Interview with Paul Murray - Paul Murray Live, Sky News Australia

7 November 2019

Prime Minister of Australia

PAUL MURRAY: Prime Minister, thank you so much for the chance to chat.

PRIME MINISTER: Thanks, Paul. 

MURRAY: All right. Before we get to the drought, there are some big announcements today, I want to go through some of the stuff that is around in the news. Before we get to the fun of the Labor Party review, how was your meeting with those mothers yesterday and their want for a Royal Commission? What was the experience like to look those mums in the eye?

PRIME MINISTER: Well, it was a very, very moving experience. We were there for about an hour and a quarter, actually. And I just listened and it gave me a real, a much better understanding about what they were seeking through a Royal Commission. And the Royal Commission can do many things. And think it was a good opportunity for them to talk that process through for them what it would mean for them, how it would help them and others who are going through that terrible, terrible set of circumstances. And so, I mean, they were aware that I hadn't ruled it out. And it's something that I am actively considering, along with our response to the Productivity Commission and a range of other issues. So, you know, as you know, I'm not one to move into those things lightly, and there are a range of other things we're doing. So,  I'm actively considering that. And I'd like that to be considered along with these other things that we're doing because there is a lot happening. And one of the key points they did make and I agree with them and actually so does Defence and others. And that is we have to prepare our servicemen and women for their life after service almost from the very day they join the service. And for their sons, that never happened. And that is happening now. There are changes that have been more recently introduced in that and a range of other issues for transitioning and other support. That wasn't there for their sons. And so we need to make those changes. And I don't want us to slow down on the things that we are doing. We need to do all of that. But it was good to get from them what they would take out of a Royal Commission, and that helps.

MURRAY: There's been a big decision in Melbourne today. The Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews has essentially made the choice of environment over massive parts of the logging industry. Is that the right call?

PRIME MINISTER: I don't know what they have against regional Australia. There’s 1,600 jobs. I mean, the Labor Party, whether it's in agriculture or it’s mining or it’s forestry... we made this point at the election - you can’t trust them because they are a progressive left wing party, which wants to tell you what sort of job you can have and how you can earn your living and where you can live and where you can have an income in regional Australia. And this is just another example of that. I mean, it's their decision. We were working with them in good faith on the regional forestry agreements, as we've done with other states, and they’re clearly going down a different path. And this assumption that you can’t… that you can do it all with plantation forests. Well, no, you can't actually. It's the dominant but it's not all of it. And there are products that come from what they're shutting down that can't be replaced in other sectors. And there's a whole other flow-on set of industries and jobs that sit around that. I just don't think the Labor Party gets regional Australia.

MURRAY: The election review has come out into the Labor Party, 94 pages, couple of dozen recommendations. They've even done a 500-word precis for anyone who wants to dig through it. Two-part question about this. Did they lose the election? Because that seems to be the assumption where all of this starts, rather than you winning the election?

PRIME MINISTER: Well, as I said on election night, the Australians who just go on about their lives every day, they're the ones who won the election because they decided what they wanted. I continue to see in Labor's whole attitude that they still don't get that. It's all about them, apparently. No, it's not about the Labor Party. It's not about the Liberal Party. It's about where Australians are at and what they want for their future. I mean, a huge part of the election was that we, I believe, spoke very clearly to the aspirations of Australians. They know things are hard and we will talk about the drought in a second. But the Australians have got irrepressible optimism and I don't think they understand that. And that's what I thought they spoke down to and whether it was in regional Australia or metropolitan, the suburbs and all these other places. But it seems like the report is 60 excuses as to why it wasn't their policies. It was their policies. Their policies were not where Australia wanted to go. And they seem to be in denial about that. But that's their problem. We'll stay focused on what Australians want us to focus on and remain true to what we took to the election and was supported at that election. Today is a classic example - they’re spending the day talking about themselves, and we're focused on actually delivering serious support for drought-affected communities.

MURRAY: But it must be frustrating that at the very same time as you were making the announcements about drought today, this report was also being released and for much of the afternoon the media seemed way more focused on the report than the money for the drought. What does that tell you about the political climate? 

PRIME MINISTER: Well, it tells you a bit about the bubble, I think. But for me, I mean, that's their problem. I mean, for me, what I was focused on and pleased to be getting some really good feedback from rural and regional communities today from the package we announced today and it's in response to listening to them very carefully about what they believe needed to be the next step in what we are doing. So, you know, I had a footy coach once and he always used to say that you can never complain about the field, right? If it's raining, if it’s windy, if it’s muddy, you know,  that's where you’ve got play the game that day. And I have a very similar view about how you deal with the media. It is what it is. And you deal with it.

MURRAY: Very good point. All right. Well, yes, let’s talk about drought. But before we get into some of the specificity, I want to sort of deal with an elephant in the room here, which is there seems to be two different ways of interpreting the Government's drought response. The people in the regions and the people who love the regions but don't live in them. And they seem to be the pockets of people who write some pretty ferocious emails about the Government's response. What can you say to get these people to look twice at the efforts of the Government? Because it feels like, as we've seen in previous governments, previous prime ministers, once a certain attitude starts to metastasize, it becomes a real problem.

PRIME MINISTER: Well, the policies we have to put in place, the support we have to put in place actually has to make a difference and work in the communities they're designed to. That's how you should frame policy. That's where your focus should be. And that's where our focus has been, in those places. And in those places, they understand the challenges of the drought and they also understand what the needs are and they've been telling us about that and we've been constantly responding to it. In metropolitan areas and in city areas where it isn't a day to day issue, there's lots of opinions. And that's fair enough. We’re a country where everybody can have one, and that's fine. But what my point is, is our job is to demonstrate how these policies are actually making the difference in the places it needs to make the difference. So that's what we've done today. I mean, our plan, as I said to you when we got together last time, has three components. The direct assistance to the farmers and graziers, families and themselves and what they do there. And we look after the sort of income support side of that. The states look after what's going on on the farm. Then there are the communities themselves, which are also deeply affected because of the loss of income from the agricultural sector. And we’ve put big stimulus into those towns and communities. And thirdly, there's the longer-term issues of the irrigation infrastructure or the water infrastructure and the silage facilities, all those sorts of things. So that's what we've been doing. And today, what we knew was there are so many farmers who know they will get to the other side of this drought. They know that on the other side of this drought there is a profitable, successful, viable business, as there has been for generations before. And as the drought has gone on, initially there will be some farmers who are marginal before the drought. And you see that in droughts, but as it's gone on even longer, well, those who have had good farming practices, those who have made preparations, they're the ones who have got into greater difficulty as time has gone on. So the loan scheme that we announced today, which is the feedback we've had from the sector, zero interest loans means for two years they are able to get the capital they need and whether it's to transfer their stock for agistment or pay for fodder or cart water or do up their dam infrastructure on their property or clean them out or whatever it is they're doing for their farming practices. They can do all that, keep the farmhands employed and all that sort of thing because they know in two years time they will be in a position to actually have the business service that loan. 

MURRAY: But what happens if it doesn't rain in the next two years?

PRIME MINISTER: Well, in two years time, if we're still in that situation, then we would look at those loan arrangements again. But our expectation in framing this is that within that two year period, we would hope and certainly they would too that they’d be harvesting two years from now.  That they would have been restocking by that period of time. And as a result of our trade agreements and other things, they'll be doing a lot better. The thing about this drought which is a bit different is that farm prices have held up very well. In fact, they’ve increased every year for the last five years. And the equity level that the funds have had in their places has been growing as well. So those who made the difficult decision to leave the land, they been able to do it with a much better price. And that is factored into their decision about, well, was this a good time to go and how can they redeploy that capital and what they might want to do next in their lives. So the thing is that farming is a business. It's not a charity. And they don't like to be seen as a charity, either. They are running viable businesses that employ people and have done so over generations. So you give loans to businesses.

MURRAY: And is that why you're charging them interest and not just giving it as a grant?

PRIME MINISTER: Well, we're not charging interest for two years. And then it's a concessional rate of interest. And so the current concessional rate of interest on those that happened prior to now is 3.11 per cent. There'd be a lot of businesses in metropolitan areas that, you know, when they go through difficulties, would love zero interest loans for two years and concessional rates at 3.11 for a small business. But, you know, we've had that conversation before about the strategic significance of the agricultural sector. But there's $700 million in direct grants that we announced today. And that's the grants for the Roads to Recovery program. That's the grants of a million dollars each that all these councils will be getting. It’s the grants for the Building Better Regions programme. It's the direct cost of actually providing that zero interest for two years and that of itself is in the vicinity of over $70 million. And then, of course, there's the water that we're going to buy from South Australia to flow along the Murray, which is going to re-energise that whole district as they grow fodder, both to support themselves and the activity there and provide more fodder up into the drought-affected areas.

MURRAY: So that deal that you've been able to do with South Australia, you pay market rate, base rates? How does this work?

PRIME MINISTER: We pay the marginal cost of running the desal plant. And we anticipate that will be around about $80-odd million for 100 gigs. And through the swapping arrangements, that means we can release water over the next six months down through the system out of the Murray. And that will provide and that will be allocated through a tender process at deeply discounted. They’re not going to pay market rates. I mean, the market rate for water is about $1,000 a megalitre. This will be significantly discounted around about the cost of our production on those things and probably a lot less than that. So that will mean that they'll get access to the water. They can get their planning going, get their crops all ready. They’ll do that over two ways, I understand. Now that activity along that area, which has seen water flow past their properties. I mean, I've seen those terrible images, too. And this is why we thought this was an innovative way of addressing what is a particular problem along the Murray, which we all understand. That area itself is not in... there's water there but they can't access it because they can’t afford it. So this is going to be a way of, I think, providing some direct, immediate support to those places. But at the same time, we're helping farmers so they can help other farmers. It’s got quite a virtuous cycle to it.

MURRAY: Last question, hopefully again, we can get a chance in the next couple of weeks to present more questions from people, because they want to hear from you and hear from you in great detail. Prime Minister, thanks so much for your time.

PRIME MINISTER:  Thanks a lot Paul, cheers.

https://pmtranscripts.pmc.gov.au/release/transcript-42511

Press Conference - Canberra, ACT

7 November 2019

Prime Minister of Australia

PRIME MINISTER: Good afternoon, everyone. I'm very pleased to be joined by the Deputy Prime Minister, the Minister for Agriculture, the Minister for Drought and the Minister for Education. Since June of 2018, our Government has been rolling out our response to the drought that has been sweeping across our country. As every month has passed, the difficulties have increased. And as every month has passed, we have listened, we've learned and we've continued to step up what we've been doing in our response to the drought that is affecting somewhere in the vicinity of around 40,000 farms across the country. And that number is growing. 

Our response has had three components. Firstly, to ensure we are providing that direct help to farming and grazing families and communities. We have delivered that through direct cash assistance through the Farm Household Allowance. This puts food on the table, helps keeps kids in school. We've ensured that through the support we've been providing, and I'd say states have assisted with this as well, that we're keeping wherever possible stock watered and fed, caring for the mental health of these families and these communities and also sitting around the kitchen table with them through our rural financial counsellors and helping them with the decisions and the difficult decisions they're making through drought. Supporting those communities by providing stimulus, important stimulus into these communities. Because when the income from the farms and the grazing properties go, then the towns are adversely affected. And so we've been seeking to mitigate that through programmes like the Drought Communities Programme, putting a million dollars into each of these shires, direct cash injection into these communities to keep businesses open, to keep businesses and their employees in jobs, and to ensure that we're also keeping the communities together through these programmes. Their best support in these circumstances is each other. And the Drought Communities Programmes have played an important role in bringing communities together at numerous events, from camp drafts to whatever they've decided is the best way to get people together.

There's been support directly through charitable organisations, more than $50 million through the Salvos and Vinnies and the CWA and others. That's providing $3,000 emergency cash payments to those in these communities, to those most in need. And we want to thank our partners in the charitable sector for doing that. And we have focused on the resilience for the next drought and the one after that, with major investments in water infrastructure, both on-farm and off-farm investments to support the construction and maintenance of silage, to keep farmhands in jobs, on properties, everything from fixing fences to getting rid of weeds and pests and sinking bores.

And then there are the big projects like where Michael and I recently at Dungowan and Wyangala. There are 21 projects currently all around the country and many of those already underway from Tasmania up to north Queensland. And those projects are continuing and being pursued through the National Water Grid. Since the election, we've put in place some $350 million of additional measures direct from the Budget. Things like Farm Household Allowance, drought communities programmes, extensions and so on, over $350 million alone.

Today we're announcing measures which triple that support up to after the election to just over a billion dollars. On top of that, we are providing loan support, which you have seen reports of this morning and my colleagues have spoken about this morning, of over a billion dollars in new interest free loans that will be made available to farmers and grazing families, as well as small businesses within local communities that are dependent and service the agricultural sector.

Now, I'm going to ask my colleagues to run through all of this in all the measures that we have. But just to give you a quick overview. First of all, the funds we're putting into those zero interest loans. What this is doing is supporting farmers and graziers who know they have a future in the sector and are committed to getting to the other side of this drought and knowing that better days are on the other side. And this gives them the massive breathing space to be able to make the investments, pay the employees on the farm, do the work that they need to do, purchase fodder, agist their stock, make the decisions that they know they are going to need to take over the next few years to ensure that they get to the other side. But it's not just that, because we've heard that this support needs to go to those agricultural supporting small businesses in these towns. It can be the local mechanic who's supporting solely what's going on in the agricultural sector. And the ag sector needs them and they need the ag sector. And these same loans of up to $200,000... sorry, $500,000 are providing them with that same opportunity to keep their doors open. They will have debtors on their books that they know won't be able to pay in the short term. And they're going to have to carry that. And this helps them carry that. This is helping them help their communities with what they're doing.

On top of that, we're extending the Drought Communities Programme. And I'll ask David to talk more about that and Michael will talk to you about the drought-affected communities, specifically Building Better Regions programme for the next round. There will also be a supplementary programme on Roads to Recovery. All of this providing direct further and significant stimulus, putting cash into these communities, which will keep them viable and keep their economy ticking over the years ahead as they work their way together through drought. We're also providing a special assistance, as was successful up in response to the North Queensland floods. And I'll ask Dan to detail that, which is helping farming and grazing families keep their kids in school. This is, of all the places that I remember going up to Quilpie with Michael and Bridget and David soon after becoming PM. One of the toughest families I've seen are the Tullys. But when Mrs Tully... the only time she broke down, after all of the things she's been through, which includes breast cancer, by the way, the thing that really got her upset was worrying about whether she could keep her kids in school. And this is as much for the mental health and wellbeing of these families as it is, of course, for the education of the kids themselves.

The other programme we will be announcing today and I’ll ask David to take you through this, is a water programme. We will be releasing 100 gigalitres along the Murray. That will be made available at discounted rates to farmers along the Murray to grow fodder, to increase the amount of fodder that will be available to support farming communities right across the country. This is something that we can do with the support of the South Australian government by us supporting them in cranking up the desal plant and enter into some borrowing arrangements on water, which will enable us to release water down the Murray, where so many of those farmers have seen water going by their properties. This will put them to work to help those farmers, help other farmers, when it comes to growing the fodder that our drought-affected farmers are going to need. This is a practical measure which both deals with the hardship along the Murray. But importantly, deals with making available more fodder, putting more into the system so there's more available to those breeding stock which desperately need it. Michael.

THE HON. MICHAEL MCCORMACK MP, DEPUTY PRIME MINISTER AND MINISTER FOR INFRASTRUCTURE, TRANSPORT AND REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT: Thank you, Prime Minister, and it is a privilege to be here with my colleagues. We sat around the Cabinet table yesterday and we talked about what we needed to do because we've listened to our regional communities. We've been out there. We've talked to our farmers across kitchen tables. We've talked to our regional small businesses across their counters. We've heard their stories and we are acting. This is the right help, right now, it's not contingent on the states providing any money. We're doing it as a Federal Government because we know we know that is a stepped process, as the Prime Minister has just said, that this is the right help, the right package, right now. We're going to make sure that our rural and regional communities that are suffering from this terrible drought have the right assistance right now. And it goes to the Building Better Regions Fund. Now, this is the fourth round of that dedicated fund to the regions. We have made it a priority of this Government to make sure that that money always went to the right places. And indeed, this round is going to be a drought dedicated round. So for those drought-stricken communities, they will be able to apply for that $200 million of funding and the communities elsewhere in regional Australia, which are going Ok. They will understand, as I've already spoken to a number of mayors, a number of my colleagues, my parliamentary colleagues, and they understand. They understand that when they're doing it tough, that other parts of Australia come to help them. And they understand that right now they need to be in there supporting those drought-stricken communities. So the $200 million will be going to those drought-stricken local government areas. Those drought-stricken areas which need it the most right now. And we are also providing $138.9 million of roads recovery top-up for those 128 councils, which need to be able to maintain their roads, which need to be able to keep money in the towns. And, of course, whether they use their own road gangs or whether other road gangs come in from elsewhere outside their local government areas, that is going to keep cash flowing in their communities. Because when you get road gangs from outside those council areas, they need to be accommodated. They need to eat. And whilst they're maintaining roads, whilst they're building new ones, they'll be able to make sure that they're spending money in those communities which so desperately need it. We will never walk away from the regions. We will never walk away from our farmers. Never. We are making sure that we are providing the support that they need right now. We don't walk away from our farmers. Not now. Not ever. Bridget.

SENATOR THE HON. BRIDGET MCKENZIE, MINISTER FOR AGRICULTURE: Right. Well, despite the drought and the current hardship, we fundamentally believe that Australian agriculture has an incredibly bright future. But as each of us and our colleagues have travelled around drought-affected communities, whether it's in Yeoval, in Dalby last month or in East Gippsland in Victoria, it is tough out there. Our farmers are resilient. They're putting on a brave face. But when you're behind the dairy shed and you ask that very private quiet question, ‘How are you?’ they're not Ok, they are doing it really tough. And so I am incredibly proud to be part of a Government that has made the prosperity and sustainability of agriculture and our regional communities its number one priority. And to be able to stand here and since the election to have delivered a billion dollars into these communities, to sustain our farming families, to stimulate local economies, I think is very precious. So last month we were in Dalby announcing radical simplification and extension of the Farm Household Allowance. Whilst the package today represents a lot of new initiatives, which I know David as Drought Minister will go into. The Farm Household Allowance, as the Prime Minister said, is the way our Government has been supporting the frontline of this drought, our drought-affected farmers putting cash on the table. We've got before the Senate this coming week the legislation that will make sure lump sum payments for every single one of the 1,760 farmers whose four years will end this financial year will be able to access, apply for an access, an additional lump sum payment. The legislation also includes a rule so that myself, as Minister, at any point in time into the future, can assess the conditions, can assess the drought and its impact, and make subsequent lump sum payments as required. We have stood with our farmers and our communities from day one. We won't stop doing that. And Farm Household Allowance is a way we can do that. We're extending it obviously to four years out of 10 on the back of our farmer-led reviews and on the advice of the NFF who wanted to see a time limit of payment. So we are looking forward to delivering that next week and heading to the NT this afternoon and through drought-affected communities over the weekend to meet with them and help flesh out and describe how what we're announcing today can benefit them and their communities.

PRIME MINISTER: Thanks Bridget. Dan.

