Media Releases
Launch of the Kmart Wishing Tree
7 December 2020
PRIME MINISTER: Can I welcome my colleagues here from right across all or parts of our parliament.
It's tremendous to come together at this time of year. We all know that this has been the most extraordinary year for Australians. It's also been a pretty extraordinary here in the Parliament. Anthony's been here longer than all of us, and he understands that probably better than most, the changes to the way parliament has had to operate this year. And I appreciate everybody's cooperation as we've worked through this difficult year together.
But now is a time, importantly, to send a very strong message to all Australians, from all of us, that we appreciate your great strength. And most importantly, your love and care for each other, as we've got through this very difficult year.
And there's no better time for us as a country to reflect on that care and love for each other, amongst family, amongst community, amongst friends.
And can I particularly thank Commissioner Donaldson for the great work of the Salvos and the wonderful work they've done this year. It was pleasing just to hear that the Red Shield Appeal this year was their most successful that they’ve had. And even at the time of COVID, that people understood that the Salvos were one of those wonderful institutions in our country which is out there helping people at a time of need. And they were in need this year. And we appreciate that as they were just mentioning to us, that the supports that were provided to keep organisations like the Salvos going this year so they could do their job, which means that they are here, again, for the 33rd year in a row, which is tremendous.
And I also want to thank Mr Bailey from Kmart for your great support of this tremendous event. Kmart, I've learnt this year from my daughters is quite a thing that you go along to. It's become a social event to actually go to Kmart this year as well as a shopping event. So well done to Kmart. I'm sure they'll be getting plenty of people coming along in the run in to Christmas. And you can feel good about that because they're a great supporter of this.
Interview with Macca, ABC all over Australia
29 November 2020
Ian ‘Macca’ McNamara: Good morning, Prime Minister.
Prime Minister: G’day Macca, how are you? It’s been a little while, good to talk to you.
Macca: Yeah, you too. Tell me this, are you still in lockdown?
Prime Minister: Yeah, I'm in isolation down here in Canberra, coming into the final stretch now. Just a few more days. I get to go home and see the family on Thursday night. So I'm looking forward to that.
Macca: Are you on your bike?
Prime Minister: Yeah not yet, but I have been most days. It was quite a busy day this week. I missed a couple of days. But, you know, you've got to keep yourself active and it’s very important doing those things.
Macca: So that's an understatement. You say had quite a few busy days. You've had quite a few busy days since I think you came to office, because I remember talking to you that day and there was a raging drought on and it doesn't seem to have stopped, Prime Minister. It doesn't seem to have stopped.
Prime Minister: No, it hasn't. It's been a very, very tough few years here for Australia, of course. But Australia's resilience, Macca, and you'll hear this every week from your listeners, has just shown through. That's been the secret for Australia. I mean, we've done, especially in COVID, better than almost any other country in the world. But in rural and regional parts of the country, dealing with these trials and stresses was something they were very familiar with, particularly over the drought and the terrible floods, you know, up in north Queensland and in other places and, of course, the Black Summer bushfires. And then we rolled into COVID. So it's been quite a period, but Australians are amazing. I said at the start of the COVID pandemic that we know we're a strong people but we're just about to find out how strong we are. Well, we're strong and it's going to be continue to be necessary going ahead because the world is no more certain than it was before. And in fact, there is a lot more uncertainty out there. But we'll get through it. We always do.
Macca: You talk about resilience. And I, look, I marvel at you and other people too, other politicians especially, but all sorts of people. But I marvel at- I don't know how you front up and have a shave and come out and walk out to the little lectern and start. Somebody said to me, probably unkindly about Daniel Andrews, that he should get the Logie because he's on television, on the TV more than anyone else. But you're just about, I mean, to actually have to gird your loins and get out there and put on a brave face and I mean, you're just a human like everybody else. And I mean, it must be, how do you look back on this time you've been there? I mean, it's just an amazing time in the world. I mean, you can talk about Donald Trump and the sort of things that people have been going through and, you know, look at Italy and Spain and the carnage that's happening now with the virus. But how are you holding up?
Prime Minister: Well, I'm fine. Thank you for asking and I really appreciate that, Macca. But look, this is the responsibility and throughout, particularly whether it was the drought or more recently through COVID, I mean, people need good information. They need to know what's happening next. They need to know how we're getting through these things and whether it was when we announced JobKeeper all those many months ago, which has proved to be probably the single largest, it is the single largest economic intervention the government has ever had in Australia. But it was what was needed. And at a time when people were frightened, unsure, uncertain about what all this meant for them, it was our job to make sure that we brought some certainty back into their lives. And that meant that tomorrow morning, regardless of what was happening, you know, through JobKeeper and JobSeeker, they could at least know that would be there and would help them to get through what were some incredibly difficult months. And there have been many more since. And we've endeavoured to do that and standing up in the Prime Minister's courtyard or premiers doing the same thing has really just been about letting Australians know that they're not alone, that services and support have been delivered in a way we've never seen in this country. It hasn't just been the scale, but particularly on something like JobSeeker. I mean, we had to process more applications to get people that income support in about six to eight weeks than we normally did in about two years. And had people who normally working in, you know, attendants and admin jobs and in Parliament House, we set up rooms up in Parliament House where they were on the phones, taking people's details and getting JobSeeker applications processed. I mean, government literally flipped on itself to be able to respond to what was massive needs.
I've had an enormous team behind me, Macca, I suppose the answer to the question. A massive team or just doing the best they possibly could to help Australians and, you know, that goes back to whether it was the work Shane Stone has been doing on the floods and the drought, together with his really great expert panel that's helping him with that, getting out on the ground, having field officers out there or, you know, indeed, the work that was done by the Bushfire Recovery Agency, which continues to roll out that support. Great people just doing their best and I'm very appreciative for the work they've done.
Macca: Yeah, well, but I'm not sure that everybody well realises what you've got to do and wake up every morning and do that because you're the boss, you're the man, you're at the top, and that's, you know, that can be a big pressure. And I know, it's the same as me around here, you've got people who look after me and make sure I don't stray too much.
Prime Minister: You draw inspiration from others, too, I mean. You know, people have done this job before. I have a pretty regular chat with John Howard, which I really appreciate. He's not the sort of person who will offer you advice, you know, gratuitously. He’s sort of like bloke who you’ll just quietly, you know, have a bit of a natter with you and it's good to talk to people who've been there before. There was a book I read earlier in the year, actually, and it was about Joe Lyons, and he was a pretty amazing fellow. A Tasmanian and he was, you know, leading Australia during that period of the Great Depression and prior to that, you know, taking over from his predecessor there. And, you know, just how he dealt with that, how he engaged with Australians. It was obviously different then. He didn't have the technology and all the rest of it, but he made just a big effort to just keep encouraging people. And, you know, Australians have been doing that with each other. You've been doing it Macca as well. So many have just been encouraging people, getting them to look forward, supporting each other. Mental health has been a big challenge during all of this period. So and, you know, the telehealth work that we've done this year, I mean, there are things that have come out of COVID that, you know, are good lessons and good improvements in services and telehealth, particularly in rural and remote areas. I remember when the floods hit up in north Queensland, that was one of the things we were terribly worried about, people being isolated and cut off and not sort of, you know, prone to go and seek that sort of health support. And these services now are so much better than they used to be and so it doesn't matter where you are in the country, you can get support for mental health in this country. And I think, you know, it's not one of the things we talk about much in our COVID response. I mean, when I talk to leaders around the world, you're talking about vaccines, you're talking about respirators and testing and tracing regimes and all of that. But another tool in our kit has been to really support people's mental health.
Macca: Prime Minister, some time ago when I think when Brexit was on, one of my listeners and I love the listeners because they are my research, otherwise I wouldn't know where I am. They talked about bossy Brussels and one of the reasons why the Poms got a bit browned off with the EU was bossy Brussels and we're faced with the Beijing bullies I think in the Communist Party there. How are you, how do we push back against that? And with the latest thing with the wine and I mean, I thought, well, we should encourage people who drink to buy Australian wines if they can. But that's going to need more than that, isn't it?
Prime Minister: Well, it is a difficult time and there are tensions. And the point I made yesterday was that Australia is no stranger to that. I mean, you'll have many listeners this morning who will remember what happened in the early 70s with the European Common Market and markets that had been very important to Australia all of a sudden, there was a massive change and that really disrupted; you got to the oil price shocks, the resource boom and bust, the commodity boom and bust. All of these things economically have caused shocks into the system. And what's quite amazing about Australians is, and particularly those who work in our ag sector, is how resilient they are obviously, to the weather and climate. But also they had to deal with these things in the past as well. I mean, you can't control everything in this world but one thing you can control is who you are and your values and the things that you know are important and it's important to remain steadfast with that.
We'll do everything we can, Macca, to ensure that we can try and address these trade issues that have come up with China, the technicality issues that they've raised. But obviously we're very concerned about that. But that's one of the reasons why over the last seven years, we've expanded the amount of our trade that's covered by agreements from 26 per cent to 70 per cent. So much of our trade now is covered by these agreements. We've finished the Indonesian agreement, that's now come into force. We've got a digital agreement with Singapore. Now we're working on the EU. I had a meeting just this past week in the annual summit I have with the EU leaders, President Michel and Ursula von der Leyen. You know, we're working on that agreement. There's the UK agreement with Borris, which he and I are pushing hard on. So we've been working very hard on expanding trade opportunities and even like a sector like wine which is obviously impacted by this decision. The great thing about everything we might produce here is it's really good. Really, really good. That's its best advocate and we've got to keep focusing on the quality and keep expanding our trade opportunities. As a government, we will be looking to see how we can get a number of our producers through this difficult time. We've done that through COVID, as people would know when, you know, the airlines basically shut down, the bellies of planes weren't there to put things like crayfish and other things in. That's why we introduced the freight support subsidies, which has kept those planes in the air, and that's kept businesses in business and that's kept them connected to markets. But with all of that news, Macca, I mean, it is somewhat pleasant when Michael McCormack comes into the cabinet rooms and he tells us while, you know, we know that so much of the country is still actually in drought, the improvements in particular in New South Wales is welcome, very welcome. And we're looking at a winter crop right now, which is, you know, potentially going to be one of the largest on record.
Macca: The best. The best.
Prime Minister: And that is just, I mean, when we've spoken before, that just seemed like such a dream. And, well, the dreams have become real. And the problem we've got now is getting those workers out there to help them harvest it. And I know you've been talking about that on your programme and I want to thank you. There was a great response to that. And so, you know, we want to encourage people to get onto that Harvest Trail website and if they need a job, there's jobs out there and they need you.
Macca: And we need you, Scott Morrison. Keep up the good work, keep taking the tablets, as I always say, and stay on your bike.
Prime Minister: I will. I'll get back on my bike. Good on you, Macca, nice to talk to you.
Macca: Merry Christmas.
Prime Minister: To you too mate. Cheers bye.
Homebuilder Success Sees Programme Extended
29 November 2020
Prime Minister, Treasurer, Assistant Treasurer and Minister for Housing
The Morrison Government is extending the highly effective HomeBuilder programme which is driving demand in our vital construction sector and protecting jobs by supporting the construction on new homes and home renovations.
HomeBuilder will remain demand driven and will be extended from 1 January 2021 to 31 March 2021 which is expected to support the construction or major rebuild of around 15,000 homes. This is in addition to the 27,000 homes the scheme is already expected to support, bringing it to a total of around 42,000 homes across Australia.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison said HomeBuilder was driving demand for building work and helping protect the jobs of one million Australians employed in the construction sector.
“HomeBuilder is a key part of my government’s Economic Recovery Plan for Australia. We’re keeping people in jobs and putting Australians’ dream homes within reach,” the Prime Minister said.
“It’s critical we keep the momentum up for Australia’s economic recovery.”
“Extending HomeBuilder will mean a steady pipeline of construction activity to keep tradies on the tools.”
Treasurer Josh Frydenberg said, “The Homebuilder program has delivered the stimulus the housing sector needed.
“The sector is worth $100 billion dollars a year to the Australian economy or around 5 per cent of GDP and more than a million people are employed in the sector across Australia.
“The success of this program has not only meant an increase in work on the ground to keep the pipeline of construction flowing but it has also protected jobs in the construction sector as well as across the economy.”
Minister for Housing and Assistant Treasurer Michael Sukkar said HomeBuilder would also be adjusted for the building and housing market’s conditions, and after consultation with the construction sector.
For all new build contracts signed between 1 January 2021 and 31 March 2021:
Eligible owner-occupier purchasers will receive a $15,000 HomeBuilder; and
The property price caps for new builds in New South Wales and Victoria will be increased to $950,000 and $850,000 respectively.
In addition, the construction commencement deadline will be extended from three months to six months for all eligible contracts signed on or after 4 June 2020.
Minister Sukkar said the most recent data showed HomeBuilder had already had around 24,000 applications, on track to exceed expected take up levels.
“This has been a highly effective programme that’s delivering real results for home buyers and has kept tradies in work throughout the COVID pandemic,” Minister Sukkar said.
“There is no better proof of HomeBuilder’s success than the latest Housing Industry Association’s new home sales data, which shows sales are 31.6 per cent higher in the three months to October 2020 when compared with the same time last year.
“This is a temporary and targeted programme and we want to give buyers the confidence and support to enter the market right now at a time when the economy needs it most.”
This announcement also builds upon the extension of the First Home Loan Deposit Scheme announced in the Budget, which delivered 10,000 guaranteed loans to allow first home buyers to obtain a loan to build a new home, or purchase a newly built home, with a deposit of as little as five per cent.
Together this represents an unprecedented level of Federal Government assistance for home buyers and the construction industry alike.
More information on the HomeBuilder programme can be found at: https://treasury.gov.au/coronavirus/homebuilder
Interview with Neil Breen, 4BC
27 November 2020
NEIL BREEN: From lockdown at the Lodge, Prime Minister, how's it going?
PRIME MINISTER: Oh, not too bad, Breeny. It's been very busy, to be honest.
BREEN: I've seen you everywhere.
PRIME MINISTER: Well, we've set ourselves up so that when we came back from Japan, we'd be able to, you know, keep on with the job, get on with the job. A lot to do. We've had global summits, last night we had our virtual summit with the Europeans. And so there's no slacking off. There's so much to do, as you know and we've been able to keep on with it.
BREEN: It never ends. Now, we don't need to be Einstein to work out what was happening. But prior to the state election in Queensland, New South Wales and Victoria had to get their act together and they were locked out of travelling to Queensland. All of a sudden yesterday, our Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk said we're moving to a hotspot regime. There'll be no more lockouts of states and cities. This is something National Cabinet has wanted for months.
PRIME MINISTER: True. And look, I welcome the decision. I welcome the progress we're making. All year, look, I've just sort of focused on where we've got to get to, where there's disagreements along the way, that just comes with the business of getting everybody to work together and you just look past that and you just keep going forward. And when you think about where we've got to over the course of 2020, one of the worst years anyone can imagine. The hardship that people have gone through, whether it's in Queensland or anywhere else. People have lost livelihoods. People have lost loved ones. And when you look at where we've got to now, where we're looking into to 2021, vaccine looking promising, borders opening up and opened up. As I said, we wanted to be in that place by Christmas. 75 per cent of the jobs back, half a million people their homes have been saved over the course of this year. 700,000 jobs were saved from JobKeeper. I mean, Australia has done an amazing job this year. Australians are the reason for that. They've just been resilient. They've toughed it out. They've looked after each other, and looking forward to 2021.
BREEN: Talking about Australians, it looks like there's 36,000-38,000 Australians overseas now registered as wanting to come back. How are we going to get them back?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, we've already got about over 30,000 back since I made that commitment to those at that time who were registered to come home and that was about 26,000. So we're getting through it. 400,000 people have come back over the course of the year. It's obviously constricted by the amount of hotel quarantine that we have and the National Cabinet, all the premiers and I agree that we don't want to put too much pressure on that system because we want to maintain the health situation. I'm sure Queenslanders would agree with that. So we're getting people back. We've got additional flights that are coming back through. We've got more additional flights. We've got more organised to come out of Europe. They've been coming out of India, the UK. We've organised almost 70 facilitated flights over the course of the year and we're getting Australians home. But every time we get one home, we get another one extra who wants to come.
BREEN: That's right. That’s right.
PRIME MINISTER: That's the challenge. So we're meeting the amounts that we hope to achieve by Christmas. It's just that more people are looking to come home. But one of the other things we're doing is we're trying to prioritise it. So we've got Services Australia helping the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade. They're contacting all the people overseas who've given us their details just to check on them, to see if any of their plans have changed. Some are saying, oh, I can come back next year. Others are saying, well, it's got even more urgent for me. And so that means we can help try and working with the airlines and others to prioritise getting people home. It's those who are most vulnerable we're most concerned about and we've got a hardship fund. And out of that hardship fund, we've paid out, I think around about $10 million already and on average about 4,000 in each of those things for accommodation or emergency assistance. So we're helping people. We're looking to get them home. It's not easy, but the reason why it's taking as long is because we've got to keep our quarantine system and the integrity of that as well operating to protect Australians.
BREEN: Yes, we sure do. Now, the world's hanging its hat on a COVID-19 vaccine. And obviously the share market is going well and property is going well and hopefully jobs will go well in the new year. Australia has more than 30 million doses of the Oxford AstraZeneca vaccine on order, but they've ordered another global trial overnight because they're worried that it's not as effective as it should be in over 55s. Is that a concern for our government?
PRIME MINISTER: No, this is a normal part of the clinical process. And we have three other vaccines, as you know, we've got the Pfizer vaccine and the Novavax vaccine, both of those doing really, really well. And then, of course, there's the wonderful University of Queensland vaccine, which is going to its final stages of trials and that will be manufactured in Australia with CSL. The AstraZeneca vaccine is already being produced down in Victoria now. It still has to receive the Therapeutic Goods Administration’s tick off, which is important. There'll be no vaccines unless they're safe and they have to satisfy all of those tests. But around the world, Neil, everyone's a lot more positive about this. I was talking to the President of the European Commission last night and the President of the European Union. And they also, they've got a similar family of vaccines that they've backed in. And the good news we could share with each other is the strike rate on these are much higher than any of us thought they would be. We spread our risk, but at the moment, all of our bets are paying off.
BREEN: Prime Minister, the report into alleged war crimes committed by members of the ADF in Afghanistan for a decade, we all know about it, has been a polarising issue. A lot of commentators, people write to me whenever I mention it, saying you've convicted them already. You've convicted- well, I haven't.
