has been has been in-home care places.
Now we’ve put in another 40,000, including the most recent announcement in the Budget, for in-home care places. What that does is two things; the first thing it does is preserve the choices of Australians as they age. They can stay at home. That’s where so many of them want to choose to be so you can be there for the grandkids birthdays, you know, people can still come round, you can stay in touch with your friends, be in your community. This is what people want and we’re doing that with the in-home care places. We’ll continue to invest $1 billion every year.
Of course there’s the Aged Care Royal Commission that I announced last year and that is to confront the challenges that we do have in the aged care system and we need to build that culture of respect for older Australians, not just in our aged care system but more broadly.
FAIRS: Prime Minister, cost of living. In a recent poll, it’s come out on top as the key election issue. It’s a massive problem and down here a lot of Tasmanians are struggling, battling to make ends meet and it’s getting worse and worse. I notice, one of your ideas and plans was a feasibility study in the Basslink Connector for example, with the Battery of Nation type scenario. So with investment like that, is this something where that sort of thing can turn around and become cheaper and stuff? But that’s a long way off, what about Tasmanians that are battling today?
PRIME MINISTER: Tax cuts, that’s what. We’ve already legislated our first tranche last year and we’ve taken more tax cuts for this year. I mean NATSEM the independent economic modeller has already said that someone on average full time wage will be $1,000 better off under our plan, than under Labor’s plan.
We believe that people should keep more of what they earn. Labor believes they should increase taxes by $200bn over the next 10 years.
Then there’s their emissions reduction policies that they can’t even explain, about how much that will increase costs. If Bill Shorten can’t tell you what his vehicle emissions standards - his car tax - is going to cost you, for the car that he’s going to make you buy, then don’t vote for him. If he can’t explain it, if he doesn’t understand it, how does he expect you to understand it? And he wants you to vote for him.
On cost of living issues, because of Labor’s reckless emissions targets - I mean, we’ve got our target, it’s 26 per cent and we’ll meet it just like we met our Kyoto 2020, we take this issue seriously. But Bill’s policy, he can’t even explain what it’s going to cost you. I mean in that policy, businesses are going to have to spend $35 billion to $36 billion buying international carbon credits from goodness know where overseas. It’s just $36 billion going out the door and for what? That’s $36 billion that could be invested in higher wages, investing in companies, growing their markets, putting new investment into their businesses. He’s just going to put this enormous slug on our economy and it’ll slow it down. The northern Tasmanian economy is getting ahead, forestry industries, tourism industries, we passionately support these and you’ve mentioned the Marinus Link. I mean this is a big project for Tasmania’s future; $56 million to get the planning phase of that underway and done, so we can get in and invest in having that Link put in.
Yesterday we announced $17 million for a skills package for Tasmania, specifically to ensure that Tasmania is battery-ready, with the skills they will need to deliver on that project. So we announced that yesterday and I think that it’s great to get those Tasmanians with the skills they’ll need to ensure that we can deliver on that massive Battery of the Nation project that Will Hodgman and I are just so excited about.
FAIRS: Prime Minister, I did ask my listeners to submit questions.
PRIME MINISTER: Sure
FAIRS: Just to put to you to get a response from you and I know that time is flying, so I’ll keep it as short as possible. One of them is talking about the NDIS. Now this listener applied for it in January, was told it could be accessed by February, yet still no response, still waiting to hear back. She’s provided all the necessary paperwork and documents and can’t access the help she needs. She’s very, very ill and that’s just one. The NDIS is very a big issue.
PRIME MINISTER: The NDIS is a massive social programme, it’s the biggest change since Medicare. We’ve got 10,000 people, 10,000 people working either within the NDIA or ancillary services working to solve all of those problems. We’ve got over 70,000 people accessing services that never did before and so this is just a very big project. Yes, we agree, it’s a very hard programme to implement and we’re going to keep on making it better year on year on year on year. But I make you this absolute commitment - and it’s not just a commitment, it’s in the Budget and it’s fully funded; the NDIS will get every cent that it needs. It’s a completely demand-driven program and we’ll see that demand increase. It already has been at record levels and it’ll continue to grow.
Just last week I announced the Royal Commission into disabilities, to address very similar issues that we’ve seen in the Aged Care sector. People with disabilities experienced some horrendous things and we’re going to shine a light on that. I think that will also improve the culture of respect, whether it’s in the workplace, whether it’s in healthcare, whether it’s in any part of our society. For people living with disabilities, we’ve got to make their life easier and we recognise the contribution they want to make and we’re going to facilitate that. We’re 100 per cent committed to it, it’s a very difficult programme and we’re getting on with it and we’ve got a lot pf people working on it.
FAIRS: Prime Minister bulk-billing, that’s another one. There’s basically no bulk-billing doctors here in Launceston and in fact probably across northern Tasmania. Hardly any, which is a real issue because a lot of people cannot afford to pay to see the doctor.
PRIME MINISTER: Well we have record bulk-billing rates right across the country.
FAIRS: Not here
PRIME MINISTER: Well, it’s bulk-billing right across the country and including right across northern Tasmania that we’re achieving these rates, that’s the information that I have. We’re achieving those bulk billing records.
Medicare has never been stronger under our Government. We have increased funding to Medicare by 27 per cent and the Medicare Guarantee fund continues to put in tens of billion in every year. So we’re delivering on that and we’ll continue to deliver on it.
FAIRS: So there’s no issue with bulk-billing in your opinion?
PRIME MINISTER: What I’m saying is we’ll continue to ensure that we deliver on this. It’s always going to be a challenge around the country, but what I’m saying is, at the last election, Bill Shorten said that we were going to sell Medicare. I mean it was an outrageous lie. This is what you’ll hear from Labor at this election; you’ll hear lies and higher taxes. That’s what Labor is offering at this election. Lies about what the Government is doing, not telling you the truth about the higher cost-of-living that you will face under their higher taxes and their reckless emission targets. Which means that you will pay for more for everything, whether it’s your car, whether it’s your electricity bill, whether it’s your private health insurance. Whatever you have to pay for, it’ll cost more under Labor.
FAIRS: Prime Minister very quickly, this is another question. Daniel thanks for this one; “When the Libs took power 6 years ago they were claiming a budget crisis when the debt was around $250 billion. Now the debts is more than double in your time, but it’s not a crisis, when you’ve promised that you would not increase it?”
PRIME MINISTER: Well, when you’re in deficit your debt goes up and it has taken us the last 6 years to get the Budget out of deficit and get it back into surplus. I mean that was the legacy the Labor Party they left us.
When we came into Government debt was growing at 30 per cent every year. That’s stopped now. What we’re seeing now is, over the next four years, we will reduce the net debt of the country by $50 billion or just shy of that. That’s what happens, you get the Budget back in the black, which we’re now in. And it’s a reminder; last time the government of the nation went to the Labor Party back in 2007, we went from a $20 billion surplus to a $27 billion deficit in the space of one year. We have been paying that back ever since. It has taken us more than a decade to get the budget back into surplus. It just goes to show; you vote Labor once, you pay for it for a decade. That’s what it means when it comes to the economic management of the Labor Party and I think Australians understand that.
They have had too many goes at managing the nation’s finances and they’ve stuffed it up too many times I think, for people to give them any credit that they know how to manage money. And if you can’t manage money, you can’t pay for Medicare, you can’t pay for hospitals. You can make all the promises you like, but when you look in the wallet, it’s empty.
And you know what Labor does when their wallet is empty? They go and look in yours. That’s why they increase taxes on all Australians.
FAIRS: Prime Minister in saying that, in the polls it shows if an election was held now you’d be wiped out. The only shining light is your popularity, obviously over Bill Shorten as preferred Prime Minister. What, this is your opportunity to very quickly say why you deserve, because you’ve had the revolving door of Prime Ministers, you’ve had total disasters, you’ve had in-fighting, you’ve acted like infants, school kids a lot of the time with all this battle and stuff. So why should people give you another chance and vote you back into power?
PRIME MINISTER: Well I think it’s pretty clear since we’ve come to Government, we’ve got the Budget back into surplus. We’ve reduced unemployment to levels we’ve not seen in a decade. We’ve created jobs particularly for young people and our economy is moving forward. As I said, here in northern Tasmania it really is a strong economy, it’s central to everything. The IMF today is talking about a such more difficult global environment. Now is not the time to hand the economic wheel over someone in Bill Shorten, who doesn’t know how to drive an economy. That is what will put your future at risk. That is what will determine your ability to deal with cost of living pressures, a Government that knows how to run the economy, knows how to manage finances, versus and Opposition that every time they’ve been in government, they’ve always stuffed it up, when it comes to programs and the Budget. You can’t get the healthcare you need, if you don’t have a government that knows how to manage money. Now, we’ve demonstrated that and the record speaks for that.
I think Australians are focused on the future and they’re focused on who is best able to deliver that strong economy and strong Budget that can invest and guarantee the funding for the essentials services they rely on. That’s the Liberal and National parties, that’s who it is. Our record is there and they know they can trust it, they’ve seen it here with Will at a state level and they’ve seen it with us at a Commonwealth level. If you want to keep that going here in northern Tasmania, well the way to do that is to keep the ScoMo and Will show going.