THE HON. DAN TEHAN MP, MINISTER FOR EDUCATION: Thanks PM. Earlier this year we provided assistance to schools that have been impacted by the floods in Queensland. We did that because those schools were saying to us that they were having parents who were coming to them saying that they needed help and they needed assistance, but they also had other parents who were too proud to do so. The programme enabled schools to be able to provide fee relief, to be able to provide textbooks, to be able to provide school clothing. And so what we're announcing today is using the similar approach that we had for the Queensland floods. $10 million for schools that are impacted by drought so that they can provide relief to families. And one of the other important things that was done in Queensland was when parents came in and sought assistance, what schools were able to do also was able to point them towards counselling to make sure that they were getting the assistance that they needed. And in many cases that the students needed, because, as the PM mentioned, the impact on parents of drought and worrying whether they'll send their children... to be able to continue to afford to send their children to school is a big one. But also the impact on students watching what their parents go through, seeing the toil, seeing the hardship that they have to deal with. We have to be able to provide the assistance as well. So there'll be $10 million for drought-impacted schools. And on top of that, we're also announcing $5 million to help childcare centres who are also being impacted because we want to make sure that those childcare centres can remain open and provide also relief for parents to be able to drop their kids off, get a break, be able to focus on other things, but also for those small children as well to get some time with other children playing and taking their mind off what they would be seeing all around them. So all up, $15 million dollars - $10 million to help schools, $5 million to help childcare centres.

PRIME MINISTER: Thank you, Dan, and David.

THE HON. DAVID LITTLEPROUD MP, MINISTER FOR WATER RESOURCES, DROUGHT, RURAL FINANCE, NATURAL DISASTER AND EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT: Well, thanks, PM. And as the PM announced earlier, we are proud to say that only in the last hour we have reached agreement with the South Australian government to supply 100 gigalitres of water to the lower southern basin to produce fodder and pasture, to put a real line in the sand in making sure that we can support these farmers with fodder not only now but in the future. There'll be 100 gigalitres delivered by the 31st of April, and we will repay that to the use of the desalination plant. Can I thank the South Australian government for their leadership, taking our hand in understanding the severity of this drought and if it doesn't rain, that we need to secure our fodder supplies into the future. This is one step towards that, making sure that we think outside the square, bringing new water into the basin to make sure that we use it wisely to ensure that all our breeding herd is protected. We will make sure that there are mechanisms in place that the allocations that are provided to where we believe are somewhere between 4,000 and 6,000 farmers will be subscribing to. It cannot be transferred. It must be used for fodder production. And so that we can continue to put downward pressure on fodder to make sure that it is affordable for farmers out there. This is a unique step, one that I think we as a Government took boldly and we sought the hand of the state government to come with us. And it just goes to show that sometimes Federation works.

Can I say that we are also complementing this with our new loan regime through the Regional Investment Corporation. Before the election we made a commitment of restocking and replanting loans of $200,000. Well, we're doing better than that. We're now saying let's go to $2 million and not only looking at the here and now being able to produce fodder for those farmers and being able to for them to use that money to buy fodder and water, but also to think to the future because it will rain and they'll need the capacity, they'll need the capacity to restock or to replant. And it takes time for their cash flow to replenish. And so what this does by having two years with no interest and no principal repayments means it gives them time for their cash flow to recover and then it goes to interest only. This is an important step in understanding the agricultural cycle and being in step with it as a Government. But we are going one step further because we understand that the drought extends past the farm gate. It goes into these communities. So for the first time, a new small business loan will be created for up to $500,000 to those businesses that support to provide services and products to agricultural production systems that give them the same regime. Two years with no principal, no interest to give them the opportunity to get back up on their feet, but also to be ready for the recovery. This is an understanding of the important role that they play and how our communities are intertwined between the small businesses and also the farming sector. So this is an enormous step in moving forward. And can I say that those that already had drought loans, it's important to acknowledge that those that already have drought loans will have the ability to switch on to this new regime. So if they've already signed up with the Regional Investment Corporation, they need only contact the Regional Investment Corporation, and they will be able to change to interest-free repayment free for two years. This is a real step forward.

The other regime that we're putting forward is the Drought Community Programme, a programme that has put a million dollars into community’s pockets to make sure we stimulate them in the here and now. And what we are saying is that there is 128 councils that have been identified already and 122 of those are already on it. And today my office is contacting each and every one of those shires to make sure that their circumstances have not changed. And the million dollars will only go to those shires that can demonstrate that they have still the same circumstances. That money will flow early next year. It will open up at the end of this month with their programmes to be back to us by January so that money flows. We're also appreciating the fact that this drought has spread right across this country and the severity in WA is increasing by the day. There is now an acknowledgement that we have to go and support those communities in the same way that we have those in the eastern seaboard. And so there is remit within the program to include WA shires into this as well to make sure that that stimulation continues. This is a whole of government approach, as you've seen from a multifaceted number of departments, and we'll continue to move as this drought moves. We've proven that as we worked through this drought and we will continue in the coming couple of weeks to work with the states. We made a commitment at ministerial council that the states and the Commonwealth would continue to work together. And I will bring together the state agricultural ministers in a drought-affected area, and we'll make sure that we stand shoulder to shoulder.

Today is an opportunity for the states to take our hand. This is not about politics. This is an opportunity to look after those one and a half million Australians affected by this drought, to work together. We've laid foundation stones for them to come with us with rate relief and payroll tax relief, to support us. That would be a stimulus that turns this drought around and gives hope. Today is about hope. It's about the future and making sure every Australian, every one of those 1.5 million Australians as well know that your Federal Government, and your state government is there for you.

Sorry PM, obviously, the Day report that we've released today, there are 18 recommendations, 14 of those have either been completed or are already in progress. There are four that we've accepted and we'll continue to work through that need a considerable amount of work. Our national drought strategy is one that's been in place for some time, all that Major General Day’s report has done is add to that strategy that you are seeing in action. As somebody whose electorate has been in drought for eight years, I can tell you our drought policy, our drought strategy has been in action, making sure those people, those people in Maranoa have had support all the way through and will continue to get the support. We will not take a backward step in this. We have proved that. And anyone that says otherwise is being disingenuous. It's time for the politics to be over. It's time for delivery. 

PRIME MINISTER: Thank you, We'll take some questions on the package.

JOURNALIST: On the concessional loan scheme, Prime Minister, what will the interest rate be after the interest free period? Will there be additional loan officers available to negotiate with farmers? They tell us that they're having trouble now working with the loans offices and secondly, what’s the total amount of interest the government expects to take over the life of these loans?

PRIME MINISTER: Well, let me make a couple of points. First, the cost to Budget of the interest free loans is actually $77.1 million dollars over the four years. So that's the cost to budget. The concessional loans, so after the interest free period, they will revert to a concessional rate and the Minister can take you through those arrangements. The next set of issues that we're working on, which we’ll make announcements on in coming weeks is increasing, beefing up the delivery capability of our agencies to support this program. That is the next matter that cabinet will be considering and I mean in the next couple of weeks, in terms of ensuring there is the support and resource within the public sector to be able to fully implement these measures, not just now, but into the future. We've seen how effectively this works with the North Queensland Livestock Industry Recovery Agency. That has been an enormously successful agency, not just in administering the programs, but getting out and about and talking to people on the ground and understanding the very points you've just raised, Mark. And that enables them to set their resource to be able to meet that need.

LITTLEPROUD: Thanks, PM. The current rate is 3.11 per cent, but obviously no one will be repaying a brass wazoo. And for two years, I don't know where the rates will be in two years time, but the rate is reviewed every six months, in May and November. It's predicated off the government bond rate plus the costs of administration. The board of the RIC makes those recommendations predicated on the rules that were outlined when the Regional Investment Corporation was passed through legislation February last year, which sadly was held up. We are some 6 to 12 months behind because we could not get bipartisan support for the Regional Investment Corporation. And so we are working as quickly as we can. You've got to understand that the staff that we put into these places have to have a certain skill set and that's not widely available and we're continuing to ramp up that. But we're working with a service provider through Rural Bank to make sure that that's complemented and ensuring that our turnaround times continue and improve we've got 18 staff on the ground in Orange as we speak now, that will ramp up to 32 as we find the right people. But we will continue to make sure that we expedite this and we get the support by our service providers as quickly as we can. So the delivery of this can be done in a timely fashion.

JOURNALIST: [inaudible] 100 gigalitres, the deal with South Australia. What amount of money is the Commonwealth putting into that? How's the deal arranged?

PRIME MINISTER: The total cost we anticipate will be $98.4 million in gross terms. But this will ultimately be a function of what the marginal cost of production of the water is in South Australia. There are two elements to this. There is an immediate 40 gigs which has been committed to by South Australia. And I want to echo what David said. I want to particularly thank Premier Marshall for the generous way that he is engaged with this issue. There will be a review in April which will review back to what the situation is in South Australia. And we have a contingency arrangement in that event that they are unable to continue with that which would deal with using water from Snowy. But that is a contingency arrangement. It's our expectation that we'd be able to, after the review, continue with the program with South Australia. So we'll be meeting the costs of, the marginal cost of producing the water and any administration around that. There will also be a 10 million dollar payment made to South Australia for their drought resilience and their drought support, which will be done with the South Australian government. So, I mean, that is in recognition both of South Australia's own drought situation, but it's also in recognition of the step up that Premier Marshall and the South Australian government have done in partnering with us on this. This enables us to put new water into the system without complicating any of the arrangements around the Murray Darling Basin Plan.

JOURNALIST: Will people with existing loans from other financiers to be able to refinance through the RIC and how is that going to actually happen?

PRIME MINISTER: Well, yes is the short answer.

LITTLEPROUD: Yes. And obviously they make representation, the Regional Investment Corporation. We have. I have to say that the commercial banks have been very proactive and supportive of the agricultural sector since this drought has taken place. We have constant meetings, both the Treasurer and I, with the banks and the Regional Investment Corporation there. So they work collaboratively. But in essence, anyone can refinance up to two million dollars of their facilities from a commercial bank to the Regional Investment Corporation. And I reiterate, those that have loans with the Regional Investment Corporation now under a drought regime can now change their structures to mirror this as well. It's important that people who are on current RIC loans make contact with the RIC and they get on this new regime.

PRIME MINISTER: So we've got just over $1.2 billion that has been provisioned for these actual loans. So that's $1.2 billion we're announcing on the loan side and there's just over $700 million, which is the direct budget initiative. So that's just shy of $2 billion in new measures we're announcing today.

JOURNALIST: [inaudible] Water scheme I think you mentioned, 4000 to 6000 farmers might be able to access the water. Just how broadly will the water go? And you have an estimate as to how much water each farmer, for example, may be able to get?

THE HON. DAVID LITTLEPROUD MP, MINISTER FOR WATER RESOURCES, DROUGHT, RURAL FINANCE, NATURAL DISASTER AND EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT: Look, we've estimated that off ABS data around the number of farmers there and their production systems. Obviously, we're trying to work through for what would be a minimum amount at this stage we got to a point of around 25 megalitres we think that that would be a feasible amount for someone to be able to use productively and produce enough fodder. So those types of arrangements are being finalised now to ensure that there is equity and obviously those that have accessed larger allocations during the year and the number of around more than 500 megalitres may be precluded from this. So to make sure that smaller farmers can get access to this and particularly dairy farmers who need pasture, we expect that there'll be some take up before Christmas and they'll want to deliver some pasture for the summer. But there'll be a considerable amount they'll want to have preplanning for March, April and then obviously moving in. And that's why we've acted as swiftly as we can. And that's why it did take leadership from South Australia to get this done now, because we understand the timeliness of this for agricultural production systems.

JOURNALIST: When will that water be available and how will the allocation be regulated to ensure it's used to grow fodder?

THE HON. DAVID LITTLEPROUD MP, MINISTER FOR WATER RESOURCES, DROUGHT, RURAL FINANCE, NATURAL DISASTER AND EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT: Well, it's non-transferable. So if you're provided one of these allocations after we get an expressions of interest and expressions of interest will determine the scaling up or down of how much per megalitres. But we think the baseline is around 25 megalitres effectively what will happen then is that if you provided one of these allocations, you will not be able to transfer it. You cannot trade it. You must go and produce something with it. That is the reality, we want to produce fodder and we want to produce pasture for those producers because this is a measure. While there is some good fodder coming into the southern part of the country at the moment, what we’ve got to understand is if it stays dry, we need to be thinking about six months in advance. And this is that this is the thinking of the government. We're not just thinking about the here and now. We're thinking 6, 12 [months] and even 5, 10 years ahead with our Future Fund. So this is a measure to make sure that we're protecting if we get into winter and it stays dry, that we're ahead of the game and we're putting pressure on fodder prices so they don't get out of hand.

PRIME MINISTER: So it's at a deep discount to market too, it's not being made available at market prices, it will be at a deep discount to market and that'll be worked through as part of the process. But we've got some basic estimates of that.

JOURNALIST: The cotton and rice planting window still open, could you use that water for cotton and rice?

PRIME MINISTER: it’s for fodder. And pasture.

JOURNALIST: Will it be [inaudible] and regulated?

THE HON. DAVID LITTLEPROUD MP, MINISTER FOR WATER RESOURCES, DROUGHT, RURAL FINANCE, NATURAL DISASTER AND EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT: There are mechanisms being devised as we speak around making sure that there is protection of that to make sure that the integrity of what this is, the intent of this is to provide is there. And we're working through with those water providers to ensure that. But there is cooperation from everybody, state, state bodies as well as those are the delivery mechanisms.

JOURNALIST: You’re saying 100 gig all up at a cost of $98 million, you get 40 gigs from South Australian government,

PRIME MINISTER: Well it’s 100 gigs that we'll get from South Australia.

JOURNALIST: And that's at a cost of $98 million?

PRIME MINISTER: That's actually at $88 [million], There's $10 million on top of that we're putting into the South Australian government for their drought fund.

JOURNALIST: And so will you allocate any water that you already have from anywhere else. So from the environment or,

PRIME MINISTER: No, none of that is being touched.

JOURNALIST: Can you provide any guarantee that South Australian taxpayers won't pay higher costs for their water bills?

PRIME MINISTER: Well, it's a net zero impact in South Australia because this is new water. They have all the existing allocations that they have now. And so that doesn't impact on any of the supply in South Australia, any of the cost of producing the additional water out of the desal plant is being met by the Commonwealth. And there is a review that will take place in April. And if it is of the view of the South Australian state government, that conditions have deteriorated there then the balance of the 60 gigs will be addressed by the Commonwealth.

JOURNALIST: Are you aware of the feasibility report around the desalination plant, will be made public?

PRIME MINISTER: Well that’s a matter for the state government.

THE HON. DAVID LITTLEPROUD MP, MINISTER FOR WATER RESOURCES, DROUGHT, RURAL FINANCE, NATURAL DISASTER AND EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT: That’s a matter for the South Australian government, we‘ve given them some money as part of the,

PRIME MINISTER: We’ll just help fund it. We didn't build it.

JOURNALIST: On exit packages, the NFF had called for that for Farmers that want to leave the land. Why isn't that something you considered? And is that something that you're open to in the future?

THE HON. DAVID LITTLEPROUD MP, MINISTER FOR WATER RESOURCES, DROUGHT, RURAL FINANCE, NATURAL DISASTER AND EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT: We are here to keep farmers on their properties. The data doesn’t, if you'd like me to finish, the data doesn't support it. In fact, there has been an increase in farmer’s equity considerably over the last five years because of an increase in farm valuations. In fact, last year, farm valuations on a medium price per hectare has gone up 10.7 per cent. So that gives farmers the ability to work with their finances and the Regional Investment Corporation to get through this drought. Those who want to have a go to go, we're going be there with them. So there is no need for us to enter into exit arrangements. We intend to hold the course and support those that want to be there and have a go.

PRIME MINISTER: And just to add to that, I mean, the farm prices at the moment. There's one thing in this drought that is helpful. It is that land prices have stayed up. I mean, if we're in a situation where they had plummeted and you're dealing with people who make a decision to leave the land, then obviously that would compound that problem even further. But the level of equity that's currently in these properties is at a very relatively high level. And as David has said, it has built the value every year for the last five years. So that actually provides an opportunity in these arrangements for the leverage that can be available to farmers to take on what we're talking about today. But also in the event if they make their own decisions about what they want to do with their properties, their properties are valued at strong levels at present and that actually assist them if that's the decision they want to take. But where those sorts of things have been applied in the past, that has been when you've been going through industry restructuring arrangements and where there has been a decision to facilitate people off the land. We're not seeking to facilitate people off the land. We're trying to assist them to stay on. And those who know that they have a future in the sector, then these measures will greatly assist them.

JOURNALIST: What would you like to see the states do to support this? Is there any indication they might waive payroll tax and rates?

PRIME MINISTER: Well, I'm glad you asked, because when we've gone round and spoken to people and my colleagues have and Michael as well, the two things that have come up most commonly for the states to do has been payroll tax holidays, and rate relief. Now we're putting a million dollars into every council. That's not to provide rate relief. That's actually to build things and keep people in jobs. It's a stimulus. And so that is a matter that has been raised quite consistently in Victoria and New South Wales and Queensland and South Australia as well. So that is a matter entirely for the states. After the drought summit last year, we concluded a new drought agreement which made it very clear that fodder and freight subsidies were also the responsibility of state governments, not the Commonwealth government. Now as you can see, we've, I think, put forward a very innovative way of addressing the fodder issue by increasing the supply of fodder, using the powers and the relationship we have with South Australia. New South Wales has the gold standard presently when it comes to fodder and freight subsidies. Queensland is a long way behind. Victoria is even further behind. Now, whether they want to support fodder and freight subsidies is a matter for them. Ultimately, the National Farmers Federation haven't recommended it I should note. But New South Wales, I think, has really set the mark, not just on that, but particularly, with Michael and I, when we were able to conclude with them those water projects and Dungowan and Wyangala, I mean, they're also clearing the way for dam projects as well.

JOURNALIST: [inaudible] New South Wales and Victoria, did you ask them to contribute as well?

PRIME MINISTER: There wasn't the need, with the arrangement we had with South Australia. The arrangement with South Australia is quite unique because of the desal plant and that provides an option which doesn't require us to go to those states. But with all of these measures, they're not set and forget, you know, if it's, we're here in April next year, June next year, September next year, drought continues. You can expect us to stand at this podium and be announcing further measures, two years from now when those interest-free periods run run up. Our hope is they'll be in pastures and they'll be harvesting. And the purpose of those loans would have put them in the position where they'll be then be getting back up on their feet. But if we find ourselves in a different situation than as a government we will continue to do what we're doing. You don't just release a drought strategy a year ago and then don't do anything else. You keep doing it every day.

JOURNALIST: [inaudible] the $3,000 assistance for households out, you announced.

PRIME MINISTER: That's already happening.

JOURNALIST: You announced it in September, but the paperwork is only just gone to the community organisations this week. When would you anticipate it actually being able to be disbursed?

THE HON. DAVID LITTLEPROUD MP, MINISTER FOR WATER RESOURCES, DROUGHT, RURAL FINANCE, NATURAL DISASTER AND EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT: It'll be delivered on the 22nd of November. The reason for the delay is that after the first tranche, the providers, the charities indicated that there was some concern around gaming of the system. Sadly, during drought, the best of Australians come out. But so too, sometimes is the worst of Australians. They indicated that there were some anomalies in how the administration of these moneys were being delivered. And so there were some recommendations by the department that we should tighten that to make sure those that deserve that $3,000 dollars get it. Now I get that it's taken some time, but it's important that we are using Australian taxpayers money and we need to get this right and we're going to get it right. And that's why it’s being done as quickly as we possibly can to make sure that there is integrity in the system and those that deserve it, get it.

JOURNALIST: [Inaudible] Days’ asked for an annual report on the drought to parliament, is that going to happen?

PRIME MINISTER: We'll be constantly reporting on what's happening on the drought. I can assure you of that. And that's what we're doing here.

JOURNALIST: But an official annual report to Parliament?

PRIME MINISTER: I’ll take that under consideration. But what matters is what we do. And I mean our Cabinet discusses the matters of drought on a very regular basis. I meant what I said over a year ago when I became Prime Minister. This has been our constant and priority focus and the job is a long way from done.