PRIME MINISTER: Neither have I.
BREEN: I know. The ADF has had to give a show cause notice to 10 members of the SAS overnight. This is an emotive issue, Prime Minister, how can it be expedited into the courts so it can calm the public down who think that soldiers are being hung out to dry?
PRIME MINISTER: Well look, a couple of important points, first, Neil, and yes, it is a very sensitive issue. And yes, our justice system makes the right assumption that everyone is innocent until proven guilty. And when I announced prior to the release of the report about how we were going to deal with it, we set up two processes for that. One was the court process. And that deals with possible criminal matters for alleged behaviour, and that will follow that process. And everyone will have the protections of law in that process and the presumption of innocence. That's incredibly important, we’re setting up the office of the special investigator to do that. And I can't promise you that that will be a quick process. Justice is a patient process and it is patient because it has to conform with respecting everybody's rights in that process. Also, the Defence Minister set up an oversight panel over the Australian Defence Forces in terms of how they responded to the recommendations of that report and the government - we haven't seen, nor do we wish to have provided to us the detailed report, which includes the names of individuals, that we think would compromise the process. That is something for the ADF to address internally. And so any decisions about show cause notices or stand downs, they are decisions being taken by the ADF and there's an oversight panel of eminent people who are overlooking that process.
So we've tried to set up the most robust, transparent and good governance processes to see how we can deal with this issue the best we can. But in each case, it's important that not only is there accountability in the defence forces for individual alleged acts, but also in the chain of command about those who had responsibilities and accountabilities in that chain of command. And that's what I expect to be done. That's what I've made very clear through the Defence Minister, who has made that point to both the Chief of the Defence Force as well as the oversight panel. And this is going to be hard, Neil. And I can't-
BREEN: Very difficult.
PRIME MINISTER: I can't sort of put it any other way. I wish it was more simple. And I know Australians feel really, really strongly about this right across a spectrum of views. So we just have to have a good process. We've got to respect it, people are innocent in this country until proven guilty. If there are any disciplinary actions that occur within the Defence Forces, they are rightly made by the Defence Forces, not by Ministers. And that's the way the process should be. But there should be proper oversight of that to ensure all accountabilities are dealt with.
BREEN: Prime Minister in case I don’t speak to you again before -
PRIME MINISTER: Just on that though Neil, The other issue, of course, though, is support for our veterans. What we're talking about here is a small number in a very big Defence Force.
BREEN: Yes.
PRIME MINISTER: And everyone who pulls on a uniform has earned and deserved our respect. And I wouldn't want any Defence Force member, serving men or women, or veterans to feel that anyone is looking at them differently. I'm certainly not. I know you and your listeners would not be. We're incredibly proud of them. And for Defence Force veterans who are feeling this at the moment and we were very conscious of that, the Defence, all hour support line, 1800 628 036, there’s Open Arms, there’s the defence family hotline. There are a range of other support services that are available. And I would encourage people to make themselves, avail of those services. We greatly value your service and we greatly appreciate your contribution.
BREEN: Prime Minister, just in case I don't talk to you, I just wanted to let you know that you and your family are welcome in Queensland now. We're good to go. So if you haven't made a Christmas booking-
PRIME MINISTER: I was there a little while ago.
BREEN: I know, I know you were but now you can bring everybody up.
PRIME MINISTER: Exactly. And look, I'm looking forward- I’ve got a lot of friends who have family from Queensland. I know they're looking forward to seeing their family. They live down in Sydney. And hopefully that's not too far away for them as well. It's really good news. I know there's been disagreements this year, Breeny, but, you know, we've come through it. How good’s that?
BREEN: Yeah, we’ve come through it Australia. We’ve put it behind us and we move on. Enjoy lockdown at the Lodge.
PRIME MINISTER: Including State of Origin, I'm going to put that behind me, too by the way.
BREEN: Yeah, well, you can watch the one dayer from the SCG and lock down this arv’.
PRIME MINISTER: I reckon we'll have it on in the background. But thanks a lot, Neil, for the opportunity to speak and to everyone up there, all the best. And congratulations, Queensland. You've done a great job.
BREEN: Thank you. Prime Minister Scott Morrison there from the Lodge.
EU-Australia Leaders' Meeting
26 November 2020
Tomorrow evening I will meet the President of the European Council, Charles Michel, and the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, for the first European Union (EU) – Australia Leaders’ Meeting.
I will share perspectives on Australia’s health and economic response to COVID-19, developments in the Indo-Pacific, and the development of new technologies to reduce global emissions as we practically confront the challenge of climate change.
Australia and the EU share a vision for a stable, prosperous, inclusive and resilient Indo-Pacific. We are both supporting international efforts to ensure equitable access to COVID-19 vaccines in the region, including by supporting the COVAX Facility.
We have extensive people-to-people links and shared interests, including a deep commitment to freedom, democratic values and the multilateral system.
We are strong supporters of the World Health Organization and our partnership was critical in the World Health Assembly resolution that called for an independent evaluation of the origins and response to COVID-19.
The EU with its 27 member-states is Australia’s second largest trading partner and our largest source of foreign investment. We launched Free Trade Agreement negotiations in 2018 and our aim is a high quality, ambitious and comprehensive agreement. I hope we will conclude the negotiations next year.
An EU FTA will contribute to our economic recovery and market diversification. The Agreement will send a strong signal to the world on the value of open markets and trade based on clear and transparent rules. Supporting open, rules-based trade is vital as the world emerges from the pandemic recession.
Australia’s longstanding diplomatic relationship with the EU of almost six decades is now evolving into new areas of cooperation such as digital transformation, low emissions technology partnerships, cyber security, transport and space.
The Annual Leaders’ Meeting is a big step with a partner that is becoming even more important to Australia and the Indo-Pacific. This Meeting follows through on the commitment to annual dialogue that we agreed to at our meeting last year. I look forward to deepening our cooperation further.
Interview with Today
26 November 2020
Allison Langdon: Prime Minister, thank you so much for your time. I know there has been so much hard work taking place behind the scenes for a very long time. You must be relieved this morning?
Prime Minister: Thrilled and relieved, prayers answered and amazing work done by our consular teams and officials to secure Kylie Moore-Gilbert's release. She is coming home. We got the confirmation last night and I was able to speak to her this morning. She is obviously thrilled, but still processing what has been a horrible ordeal. She had been sentenced to 10 years in this prison. A conviction that we always completely rejected. She was detained frankly not long after I became - about the time I became Prime Minister. So, this has been an enduring and high priority case for us for many years, and Minister Marise Payne has done an extraordinary job as Foreign Minister in leading this process, and we are just so happy that Kylie is coming home, and I'm sure her family feels the same way. They have asked for privacy, obviously, and I'm sure everybody will respect that. She will have a lot of adjustment to go through when she comes home. She is an extraordinary, strong and courageous and intelligent person. That's enabled her to get through this awful ordeal. But it will be quite an adjustment when she gets home.
Karl Stefanovic: Can you give us an idea, take us inside that phone call, PM, on what her mood was like, the kind of things that she was saying, because we haven't heard anything from her. Just give us an idea on what it was like?
Prime Minister: Look, she is still processing, but I've got to say the sound of her voice and the tone of her voice was very uplifting, particularly given what she has been through. She is obviously still taking it all in, as you’d would expect. I mean, there she was on her way back to Australia, in the care of our officials, and we are bringing her home. But there was a deep gratitude on her part, not just obviously to those who helped secure her release, but also just the support she knows was there, which was conveyed to her through our Ambassador Sachs there in Tehran, of all Australians support, and so she is grateful for that and she has issued a statement this morning to that effect and that she holds nothing against the people of Iran or anything like that and there were mixed feelings about that. She obviously loves the people of Iran, but she loves Australia and we love her and we can't wait to see her back here.
Langdon: I mean, she sounds like an incredibly strong woman, to know that these allegations of psychological torture what she’s gone through. In relation to this prisoner swap, are they convicted terrorists?
Prime Minister: Again, I don't go into any of those details, confirm them one way or the other. The way we are able to be successful in these arrangements is we deal with them discreetly but I can assure Australians that we would never do anything to prejudice the safety of Australians. Any suggestion that there has been prisoners released in Australia or anything like that is completely false. But I would urge those that - you know, we have to deal with these matters sensitively, because sadly I suspect this - and there are many other cases around the world, our officials need to be able to get on and do their job to secure the release of Australians in these situations. So, this is as much - my discretion on this is as much for the safety of other Australians who could find themselves in this situation as it is to protect the arrangements that have secured her release.
Stefanovic: I get all of that, but I think also, PM, and look you are the man to make those calls, but I think Australians probably will want to know if we have done a prisoner swap and we have released actual terrorists?
Prime Minister: Well, I just said that there has been no-one released in Australia -
Stefanovic: But overseas, if terrorists have been released?
Prime Minister: Again, Karl, I'm not going to go into it because it is my job to protect the safety of Australians, and I can assure you that's exactly what we have done, and a big part of that has been securing Kylie's release. She was going to spend 10 years in that prison, Karl, 10 years. And that has been a key focus of ours for every single day of my Prime Ministership until now. So when I got that news last night, I couldn't tell you - I said before I believe in miracles. I tell you what, just got another one.
Stefanovic: It is really emotional for you. I mean I know DFAT has been plugging away tirelessly for this and when you say that, that level of feeling that you have for this woman, why? Why do you feel it so keenly?
Prime Minister: I feel that about any Australian who finds themselves in these awful and unfair and unjust situations. We have secured the release of other Australians, just by working the process patiently and consistently. The skill and experience of the people who have been involved in working through these issues is extraordinary, but a caution to Australians. Be careful when you are travelling. Follow the travel advice. That's why it is so important. But Kylie's situation, she was there working as an academic. She is an incredibly talented person. And I look forward to the great contribution no doubt she’s going to make when she returns to Australia again and she adjusts back to life here. But, you know, the world is a dangerous place, and sometimes - we are very adventurous, Australians. We like to go out and see the world and try new things and explore new horizons. That's great, it is who we are. But we have also got to be aware that, you know, not everybody feels the same way, and, about freedom and liberty, and I'm just - I couldn't be happier that Marise has led such a great effort to get Kylie home.
Langdon: So when will she actually touch down in Australia and what happens then? Will she be able to see her family immediately or will she need to go into two weeks quarantine?
Prime Minister: Well, the family have also asked for privacy about all of these arrangements so I'm going to respect that. Obviously, she is being brought back to Australia by the Australian Government, and she would go through the normal health and other checks and processes that you would expect under these arrangements, not just her physical health, but also her mental health, and go through a debriefing process, and help her to make this adjustment, not just because of the arrangements regarding COVID. She has been in Iran, obviously, in an Iranian prison, which is not exactly - it is not a safe, healthy zone by any stretch of the imagination. All of those health issues will be managed in the way we always will.
Stefanovic: I can't imagine the psychological trauma she has to work through and with the best of care try and work through. I know that she has to go through the real processes, and try and get herself better but it’s going to take some time, isn’t it?
Prime Minister: It certainly is.
Stefanovic: Look on another- Sorry, go on.
Prime Minister: It certainly is. I mean, and that's why talking to her, the sound of her voice, being so normal was so encouraging. But a long way to go, no doubt.
Stefanovic: Just quickly, another couple of matters if we can.
Prime Minister: Sure.
Stefanovic: While we have you, 53 ships, $700 million worth of coal being held off China. What are we doing about this? It has moved to coal?
Prime Minister: We will keep working those issues one at a time. I've made it very clear that Australia makes decisions about our policies and our national interests, in no-one elses, and we will obviously always continue to do that, but we will work through these issues with respect with the Chinese Government, as we are doing. There are obviously tensions there. But those tensions aren't resolved by Australia surrendering its sovereignty. People are aware of the issues that have been raised. We have discussed them before. And these matters go to the heart of who we are as Australians, and so we will respect others sovereignty, and we expect nothing else in return other than ours also be respected, as an individual sovereign state, who sets our laws about how we run Australia, here in Australia, consistent with our interests, not at the bequest or at the pressure of any other country.
Langdon: The issue you have got about all those ships in Chinese waters is something like 1,000 people on those ships. What are we doing to help them?
Prime Minister: Again, this is why we just work through the process through with the Chinese Government to get the best possible outcome we can. These are not easy issues. I think your viewers would understand that. It is incredibly complicated what we are dealing with here and we have the best people working on these issues. Just in the same way, we have amazing consular people who have been working on the case of Dr Moore-Gilbert. Equally our trade officials and others are very experienced in handling these matters, but this is an extraordinary period of time in the relationship, and we are very clear about what we want to achieve here, guys. What we want to achieve is this - of course we want a happy co-existence and positive relationship with China. They are our single largest trading partner. There’s massive people to people relationships and we share an interest both being in the Indo-Pacific region. But we also have a wonderful alliance with the United States and a friendship with them as like-minded countries with a similar outlook with Liberal democratic values and then we have our core national interests as well. And we want to see all those managed together. That's not simple, but simple things are not the only issues we deal with as a government. We deal with very complicated and difficult issues, which this is one of, but we are very keen to ensure we get the best outcome for Australia and in the best interests of our relationship.
Stefanovic: Prime Minister, very well done on the release of Kylie Moore-Gilbert. That’s incredible work by yourself and DFAT. That needs to be said. She’s coming home and that’s great news, well done. Thank you for your time today.
Langdon: Thanks Prime Minister.
Prime Minister: Thank you.
Interview with Sunrise
26 November 2020
Samantha Armytage: We're joined now by Prime Minister Scott Morrison. Prime Minister, good morning to you, welcome. You spoke to Kylie Moore-Gilbert a short time ago. What did she say? What kind of condition is she in?
Prime Minister: I did speak to Kylie earlier this morning and, of course, we learnt last night that finally she was with our Ambassador in Tehran, Ambassador Sachs who has done an amazing job together with all the team at DFAT. But most of all to Kylie herself and her family. Their patience, their endurance, their persistence, all absolutely necessary in securing her release. Now, we would never comment on the details of that release or the arrangements around it, that is not just to protect these arrangements but also Australians in any circumstances in a like way around the world. We deal with these matters very discreetly and we work quietly behind the scenes as we have been doing now for two years to secure her release. So we are very happy. She is obviously very thrilled but she is processing it all, as you would expect, she is on her way back to Australia and we are making those, we’ve put those arrangements in place for her transfer to Australia. She is with Australian officials who are giving her all the support she needs. There will be quite an adjustment for Kylie, she has gone through a terrible ordeal. An absolutely awful ordeal, the injustice of her detention and her conviction. Australia has always rejected. And I'm so pleased Kylie is coming home.
David Koch: Yep, it is absolutely great news. As you say, I know it is a delicate situation, but she has been released in a prisoner swap. Are these prisoners from Australia?
Prime Minister: Again, I don't go into any of these arrangements or even to confirm what you have just said. What we have been able to do is secure Kylie's release and we work with a lot of these cases around the world, there are other cases, and we simply just get on and get the job done and do so consistent with Australia's national interest, and we work through all the necessary diplomatic channels. It's not easy, there are often many false starts in this process and we have been down this road several times. So even last night, as I was being updated on the arrangements and the progress that was being made, not just last night but over the last few days in particular, we were very hopeful but we have been in similar situations before. So I was just very pleased that when we got the news late last night that she was safe and she would be returning and just the opportunity to talk to her. She is so grateful to all Australians, she is obviously very grateful for the support she has had from Australian officials and the Government. Marise Payne has led this process. Her passion and commitment to this has been extraordinary and I really want to commend Marise Payne for the great job she has done as Foreign Minister.
Armytage: This is a really good result, Prime Minister. We had Keith Suttor on, our foreign expert this morning and he was questioning mentally how she would be. He believes in solitary confinement for two years, these Iranian prisons are notoriously appalling and high rates of COVID et cetera. How did she seem to you, how was her health and mental health?
Prime Minister: In terms of physical health and mental health, she will go through all the normal assessments that are done in these circumstances and debriefing and all of these things. But I must say, for someone who had just spent two years in an Iranian prison in all sorts of different circumstances over that period of time, she sounded remarkably well under those circumstances. Obviously though, it is still sinking in, the whole experience. She hasn't seen much of what's been happening in Australia. We had a chat about that, you know, what has been going on in Australia? Because when she first went to Iran, I had only just come into this role, so she hadn't heard much about me and we’re looking forward to meet when she comes back. She knows about COVID, obviously. But she has been focusing on getting herself through this and she has been able to do that with some tremendous support. But the support she knew she was getting from the Australian people, I know really lifted her spirits and none of us can really imagine the ordeal that she has been through. But she is an extraordinary, extraordinary Australian. Her intelligence, but not just that, her determination and her strength is something amazing and that, together with the support she has had has got her through this ordeal. But obviously there will be a big adjustment when she comes back to Australia and settles back into a normal life, which I'm sure she has been dreaming of and many of us have been praying for.
Koch: Absolutely. Prime Minister, good news, appreciate your time. Thank you.
Prime Minister: It is, thanks a lot. Cheers.
EU-Australia Leaders' Virtual Meeting
26 November 2020
The President of the European Council, Charles Michel, the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, and the Prime Minister of Australia, Scott Morrison, held a Leaders' Virtual Meeting on 26 November 2020.
The leaders reconfirmed their resolve to work together to fight the COVID-19 pandemic and underlined their commitment to take effective measures to protect health and build more innovative, sustainable, inclusive and resilient economies.
The leaders reaffirmed the shared values that underpin the bilateral relationship as enshrined in the EU-Australia Framework Agreement. The EU and Australia share a commitment to democracy, the rule of law, the protection and promotion of human rights, and gender equality. They are strong supporters of the international rules-based order and an effective multilateral system with the United Nations at its core. The leaders discussed enhancing cooperation in international fora.
Underscoring that global cooperation is vital in overcoming COVID-19, the leaders welcomed the outcomes of the G20 Leaders' Summit on 21-22 November. They referred to the significant contributions the EU and Australia have made towards the global response to COVID-19. They welcomed the support provided to each other’s citizens affected by travel disruptions.
The EU and Australia are committed to ensure universal, equitable and early access to safe, effective and affordable COVID-19 vaccines, diagnostics and therapeutics. Both sides have notably committed substantial funding to the almost €16 billion (A$26 billion) raised through the EU-led Coronavirus Global Response pledging marathon. The leaders stressed the importance of continued international support for the Access to COVID-19 tools (ACT) Accelerator and its COVAX Facility. They agreed to strengthen bilateral research and innovation cooperation and to share research data to combat the pandemic.