FAIRS: Alright well Prime Minister Scott Morrison thank you so much for your time, really appreciate you dropping in.
PRIME MINISTER: Thank you.
Doorstop - Ulverstone Tasmania
9 April 2019
Prime Minister, Minister for Small and Family Business Skills and Vocational Education
GAVIN PEARCE, LIBERAL CANDIDATE FOR BRADDON: G’day everyone I’m Gavin Pearce the Liberal candidate for Braddon and I’m honoured this afternoon to welcome back to Braddon the Prime Minister and also today, Senator Michaelia Cash on a blustery day in Braddon. I was just speaking with the Prime Minister not long ago and wind is not only good for a hard-hat but it’s also good for generating electricity. The Prime Minister is right behind Braddon, he understands that we’re not just an exporter of the world’s best agricultural and horticultural products, we’re not just the exporter of wood chips and other forestry products, but we’re also makers and we’re also innovators. In order to do that, we need manpower and we need skills, we need innovation. So that’s what the purpose of today’s announcement is. So without further ado I’ll hand over to the Prime Minister now. Prime Minister welcome to Braddon.
PRIME MINISTER: Thanks very much Gavin, it’s great to be here at Ulverstone and it’s great to be here with another great employer here in Tasmania. This is a business that builds things, this is a business that has fixed bridges, built roads, repaired rail lines and has been working hand-in-glove with Tasmanian hydro in what is and will be in a much more significant way in the future, the Battery of the Nation, through the partnerships we’re putting together with the Tasmanian State Government, with Will Hodgman.
Last time I was in Tasmania we were announcing the Marinus Link Project, working together on the Battery of the Nation project, to build this very significant project into the future and to make it work. Yes, we have to have the Marinus Link interconnector, which we announced funding for, to develop the business case and move forward on that project. Yes we need the vision of the Tasmanian State Government to actually take the Battery of the Nation project forward. But what we also need is the workforce and the companies and skills to build this project.
Today, we’re announcing $17 million for a Tasmanian-specific skills program which will work outside the existing skills partnership we have with Tasmania, to identify and develop all those additional skills that are needed in quite specific areas, to make this project a great success. We aren’t just committed to supporting the interconnector, we’re committed to working together with Will Hodgman and the State Government here and the businesses and construction industry here in Tasmania, to make this project a reality. It's incredibly important for Tasmania.
As Gavin said, this is a part of Australia in northern Tasmania that is well-known for agriculture, well-known for tourism, well-known for it’s forestry industry, we support all those industries incredibly strongly. But it is also known for these civil works and it’s also known for the great work that will be done in building this Battery of the Nation.
So the Budget we announced last week was all about creating skills. 80,000 new apprentices and I am joined by some apprentices here and we have been meeting apprentices all around the country. 80,000 new apprentices in key skill areas and that is picked up in the new investment we’ve made in last week’s Budget, it’s picked up in the Skilling Australians Fund which we commenced in the Budget last year and the partnership agreement we have with the State Government. The $17 million we announced today goes above and beyond that, to make sure Tasmania has the skilled people it will need to make this Battery of the Nation project a reality. So we’re really excited about it and every time I come here to talk about this project, I get another sense of it’s great potential and how it’s reaching out and touching the economy of northern Tasmania and how good that is for jobs.
Since we were elected, unemployment has come down in Braddon. It has come down and it’s going to keep coming down. 1.25 million jobs around the country is what our economic plan is going to continue to deliver. Tasmania has been the turnaround state. Population growth is actually moving forward now and for that economy to keep going forward, it needs projects of this scale and this size and the investments in skills and in young Tasmanians and Tasmanians right across their working life, to be given the skills to be a great success. So I’ll ask Michaelia Cash to speak a little bit more about that and then we’ll take some questions on that project and anything else you’d like to discuss.
SENATOR THE HON MICHAELIA CASH, MINISTER FOR SMALL AND FAMILY BUSINESS, SKILLS AND VOCATIONAL EDUCATION: Thanks Prime Minister and it’s fabulous to be back in Tasmania, in northern Tasmania in particular with our candidate for Braddon Gavin Pearce. I was here recently and it was all about a small business announcement, we had a small businesses in Tasmania and we were talking to the thousands of small businesses in Tasmania about the policies that we’ve put in place to back them, whether it’s lowering their taxes, or increasing the instant asset write-off.
Today we’re back in Tasmania and we’re talking skills - the skills that our businesses need to ensure they can undertake the work we need them to undertake and employ more Australians.
As the Prime Minister said, this is a $17 million investment specifically in Tasmania. We want to ensure that young Tasmanians have the skills that industry tells us they need, so that they can bring projects like the Battery of the Nation to life. So this $17 million investment is part of our energizing Tasmania investment. We’re going to work specifically with the Hodgman Liberal Government and industry to identify the priority skills needs for Tasmania. We're then going to ensure that young people wanting to study in these priority skill areas, are able to do so without any upfront fees. That’s going to be on average around $4,500 per young Tasmanian, a cost they’ll no longer incur. We’re also going to ensure that they have up to $1,000 to pay for their non-tuition costs, for example books that they may need. So this $17 million is all about ensuring the Tasmanian Government and the Tasmanian people have the skills they need to ensure that this project, the Battery of the Nation, can come to life.
PRIME MINISTER: Thank you very much Michaelia. This is part of our plan for a stronger economy. Australia is the best place to live and to raise a family, but our future depends on ensuring we continue to build our economy - to secure our future and to guarantee the essential services that Australians rely on. The health system here in Tasmania is dependent on a strong economy.
Higher taxes don’t solve that problem, that just slows the economy down and means you’re not in a position to fund affordable medicines and things like that in the future. Higher taxes has never been the answer to any problem. The answer to ensuring we can deliver the health services, the education, the things Tasmanians rely on, is for Tasmania to stay on the great path it’s on under the Hodgman Government, that is making their economy strong and is going well. We are backing them in, it’s a great partnership.
JOURNALIST: Is this dependent on the federal election result?
PRIME MINISTER: This is in the Budget, this is in the Budget papers and the funding is there. The only risk to this would be a Labor government that would reverse it. But this is a decision that has been taken and it’s in the Budget that was handed down last week.
JOURNALIST: These funds will only be available for people wanting to go into specific skills, it won’t be for all trades?
PRIME MINISTER: The Skilling Australians Fund – Michaelia might want to speak to this as well – that is already funding the additional training arrangements for the traditional skills and things like that. On top of that, we also have the apprenticeship program we announced, the half a billion dollar skills package in the Budget last week, which goes to a range of different apprenticeships which will also, I think, be of great input here in Tasmania. But what we’re announcing today goes above and beyond that. It goes to these broader-ranging skills and to ensure there’s zero fee participation and to ensure we can invest and recruit those Tasmanians to come and be part of making these great projects a reality.
MINISTER FOR SMALL AND FAMILY BUSINESS, SKILLS AND VOCATIONAL EDUCATION: In Australia, it’s not a “one size fits all” country, the skill needs in Tasmania given the Battery of the Nation project, are fundamentally different to my home state of WA or even up in Queensland. So this is all about ensuring that as a Federal Government, we’re working with the Tasmanian Government, so the Tasmanian people, young Tasmanians in particular, have the skills that industries here in Tasmania say they need to ensure that projects like the Battery of the Nation absolutely come to life.
JOURNALIST: What skills specifically are they for Tasmania, that are lacking here?
MINISTER FOR SMALL AND FAMILY BUSINESS, SKILLS AND VOCATIONAL EDUCATION: This is done through our national partnership agreement with the Tasmanian Government that will commence in 2020. Those skill will be identified by sitting down with industry and with the Tasmanian Government and seeing what skillsets are required. So it could be a project management skill, it could be in building and construction, it could be an entire course, it could be one or two units that a person needs to up-skill and continue undertaking the job they’re doing. But that’s something we’ll be working out with the Tasmanian Government and in particular with industry, because industry themselves know the skills they need.
PRIME MINISTER: It’s a very customised plan. We have a plan to keep our economy strong and we have a plan to keep the Tasmanian economy strong. We have a Tasmanian economy plan of which this is a key component. The Battery of the Nation is a very important part of Tasmania’s future, particularly for northern Tasmania. But not only that, it’s about keeping our traditional industries strong. It wasn’t that long ago we were here together, talking about what we were going to do with our forestry industry up here in northern Tasmania. So we have a very clear plan to keep the Tasmanian economy strong and I could not hope for a better partner in achieving that than the Premier Will Hodgman.
JOURNALIST: [Inaudible] allocated for a second interconnector?
PRIME MINISTER: Well this is what the business case does. The business case, we wouldn’t be doing the business case on the second interconnector, if we weren’t serious about actually following through and implementing that. What the interconnector business case already - from the work that has been done, - indicates is that it will be a very viable project. But it’s the ‘how and where and at what scale’ and the financing structures that can be used to bring it about and ultimately the participation of other partners, that make it a reality.
But this project will be a goer. It’ll be a goer and will benefit not only Tasmania, it will be a project that benefits all of Australia. I mean Tasmania will be charging up the rest of the nation, Tasmania will be making a contribution here to the rest of the economy. That’s why we’ve been settling those quite specific arrangements for how it would be structured and how the finance would be done, which means that those who would be benefitting from it, carry the financial cost.