JOURNALIST: If you can get Federation to work and agree to the water deal, why can't you get the states to come together with the Commonwealth to sort out a drought policy so you can avoid all of these ad hoc announcements, which is what industry's been calling for?

PRIME MINISTER: Well, the Minister will be pulling together the state ministers again and all the states and territories I thought played a very constructive role in last year's drought summit. And we were able to agree a new drought agreement just shortly after that, that drought summit. The NFF has sought to get some consistency in the various triggers and measures that are applied in different states and territories. In my discussions with the states and territories, they are very keen to retain their own bespoke way of managing those issues. And it is true that each state and territory will have different needs and different other support systems that work through their own government arrangements. So they're keen to maintain complete autonomy over their own arrangements, which is their entitlement. That's what the Constitution says. But, you know, we will continue to pull them together and seek to facilitate their coordination wherever we can.

JOURNALIST: A second council is considering forgoing the $1 million in drought assistance. Do you need to tighten the formula at all as to how you deem who is eligible? And are you satisfied the projects that are being conducted, including toilet blocks in cemeteries, are suitable for the $1 million dollars?

THE HON. DAVID LITTLEPROUD MP, MINISTER FOR WATER RESOURCES, DROUGHT, RURAL FINANCE, NATURAL DISASTER AND EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT: Well, that's why, as I articulated earlier, we are contacting each and every one of those eligible councils that have been paid previously to make sure their circumstances has not changed. The reality is, the current criteria is that you must have over 17 per cent of your employment in agriculture, and there's a rainfall deficiency over 24 months with 12 months of that being below average. We're making sure that none of those circumstances change because that data is cut every quarter. Now we have had councils who have come forward and say they no longer need it. So we'll make sure the steps are there. Then I will make sure that I will look at this, the criteria closely to ensure that it is fit for purpose and that no one is left behind. And those that don't need to be there aren't. Let me say with respect to the programs of a toilet in a cemetery block. Yes. And you know why? Because you know who built that? A local tradie, you know where he got his goods from? A local hardware store. That's new money into that economy. I'm sorry. With all due respect, you may want to belittle something like a toilet block, but to those people, to those economies, that is new money that keeps that tradie going, keeps his apprentice going. And to not understand the intricacies and the fine balance of these local economies shows some level of ignorance.

PRIME MINISTER: Chris, the very patient Mr Uhlmann,

JOURNALIST: Yeah, while you’ve been talking about drought relief, the Labor Party has been releasing a review on itself. Do you have any idea why it lost the election?

PRIME MINISTER: The Australian people know the answer to that question and they're still not listening to them the Labor Party. I mean, it's 6 months after the election. Labor's still talking about themselves. We are focussed on what the Australians elected us to do, and that is whether it's acting on drought, whether it's dealing with the big challenges we've got in aged care, delivering the tax relief we said we do. I mean, today's trade figures are very encouraging. And I've just returned from the latest East Asia Summit where the RCEP agreement and we were able to make great progress on that, those trade agreements, incredibly important to farming communities as well, one of the reasons we are seeing that support for farm prices is that the expanded opportunities there is now for our agricultural sector because of those arrangements. The infrastructure program, which the Deputy Prime Minister leads is rolling out. That's what we're focussed on. Labour is focussed on themselves. They just simply cannot get past themselves. Thanks very much. Can I thank my colleagues also for the great work they've done in pulling this package together. And again, I very much want to thank Premier Marshall for the spirit in which he's engaged with us on this. He showed tremendous leadership, but he's also ensured, I can guarantee you that he's looked after the people of South Australia in the process as well. Thank you very much.

https://pmtranscripts.pmc.gov.au/release/transcript-42505

Doorstop - Bangkok, Thailand

4 November 2019

Prime Minister of Australia

PRIME MINISTER: I’m pleased to be here in Bangkok in Thailand with Minister Birmingham as part of the ASEAN Summit and the East Asia Summit. Australia has had a relationship with ASEAN for some 45 years and so this is an important place for Australia to be. It’s important for us to be here because one in five jobs depends on trade. And our trade with the ASEAN nations has been strong and it has been growing and we want to see it continue to grow and through the RCEP Agreement which has been a major issue which we have been working through as partners for some time now and we continue both here over these days and into next year. This is an opportunity to take trade forward for a set of countries which encompasses half of the world 's population, around about a third of the world 's economy and so the opportunity to be part of that, centred here on the Indo-Pacific which Australia's strategic focus is incredibly important. It is about jobs and also about the security of the region, keeping it open and ensuring that all of the independent and sovereign nations in our part of the world will continue to engage with each other, supply chains are built up which are good for Australia. We are here because of the jobs of Australians and ensuring the future jobs of Australians. 

Before I go to other matters, I was also pleased, as I'm sure all Australians were, to get the news and particularly for those on the ground of the rainfall in the western parts of New South Wales and up in Queensland as well, reports of anywhere between 15mm and even over 100mm in Queensland. Now, I know this is not breaking the drought but I tell you, it is a respite rain. It is respite rain which will give some real encouragement and some peace of mind to people right across our drought-affected areas in the country and we are hoping and praying for more and the Government is obviously going through the final stages of its next set of announcements when it comes to providing drought support and when Simon and I return to Australia, we will obviously be pursuing that as measures are coming up, working with our partners both in the agricultural sector and within the Government to deliver the next round of responses. We do not set and forget on drought, we continue to step up as things continue to progress in drought-affected areas in the country and we continue to make our response. 

But here, back in Thailand, back here at the ASEAN and the East Asia Summit, the focus is on continuing on working with our partners and yesterday I had the opportunity to meet with the Premier Li Keqiang with Simon and the rest of the team. It was a very positive meeting, it was a very honest meeting, a meeting that was very honest about what we are already achieving in our partnership and China's economic growth has brought great benefits to Australia and we welcome that and it is not just here I have done it, I have done in all places where I have been in various summits and other gatherings around the world. That growth in China will remain important for Australia in the future and so we acknowledge that and some $200 billion in trade occurs between Australia and China on a yearly basis. This is massively important to us. We have 200,000 Chinese students in Australia, we have almost $70 billion of investment. China is our fifth largest investor, of course the United States is our biggest investing partner. But this relationship is already achieving things and continues to achieve things. But we want to ensure it achieves more in the future and it was a very candid meeting about the ways we can ensure that that is achieved for both countries in the future and so I think the Premier Li Keqiang for the honest engagement we had yesterday. We recognise we have a great relationship but we know it can be even better and when we address important issues about how we continue to engage and I look forward to doing that in the future. So with that, I am happy to take some questions.

JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, what are examples of those important issues that you continue to engage? Can you give us an example?

PRIME MINISTER: The regularity of our engagement on the strategic economic dialogue, for example. That is an important part of the comprehensive partnership that we have where you can deal with issues whether it is the anti-dumping measures we have currently in relation to barley or there are issues around the licensing of abattoirs in Australia. These are just very practical commercial issues that are part of our partnership and these are matters that we are seeking to progress and appreciate the hearing we had on those matters yesterday.

JOURNALIST: Can I just ask strictly on RCEP, you’ve got the meeting tonight so it’s a little bit pre-emptive but how important is it, not just to Australia but to other RCEP countries, that India is part of the final deal and is there a prospect of the other 15 nations proceeding with finalising it and waiting for India to jump on board?

PRIME MINISTER: The door will always be open to India and it has always been our view and of many that sit around the table that this is a bigger and better deal with India in it. I think patience is the virtue in this and continuing to enable that to be achieved and there has been enormous progress made and Simon might want to speak specifically about this. The text of RCEP is done. The market access arrangements substantively between all the participants is also done, but we want to keep the opportunity for this arrangement to be bigger. Overall, I think it is about 32 is it is, Simon, of the world’s economy that is covered with India in. It’s just under 30 per cent with India out. But I think it is important to have India in and that is certainly our preference and to leave open the door, the mechanism. Let's not forget, this RCEP arrangement is twice as big as TPP. That’s how big it is. This would be one for the first time that will bring together India and China into that arrangement. And so these are important things worth being patient for.

JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, in your meeting with the Chinese Premier, did you discuss a potential visit to China at all or did he invite you to visit China?

PRIME MINISTER: We discussed many things. I am not going to go into the details of all of it because that is the nature of these meetings but we talked about the need to keep up the continuity of our dialogue. The meetings that you hold as part of our comprehensive strategic partnerships are really important. We have had many, many meetings and Simon has met with his counterpart on two occasions in the last year, Marise Payne has done the same thing. And so there is a lot of that happening in the relationship and so we want to see that continue and I look forward to those meetings with my counterparts again in the future.

JOURNALIST: By the way you’ve been speaking it sounds unlikely India will be part of the agreement later today. Is that your expectation?

PRIME MINISTER: I might let Simon comment on that.

SENATOR THE HON. SIMON BIRMINGHAM, MINISTER FOR TRADE, TOURISM AND INVESTMENT:  Thanks, PM. I think it is important with RCEP absolutely to appreciate firstly the scale of RCEP, the degree of difficulty in landing a trade agreement of this scale is (inaudible) with its size and the fact we are talking about 32 per cent of global GDP, 29 per cent if you don't have India still shows that it is an enormous agreement. Now, my understanding is, and I welcome the fact from all of our dialogue with India, that India is going to continue discussions and negotiations. Our door, as the PM said, is always open to India. We have been through this sort of process with big trade agreements before in relation to the Trans-Pacific Partnership. Of course, we had hoped and expected the United States to be part of that. The door in the TPP remains firmly open to the US. We want India to be a partner here as well but we have to make sure that progress is realised amongst the 15 nations who are there without India to make sure that we do capture the benefits that can come from greater openness within our region, a greater integration in terms of value chains, more common rules of origin. These are the things that make it easier for Australian businesses to do business through the region and that is what allows us to keep growing our exports. In all of this, we have to remember that over the last year, Australia has achieved record levels of exports, record trade surpluses and all of that fuels jobs in Australian businesses, and that is why we keep pushing ahead to create more job opportunities for those businesses.

JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, China has made it sound as if the Premier had a couple of quite stern messages for you. Did you have some stern messages for him?

PRIME MINISTER: I wouldn't characterise it in those terms at all. I am not quite sure why you have. Because I have seen the statement that the Chinese have issued and I didn't read any of that into that statement at all and that was certainly not the nature of that discussion yesterday at all. I thought it was a very positive discussion, a very good-natured one, one that understood the value of the relationship and wanting to put more value into the relationship. That was very much the nature of the discussion. So no, I wouldn't characterise it in the terms you have at all.

JOURNALIST: How can you characterise it as a good relationship when obviously, and you said that it was a candid meeting, you were upfront with each other about certain things. But just last week in Beijing issued a pretty stern rebuke to your own Foreign Minister after she raised in a speech concerns about China’s human rights record. Is there a disconnect between saying the relationship is strong yet every time we raise an issue there does seem to be this public outcry?

PRIME MINISTER: There is an honest acknowledgement, as we did yesterday, that we are two very different countries. We are a liberal democracy. They are a Communist Party state. We are not seeking to adopt their system and they are not seeking to adopt ours and so there is an honesty about understanding the differences between those two outlooks. And that was honestly discussed yesterday and understood. And so those types of disagreements from time to time, both the Premier and I are very committed to ensure don't overtake or overwhelm the rest of the relationship. I know in the commentary it can, but in the substance of the relationship, when the dialogue is taking place between leaders, it does not and it did not yesterday. There was, I think, a maturity in the discussion yesterday that understood the nature of our two countries and where the benefits are by working closely together on the things we agree on, understanding the areas where we have a difference of view. There is nothing, I think, extraordinary about that. There is nothing extraordinary about that at all.

SENATOR THE HON. SIMON BIRMINGHAM, MINISTER FOR TRADE, TOURISM AND INVESTMENT:  Matt, can I just add there, tonight I will leave to go to Shanghai, joined with 200 Australian businesses attending the China International export expo and we are there at the invitation of the Chinese government. I am there, 200 Australian businesses are there as a demonstration of the strength of the relationship. Our presence will be one of the largest of any nations who are there and we are doing so, cementing those positive aspects of the relationship and it is a demonstration that, yes, there are as they always are points of difference but the points of difference don't prevent you from proceeding in the areas of cooperation.

PRIME MINISTER: There was also a very good recognition and acknowledgement that Australia's position on these relationships is done independently and as a sovereign nation in pursuit of our own interests, that we engage directly, that our relationship with China is one about China and Australia and nothing else. We are pursuing our interests, they are pursuing theirs and there is quite an overlap. And we talked about overlapped in everything from the environment to plastics pollution, through to the very good work we do on health, particularly up in Papua New Guinea on malaria, we were talking about issues of infrastructure development. There was quite a range of issues we discussed where the interests completely aligned. And where that happens, great, and where they don’t, well then they’re not matters that we take forward together. 

JOURNALIST: Are you disappointed that President Trump isn't here?

PRIME MINISTER: It is not for me to be disappointed or not disappointed one way or the other. That is entirely a matter for the United States and entirely a matter for the hosts. We are a guest and we have been very happy to accept the invitation, as we have done always, and I thank ASEAN in particular and I thank the Thai Prime Minister for his very warm welcome to Australia and for the way that ASEAN leaders have engaged Australia in these events for many years. So I will leave those matters to the Americans and to the hosts.

JOURNALIST: Sorry, PM, just back on China, APEC has been cancelled obviously. Would you like to… it’s now been three years since a Prime Minister has met with President Xi, would you like to...?

PRIME MINISTER: I have seen President Xi on a number of occasions.

JOURNALIST: Sorry, an official bilateral capacity. Would you like to get some of that early in the next 12 months or the next meeting such as this? How important is that in terms of symbolism?

PRIME MINISTER: Well, as you know, I am not one who is big on symbolism. I am big on actions and the practical value of the relationship and I just ran through the key statistics, certainly the economic side of that relationship. We will continue to progress the relationship through the partnership structure that we have and what I received yesterday was a strong commitment of China wanting to do the same. So we know what the next steps are in taking the relationship forward. We discussed those yesterday and we look forward to pursuing those in the months ahead.

JOURNALIST: Did you raise with China the detention of Chinese-Australian writer Yang Hengjun and if not, why not?

PRIME MINISTER: We deal with lots of sensitive issues in these discussions, as we did again, and that is the nature of the candid relationship that we have, but we deal with those in those private discussions.

JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, you have said that the US presence here is a matter for them and the host nation. But yourself and senior ministers as recently as last Friday with Linda Reynolds have called for the US to really ramp up its efforts in the Indo-Pacific. So how does it sit with you to see pictures coming in overnight of Donald Trump sitting at a UFC fight at Madison Square Garden instead of being here engaged in these dialogues?

PRIME MINISTER: It is not about how it sits with me. This job isn't about how I feel. This job is about what we do and what we do in Australia's interests. See, I am here with Simon to pursue Australia's interests and jobs for Australians and the safety of Australians in the wonderful work we do with our ASEAN partners. I am sure many of you know the tremendous relationships we have on counterterrorism across our ASEAN partners. I will be meeting with President Widodo later today and we will talk about that. I have just been meeting with Prime Minister Mahathir with whom we have got an outstanding relationship when it comes to dealing with security matters within our region. So that is why I am here. I am not here to run a commentary on people in other places. I am here to pursue the interests of Australians and their jobs.

JOURNALIST: Can I just ask, how would you respond to concerns about a toxic culture within the Department of Treasury and what would you say to any federal department who is creating an environment where staff are uncomfortable?

PRIME MINISTER: Could you be more specific?

JOURNALIST: [Inaudible] that the Deputy Secretary of the Department is under investigation and we were told that there are concerns about a toxic culture in the Treasury.

PRIME MINISTER: Well, if you are referring to allegations regarding a public servant working for the Department of Treasury, you would also be aware that they would be matters that would be dealt with by the Department and the Department's Secretary and there is a proper process that would follow in those circumstances and my job would be to ensure that I allowed those proper processes to be followed and reach their conclusions. That is what my job would be.

JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, so India [inaudible] but we have bilateral relationships with... trade relationships with all those other members plus others, so what benefit is RCEP to us without India?

PRIME MINISTER: There is a bigger benefit to Australia in the broader integration of the Indo-Pacific. Simon made the point about value chains, I make the point about supply chains. The integration of the economies of the Indo-Pacific is incredibly important for the prosperity of the region, but also its security, of which Australia is also a beneficiary. This RCEP Agreement encapsulates, if you like, the economic dimension of this Indo-Pacific concept that we have been pursuing now for many years, and not just Australia. It is articulation from ASEAN was led by Indonesia and we strongly supported that. So this... I hesitate to use the word because it is jargon, but this architecture, which our foreign affairs professionals refer to these things, this is actually very important for the region because it does provide, I think, a stability both to the commercial nature of relationships between businesses that are working in the region and giving that more certainty and actually showing a clear way forward that we see businesses in this region all dealing with each other in a much more free and open commercial environment. Now, that is good for Australia because so much of what we do commercially in the world is in this part of the world, and the more successful this part of the world is, the more integrated it is, the more free and open trade is, the freedom of movement, the freedom of navigation, the freedom of overflight. All of these issues are so important to people in Australia having jobs, getting jobs and realising their own ambitions for themselves. So it is one of those big agreements, Simon, and that is why we need to be patient about it and so I wouldn't describe it at all in terms of carveouts. I would talk about it in the inverse of that with a very wide, open door. I will be meeting with Prime Minister Modi later today and of course, I will be meeting with him in January and there will be further opportunities there.

JOURNALIST: [Inaudible] there is also quite a strategic element to this relationship...

PRIME MINISTER: Oh, massively.

JOURNALIST: … just as a trade relationship, just in stabilising strategic relationships. What factors would be involved in that, how do you see that playing out in terms of the strategic...

PRIME MINISTER: Well, RCEP is the economic dimension of this. And, you know, where there is greater trade and prosperity being shared amongst all of the countries in this region, well, that promotes stability itself by definition and that is why it is important. I mean, ASEAN has been a great success over the last 45 years. They didn’t actually come together to be a trading bloc or anything like that, as Prime Minister Mahathir just reminded me, and he’d know better than anyone because he’s been around pretty much the whole time. He saw it as they did, as a way for these countries to preserve and pursue their own independence and sovereignty in this part of the world. That has led to them engaging in the way that they have and Australia has been a massive beneficiary of that by engaging with ASEAN.

SENATOR THE HON. SIMON BIRMINGHAM, MINISTER FOR TRADE, TOURISM AND INVESTMENT: Simon, stability isn't just achieved through government-to-government cooperation and the fact that RCEP will provide a stronger framework for businesses to cooperate, for the flow of people and all those aspects creates a greater sense of regional stability as well. In terms of your first question about, yes, Australia has agreements in place with all of the other RCEP partners are present except India. Some of those agreements, though, are old and some of those agreements largely focus on opening up the goods services’ market. There are real gains that Australia can get in terms of our services economy, financial services, areas of education, health sectors, in terms of the opportunity for Australian businesses to be better integrated in the work they do and to have more open access to work in some of the other RCEP partners. So we are very focused on how we can value-add to those existing agreements. There is a regional piece there that provides the type of strategic benefits the PM has spoken of but there are also clearly still direct tangible gains that we can make by improving on the FTAs that already exist.

JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, who is your tip for the Melbourne Cup?

PRIME MINISTER: Well, I think it is Vow and Declare, they are about 12-1. Now, I think I was on even worse odds than that at the last election. So at 12-1, that probably looks pretty good in terms of... I don't know if Newspoll is running something on the Melbourne Cup this year but I wouldn't be listening to that if they were. It would be great to see an Australian trained and ridden horse actually get home in the Melbourne Cup. There is a lot of international competitors this year so at 12-1, compared to some recent bets in the political sphere, that probably seems like a pretty good day. Thanks very much.

https://pmtranscripts.pmc.gov.au/release/transcript-42502

Respect and recognition for Australian veterans

3 November 2019

Prime Minister, Minister for Veterans and Defence Personnel

Australian Defence Force veterans will be able to access thousands of special discounts as businesses across the nation say ‘thank you for your service’.