The leaders agreed that the EU and Australia will continue to work together to strengthen the World Health Organisation and global preparedness and response to health emergencies. They called for continued and timely implementation of the World Health Assembly resolution of 19 May 2020, including with respect to the independent evaluation of the international response to the pandemic. The leaders exchanged views on a possible international treaty on pandemics.
The EU and Australia are stepping up cooperation on post-pandemic socio-economic recovery and are implementing the G20 Action Plan. They will also discuss the recovery at the next Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM) Summit. The leaders committed to recovery plans that accelerate emissions reductions, and ensure communities and institutions are more resilient and able to adapt to future impacts of climate change, as well as accelerating the digital transformation. They emphasised that global supply chains need to be more resilient and sustainable. They agreed to further cooperate on critical raw materials and on the promotion of diverse critical technology markets.
Both sides reconfirmed their commitment to open and fair trade. They underlined the need to support the multilateral rules-based trading system and to render it fit for current challenges. The EU and Australia will continue to work together, including in the Ottawa Group, to reform and strengthen the WTO, including its negotiating and monitoring function, in particular with regard to level playing field. On reform of the WTO’s dispute settlement system, the two sides reiterated their desire that the WTO membership collectively find a timely and long-lasting solution that would restore a binding, two-tier and independent dispute settlement system in the WTO. The EU and Australia will engage constructively in areas of common interest on the WTO agenda, including sustainable development, e-commerce and fisheries subsidies.
The Leaders noted good progress in the negotiations for an ambitious and comprehensive bilateral trade agreement. The timely conclusion of such an agreement would create growth opportunities, deepen economic integration and reinforce our shared support for rules-based trading arrangements.
The leaders agreed to enhance cooperation to promote shared interests in security and prosperity in Asia and the Pacific, spanning the Indian and Pacific oceans. They recognised the importance of the principles of regional engagement set out in the ASEAN Outlook on the Indo-Pacific, including openness, transparency, a rules-based framework, good governance and respect for sovereignty and international law. In this regard, they agreed to work together in the ASEAN Regional Forum and also to continue their dialogue on cooperation in other ASEAN-led processes. The leaders expressed serious concern about the unilateral and destabilising actions in the South China Sea and underlined the importance of upholding international law, particularly the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea. They underlined that dialogue is the only way to achieve peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula and urged the DPRK to comply with all relevant UN Security Council resolutions.
The leaders stressed that other regional issues should also be resolved through peaceful dialogue and in accordance with international law, including in relation to Belarus and the Eastern Mediterranean.
Underlining the importance of assisting the most vulnerable countries, including in Africa, the leaders welcomed the extension of the G20/Paris Club Debt Service Suspension Initiative (DSSI) and the recently endorsed Common Framework for Debt Treatment beyond the DSSI.
The leaders emphasised their commitment to working with Pacific Island countries and Timor-Leste to build resilience in line with the Agenda 2030. In 2020 the EU has committed €120 million in support of the COVID-19 response in these countries and will continue to provide development assistance to them. Australia has made an allocation of €188 million to assist the region respond to COVID-19 over the next two years as well as separate funding to support vaccine access.
The leaders agreed that resolute and coordinated action is key to tackling the urgent challenge of climate change and environmental degradation. The EU and Australia underlined their commitment to the full implementation of the Paris Agreement and to step up global action to tackle climate change in the lead up to COP26 in 2021. The EU highlighted its commitment to achieve climate neutrality by 2050, while Australia will also demonstrate significant ambition on reducing emissions and pursuing a low emissions development strategy in order to achieve climate neutrality as soon as possible in accordance with the Paris Agreement. The leaders recalled the request by UNFCCC COP21 to communicate or update their Nationally Determined Contributions reflecting the highest possible ambition. The EU and Australia have agreed to collaborate on international technology partnerships. The leaders also underlined their commitment to move towards the circular economy and called for an ambitious global biodiversity framework at the UN Convention on Biological Diversity COP15 in 2021.
Committed to promoting digital transformation based on shared values, Australia and the EU have initiated a digital economy and technology dialogue and agreed to cooperate on artificial intelligence, blockchain, the use of digital tools to address climate change and disaster resilience, quantum technology and the role of platforms. Recognising the importance of a fair and sustainable international tax system, the leaders reaffirmed their commitment to reach by mid-2021 a global solution that addresses the tax challenges arising from the digitisation of the economy.
The leaders welcomed the recent UN resolution on responsible behaviour in space. They also welcomed the establishment of a bilateral space dialogue to advance collaboration.
The leaders restated their commitment to promote sustainable, comprehensive and rules-based connectivity and to implementation of the G20 Principles for Quality Infrastructure Investment. They agreed to explore synergies between their cooperation on connectivity with third countries, particularly in the Indo-Pacific region. They confirmed their resolve to launch in the near future an EU-Australia Transport Dialogue.
On security and defence issues, the leaders looked forward to strengthened cooperation in areas such as counterterrorism and prevention of radicalisation leading to violent extremism and terrorism, cyber and critical technology issues, countering disinformation and foreign interference, protection of critical infrastructure and maritime security. They agreed to continue engagement in crisis management as provided for in the EU-Australia Framework Participation Agreement.
Q&A - APS200 Virtual Forum
25 November 2020
PHIL GAETJENS, SECRETARY OF THE DEPARTMENT OF PRIME MINISTER AND CABINET: Questions and we'll open up now for some and we've got the first one from someone you would recall, Prime Minister. Charles Wann.
PRIME MINISTER: The Dragons had a very bad year, Charles.
QUESTION: Thank you very much, Prime Minister, for reminding me. The Sharks didn't do too much better.
PRIME MINISTER: Not too much better. You're in league with Mr Pezullo there.
QUESTION: He's got great judgement. So look. Thanks, Phil. Thanks, Prime Minister. As Phil mentioned I’m Charles Wann. I’m the corporate operations officer for the Department of Health. People may not know, but next year my department will be 100 years old, having been established in March 1921 following the devastation brought on by the Spanish flu, another particularly nasty pandemic. So within the context of responding to terrible events such as the pandemic, we've seen opportunities for innovation. And within that context, I'd like to ask two questions. The first you've touched on. But it's in your view, what is the key to continuing to improve the public sector’s ability to deliver on the government's commitments? And secondly, what do you think is the right balance in terms of adopting flexible working in both the public and private sectors?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, thanks, Charles. Look, a couple of points. I think what I said about the metrics is really important and the contributing metrics, the outcomes, I think is really important. I think this is really helpful for ministers as well, because- I'll give you an example. In our first meeting of the Policy Implementation Committee, we were looking at the delivery on the JobTrainer program and we were also looking at the performance of the wage subsidy for apprentices. And we were able to observe that, you know, the ultimate goal was to see that we kept apprentices in place and people getting trained. But we saw that JobKeeper in many ways actually overlapped quite a bit with the apprentices. So we're getting the right result. We are keeping apprentices in place. But if you just looked at the total number of people who were on the apprentice subsidy as opposed to the JobKeeper subsidy, you might have drawn a different conclusion. And so I think making sure ministers, you can help your ministers and me a great deal by thinking more about the contributing metrics to the outcome so we can get a good sense of it. And that also needs to be conscious of timing around those metrics, too. I mean, it's like in any scheduling exercise. If we know if we don't meet A by date B, then we're not going to meet C by date D. And I think that is also critical in how you're framing the tracking of progress.
These things can become very mechanistic if you allow them to be. But if you keep thinking about how you're reporting around delivery is focused on helping the minister understand what the hell is going on rather than, oh we sent this report and it satisfied this requirement in that climate. But that's less interesting to me. What's more interesting to me is that my minister knows exactly where the programme of delivery is at and whether they can hit their mark. So I think that's very important. I think the other thing is that the APS has to keep working on being a self-learning organisation and it sort of goes in part to your second question. And we’ve got to take out the positives of what has been, you know, a ridiculous experience over the course of the last 12 months. I mean, the way that the public service was able to swarm to solve problems, that's something I want to see more of. The fact, I mean, the latest innovation with Services Australia contacting people on DFAT’s emergency and registered overseas is a good way, it's just a tremendous way of seeing how those two agencies can actually solve the same problem. Services Australia is going to play a bigger and bigger role in my sort of world view of the public service as a delivery agency, serving many other departments. We're already seeing that and how it delivers Medicare and how it delivers social services policies and other things. But we've seen it play some other roles this year. And the digital component of that, I think is really important.
But within departments and across departments, I think we have to have good processes for harvesting the learnings about what has worked well and lock that stuff in. But don't go, oh 2020 was pretty good, we all got on pretty well that year and did stuff and then we throw it all away and we go back to how we're doing things before. That would be a great failure and I think that would be that would disrespect the achievements of the public service have made this year. In terms of how people work, well, I don't think honestly there is any substitute for people coming together and being in a workplace environment. I think that's positive from a productivity point of view, from a collaboration point of view, and I think it's positive from a social point of view, frankly, and people's own well-being. I think it has taught us, though, about how we can be a bit more flexible on some of these things. I think there is improvements around the edges. I've always been one for flexibility in workplace arrangements and that is a very much a collaborative exercise and so I’m open to those sorts of things. And Peter and others take a similar view. But, you know, I don't think the lesson of 2020 is everyone can work from home from now on. No, we want people back in the offices working together, solving problems together. And as good as the technology is and as it's on show today, I'd rather be with you all. I'd rather be able to see you all and I'd rather engage with you all.
PHIL GAETJENS, SECRETARY OF THE DEPARTMENT OF PRIME MINISTER AND CABINET: Thanks, Charles. Thanks, PM. Now question from Wes Norris, from the Australian Fisheries Management Authority.
QUESTION: Thank you very much, Phil, and thank you very much for your time this morning, Prime Minister. My question is actually- sorry, Wes Norris, I’m the chief executive officer of Australian Fisheries Management Authority. My question is about the APS relationship with China. Although I should note, to be fair, I wrote it and submitted it a few days ago. And there's been some developments since then. Essentially I was curious as to whether you have any sort of centralised guidance for those of us that have direct working relationships with China in terms of government or industry. You've been very clear at the highest levels that we will stick to our priorities and uphold our rights. But down in the weeds, for those of us who are having these day to day interactions. There doesn't appear to be a lot of consistency in terms of our approach and how we go about trading off things like domestic commercial interests against our wider trade and relationship interests?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, I'm disappointed to hear that because there's been no change in the government's view, and so I would be expecting the public service to continue to engage with their counterparts in any other country, including China, as they always have. I mean, our public officials are not burdened with the overlays of the international relations in the same way Ministers or Prime Ministers are. And I think one of the advantages that you would have is to be able to engage on the technical, on the direct, leverage on the relationships that you already have. And I would see that as an important connection, particularly at a time when there are tensions and of course, there are tensions. And in those circumstances, we rely more on these official engagements- these officials level of engagements. And I'm sure Graham up in Beijing would have a similar view. And there's just no need, I think, at the sort of level that officials are engaging at, that they just need to be drawn in to those other questions. I mean, the Chinese government has made it clear that at a public level that they are not engaging in any sort of political activity in relation to these quite specific issues that are arising in trade. Well, we take that at face value, but that is a line and a position that I would have thought that officials can actually repeat in being able to engage on the technicalities. So it's whether it's dealing with issues on barley or fisheries or any of these sorts of things where there are technical matters being raised. Well, we've just got to work the problem. That's what I'm relying on officials to do. I'm not asking officials to solve the international relations issue, that falls to me and Ministers and others. And, you know, that's a complex and it's a difficult environment. And I’d commend to all of you the speech I gave to the Policy Exchange last night., I think it was last night, night before? Which sort of sets out a number of those issues, but for you - keep up the connections and do all you can to improve them and keep the dialogue going at that level, because business and industry are relying on that to to enable us to try and mitigate the impact of some of these measures that are being introduced. So I mean, I hope that's clear. That is my and my Ministers very clear view about how officials should be engaging. Stick within the lines. Obviously, they set out what those lines are and you’d know them better than what I would in those areas and just keep working it as if and as if the other stuff is things that go on between politicians and leaders. That's not something that should have to trouble the working relationship that you're engaged in.
PHIL GAETJENS, SECRETARY OF THE DEPARTMENT OF PRIME MINISTER AND CABINET: Thanks PM, and I know you have to go and prepare for another large meeting this afternoon. So we'll let you go. But thank you for your time again. Thank you for your comments. And I think it's very useful that the public service, again, see’s you. Yes, in isolation, but at least they see you at the end of the screen and acknowledge the connection that you keep with us and the ability to give us a clear view, again, on China and on the pandemic and on the achievements that were achieved over this year. Like you, we all want a rest. And while you're still on the line, I just ask everyone if they could make sure that the PM's comments are made known to people in your organisations. And I'm sure- Well, I don't know - will this be on your media site PM?
PRIME MINISTER: Yeah it will be, I mean I had a prepared text for today but as you can probably tell and as people who know me well, I don't always stay to a prepared text. And I've offered some other more personal reflections. And I'm sure the transcribers will pick that up. But I'm very happy to post it. I, there's nothing I've said in here today that I wouldn't say outside this forum. And my admiration for the public service, as you know Phil, and I want to thank you also for your leadership of the public service, I've always appreciated your style of just getting on with it and working with people and bringing people together. I think that's a tremendous approach. And I think you've had a tremendous year doing just that, Phil. And we've relied heavily on you in pulling together what has been an extraordinary, extraordinary effort from the public service. So I'm very happy for that to be the case. And I do hope people do get their break, you never know, I might get one this year. We'll see.
PHIL GAETJENS, SECRETARY OF THE DEPARTMENT OF PRIME MINISTER AND CABINET: Great. Thanks, PM. Thanks for your time.
PRIME MINISTER: Thanks a lot, cheers.
Interview with Ben Fordham, 2GB
25 November 2020
Ben Fordham: Scott Morrison, good morning to you.
Prime Minister: Good morning, Ben. How are you?
Fordham: Good. How many days have you got to go?
Prime Minister: I've got another week to go yet and I was talking to the girls last night, they were asking me the same question. So we're looking forward to getting to the end of next week so I can go home and see them, but a lot to do. And we're keeping extremely busy and I'm not really missing a beat at all.
Fordham: So how does it work? You still have people around you, but they’d be similar people who you're away with in the first place?
Prime Minister: Yeah, yeah. I mean, Adam Taylor is here with me. He had travelled with me to Japan, as he does on all of our trips. So he's sort of making sure all the communications links work. We've been linking up with summits all around the world. And I have one of my other executive staff members here with me as well and he's joined us this week because we've got Cabinet meetings and all of those sorts of things, lots of briefs and a lot of work to do and so I need a policy person here with me as well.
Fordham: Alright. We're learning today about a plan to enshrine the Brereton Report into war crimes at the Australian War Memorial. The Memorial Director, Matt Anderson, says people will come to the Memorial and expect to see it acknowledged. Now, we know these are very serious allegations, Prime Minister, but there needs to be a presumption of innocence here because that's one of the values our troops went to war for.
Prime Minister: Well, of course there's a presumption of innocence and I've said that and that's the process that we set up with the special investigator. But also the process that's been set up with Defence to deal with the report and the oversight committee that the Defence Minister put in place. But, look, let's not get ahead of ourselves of what's being proposed here either. I mean, we haven't seen anything specific there and the War Memorial Board, which has oversight over this, has people on there, like Tony Abbott, for example, was appointed to that board. Corporal Daniel Keighran is on there. Air Marshall Mel Hupfeld, you’ve got Kerry Stokes, of course as the Chair, Wing Commander Sharon Bown and the list goes on. So there's a lot of, you know, people with a lot of experience on this who, of course, who work closely with the War Memorial Director-
Fordham: But the Director is saying people will come to the Memorial and expect to see it acknowledged. And you're saying we shouldn't get too far ahead of ourselves. It sounds like he wants a hall of shame there.
Prime Minister: Well, no, I don't think that's necessarily what he's proposing at all, Ben. I think we should just wait to see what the War Memorial is actually- how they're proposing to handle this very sensitive matter. And my simple point is we've got a board that sits over those decisions, which has got a lot of very sensible people and I just read out some of the names that are there, I think who have a good understanding of how this issue needs to be sensitively dealt with and respecting our defence forces and upholding the integrity of that process. And I've got confidence in them to make the right decisions. That’s why we appointed them.
Fordham: Do you agree with the Director, Matt Anderson, where he says people will come to the Memorial and expect to see it acknowledged?
Prime Minister: Well, it all depends on what that actually means, Ben. And I think this is a very sensitive issue. We've got to be careful how we handle it and so I'm not just going to run off half cocked in giving a response to something that hasn't even been formulated yet. I don't think that would be very wise on my part and I trust the War Memorial board directors to exercise the appropriate judgement. That's why I appointed them.
Fordham: Speaking of half cocked, the ball is already rolling on plans to strip 3,000 troops of their military citations, even though 99 per cent of them did absolutely nothing wrong. Do you support the removal of those citations for thousands of troops?
Prime Minister: Well, I'm waiting for General Campbell to be able to finalise his set of recommendations about what he proposes to do. And I know this is a very sensitive and controversial issue. It's complex. I mean, we haven't seen a report like this before, Ben. And there are obviously things that need to be addressed within the ADF and there is a proper justice process that needs to go through, as we have both said, where you're always innocent until proven guilty in this country. That's what doing things by Australia's rule of law means. And so they're working out their response to this and we'll see where they get to on that. There is an oversight panel over the top of how these recommendations will be followed through on and so, again, I'm just going to take this step by step, Ben. It's a very hard issue and there's a lot of things to manage and I'm not going to run a daily commentary on every suggestion that comes out.
Fordham: You can understand why people wouldn't support the notion of collective punishment, whereby you punish thousands of people for the sins of a couple of dozen.
Prime Minister: Well, again, Ben, decisions haven't been made yet on these things and so let's just see how each step unfolds. But I'm very sensitive to the issues that you've raised, as is the Defence Minister. This is a very hard issue for Australia to deal with. And I want to do it, as I said at the outset when I set up the process for how we're going to deal with it as a Government, to ensure where there are reforms that need to take place in the military, then that needs to happen. And Defence Force veterans themselves have been saying that. And not just- I mean, it's important that the justice process, obviously, where specific incidents are involved, that's dealt with there. But there's also issues around chains of command and things like that and they also have to be addressed in terms of reform. And those are matters that I know are being dealt with and I will wait to see the next stage that the Chief of the Defence Force makes his recommendations.