JOURNALIST: Mr Morrison I understand that [inaudible] the same [inaudible] so are you going to be funding that?
PRIME MINISTER: That’s the same answer to the question that was just put. We would not be doing the business case and putting investment into the Marinus Link project if we had no intention of then following through with a positive result. There are many different ways you can finance that and that’s what that business case will actually best identify, the best way we can make that project a reality. Because you’re right, it’s not just the hydro project. I mean, there’s are 400K in power just sitting there, which is not going anywhere. We need it to get across the Bass Strait, we need to it power up Victoria. If that would’ve been in place previously, Victoria would not have suffered the brownouts they did recently.
JOURNALIST: Today’s announcement, you said you’d be having a discussion with the Tasmanian Government, so has Tas TAFE been involved in that?
PRIME MINISTER: That’ll be done by the Tasmanian Government, to the extent to which they’ll bring in other partners. That’s up to them, but really it’s about the industry. They’re the ones who are going to build it, Tasmanian Hydro is who we have to talk to through that process, to make sure we’re identifying the skills need. Now the company we’re standing with here today, they’ve already been involved in doing a lot of work with these hydro projects. They’re very familiar with these sites, whether it’s the businesses here or around the state, understanding the people they will need. In many cases, it’ll be people who already working for these company that need to do additional training in other areas, adding to their skillsets. So this really is about upgrading and everybody benefitting from this investment in their skills. We are investing in the people to build the projects, that’s what we’re doing here today, particularly in Tasmania.
JOURNALIST: Just moving on Prime Minister?
PRIME MINISTER: Before we go into other issues, we’re joined by some great people from VEC, so if we’re going to move to political issues, I won’t draw them into those things. So I want to thank you very much and good luck, thanks for joining us today. Or any questions for VEC?
JOURNALIST: Can I just get a general comment, yeah, what do you think of today’s announcement, how will that help you in the skills shortage you face?
LINCOLN BROWICH, GENERAL MANAGER VEC CIVIL ENGINEERING: I think any investment in training is welcome in the state. We invest heavily in our apprentices and I think we’ve had 200 per cent increase over the last four years in apprenticeship uptake, so any additional funds most certainly allows us to invest in our people and invest in growth. So it allows us to grow our business and working partnerships, with our key partners in the state in key infrastructure projects that we do throughout the nation.
JOURNALIST: What skills do you think Tasmania is lacking?
LINCOLN BROWICH, GENERAL MANAGER VEC CIVIL ENGINEERING: I’d prefer not to go into that.
PRIME MINISTER: They’ll be working closely with us to identify those, thanks very much, thanks for being here. Okay other questions for the day.
JOURNALIST: Malcom Turnbull said you can’t wave off the revelations about Peter Dutton’s private [inaudible] as the bubble and the buck stops with you. What are you going to do?
PRIME MINISTER: Well I’ve spoken with Peter Dutton about this and there are no issues here that trouble me at all. I mean there’s no suggestion that Peter, in any way shape or form, has a sought or been provided with any benefit here. The individual we're talking about had his visa cancelled while he was out of the country, by Peter Dutton's Department. So if the object was foreign interference, well, the exact opposite is what has occurred.
Peter Dutton has been in the vanguard of ensuring that we’ve been putting foreign interference arrangements in place and in the Budget that we handed down last week, there was about $36 million which has been invested in the agencies that Peter Dutton has responsibility for, to counter foreign interference.
I think this is in stark contrast with the Labor Party and Senator Dastyari. Senator Dastyari, or former Senator Dastyari I should stress, had to resign in shame because he had been intoxicated by that interference. So if anyone has any questions to answer on this issue, it’s the Labor Party. The Liberal and National parties have actually put these arrangements in place. So no, I have no concerns and as a result I’m happy to move on.
JOURNALIST: Have you sought an explanation from Mr Dutton?
PRIME MINISTER: Yes, I have and I’m very satisfied.
JOURNALIST: About how he came to be in a lunchtime meeting with [inaudible]?
PRIME MINISTER: Members of Parliament have meetings with people all the time, the suggestion here is that something inappropriate was done. There’s no basis for that whatsoever, absolutely none. In fact, if you look at what actually has occurred in the Government's handling of this individual's case, we cancelled his visa. I mean, I don’t think that was a solution he was looking for, do you? He was seeking as I understand it, to try to gain citizenship in Australia. Our Government not only didn’t provide him with citizenship, we cancelled his visa so he cannot return to Australia. That was done by an agency under Mr Dutton's responsibility. So I think the actions here speak far louder and the actions here are that we’ve acted against foreign interference in this country. Not just by having the laws in place, but by acting on those laws and in last week’s Budget, by investing in the agencies which protect Australia from foreign interference.
By contrast the Labor Party, through the former Senator Sam Dastyari, took this same individual, put him in front of an Australian government logo and ran an ad for him. I mean that’s what I call foreign interference.
JOURNALIST: So what do you make of Malcolm Turnbull’s advice then?
PRIME MINISTER: I don’t make anything of it.
JOURNALIST: Was the Environment Minister ever pressured to get those Adani agreements done, will this free you up in your decision to call the election? And you’re a religious man, does Easter factor into any plans for an election date?
PRIME MINISTER: Let me say a couple of things about the last issue. On Easter Sunday and on Easter Friday and on Anzac Day, the Liberal and National parties won’t be running any political advertisements if we’re in an election campaign at that time.
I understand the Labor Party have said they won’t do it on Good Friday and Anzac Day as well and I think I welcome that. I would ask them to extend that to Easter Sunday. That’s sort of the whole point of the Christian Easter celebration, frankly, Easter Sunday. So I would welcome their support on that as well and I would expect they’d do that in good faith.
On the other matters that you raise, the Environment Minister has made a decision, as I said she would all along, based on the best environmental science advice. She has been waiting to receive that advice from Geoscience Australia and the CSIRO. Both of those organisations, together with the Department of Environment have made recommendations that this further matter that required consent from the Commonwealth, could be considered. She has made her decision on that, consistent absolutely with the environmental science advice and the scientific advice that has been provided by those agencies and her own Department.
Now I note that Mr Shorten is happy to say - while he’s up in central Queensland today - that he’s happy to abide also by the advice of the scientists. I’ll wait to see whether he says the same thing when he’s down in Victoria or elsewhere in the country. I’m not surprised he’d be happy to say that up in central Queensland. But when it comes to the Liberal and National parties, we’re happy to talk about our primary industries in the same way wherever we go around this country; we are for our primary industries, whether it’s in agriculture, forestry, fishing or mining. In all of these places, we know the jobs that they produce and we know that you need to continue to stand by these industries.
So I welcome the fact that Mr Shorten has said, Bill Shorten has said that he will be supporting that decision of consent. But let's see if he can say the same thing in Melbourne, as he says in Gladstone.
I know that the Environment Minister has conducted herself in the way you’d expect her to do, to go through, follow the process to the letter and make sure that before she made any decision, that she was completely satisfied and had all the information she believed she needed to make that decision. Which is exactly what she did and I know Melissa pretty well, she’s a pretty tough Western Australian.
MINISTER FOR SMALL AND FAMILY BUSINESS, SKILLS AND VOCATIONAL EDUCATION: Absolutely.
PRIME MINISTER: I’ve got another tough Western Australian behind me and they just stay focused on what their job is and what their responsibilities and their accountabilities are. I want to thank Minister Price for the very good job she’s done in managing her responsibilities and exercising them the way she has. Thank you very much, everyone, great to be here.
JOURNALIST: When are you going to call the election?
PRIME MINISTER: It’ll be in May, we’ll call it in April.
Doorstop with Senator the Hon Michaelia Cash and Lucy Wicks
9 April 2019
Prime Minister, Minister for Small and Family Business Skills and Vocational Education
LUCY WICKS, FEDERAL MEMBER FOR ROBERTSON: Well what a fantastic sight to see behind us so many young apprentices. So many young people, having the opportunity to work right where they live, to be able to pursue the dream that they have, to pursue a trade of their choice. That’s what we want to be able to see more of here on the Central Coast; strong family businesses like this one at the Central Coast Motor Group, an outstanding local family business that has been here on the Central Coast since 1986. They have employed thousands of people in their time and at the moment, there’s around 250 people who work at the Central Coast Motor Group.
Our dream, our Liberal and National Government’s dream is to see strong local economies like the Central Coast region become stronger and grow, to see more people being able to work where they live. We do have a challenge on the Central Coast, because too many people have to leave early in the morning and return late at night to their families, because job opportunities are more available in Sydney and Newcastle. Our dream is to see more local businesses be able to grow, thrive, prosper and succeed and employ even more local people here on the Central Coast.
It’s for that reason that I’m so delighted to be joined by my outstanding friend and colleague, the Liberal Candidate for Dobell Jilly Pillon, who is herself a small business owner here on the Central Coast, a born and bred local. She’s a great fighter for our region, she knows the importance of local jobs here on the Central Coast. She knows the importance of providing more opportunities for our young people here on the Central Coast and it’s wonderful to be joined by Jilly Pillon as the Liberal candidate for Dobell, to welcome of course the Minister for Small and Family Business Michaelia Cash and of course our outstanding Prime Minister of Australia Scott Morrison, who of course is a wonderful friend to the Central Coast and no stranger here. He’s been up a number of times, he’s a great supporter and somebody who always listens to the concerns, the hopes and the aspirations of people here on the Central Coast. I was delighted to be able to announce some commuter car parking for our hardworking commuters, backed by Scott Morrison. It was one of the first issues that I raised when he became Prime Minister and now we have the $35 million investment in commuter car parking, 600 new car spots for Gosford and 140 new car spots for Woy Woy. This is all part of our plan to see better infrastructure and to see more local opportunities for people here on the Central Coast.