The new Veteran Card released today by the Morrison Government will be available to all veterans as a practical demonstration of respect and recognition for their service.

Minister for Veterans and Defence Personnel Darren Chester will officially launch the Veteran Card today, which gives Australian business owners the opportunity to practically demonstrate thanks and respect for those who have served.

The Prime Minister said Australians had a great deal of respect for those who have served our nation in the uniforms of the Navy, Army and Air Force, and through the Veteran Card, veterans would have access to more than 10,000 offers from around 500 businesses, both over the counter and online.

“Much like the lapel pin gives every day Australians the opportunity to recognise veterans and thank them for their service, the offers available through the veteran card allow the business community to show its thanks,” the Prime Minister said.

“The broader recognition package we’ve developed which includes the Veterans Covenant, the lapel pin and card is a way each and every one of us, including the business community, can say to our veterans ‘thank you for your service’.”

Businesses honouring the Veteran Card include retailers, travel and tourism operators, accommodation and car hire, entertainment, hospitality, restaurants, as well as service and trade industries such as gyms to automotive mechanics. Offers are generally discounts on goods, gift cards and services, and range from 2.5 per cent to 40 per cent off. For more information on the offers available to Veteran Card holders, visit www.apod.com.au

More than 33,000 veterans and reservists have already applied and will begin receiving their covenant packs in the coming days.

Mr Chester will launch the card at Pushys in Fyshwick this morning along with representatives from other participating businesses and Australian Partners of Defence (APOD), which is partnering with the Department of Veterans’ Affairs to connect clients with the business community.

“Our Government is committed to putting veterans and their families first and we provide more than $11 billion every year in support for veterans and their families,” Mr Chester said.

“Bringing corporate Australia on board will be a tangible benefit to the veteran community, with the card providing access to services and benefits for eligible veterans.

“We are proud to be partnering with APOD — an organisation founded and run by veteran families for veteran families — to ensure veterans can easily find local businesses in their area that are showing that respect and recognition of their service.

“There are a wide range of businesses already participating, from retailers with hundreds of outlets Australia-wide through to veteran-owned and operated small businesses.

“There is no set criteria for how businesses choose to show that respect and recognition, but I have no doubt we will see the numbers grow with more businesses supporting the covenant and veterans and their families have made.

“I encourage all businesses to get on board with the Australian Defence Veterans’ Covenant and show their respect and recognition for those who have served to defend our nation.”

Businesses honouring the Veteran Card include retailers, travel and tourism operators, accommodation and car hire, entertainment, hospitality, restaurants, as well as service and trade industries such as gyms to automotive mechanics. Offers are generally discounts on goods, gift cards and services, and range from 2.5 per cent to 40 per cent off. For more information on the offers available to Veteran Card holders, visit www.apod.com.au

The Covenant encourages better recognition of the unique nature of military service and helps veterans and their families connect with the broader Australian community. More information on how to apply for and support the Covenant is available at www.recognition.dva.gov.au

Open Arms – Veterans and Families Counselling, provides support for current and ex-serving ADF personnel and their families. Free and confidential help is available 24/7. Phone 1800 011 046 (international: +61 1800 011 046 or +61 8 8241 4546) or visit www.OpenArms.gov.au

https://pmtranscripts.pmc.gov.au/release/transcript-42498

Visit to Thailand for East Asia Summit

2 November 2019

Prime Minister of Australia

I will travel to Bangkok, Thailand from 3 to 4 November for the 14th East Asia Summit and 3rd Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) Summit alongside some of Australia’s key international partners, who are vital to a secure and stable region, and the investment and trade that support jobs and our economy.

I look forward to hosting a Business Breakfast with both Australian and Thai business leaders to advance Australian jobs and opportunities abroad, and engage with those Thai businesses that are investing in Australia and those looking to increase their investment.

I will also attend a dedication service for the Hellfire Pass Memorial to honour the service of the brave Australians who were imprisoned there during the Second World War.

The East Asia Summit is the premier leaders’ forum for discussing the strategic challenges facing our region, providing a valuable platform to work with our ASEAN partners and the broader Indo-Pacific to ensure our region remains peaceful and prosperous. The RCEP Summit will consider progress toward a free trade agreement between 16 member nations that account for one-third of the global economy and 71 per cent of Australia’s exports.

At the EAS Summit, I will highlight Australia’s support and commitment to a vision for an Indo-Pacific region that has ASEAN at its centre, is open and inclusive, sovereign and independent and where the rights of all states are respected. I also warmly welcome ASEAN’s adoption of its Outlook on the Indo-Pacific.

This year marks 45 years since Australia became ASEAN’s first Dialogue Partner in 1974. Since then we have continued to build on our strong partnerships across the Indo-Pacific and look forward to further advancing our shared interests at the East Asia Summit.

ASEAN and its forums, such as the East Asia Summit, play a central role in supporting the rules and norms that have underpinned prosperity, security and stability in our region for more than 50 years.

https://pmtranscripts.pmc.gov.au/release/transcript-42497

Q&A, 2019 Queensland Resources Council Annual Lunch

1 November 2019

Prime Minister of Australia

QUESTION: Prime Minister, my name is Kylie Morris, I'm a correspondent for Britain's Channel 4 News. I'm just wondering, given the efforts that other nations are making to reduce their carbon emissions, and given that places like the Great Barrier Reef are - we know - under threat from climate change, your own government has issued an outlook report saying that climate change poses the greatest threat to the Reef. How can Australia justify opening new coal mines at this time in the Galilee Basin?

[Booing]

PRIME MINISTER: Because we have the best mining industry in the world.

[Applause]

That understands how to do this job properly and to do it sensitively and to care for the environment, because they are in a country which has a serious plan to address climate change and a resources sector that understands how to manage the impacts of climate change. I would refer you to the comments that I made recently at the UN General Assembly. I'm very proud of what Australia has been able to achieve. You may not know this - that since we came to government, we will meet and beat our Kyoto emissions reduction targets by 367 million tonnes. Now, when we came to government, we were likely to miss that mark by some 700 million tonnes. That’s a billion-tonne turnaround that the country has produced from when we first made those commitments to meet the Kyoto 2020 targets. And we’re going to meet our Paris targets as well, which we remain committed to. Australia is doing its bit. But Australia is not going to write a blank cheque with its own economy on this issue, which requires action from right around the globe. We are doing our bit. We will continue to do our bit. The resources industry will continue to do its bit. I would encourage you, while you're here - I don't know whether you are resident here or not or just visiting - but there is plenty of other information I am sure we can share with you which might be able to inform you on these matters.

[Applause]

QUESTION: Thank you very much. My name is John O'Brien, I'm the proponent of the CopperString Project. I want to thank you, PM, for your address but also for your initial support for the project. And I really want to congratulate you on your stated vision. It is so important that we have a vision of what we want and to have that sustainable resources sector which is an internationally attractive investment location. It is so critical. One of the key parts of that, though, from the resources sector is electricity supply and the cost of that and how it is provided. And electricity is actually a state responsibility. And I'm really keen to understand, it's a bit of a philosophical question, how do you address that problem of alignment of policy across each of the states in the federal area to deliver that energy, that fundamental alignment for delivering energy that supports your vision for the resources sector? 

PRIME MINISTER: Thank you for the question. A couple of things. First of all, I think one of the biggest changes that have been made in policy in this area and [inaudible] will know all about this because she had a key part in its development several years ago, and that is the reliability guarantee that was passed over a year ago now - I think it was just over a year ago - by the state and territory governments which ensures that within the national energy electricity market, there is a requirement to meet reliability supply throughout that market. And what that means is that it's giving greater certainty and stability for investment in reliable power generation. It's agnostic to the form of reliable power generation. And just this week, you would have heard Angus Taylor the Energy Minister announce a number of new measures which included an expansion of the Clean Energy Fund, which is providing additional concessional finance to be supporting a range of new both infrastructure projects from generation to transmission, to ensure we can firm up the reliability and the frequency of the grid. And that's important investment. We also announced a series of projects for underwriting, which basically means underwriting take-off agreements across a series of products from gas products, hydro projects, there was one coal project in Vales Point in New South Wales. We are taking our interventions there to provide that support. There is also a project which we announced during the election campaign which is one that had some recent attention and that is the report that we are having done independently on how we meet the reliable power generation needs of North Queensland to support heavy industry. That project I anticipate being completed by the end of this year. Angus Taylor is overseeing that through his officials and we have committed to get that done by the end of this year. And that will identify the key projects that can go forward from that. And obviously there's the Collinsville Project, which strikes me as being a particularly useful project, but it's got to go through the same processes as all the other projects and to identify what's the best way that we can support ensuring that North Queensland's heavy industry requirements are met.

But our approach to all of these issues I've got to say, is just practical. There are practical problems, they can appear in supply, they can be in transmission, they can be for householders in the retail sector. In the gas industry, there are other challenges and are just seeking to work with the sector, work with the state and territory governments to remove obstacles where we see them, fix problems where they are identified and put in place practical solutions. The project you've talked about, as you know, we’ve been providing some support to that around some feasibility work. Ultimately, decisions are going to be made about the viability of these projects. But we don't want to see these projects at least not get to a phase where they can be seriously commercially entertained. And we want commercially viable and sustainable energy production generation assets right across the country. Here in Queensland, you do have the youngest coal fleet here in Queensland. And that is why we did the interconnecter upgrade into New South Wales, because they need to access that. That's going to provide opportunities here in Queensland. We want to see more investment, we want to see energy prices down, we want to see access to gas, not just in Queensland but in other states as well, particularly New South Wales and Victoria. Because the gas supply to our commercial industrial users is critically important. Without it, our industries will not succeed and some may not survive. So I'm very keen to see the gas opened up like it is here in Queensland, in New South Wales and in Victoria. In Western Australia they have another system and they have good access over there. So there is a suite of policies but the focus is practical problem solving to ensure that the commercial industry can deliver on the needs both now and long-term both affordably and sustainably.

[Applause]

QUESTION: Prime Minister, John [inaudible]. Firstly, let me add my voice to many that have preceeded me and congratulate you on a magnificent, and for Australia, very fortuitous, election victory. I’ve actually got two questions and the first one is of greater national importance. How do you think the Sharks will go next year?

[Laughter]

PRIME MINISTER: Oh Ok. Well, we’re going without a home ground next year but you never know, that could just provide the false sense of confidence of others when they come down south to play us. But I’m looking forward to the season like I always do. I’m particularly looking forward to the Magic Round up here in Brisbane next year. I thought that was a wonderful innovation into the game this year, I know all the players had a great time and really were pleased to be part of the great festival atmosphere and the people of Queensland came out in support of the Magic Round I thought famously well. So look, that’s got to be on the calendar, I think forever, so long as the Sharks win. I can write that into the contract or something.

PRESENTER: I think you can, you can do what you want.

QUESTION: Would you like the easy question now?

PRIME MINISTER: Please.

QUESTION: How can your government ensure that the multinational companies who have been invited here by various governments develop our gas reserves in a timely manner, particularly with respect to the time frame when we have a gas shortage in this country?

PRIME MINISTER: That’s a good question. Look, there are a range of approvals and consents as they all know that require particular actions on their part. What we don’t want to do is interfere in the normal commercial processes that go on between those companies. I mean, we’re not running some sort of state-run gas sector here in Australia. That’s not what we’re seeking to do. We want the industry to [inaudible] the sovereign risk of those types of interventions. But at the end of the day, the things that we can do, I think, is really to make sure that the regulatory process is streamlined so if there are delays, it’s not down to decisions that are being made by our officials and our government processes. I’d like to see the same thing happen at a state level. This is an unrelated issue but I’ve got to say, particularly with the drought at the moment, I welcome the great support we’ve had from the New South Wales Government particularly in getting some major dam projects going. And it’s not just because they’re putting money in, it’s because they’re clearing blockages away from getting the projects done. I know Deb made a very big announcement last night about her commitment and the LNP’s commitment to water infrastructure in Queensland. I welcome that very strongly and I hope that we have the opportunity to build those dams together because it’s great to see a Queensland leader who wants to build dams.

[Applause]

PRESENTER: I think we’re done. We’ve covered many issues, including the Sharks. Please thank our Prime Minister.

PRIME MINISTER: Thank you very much.

[Applause]

PRIME MINISTER: Just one more thing. It was alluded to before by Ian. When we were dealing with the immediate aftermath of the terrible floods that devastated North Queensland, not just in Townsville but particularly west of the range, I personally saw the heartbreak of those farming families as there were carcasses just littered from one end of their property to the other. And as we, in those early days, were working together with the state government and the local governments, the challenge of actually getting through that carcass disposal period, that was met in huge part by the mining and resources sector. They turned up in these communities [inaudible] and it was not just incredibly practical and generous but gave everybody an enormous shot in the arm. Glencore and so many others who just turned up for their communities, I want to say thank you very, very much and we continue to see that as we deal with this dreadful drought. We see the resources sector being a partner in actually helping our rural communities get through this drought. I was asked in the Parliament - Pete and the other guys will remember this - the other day, I was asked should we stop… you know, was the mining industry responsible for the drought? And it was an offensive question from the Greens. The mining industry is helping our farmers at a time of drought like I’ve never seen before and I want to say thank you to the resources industry as a whole for the tremendous work you’re doing to help our farmers. Thank you.

https://pmtranscripts.pmc.gov.au/release/transcript-42499

Mining industry to receive skills boost

1 November 2019

Prime Minister, Minister for Employment, Skills, Small and Family Business, Minister for Resources and Northern Australia

Trainees and apprentices will be taught skills that better match the needs of employers in the mining industry, under a Skills Organisations Pilot announced by the Coalition Government today.

The Pilot will ensure trainees and apprentices, particularly those in remote areas, are part of a growing workforce to support the mining industry, as well as the broader Australian economy.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison says the Pilot will ensure more Australians are able to get a highly-skilled job. 

“This is about making sure more Australians are able to find a job, particularly kids in remote areas. I want these kids to come out of training college with the skills they need to go land a job in the mining industry,” said the Prime Minister.

“We need to make sure we are teaching the skills employers are demanding whether they be heavy diesel fitters, automotive electricians, communication technicians or mine engineers.  

“I know that mining is a high-skill, high-wage industry and this is a further statement of confidence in the industry’s future. It recognises mining’s critical role as a creator of job opportunities in regional and remote Australia, including for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians.

“A stronger mining sector means a stronger Australian economy.”

Minister for Employment, Skills, Small and Family Business, Senator the Hon Michaelia Cash, said the industry is committed to ensuring the availability of high-quality training and strong employment pathways for learners.

“Establishing a Skills Organisation Pilot in this important industry will help ensure the ongoing availability of a highly skilled workforce to support the mining industry, as well as the broader Australian economy,” said Minister Cash.

“The Australian Government is committed to a strong vocational education and training (VET) system that is able to deliver a strong and adaptable workforce, and provide employers with access to the skilled workforce needed to grow their businesses.

“Australia’s mining services sector creates jobs, builds skills, and attracts investment supporting more Australian jobs.

“Strengthening this sector is just one more step we are taking toward strengthening our economy and generating more jobs for more Australians.”

Minister for Resources and Northern Australia Matt Canavan said it was critical for Australia to have a well-trained mining workforce to take full advantage of booming demand for our world class commodities.

“Our resources sector is one of the powerhouses of our economy but it can’t happen without the talented people who make it up,” Minister Canavan said.

“Our high quality and clean resources have never been in higher demand and now is the time to invest in our resources sector skills base.

“More than a million Australians work in the resources sector - that’s about one in every 10 jobs. Investing in the skills of these workers is an investment in Australian families and communities.

“Creating a nationwide curriculum under this Pilot will help enhance, expand and advance the skills of our resources workers, securing the sector’s future for decades to come.

“I am especially enthused to get more kids excited about what’s under the ground. The technologies to explore our underground are just as technical as those that launch us into space. Australia leads the world in exploration and young Australians don’t need to play Minecraft to dig, they can do it right here in their backyard.”

The Skills Organisation Pilot will be co-funded by the Coalition Government and the Mineral Councils of Australia, signifying the important buy-in from the sector.

Earlier this year, the Government announced a $585 million Delivering skills for today and tomorrow package aimed at strengthening Australia’s vocational education and training system.

As part of the package, the Government committed to establishing two Skills Organisation Pilots in the priority industries of human services care and digital technologies, and is now adding the mining sector to the initiative.

The Pilots give the target industries the opportunity to shape the national training system to be more responsive to their particular skills needs, and to ensure that employers have confidence in the quality of VET graduates.

https://pmtranscripts.pmc.gov.au/release/transcript-42495

Radio Interview with Neil Mitchell, 3AW

1 November 2019

Prime Minister of Australia

NEIL MITCHELL: Scott Morrison, good morning. 

PRIME MINISTER: Good morning, Neil, good to be back.

MITCHELL: Well, thank you for your time. I've read the speech you're delivering today and we've had massive disruption in this town by protesters over a couple of weeks. You've promising to take them on. You accuse them of economic sabotage and said you want to outlaw, quote, ‘Indulgent and selfish practices’. How? What can you do?

PRIME MINISTER: Well, we've already taken action against their cousins who wanted to invade farms and we put legislation through to protect our farmers from that type of economic vandalism. And there's, of course, a right to protest in this country. But I think they're really starting to push the envelope with where we've got reports of people getting spat at just because they're wearing a business shirt on their way to work in Melbourne. This is, I think, getting well beyond the pale. And so, look, you know, we're looking at the options that we have there. There's also the broader issue of what I'm seeing in secondary boycotts have been effectively put in place through this type of activism, just targeting decent small businesses who are providing services to the mining industry. And they're being black banned and they're being harassed. And this is not something that any Australian should have to put up with. So by all means, people have a right to protest. But, you know, we live in a country where we should respect each other and try and disagree a little better than what we're seeing on display there.

MITCHELL: Would you like to make secondary boycotts or bans like that illegal?

PRIME MINISTER: Well, these are things we're looking very carefully at. I'm flagging that today. I mean, we need to progress, I think, cautiously. But if it's not okay to have secondary boycotts being run by unions and we get rid of those a long time ago, it's not okay for environmental… well they’re not environmental, they’re activist groups. That's what they are. And to be able to disrupt people's jobs, their livelihoods and to harass in the way that we've seen down in Melbourne, it's just... it's ugly. And I don't think it's good for our country.

MITCHELL: Would you look at permits to protest?

PRIME MINISTER: Look, those are things that the state governments, I think... I mean, they control those sorts of issues. What I'm talking about is the injury that is being done to people’s businesses and deliberately and wilfully, which is the same thing we saw from those who were organising the protests on people's farms. And we've put laws in place to deal with that. And so I'm simply signalling that I think Australians respect and understand the right to protest, it’s part of our democracy. But we also expect each other to behave in a way that also isn't seeking to injure fellow Australians, particularly their jobs.

MITCHELL: But how do you draw the line? How do you define it? You won't march on the road and block intersections? You won't fight with police? I mean, how do you define it?

PRIME MINISTER: I'm not talking about those issues, they’re matters for state governments. What I'm talking about is the injury that is done to people's businesses by secondary boycotts being run by these anarchist groups. And the victims, they're basically targeting people's businesses and trying to drive them out of business simply because they're contracting to legitimate lawful resources companies who create a lot of jobs, particularly in regional Australia. I mean, the first people to turn up when I went up to north Queensland and the floods were on out in west Queensland were the mining companies with their equipment to help them remove the carcasses. So, I mean, they're a very important industry. I respect the right to protest, but people have got to respect other Australians too when they do it.