Fordham: A few more quick ones, if we can. I know you're limited on time.
Prime Minister: No we’re right.
Fordham: Queensland's opened the border from December 1, which is good, but we've still got WA needing to do the same. Is there an argument for National Cabinet to look at some kind of mechanism to stop state leaders locking themselves off from the rest of the country?
Prime Minister: Well, first of all, I'm thrilled that Queensland is open to the rest of the country. I'm thrilled that they'll also soon, I believe, open to Victoria as well. I mean, I've set that goal that we would be open by Christmas. Only Western Australia hadn't agreed to that. And so it's great to see the people reuniting in Queensland and I think for Christmas coming up, that's especially important. And it's important now that as we open safely in Queensland that we remain safely open. I think business needs that assurance. We had that hiccup in South Australia last week, a bit of a false alarm, and it's important, I think, for businesses that there's that certainty.
The Queensland tracing system, the reports I've had, are very good. So they can deal with something if it pops up and we need to keep that comeback going in our economy and those tourism businesses up in Queensland I know will be thrilled about this result.
In terms of the broader national system, Western Australia has made something very clear. But what you're talking about, I mean, we have to run the country by the Constitution. And public health is the responsibility of state governments and they have the powers to quarantine people who come into their states if they believe there's public health risk. Now, that is a power that they have. We work together as best as we can. The National Cabinet has been something that no other state, no other country has done that has a Federation like this. And while there's been some disagreements, the outcomes of how we perform both on the virus and containing its impact and the economic results we've got, which are some of the best in the world, well, I think that speaks for itself. While there's been the odd disagreement overall, the country has done extremely well.
Fordham: Former Finance Minister Mathias Cormann is campaigning to become the next boss of the OECD. He's flown from Canberra to Perth, to Oman, to Turkey, to Denmark, to Germany, to Switzerland, to Slovenia, back to Switzerland, then Luxembourg, to Belgium and then to Spain on Australian Air Force jets. So who's paying for all of that?
Prime Minister: Well, that's funded by the Government because we're taking this bid very seriously. And the reason we need him to do that in the Air Force jet is because COVID is running rampant in Europe. I mean, this is a very important position. The OECD is going to play a really important role in the global economic recovery. As many years ago when the Rudd government was in power, they campaigned for a seat on the Security Council and there were similar efforts put in place. But the other point, really, about this, I mean, there really wasn't the practical option to use commercial flights in the time we had available because of COVID. I mean, if Mathias was flying around on commercial planes, he would have got COVID. The risk of that was extremely high. And so this is about safety, it's about health, but it's also about campaigning for a position that Alexander Downer was telling me the other night, our longest serving foreign minister, that Australia has never secured such a position before. Now we're in the race for it. And it'll be very important. Mathis would be an outstanding Secretary-General of the OECD, standing up for those liberal democratic market-based values which the OECD represents that are going to be so important for the economic recovery. So the COVID environment has really demanded this probably more than anything else.
Fordham: We're talking to Prime Minister Scott Morrison from The Lodge. PM, if I can ask you about robodebt. I know that the Government has apologised over robodebt but the Labor Party says you haven't taken enough personal responsibility for all of this because it was your policy introduced back when you were the relevant minister. Do you take personal responsibility?
Prime Minister: The Labor Party would say that and they misrepresent everything, as I'm sure your listeners know.
Fordham: What have they misrepresented?
Prime Minister: What they're misrepresenting is what this decision is about, is a thing called income averaging. And it's actually not about the computer. It's about the assumption made that a debt is raised by averaging people's incomes. Now, the Labor Party did that. That policy has been used for years and years and years.
Fordham: But you've acknowledged as a government that robodebt was over the odds.
Prime Minister: No, no, what I said was that income averaging was found not to be a valid means of raising a debt. That's what it's about. This is just the Labor Party trying to throw some mud. Now, this process has found on income averaging not to be a way you can legally raise a debt. But I'm sure your listeners agree that where there are debts, where there is overpayments made to people, that it's important the government seeks to recover those debts and the government will continue to seek to do that by the appropriate means. And that is what previous Labor governments did. That's what our government has done. And this process has not continued in that form, and we paid back and relieved some $700 million of the debts out of $1.2 billion. So we've got on with fixing it. That's what we've got on with doing. Labor wants to just keep kicking it along for their own political reasons.
Fordham: We need people to get out there and start spending now. We're one month out until Christmas. Have you started doing your Christmas shopping?
Prime Minister: I haven't really had the time, Ben, to be honest.
Fordham: Oh, come on.
Prime Minister: Right now I can't even get out of the house.
Fordham: Tell me I brought something back for the kids from Japan.
Prime Minister: I did bring something back and I had that sent back up to them. But the Christmas shopping is something that Jenny's always been the commander of and she does an amazing job and I think that's the case in probably many houses. And thankfully for that, because she's a much better present buyer than I am.
Fordham: Not in my house. I was out at Kmart on the weekend. You should see some of the stuff I got at Kmart.
Prime Minister: You're leading the way. You’re setting an example.
Fordham: All right. Well, good luck with the rest of the quarantine and we'll catch up soon.
Prime Minister: Thanks a lot, Ben. Good to talk to you.
Fordham: Prime Minister Scott Morrison, live from the Lodge.
UK Policy Exchange Q&A
23 November 2020
Prime Minister, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
DEAN GODSON, DIRECTOR OF POLICY EXCHANGE: Prime Minister, thank you and we will now hear, I hope, from our own Prime Minister who wants to say a few words of congratulations so I hope we can have the connection.
THE RIGHT HONOURABLE BORIS JOHNSON MP, PRIME MINISTER OF THE UNITED KINGDOM: Good evening to everybody in Canberra, good morning from London. It gives me great pleasure to congratulate my friend Scott Morrison on winning the Policy Exchange Grotius Prize and goodness Grotius me, you might say. And listen, I mean, all the historical rivalry between our two countries, whether between the fans of Larwood or Bradman or Jonny Wilkinson versus the Wallabies in 2003, the hysterical partisans of marmite or vegemite, there is a huge amount that unites us and that we do together. It is fantastic to work with Scott in sticking up for things that both the UK and Australia believe in together and believe in passionately. Our common security, our principles, our beliefs in democracy, in fundamental freedoms, in the rules-based international system. And, of course, there is also the small matter of free trade and I am delighted that we are doing a deal that I hope we will be able to conclude. A deal that will see, finally, the people of Britain able to access the supplies of Tim Tam chocolate biscuits in the quantities that we need and the people of Australia are able to get Penguins in exchange. Here’s to you, Scott, well done, many congratulations on your prize and here is to the UK-Australia free trade deal.
DEAN GODSON, DIRECTOR OF POLICY EXCHANGE: Thank you, Prime Minister, and now I am going to, Prime Minister Morrison has very kindly will answer questions. If I can just ask people to stick up their virtual hands so we can have the greatest possible choice of questions across the international community and if you could please first state your name and organisation. So the first question I see is from Tom Tugendhat MP, Chair of the House of Commons Foreign Affairs Select Committee. Tom.
QUESTION: Thank you, Dean, and congratulations Prime Minister and thank you for your defence of the international rules-based system. It is noticeable that in recent weeks and months, Australia has been on the frontline with blocks coming to your sales overseas, particularly with China, from your defence of the rules-based system with the World Health Organisation. You’ll have read the report by the Policy Exchange, forwarded by Shinzo Abe, and you’ll have seen I hope the work of the Foreign Affairs Committee in the past two years pointing out the threat that some authoritarian states, and most notably China, pose to our international order. Could you comment on how you see the UK’s role being allied to not just Australia but also Japan, India and many others, in defending the system, in buttressing it, for the prosperity and peace of all?
PRIME MINISTER: Thank you for the question and thank you for your kind words. Look, Australia in how we approach these issues is no different really from the time that when Alexander was our Foreign Minister for that record period of time. The policies we have in relation to the rules-based order, the Indo-Pacific are no different today than they were in John Howard's time. And there are some things that have changed, of course, to our north. But Australia's position hasn't changed. Circumstances can lead to different actions, but always consistent with the same policies and principles that we've always held. And I think that is the key. The thing about rules-based order is it's about stability and consistency and that provides certainty. And Australia has always just sought to be consistent in our views about these things. And to take seriously the obligations that sit under these rules and the World Trade Organisation. And we rightly have the same expectations that others should respond in kind. And to engage in good faith in where the disputes might arise and observe not just the letter, but the spirit of these rules, because that's what makes it all hang together. And so another part of our approach, we've just got to be patient about this, and we just need to be consistent in holding to these positions and pursuing them in a way that seeks to get to where we all want to be, at the end of the day. I mean, the point here is that we want to be in a situation, particularly here in the Indo-Pacific, where we can freely trade and see the growth and prosperity of the nation states of the Indo-Pacific, whether it's Japan, South Korea or Indonesia, a great friend of Australia, Vietnam with whom we have an extraordinary relationship that is just really blossoming, dealing with in partnership with many of the sort of security issues and rule of law issues in relation to the South China Sea. We share views. We have completely different political systems, but we can come together with a shared understanding of the challenges in our region. And that's the outcome we seek. So we seek to keep our eyes focussed on what outcome we want, which is the advancement of all nations within the Indo-Pacific, including China, because China's advance is good, is in our interests. So it's not our objective to see them contained economically. And I think trying to be as clear in that message as we possibly can, and having that position shared with as many like mindeds, whether they be in the region because of their own sovereign interests or if they'd be further afield like the UK and Europe and indeed the United States, where there is a bond that is driven by shared values. And that's why, as I said in my remarks, groups like the G7 and the OECD are so important because that's where liberal, market-based democracies come together. And what I was hoping to convey is it was that set of values, it was that cooperation that resisted some of the greatest tyranny ever foisted upon the planet and its peoples and provided a pathway to peace and prosperity that was unimaginable in earlier times. And that just fills me with confidence that we can make it that way again in a very peaceful and constructive way.
DEAN GODSON, DIRECTOR OF POLICY EXCHANGE: Thank you, Prime Minister. Next question from Right Honourable Sir Michael Fallon, former defence secretary, of course, played a very important part in developing relations with Australia, a distinguished member of our own Indo-Pacific Commission here at Policy Exchange. Sir Michael. Do I have Sir Michael coming in? I don't hear him. Viscount Trenchard, another important voice in the House of Lords on matters of the Indo-Pacific.
QUESTION: Good morning and many congratulations, Prime Minister, on becoming the first recipient of the Grotius Prize. I was very pleased to hear that you mentioned the potential accession of the UK to the CPTPP, but would like to hear from you what are the principal issues the UK might face in seeking and achieving accession and to what extent Australia can help the UK overcome these issues? And what timescale do you think is realistic for that? I think some British people are a little confused to have heard recently about RCEP. To what extent does it cut across the CPTPP and to what extent is it complementary to it? Thank you.
PRIME MINISTER: Well, thank you, and thank you also for your kind congratulations. Very good question. First of all, the TPP is a much more ambitious trade agreement than RCEP. And it really builds and goes beyond, I think, of the WTO baselines. As I said, it goes into digital commerce and a range of other areas which make it quite a landmark agreement, the new platform upon which others we think can be built upon. RCEP is an important agreement for the Indo-Pacific region because for the first time, it brings all of those 15 countries into one arrangement, and that is its great power. And that will mean a lot. I mean, we have 14 agreements already with each of those partners in the RCEP. So from Australia's point of view, we had already achieved the access through our individual bilaterals. And that largely simplifies it now through RCEP and creates a form of economic community. For TPP though, it goes much beyond that. And Australia fought hard, and I acknowledge, particularly the former Prime Minister Mr Turnbull and the then Trade Minister Ciobo, who worked very hard to keep the TPP alive after the decision by the United States not to participate. And we were successful in doing that. And we particularly worked with Shinzo Abe as Prime Minister, who was outstanding also, in leading the charge to see the TPP realised. Now, I remember when the decision had been taken following Brexit, I met then with then Chancellor Hammond. We were in Shanghai, I think, or in China somewhere, at one of the many G20 meetings. And it was his first visit there as Chancellor. Previously he had been Foreign Minister. And I said to him, I said, well, the TPP is a model that the UK can just step right into. And I'm pleased to see that having planted that seed, we're at where we are now. And I've got to say, I don't think there are any great obstacles to it at all other than us I think being positive and in supporting the UK's involvement. I think the, I mean, obviously it has to be done with the consent of all parties to the TPP. But as members of it, we're all quite keen for it to grow in strength and reach and I think the UK would be a great addition to the TPP. But that, of course, is subject to the views of our colleagues. And so you would get no argument from Australia about that. You’d get a willing partner, and because of the nature of the UK's offering, embracing the free trade premise, then I think they would find it an easy and easier passage. And in doing so, this would set an important benchmark for other potential entrants and so that's another reason why I think the UK's involvement would be a very positive development.
DEAN GODSON, DIRECTOR OF POLICY EXCHANGE: Thank you, Prime Minister. Sir Michael Fallon, have we got a connection with you now? Can you hear us? I know you're trying to unmute and various other audio wizardry. We'll try with someone else now. Professor (inaudible) of King's College London, with which we have a connection also through our distinguished chairman. Alessia.
QUESTION: Good morning, Dean. Prime Minister, congratulations and thank you very much for what was a truly inspiring talk this morning. I would like to draw your attention back to a point you were making about the new habits of cooperation, which I think is very important. And speaking about this, you talked about your recent visit last week to Japan in which you introduced this truly transformational agreement, this reciprocal access agreement. And this, I understand, was a relatively long process. And I would like to ask you, what would be your recommendation to the UK government if the UK were to pursue a similar access agreement with Japan? Thank you.
PRIME MINISTER: Well, thank you again for your kind words. This is quite an extraordinary agreement. I mean, there is only one other country with whom Japan has this type of status of forces agreement, and that's with the United States and that was reached in 1960. So these things have been a while between drinks for Japan. And you're right, it was actually Prime Minister Abbott who proposed to Prime Minister Abe that this should be the next step in our relationship. And it has been going many years. When I first became Prime Minister, one of my early meetings was with Prime Minister Abe up in Darwin. And it was clear to me in that meeting that there was a long way to go on this and so we invested an enormous amount of energy in it. I did personally, as well as our Defence Minister, Foreign Minister and of course, our officials and our ambassador, Richard Court. This was the priority agenda for us in our relationship with Japan. It also builds on a, you know, an incredibly long relationship with Japan. I mean, we had the commerce agreement and Alexander will correct me, I'm sure, if I get the date wrong. But 1957, when it was a coalition government that entered into that agreement for a commerce agreement. So we've been trading and establishing firm bilateral relations over a very long period of time. So, look, I'm not really in a position to comment on how such an arrangement could be achieved between Japan and the United Kingdom. That's probably not my place to do so. But it also stems out of a key reason that I believe this came together, apart from the personal relationships, was that I said when I was up there that Australia and Japan have a uniquely shared view on the Indo-Pacific. We both have a very important alliance with the United States, and China is both of our biggest trading partner. We are both in the Indo-Pacific region. Japan, of course, has very specific interests in the Sea of Japan and other places. It's very close to home for them in terms of the issues that are present. But for Australia, similarly, we want to create the stability in the region. And I believe our relationship with Japan and what we've been able to get to this week -it was last week, it was this day just under a week ago. I think that really has been a contributor to regional stability. And I think will be very warmly welcomed in the region. So the short answer is, I think the dynamics are different. I think the context is different. There's no doubt there's a shared like mindedness between Japan and the United Kingdom, and the history of your relationship is I’m sure somewhat different to ours. But like-minded countries, getting together on these things is a good thing.
DEAN GODSON, DIRECTOR OF POLICY EXCHANGE: Thank you, Prime Minister. Now, final question, if we can connect with you with Sir Michael Fallon, Sir Michael, are you there? Third time lucky I hope.
QUESTION: Can you hear me now?
DEAN GODSON, DIRECTOR OF POLICY EXCHANGE: Loud and clear.
QUESTION: Excellent. Prime Minister. Thank you very much for such a refreshing talk this morning. Can I pick up on your answer to Tom Tugendhat, where you referred to China's interests, when it comes to international agreements like the Law of the Sea Convention, given China's legitimate ambition to expand its reach across the Indo-Pacific and beyond, how do we persuade China that one day it really will be in its own interests to respect a convention as strong as that and to abide by its rulings?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, Sir Michael and good to hear from you again, I remember we met on several occasions, I think, when I was last in the UK. Look, this is a, this is the $64,000 dollar question, really. I mean, it's very difficult, I think, to understand the mind of China and their outlook. But it is our task to seek to do so. Of course, there are tensions. I won't deny that. But I do feel that many of the tensions are based on some misunderstandings. And I think one of the key misunderstandings is a level of confidence about what we see is the end result. Our end result from Australia's point of view as I said, is not containment, our end result is happy coexistence, respecting each other's sovereignty and systems and being able to happily coexist in a mutually beneficial relationship. And I believe that's where both parties of this relationship have a lot more work to do to get to that shared understanding of what we see the ultimate goal as being. And I suppose for all other like-mindeds, it's the same goal. I think we have to be able to be convincing. And it’s certainly Australia's position that that's where we want this to end up. And if we can work from there and go backwards, then I hope that that will create a better environment for the relationship we're having now. But I do think all of these things are heavily clouded and distorted by the overwhelming influence of these strategic competitions and the tensions that arise from that between the United States and China. Very difficult to see others other than through the lens of that relationship with the United States. And perhaps the atmospherics of that relationship will change following the most recent election. I do believe in the US system, though there is a strong resolve there on these issues. And that is largely a bipartisan view, as best as I could see in the United States. But I think the role of multilateral institutions, confirming what the ultimate goal is, but being really clear that these goals depend upon respecting those important international norms and rules and not just in the letter, but in the spirit also, and to deal with each other in a very direct way, and particularly when there are disagreements or misunderstandings, the lines have to remain open. Now, unfortunately, at the moment in our own relationship, those lines of communications are not as we'd like them to be. But that is, that is not of Australia's doing, we're very open to having those conversations and indeed these 14 points as have been officially, unofficially, I should say, nominated, happy to have a discussion about all of them. But we'll do that from the perspective of our interests. And I would expect nothing different from our comprehensive strategic partner, China. So, Sir Michael, a long answer, not one that necessarily provides as much assurance as we'd all like, but that's the nature of the world in which we live. And that's why we rely, I think, on the values that underpin the rules-based order that were important 400 years ago. And just as important today.