PRIME MINISTER: Thank you very much Lucy, it’s great to be here with you Jilly, it’s great to have you on the team and of course Michaelia Cash, who is everywhere around the country, backing and supporting small and family businesses. It’s great when you see small and family businesses become larger businesses, like the business we’re in here today. To see the apprentices that are being employed and the opportunities people are getting here.
Last week when we handed down the Budget we handed down the first surplus that we’ve seen in 12 years. When we came to government five and a half years ago, unemployment was higher, the Budget was in deficit, debt was growing at 30 per cent a year. Over the last five and a half years - a lot like the apprentices and the workers behind us - we got under the hood, we got under the car of the Budget and we started repairing it. It’s been up on the hoist for the last five and a half years and on Tuesday night it came down off the hoist. It came down and we put the car back on the road in terms of our Budget, because it’s back into surplus.
That surplus means we can now start paying down Labor’s debt and that’s what our Budget is doing. You know, when you’re doing that, that means you can start investing more and more in the essential services that Australians rely on and the essential infrastructure. A big part of the Budget that Josh Frydenberg handed down last week, was our plan to manage population growth across the country.
Now, there are many ways that we are working to achieve the managing of our population growth. We have more sensible migration intake plans that we announced some weeks ago. I know that’s welcomed here on the Central Coast, which has been feeling the population growth pressures. It's also stronger working relationships between state, local and the Commonwealth government. It's ensuring that we're investing in the cohesion of our communities, so as we grow, we grow together, we don't grow apart. But a massive part of it, is the economic plan of investing in the infrastructure that gets people home sooner and safer, that makes that commute that little bit easier. That's why, as Lucy has just said, we've put 600 additional car spaces and car parking bays here in Gosford and 140 down in Woy Woy.
But the other thing we're doing is we're ensuring that local economies like here on the Central Coast and in regional areas right across the country, that their own economies are growing. So you don't have to get on the train in the morning, you can have your job right here. You can work, you can play, you can live your life here where you've chosen to, on this wonderful part of the Central Coast here just north of Sydney in New South Wales. That's what we want to see Australians have; we want to see them have more choices about where they live and where they work.
But I tell you what wasn't in our Budget last week. What wasn't in our Budget last week was taking the choices off Australians, by putting their taxes up. Labor has $200 billion of higher taxes, telling hard-working Australians - many I suspect who work here and in other places of the coast, buying investment properties, trying to get ahead - they'll be hit with Labor's housing tax. The thousands of retirees that live here on the Central Coast, taking their choices away, with Labor's retiree tax. The other one we’ve seen has been revealed just in the last week and a bit; it’s what Labor is doing with their emissions reduction policy, taking the choices away from Australians of what car they even are going to drive.
What we've seen from Labor is telling Australians how they should live their lives, what car they can drive, taking their money away from them in higher taxes and removing the choices that they ultimately have about how they see their way forward.
This new policy that the Labor Party has announced is concerning at many levels, not only that Bill Shorten clearly doesn’t understand the details of his own policy. And if he doesn't understand it and he can't explain it, then you shouldn't vote for it. It's as simple as that. Because what that policy does, not just the goal of a 50 per cent electric vehicles by 2030 when we're only at 0.2 per cent now – and the Coalition doesn't have any issue at all and in fact we promote the idea of people buying electric cars, if that's what they want to choose to do - it's all about choice. We are investing in getting public charging infrastructure in place, we are investing in the new technology that would see this realised, but it will be demand-led. It will be about Australians making choices about the transitions they want to undertake.
We won't go down this mandatory route, where we've got these mandatory vehicle emission standards, emissions standards of 105 grams per kilometre, where 17 out of 20 cars being sold today, would not meet that standard. It's not just the Hilux and it's not just the Ranger, but it's the Mazda 3 and the i30 from Hyundai. These are vehicles that will not measure up to Bill Shorten's vehicle emissions standards. They're the vehicles that will be ultimately outlawed under the plan that Bill Shorten is putting on the Australian people.
But when it comings also to their policy on fuels, that will also push up the price of petrol. I don't think it's fair frankly, that if you're living here on the Central Coast, if you're living in regional areas, that you should have to pay for the choices that they’re making in the inner cities. You should be able to have your choice about the sort of vehicle you want to drive, that you want to get around in on the weekend. If you want to put the under-6s soccer team in the back of your SUV, which is done by mums and dad all over the Central Coast and around the country on a regular basis - these are the choices that Bill Shorten wants to take away with the sort of policies he's talking about.
And he can't explain the details of them, that's what should be concerning. He's had five and a half years he’s been the Leader of the Opposition and he still can't explain what the economic impact is of his emissions reduction policies. We've been up-front about it, we'll continue to do that. We'll continue to keep taxes low. We'll continue to invest in the infrastructure that supports the Central Coast and communities all around the country. We'll continue to keep Australians safe and we'll continue to keep Australians together.
Now, I'm going to ask talk Michaelia to talk about what she's been doing up here on the Central Coast. There's 16,000 small and family businesses here in this electorate of Robertson alone and they've been receiving the Budget extremely well.
SENATOR THE HON MICHAELIA CASH, MINISTER FOR SMALL AND FAMILY BUSINESS, SKILLS AND VOCATIONAL EDUCATION: Well Prime Minister, it’s always fantastic to join my very good friend and sensational colleague Lucy Wicks here in the seat of Robertson on the Central Coast. But also to welcome formally to our team Jilly, our candidate for Dobell.
I love coming to the Central Coast because it really is a place where small and family businesses can thrive. It's a great place to live and Lucy and I spend a lot of time talking to small and family businesses, businesses like the one we're at here today, a family business that started in 1986 and over 30 years has literally employed thousands of apprentices over that time. But we want small and family businesses throughout Australia to know that for the Morrison Government, you are front and centre of our decision-making. We back you every step of the way.
Why? Because we understand that when a small and family business in Australia prospers and grows, they create more jobs for Australians. That's the message we are giving to the over 16,000 small and family businesses here in the seat of Robertson. In the Budget on Tuesday night, we increased the threshold of the instant asset write-off from $25,000 to $30,000. We announced it on Tuesday night and I'm very pleased to tell all of those small and family businesses out there that we legislated it on Thursday night. But what we also did, because we have a strong economy, is that we have enabled businesses now with a turnover of less than $50 million to access the instant asset write-off. This is the benefit of a strong economy. You can give these dividends back to small and family businesses and now medium-sized businesses, across Australia.
But of course we need to ensure that businesses have access to the skilled Australians that they need. That is why we have made an in excess of half a billion dollar investment in our vocational and education training system in Australia. Scott Morrison - you've heard him here today - he backs tradies every step of the way and it’s great to see a business that has employed so many apprentices over the years. In fact this morning we met Johnny, Johnny has been here for 30 years. This is the only job he has ever had. He started as an apprentice and his son has now joined him in this great family business, also undertaking an apprenticeship.
But what I worry about for people like Johnny is that the car he’s driving today, if a Labor government is ever elected, will not be the car he is driving tomorrow. In fact, if you look behind us at all of these apprentices here, 50 per cent of those apprentices will be driving an electric vehicle under Bill Shorten.
We are going to stand by our tradies and we are going to save their utes. Because we understand choice and that is what Bill Shorten is taking away from our tradies.
PRIME MINISTER: Thanks, Michaelia. I'm happy to take questions.
JOURNALIST: Regarding the reports that a Chinese billionaire paid to have a meeting Peter Dutton, how do you feel about people buying time with government ministers, what message does that send?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, the individual you're referring to has actually been prevented from ever returning back to Australia. So I think when it comes to our Government acting on foreign interference, we've got a pretty strong track record. I think that compares very significantly to that of the Labor Party, where Senator Sam Dastyari had to resign in disgrace, because he not only compromised himself in standing in front of an Australian Government insignia - standing there with the very individual you're referring to - that was a disgrace and he had to resign in disgrace.
So when it comes to countering foreign interference, my Government, our Government has put in place the legislation to ensure that we counter that foreign interference. We put around $36 million into our security agencies in the Budget last week, to ensure that they can be countering foreign interference and I think when it comes to these issues, our Government's record is squeaky clean.
JOURNALIST: As a former Immigration Minister, how many citizenship ceremonies are held in the offices of MPs and Senators each year?
PRIME MINISTER: It happens with members all around the country, all members can be swearing in citizens. When I was Immigration Minister, I had those powers and I did as a local member. So it all depends on each electorate and each individual member.
JOURNALIST: Why was Huang Xiangmo's family [inaudible] approved to have their citizenships bestowed [inaudible] Sam Dastyari’s office [inaudible] Coalition Government [inaudible]?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, you make reference to Sam Dastyari, I mean Sam Dastyari the Labor senator who had to resign in disgrace over his involvement in foreign interference. I mean it was an absolute disgrace. Labor's record on foreign interference is there for everyone to see and it's pin-up boy is Sam Dastyari.