MITCHELL: So just finally, what's your timeframe when you would look to introduce legislation on this?

PRIME MINISTER: Well, I don't have one at the moment. The Industrial Relations Minister and the Attorney-General and I are working on these issues. I'm careful about how I go forward on these things, Neil. The vegan farmers laws, as you know, went through the Parliament and that's happened in the last few months. And so we'll continue to move on this one. I’m just making it pretty clear that this type of behaviour, secondary boycotting companies just going about their business, is not on.

MITCHELL: Prime Minister, something else. You're fond of saying - and I usually agree with you - how good is Australia? But in two days you've had two reports. One shows we're desperately failing the mentally ill, a million people untreated, no room for suicide people in care. Today, aged care and the Royal Commission calls it ‘cruel and harmful; diminishing Australia; needs urgent action’. How can you say ‘how good is Australia’ when you have those sort of reports? 

PRIME MINISTER: Well, look, Australia is always a great country. And the reason that we can initiate, as I did one of my first acts as Prime Minister - a Royal Commission into this, is one of the reasons we are a good country. Because we're prepared to acknowledge where we get things wrong, not buck pass. My initiative here was to get this Royal Commission so we could get this rather shocking and very difficult to read information. I mean, we all have connections, personal, into those who need this care. And it doesn't matter whether they’re your family or not your family, they should all have the same type of standard of care right across the country. And so we do need to acknowledge what's coming forth in the Royal Commission... 

MITCHELL: But it doesn't fix it. I understand you initiated and you said it would be difficult and you're right. But exposing it doesn't fix it. We need to fix it. Specifically.

PRIME MINISTER: That’s the start of the process, we need the Royal Commission and now they haven't come forward with recommendations yet. 

MITCHELL: Well, yes, they have, they said they want immediate funding in home care. 

PRIME MINISTER: They did, they haven’t made recommendations but they've highlighted those three things in particular. One is the need for more in-home aged care. 

MITCHELL: They said immediate funding, will they get it?

PRIME MINISTER: What I was about to tell you is that we will be making a response on those issues before the end of the year. One of the reasons I've been waiting for this report is because I wanted that to inform the final decisions we were going to make around in-home aged care funding before we finalise the mid-year update. I spoke again to the Treasurer, the Finance Minister, last night and the Minister, Richard Colbeck. We have been looking for that input from the Royal Commission to inform this next set of decisions. It's one of the reasons, Neil, I'm so careful about our spending in the Budget, because I've been saying for some time now that we knew we would need to address issues coming out of this Royal Commission on aged care. That's why I initiated it in the first place so we could know what we needed to do and confront that. The other two things that I've seen come out of this, there's also the issues around the overmedication...

MITCHELL: The chemical restraint, yep.

PRIME MINISTER: The chemical restraint. And there have already been some things that's been done in all these areas. But there's so much more to do, which is what the Royal Commission is highlighting. And there's a seventh pharmacy agreement which is underway now. I saw the pharmacists last night, actually, and we talked very briefly about that issue. There's a process with states and territories. And then there's the issue of younger people. 

MITCHELL: Yeah, 6000 young disabled people in nursing homes. 

PRIME MINISTER: Well, it's fallen from 6,200 to 5,600 over the last two years. But there's so much more to go. One of the other things I did when I first became Prime Minister, I came up here to Brisbane, where there's an amazing organisation called Youngcare, and they actually build homes for young people with serious disabilities so they don't have to go into aged care facilities. And we need more of that model to support how they do their work. So all of these three things, I couldn't agree with more. We've got to acknowledge the problem. We know there's a lot more work to do and we've got to create a new culture of respect for older Australians, which is what I said when we first announced this. I think that's at the heart of what the report says. 

MITCHELL: I agree. But there's an urgent problem here. You say you'll have decisions by the end of the year. Will money be spent? Will money being available by the end of the year? 

PRIME MINISTER: Yes. 

MITCHELL: How much? 

PRIME MINISTER: Well, I'll announce it once we've gone through that process. 

MITCHELL: So it is that urgent? You’ll have money out there by Christmas? 

PRIME MINISTER: Yes. 

MITCHELL: Is profit motive part of the problem here? 

PRIME MINISTER: Look, whether it's... I mean, let's go back to where this all started with the aged care facility in South Australia. It was a publicly run one. I mean, it doesn't matter whether it's public, private or not for profit. We have seen abuses and we're seeing substandard care across all fields. So, I mean, you've got to address the issues in each of those sectors.

MITCHELL: Mental health, will there be money for that as well? A million Australians not getting treatment are needed.

PRIME MINISTER: Well, we've already acted in the last Budget. We put over $750 million into that. As you know, we put additional resources into headspaces around the country and with our towards zero suicides adviser who's working right across government. She's bringing forward to me at the moment a whole series of proposals based on the work that she's doing. The mental health of our nation is critical. And the Health Minister has been talking with the states just in today and in recent days about a new agreement that can go around mental health. On mental health I think we've been sort of getting more on the front foot on this. It's certainly been a priority that I've placed. And it's everything from supporting, you know, great organisations like Batyr, which is an organisation that goes into schools and helps young people understand how to deal with anxiety and the help available to them. But it also extends to putting support in for people in our rural communities who are dealing with the drought where we’ve upped the funding there too, but more resource needed there. That's why we need a strong Budget.

MITCHELL: Well, can I raise a couple of other quick issues? The economy, the economy. And you talk about money and the need to spend money. Isn't it time to put the surplus as less of a priority? And look, did you see Shayne Elliott from the ANZ yesterday said we're not in recession, technically, but people feel like they're in a recession. They are hurting so much.

PRIME MINISTER: That’s why we want the banks to lend.

MITCHELL: Well, yeah, but what about the surplus? Are you irrevocably linked to a surplus?

PRIME MINISTER: We're linked to responsible fiscal management.

MITCHELL: Well, that doesn't necessarily mean a surplus.

PRIME MINISTER: Well, what it means is having clear priorities about where you're going to put your funds. And that's aged care, that's mental health, that's supporting the drought and these are the priorities, and it's supporting our veterans.

MITCHELL: I agree. Does that mean that you will forgo a surplus if necessary?

PRIME MINISTER: It means we will honour all of those priorities. And I believe the two of them can be achieved together.

MITCHELL: You can still get a surplus? What about stimulating the economy? What about those people who are hurting so much?

PRIME MINISTER: Well, this stimulus idea last time involved sending cheques to dead people. And it was an absolute waste of taxpayers funds.

MITCHELL: Well, you can do it better than that. Do you accept what Shayne Elliot is saying that people are hurting? People feel we're in a recession.

PRIME MINISTER: I've always accepted that. That's why we've had budgets that have delivered record levels of tax relief to Australians. That's why we're bringing forward infrastructure projects, including in Victoria. I mean, a lot of the work since the election, in particular. I’ve just been sitting down with Dan Andrews. We've met on numerous occasions now, just getting projects brought forward, ones that we can move quicker or providing additional support. The last time we spoke we were talking about the Monash Freeway, getting these projects moving more quickly. And I genuinely appreciate the support I've had from the Victorian Government to achieve that. So tax relief and infrastructure spending are things that are already happening. It's not like there's not investment going into these things. There is record investment.

MITCHELL: No, fair enough. But just to be clear, the surplus remains a priority? The surplus will continue?

PRIME MINISTER: Yeah, of course it does, because that's important for our resilience to the future. You can go and blow the Budget now on ineffective measures and that just reduces your ability to support mental health and veterans and aged care. Because the aged care, there'll be an immediate response, which is what I was referring to when you asked me a second ago. But there's also a medium and long term response which will have to prepare for as we go into next year's Budget and the Budget after that.

MITCHELL: Prime Minister, we broadcast to regional Victoria. Parts of Victoria are hit by drought as badly as some other parts of the country. I just want to play you something, Judy Collingburn runs a small drought aid operation in northern Victoria. I asked her what the message was for you.

[EXCERPT]

JUDY COLLINGBURN: Do something about it. The farmers are really suffering. Like, the Darling River, you know, is bone dry and the farmers up there have got no water. And, you know, the new bit of water they’ve got they can't use it because it's so rank. He's got to do something. Small towns along the Darling River started dying and farmers are just going to walk off their land. And it's just... it's devastating and it's upsetting. We go up and see the farmers and just see... you can see it in their faces. It's just astronomical. And Mr Morrison needs to do something.

MITCHELL: Can you offer them any hope, Prime Minister?

PRIME MINISTER: Well, we can offer the support that we've been delivering and we're increasing it. I mean, not including the Future Drought Fund, there is around $2.5 billion of support. Now, if you're on the Farm Household Allowance, which we’ve eased up and eased up on all the restrictions and assessments as to how people can access it, that will over a four year period give you $125,000 per farming family. And just last, just a couple of weeks ago, we included another $13,000 additional payment, supplement payment, on those issues. The response has three parts. There's the direct financial assistance through things like Farm Household Allowance. We’ve given over $60 million to groups like the Salvos and Vinnies to provide $3,000 emergency payments for people in these towns to support them with bills and put food on the table. Then there's the programme of putting a million dollars into all of these Shires so they can keep the local economies moving and ensure we're getting those people on jobs. On the farms, we’ve provided rebate assistance for work they're doing on the farms so the farmhands can continue to get work on those farms, on doing stuff like piping or doing dog fences up in Queensland or doing work on turkey nests and things like that. And then, of course, there's the longer-term water infrastructure projects, which is part of our National Water Grid. But there's serious money going into those new dam works, 21 projects all around the country right now.

MITCHELL: Ok, just quickly on something else. Can you just explain to me in very simple terms…

PRIME MINISTER: Can I just stress on that, Neil, there'll be more to come too. It's not set and forget, there’ll be more assistance and we'll have more to say about that soon.

MITCHELL: By Christmas as well?

PRIME MINISTER: Yes. 

MITCHELL: Ok. Where do we stand on the continuing Uyghur concentration camps in China? I'm confused. I mean, Australia has been very strongly criticised out of China today. Where do... what is the Australian Government attitude on these concentration camps?

PRIME MINISTER: Well, we've been very consistent and both the Foreign Minister and I and the Trade Minister and others, we've just consistently raised our concerns about these issues directly with the Chinese government and that has been included in working together with other countries…

MITCHELL: Do we believe they're immoral?

PRIME MINISTER: Well, you've seen the pictures. I mean, it's fairly straightforward. I mean, we've raised these issues as great human rights abuses and concerns. We've done it directly. We haven't just done it in public. We've always raised these issues consistently and the Foreign Minister has done this on every occasion she's had. And, you know, the thing about our relationship with China is it has to be an honest one. It has to be a transparent one. And we just have to act consistently with our values, which is what we're doing. The Chinese government will make their comments about what they believe is occurring there. And we'll continue with other countries around the world to raise the concerns that we have.

MITCHELL: The Chinese say, they’ve lodged ‘stern representations with Australia about this’. Have they?

PRIME MINISTER: They've made various statements and when I've raised matters myself and the Foreign Minister has raised they have their view about what's occurring there and they are obviously a part of that relationship entitled to raise those matters directly with us. But it's not something that I seek to have define our relationship. I mean, the relationship is defined on the things you agree on, not the things you disagree on. But it's important that, you know, Australians understand that we’ll always act consistently with our values. And we'll do it in a very consistent way.

MITCHELL: Have you told the Victorian Premier that signing up to the Belt and Road agreement - he took the second step recently in China - is not a good idea?

PRIME MINISTER: We said that at the time. 

MITCHELL: What's he compromising here? What's he doing? 

PRIME MINISTER: Look, you'd have to ask him.

MITCHELL: No, no, no. But, you know, he signed it. You know, you've had advice not to sign it. What is he risking?

PRIME MINISTER: Well, we haven't been part of that project. And for a start, foreign affairs is actually run by the Commonwealth Government. I'm not about to come and run the Victorian police force.

MITCHELL: But haven't you got advice not to be part of it?

PRIME MINISTER: We have chosen not to be part of that initiative. 

MITCHELL: Why?

PRIME MINISTER: ...individual companies have. Well, these are sensitive matters and all of that. And they're not ones that I tend to go into public commentary about.

MITCHELL: So you've got advice not to be part of it for reasons you won’t explain? Which I can understand.

PRIME MINISTER: I’ll just give the same answer I gave you, Neil.

MITCHELL: Fair enough. All right, just finally, China embraces censorship. And we've got this campaign for the ‘right to know’ here. And it's a simple one, a silly one, perhaps highlights it. Can you explain to me - and I can understand threats to national security and everything - how being told what taxpayers are paying Scott Cam to promote apprenticeships is a threat to national security? Why does that have to be secret?

PRIME MINISTER: It's not about national security, it’s about a commercial-in-confidence relationship in the same way you have commercial-in-confidence relationships with any number of different suppliers. You have it over infrastructure projects. You have it over any number of commercial arrangements. It's just that's a protection that's provided to individual Australians that their own commercial arrangements aren't exposed.

MITCHELL: So you don't think the public deserves to know where their money's going?

PRIME MINISTER: Well, we're bound by a commercial-in-confidence arrangement, which is contractual. 

MITCHELL: You didn’t have to sign it.

PRIME MINISTER: Your companies you work for and others do a similar thing...

MITCHELL: But I'm not paid by the taxpayer.

PRIME MINISTER: Well, there are a lot of companies that do business with the government who seek those commercial-in-confidence arrangements. It's not a new practice. It's quite a longstanding one.

MITCHELL: Can you negotiate a way through this? You've got every media organisation in the country concerned about the right to know, about suppression of information, about raids on journalists.

PRIME MINISTER: Well, I'd make a couple of points. The first one is we’ve got the inquiry, which has gone over to the Joint Standing Committee, which is looking at that. I'll wait for that to come back before taking any further action there. The second thing we've done is that the Home Affairs Minister has given a clear directive to the Federal Police, which both codifies what our expectations are about how they pursue these things, as well as providing, I think, some better processes about how they make decisions about what they do. And I stress, the Government doesn’t tell the AFP where they go or what do.

MITCHELL: But won’t the Minister have the power of veto?

PRIME MINISTER: That was the third I was going to come to. In many areas, the Attorney-General has those powers and they were extended in this actually to protect press freedoms. I mean, what happens under that is that the AFP would have initiated the investigation. The prosecutor would want to actually come and prosecute a journalist and under this arrangement, the Attorney-General would be able to prevent that from happening at the end of the process. But if the journalists would like him not to have that power and allow the prosecutors to just proceed, well, that could be done.

MITCHELL: Don't you see the danger in that? I mean, Daniel Andrews would have me prosecuted tomorrow if he could. Somebody else might not. I mean, why do, when you have a politician making these sort of decisions? It's obviously dangerous.

PRIME MINISTER: I think, with great respect, Neil, I think you're misrepresenting the process. The Attorney-General is not initiating anything. What is initiated is by the law enforcement agency…

MITCHELL: But he’s got the power of veto. 

PRIME MINISTER: Well, that's only to stop it proceeding. 

MITCHELL: Yeah, Ok.

PRIME MINISTER: The power is to stop the prosecution, not to not to allow it, not to initiate it. I mean, the prosecutor comes to the Attorney-General and says, we would like to prosecute person X, and the Attorney-General has the ability under that arrangement to say no. If he says nothing, then they prosecute.

MITCHELL: I thank you for your time. If we go much longer, your office will never speak to me again.

PRIME MINISTER: Always happy to chat.

MITCHELL: Hey, you’re not coming to the Cup, are you? You working on Tuesday?

PRIME MINISTER: I am. Yeah. And I won't be able to get down there, but I'm sure I'll catch it like everybody else somewhere around the country.

MITCHELL: So it's not a Taylor Swift boycott, isn't it?

[Laughter]

PRIME MINISTER: No, I love Taylor Swift. I think she’s fantastic.

MITCHELL: Thank you very much. The Prime Minister, Scott Morrison. Sadly, she doesn't love the Melbourne Cup. Scott Morrison. 

https://pmtranscripts.pmc.gov.au/release/transcript-42494

$1 Billion boost for power reliability

30 October 2019

Prime Minister, Minister for Finance, Minister for Energy and Emissions Reduction

Power reliability will get a $1 billion boost as part of the Liberal National Government’s plan to ensure Australian households, businesses and industries get a fair deal on energy.

The Liberal National Government will establish a $1 billion Grid Reliability Fund to support Government investment in new energy generation, storage and transmission infrastructure, including eligible projects shortlisted under the Underwriting New Generation Investments (UNGI) program.

The new $1 billion fund will be administered by the Clean Energy Finance Corporation (CEFC), drawing on the energy and financial markets expertise that has seen the CEFC invest more than $7 billion in clean energy since its establishment in 2012. The Fund represents the first new capital provided to the CEFC since it began.

The Prime Minister said the Fund would also help unlock private sector investment for projects that would secure the grid and put downward pressure on prices.

“This is a yet another initiative by our Government taking more action to bring power prices down and keep the lights on,” the Prime Minister said.

“We’re delivering immediate relief through our new price safety net and banning sneaky late payment fees but we’ve also got our eye to the future with the projects this new Fund will back.

“Our work to date and this new initiative will help deliver an energy system that isn’t a roadblock to businesses growing and employing more people and that isn’t stinging family hip-pockets.”

Minister for Energy and Emissions Reduction Angus Taylor said the fund would ensure sufficient reliable generation capacity is available to meet periods of high demand.

“The Grid Reliability Fund builds on our strong action to stabilise the grid and get the energy generation balance right, to deliver affordable, 24/7 reliable power,” said Minister Taylor.

“It is no secret that the National Electricity Market is under pressure – this fund is designed to tackle that and is part of a suite of initiatives that the Government is delivering to ensure when people flick the switch, the lights come on and stay on.”

Finance Minister Mathias Cormann said the Government would update the CEFC enabling legislation to ensure the Grid Reliability Fund could support suitable projects.

“The Grid Reliability Fund will provide the Clean Energy Finance Corporation with additional capacity to support affordability, reliability and security of supply, which ultimately puts downward pressure on energy prices,” Minister Cormann said.

The Fund will prioritise investments in jurisdictions where state and territory governments are working with the Commonwealth towards an agreed reliability goal and to ensure sufficient reliable generation capacity is available to meet periods of high demand.

Eligible investments will include:

• Energy storage projects including pumped hydro and batteries,

• Transmission and distribution infrastructure, and

• Grid stabilising technologies.

Further announcements on individual projects, including shortlisted UNGI projects, will be made as the Commonwealth reaches agreements with individual project proponents.

The Government will only refer UNGI projects that reflect the CEFC’s legislative mandate for consideration under the Fund.

The Grid Reliability Fund is an important initiative in the Government’s A Fair Deal on Energy policy and will contribute to meeting our $70 per MWh price target and maintaining and increasing supply of reliable electricity.

View the energy policy blueprint here: https://www.energy.gov.au/energy-policy-blueprint-fair-deal-energy.

https://pmtranscripts.pmc.gov.au/release/transcript-42492

First Look at Western Sydney International Terminal

29 October 2019

Prime Minister, Minister for Finance, Minister for Foreign Affairs and Women, Minister for Population Cities and Urban Infrastructure

Australia has been given its first look at Western Sydney International (Nancy-Bird Walton) Airport with today’s release of the first design images.

The design is the next step in Western Sydney International taking shape, with major earthworks set to commence next year that will lead to the construction of runways, roads, rail and the terminal.

The innovative design of the country’s biggest aviation project in decades follows the appointment of the architects who will design the terminal precinct. 

Successful architectural team Zaha Hadid Architects, and Australian architects, Cox Architecture won the honour to design the terminal precinct following a competitive process which generated more than 40 design entrants. 