DEAN GODSON, DIRECTOR OF POLICY EXCHANGE: Thank you, Prime Minister, and before calling upon our Chairman of Trustees, Alexander Downer, to deliver a vote of thanks. I want to pre-empt several things. First of all, you noted the 14 points put forward officially unofficially, I noted one of the 14 points that was a source of grievance to the PRC spokesman, it was the role of think tanks. So I just wanted here at this point to extend solidarity to our friends in the think tank world in Australia. It's flattering that our work matters, and also that at this moment that you've kindly referred to, Prime Minister, and thank you for your warm words of endorsement. We published our own Indo-Pacific commissioned report today, which was chaired by former Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper, also chair of the International Democrat Union. I commend everybody who might not have been as diligent ahead of the game as Prime Minister Morrison to read it on www.policyexchange.org.au It's an outstanding piece of work and proud to commend it to you. And finally, before handing over to Alexander, just to say one other thing, of course, we are cast to all of the four winds today, four freedoms you've talked about, Atlantic Charter and so on. And that means we cannot actually give you the prize in person, but the prize is Grotius, an original volume of Grotius own The Law of War and Peace, and we look forward to dispatching it to you, it's a wonderful, has a wonderful actually like all old books, a wonderful odour about it in every possible substant and olfactory sense, as our Prime Minister here might say. So I commend it also to everyone here. But it's a privilege, of course, to have an Australian as chairman of trustees of Policy Exchange, more and more people from the Commonwealth are holding and from the wider world, are holding eminent positions in British life. And it's very good to have somebody who understands the issue so thoroughly, as Alexander is the longest serving foreign minister in Australia's history and subsequently as a distinguished High Commissioner in London, following in the footsteps, of course, of his father, who embodied so many of these themes we're addressing today. Alexander, over to you.
THE HON. ALEXANDER DOWNER AC: Well, thanks very much, Dean. And Prime Minister, first of all, let me congratulate you on being the first recipient of the Grotius prize and also on your really excellent speech this morning or this evening to us all. I think I think those listening will be quite inspired by it because it does demonstrate, if you'll excuse me, sounding a little [inaudible], in government [inaudible] and especially under your leadership times, has a very sound and coherent and clear foreign policy, and it's always important for a country to have that. And I think you've articulated three or four very key principles which make for a good foreign policy.
First of all, no doubt about this, a robust defence of the national interest and national sovereignty, and even your worst critics wouldn't say that you had let the side down on that front. There have been times when you've been very robust and quite rightly so.
And secondly, a good foreign policy, which you have demonstrated in your speech this morning and in practice is one that contributes where it makes sense to collective efforts to deal with international problems and the efforts that you've made to contribute to trade liberalisation, to climate change and of course, to the pandemic. Where maybe collective efforts could have been better than they have been, but your commitment to all of those things, I think is that is really laudable and it's coherent and it makes sense.
I think the third thing to say is, and you've talked about this quite a lot this morning or this evening, that you have to deal in Australia with the most important single geopolitical issue of our time, which is the rise of China. And you've used the phrase, which I used for years, that a policy of containment of China will never work. We shouldn't pursue a policy of containment we should pursue a policy of engagement and cooperation with China. They haven't been very cooperative. You can't say that, but I will. I think they could have been much more cooperative with Australia than they have been. And I don't think it's in their interests not to collaborate and cooperate with Australia. But nevertheless, I think you've handled it with great courage often and very well and set quite an example to be, quite an example to the world. I also think the broader Indo-Pacific strategy as a continuation, as you said, of what we did way back in the days of John Howard and that is effectively and you quoted Condi Rice here, building a power balance in the region, the evolution of the trilateral security dialogue into the Quad, the amazing agreement that you struck last week with the Japanese, the Reciprocal Access Agreement. It's a huge achievement, not to be understated or underestimated demonstrates how this power balance in the region is such an important component of keeping the region stable and prosperous.
And I suppose the last thing I wanted to say is that Policy Exchange is launching its Indo-Pacific Commission report today. And I know Australia and you've referred to this, would welcome the UK to join the TPP or the CPTPP and conclude very quickly a free trade agreement with Australia and other countries in the region. And I'm personally delighted that so many people in the UK want to get the UK back into the Indo-Pacific region. And I personally, and I know you'll agree with me, think that this will be very much in Australia's interests as well.
So, Prime Minister, congratulations. And it's been wonderful to spend some time with you this morning.
PRIME MINISTER: Thank you very much, Alexander. That's very, very, very kind words, and I appreciate them very much given our long association.
DEAN GODSON, DIRECTOR OF POLICY EXCHANGE: Over and out. Thank you, everybody.
Faster Services for Geelong on the Way
21 November 2020
Prime Minister, Deputy Prime Minister, Minister for Infrastructure, Transport and Regional Development, Minister for Population, Cities and Urban Infrastructure, Premier of Victoria, State Member for Mulgrave, Victorian Minister for Transport Infrastructure, State Member for Bendigo East
Australia’s first faster rail corridor between Melbourne and Geelong will strip 15 minutes off the travel time and mean a congestion free commute to and from Melbourne’s CBD.
Today’s announcement comes after the Australian and Victorian Governments agreed to commit $2 billion each to the project.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison and Premier Daniel Andrews revealed Stage One of the Geelong Fast Rail project, which will deliver passengers faster journeys between Geelong and Melbourne, with a travel time of around 50 minutes.
Construction of Geelong Fast Rail is expected to be underway from 2023, subject to relevant planning, environmental and government approvals. It will support over 2800 jobs during construction.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison said the plan would deliver a major boost for the fast-growing city of Geelong where the population is expected to grow by almost 50 per cent in the next 30 years.
“We want commuters to spend less time travelling and more time with loved ones and the faster rail corridor provides a better transport link for urban and regional communities,” the Prime Minister said.
The works will include track upgrades between Werribee and Laverton, including a new dedicated express track that will create a faster route for Geelong services.
It is the shortest and most direct rail line between Geelong and Melbourne, approximately 8 kilometers shorter than the current route that travels through the western suburbs via Sunshine.
Running Geelong services on the Werribee corridor also frees up room for more trains to Melbourne’s west, including Wyndham, Melton, Ballarat and Bendigo that run on the Sunshine corridor.
Some Geelong services will continue to run on the existing corridor for increased frequency, choice and the quickest connection with the new Melbourne Airport Rail line.
Premier Daniel Andrews said faster rail would mean Victorians could spend less time commuting and more time with the people they love – and that he was proud to be delivering for Geelong.
The Victorian Government will invest $2 billion in the Geelong Fast Rail project – matching the Australian Government’s $2 billion contribution to the project.
“When we make a promise, we keep it. We will deliver faster services to Geelong – and shovels will be in the ground in just a few years.”
Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Infrastructure, Transport and Regional Development Michael McCormack said continued infrastructure investment was at the heart of the Federal Government’s economic recovery plan.
“Every dollar we spend on infrastructure is a dollar invested in local jobs, local businesses, local industries and local communities,” the Deputy Prime Minister said.
“This nation-building infrastructure will ensure commuters can get home sooner and safer, increasing the liveability of the entire Geelong region.”
Federal Minister for Population, Cities and Urban Infrastructure Alan Tudge said Geelong Fast Rail was the first part of the Federal Government’s 20-year faster rail plan.
“This is a critical route for faster rail which will make a huge difference for thousands of Victorians,” Mr Tudge said.
“When all stages are completed the time from Geelong to Melbourne will be just 40 minutes.”
Minister for Transport Infrastructure Jacinta Allan said the project will deliver better services and support thousands of jobs.
“Geelong Fast Rail Stage 1 will deliver more frequent and reliable services for one of our biggest cities – creating more jobs and access to services for locals.”
The plan builds on more than $1 billion of work already underway to improve services on the Geelong corridor including the Waurn Ponds Station Upgrade, the South Geelong to Waurn Ponds Duplication and Waurn Ponds Stabling.
Both governments will continue to work together on detailed planning and technical investigations to inform a business case for the first stage, as well as scoping future investments for the Geelong corridor which will further reduce travel times.
Melbourne Airport Rail to Create Jobs for Years to Come
21 November 2020
Prime Minister, Deputy Prime Minister, Minister for Infrastructure, Transport and Regional Development, Minister for Population, Cities and Urban Infrastructure, Premier of Victoria, State Member for Mulgrave, Victorian Minister for Transport Infrastructure, State Member for Bendigo East
The Melbourne Airport Rail Link route will take travellers into the heart of the CBD in less than 30 minutes following an historic agreement announced today between the Australian and Victorian governments
Prime Minister Scott Morrison joined Premier Daniel Andrews to announce the route for the project, which will connect Victoria’s regional and metropolitan rail networks to the airport for the first time.
From 2029, Victorians will be able to catch a train directly from the CBD to the airport.
“The airport link is a nationally significant project and Victorians have been waiting a long time for it to become a reality. With construction to start in 2022, the agreement will support up to 8,000 jobs during construction,” the Prime Minister said.
“When complete, the link will slash travel times, bust congestion and be a major boost to the economy.”
Airport trains will run through the Metro Tunnel, meaning families in the booming south-eastern suburbs can get to the airport without changing trains, and the majority of Victorians can get to the airport with just one interchange from their closest station.
It also means that tourists visiting Victoria will be able to get from the airport to regional Victoria in a hassle-free way – meaning more visitors and jobs for our regions.
Melbourne Airport Rail will see 10-minute turn-up-and-go services running from Melbourne Airport through the heart of the city, providing direct connections to key sites including Melbourne University, the Parkville medical precinct, Melbourne Central and Flinders Street stations and the St Kilda Road business precinct.
Premier Daniel Andrews said today’s announcement was a historic day for all of Victoria.
“This project has been talked about for a long time, its key to our recovery and this design means it will benefit all Victorians,” Mr Andrews said.
“As we continue our recovery, we need a long-term plan. We need a pipeline of jobs for Victorians looking for work now, and for those who will need jobs in the future. We said we’d deliver this project, and we’re keeping our promise.”
Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Infrastructure, Transport and Regional Development Michael McCormack said this vital piece of infrastructure would transform travel to and from Melbourne Airport.
“The aviation industry is so important to Australia’s economy and by investing in this rail link, we’re making it even easier for Victorians to travel to and from Melbourne Airport,” the Deputy Prime Minister said.
“This investment is an important part of the economic road back – it will be a job-creator for Victorians and a huge boost to so many local businesses across the construction industry.”
Federal Minister for Population, Cities and Urban Infrastructure Alan Tudge said a rail line to the airport was long overdue for Melbourne.
“Our objective has always been to deliver a rail connection that is fast, affordable and built as quickly as possible,” Mr Tudge said.
“For those in the south east it will mean a trip to the airport without changing trains, and for others just one change.”
Minister for Transport Infrastructure Jacinta Allan said that Airport Rail via Sunshine means that the majority of Victorians can access the airport by rail, as quickly as possible.
“This will give Victorians the fastest, most direct trip to the airport through the Metro Tunnel which will deliver more trains, more often.”
Melbourne’s west will also have direct airport access via a single interchange at Sunshine Station, or Footscray Station for Werribee and Williamstown line passengers.
Passengers on all city loop trains will be able to connect to airport trains at Flinders Street and Melbourne Central.
Passengers from the regional centres of Geelong, Ballarat and Bendigo will travel to the airport via a single interchange at Sunshine, while passengers from Gippsland will be connected via a single interchange at a choice of locations along the Cranbourne and Pakenham lines.
It delivers the best possible integration with the existing network and paves the way for future improvements to regional and western metropolitan lines.
Melbourne Airport Rail will use the new fleet of High Capacity Metro Trains – the biggest and most passenger-friendly trains on Victoria’s train network.
The Victorian and Australian governments have committed $5 billion each in funding. Detailed planning and development work is currently underway, which will inform more detailed cost estimates.
Construction will begin in 2022, with a target completion date for Melbourne Airport Rail of 2029 – subject to the business case and relevant Victorian and Federal planning, environmental and other government approvals.
Light at the End of the Tunnel for South Australia's Biggest Ever Job-Creating Infrastructure Project
10 November 2020
Prime Minister, Minister for Population Cities and Urban Infrastructure, Premier of South Australia, South Australian Minister for Infrastructure and Transport
The Morrison and Marshall Governments are delivering the biggest ever job-creating infrastructure project in South Australia’s history – the long-awaited final section of the North-South Corridor.
The River Torrens to Darlington stretch will be transformed over the next decade with a combination of tunnelling and at-surface infrastructure to unlock Adelaide’s traffic network and create up to 4,000 jobs.
The final 10.5km section is the most complex part of the North-South Corridor to deliver and has required extensive analysis of a number of design options including one long tunnel, an at-surface motorway and a hybrid combination of both.
Comprehensive analysis of traffic, ground conditions, local environment, heritage assets and also community and stakeholder feedback has confirmed the hybrid+ option will deliver the greatest social and economic benefits for South Australia.
The project will be delivered in two stages. Stage One – approximately 6km of motorway including more than 4km of tunnel between Anzac Highway and Darlington and Stage Two – an at-surface motorway and a second northern tunnel, connecting the River Torrens to Anzac Highway.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison said the North-South Corridor would deliver thousands of jobs to support hard-working South Australian families and motorists would benefit for generations to come.
“The North-South Corridor is a game-changing piece of infrastructure that will change the way people move across Adelaide,” Mr Morrison said.
“This is the most significant and eagerly anticipated road infrastructure project ever delivered in South Australia.”
Premier Steven Marshall has predicted the North-South Corridor will be one of the most important infrastructure projects ever delivered for our state and will revolutionise the way we travel.
“This project is a generational game changer for South Australian motorists – and the largest delivered in more than a century,” said Premier Steven Marshall.
“The benefits of our decision will be felt for generations, with the project alone estimated to create up to 4,000 jobs, slash travel time by 24 minutes and connect the north and the south of our state with a 78km non-stop motorway.”
Federal Minister for Population, Cities and Urban Infrastructure, Alan Tudge, said tunnelling will remove thousands of vehicles a day from South Road.
“This will slash up to 24 minutes in travel time from River Torrens to Darlington, that equates to more than eight days across a year that motorists will save,” Mr Tudge said.
“When the entire corridor is complete it will deliver a 78km non-stop, free-flowing motorway from Gawler to Old Noarlunga.”
South Australian Infrastructure and Transport Minister, Corey Wingard, said progressing the hybrid+ solution means we can maximise the project’s benefits, including a free-flowing north-south motorway.
“After the previous Labor government put this project and tunnels in the too-hard basket, we’ve rolled up our sleeves and done the work to get it back on track,” Minister Wingard said.
“The tunnelling solution we’ve come up with will minimise community impact, improve east-west travel, increase overall network capacity to reduce congestion, and deliver greater safety benefits.
“The other design options we assessed failed to meet the state’s transport needs while getting the balance right between easing congestion across the network and enhancing the liveability of local communities – key objectives for the project.
“With the hybrid+ solution we can protect iconic community and heritage assets including the Thebarton Theatre, Hindmarsh Cemetery, Hoffman Brick Kiln and Queen of Angels Church, to name a few.
“This solution requires far less property acquisition, will have reduced impact to business during construction and saves a number of heritage buildings from demolition.”
The motorway will be built in two stages, with Stage One focused on improving the most congested area of the network and delivering free-flowing travel between Anzac Highway and Darlington.
Most of this first stage will involve tunnel construction, meaning work can occur while minimising disruption to South Road traffic, businesses and the local community.
This stage will be built within the existing joint state and federal funding commitment of $5.4 billion, delivering a faster return on investment and early benefits to road users.
Current estimates put the total 10.5km project at $8.9 billion. The final cost estimate will be determined later next year after a detailed business case and consideration by Infrastructure SA and Infrastructure Australia.
The current estimate is around $1 billion less than the initial estimate for this tunnelling option following further project design and refinement, which has also resulted in 480 fewer property acquisitions than Labor’s open motorway option.
The project will now progress to the next stage of development including ongoing ground investigations, detailed design work and a comprehensive stakeholder engagement program to inform a reference design which is expected to be released late-2021.
Early works including ground investigations are already underway, with utility relocation works scheduled to start in 2021 and major construction expected to commence in late 2023. Construction is to be completed by 2030.
The Hon. Dame Margaret Guilfoyle AC DBE
19 November 2020
I was saddened to hear of the recent death of Dame Margaret Guilfoyle AC DBE.
Dame Margaret holds a special place in the history of our country – as the first woman in Cabinet with a ministerial portfolio, the first woman senator in Cabinet and the first woman to hold a major economic portfolio.
Dame Margaret opened doors for Australian women that will never be shut again. This is her great legacy.
During the Fraser Government, Dame Margaret was Minister for Education, Minister for Social Security and Minister for Finance. Her reputation has only grown with time – in terms of her place in history and her achievements as a senior minister.
As a minister, the then Senator Guilfoyle was meticulous, confident and unflappable – and she would become a role model for the many women who would follow.
The late Susan Ryan, re-appropriating her own election slogan, said of Margaret Guilfoyle “If anyone’s performance should have established that a woman’s place was in the Cabinet, it was Margaret Guilfoyle’s.”
Dame Margaret was a child of the Great Depression. Her father died when she was just 10 years old and her mother raised three children alone. Understanding the importance of education to economic security, she undertook secretarial and accounting studies while holding down a full time job.
In the 1970s she fought for the extension of maternity leave for all women, not just Commonwealth employees.
As Minister for Social Security, the welfare of women was central to her. She reminded her colleagues often that 83 per cent of the payments made through her department were made to women.
Margaret Guilfoyle oversaw major reform of the national child endowment scheme switching from tax rebates to cash payments. She ran the Office of Child Care and presided over a major expansion of government support for preschool, child care and after-school care.
In 1980, Dame Margaret took on the role of Finance Minister, a role that she called “the chief accountant for the country”.
Dame Margaret left the Liberal Party a legacy that we are beckoned to live up to. In her words:
“Equal participation of women in the Parliament, in the whole of community life, can only lead us to a better understanding of humanity and to the fulfilment of the aspirations that we would have for a civilised society.”
On behalf of all Australians, I extend our condolences to her husband Stan and her family.