JOURNALIST: [inaudible] when he made that approval, was aware of who they were or should have have known who they were?
PRIME MINISTER: All I know is Sam Dastyari had to resign in disgrace over foreign interference and behaving in a reckless and shameful way, betraying his own country.
JOURNALIST: On Adani, is the Government's intention to make a decision on the Adani mine groundwater approvals before [inaudible]?
PRIME MINSTER: The Government will make all decisions based on the expert scientific advice of organisations, including not just the Department of Environment, but Geoscience Australia and the CSIRO. So we will always make, as we have all along the way of this process, there have been many decisions made in relation to this and other projects. But in relation to this project we've always been following the advice of the scientists and we will continue to do that.
JOURNALIST: Have you counselled Senator James McGrath against issuing press releases [inaudible]?
PRIME MINISTER: When it comes to making these decisions, they’ll be made by Ministers listening to scientists, not senators listening to themselves.
JOURNALIST: Why did you make a captain's pick in the seat of Reid and approve Fiona Martin?
PRIME MINISTER: Because I think she's an outstanding candidate and I think she’s going to do a fantastic job. With the retirement of Craig Laundy so close to the election, we're not going to waste any time, we're just going to get on with it. She's going to do a fantastic job.
JOURNALIST: Are you confident in her ability [inaudible]?
PRIME MINISTER: I'm very confident in her ability.
JOURNALIST: Just on the Central Coast, obviously there's been a few big announcements here in the region following last week's Budget. How come it's taken until an election year to, I guess, deliver these things, here in the region?
PRIME MINISTER: Well I'm going to invite Lucy to talk to this as well, but I said before that we have a plan for managing our population and whether it's the more than $40 million that we've invested in the medical campus here - I've been up here numerous times - whether it's the investments we've been making up in the industrial areas, or the investments we've been making in the education precinct and the medical precinct here, whether it's the jobs that we've been bringing up out of big agencies like Human Services and the Tax Office, putting them here in Gosford. I mean this has been a continuous job of creating, here in Gosford on the Central Coast, a self-supporting, dynamic, future-focused economy, that gives people living on the Central Coast the opportunity to work on the Central Coast, not just live here. The person who has driven that from the day she was elected as the Member for Robertson is Lucy Wicks.
This has been Lucy's plan and her vision to see an economy that has gone from 5.1 per cent unemployment, to 4.6 per cent unemployment here in the electorate of Robertson on the Central Coast. What has driven this has been Lucy's vision for the Central Coast, being a confident, self-supporting economy that is driving jobs at the local level. That Gosford doesn't just exist as some sort of satellite outpost of Sydney, but as a thriving economy and community in it’s own right. Under Lucy's term as the Member for Robertson, we've seen Gosford go ahead in leaps and bounds. We’re working closely together with local authorities, with the state government and I think it's been paying real dividends here. And with Lucy, she's got a million more plans. She's always in my office, when I was the Treasurer, when I was the Minister for Immigration, when I was Minister for Social Services.
LUCY WICKS, FEDERAL MEMBER FOR ROBERTSON: Sorry, not sorry.
PRIME MINISTER: She's in there every single day and she is such a great champion for the Central Coast, just like Jilly will be. She's been a tremendous advocate and campaigner when it comes to road safety, when it comes to organ donation. People know that about Jilly here on the Central Coast, they know her form when it comes to doing things she believes in. This pair are going to be an absolute dynamic duo.
LUCY WICKS, FEDERAL MEMBER FOR ROBERTSON: Thank you Scott and to respond further to the question, I don't think this has got anything to do with an election year because these are not election commitments. These are Budget commitments, these are in the Budget. They are costed, they are fully funded, they are going to be delivered. Why did it take until 2019? Because we have a surplus, because we have a Government that has gotten on with the job of doing what we said we would do. Now, thanks to the fact that we are in surplus, the Budget is back in the black, we can deliver so many of the things that people on the Central Coast have wanted for years. For years we have been crying out for more commuter car parking. Scott is right, the Prime Minister is right; I would love to see the need for less commuter car parking, because I would love to see the jobs actually being available here on the Central Coast.
My ultimate dream is to see the Central Coast as a region where we're known for reverse commuting; not for commuting to Sydney and Newcastle, but for having people from those cities commute here to the Central Coast, because this is where the jobs are. That this becomes the new jobs growth hub of New South Wales and indeed one day perhaps even around Australia, that's my ultimate dream. That’s part of my plan for Robertson. But the reason you’re seeing the commitments that have been announced over the last couple of days, over the last week or so, is because of our strong, responsible economic management and the Government is listening and the Government is funding the important, essential projects that people here on the Central Coast want. Whether it be commuter car parking, whether it be the new innovation and health jobs precinct here in Gosford, building on what we've already done with the Central Coast Medical University and Medical Research Institute. Another $18 million to really take the Central Coast forward, to really see the Central Coast and Gosford in particular known as a region of world-class excellence, of opportunity, of aspiration and a place where young people don't have to go to Sydney or Newcastle to be able to pursue their educational aspirations, but they can do so right here.
Whether it be the incredibly important announcement we made just yesterday of $9 million to establish the Glen Centre for Women, to really make sure - this is one of the most important projects in the Budget, I believe, Prime Minister and I want to thank you for your personal support of that as well - to make sure that we have, the first of it’s kind, a culturally appropriate drug and alcohol rehab centre for Indigenous women and other women. Really helping them to be able to make sure that their future is not defined by their past. That was an incredible moment yesterday.
Whether it be being able to deliver a new radiotherapy machine for the outstanding cancer care clinic at Gosford, $3.8 million to make sure that cancer patients don't have to go on a waiting list. Or $8.5 million to upgrade the Umina precinct park, which is something people on the peninsula have been crying out for for a couple of years now.
PRIME MINISTER: See I told you it was a long list, I told you it was a long list.
[Laughter]
LUCY WICKS, FEDERAL MEMBER FOR ROBERTSON: We could continue.
PRIME MINISTER: You asked the question.
LUCY WICKS, FEDERAL MEMBER FOR ROBERTSON: I'll stop.
[Laughter]
PRIME MINISTER: All of this depends on a strong economy of course and having a Government that knows how to manage money.
People know that Labor don't know how to manage money. That's why they stopped listing drugs on the affordable medicines Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme when they were last in government. That's why they drove us into deficit. That's why they drove us into debt.
You know, now we're back in the black and we’re able to invest in this and a whole range of other projects. $461 million for what I know is a really important project for the Central Coast, $461 million to combat youth suicide and youth mental health challenges around the country. There is not a community in the country that is not touched by the curse of youth suicide and youth mental health issues. That's everything from building up our young people to have strong mental health, good mental health, just in the same way as they have good physical health. From the youngest of ages, the programs, whether it's Smiling Mind, to Headspace, these are programs that are going to make our country healthier and when our country is healthier, it's stronger. When our economy is stronger, that's what we can invest back in.
You know, we face many challenges ahead. Australia is the best place in the world to live, but our future depends on keeping our economy strong. That's what our Budget last year did. That’s true, last year and last week too! So anyway, we’ll take one more and then we have to get moving.
JOURNALIST: Just lastly, obviously back to Dobell, it's a seat you lost at the last election. Jilly officially announced today, I guess [inaudible] a big advocate here on the Central Coast. Do you hope Jilly is going to do the same and get [inaudible]?
PRIME MINISTER: Yeah sure Jilly, come forward. I'm so pleased to see Jilly selected and endorsed as our candidate and to see yet another female candidate endorsed. Since I've become Prime Minister around half of our candidates who have been selected have been women. That has happened through our choices, our decisions, our selection processes and I really welcome that. I know Jilly's story and I know the advocacy that she has pursued on behalf of Banjo, but also on road safety, on organ donation.
Jilly is a fighter. She is a fighter and the Central Coast needs fighters for the Central Coast and to make sure that their communities are getting the resources and the support that they need. I know your form and there's going to have to be two permanent seats in my office, one for Lucy and one for Jilly, because they'll be knocking the door down as Lucy always has. I really do think they're going to be a tremendous team if they're given that opportunity at next election. I think there's a great choice here. The choice is about having your choice at the end of the day.
We want you to have the choices that you want for you and your family. People have decided, made the choice, to live here on the Central Coast. People have decided they actually want to buy a car that can tow a boat, or their tinnie, or a caravan or a trailer or whatever they want. We want them to have the choices, for people to have the choice to keep more of what they earn. I think money in the hands of an Australian, is going to do a better job than money in the hands of the government. That's why I think it's better that they get to keep more of their earnings.
The real choice between Labor and Liberal at this election, is that we believe you should keep your choices. We're not going to take your choices away from you. We're going to give you more choice and that's what Jilly and Lucy stand for here on the Central Coast.
It's been great to be here with you and particularly to meet Johnny and I'm glad to see he's dragging his son out of bed every morning to get here on time and we'll take it from there.
Thanks very much.