The winning design focuses on the customer journey while paying tribute to the Western Sydney region and natural landscape. It passed a range of value-for-money and technical reviews.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison said the designs showed the once-in-a-generation infrastructure project coming to life.

“This is set to be the largest gateway to Australia and these designs are another step to making it a reality,” the Prime Minister said.

“Designed alongside locals and built by local workers the airport will deliver massive economic benefits to the region.”

The appointment of the architectural design team and the first look at the terminal design is a major milestone in the delivery of the federally funded, $5.3 billion Western Sydney International.

Finance Minister Mathias Cormann said designing and constructing a terminal capable of catering for 10 million passengers annually was a significant challenge.

“To meet the challenge the terminal will be designed for modular expansion, to accommodate the long term capacity of up to 80 million passengers anticipated every year by the early 2060s,” Minister Cormann said.

To be considered for the design project, interested firms were required to have experience designing an airport of similar size and complexity to Western Sydney International in the past five years. The final decision on the winning design was made by a panel of some of Australia’s most renowned architects.

Liberal Senator for Western Sydney Marise Payne said the competitive process undertaken for the terminal precinct design led to the very best outcome for Western Sydney.

“The iconic final design ensures that air travel will be accessible for locals, as well as locking in new opportunities for people who want to work, shop and meet at the terminal precinct,” Senator Payne said.

The airport has committed to delivering 30 per cent of direct job opportunities to Western Sydney residents and is currently exceeding that target.

Minister for Cities, Urban Infrastructure and Population Alan Tudge said Western Sydney would be the big winner as the airport continues to take shape.

“The construction phase alone will support 11,000 direct and indirect jobs in the Western Sydney region,” Minister Tudge said.

“Within the first five years of the airport opening it is expected to support 28,000 full time jobs for the people of Western Sydney.”

The design process encouraged the demonstration on how local university students would be included on the design team.

Member for Lindsay Melissa McIntosh said designing an airport and working through concepts with local students is important.

“I am pleased to see that Zaha Hadid Architects and Australian architects Cox Architecture will work with Western Sydney University students, local Aboriginal groups and other stakeholders to further refine and enhance the concepts to arrive at the final design,” Ms McIntosh said.

“This is the first step in preparing our local kids for the jobs of the future by playing such an integral role through the design of the Airport. We know that post construction over 28,000 jobs will be created and we want our kids to take those opportunities.”

https://pmtranscripts.pmc.gov.au/release/transcript-42491

Interview with Paul Murray - Paul Murray Live, Sky News Australia

29 October 2019

Prime Minister

PAUL MURRAY: We've got a lot of questions from people and we'll get into some of them, some of them are detailed, some of them are generic. I’ll ask a vague question first. To those who think you're not doing enough or you don't care or you don't understand how serious it is, why is that perception false?

PRIME MINISTER: I don't think the information has got out there about the response that we have made. Literally the day I became Prime Minister, Michael McCormack and I sat down and we were of the same mind. The most important thing we had to do was to up our level of response to the drought. And so as people know I went straight to Quilpie, and from that day to this, this has dominated both mine and Michael’s attention. We have announced and implemented a large amount of measures since that time. We had the National Drought Summit, you’ll recall, where we got everyone in the whole country together and from that flowed another set of initiatives. See, the thing about a drought is it keeps going on, and you can't just say at any one point in time ‘well, that's it. That's all that's all the measures.’ You don’t stop listening and stop working on the next set of measures, you keep responding. David Littleproud talks about, it’s like this, it's like walking up a flight of stairs, and as the drought continues, well, you keep stepping up. And you also need to be in a position to keep stepping up in the future.

So our response has three components. The first component is to provide direct assistance to farmers and graziers in their households. The second component is to support the communities in which they live, and that are affected more broadly by the loss of income going in to those communities because of the drought. And the third is to do with longer term resilience issues. And they're all important. And our response has covered all three and continues to be added to. The first one, the farm household allowance, what that means is over just over a four year period, they will have received each family, about $125, 000 dollars each family. Now that's on top of what other income they may be able to earn. See if you go on Newstart, let’s say you lose your job in the city and you go on Newstart, you can't earn $100,000 dollars and still get Newstart. You can’t have $5.5 million dollars in assets and still get Newstart. So that's what we do with Farm Household Allowance. And it's the right program and we’ve eased it up, 4 years out of every 10, when we started it was 3 years forever. And we raised the income and assets tests, so it meant that more people could get access. Then we put money into the communities themselves by putting money into the councils, $1 million dollars. And we've had five rounds of that as the drought’s got worse, we've put more and more in. And then the other work we’ve done is around water infrastructure. That's both on-farm so people in times of drought, those who were able to, they will go and upgrade their turkey-nests and do that sort of work or they’ll put other irrigation piping in and this sort of stuff. And we put in $50 million dollars’ worth of rebates to support them to do that, and there was other grants and support to sink bores. There was grants to support pest and weed management on the properties, and there was $75 million of tax incentives to actually build new silage facilities. So that's also keeping the farm labourers in work for those who can do that work, you know, they're not, you know, not getting the army in to do that. They're actually employing people to do them in the towns. And when the fodder is being transported to these farms, it’s using contractors, there are truck drivers affected by this. I mean, people say, ‘oh, you should bring the army in’, why would I want to displace someone getting a job, driving a truck or doing some water infrastructure work or mending some fences, dog fencing up in Queensland where a lot of that money went. So it's comprehensive, and we're going to keep doing it. And we'll be announcing more measures soon too.

MURRAY: I might ask about that military stuff in a second, cause that's quite a lot of questions because as a symbol of urgency, I think is why people might be relying on that. But John writes to me and he says, what did you think of the TV footage of a farmer standing on the Bank of the Murray River? He was crying as he was watching water flowing through to a red gum forest. Why are there still environmental flows at a time of drought?

PRIME MINISTER: Well, the environmental flows are part of the Murray-Darling Basin Plan, as everyone knows. And when you're talking about the Darling, well there's nothing really flowing down that. And in the Murray, there's water that is up in the Hume Dam and others that flows through in the allocations, which are determined by the state governments I should stress, and the environmental flows are a part of that. But that's an allocation, it's not, there's not that physical water necessarily in all cases which is being held there. I remember when I was growing up and I was studying these issues at university. Now I'm not a farmer and I've never pretended to be, but one of the biggest issues in that Basin was salinity. And that was killing our agricultural sector. The salinity. And one of the things the Basin Plan has achieved over a long period of time as it has been addressing those issues, is salinity. But we're looking at that issue very carefully. The other issue down there is the price of water and there are some agricultural production that today can't actually earn enough to buy the water. And that's why we’ve got those issues, particularly with the almond farmers down that way, and the water was going to where the users can pay for it. Now, that's a separate issue. That's about running a national water market and the Murray-Darling Basin plan. It's got nothing to do with drought. I should stress, on the Murray, that's about how the plan is working. And there are legitimate discussions that are being held around that and I have met with many of those farmers as well, and Sussan Ley in particular has been bringing those concerns to me, and I’m meeting with the Murray-Darling Basin team this week.

MURRAY: Gordon from Canberra says, my question to the PM relates to towns that are running out of water due to the drought. Australia has a national power grid. Why don’t we have a national water grid?

PRIME MINISTER: Well, we are putting that very water grid in place now. We only stood up this month and that will build, and that will be managing some 21 national projects which are running in several states around the country, including the Dungowan Dam, and I was up there with the Premier announcing it the other day. And so there is this network of water infrastructure. But what I need to stress is when you're managing a drought, that everyone has a job, Commonwealth Government has a job, state governments have a job, local councillors have got a job. And our job is to look after directly those farm households with income support, to look after their welfare. And we've also put money into these towns as well. But we've let them make the decisions. So we've put $1 million bucks into over 120 shires and council areas. But we've said you've got the projects. You tell us what you think is most important. You make those decisions. And those projects have been everything from upgrading the local amenities block, and the town hall, which has put people in work, through to water cartage as well. State governments look after the animal welfare. Now, what that means is, the fodder subsidies, the freight subsidies, that's done by state governments and they pay for that. And those programs exist in New South Wales and in Queensland. Now, I've been assured by the New South Wales government that they have the arrangements in place to support those towns, that as their water draws right down, that they will be having the water in place in those towns to avoid that outcome. Now, that's their job, but it's a bit like saying, ‘well Scomo, why haven't you put more New South Wales police officers on the beat during a time?’ Or when that situation was happening down in Victoria some time ago and there was a real law and order problem down in Victoria, ‘Why won't you put more Victorian police officers on the beat?’ Well, it's because we don't run the Victoria Police Force or the New South Wales Police Force. In a drought, everyone has to do their jobs and we'll do our job. State Governments need to do their job. And local councils need to do theirs.

MURRARY: Well this, you may have pre-empted this one, which is Wayne who’s watching us in Rockhampton tonight. He says the PM could allay the fears about the drought, if we could, buy fodder from places like the US, New Zealand or wherever has it, by the shipload, send a ship to all the large ports in drought areas, sell this hay at $10 dollars a bale, which farmers would be prepared to pay, with the federal government picking up the difference in any way. Apart from sourcing it, what's your view about the federal government subsidising or outright buying the feed that would keep the animals alive?

PRIME MINISTER: Well, getting access- this is what's been advised to us from the feed sector, and that is, they haven't asked us to do that. There is Australian farmers who are actually growing feed and they’re selling it into this environment, and that's important to them. But there are also Australian farmers who are buying feed that aren’t necessarily affected by drought. Now, what they say to us is you go and subsidise something, and that pushes up the price. But again, that's not a matter that we're getting directly involved in because it's not for us to determine fodder subsidies or freight subsidies, the New South Wales and Queensland governments will be making their judgments on that. Now, I've been meeting obviously, as you’d expect with the National Farmers Federation pretty regularly and certainly the drought minister, and ag ministers have as well. They haven't recommended, they had their drought strategy they released just last week I think it was, they have not recommended additional freight or fodder subsidies. Now, it's a contested area. The thing in a drought is, I understand mate, while everybody feels passionately, this isn't a competition about who feels the most. We all feel it, all feel it. Your viewers will feel it. Listeners around the country. They all feel it, but most importantly, the people who are experiencing it are feeling it. So I'm not particularly- I'm less concerned about how I feel or how those who are delivering the support feel, or how politicians feel about this and what parties they are from, who cares? What matters is not how we feel, but what we do and what we do is important. And so I'm listening carefully to those producers around the country, and those communities. That's why we've kept stepping up. People have said, ‘Why have you gone and announced this again, and this again? Why couldn’t you have done that before?’ Because we made one announcement, we’ve gone back, how’s that going? Need a bit more? Ok great, we’ve worked that through, here’s the next announcement. And that's going to keep happening for as long as it takes, until it rains. But, you know, after the rain, the support is going to need to be there because people are going to need to restock. People have to get back on their feet and we need to be there for them then too. And we will be.

MURRAY: Noel says, he's ex-military. The best people to handle a drought situation is the military as they know how to put plans into action now. We have a natural disaster and water security issues, so let's make an immediate response rather than buggerising around with politicians. Noel, watching us in Mackay.

PRIME MINISTER: I want people whether they’re dam builders, water carters, fodder transporters, earth moving equipment on farms, farm hands, I want them doing the work because then they’re employed and that's good for the towns. That's why, I understand the- again, I understand the sense of feeling of urgency, but that's why we make these funds available at a local level directly within the farm, to ensure that they can be employed to do these very, very jobs. One thing you got to be careful of in this drought, is also do no harm. You want to help, but in your enthusiasm and in your passion and strong feeling to assist people, you don’t want to hurt at the same time and put someone out of a job. And we saw the same thing up in North Queensland when they had the floods. And the army had a role there for a period of time, particularly when we’re assisting with things like carcass removal and transporting some things around in an urgent situation, because that all happened in the space of 48 hours. So you’ve got to address the crisis situation as you find it, the drought is something that goes on for a very long period of time. And so if we believed that the, bringing in the military at particular points to assist, well those resources are available. But so far, that would mean putting someone out of a job to do just that, putting someone out of a job in a town that we want them to be in a job in. So they’ll go to the local IGA, or they’ll go to the local pub, or they’ll you know, pay for whatever they need to pay for, in the town.

MURRAY: This is from me. How do we make sure that that we don't get a school-halls like effect when you've got a lot of money and a lot of assistance going around…

PRIME MINISTER: It’s a good point.

MURRAY: …that we don't end up with a $800,000 dollars for a patio.

PRIME MINISTER: But this is very important. And that's why the program that we've had is sort of dripped out. So there’s time for the local councils, they already had some projects ready and that their current budgets weren't allowing them to do. And so that enabled them to go over some backlog of projects that had already gone through that proper process. And by having $1 million in to each council, that's a program that they can locally manage and not lead to those sorts of outcomes, because those big school hall programmes, that came from writing huge cheques to big contractors that ran across a whole state. And we know what happened. We want this- you know, we need this to be very targeted and we need to make sure we contain the benefit in these towns. I mean, a lot has been said about how much we're putting in, well the big number is about $7.5 billion. Now, that includes the Future Drought Fund. That's $5 billion. So let's put that to one side. There's $2.5 billion thereabouts over from last year all the way over about a 5 year period that we're putting into this. And each year alone, particularly right now, there's over $300 million dollars going in. And that's largely, almost all of that going into things like Farm Household Allowance, you know, the $65 million dollars we've given to Vinnies and the Salvos to go and give people $3,000 dollar payments to help them meet whatever bill they had coming up or put food on the table. It's, you know, $30 million or thereabouts that is going into things like mental health and health care support in these towns, rural financial counsellors, which I've got to tell you, they have been the angels of the drought. They have sat around kitchen tables and they've helped families make decisions, sometimes very difficult decisions. See in a drought, you can't wave a wand and make it like it was before the rain stopped falling. Droughts are hard. They're horrible. They're tough. They're difficult. And that is what droughts are. And we can provide a lot of support and assistance through that program together with state governments. But we don’t make it rain. And during that period, families will make difficult decisions and they need the best information and the best help to make those decisions for them. And the rural financial counsellors have been really important to that project, and they've been a key part of how we've tried to help people make the best decisions for them and their families.

MURRAY: PM, I look forward to doing this again very soon.

PRIME MINISTER: Thanks Paul.

https://pmtranscripts.pmc.gov.au/release/transcript-42490

Doorstop - Mortdale, NSW

28 October 2019

Prime Minister

DAVID COLEMAN MP: Well good morning everyone and welcome to Ace Gutters here in Mortdale here in the heart of the Banks electorate. It’s really fantastic to be here and I want to thank Ace Gutters for having us today. Stewart Porter and Geoff Hall and all the team who have welcomed us to this substantial employer here in the St. George district. Great to be here with the PM, the Premier, Minister Taylor and Minister Kean to talk about the really important issue of electricity prices which matters so much here in the Banks electorate and indeed right around the country. So I’ll hand over now to the Prime Minister.

PRIME MINISTER: Well, thanks David, thanks also to Ace who are a tremendous local family company here in southern Sydney doing a fantastic job, employing a lot of people and one of the great things as you walk around this place is - it’s great to be here with Gladys, she would know as well - the number of people here who have been working here a long time because they’re a company that keeps looking ahead. As we look around at this factory, what we see is a company that is investing in its future, that it’s confident about its future, that it is taking the steps that it can to keep its electricity costs under control. In fact, they were telling us today they have been able to start getting them down in more recent times. They’ve invested using a lot of the programmes that are provided by both that state and the Commonwealth government for them to invest in their own renewable energy opportunities and we congratulate them for taking those investment decisions. Now, they’re taking their investment decisions for their future and the New South Wales and Commonwealth Government is going to take investment decisions to secure their future as a manufacturing company here in New South Wales. 

What we’re seeking to do today by underwriting this investment together by Transgrid is to hook New South Wales up to reliable power generation coming out of Queensland where they have a lot more of that going into the future and we need to make sure that businesses here, manufacturing businesses here in particular in New South Wales get access to that reliable power that can help them get their power prices down. More competition, more supply, that’s how you get power prices down. And combined with the many other measures that we’ve been putting in place, particularly for our commercial and industrial companies. We want to get power prices down and have been having success with residential customers, ensuring that they get a better deal out of the big energy companies. Last week, we just passed through the House of Representatives the big stick legislation which gets consumers on more of a level playing field with those big energy companies. But the other thing we’re doing is we’re working to get a better deal for our manufacturing and our business customers because that’s where the jobs are. We’ve got record jobs growth around the country, three years of month after month after month of employment growth. And the same thing is happening here in New South Wales. The way you keep that going is you ensure that you keep businesses in business by getting their electricity prices down. So basically, investing in what is a very big extension cord and ensuring that we’re connecting up to that important power supply coming out of Queensland for New South Wales businesses is a great move for them and it will help them keep their energy costs under control, put downward pressure on those prices and ensure that they can keep employing the people they have in these incredibly far-sighted businesses that we see here in Ace Gutters.

It’s also great to be working with the New South Wales Government. Whether it’s on water security, on transport infrastructure or on energy security for the state, we have a wonderful partner with New South Wales, prepared to not only invest but to clear away the bureaucratic blockages which means these projects can go ahead. If we did not make this investment today as two government in underwriting this, we would have to wait until after next May before that happened through the normal AER process. So thank you so much, Gladys, we’re always around the same table together and getting things done.

THE HON. GLADYS BEREJIKLIAN, PREMIER OF NSW: Absolutely. Thank you, PM, and I think today demonstrates that when the federal government and the state government work together, we are able to ensure the really vital energy security of the future. And as we know, the Liddell Power Station ends its life in April 2023 and this is part of the solution for New South Wales. It’s ensuring our energy security for the future to ensure that households and businesses like Ace Gutters keep their prices down. We are proudly the state that has the highest jobs growth, the lowest unemployment, our economy is growing rapidly. We want to keep that going and we want to reduce the burden for businesses, for households wherever we can. More importantly, we also need to ensure our energy security. I want to thank the PM and his team for working so closely with the New South Wales government. This interconnector will provide an additional 190 megawatts of energy to New South Wales. It will also ensure a back-up system in place when the grid gets overloaded. This is the type of investment and the type of programmes we’re working on together to ensure that when it comes to energy security, not crisis managing but quite the opposite. We’re planning for the future, we’re making sure that we’re meeting the energy requirements now and also into the future and that’s the type of investment we like to make as a government. We like to plan ahead to ensure that as the system evolves, as new projects come online, that energy security is maintained, that downward pressure on generation prices is maintained because ultimately, that means that New South Wales can remain in the strong position it is. And again, I want to thank the Prime Minister and his team because by working closely together on energy security, on water security, we are able to get things done to make a difference for our citizens, not just today but also for decades to come. Thank you.

PRIME MINISTER: Now, Angus and Matt have been putting this together. So tell us a bit more about it, Angus.

THE HON. ANGUS TAYLOR MP, MINISTER FOR ENERGY AND EMISSIONS REDUCTION: Thanks, PM. It is absolutely fantastic to be back here at Ace Gutters. I was here before the election talking to the business, as I did many businesses, about our election commitments. And this is part of a suite of initiatives that we committed to and are all part of making sure that we have affordable, reliable power for our electricity grid in the coming years. Now, this will add 190 megawatts of capacity to the New South Wales markets. And on the worst possible day, that can make the difference, that can make the difference between the lights going out and the lights staying on. So it’s a very substantial initiative from that point of view. But it also adds supply into the market to ensure that all the time, we’ve got extra competitive pressure in the market, pushing down wholesale prices. Now, industrial businesses like this one are very sensitive to wholesale prices. We know they need to be low to keep the jobs in businesses like this in the suburbs and the regions right across New South Wales and of course Australia. Can I add that this collaboration with the New South Wales government is enormously important. In this particular case, it’s an underwriting agreement to make sure we can accelerate the investment that will take place, preferably under a regulated framework, to complete by late 2021. But the broader collaboration with New South Wales in ensuring that we have reliable and affordable power is absolutely essential to the people of NSW and of course the people in other states. Because this is an extension cord between New South Wales and Queensland, it’s not just good for New South Wales, it’s also good for Queensland. So thank you very much also to the New South Wales government for being involved in this all-important initiative.