Interview with Chris Kenny, Sky News Live
19 November 2020
CHRIS KENNY: Prime Minister it’s always good to talk to you, but this a very 2020 interview, I’m in my second to last day of hotel quarantine, you’re starting 14 days of isolation at the Lodge after your trip to Japan. This really must bring home to you the brutality of the lockdown that's been imposed on South Australia now, has Premier Steven Marshall done too much to tackle too little there?
PRIME MINISTER: Well the signs in South Australia are very promising. I've spoken to Premier Marshall again today. I’ve spoken to each day over the last few days, obviously, and there's a bit of uncertainty regarding what is potentially a further strain there, and this is a very precautionary action that he’s taken. Obviously, they want to avoid what occurred in Victoria, which involved months and months and months of lockdown. And as a result, I mean, their tracing system is working very well. Their isolation system is working very well. Their testing system has been extraordinary and that has picked up a number of cases. So, look, I mean, we're going to back his judgement on this, and within a week I'm very confident that we’ll have things back to normal. But the one thing I would say is this, Chris, is that this will be in place no day longer than it has to be in their view. This is not some exercise in, you know, pursuing a particular response for its own sake. This is as a result of some careful consideration on their part and some new uncertainties that they're dealing with and it's highly precautionary. It's not because something hasn't worked. Those other elements of the package of tracing and testing and so on are working with the support of the Commonwealth, Western Australia, Victoria, now New South Wales. That national system coming in support is actually being very quick and very, very effective.
KENNY: But it’s very clear now that these states are running a virus elimination strategy, the Chief Medical Officer in South Australia, Dr Nicola Spurrier yesterday said they were living a wonderful life without the virus at all behind their closed borders and that’s what they wanted to get back to, the Premier of Western Australia yesterday Mark McGowan was quite open, he said the New South Wales approach of containing the virus, and tracing down and isolating outbreaks is the wrong one, he just wants to keep the virus out. Isn’t this at odds with the national approach of suppression?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, the national approach, the National Cabinet decision is suppression, and the states will engage in their own descriptions of that. I mean we’re a Federation, Chris, and I think the focus on the points of difference between the states, honestly, at the end of the day, they are responsible for public health in their states. That's what the Constitution says. We haven’t changed the Constitution. You seek to achieve as much alignment between the approaches as you possibly can. But at the end of the day, what's most important is we ensure that we get the right result for the country, both economically and most significantly, on the health front. On both of those fronts, Australia is doing better than the rest of the world. So I think it's fine to set high standards of collaboration and coordination. But when it comes to the international comparisons, Australia virtually stands alone, particularly when it comes to the coordination between provincial governments. I mean, I've spoken to so many over the course of this pandemic in other places that work under these federated systems. And despite the differences of view which are inevitable. I mean, to think otherwise, I think would be naive, to think that every single state and territory is going to run out exactly the same points of view 100 per cent of the time. You've been around in politics long enough to know Chris, that that is not a realistic expectation.
KENNY: But you must be desperately worried about the consequences, the businesses forced to close, the jobs disappearing, the community dislocation, the kids not going to school, the families separated, there are enormous consequences from these hard borders and hard lockdowns?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, of course when borders go up and restrictions are put in place, they do come at a cost there’s no doubt about that. And that’s why as a Commonwealth Government we’ve sought all the way through this to keep Australia as open as we safely can. And there has to be a recognition that these things do impose a cost and that has to be weighed up against the alternatives. And what we have here is not a 4 month lockdown, what we have here is not a lockdown that has been put in place because of the failure of any tracing system or the other measures that are available not being effectively implemented. This has been done by the Premier to give the best opportunity to return to that normal state as soon as possible. Let's remember it was South Australia that in the early phases, in particular, kept their schools open, and kept as much open as possible. So I think there's an understanding in South Australia that these measures have been put in place extraordinarily and would be lifted as soon as possible. This is not pursuing these measures for their own sake at all and that's always important that they are only done on the basis of clear health advice. And I think the Premier has been very clear about that health advice.
KENNY: Prime Minister you’ve had a successful visit to Japan, deepening our security ties with that country through the agreements and talks with Prime Minister Suga, you must be distressed about that inflamed rhetoric from China now saying that if you make China an enemy then you will be an enemy of China. They have accused Australia of sticking its nose in and interfering in Chinese affairs, what can you do to try and reset that relationship with Beijing?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, I've seen those reports of the document that had come from the Chinese Embassy here in Australia. I think I'd make a couple of observations. First of all, Australia is not seeking to make an enemy of any country, least of all I’d say China. We've got a comprehensive strategic partnership with them. Our trade with them is, while there are tensions in a number of particular areas currently, it is still at a very high level, record levels. Almost $170 billion every year and those volumes and others are increasing. So it's in the mutual interest of both countries to continue to successfully pursue this relationship. But I would note, given the tensions that have been, that people are very well aware of that, if that is the source of tension that is being raised, then these are matters that go to Australia's national sovereignty. And it's not clear to me those who would seek some improvement in the relationship with Australia, how that would be achieved and what that would mean if it would mean compromising on these clear areas of national sovereignty. And, of course, we're not going to do that. I think one of the other problems is, Chris, is that Australia is often seen in this relationship through the prism of the strategic competition between China and the United States, and what that fails to respect and understand is that Australia makes its own decisions in its own interests. We don't make, we don't set our national laws to please the United States or China or any other country. We do it in our own national interests. And the suggestion that Australia might be taking particular positions, whether it be trying to honestly understand how a pandemic started and how that has led to what has happened all around the world and seeking the cooperation of countries all around the world. The positions we would take on human rights issues in concert with other countries, how we would seek to build our communications networks or, indeed, what we would do to ensure that investment in Australia is done on our terms in accordance with our interests, on foreign investment and indeed a free press and a free and liberal and open democracy where elected members of Parliament can speak their mind. I mean, these are things that are fundamental to who we are as a country and if that is the cause of tension with China, then clearly Australia being Australia cannot be considered a point of tension.
KENNY: Absolutely, I think all thinking Australians would support you standing up for Australia’s interests and Australia's values but nonetheless the relationship desperately needs a reset, would you jump onto a plane to Beijing if Xi Jinping would agree to meet with you and try reset the relationship?
PRIME MINISTER: We're always open for that dialogue. We have not prevented such dialogue. We've been open to that dialogue consistently. And so the obstacle to such a conversation is not with Australia, but if the conversation only comes at the price of Australia having to compromise on our clear national sovereign interests in the 14 areas that are noted in that unofficial document, then of course, Australians would never agree with that and neither would I Chris. I think, in one way, this document, I suppose, for those who are rightly genuinely concerned about tensions in such an important relationship, I think it provides some interesting perspective. But it's not about whether people are sitting down and having a cup of tea and a chat. This is not what is in that 14 points. Those issues go to something far more fundamental and over a much longer period of time, but that really is for our partners in China I think to clarify what those points that have been made unofficially through the, reportedly through the Chinese Embassy. So I will continue to be patient about this. But we, there has never been an obstacle for Australia to have a fair dinkum conversation about these things, directly between ministers and indeed between leaders. We would be happy to do so.
KENNY: A couple of other very important issues I just want to get your thoughts on Prime Minister, by the time this goes to air Australians will know a lot more of the shocking and confronting details about all these war crimes in Afghanistan, what are your thoughts, what’s your advice about the standing of the Australian Defence Forces in our country and around the world after all this is revealed? And also about the morale within our forces?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, they’re very good questions. And first of all, I think that the high esteem in which we hold our Defence Forces earned. It has been earned. Over more than a century, and that stands and firmly. And it stands for a number of reasons. The first of which is the obvious, the great acts of our defence forces over many, many years. And their selflessness and their service and the choice that is made by serving men and women to pull on that uniform and to serve their country in the way they do. From that moment on, they have earned our respect and their conduct beyond that in the overwhelming majority of the Defence Force’s experiences backs that up. The second point is this, Chris, and that is where things don't measure up to those standards as a country and indeed as a Defence Force, we look seriously at those issues, take them seriously and deal with them seriously to uphold those standards. The members of our Defence Forces, more than any other, would expect us to do that. So the very act of the Inspector-General's report commissioned by the Chief of Defence Force is consistent with that standard, and then I must say the action our Government has taken in how we receive it, and that is to respect the rule of law in this country and in our justice system. And that this report will be received and provided to the office of a special investigator to pursue any matters that must be pursued and can be pursued under our rule of law and that justice is indeed served. And these are the assurances that I have provided to the Afghan government, that this is the process that we will follow. We will take this very seriously and we'll deal with it as Australians under the Australian rule of law. And the third point I'd make about this, and this is very important, Chris, for all those veterans out there, I want to assure you, and serving men and women as well, that this process doesn't just look at any particular events or acts, but it also looks at the environment and the sets of rules and other conditioning factors that were relevant here. Because it's important that where alleged acts take place, then it's important that lessons are learnt to ensure that they can’t be repeated. And that's just not actions of individuals alone. That is the environment and the sets of, the environment and the conditions and the rules of engagement and other things that were relevant at the time as well. So I made that commitment over a week ago. I stand by it. Both to protect the integrity of our defence forces, to protect Australia's integrity as a country that operates by the rule of law, and justice system that all Australians can have confidence in. And to ensure at an international level that we're a country that deals even with difficult news in the most appropriate way, consistent with our values. And that's why I think we can be proud of our defence forces and all of those who have served.
KENNY: Okay, we’ve seen the rather unedifying spectacle over the past couple of weeks of two former Prime Ministers Kevin Rudd and Malcolm Turnbull blame their political demise effectively on News Corp, complain about a lack of media diversity, there’s now going to be a Senate Enquiry into media diversity. Do you believe there’s a problem, the lack of diversity in Australia’s media?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, we were talking before that apparently our media is too free, according to some unofficial reports. But look, media freedom in this country is incredibly important to who we are and the rules and arrangements that are put in place to protect that diversity, the two former Prime Ministers you are speaking of played a key hand in what those rules should be. And what those arrangements should be. I think we have to remain constantly vigilant about this. And of course, our government will be. I mean, they’ve aired their own grievances on this issue. It’s not something that I have engaged in nor really intend to other than to do my job, and that is to protect the integrity of our media diversity in this country and I believe that is exactly what we’re doing.
KENNY: Okay finally then Prime Minister, the potential here for your answer to be the most controversial answer of your political career, do you believe that Josh Addo-Carr should have been awarded a penalty try last night?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, I certainly think he was going to get there. He- Jack Gibson used to say about Andrew Ettinghausen that he could turn the light off and get into bed before it got dark. And I think Josh Addo-Carr is a rival to that claim. So I think he certainly would have got there. But, you know, you've got to play the whistle. You've always got to play the whistle. And it was a great Origin and the fact that we had an Origin series was fantastic. I congratulate the Queenslanders. I mean, after their thumping in Sydney the way they came back was truly extraordinary and I really do think that the crowd up there in Brisbane was a great lift to them. But it was another tremendous spectacle. That will go down, it will be one of those decisions that they talk about forever. But it is disappointing that the professional foul was committed there and because, I think if you lined them up at the 20 yard line, there is no doubt about who would have got to the line quicker.
KENNY: Absolutely, Prime Minister you’ve been generous with your time, good luck in isolation, from day 13 - my recommendation is stay busy. And I don’t think you’ll have any trouble doing that?
PRIME MINISTER: No, we won’t, Chris. I mean I was saying this morning, I mean, it will be quite extraordinary. I mean, we will be - from right here - we will be participating in the G20 summit, the APEC summit, the European, Europe Australia virtual summit, and of course Cabinet, and indeed Question Time in Parliament. So it will be another interesting chapter in Australia's pandemic 2020 year.
Interview with Allison Langdon and Karl Stefanovic, Today
19 November 2020
ALLISON LANGDON: After a busy 24 hours in Japan, Prime Minister Scott Morrison is back on Australian soil and he's in quarantine.
KARL STEFANOVIC: He joins us now from the Lodge live. Prime Minister good morning to you, thanks for your time, appreciate it.
PRIME MINISTER: G'day Karl, g'day Ally.
STEFANOVIC: You would have landed back in Australia and been aware of the difficulties facing South Australia right now I’m sure like the rest of us. It's a terrible time for them, isn’t it. What would you say to them?
PRIME MINISTER: I would thank them first of all, for their patience and I would thank them for their cooperation in South Australia. I've been in touch every day with Premier Marshall and obviously with my own medical team and the Health Minister and the decision that's been taken in South Australia is to get ahead, stay ahead and make sure this is a very temporary intervention, a precautionary one. There are some uncertainties in terms of how the virus is operating there. The suggestion of another strand, or strain I should say, of that, so this needs to be got on top of. That will avoid a much longer lockdown, as we've had seen sadly in other states. So I understand the decision that's been taken. We are giving them all the support we can. I really do thank South Australians for their cooperation and their patience and hopefully we will see these lifted in a few days time and we will have been able once again to have dealt with a further outbreak.
LANGDON: How confident are you though that these restrictions will be lifted in six days?
PRIME MINISTER: I'm reasonably confident and the Premier is in a better position to comment but this was intended as a precaution, to ensure that what we have seen occur in the last couple of days, we could stay ahead of that. They have thousands of people who have gone into isolation, they have reacted very quickly, the testing, the tracing all of that is operating and operating well. This should see us, I think, move through the next few days and then hopefully return to the situation as it was. So I'm reasonably confident about it but it’s a pandemic, it’s a virus that sets its own rules. There seems to be some new rules here with this possible other strain and that means that we have to be especially cautious.
STEFANOVIC: Given all of that, WA and Queensland have shut their borders to South Australia. It seems to me that there are some states, namely those two, who just don't listen to you. Is that frustrating?
PRIME MINISTER: All the states and territories, all the way through this, they're responsible for public health in their states, Karl. As a result, they will make their own decisions. The Commonwealth Government is in no position to direct states as to how they will respond. So they have to take responsibility for their own decisions but the fact is in Australia that our coronavirus response has been the strongest of any country in the world and so while there might be the odd disagreement, I think we have to step back and look at what is happening in Australia and I can tell you, having just returned from Japan which is one of the better performing nations, all of them would envy Australia's experience and how we are handling this. But South Australia has dealt with its own border issue by treating itself as a hotspot and cutting itself off for a few days. Northern Territory has had a hotspot policy running for many, many months. They will list places for a short period of time then they’ll take those restrictions off. I think that's always provided a good model. New South Wales has always pushed through. South Australia is a smaller economy than New South Wales, I should stress as well. The implications in New South Wales, if they were to go down similar paths, would have a far greater impact on the national economy. But for South Australians, hang in there, tough it out over the next few days. I know the Premier would not have done this lightly. I know he hasn't and I know he will move quickly as soon as he can to ease those restrictions off as soon as he believes it will assist the state's public health response.
STEFANOVIC: So you have got no problem with the borders being shut in some states?
PRIME MINISTER: This happened in north-west Tasmania early on in the quarantine. I have always said that where you get, and early on in the Victorian lockdown we were moving to try and constrain what was happening within those suburbs. There are no hard and fast rules across all of these things, Karl. It's a pandemic, it's a virus, it moves and you have got to be responsive, you’ve got to try new things and stay on top of it and that's what we are all seeking to do. I’ve got to say, Australia's results when you look across the country compared to the rest of the world and what is happening in Europe and the United States and many other cases, that's why Australians in larger numbers are looking to come home and that of course, puts even further pressure on our systems.
LANGDON: All right, just back from Japan and this historic defence pact. Beijing says that we will pay a price for that. Are you worried?
PRIME MINISTER: I have seen that unofficial document that's come out of the Chinese Embassy. Look, Australia will always be, we'll be ourselves. Of course we will set our own laws and our own rules according to our national interest. Not at the behest of any other nation whether that's the United States or China or anyone else. We make our laws and our rules and pursue our relationships in our interests and we stand up with other countries, whether it be on human rights issues or things that are occurring around the world including in China. We will continue to do that in accordance with our values. Now, if that is the source of tensions between Australia and China well, I can assure you Australia will continue to be ourselves. We'll continue to act in our own national interests, pursue partnerships like the one we have been able to just do together with my partners, pull together with Japan, a very important relationship for Australia. We both see the world very similarly and that relationship, I think will only strengthen stability and peace in the Indo-Pacific.
STEFANOVIC: PM, there are threatening undertones with this stuff that's come out of the Embassy. They’re saying here, and I said the same thing to Simon Birmingham about half an hour ago, quote "China is angry, if you make China the enemy, China will be the enemy." I mean, that's incredibly provocative.
PRIME MINISTER: My response to that is Australia is not doing that and Australia isn't about to do that. We're just going to keep being ourselves, Karl. I know there's been a lot of discussion about this topic about the relationship and what should Australia do. I tell you one thing we won't be doing, we won't be compromising on the fact that we will set what our foreign investment laws are or how we build our 5G telecommunications networks or how we run our systems of protecting against interference Australia’s way we run our country. We won't be changing any of that and I can tell you, in that list you would have seen that apparently the media and freely elected politicians apparently aren't allowed to speak their minds. We won't be changing that in Australia either. So we'll continue to be ourselves. We will stand up for our national interests but we'll engage with our partners respectively.
LANGDON: The part I was disappointed with, I was really hoping you would be able to control my co-host.
STEFANOVIC: No, the Prime Minister is allowing me to do whatever I want on breakfast television, thank you PM, finally.
PRIME MINISTER: Who has ever stopped you, Karl.
LANGDON: Exactly. But in all seriousness though, Prime Minister, what you are saying is these 14 demands that the Chinese Communist Party has put forward, there is no way you are backing down to any of them. So where does that leave our farmers, our industry, our winemakers, who are being impacted by this?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, I'm sure they would all agree that Australia can never compromise our own national interests and hand how we make our laws over to any other country. I mean, that's just not what Australia is, and we would never change to that. We are always open to have dialogue on all of these issues between ministers, indeed between leaders, whether it's on trade issues or anything else. But one thing we have to be very clear about is that our laws are our laws. We put them in place in our national interest, whether it's on foreign investment or anything else. And we will form partnerships with other countries like with Japan, or many other countries in the Indo-Pacific and we will do that in accordance with our interests and theirs and that's for us to determine and we will respect the decisions of other countries, but our values aren't up for trade. Our democracy is not up for trade and our sovereignty is not up for trade.
STEFANOVIC: Look, you've got a very conciliatory tone in relation to the borders this morning, you still want obviously the borders to be open by Christmas.
PRIME MINISTER: Of course.
STEFANOVIC: Given what has happened in South Australia, is that realistic in any way shape or form?