[ENDS]
Skills and training for Tasmania's future
9 April 2019
Prime Minister, Minister for Small and Family Business Skills and Vocational Education
Thousands of young Tasmanians will gain new skills with no upfront cost, and in turn boost the state’s renewable electricity generation sector, through a $17 million investment from the Morrison Government.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison said the new Energising Tasmania initiative would support locals to gain the skills that business needs, boosting the economy of regional Tasmania and bringing the Battery of the Nation plan to life.
"We are passionate about getting more young people into work, and giving them the opportunity to gain the right skills," the Prime Minister said.
"So we’re scrapping the upfront costs for priority training courses to ensure Tasmanians have the right mix of skills for the future. More than 28 per cent of Tasmanians don’t have qualifications beyond Year 10 so we want to broaden that skill set to help more Tasmanians get into work, and help local businesses get the workers they need.
"By covering the course cost gap we’re investing to help young Tasmanians get the vocational education and training they need for the Battery of the Nation plan. We’re committed to the Battery of Tasmania plan alongside the Hodgman Liberal Government and our $17 million training boost is ultimately about delivering the skills that project needs, the skills the local economy needs, and most importantly the skills young Tasmanians need."
Minister for Small and Family Business, Skills and Vocational Education Senator Michaelia Cash said Tasmania is blessed with natural resources which can be harnessed to help meet its energy needs.
"Tasmania needs a skilled workforce to build up pumped hydro capabilities and support the energy infrastructure of the future," Minister Cash said.
"Energising Tasmania will focus on occupations in priority skills areas such as project management, civil construction, electro-technology, resource management, building and construction, water industry operations and engineering.
"Individuals engaged in training will also be eligible to receive up to $1000 per person to cover other costs associated with training, such as books and materials, and student amenity fees. This will make training more accessible to those least able to pay."
Post Budget Address
8 April 2019
PRIME MINISTER: How good is Trevor Evans? I’ll tell you how good he is.
[Interruption]
So, how good is Trevor Evans?
[Applause]
Take two. Do we have a contestant number three? Okay, on your tables are 40 great reasons why Trevor Evans is doing a tremendous job here in Brisbane. I see a lot of great local members and they’re all on my team. And there are none better than Trevor. The way that he’s applied himself to the role, whether it’s with infrastructure, whether it’s in small business support, whether it is indeed the environment. Whether it’s supporting local sport, I’ve just come from an announcement with Trevor today, supporting local sport here in this community. This what good local members do and you are I think, in great shape with the tremendous work that Trevor has done for your community. I’m really pleased to be here with him again.
This is the third year running that I’ve been up in Brisbane after the Budget. The first time was when we were together with the Chamber up in town, it’s great to be back here with you today, to be here talking about the Budget and Trevor has played such an important part.
Can I also, before we get going much further, acknowledge the traditional Indigenous owners of the land, their elders past, present and emerging. Can I also acknowledge any veterans or servicemen and women who are in the room today. I say simply, on behalf of all Australians, as one Australian to another, thank you for your service.
When I was here earlier this year with Trevor, we were down at the Brothers Rugby Club and I talked that day about an important commitment I was making to Australia. I was outlining once again the strong economic plan that we’ve been pursuing as a Government for the last five and a half years. As a result of that plan, as Josh Frydenberg said when he handed down the Budget last week, unemployment is lower. There are more Australians in jobs, particularly more women in jobs. He talked about how youth employment had particularly grown and how we’ve now set a record for the strongest growth in youth employment, people aged 15 -24 in a financial year, in Australia’s history. We talked about how we’d gotten spending under control, to ensure that we have the lowest growth in Commonwealth expenditure of any Government in 50 years. How we’ve gotten taxes under control and how we as a result of all of this, have been able to bring the Budget back to the first surplus we’ve seen in 12 years.
On that day, I made an important commitment, I said our Government’s economic plan would deliver 1.24 million new jobs over the next five years. Now I’ll tell you how that’s going to happen. You’re going to make it happen. Small and family businesses, medium-sized business, businesses around the country, are the ones who are going to make that happen. How do I know that? Because that’s what you’ve just done. Over 1.2 million jobs have been created since we were first elected back in 2013. Today there are more people who are employed in this country of working age, than at any other time in our country’s history. It is extraordinary. The last time we were in that sort of shape, was back in 2007. In the last 12-18 months we have eclipsed the proportion of Australians of working age in employment, that was previously set by the Howard Government. That was the same Government that left Australia with a $20 billion surplus, $40 billion in the bank. Which, when Labor was elected soon after that, they turned into a $27 billion deficit. A series of deficits which plunged this nation into debt.
I know he’s a son of Brisbane - Swanny was leaving the Parliament this week, just the week passed, in Budget week and I was able to say quite honestly and quite truthfully, that we are in Swanny’s debt.
[Laughter]
Think about it, literally we are in Swanny’s debt. But I’ll be kind to him on the basis that he’s a Queenslander and I’m in Queensland today but the legacy is of debt. The legacy is of debt that we’ve been living with as we’ve worked hard to repair the finances of this country. And we’ve brought it back to the point where we were able stand up this last week and announce the first surplus Budget we’ve reached in 12 years.
“So what?” some people will say. What does that mean? What does that matter to me? Okay, you’ve achieved a surplus, so what?
The first step in paying down debt is, you’ve got to get the Budget back into surplus. If we don’t get the Budget back into surplus, then we would be putting a burden on our kids forever. Last time around, when we were in Government the Howard and Costello Government paid off the debt in a decade and that is now our mission. Having achieved step one and gotten the Budget back into a surplus position, we will now be able to start paying down that debt.
And indeed we’ll pay down around $50 billion of it over the next four years and that debt will be gone within a decade or sooner, as a result of pursuing the economic and financial management policies that we have put in place.
Why does that matter? Because the interest bill on debt is about $18 billion. ‘18 thousand million dollars’ and we’ll reduce that on an annual basis by around about $5 billion a year over the next four years. That is a lot of investment we can make back into the services that Australians rely on.
It’s taken us 12 years to get back here and I think it’s important to reflect on this. Whether it’s getting people back into work, or getting the Budget back in the black, it has taken us more than a decade to get back there.
If you vote Labor once, you pay for it for a decade. That’s the lesson of the last time a government was changed from a Liberal National parties to the Labor Party. I think that’s a sobering message and why the contrasting message is so much more important; that is, you vote Liberal, you vote LNP here in Queensland and you can look forward to an economy that’s even stronger, where businesses are backed in.
I remember the last election, at the last election after the Budget that we handed down in 2016, reducing taxes, particularly on small and family businesses, businesses with a turnover between $2 million and $10 million a year. Labor weren’t even prepared to back that. We lifted the definition of small business, now legislated, from $2 million to $10 million. Thousands upon thousands of businesses, employing millions of Australian and Labor said “no”. “No, we want them to pay the highest rate in tax”.
But over the last three years our arguments prevailed. The commitments we made at the last election, to reduce that tax burden on small and family businesses have been delivered and beyond what we said we would achieve. Because in this Budget, we have announced that the instant asset write-off goes to companies with a turnover of up to $50 million. You know those companies, you are those companies and you employ more than half of the people who go to work every day in this country, more than half.
We have delivered a lower rate of tax for those businesses, so you can invest more in the future of those businesses. You can employ more people, invest in developing new products, expanding your markets. In this Budget, we’ve made further allocations available for the export market development grants. Why? Because we get it, that your businesses success is what lifts your employee’s wages. It’s what drives revenues.
[Interruption]
I’ll come to climate, don’t worry about that. These investment policies for small and family businesses, investing in their future and investing in their employees. You know, one of the things –
[Interruption]
Okay, what I was saying is that this economy that we have been building together, by backing small and family businesses, does something very important. It has enabled us to increase funding for schools, public schools and hospitals by more than 60 per cent over the last five and a half years. It has enabled us to invest and improve the funding for Medicare by 27 per cent. It has enabled us to ensure that bulk-billing for Medicare in this country is at the highest level on record. See, a strong economy is what enables a government to invest in the essential services that Australians rely on. Not higher taxes.
See the more Labor can’t control their spending, the more they have to tax.
The more they tax, the more it slows the economy.
The more it does that, the less there is for hospitals, for schools, for Medicare and for meeting all of the promises they will talk about between now and the next election.
So the question was, what matters a surplus? What matters the economy? What it matters, that is what enables our great Australian society to be as great as it is. To invest in affordable medicines, some $9 billion alone that we’ve invested in 130 cancer medicines to take these courses from hundreds of thousands of dollars for individual medicines and take it down to $6.50 for a concession holder and just 40 bucks for everyone else. That is the mark of a truly great society. I think it’s one of Australia’s greatest achievements. What I know is, we’ve been able to list of these drugs, because of our Budget management and because of the economy that you have been creating and that we have put the fundamentals in place for you to be successful.
And when Labor was last in power, they stopped listing medicines. They stopped it because they ran out of money. So their approach this time is this; every time Bill Shorten looks in his wallet, know that he’ll be looking in yours. Because every time he’s spending, he’s going to be taxing you more and he’s going to be sending you the bill.
Bill will always send you the bill.
[Laughter]
On every single occasion. Because if you can’t control your spending, you can’t control your taxes. This is the real, earnest point that I have been urging Australians to reflect on and why the economy is so important; I remember when I went out of university all those years ago, just as young people are going out to university and coming out of apprentices - or perhaps going into them, I met some of them down at Yatala earlier today – that was the decade of the recession, the one that we apparently had to have. That was the decade of the record interest rates that crippled small and family businesses and sent them to the wall. It cause mortgage holders to groan, all apparently what Labor said we “had to have” at that time.