PRIME MINISTER: Matt?

THE HON. MATT KEAN, NSW MINISTER FOR ENERGY AND ENVIRONMENT: Thank you, Prime Minister. Well, this announcement is all about keeping the lights on and driving prices down. And it’s great working with a federal government that is absolutely committed to these objectives. Today’s announcement will fast-track the construction of the Queensland-New South Wales interconnector, bringing 190 megawatts of additional capacity into the market just when we need it. With the proposed closure of the Liddell coal-fired power station in April of 2023, this additional capacity will ensure we achieve those objectives of keeping the lights on and driving down prices. 

JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, can you be sure that prices will be lower? I mean, this is obviously a big investment from Transgrid, they’ll want to recoup the cost, won’t they? How can you guarantee that won’t be passed onto retailers?

PRIME MINISTER: The net present value of this, the additional net value that is put in the system, is some $200 million. So that is after the investment has taken place. And so that’s what this does, that actually puts value into the system and more power into the system and then the laws of economics do the rest. More supply, more connectivity and as Angus was saying, we are going into summer. Of course, there are going to be hot days in summer. There will be big loads on the system in summer and that 190 megawatts can be the difference in those circumstances about the continuity and reliability of supply but also the more regular supply, each and every day, that is offered by this interconnector between the two states means that that is keeping the pressure down on prices each and every single day. It is not the only interconnector we're working on. As you know, the Marinus Link between Tasmania and Victoria is a project we’re well advanced in the feasibility of working with the Tasmanian government on. So whether it’s interconnectors, whether it’s underwriting, these are the things we need to do to guarantee the reliability of power supply as well as its affordability. 

JOURNALIST: This guarantees the reliability for more traditional power sources. What about similar sort of underwritings or investment in renewables here in New South Wales?

PRIME MINISTER: We have had considerable across the country. As you know, we have record investments in renewable energy which has been supported by the RET and New South Wales has been doing similar things.

THE HON. GLADYS BEREJIKLIAN, PREMIER OF NSW: We have about 17,000 megawatts of programmes in place in both traditional forms of energy but also renewables going through the pipelines in New South Wales. So we think we have the balance right in this state and most importantly we're now securing our energy for the future as well. And to the PM’s point, New South Wales also has plans in relation to interconnectors with Victoria and South Australia and they are still in the planning stages. So for New South Wales, this is a four-pronged strategy in terms of our transmission. We are kicking it off with the Queensland interconnector. 

JOURNALIST: PM, do you have a response to the death of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi?

PRIME MINISTER: I will but I'm happy to take questions on energy before I move to other matters.

JOURNALIST: I have a question for Mister Taylor. Do you have any updates on the feasibility studies on the Collinsville power station up in Queensland?

THE HON. ANGUS TAYLOR MP, MINISTER FOR ENERGY AND EMISSIONS REDUCTION: Nothing additional to what is already out in the press.

PRIME MINISTER: There is an independent process going on in relation to north Queensland which is what we promised at the last election. That independent process has determined what are the best responses to ensure the reliable power generation capability to support north Queensland heavy industry. We expect that process should be concluded towards the end of this year and that would enable us to then consider what next steps are, in terms of whether it is Collinsville or others. The Collinsville project is a very good project but it needs to go through the same process as all the others. That is the integrity that Australians would expect.

JOURNALIST: Just back to the death of ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. What is your response to that?

PRIME MINISTER: The first thing is to say that I welcome the significant outcome here which has seen Al-Baghdadi being killed as a result of this very targeted and very successful operation led by the United States. We welcome that, obviously. We have been involved in a campaign with our allies for many years now to defeat Da’esh and this outcome is a very significant one in that campaign. But I stress it is not the end of the campaign. This is a many-headed monster with Da’esh. And as you cut one off, another one inevitably arises. So while we welcome this news and we particularly congratulated President Trump and the US on their initiative here and their leading of this operation and its success, we are mindful that the threat continues and we must remain ever-vigilant and we will continue to be so ever-vigilant, working with our partners around the world. We also can never be complacent about the threats present at home and that’s why we have invested heavily in Australia's counter-terrorism abilities and to ensure that we do everything we can to keep Australians safe and a big part of that is working closely with the New South Wales government, with whom we have outstanding cooperation between law enforcement and counter-terrorism agencies and we thank New South Wales government and the New South Wales police in particular for the great support they give to our counter-terrorism efforts.

JOURNALIST: Were you given a heads up on the operation?

PRIME MINISTER: You wouldn't expect me to comment on those sorts of things, I'm sure.

JOURNALIST: Can I rephrase, were any Australians involved in any capacity?

PRIME MINISTER: This was a US operation.

JOURNALIST: There has been a bit of criticism from Senator Dodson about the fact that you didn't attend the closing ceremony, I suppose, at Uluru. Is that warranted criticism?

PRIME MINISTER: Well, neither Anthony Albanese or I were present at that event. My schedule didn't, frankly, permit me to be there. I can't be in two places at once. I was in Western Australia on the weekend and I was travelling back with my family from the West Australian, I was there for the West Australian Telethon. Can I congratulate all those in the West for some $42 million raised to support sick kids in WA. This is a significant event in Western Australia held on Saturday evening and, of course, on Sunday morning I was there supporting our Diamonds with their great win over the Silver Ferns with my family. So you know, as a Prime Minister, you like to be in as many places you can be but you can't always be in those places, as I'm sure Mr Albanese understands as well. This is a significant change up in Uluru. I think it's a timely one. The tourism industry will, of course, adjust and move on and I think will go from strength to strength. As you know, I have some background in that area and it has been a conversation that has been around for a long time. It is timely that we have moved on with that issue. There have been similar changes made to arrangements for walkers and others around Katajuta and other places in central Australia. The industry has moved on and continued to flourish and be successful. So I have no doubt that will occur and at the same time, I think the wishes of the indigenous people have been respected and that is also a very good step forward.

JOURNALIST: Just one on the drought, PM, will drought-affected communities know more this week about the next instalment of assistance?

PRIME MINISTER: We are considering further measures and have been now for some time. We have also been announcing new measures. It was only two weeks ago that I was with the Premier and we were announcing water infrastructure proposals in Dungowan and New South Wales. The week before that I was up in Dalby announcing new measures for the Farm Household Allowance which would see the rules relaxed to enable more farmers to gain access to that allowance and more money going into drought-affected communities through the Drought Communities Program, more money going into the sinking of bores which is something the New South Wales government has done a tremendous job on here in New South Wales. New South Wales is getting the water to those communities which will be in a very difficult position in the months ahead. I commend them for the work they are doing there. The drought continues and our response continues. There is no set and forget when it comes to both the Commonwealth and I'm sure the New South Wales government's response to drought. We are considering additional measures, working with the National Farmers Federation on those. I have held meetings with them recently and the Cabinet will, once we have finalised those assessments, we will make further announcements. 

JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, what do you make of Dean Smith's suggestions to broaden and increase the GST?

PRIME MINISTER: We're not doing it.

JOURNALIST: Just one for Minister Taylor, if I may? Minister, you have obviously put a statement out about the Clover Moore issue but have you had a chance to personally apologise to her?

THE HON. ANGUS TAYLOR MP, MINISTER FOR ENERGY AND EMISSIONS REDUCTION: I have made the statement and I have said in that statement that I will be sending her a letter. I don't have anything more to add to that today. 

JOURNALIST: Have you done that yet?

THE HON. ANGUS TAYLOR MP, MINISTER FOR ENERGY AND EMISSIONS REDUCTION: We'll be sending the letter this week.

PRIME MINISTER: Thanks, everyone. Thank you to Ace Gutters, the power is on. Cheers.

https://pmtranscripts.pmc.gov.au/release/transcript-42489

Ensuring the future of reliable electricity supply for NSW

28 October 2019

Prime Minister, Premier of New South Wales, Minister for Energy and Emissions Reduction, Minister for Energy and Environment

The Morrison and Berejiklian Governments are delivering reliable and affordable energy, making the New South Wales-Queensland Interconnector (QNI) happen.

The Commonwealth and New South Wales Governments will jointly underwrite up to $102 million of the QNI upgrade to ensure the security of electricity in NSW.

This will allow TransGrid, the network transmission service provider for NSW, to fast track critical early works for QNI ahead of the final regulatory determination of the Australian Energy Regulator (AER).

Prime Minister Scott Morrison said the decision to underwrite QNI will unlock important transmission infrastructure and back the future of the New South Wales energy grid.

“This is about putting downward pressure on wholesale prices to make sure businesses and households have access to reliable and affordable power.

“Industry needs certainty. They need to know their electricity won’t cut out, and their power bill won’t suddenly double. You can’t run a business like that, and you can’t employ people.

“That’s why we are underwriting this interconnector. It’s a practical step to make sure it happens, and it happens quickly,” said the Prime Minister.

NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian said the NSW Government is committed to providing reliable and affordable electricity to the people of NSW. 

“The QNI upgrade will ease cost of living pressures for people across NSW, providing reliable and affordable power to households and businesses,” Ms Berejiklian said. 

“Last year, the NSW Government announced its Transmission Infrastructure Strategy which outlined our commitment to accelerate the delivery of key interconnector projects, including the QNI.”

Mr Taylor said the support will put downward pressure on wholesale prices and deliver essential transmission for the NSW industries and jobs that rely on affordable, reliable energy.

“The QNI upgrade will facilitate greater competition between generators in the electricity market, helping to reduce wholesale prices,” said Mr Taylor.

“This is great news for the energy-intensive industries, and the jobs and regional economies that rely on them. With wholesale prices making up around a third of an average retail electricity bill, this will also deliver price relief for households and small businesses.

“Along with the Victoria-New South Wales Interconnector (VNI), this will strengthen the backbone of the National Electricity Market, reduce network bottlenecks and make the energy market more efficient.”

Mr Kean said the new agreement with the Australian Government and TransGrid is the most cost-effective option for the people of New South Wales up to, and after, the closure of the Liddell power station in April 2023.

“Fast tracking QNI is just one of the ways we’re delivering on our commitment to keep the lights on and to keep power costs down as the energy market transitions,” Mr Kean said.

This program compliments work that TransGrid will progress on the VNI – which will further increase competition as well as removing constraints that prevent generation from getting to where it’s needed.

The Commonwealth Government will share the underwriting liability with New South Wales through a 50/50 split.

The Morrison and Berejiklian Governments are working closely as part of the Liddell Taskforce to mitigate other potential supply risks from the closure of Liddell.

The NSW–Queensland transmission interconnector was declared a high-priority project under the Australian Energy Market Operator’s Integrated System Plan. Through this joint agreement, upgrades to QNI will be brought forward to late 2021, delivering an extra 190 MW of capacity into NSW during peak demand periods.

Regulatory approval processes for QNI are already well progressed due to the New South Wales Government’s Transmission Infrastructure Strategy, with further action needed to ensure QNI is fully operational by the summer of 2022–23.

https://pmtranscripts.pmc.gov.au/release/transcript-42488

Joint Media Statement on the death of Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi

28 October 2019

Prime Minister, Minister for Foreign Affairs and Women, Minister for Defence

The announcement by US President Donald Trump confirming the death of ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi is welcomed by Australia.

Al-Baghdadi died in a US-led raid on his hideout in northwest Syria on 26 October.

He led a murderous, terrorist group responsible for widespread misery and destruction across large parts of Iraq and Syria.

He also inspired or directed cowardly attacks by ISIS followers against innocent civilians around the world, some of whom were Australian.

He was responsible for ordering ethnic cleansing, sexual slavery, and other crimes against humanity.

Al-Baghdadi’s death is a significant blow to ISIS and another important step in preventing its revitalisation. It is important to remember his death does not represent the end of the campaign to defeat this terrorist group and the extremism it embodies.

ISIS and its perverted ideology continue to pose security threats in the Middle East region and beyond.

Australia remains an active contributor to the 79-member Global Coalition to Defeat ISIS, and is committed to playing our part in the evolving counter-terrorism fight. Keeping Australians safe from terrorist attacks remains a foremost priority for the Government.

Australian Defence Force personnel continue to support Coalition operations against ISIS.

The Australian Government thanks Australian and Coalition military forces who, for many years, have helped in the efforts to defeat ISIS.

We honour the courage and sacrifice of Iraqi Security Forces in the liberation of their land from the ruthless occupation of ISIS.

We also restate our deep respect for the Syrian Democratic Forces, who have been steadfast and courageous security partners in the counter-ISIS coalition.

Australia will continue to work closely with Coalition partners and the wider international community to counter ISIS, including by stemming their financing, and stopping terrorist groups using the internet as a tool of recruitment and propaganda.

https://pmtranscripts.pmc.gov.au/release/transcript-42487

Interview with Basil Zempilas, Telethon

26 October 2019

Prime Minister

BASIL ZEMPILAS: Lovely to have you in the West and lovely to have you at Telethon for the very first time. I'm sure, Prime Minister, you've heard a lot about it.

PRIME MINISTER: Yeah, we have and we were with you, Basil, when we were handing out all the proceeds of Telethon last time and so look, how good's the West? How good’s Telethon? How good is this?

[Applause]

That's how good it is and the work, how good the work it does is the important thing. And so we're looking forward to a great next 26 hours, I think it is, and thanks to all the sponsors who are getting behind it, but thank you to the people of Western Australia. This is such a Western Australian thing.

[Applause]

The big hearts of Western Australia on display. And tonight, of course, I think it's important that the Australian government does its bit and we want to get this off to a big start.

ZEMPILAS: Before you do that, before you do that, because it would be remiss of us not to speak to your beautiful wife tonight, the lovely Jenny Morrison, everybody make her welcome again.

[Applause]

MRS MORRISON: Thank you everybody.

ZEMPILAS: Wonderful that you could come over and, if it's okay, I might say that you've come over as a family this weekend.

MRS MORRISON: We absolutely have. We have brought our beautiful daughters with us, Abbey and Lily, and we're having a great time in the West.

ZEMPILAS: Oh, it's great to have you here and you've got not just Telethon tonight. You're here with us. You're going to the Lexus Ball but tomorrow, a very special family event all together.

PRIME MINISTER: We'll be out there barracking for the Diamonds in the morning against the Silver Ferns. They're playing here in Perth, so go the Diamond girls, and look, I won't be running the water for them tomorrow, I can tell you. It's too important a game for me to get in the way. So I wish the girls all the best and we'll be cheering them on.

ZEMPILAS: Prime Minister, you've had such an amazing year, is there - other than the election victory - is there something that stands out especially for you?

PRIME MINISTER: Oh look, it's a great privilege to do this job on behalf of all Australians and it's just the number of people you get to meet, Basil, and tonight's no exception to that. Meeting young Eva and Callum before we came out here and their parents, which is a great reminder about what this is all about. But it's such an amazing country. But when you see it celebrated in the way that you're doing here through Telethon and to Kerry Stokes and all the team and who had been involved with this for so long, it is such a great institution and we want to see it keep going and want to see it top $38 million this year.

ZEMPILAS: Well said. Jenny, you mentioned that the girls are here and I think something like this as parents, it makes us all realize how lucky we are. And not everybody has been necessarily as fortunate with their children's health as we have. So it's a special time in that way, isn't it?

MRS MORRISON: Absolutely. It's such a... it's a privilege to come over here today and really get behind the Telethon. It's really important. All our children are really important to us. Mine are. I'd be devastated if something was happening to my children. So we really, really feel for kids that are having such a hard time. So we all need to get behind the Telethon over here.

ZEMPILAS: And that's why we asked them to donate. Can I ask, beautiful in red. We’re painting the town red, that's the theme of Telethon this year. Is there an Aussie designer that you'd like to give a shout out to?

MRS MORRISON: Well, I'd love to thank Alex and Genevieve from Ginger and Smart. They're my little, favourite people and they do beautiful, beautiful Australian design and we like to support Australians.

ZEMPILAS: Let's hear it for Alex and Genevieve, haven't they done an amazing job. Prime Minister, as  always, you scrub up magnificently as well.

PRIME MINISTER: Not as well as Jenny, she always looks good. That's why it's great to come to events like this, she gets to dress up. She looks awesome.

MRS MORRISON: Yeah, but guys can just like, you know, pull on a suit and a shirt and a tie and they can go out the door. They don't have to do any of the...

ZEMPILAS: It's not that easy, Jenny. Well, you're probably right. It is pretty easy for us. Prime Minister, it is our great privilege to have you here. We're so delighted that you could make the trip over and bring the family for what's going to be a special weekend, which makes it even more special for us. Jenny, thank you for being here and now, Prime Minister, on behalf of the Australian Government, we'd loved to get our Bankwest Telethon tally just kicking on a little higher than it is at the moment.

PRIME MINISTER: Well, the Australian Government, has every year, has supported Telethon, going back to many years ago when John Howard started that process. Earlier this year, we actually put $13 million into the Telethon Kids Institute earlier this year, as a wholly separate exercise for the wonderful work they do. Tonight, though, for Telethon, last year we put in $2 million. Tonight we're putting in $2.5 million.

ZEMPILAS: Wow. Wow. $2.5 million from the Australian Government. Ladies and gentlemen, let's have a look at the Bankwest tally and say what that does and there we go. Boom. $2.7 million. Prime Minister, Mrs Morrison, thank you so much for being here. It means a lot to us and it means a lot to Telethon. And thank you on behalf of the Australian people for your generosity.

PRIME MINISTER: Thanks, Basil. Have a great Telethon, mate, thanks for everything you and all the great seven talent teams. I'll come and run some water for [inaudible] a little later, and have a great Telethon.

ZEMPILAS: You too. Lovely to see you. The Prime Minister, and Mrs Morrison.

https://pmtranscripts.pmc.gov.au/release/transcript-42485

Australia's submarines in the national interest

26 October 2019

Prime Minister, Minister for Defence

Australia’s submarine capability is an essential component of our defence force.

As the Indo-Pacific region experiences a new era of strategic competition, our submarine fleet is vital in keeping Australians safe and our sea lanes open.

Today our fleet of six Collins Class submarine incorporates the most advanced technology of any conventional submarines.

Three of the six submarines are consistently available for tasking as it attends to its most solemn duty – the protection of the nation and our people.

This cannot be achieved without the skills, courage and professionalism of our hard-working submariners.

Today we thanked the men and women of the Royal Australian Navy, at HMAS Stirling in Perth.

Being a submariner is no easy job. We ask our people who protect our nation to spend long periods of time away from their families, and they often can’t talk about what they do.

But it is also a highly rewarding career, working around the world on one of our best navy assets with a crew of great mates.

As the Morrison Government delivers our $90 billion Naval Shipbuilding Plan, the largest regeneration of the Navy since the Second World War, we will be building 57 naval vessels in Australia, by Australian workers, with Australian steel.

These vessels will be the backbone of the ADF’s maritime capability and will generate 15,000 new jobs across defence industry, from diesel fitters to electricians and carpenters.

The Navy has been an integral part of the nation it has served with great distinction for over a century.

We are rebuilding our fleet and transforming our navy to ensure a potent capability for whatever challenges this century brings our nation.

https://pmtranscripts.pmc.gov.au/release/transcript-42484

Morrison Government increases regional migration target

26 October 2019

Prime Minister, Minister for Population, Cities and Urban Infrastructure, Minister for Education, Minister for Immigration, Citizenship, Migrant Services and Multicultural Affairs

The Morrison Government is stepping up its commitment to regional Australia by ensuring our migration system encourages skilled migrants to live and work in our smaller cities and regions.