PRIME MINISTER: I remain hopeful and ambitious for it and the Premier himself has said that is why he has done this, so we could stay on track with that. I should stress, this is a precautionary circuit breaking act, it is not because everything else has failed. Everything else is actually performing well on the tracing and there are a few issues, particularly around this pizza shop and also this other potential strain, and once we get better data out of that I'm sure the Premier will be in a better position to make further decisions. But you've got to be responsive when it comes to dealing with this virus. When the Victorian lockdown was put in, I understood that as well. So I have taken a very consistent approach in respecting the decisions of the states, trying to support them in every single way we can. They are as you know, very protective of their sovereignty in their own states on the decisions they have responsibility for and the same should apply equally from the states to the Commonwealth. I'm talking to Steven Marshall every day. I will talk to him again today and as well as with my own health team who are doing everything they can to help them, as are the other states, I should stress.
LANGDON: Just speaking to him earlier too, he did sound optimistic about the numbers we are expecting to hear today so we will wait for that mid-morning. But Prime Minister, day one of 14 days in quarantine for you. How are you going to fill the time?
PRIME MINISTER: It didn't start too well with the Blues going down last night I’ve got to tell you.
LANGDON: Don't remind us.
PRIME MINISTER: That's not how I was planning to kick quarantine off for 14 days but it was another great thrilling decider, and I reckon Addo-Carr would have got there as well. But anyway, that's there for the controversial discussion. It wouldn't be Origin without controversy and I think that’s why we all play but it was such a tight game and it was such a great series, and I'm so glad we had the series. For 14 days, yes, the Government will continue as normal. Right here, we'll be participating in APEC and the G20, European summits, Cabinet convenes from here, talking to yourselves and many others I'm sure. That's the wonders of having the technology that we can do this and that could enable me to go to Japan, which was incredibly important I did, to meet with Prime Minister Suga and to keep that momentum going in what is such a critical relationship for Australia.
STEFANOVIC: Can you do us one favour while in quarantine, can you make us a quarantine curry?
PRIME MINISTER: I can assure you I will, I'll have one or two staff who are quarantining with me as well because that's necessary to keep the show running. I will probably cook them a meal one or two nights, I'm sure they will cook me one as well.
LANGDON: I was worried what he was going to ask you then, really worried.
PRIME MINISTER: I’ve got the exercise bike, I probably won't be doing the barre classes though, I gave that a go the other day, I don't think that's a strength.
LANGDON: I don’t know, I thought you did a magnificent plie.
PRIME MINISTER: My girls thought it was hilarious, as you can imagine.
STEFANOVIC: You should certainly not do that sort of activity after a curry. Thank you PM, lovely to see you, good luck in the next couple of days.
PRIME MINISTER: Thanks guys.
Interview with David Koch, Sunrise
19 November 2020
David Koch: Prime Minister Scott Morrison, just returned from his visit to Japan, has been monitoring the situation. He joins us from quarantine in The Lodge. Prime Minister, appreciate your time. You've been in contact with Steven Marshall, the South Australian Premier. What's your view on this tough lockdown?
Prime Minister: Well, this is a precautionary circuit breaking action that they've taken in South Australia. There are some elements of what's occurring there where there's some real uncertainties, particularly about the potential of a different strand of the virus. And so while these things are being sorted out and we're getting more clarity on what's occurring there, then I can understand why they would take that precautionary action and to avoid something a lot more long term, as we've seen in other cases. So there's a lot of learning that's gone on. I know this is unconventional to take that step so early, but at the same time, given the uncertainties, I can understand why he took that decision. But hopefully within, you know, a number of days now that would be able to be lifted and things will be able to return to as they were before.
Koch: Once again, this outbreak has started within a medi-hotel, a quarantine hotel, just like in Victoria. Look, we can't stop Australians coming home. We're going to have to live with this for a while. Do we need to lift the standards and the guidelines for actions of staff, any staff in these hotels and make sure they are nationally imposed?
Prime Minister: Well, this is the work that was done by Jane Halton which we commissioned through the National Cabinet. And she's gone and done that review. And she's provided all of those types of guidelines and systems drawing on the experience of each of the states. I mean David, we've had 400,000 people come back to Australia over the course of this pandemic. I mean, over 30,000 of those directly facilitated on over 60 flights by the federal government. So we've had a lot of people coming through and we've had outbreaks and cases that have emerged from quarantine in many states during that time. The issue I mean, you can't have a failsafe 100 per cent system in every case. And I mean, in South Australia themselves, they've had thousands of people come through their quarantine system. It's what you do next. That's why you have many defences and that's what they're putting in place now. And and we hope that this is exactly as is intended, a temporary, very temporary measure and that we can get, stay ahead, I should say, what's occurring in South Australia and avoid a much worse situation which we're seeing play out all over the world.
Koch: Absolutely. And by comparison with the rest of the world, we've done it pretty well. Hey, let's talk about your trip to Japan, signing that historic trade agreement. And it's certainly been slammed by the Chinese government saying that Japan and and Australia, they're accusing us of doing it at the behest of the United States. The Treasurer, Josh Frydenberg, sort of put an olive branch out to China and saying we want to mend the fences, how’s our relationship with Beijing at the moment. And and and can it be mended?
Prime Minister: Well, first of all, with Japan, I mean, you make the point this has been done in our interests by Japan and Australia agreeing to do this. I think one of the big misunderstandings and you saw that in the unofficial list of I suppose grievances you could call them that came out of the Chinese embassy and the media reports on that, is there’s some assumption that Australia and Japan, for that matter, or other countries, act on the behest of the United States. Now, that's a nonsense. Australia is a sovereign country. We make our own decisions in accordance with our national interests. We form partnerships and trade arrangements and defence relationships like with Japan and many other countries. We do that in our interests. We set up our foreign investment rules in our interests. Now, if there are concerns, as indicated by that unofficial document that came out of the Chinese embassy, that Australia acting in our own interests, having a free media, having parliamentarians elected and able to speak their minds is a cause for concern, as well as speaking up on human rights in concert with other countries like Canada, New Zealand, the UK and others in international forums, if this is the cause for tension in that relationship, then then it would seem that the tension is that Australia is just being Australia. And I can assure you, David, we will always be Australia, act in our interests and in accordance with our values.
Koch: Just before I let you go today, the Defence Force is apparently going to release that report into some of the actions of our elite servicemen fighting in the Middle East, and Afghanistan. A really sensitive issue. You feel uncomfortable talking about it when you haven't been to war and you're sitting in the comfort of your lounge room-
Prime Minister: Sure,
Koch: -what can we expect out of this report?
Prime Minister: Well, the first thing you'd expect is the government will take it very seriously and we'll deal with it according to our rule of law and our justice system. This is not a brief of evidence. This is a report prepared for the Chief of our Defence Forces at his instigation, that will be handed over to the office of the special investigator that I announced last week with the Defence Minister. And that will be pursued in relation to any criminal investigation. So a proper brief of evidence can be prepared and ultimately handed on to the Director of Public Prosecutions.
So my answer is, you can expect us to deal with this in accordance with Australian law, but you can also expect us to deal with it understanding the full context of these alleged actions. I mean, we stand in great regard for our defence forces. And what is in this report, which will be released by the CDF, relates to some specific behaviour in a section of our ADF. And we've already, as you probably seen, many special forces, ex service people have expressed their concerns about this and how this doesn't reflect the broader culture or the broader reputation of the ADF. And I would agree with that. And it's important that we respect our veterans, particularly today, and be there for them and we'll be ensuring that's the case. But also, we have to take this very seriously because we have to uphold our standards and our defence forces, above all, would want us to do that, but by our rule of law, by Australians, and we'll deal with it here and we'll do it with respect for our veterans, our defence forces and respect for the justice system as well.
Koch: Prime Minister, I appreciate your time. Thank you.
Prime Minister: Thanks a lot David.
Q&A - Business Council of Australia AGM
19 November 2020
JENNIFER WESTACOTT, CEO BUSINESS COUNCIL OF AUSTRALIA: Well, thank you very much, Prime Minister, for that outstanding address about what you've done and what you're going to do and can I echo Tim's comments to thank you for your tremendous leadership of the country.
The PM's agreed to take some questions, use the raise hand function if you don't know how to do that just un-mute. Let me and of course as with our normal courtesy please introduce yourself, let me start with Karen Dobson from Dow.
QUESTION: Thank you Jennifer. It's Karen Dobson from Dow. Thank you Prime Minister for your comments, very encouraging in purpose and in pragmatism. You spoke earlier to the management of COVID and all the concrete things that have been done. I'm going to ask the crystal ball question, when you think about the interplay between vaccines, local outbreaks and borders, both domestic and international, how do you see the next 6 to 12 months playing out and what would you like to see from the business community?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, if I knew the answer to that question I would have known COVID-19 was coming too I suspect, and everything that's followed. But you know, the best way I think to continue to manage what is before us is really what we've been demonstrating and that has been a preparedness to come together, a preparedness to listen to each other, a preparedness not to be boxed in by old approaches and deal with the challenges as they present, now where we go next year and what it looks like, well let me be optimistic. I'm far more optimistic now than I've been for a very long time when it comes to the development of vaccines. Brian McNamee can probably speak more about those things definitely than I can but I'm much more encouraged. I mean, the problem with the vaccine was never that this was some sort of scientific riddle that was insoluble, it was that with [inaudible] - I’ve got a lot of noise and feedback, because people might not be on mute -
WESTACOTT: Yep, can people please go on mute.
PRIME MINISTER: The science of this is not that mysterious. It's just been there has never been a critical mass of effort that has been justified, and investment to focus on the issue of the coronavirus vaccine in the past like we've seen now and now, it is unprecedented, what we are seeing. So, and we're already seeing those early results, and that's good and so the challenge now is not if there's a vaccine, but how you disseminate it, and we've been spending a lot of time on that. So next year, over the course of the year, I believe we will see a vaccine. Next year I think we will see increased confidence about how we live with COVID-19. We're seeing a different approach in South Australia now. I would hope by this time next week, things are exactly back to normal in terms, from COVID normal at least, and that we will have avoided something far more drastic as we experienced in Victoria. I mean, what I know all the Premiers are trying to do is just learn from each event. Now, the in South Australia, the tracing and the testing is working exceptionally well as is the isolation but there are some curious elements of of a possible additional strain which is causing some consternation and one particular source around a pizza parlour. Now we expect to know more about that in a few days and I expect to see the Premier ease off on some of those initial restrictions soon and and keep absolutely to his word about this being a temporary way of dealing with this so we can get back to normal, as I said COVID normal quickly.
But next year, what we have to do is just be more confident in how we live with COVID-19 and that's as important for business as anything else and you ask me, what can business do? Well, of course, business can invest, business can get back to the business of employing people and utilising all the various measures that we’ve put in place because they’ve been put there so you can do all of those things but I think the practical management of COVID-19 safe practices, whether that's the development and proliferation of QR code technology to check-ins and how workplaces are managed, how whether they're manufacturing sites, distribution systems or the like. I remember when we were working through the issues in Victoria, there were some quite rigid initial views about how that was being managed by the State Government and how they sought to do that but it was the very practical experience, logistical minds of the various big businesses that understood how they could do it even better and I was pleased that the Treasurer and others could play a role in try and connecting that so you could get better practical business type outcomes. Businesses need to better solve the COVID-19 in their own workplaces. While it's nice for the government to tell everybody what to do, it's it's better that those who know their businesses better than the government does, to put in place those practices which meet outcomes rather than just satisfy prescriptions. I would like to move to a more outcome based way of actually managing this in 2021. I think that will be better for business. I think it will be better for health. I think it will free up resources both in the private sector and in the public sector to better channel it in those areas of greatest need. So there's a lot more work to do. It's not a very concise answer because frankly, it's not a very concise problem. It has many, many it's a many headed monster in the way that it impacts on us and we've just got to keep working together to get the solves and to get them done.
WESTACOTT: Andy Penn from Telstra?
QUESTION: Thanks very much, Jennifer and hi Prime Minister and can I add my congratulations and thanks to Tim’s as well. Look, one issue I know is going to be on the minds of the BCA members is really, is the very significant growing incidence of malicious cyber activity, particularly in exploiting some of the vulnerabilities that have been exposed by COVID and in fact, you highlighted this risk yourself a couple of months ago. I obviously have a bit of a window into this via Telstra and also chairing your cybersecurity industry advisory. But I'm sure the members would really welcome an update from you on how you see this landscape is evolving, what your Government is doing, which I know is a lot, and also what business can do as well in the in the fight to protect ourselves?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, step one I think is, as you know Andy, and thanks for those kind comments. I mean, step one is we need to raise awareness. We must raise awareness of the risks that are here. And when I called out some major state sector based cyber attacks some months ago now, we have had a dramatic response from business, which we're thrilled about because it means people have got it and they understand their risk and they're engaging with agencies that have a lot of experience in this area and they're being assisted but it's not only that, it's just when things happen, as you know, Andy, that that means you can respond quickly and there's the trust and confidence for people to come in and assist when these things are occurring and what you do next. But having, having the awareness and having the precautions in place are absolutely necessary and there are umpteen numbers of providers who can support businesses doing that but they are no help to them if they don't know, don’t think they've got a problem, they don’t apply those applications. I mean, much of that is outside government that is actually in the corporate sector, in the private sector, in the same way they take out insurance for aspects of their businesses activity. There's no greater protection they need particularly with the digital transformation of our economy and we want to see more of it and so that does mean it needs to be less vulnerable. So what we have to do is particularly focus, as you know, on our on our big systems and our big infrastructure and whether it's the energy systems that, you know, work between the public and the private sector, our telecommunications systems and our rather sensitive systems through government, Defence and so on and and we need to ensure that we're doing the right thing as well and we're doing that, and providing the framework for businesses to go and support themselves and the community as well. There's $1.7 billion over 10 years to invest in this programme that the Government has put in place. It does involve not just those who work in industry departments and things like that but of course, those who have the technical expertise that actually protects Australia's greatest national interests and their tradecraft and they know how these things happen. I should stress it's not just vulnerability to state based actors and it is vulnerability to criminal syndicates, equally just as voracious for different purposes, but just as damaging and so we we shouldn't limit our thinking to it being just in one area, but that the spending will focus on the Australian Signals Directorate cyber enhanced situational awareness and response package known as CESAR, and strengthening counter cyber capabilities in our government agencies. There is also an important amount of work and this is the same in every area, whether I'm addressing mental health challenges in the community, aged care, disability care, the same as cyber, the reason you hear me talk so much about cyber and our skills agenda it's is one of our skills deficiencies in the country while I would say, great skills needs hopefully becoming less of a deficiency and more of just we just need more of them and we need them to be good and so growing cyber skills and bringing people through organisations that have a keen awareness of these things, as well as finance, accounting, engineering or maths, marketing or whatever it happens to be, people who get cyber and the digital space as Tim would appreciate, are vital, as vital as your financial controller, particularly when it comes to protecting the assets of your company and it's also about helping small and medium sized businesses as well get this and this is where, and Andy and I have talked about this before. What I'd love to see, whether it's through a big utility, a bank, Telstra, a telco provider or even an airline, I’m sure Alan’s there but if you're working with your suppliers or you're working with your customers who are small and medium sized enterprises, I would love to see greater bundling of these types of technologies into their systems. If there’s an accounting system, then there should be a cyber system as well, or whatever the package has to be or what their needs are but cyber needs to be bundled up because they won't necessarily always take the initiative themselves but if it comes in as part of a supplier relationship in a supply chain, which a large businesses sits on top of, then that's where I think you guys can play a huge role. You get cyber security. You spend incredible amounts rightly on protecting your companies from cyber attacks but small and medium sized enterprises that sit in your supply chains may not and in the same way you want them to be good engineers or or have good tradespeople working in their processes in their supply chain well you want them doing that as well, because you know that can present a vulnerability for yourselves and we're also investing in the cybersecurity capabilities of universities as well for all that incredible collaboration that's going to happen between the private sector and universities but thanks for your role in all this Andy, I appreciate your leadership there, is an outstanding report.
WESTACOTT: Prime Minister have you got time for a couple of more questions before I head over to [inaudible]?
PRIME MINISTER: Sure! I’m in iso so I'm not going anywhere.
WESTACOTT: Okay, so Robert Spurway from GrainCorp.
QUESTION: Thank you Jennifer. Good evening Prime Minister, and thank you again. My question is also about a topic that not be so concise and what’s your views on our relationship with China and the various trade bans and export bans that some sectors face and importantly your comments on what we can do as business to manage business to business relationship and trading partnerships from a business point of view?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, it is a very difficult issue and I won't pretend it's not. There are clearly tensions there and have been played out again over the last couple of days but I think what we've seen over the last couple of days is you know what is more at the source of these tensions. Australia has always been keen for a productive, open, respectful, mutually beneficial partnership with China and we've put a lot of effort into that over a long period of time as have, as have the members of the BCA who sit around this table and so many outside. Australia has not changed, our view is the same. Our view about our national interests, our view about securing those interests, whether it's on foreign investment or technology or communications or wherever it happened to be, our Ag sector, how our polity runs, how our freedom of our press, our parliaments, our views on all of these things haven't changed they're exactly the same but I, I had not seen before say, 10 or 20 years ago, and I often have these conversations with former Prime Minister Howard. It was a very different China back then. You wouldn't have seen a list of alleged grievances come out of the Chinese Embassy that we've seen in the last 24 hours. You wouldn't have seen that list 15 years ago. That was not the outlook that was there about Australia but Australia is no different to back then. Australia's democracy, what we stand for how we stand up for those things when we speak out, what we believe is important, the integrity of our systems. These are things that we won't compromise and I understand that others understand this as well. It struck me, as I said on the media this morning, that the tension is based on Australia just being Australia. Now, some suggest that this all could be fixed by a phone call. I think that doesn't really appreciate what's really at stake here. Australia has never, at any stage, not been willing to have a meeting or pick up the phone but I'll tell you what I'm not prepared to do. I'm not prepared to agree to a meeting on the condition that Australia compromise and trade away any of those things that were frankly listed in that, in that unofficial list of grievances. Some of them were misconstrued. The other thing that we struggle with and I've mentioned this in some of my national international speeches this year, is it's important that people understand, those who are dealing with Australia, that we set our own agenda, that we have our own interests and we make our own decisions. We don't make decisions at the behest of other countries. Never have, never will. We make our own decisions. If people or countries are unhappy with decisions Australia has made, that's not because someone else told us to do it. It's because we've decided to do it. So we're the ones who can talk about it and we can sit down and help to build understanding about the decisions we’ve taken. I think that's very important. Australia's relationship with both the US and China can't be seen through the prism of China's relationship with the United States or the US's relationship with China. That's their relationship. Where they've got issues in that relationship, that's up to them. We have relationships with both of them, just as Japan does where I was just yesterday and the day before and so it would be, I think, unfair to look at Australia's decisions and Australia's policies as somehow a function of our relationships with other countries and so I would hope that we can make this point, that we remain always very keen to continue to pursue a mutually beneficial relationship but if Australia just being itself, is the cause for tensions, then that's not something that we can change and so we need to be able to push through that and continue to hold to those perspectives in a polite and respectful way as we can but it's, being Australia is something we should never apologise for. Now, it's important that we work through the technical issues that are raised in relation to trade. Now, the Chinese government rejects any notion that, I assume, that the issues that have been raised as the source of the tension is is is the product is being worked out through these trade, these trade issues. That's a matter for them. But we just have to practically work through those through the channels we've got and we will and if others are introduced into that for whatever reason, then we'll just have to practically and patiently work through that as well. But you know, the Indo-Pacific will benefit from trading relationships like the RCEP we agreed to last weekend, where partners can deal openly and confidently with each other and in a transparent way, and where there are tensions and I said this at the RCEP meeting on the weekend that where there are issues that arise, then leaders and ministers have to be prepared to talk to each other. Now, I'm very prepared to do that but all it takes is for that to be arranged.