I never want to see an Australian have to face that ever again, ever.
Most of us here would have lived through that at the time. You know, one in two voters at this election, one in two Australians who are voting at this election will never have lived through a recession during their working life. I think that’s a great thing, I think it’s tremendous. I think it’s one of Australia’s greatest achievement. I don’t want my kids or your kids, or anyone else’s kids coming out of school or university, entering into a decade like many of us did a generation or so ago. That’s what Liberal and National policies are designed to achieve; to keep us out of those sort of dangers.
You know, we are facing some twists and turns in the economic road ahead. There’s some dangerous, slippery surfaces down the road and you do not hand the economic wheel over in those circumstances, to someone who doesn’t know how to drive.
If you look at the leader of the Labor Party’s policies on the economy, you can only describe them that way. The risks are great. The housing market is soft, the international trading environment is difficult. The uncertainty that is present, we all know about it. What we need is the stability that our continued economic management can deliver on.
So that’s what this Budget was about; keeping taxes low, both for individuals and for small and family businesses. NCSAEM, their recognized independent modelling belled the cat on Labor. They’ve made it pretty clear that the average full-time wage earner in this country will be $1,000 better off under the Liberals and Nationals than they would be under the Labor Party. That is our record. That's what we've legislated and the same is true for smaller family businesses, who will be better off under a Government that understands the pressures on them and is delivering the policies on taxation, that has already delivered taking their tax rates down to 25 percent.
We're investing in the infrastructure. $100 billion which will continue to transform our economy. $100 billion which most recently include $4 billion right here in Queensland. $425 million for the Bruce Highway announced specifically in this Budget. $100 million for the Gladstone Port Access Road. We’ve got $800 million in there for the Gateway Motorway, for Bracken Ridge to Pine River and then there's the very important urban congestion fund which is enabling us to manage population growth. You won't find a population growth plan anywhere in Labor's policies. We have a population growth plan that deals with sensible migration intake, coordination between state, local and federal governments, investing in the cohesion of our communities, so our communities grow together as we go forward, not grow apart. But it particularly delivers that congestion-busting infrastructure. The Lindum Crossing, there's $85 million for that. There’s the Indooroopilly Roundabout, $25 million, the Gympie Arterial Road at $50 million, the Newnham Wrecker Road intersection an upgrade there of $12 million. These are just some of the pinch points that make a big difference to our cities functioning. That is if you like the economic science, if you like, behind the Budget that we outlined last week; understanding the needs and the things that need to be done.
We are backing those who are investing in skills 80,000 more and new apprentices. We're backing our rural and regional communities here in Queensland, no less so than those who have suffered one of the most horrific natural disasters west of the range, in north Queensland where we have been quick to respond. Whether it was in Townsville where $39 million in in flood support went out the door within one week, within one week in north Queensland. I'll tell you what; they knew the Commonwealth Government was there standing with them, when that was happening. And over the range out to Cloncurry and Julia Creek, in Richmond, Hughenden and all through those parts, they know we're standing with them, through there through the north Queensland livestock industry recover agency which Shane Stone is heading up and delivering a programme of reform which will enable all of those pastoralists to rebuild what is a very important part of Australia and our economic success into the future.
When we make these investments, we enable ourselves to invest $461 million dollars in the biggest plan to combat youth suicide in this country and youth mental health challenges. And the value will be no different, no different at all from the pressures that are involved in young people just trying to get through each day to day. It is a curse on our society and we're going to break that curse by working together to tackle youth suicide, with Headspace programs and building up the mental health of young people right from the very young age. We've learned so much through people like Dr Pat McGorry and others who have invested so much in our understanding of how we can address these issues. We are investing in them and we are backing them, in just like we're backing small family businesses around the country.
So there's much more to do as we go into this next election. And there is an alternative and it's an alternative that causes me to stop and pause and reflect on the sort of economy that might otherwise be lived in if we don't stick to the current course.
We are investing in reducing our emissions. It's been raised already as you've noticed in today’s discussion. We've invested $3.5 billion in meeting our targets. You see our Government inherited not just a fiscal deficit when we came to power, our Government inherited a climate deficit from the Labor Party when we came to office. To meet our Kyoto 2020 targets we were off - inherited from the Labor Party - more than 700 million tonnes of carbon abatement when came to office. That's the track we were on, courtesy of the Labor Party before we came to office. We are now going to beat that target in 2020, by 369 million tonnes. A 1.1 billion carbon tonnes turnaround, delivered not by wrecking the economy, not by putting the price up on everything, not by telling you what car to drive. But just by doing sensible things that have reduced our emissions and met our targets.
See as Liberals and Nationals, when we make a promise, we deliver it. We make the commitment, we keep it. And we've committed to our 2030 targets and we're going to meet them and we've set out a plan to meet them. We are going to, of course, use the carry over credits that we have earned because of our ability to overachieve and on our Kyoto 2020 targets. I mean why you wouldn’t use those would be beyond me, I mean it’d be like getting to half time and you’re 12 points up ad you go; “You know, what? I think we’ll send the score back to zero all,” for the second half. Who would do that? We’ve achieved as a country. There are so many other countries who don't want to use those carry over credits. You know why? They don't have any. We do. We earned them, we’ve achieved them, you’ve achieved them.
When Australia goes forward, I'm not going to hold you back. I'm not going to increase the burden. I'm not going to increase the penalty and that's what Labor's policies do if they're given that opportunity.
We have a positive plan. We have a plan that has been keeping our economy strong, so we can invest in the essential services Australians rely on.
We've got a strong plan to keep Australians safe, as we have whether it's on our borders or whether it's supporting our Defence forces on their deployments all around the world. Or their new capability, 2 per cent of GDP which we will achieve in 2021 ahead of schedule. Or whether it's the threat of $326 million we're investing in the Fourth National Action Plan on domestic violence Or whether it's legislating - as we did last week - to hold social media companies to account and not allow these social media platforms to be weaponized by terrorists. That's what we do. We take action and we take it now, on every single occasion.
And we're keeping Australians together, whether it’s building sporting facilities for girls to have change rooms at the cricket oval, or the AFL oval, or the rugby league, or whichever sport you’re picking, the basketball court, hockey field. We want girls and boys to be able to engage in our great sporting life in this country and we're seeing that happening. It's a great thrill because it brings communities together.
We are investing in the social harmony of our cities and we're reaching out to our fellow Australians in rural and regional areas and giving them the support they need, to stand with them as they go through the toughest drought that they've seen in generations.
This is what we're doing. Now is not the time to turn back. Now is not the time to turn away from the strong course we're on.
You know Labor, they haven't changed. They haven't changed and that means they will change it all if they're given the opportunity to once again run this country. We will remain committed to the course we have set, the strength of our economy, the safety of our citizens and the togetherness and unity of our people. That's what we set out in this Budget and I know that's what Trevor is standing for here, right here in the middle of Brisbane. I want to thank you, those of you who've been supporting him in that in that great task. We will continue to deliver the country that all Australians deserve. That's our promise to Australia. That's a promise we're making, it's a promise that will always stand and be respected and honoured by the Liberal and National parties.
Thank you so much for your attention today.
[Applause]
[ENDS]
Doorstop, Yatala
8 April 2019
BERT VAN MANEN, MEMBER FOR FORDE: Well good morning and thank you to Gary and Cameron for welcoming us here to GCI this morning. It's a terrific local family-owned business and I'd also like to welcome the Prime Minister Scott Morrison and Senator Amanda Stoker. It's another terrific example of a local business that is out there every single day manufacturing goods for Australians. But also most importantly, employing Australians. We've seen this business over the years continue to grow and prosper and importantly this business benefits directly from the changes we’ve made in the Budget last week, with the increase to $50 million dollars in turnover for the instant asset write off eligibility. But also importantly in our job skills package, we’ve got a company here that employs 12 apprentices. It’s involved with our local schools and does this stuff that continues to create opportunity for everyday Australians. So again thank you for allowing us to come down here today, it’s greatly appreciated. It's not the first time I've been here, I regularly visit and they do a tremendous job. I'd like to invite the Prime Minister to say a few words.
PRIME MINISTER: Well thanks very much Bert. The reason I'm here today is because this business is why the Australian economy is stronger today than it was when we came to government five and a half years ago, this business here today demonstrates why we've had record employment growth. It demonstrates why we've got more apprentices coming into the Australian economy. It demonstrates why Australian manufacturing is here and alive and well and thriving, because of the entrepreneurship and because of the investment that has been taking place over the last five and a half years. Over 120 employees here, we've got a dozen apprentices here. We've got a business that's between $10 million and $50 million in turnover, that is benefiting already from the fact that they're playing lower taxes under our Government.
Businesses will be benefiting from last week, to the instant asset write off which we’ve extended to companies up to $50 million in turnover. We've extended that instant asset write-off to $30,000 for each and every item. Businesses that benefit from the apprenticeship subsidies and support for apprentices themselves, which will create 80,000 new apprenticeships right across Australia, this is actually what makes our economy stronger. This is what is building our economy. Because at the centre of everything - more funding for hospitals, up more than 60 percent since we came to government, more funding for public schools up more than 60 percent since we came to government, more funding for Medicare up 27 percent and the highest level of bulk-billing that our country has ever seen - all that is made possible by businesses just like this.