In March this year, the Government announced it would reduce the permanent migration cap from 190,000 to 160,000 places, and within that set aside 23,000 places for regional visas.

Following unprecedented growth (124 per cent) in the number of regional visas granted in the first quarter of this programme year, the Government is increasing the total number of regional places to 25,000.

The definition of regional Australia for migration purposes will also change. Perth and the Gold Coast will no longer be classified as major cities, ensuring they remain an attractive destination for skilled migrants and international students.

The new definition will come into effect on 16 November.

Locations outside of Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane will have access to the 25,000 visa places, priority processing and international university graduates who live in these locations will be eligible to apply for more time in Australia on a post-study work visa. 

The new system is a key pillar of the Government's Population Plan. It will ease the pressures in our three largest capital cities, while providing incentives for migrants to live and work in regional Australia.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison said: “We’re using our migration programme to back our regions to grow to take the population pressure off our major capital cities and by supporting strong regions we’re creating an even stronger economy for Australia.

“These changes will boost the appeal for so many cities and regional centres that are looking to grow their population to support local services like schools and health care, while attracting new workers and students, meaning more jobs and more investment.” 

Minister for Population, Cities and Urban Infrastructure Alan Tudge said the boost in regional migration formed a central plank of the Government’s plan for managing Australia’s future population.

“Almost 70 per cent of our population growth in recent years has been into Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane, increasing the pressures being felt across our major cities,” Minister Tudge said.

“Migration has been the primary driver of this growth, and these changes means more migrants and international students will live, work and study in our smaller cities and regional areas.”

Minister for Education Dan Tehan said attracting more students, both Australian and international, to study in the regions is part of the Morrison Government’s focus on regional higher education. 

“International Education made a $35 billion contribution to the economy last year, yet just three per cent of the 690,000 international students were enrolled in regional Australia,” Minister Tehan said.

“We want the entire country to share in the job, business and cultural opportunities that come with international students. International students who study in regional Australia also rate their living and learning experience higher than students based in metropolitan centres.”

Minister for Immigration, Citizenship, Migrant Services and Multicultural Affairs David Coleman said the Government would continue to with work State and Territory Governments and regional communities to ensure Australia’s migration system meets the needs of our cities and regions.

“We know areas of regional Australia want to grow – grow their economies, grow their education sectors and grow their communities,” Minister Coleman said. 

“We will continue to review our regional migration settings to ensure they continue to support regional Australia.”

To ensure the Government meets its targets and continues to support regional Australia, Minister Coleman has deployed Regional Outreach Officers to the regions to promote skilled migration initiatives and provide dedicated support to regional employers, helping them understand their skilled visa options.

Migration definitions

Definition

Locations

Regional incentives

Major Cities

Sydney

Melbourne

Brisbane

Cities and major regional centres

Perth

Adelaide

Gold Coast

Sunshine Coast Canberra Newcastle/Lake Macquarie

Wollongong/Illawarra Geelong

Hobart

• Access to the dedicated 25,000 regional places.

• Priority processing on regional visas.

• Access to the Regional Occupations List – more jobs compared to non-regional lists.

• International students studying at regional universities will be eligible to access an additional year in Australia on a post-study work visa.

Regional centres and other regional areas

All other locations

• Access to the dedicated 25,000 regional places.

• Priority processing on regional visas.

• Access to the Regional Occupations List – more jobs compared to non-regional lists.

• International students studying at regional universities will be eligible to access an additional 2 years in Australia on a post-study work visa.

• Priority in negotiating region-specific Designated Area Migration Agreements (DAMAs).

https://pmtranscripts.pmc.gov.au/release/transcript-42483

Statement - Malka Leifer Extradition Case

23 October 2019

Prime Minister

Today I met with courageous sisters Dassi Erlich and Nicole Meyer.

Their brave campaign for justice for the horrific allegations of abuse committed against them, and others, is to be commended and supported.

We acknowledge how deeply traumatic and painful it must be for those having to revisit the hurts of the past, and we acknowledge the immense bravery of the victims in this case, and all similar cases. 

We stand with them.

My Government is strongly committed to ensuring that justice is served in the case of Malka Leifer. 

This matter is currently before the justice system in Israel and we call for the matter to be resolved transparently and quickly. We also reaffirm our commitment to have Malka Leifer extradited to Australia to face 74 charges of child sexual abuse.

I have previously raised this commitment with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and will continue to raise this issue with the incoming Israeli leadership. The matter has also been raised frequently by Foreign Minister Marise Payne and the embassy officials.

Australia is a strong and committed friend and partner of Israel. 

That friendship is based on many things, including our shared commitment to justice, democracy and the rule of law.

The Australian Government will be unswerving in seeking justice in this matter.

We are committed to ensuring all Australian children are safe and protected from abuse.

https://pmtranscripts.pmc.gov.au/release/transcript-42478

Winners of the Prime Minister's Literary Awards

23 October 2019

Prime Minister, Minister for Communications Cyber Safety and the Arts

From an account of an artist community living on a Greek island to a tale of four kids and their teacher solving a decades-old mystery, the Prime Minister’s literary awards for 2019 celebrate the diversity of Australian writing.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison and the Minister for Communications, Cyber Safety and the Arts, the Hon Paul Fletcher handed down the Awards today which recognise the significant contribution literature, history and poetry make towards shaping our Australian identity.

“Congratulations to the outstanding winners of this year’s Awards. We are fortunate to have such remarkable authors, poets, illustrators, creators and historians committed to bringing Australian stories to life,” said the Prime Minister.

“This year’s short list showcases the diversity of our great country.  I really encourage Australians of all ages to pick up a copy of one of this year’s excellent entries.”

Minister Fletcher reinforced the Government’s commitment to supporting Australian literature, history and poetry through the annual Awards.

“These Awards have recognised individual excellence in Australian literature for more than a decade,” Minister Fletcher said.

“Literature is vital in a civilised society. There is something very special about a book as the fruit of sustained and disciplined artistic and intellectual effort. With these awards the Prime Minister on behalf of the nation is recognising outstanding works by Australian authors – as well as acknowledging the importance of literature in the life of our nation, and expressing the Government's gratitude to every author.”

The Awards are presented in six categories – children's literature, young adult literature, fiction, poetry, non-fiction, Australian history – with a total prize pool of $600,000. 

For more information about this year’s winning and shortlisted books, authors and judges’ comments visit www.arts.gov.au/pmla.

Winners | 2019 Prime Minister’s Literary Awards

Fiction

• The Death of Noah Glass, Gail Jones, Text Publishing

Non-fiction

• Half the Perfect World: Writers, Dreamers and Drifters on Hydra, 1955–1964, Paul Genoni and Tanya Dalziell, Monash University Press

Australian history

• The Bible in Australia: A Cultural History, Meredith Lake, NewSouth Publishing

Poetry

• Sun Music: New and Selected Poems, Judith Beveridge, Giramondo Press

Children’s literature

• His Name Was Walter, Emily Rodda, Angus & Robertson

Young adult literature

• The Things That Will Not Stand, Michael Gerard Bauer, Omnibus Books 

https://pmtranscripts.pmc.gov.au/release/transcript-42477

Transcript - Radio Interview with Oliver Peterson, 6PR

22 October 2019

Prime Minister

OLIVER PETERSON, 6PR PERTH LIVE HOST: And from Federal Parliament in Canberra is the Prime Minister of Australia, Scott Morrison, good afternoon, welcome to Perth Live.

PRIME MINISTER: G’day Oli, how are you mate?

PETERSON: I’m very well PM. Now the big stick laws allowing the government to intervene in the electricity market have been going through the parliament today.

PRIME MINISTER: Correct

PETERSON: But here in WA we’re not on your National Energy Grid…

PRIME MINISTER: No.

PETERSON: So how are 6PR listeners going to benefit from this?

PRIME MINISTER: Well they apply right across the country and what they do is they apply to companies that can use their market power and you’ve got big energy companies too like the rest of the country and where they’re seen and found to be doing that to punish customers, well there’s a range of remedies in this legislation which there are things the Government can do. Now it starts off at fairly modest level where the ACCC is the cop on the beat, they can issue warning notices, and infringement notices but that goes ups to civil penalties and fines and then ultimately if you have a big energy company that is doing this then there is a power for forced divestment but that’s in the most extreme of circumstances and if it’s a fully government-owned power company then it can only be divested to other fully government-owned, of ownership of that company, so there’s no issues of privatisation here. But look, what is it all about? It’s about trying to give the customers more power and to balance it up when you’ve got those big energy companies able to pretty much charge you where’ve they want…

PETERSON: Sure.

PRIME MINISTER: We’ve been doing a lot of work for now for some years to try and just even the score up for customers.

PETERSON: Alright, ’cause as you just said the and here in Western Australia, state-owned, so would the Federal Government force the McGowan Government to sell the state-owned energy assets?

PRIME MINISTER: Well ultimately if it ever got to that situation I’m sure there would be a lot of discussion with the State Government in those circumstances and it may not ever come to exercising that option but the guarantee is, that no government-owned asset could be divested to anything other than full government ownership and the Commonwealth is obviously a government-owned entity.

PETERSON: Business says investment is going to dry up because these laws drive-up the risk that their investment will essentially be taken off them but don’t we need more investment in power to bring prices down. How’s this going to affect 6PR listeners paying less for their power?

PRIME MINISTER: Because it will even up the balance for them as customers in terms of how they deal with energy companies and we’ve been doing a lot of things on that front to ensure that things like the standard offers, the tricky late payment fees and all those sorts of things have been outlawed and we’ve been doing that for some time so I’m not surprised the big energy companies don’t like the idea that customers will have greater power in the market when dealing with them and of course they’re going to say those things, I’m not surprised by it, they always say that sort of thing and we’ve been able to overcome those arguments and getting full support for this legislation going through the Parliament now.

PETERSON: It’s been almost three months since you were here in Western Australia, you got any visits planned Prime Minister?

PRIME MINISTER: This weekend! And it could have been come to hear Tex Perkins play this weekend, I heard the ad before that sounded really good…

PETERSON: You’re a fan of Tex Perkins are you Prime Minister?

PRIME MINISTER: I love that album, Tex, Don and Charlie, I had it many, many years ago, and he’s a great Australian talent but let’s- getting back to the reason I’m coming which is Telethon on Saturday night, we’ve already put $10 million into Telethon over the years. It’s a great initiative, I get excited to see by how it brings a community together and gets the community focused on the really great charities and work that is done in Western Australia so we’re big supporters of it and we just want to come and lend our support on Saturday night.

PETERSON: Alright we’ll see you here on the weekend. Now Prime Minister, why is the Government obsessed with the budget surplus when you really could create some jobs by spending some dollars and pull the trigger on some job-creating infrastructure projects in Western Australia like Metronet for example.

PRIME MINISTER: We already are investing in Metronet and we’re already investing this year almost $10 billion in infrastructure all around the country. Our budget already is providing for massive investments in infrastructure as well as tax reductions for people right across the board. But you also need to ensure you have a budget that is good for tomorrow not just today. Now we are facing a lot of global uncertainty so, you know, this is what Kevin Rudd did when he was in power. He came in, panicked, blew the budget and we’re are still paying for it now. When people are saying we’re in Kevin Rudd’s debt they mean literally, the debt he left behind because he went and blew the budget. Now you know we had the stimulus funding for overpriced school halls, we had insulation and solar home programmes which cost $2 billion to implement and then $1 billion to fix, and then we had rooms actually catch alight, we had stimulus payments being sent to people who had actually deceased and even pets. Stimulus activity is proven to be ill-considered, poorly planned and results in massive waste which means taxpayers end up paying for it. It’s not free money, you have to pay for it and it’s taxpayers who foot the bill so we’re careful about our budget, we’re investing billions in infrastructure and we’ve provided additional support to the Western Australian budget, finally, by dealing with the injustice of what was occurring with the GST so WA gets that money now to be able to invest -n the priorities in WA and we think that’s the right way to do it. But that’s responsible economic management, not the panic and crisis that we saw from Labor.

PETERSON: Now we know it’s a national issue at the moment with low wages growth but particularly here in Perth, Prime Minister, and we get so many calls and emails, we’ve got a struggling Perth property market. Our listeners are particularly worried about being able to pay off their mortgages, can the Morrison Government reassure them?

PRIME MINISTER: Well the first thing you do is you don’t go and hit the property market with a sledgehammer by abolishing negative gearing, and putting up capital gains tax and the last election was very much about that. Could you imagine what would have happened to the Perth market if that had happened, it would have been an absolute disaster. But on top of that what we’re doing is ensuring that by investing in infrastructure, providing the tax relief that that’s putting the money in people’s own pockets and that’s not our money it’s theirs and we’re allowing them to keep more of it with our tax reductions for small and family businesses right across the board up to 50 million and that’s providing some breathing space for those businesses but on top of that for those who try to actually get into the market, of course we have a low interest rate environment at the moment but there’s still a really hard slog getting deposits together, for people to get into their first home. We’ve got the First Home Loan Deposit Scheme and the legislation for that went through the Parliament, that kicks off on the first of January this year coming. But the best way to ensure there is stronger wage growth, and we’ve had almost 1.5 million jobs created since we came to Government, more people working as a share of the population today than at any other time in our history. We’ve just gone three years where employment has increased every single month across the country and that’s happened every month for three years which is the strongest we’ve ever seen. Getting people into work, getting them off welfare, driving the economy forward with infrastructure investment and lower taxes.

PETERSON: Jobs, jobs, jobs that’s what Anne Aly said to me yesterday, the Member for Cowan and Prime Minister we could create more jobs by bringing the maintenance contract for the Collins Class submarines to Perth and remove that from Adelaide. Are you going to award it to WA?

PRIME MINISTER: Well, it won’t be done on politics, it will be done on the careful consideration of the issues that are involved in actually running what is a very important programme in our Defence Forces. I mean, this is not some prize to be handed out or decided on the basis of politics, I think that would be a very dangerous way to run Government, we’ll do this is in the careful considered policy of listening to the advisers, doing the analysis and making the best decision in the national interest.

PETERSON: It makes some sort of logistical sense though doesn’t it if the submarines are based here in Perth, if the maintenance could be carried out here in Perth, it’s a win-win is it not?

PRIME MINISTER: Well, these are things that will be reviewed by those experts, in providing the Government with advice about those projects and Linda Reynolds is the Defence Minister, a great Western Australian, very familiar with all these issues but the thing is we’re not going to do this on politics, we don’t defend the country and its national interests and keep Australians safe by allowing politics to enter into those issues.

PETERSON: Your Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton claimed this morning that some asylum seekers may be faking sickness over the Medivac changes, is that really happening?

PRIME MINISTER: Well, of the 135 people that actually came under this arrangement only 13 were hospitalised, so I’ll let you make up your own mind. We didn’t think those laws were necessary when they were introduced, we did think they would undermine the border protection regime and we do think it should be returned to what we had in place before which was working. I don’t understand why Labor always wants to be break something that’s working and they never learn from their mistakes. Doctors were already involved in the process that we were running previously and that programme had been effectively bringing people to Australia where there was legitimate medical need but Labor, whether it’s on border protection or blowing the budget, doesn’t seem to have learnt anything from what they did. I know it was six years ago when they were in Government last but they don’t seem to have learnt anything still, since, because they are still advocating the same policies.

PETERSON: Prime Minister, if these so-called “Isis brides” undergo a DNA test and it’s proved that they are Australian citizens will they be brought back home?

PRIME MINISTER: Well there’s a lot of steps and there’s a lot of events that occur before you even get to that situation. The part of Syria where people are who are alleged to be Australians, they are in a very dangerous part of the world and there’s no suggestion that Australia is going to be running any extraction campaigns. It’s too dangerous, I’m not going to put any Australians in harm’s way. Now, were people to find themselves at border points and things like that well there’d be a normal process that would be followed but it would obviously be necessary to ensure that it was very clear about what any obligations Australia had at that time before going down that path.

PETERSON: A lot of our listeners don’t want these people to return home but one of our callers suggested in the last hour suggested that we’ve lost our generosity of spirit if we don’t allow them to return home, I mean after all they are Australian citizens Prime Minister?

PRIME MINISTER: Well that would have to be determined and that would have to be established.

PETERSON: Are you happy to see Justin Trudeau returned as the Canadian Prime Minister?

PRIME MINISTER: You know I’ll talk to Justin tomorrow, I’ve worked with Justin over this past year at many of these events, I congratulate him, it was a very tightly fought election and he’s a pretty effective campaigner, very effective no doubt and at this stage it’s not clear whether he’ll form a minority government or majority government. But you know Australia has a very good relationship with Canada, it’s like with any of the countries we have a great relationship with. Our job as leaders is to ensure we manage those relationships well and take them to the next level and I get on very well with Justin and his wife Sophie, Jenny and I have met them on a number occasions now and we progress issues we can agree on. Justin and I, I wouldn’t say have the same political views on some issues but they’re things we can set aside where we work together on the relationship for the good of both countries.

PETERSON: One more before you go, I picked up The Aus this morning, now how confident are you of crushing Anthony Albanese because according to Troy Bramston in The Australian you want to take us to an early election but please tell us that’s not the case because we just had local council elections over the weekend…

PRIME MINISTER: I don’t know what on earth he’s basing that on, I’ve got no clue what he’s basing that on. You know we’re elected to govern, and that’s what we’re going to do. I’m not at all interested in elections at the moment, why would I be? We’ve just been reelected just recently and we’ve got a big term of work to do and that’s exactly what we’re going to get on and do, and we’ve got, particularly over on the eastern states, we’ve got the terrible issues of the drought, we’ve got the global economic conditions which has got us very focused on dealing with those varying infrastructure projects over in the West which I was talking to you about and getting those done. We’re delivering the highest level of education and hospitals funding that we’ve ever seen, we’ve got to get the NDIS up and happening and on very sensitive issues like we had in the Parliament this afternoon, it’s a year since the national apology for the survivors of institutional child sexual abuse and we’ve got a lot of work to do there on the redress scheme and getting that redress out to people who were affected by that. So my to do list is big and it’s full and there’s a lot to do and we’re just getting on with it. I’ll leave Labor to their own crisis and panic, they seem to be having their own problems. But I take nothing for granted and have head down, tail up doing the job.

PETERSON: Alright, before you go one very last one as I know you’re a Rugby League fan, we would love a team here in Perth, would it have the Prime Minister’s backing to bring the West Coast Pirates into the National Rugby League?

PRIME MINISTER: The West Coast Pirates? Well look it was some years ago when there was a Western Australian team…

PETERSON: Yeah the Western Reds.

PRIME MINISTER: and I’ve got to tell you when I came over for the State of Origin this year that was awesome, that was just simply awesome and it wasn’t just because New South Wales won but it was because the way the Perth crowd took to the game and that is now the record for the stadium. So I’ve got to tell you Western Australia certainly put their best foot forward. I’ll leave the running of the NRL to the NRL though, and Todd, and I’ll keep a focus on my Sharks, they’re staying at Cronulla I can assure you they’re not going anywhere.

PETERSON: The “Perth Sharks” has a good ring to it though as well?

PRIME MINISTER: No, they’ll be on the east coast but in terms of pirates or things like that all I would say is that I thought that was a phenomenal event in Perth and it wasn’t just the day of the game and it was the lead up all week and Perth is really just an awesome event city and it’s really establishing itself on that basis and I’d say well done.

PETERSON: We’ve got the NRL Nines as well next year too, Prime Minister we really appreciate your time on Perth Live this afternoon and welcome you here later in the week thank you very much.

PRIME MINISTER: Looking forward to coming, good on you Oli, cheers!

PETERSON: That is the Prime Minister of Australia, Scott Morrison live on the line from Canberra.

https://pmtranscripts.pmc.gov.au/release/transcript-42476