WESTACOTT: And final quick question from Steve Worrall from Microsoft and then I'll hand you over to Alison Kitchen.
QUESTION: Thanks Jennifer, and thank you Prime Minister, for your time this evening, much appreciated. I want to circle back to a theme you touched on in your response there to Andy’s question and it’s in relation to the digital transformation and digitisation of our economy. We know that been incredibly important through this year, probably more so that at any time but I'm interested in your thoughts on the role that big business can play in helping small business on their journey to digitise, and what you'd like to see as we look out through 2021 and beyond?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, I mean in part I answered the question when answering Andy's question and the supply chain part- partner chain that exists in large businesses to help them up-skill in this area is really important. I mean, it's not, when you can still walk down a main street and pop into a shop and people pull out their paper ledger book in terms of how they manage their accounts and that might be the way they’ve felt comfortable about doing it for a long time and I understand that, Tim Reid’s spent a fair bit of time trying to convince people not to do that with some success, but it's it's what feels familiar to them, but it is actually holding them back in so many ways that you know, whether it's cloud accounting or accessing faster payment times. I mean the thing that motivates small business, more than anything else in my experience, is getting paid on time and getting paid quickly. Large businesses paying small businesses quickly. There are few things that can be done to help the economy, particularly now more than that, they're not a bank to loan from they are a supplier to pay promptly and we've seen a lot of movement I know Jennifer’s led quite a charge on that and the BCA has led a charge on that. Seeking to change those practises. I mean under the new payments platform, I mean payments can be instantaneous now there's no technological excuse for this anymore and other than things being just a matter of policy and I think the biggest lever that business has, larger business has to leverage greater digitisation by smaller businesses is through those direct payment arrangements and if they're on a fast payment platform system and you are well, they get paid quicker. That's a, that's enough to get their attention and the other part is, is the answer to Andy’s question and that is they're also they, one of the reasons they won't do it is because of cybersecurity. They think it's not safe. And getting rid of some of those concerns by dealing with people and educating, educating is really not the word, but addressing their concerns and helping them appreciate and understand how they can be overcome through the solutions that are available. It also means up the skills for that as well and that they’re, they are small business owners they don’t always necessarily come from these backgrounds and we have a role to play there but it's also about the delivery of this sort of training and support that can be done in a way that suits them not suits the trainer and that’s another area I think we need to focus a lot on. I mean, I came to this BCA’s annual general meeting last year and talked about the need to develop a digital transformation strategy. We set it up the next week and $800 million was announced in the Budget, which cover all of these things. One in particular that I've always been quite passionate about is the area of RegTech. Now, the thing I like about RegTech, is it’s not just an exciting technology, but it actually makes regulation work rather than being a compliance issue, it becomes a business behaviour director issue. What I mean by that is that rather than saying here's a phone book full of things that a bunch of regulators have said you need to know about and you'll never read, it actually helps you respond to the issues that are raised in those regulations through the RegTech process, which both achieves the compliance element, as well as ensuring the awareness and and behaviour elements that are necessary through the regulation the government puts in place. So I'm quite excited about how that can develop, and that's why we put money into that as well and that's where we'll see our economy going. But the take up, the adoption, it's it's it's a blessing and a curse. Australia, are great adopters. I think I said this in my presentation last year. We don't have to be Silicon Valley and we're not trying to be, but we're really good at applying it and adapting it. We're a great applied economy in so many ways and I think this area is one of those but you just always got to get over this hump. But that's one of the positive things that have come out of COVID, small and medium sized businesses in particular have probably gone forward 5 years in the space of about 8 months and we've got to, we've got to keep that momentum going. That's not something I want to see drop off on the other side of COVID and I you know, I talk to businesses and visit them, and they talk to me more about this now because it's, for some of them it's very new and so you know, once you crack that, crack the ice there I think you can keep moving. So I’d encourage you to keep going.
WESTACOTT: Prime Minister, thank you very much for that. And can I just say, before I hand over to Alison, the the comments you've made on enterprise bargaining are key to everyone's interests and certainly mine. So we stand absolutely ready to support you on that and to to get behind those reforms. So with that let me hand over to Alison Kitchen from KPMG to move a vote of thanks.
Doorstop - Tokyo, Japan
18 November 2020
Prime Minister: Well, I've just enjoyed a very pleasant evening with Prime Minister Suga and his senior colleagues as we rounded off what has been a very productive day meeting with Japanese industry leaders, meeting with members of the Diet, friends effectively, of Australia in the Japanese Diet which is meeting presently. And this afternoon's bilateral discussion, our one on one, and of course, our rather informal dinner this evening, reinforced once again why it was so important to come.
And that was, with the transition of leadership from Prime Minister Abe who I also had the opportunity to have a private lunch with today, along to Prime Minister Suga. And for us to be the first contact, the first to be able to sit down in an event like we have had today has ensured a continuity in what is one of the most important relationships Australia has in the Indo-Pacific. I've said it many times today, and that is that Australia and Japan have a very unique perspective on the Indo-Pacific.
As liberal democracies, market based, with the similar issues of having a great alliance, each of us, with the United States and a significant relationship with China, particularly on trade, and being able to manage both of those opportunities, as well as engaging with the rest of the region as we did on the weekend at ASEAN.
This is a pivotal relationship for Australia at a time that could not be more important for both of our countries.
Journalist: Prime Minister, under the Reciprocal Access Agreement, the in principle agreement signed today, will Australian troops be subject to the death penalty in Japan?
Prime Minister: Well, what we've been able to achieve is that Australia will meet all of its obligations under its international agreements in relation to that matter.
Journalist: It’s a yes or no question, what’s the answer, sorry, I'm just not clear. That's always been the hurdle in this over the death penalty?
Prime Minister: No we’ve been able to resolve it by ensuring that Australia could satisfy all of our international obligations in relation to that matter. And that has been a key factor for us as we work through this issue. And we're pleased that that was able to be worked through with the Japanese government. And I thank both Prime Minister Suga and his predecessor, Prime Minister Abe, for getting to that point.
Journalist: So there has been progress over the issue of the death penalty?
Prime Minister: the progress of ensuring that Australia is able to meet its commitments under its international obligations. Yes.
Journalist: Can you just explain what that is?
Prime Minister: That's exactly what I just explained to you.
Journalist: I'm not, I'm not clear how the document sets that out?
Prime Minister: It is satisfied in the series of documents which are now finalised as we move to the conclusion of the agreement, which we hope to be able to put in place next year.
Journalist: So Australians won't face the death penalty?
Prime Minister: Australia will comply with all of their obligations in relation to the death penalty.
Journalist: Does China have anything to fear about the increasing cooperation between Australia and Japan, especially in light of the signing of the RAA in principle agreement. And do you think there is a risk of further trade or implications if this particular agreement is taken badly by China?
Prime Minister: Well, I couldn't see the justification for that, at all. Both Japan and Australia agree and always have, that the economic success of China is a good thing for Australia and Japan. Now not all countries have that view, and some countries are in strategic competition with China. Australia is not one of those, and nor is Japan. And what this I think says is that Australia and Japan, as liberal, market based democracies, have a lot in common and we have strategic interests in common. And so this relationship, which is effectively a status of forces agreement that we will seek to conclude next year. The only other such agreement is with the United States, which occurred back in 1960. So this is a significant evolution of this relationship. But there's no reason for that to cause any concern elsewhere in the region. If anything, I think it adds to the stability of the region, which is a good thing.
Journalist: Did you discuss China's assertiveness in the region, Japan considers China to be a significant challenge in its defence white paper, particularly around the Senkaku islands, did that come up?
Prime Minister: Look, we have many, many shared interests in how we see the region. But one thing we absolutely agree on is that the sort of region we want is one of stability and prosperity for China, for Australia, and for Japan. And the way we achieve that is ensuring that all of us can be prosperous within the region, in the way we deal with each other. And I think what we've agreed here today and what we’ll continue to work on in the future, I think only adds to that. And so we look at this quite positively. How others look at it is really is really for them. But we do share that outlook that the Indo- Pacific region benefits from a China that is engaged economically in the region and one that is respecting of, as Australia should, and do, the sovereignty of all nations within the Indo-Pacific. It's also one that benefits from the stability of the presence of the United States and the partnership that Japan and ourselves have also with India and the United States together.
Journalist: Would you like to go to Beijing, as you have now been to Tokyo, to explain Australia’s security position and provide that sort of traditional balance of Japan and China visits as previously undertaken by
Prime Minister: Well there’s no obstacle for that happening with Australia. None whatsoever. Australia is always available for open dialogue with China. I made that very point of view at the East Asia Summit on the weekend and in the discussions about RCEP on the weekend. The very clear point that is there are ever any issue there, that cover any of our trading relationships whether it's between Australia and Japan, or Australia and China, or Australia and South Korea or anywhere else within the region, then there's a responsibility on leaders and ministers to be open to engage in those discussions. And if there are issues that others wish to discuss with us, then we're always very open to discuss them as leaders. And I certainly, in my own case and of course, my ministers are very open to have those discussions. And of course, we welcome them.
Journalist: But no current plans in the works to go to Beijing?
Prime Minister: Well, there's no opportunity for that. And that is that is a matter for China.
Journalist: Will the signing of this in principle agreements on the Reciprocal Access Agreement, will this facilitate more exercises between Australia and Japan in the South China Sea? Do you expect to see more of them?
Prime Minister: We expect to increase our regional cooperation in many forms. And the MALABAR exercise that recently have been conducted together with the United States and together with India, and we would expect to further expand our cooperation in those areas. That's the whole point of streamlining the arrangements with the status of forces agreement of this nature.
Journalist: Japan's carbon neutral commitment by 2050. You mentioned you talked about hydrogen today. You had a meeting today. That is one possibility for Australia going forward. But do you see any threat to Australia's coal exports from Japan's 2050 carbon neutral commitments?
Prime Minister: Not based on the discussions I had today, no. Particularly with the industry leaders that I spoke with today. I mean, Japan's energy mix is weighed heavily towards obviously, LNG and and coal, currently, it's almost three quarters of their energy mix. And that has actually increased since the reduction of the component that has been previously done in nuclear and as nuclear element has fallen, i think it’s about 10 per cent now used to be about 20. And that's been taken up by those other sectors. And there’s a good reason for that. All countries, wherever they are, need reliable baseload power. And Australia has been playing a key role for that in Japan for a very long time, and I’d I expect that to continue for some time. So I don't think there's any immediate, imposition there. And that's certainly what was conveyed to me today. But that said, we share an ambition, although we are not in a position to give a specific timetable around it, a net zero emissions position. Our view is, and all countries deal with this differently, but our view is that some countries, for example, don’t include methane emissions in their net zero commitment, like New Zealand and others will make a complete commitment, like Prime Minister Suga has. In Australia's case, we would like to get zero emission as soon as possible. But our proposal is that we will work out the plan of how that can be achieved, which leads to when it can be achieved. Now we had a very good discussion tonight about our lower emissions technology, technology roadmap and to share and work with Japan as we already are with hydrogen about how they can achieve that goal. And so, a wonderful partnership we've had in energy to date will mature into another relationship, into the future, and there'll be a continuity in that. But in the medium term, then I suspect Australia will continue to be a very reliable partner, supply partner when it comes to Japan meeting its energy needs.
Journalist: Earlier this week it was announced the Moderna Vaccine has 95 percent efficacy. Obviously Australia's entered into a number of vaccine agreements but doesn't have access to this particular vaccine. Are we able to procure some doses of the Moderna drug?
Prime Minister: Well it’s part of the COVAX arrangement. So, we are part of the COVAX arrangement. So it’s not quite correct to say at all that the Moderna vaccine is not included in Australia's existing arrangements, just as it is included in Japan's arrangements who have also made a significant commitment to the COVAX arrangement. But we have an expert panel that is advising us on the vaccines that we've committed to specifically in terms of making available doses, and whether that's Pfizer or Novavax, and the Pfizer vaccines is very similar to the Moderna one in terms of how that's put together and and we are very well advanced as you know in the agreement that we have with Pfizer. But on the other vaccines, particularly AstraZeneca, I mean production has already commenced, I was at the production plant two days ago.
Journalist: As part of the COVAX facility, do you know how many doses Australians have access to in terms of the Moderna vaccine?
Prime Minister: Sorry, could you say that again?
Journalist: Do you know how many doses Australia has available?
Prime Minister: I'll leave that to the health minister to go into, [inaudible] but it is part of the COVAX arrangement.
Journalist: Prime Minister, did you discuss the issue of Australian parents whose Japanese partners have taken their children from them, it’s known as parental abduction here in Japan? Did you discuss that with Prime Minister Suga?
Prime Minister: It wasn’t a matter that came up tonight no. There were many issues that came up tonight and there are many issues that make up the ongoing dialogue between Australia and Japan. And that's a matter I understand that the Ambassador has raised on a regular basis. As you would expect in a sensitive way, it's a very sensitive issue, which I know you appreciate, you've been covering stories now for some time. And when these things occur, they are very difficult and they're very complex and there are different legal systems. And you have to sensitively work our way through those issues. And that's exactly what the embassy here in Tokyo is doing.
Journalist: Do you think there is more that the Australian embassy could be doing to help these families, pushing more publicly, advocating for joint custody, for example?
Prime Minister: I think these things are best achieved, not just here, but all around the world. Our consular and other officials in our posts around the world get an enormous amount done. And the way they get most of that done is not by engaging in open media advocacy, they engage in it through the relationship. I mean, we're bringing, we're bringing thousands upon thousands of people home at the moment, just working carefully around the world and getting people home. We're dealing with sensitive issues like the one you mentioned and many others. And they are never greatly assisted I find, by that type of public approach.
Journalist: What was your first impression of Prime Minister Suga when you met him today, it was your first meeting with him in person. Are you confident that you will be able to form a strong relationship with him as you had with Shinzo Abe?
Prime Minister: I am very confident. I think our first impressions were shared, and they were very warm. We did have the opportunity tonight to have a one on one discussion, obviously, with interpreters because I don’t speak Japanese and he doesn't speak English. But what was quite amazing is that despite the language barrier, there was a very easy and warm connection. And Prime Minister Suga is no stranger to the Australian relationship. In many ways, we share quite a few experiences, both how we came into our various parliaments and indeed how we, in rather unpredictable circumstances, found ourselves in the roles we are in now. And he has had seven years serving in the role that he has. And so he's very, very, very familiar and has played a role in the relationships that Prime Minister Abe has had with both myself and my predecessors. And so it was a very, very comfortable and very warm start. And seldom do you get the opportunity for such a seamless transition. But on this occasion, both in content and the warmth of the relationship, I think we've got off to a cracker of a start.
Journalist: How did the name Yoshi, how did it come up? How did the idea to call him Yoshi come up? Did he bring it up?
Prime Minister: It was mutual. I mean Prime Minister Abe, he used to refer to me as Scomo, right from the start. And Yoshi had observed that over a period of time. And look, I think in all of these relationships, that's why it was so important to come. You know we can write letters to each other, we get on virtual summits, we can attend global summits. But I think the opportunity for such an important relationship to sit down together today, to speak candidly about the challenges we face together, and there's so much we have in common, so much we have in common, our interests, our outlook, our objectives, our ambitions. They align heavily, far more than, there are few relationships, particularly given the geography that you could say the same things about. And that's why it was so important to come and it's not a small thing for a Prime Minister in the middle of a pandemic to take that opportunity and have two weeks effectively when I return, including having to participate in parliament, via video link. That's how important it was for me, this relationship, to ensure that it continue the momentum that we had with Prime Minister Abe and I, I'm leaving here knowing, absolutely confident that the momentum has not just been maintained, but I think it's been enhanced and we will continue to go from strength to strength.
But on other matters today and I appreciate we are dealing with matters here. But I earlier today I was in touch with the South Australian premier and I kept in touch with the Deputy Prime Minister over the course of the day including getting those updates and what's been occurring there. I commend Premier Marshall and all the team in South Australia, the health offices, the public health response, the Western Australian government who has pitched in quite significantly when it comes to the contact tracing effort, the isolation of thousands of those in South Australia. This has been a very rapid response, one that they've prepared for, on the Commonwealth is prepared for. Additional ADF support has been put in, in response to that request from South Australia. Other the states will respond as they, as they see fit to, the federal government has no issue with that. And they will do that across the spectrum based on the health advice that they have in their state and my hope and and confidence is that the response will meet the risk of this outbreak, but there is still a lot more work to do in the days and possibly weeks ahead. But from, for a first start in dealing with this, then I think the indications are positive but we've got some distance to go. And when I return to Australia, I'll obviously be following that up and be speaking to the Premier again in the morning. There's been a few additional cases that have been identified over the course of the day, but the speed at which all contacts have been able to be identified has been critical. I mean, there are, one of the challenges when we’ve dealt with outbreaks before is when contacts remain undetermined for days and days, every day costs you. And I think the speed and the sense of urgency that has been applied in South Australia is protecting the rest of the country. So I commend them for the work. It's a team effort and I, we will continue to stay on the job.
Thanks very much.