When we back these businesses in, as we have been doing with lower taxes and supportive economic policies, it means they can continue to build our economy to secure your future. That's what last week's Budget was all about; it's all about businesses like this employing more Australians, being more successful, keeping more of what they earn and their employees keeping more of what they earn.
As the NCSAEM modelling, the independent modeling has shown, people on average wages will be $1,000 better off under the Liberal tax plan than under Labor's tax plan.
Of course we've been out there backing these businesses for a long time. I remember being here with Bert at the last election and we were talking about reducing taxes for businesses just like this. The Labor Party opposed us. They opposed us every step of the way. They went to the last election saying this business should pay higher taxes. We won that election on the basis of reducing their taxes and supporting small and family businesses, right across Australia including here in Queensland and south east Queensland.
So that's all part of our plan to build our economy and secure our future. I'll tell you what's not in our plan; what's not in our plan is higher taxes. What's not in our plan is Labor's reckless emissions targets. Their reckless carbon targets, that is not only will drive up the prices and drive up the cost of doing business for businesses just like this one, with higher electricity prices, but it’s a war on the weekend, when it comes to the vehicle you drive and the vehicle you want to choose. The sort of vehicles that Bill Shorten wants you to drive, you can't get one for less than $45,000 and it won't tow that boat. It won't tow that trailer. It won't get you to a favorite camping spot, as well. That's part of Australian’s way of life. What Bill Shorten is seeking to do is take away your choices. They've learned nothing, but they will change at all if they're elected.
So I'm really pleased to be here today. It's all part of our plan to build our economy, to secure your future. It's a really good plan for Queenslanders and I'm going ask Amanda to talk a bit about that, then happy to take some questions.
SENATOR FOR QUEENSLAND, AMANDA STOKER: Thank you, good morning. Well might be hear in Yatala right now checking out GCI, this is wonderful local business. But we see businesses like this doing great work right across the state. Whether you're in Rockie or Emerald or Roma or right here, you see the benefits of the Liberal Nationals commitment to growing business. Labor like to pretend that enterprise and growing business is a dirty word, it's a dirty concept. But there's a very good reason we do it; the reason we fight to make it easier for businesses like this to stay in business and to grow, is because of the people who work for them. There's 140 people working here, a dozen apprentices getting their start in their career. But there's 7.7 million Australians in workplaces just like this. When we give them chances to grow, we give chances for all Australians to succeed, chances for all Australians to reach their goals and to reach their potential.
That's why it's so great to be here sharing many of the benefits that come from the Budget for businesses just like this one. Thanks.
PRIME MINISTER: Thanks Amanda and we’ve got a new partner for you down here on the Coast. Tell us a bit more about who is running down here in Moncrieff?
BERT VAN MANEN, MEMBER FOR FORDE: Well, wonderful news over the weekend, to see local businesswoman Angie Bell being preselected for the LNP for the federal seat of Moncrieff. I rang Angie and congratulated her on Saturday and I look forward to working with her through the upcoming election. But more importantly, welcoming her to Canberra as part of the Coalition team and the Government after the next federal election. But terrific news, to see another terrific local businessperson preselected as part of the LNP team going forward.
PRIME MINISTER: Great to have Angie Bell on the team.
JOURNALIST: [Inaudible] weekend was a bit extreme wasn’t it, what do you say, are they going to destroy the Australian way of life?
PRIME MINISTER: Well what I'm saying is Bill Shorten is not going to give people a choice in the future. I mean, electric vehicles currently make up 0.2 percent of the vehicles market, for new vehicles in Australia. He believes he can take it to 50 per cent in 10 years. But it's not just that, it's also the carbon emissions per kilometre that he’s imposing on the Australian economy. Now there's only two out of 20 top selling vehicles in this country that go anywhere near Labor’s standard. So your Hilux, that's out, according to Bill Shorten. Even the Hyundai i30 does not meet Bill Shorten’s carbon emissions standard for vehicles. So what Australians have always expressed a preference for, is the vehicles that have a bit of grunt, have a bit of power, because they like to enjoy the great recreational opportunities that are out there. What Bill Shorten wants to corral Australians into as part of his plan, is out of the sort of lifestyles that are supported by the vehicles they're currently buying. So I think it just shows he doesn't get how Australians like to live. I think what he's saying with his new carbon policy when it comes to vehicle emissions standards, it’s one that really is taking choice away from Australians.
Now I support people buying electric cars. We've got our own plan that is designed to facilitate that, but we're leaving the choice in the hands of Australians. That's what we're doing. We're letting them have the choice, Bill Shorten wants to take that choice away. This is what I mean when I say Bill Shorten, he wants to change it all. They have learned nothing, they’ve changed nothing in terms of how they go about politics and policy - but they will change it all, with higher taxes and encroaching on the very choices that Australians want to continue to make.
JOURNALIST: Newspoll this morning is slightly better than Ipsos, but you are starting from behind, correct? Do you agree that you’re the underdog in the campaign?
PRIME MINISTER: We’ve been the underdog in this campaign right from the outset. What I know is Bill Shorten has already measured up the curtains and for all I know, he's probably gone out and bought the curtains. But my suggestion is he should keep the receipt, because I think the Australian people will have a bit more to say. Because what we've seen with Bill Shorten, particularly on his reckless carbon emissions policy is he's not across the detail of his own policy. And if he can't explain it, if he doesn't understand it, how can he expect Australians to. And if you don't understand it don't vote for it.
I mean Labor is about lies and higher taxes, that's what you'll see over the course of this campaign. We're about building our economy to secure your future, to back in businesses like this. We understand that if you want to list more medicines, affordable medicine on the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme which takes drugs from hundreds of thousands per course, down to $6.50 for a concession and just over $40 dollars for another patient, the only way you can do that is by ensuring you have a stronger economy and a balanced Budget.
Labor once promised before that they would list all these affordable medicines. But when they were in government they stopped doing it, because they ran out of money, because they don't know how to manage money.
JOURNALIST: [Inaudible] turn those polls around and –
PRIME MINISTER: Our Budget sets out once again our plan for a stronger economy to secure and guarantee the essential services that Australians rely on. The resources for doing that, come out of success of the business that we're standing in today. Backing in small and family businesses all around the country, keeping taxes down and investing a $100 billion in our infrastructure, that not only bust congestion and upgrades things like the M1 here in south east Queensland getting people home sooner and safer, it gets workers to work sooner and safer, it gets tradies onsite out of the traffic jam.
We've got a plan for managing Australia's population growth. Labor has no such plan. Every time you hear Bill Shorten lips moving, he's increasing his taxes. Every time he opens his wallet, he's opening yours.
You will get the bill from Bill Shorten, for each and every thing.
JOURNALIST: Do you concede you can’t win?
PRIME MINISTER: Not at all, not at all. You know our Government has always backed the hard work and effort of Australians. That's what we believe in, that's what we're backing in and I'm very pleased to go to an election backing in Australians who are working hard and saying to them; “I want you to keep more of what you earn.” I know Australia gets stronger by the hard work of all Australians.
I don't believe you need to set one group of Australians against another. I don't think that one worker gets a pay rise, by having to sack another. That's Bill Shorten plan.
My plan is to grow our economy so all Australians can benefit and they can share in their own hard work and rewards.
JOURNALIST: Just on another subject, animal activists have this morning brought the Melbourne CBD to a standstill. They’ve chained themselves to [inaudible]. What’s your message to them and what can you do?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, I think state and territory governments should ensure that the full force of the law is brought against these green collar criminals. I can also say for those who are out there attacking our farmers, our farmers that are going through some of the hardest conditions that we've seen in this country for more than a century in some cases - facing floods, facing drought - these farmers, these graziers, these pastoralists are subject to the indecent attacks of green collar criminals.
Now last Friday, we introduced and made regulations which are now in effect that subjects “Aussie farms,” this activist group, to the full force of the privacy laws in this country. They can face fines of almost up to $500,000 for the sorts of things - potentially - that they're engaged in. But I also say this; if there are pastoralists and farmers or graziers or groups that are in a position to actually bring a civil action against these groups, these green collar criminals who are looking to undermine their livelihood and the economy of the Australian people then the Commonwealth is totally open to supporting them in a test case, to show these green collar criminals that you don't get to go and pull the rug from under our Aussie farmers.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister will the Government sign off on the Adani project?
PRIME MINISTER: We're taking the advice from scientists, like we have on all the approvals and both the Queensland State Government the Commonwealth have been considering a large number of these approvals. There are some remaining on some very administrative matters, there's sub-approvals for early approvals. So we're following the normal administrative process on that. We'll be taking the advice of the scientists when it comes to making those decisions. I don't think there is anything particularly unique about these remaining matters. They are quite minor matters in the scheme of the broader approvals that have already been provided. Like in all the other cases, we will be relying on the scientific evidence that is provided to the government in making those decisions. Thanks very much.
JOURNALIST: When is the election?
PRIME MINISTER: May. Right, thanks guys.
[ENDS]