Media Releases
Interview with Hammo, 4CC Gladstone
17 May 2021
HAMMO: Hello, Prime Minister.
PRIME MINISTER: G’day Hammo. Good to be with you, it was great to be in Gladstone yesterday.
HAMMO: Yes. Just before we talk about that, there's one thing I've got to have a crack at you about. You're the only Prime Minister that's ever been younger than me. It's finally happened.
PRIME MINISTER: Well, I'm catching up. I had a birthday last week, so I …
HAMMO: I know you did, turned 53, so you've got me by a couple of years. Yesterday, your visit around Gladstone. What was it for?
PRIME MINISTER: We went and saw Xtreme Engineering and we saw Oceans Tyres and we popped down to Auckland House. The reason for all that was that, in the Budget, what’s called instant expensing, the instant asset write off. This is really helping these businesses. I mean, Xtreme Engineering, they’ve just invested $1.8 million in this huge crane, which they've got to do the new BOM towers, Bureau of Meteorology towers. Now, that means more work, they’ve got 8 apprentices down there, they’ve got trainees on. And this is really serious work. It's all been fabricated up there in Gladstone, it's all Australian steel, all the work is being done here in Australia. It's one of the things that I think has come out of COVID-19, firms like Xtreme Engineering are getting a better go. And so that's a huge contract for them. So they're investing. They could write all that off on their tax. Then I went down to Ocean Tyres and people in Gladstone know that and looking after the trucking industry all across central Queensland, they're doing really well too. They're investing in their equipment. And, of course, Auckland House, which is a great new establishment, the microbrewery down there. They've got the additional support coming through, the tax incentives. So the point about all this is the measures that we're putting in the Budget are supporting local, small and medium sized businesses right across central Queensland to go and get the job done. And then the work we're doing on biosecurity and $370 million there, which obviously supports the agricultural producers. I was at Beef Week just the other week before Parliament came back. That was so well received by the livestock industry, because we all know what happens if there was any biosecurity break in our livestock industry. It would be devastating. So borders aren’t just about COVID, it's not about national security, it's also about our livestock industry and protecting its future. So that's exciting to be supporting local producers in that way. So businesses helping themselves are getting backed in by my government.
HAMMO: Which is good and you're damned if you do, damned if you don't with budgets. Last week, though, a little bit of flak from our Mayor Matt Burnett and our state member for Gladstone, Minister Glenn Butcher. The Federal Government's forgotten about health in Gladstone, roads, infrastructure and they want answers. What do you have to say about that, Prime Minister?
PRIME MINISTER: This is all politics.
HAMMO: Yep
PRIME MINISTER: Of course, the local mayor up there, he’s the Labor candidate at the next election. Of course he’s going to say that. I mean, everything he says from here on in, I think people have got to sort of just know where he's coming from. He's representing Anthony Albanese up there in Gladstone. He's Anthony Albanese’s candidate. Truth is, up in Queensland, they’re getting a higher share of infrastructure funding than the size of their population. And in health, for example, out at Biloela Hospital, funding has gone up 142 per cent since we came to government. There's record funding for health. There is $10 billion that's going into the Bruce Highway, major projects more broadly across the region, whether it's at Rookwood Weir or the various upgrades going into Rockhampton, the ring road there and those projects, all of that is supporting central Queensland. Of course, everyone up there knows just how much we support the resources industry as a government. No one has to wonder about the Coalition when it comes to our support for the resources industry. And we've been backing that in for many, many years to secure the success of the region. And I'm very grateful to the fantastic work done by our resources sector, quite a few of the workers that I met at Auckland House last night and we were having a good chat about that. Because the shutdown is on at the moment and a lot of people were in town. That was one of the reasons why I backed Ken O’Dowd in when Annastacia Palaszczuk wanted to put the quarantine facility up there in Gladstone. Now, the Mayor was backwards and forwards on this. She told me he was 100 per cent for it when I met with her the next day after being up there in January. But one of the reasons we thought it was a really bad idea, because you had the big shutdown coming, you had people coming in who needed the accommodation. And I thought Ken was just spot on in saying that wasn't a good idea. I opposed it. And as a result, it hasn't happened.
HAMMO: And Prime Minister, look, do you know who the candidate is going to be for the LNP? Because we know Kenny is stepping down.
PRIME MINISTER: We're going through those selection processes now. And nominations closed just the other day. And we've got a good field of candidates from across the electorate. So there's lots of experience, small business experience in particular, which is great to see. Ken, as the LNP candidate there and we'll be working very hard right across the Flynn electorate. And just like Michelle Landry does down there in Capricornia. I mean, she's amazing. She's doing a terrific job. I was with Michelle in Rocky as I said for Beef Week and the Budget is delivering there for her as well.
HAMMO: Just going back, though, when will we know who will be running for the federal seat of Flynn?
PRIME MINISTER: Probably about six weeks away or thereabouts. I mean, the LNP sets those timetables, not me, but I'm told it's about that timeframe, they’re just settling the dates now.
HAMMO: Prime Minister, thank you very much for joining us this morning. It's much appreciated. How’s the Sharks going in the NRL? Just let me have a look, because I know you're an avid Cronulla supporter.
PRIME MINISTER: Yeah.
HAMMO: Oh, 14th out of 16, gee at least they're not coming last.
PRIME MINISTER: Well, I hope they don’t keep falling down the table, but, you know, good seasons, bad seasons, you always back your team. And I thought they showed a lot of heart against the Bunnies at Magic Round on the weekend. They came back hard in that second half and they made a real game of it. In fact, it was probably the best game of the Magic Round, actually, but it's always good to go to the footy.
HAMMO: Prime Minister, thank you very much for joining us again.
PRIME MINISTER: Thanks so much.
Locking in Australia's Fuel Security
17 May 2021
Prime Minister, Minister for Energy and Emissions Reduction
The Morrison Government is taking strong action to further boost Australia’s long-term fuel security by locking in the future of our refining sector.
The Government’s fuel security package will help secure Australia’s recovery from the COVID crisis and it will help secure our sovereign fuel stocks, locking in jobs and protecting families and businesses from higher fuel prices.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison said the Government was delivering on its commitment to maintain a self-sufficient refining capability in Australia by supporting the operation of the Ampol refinery in Lytton (Queensland) and the Viva Energy refinery in Geelong (Victoria). The package will protect the jobs of 1,250 direct employees across the two refineries and create another 1,750 construction jobs.
The Prime Minister Scott Morrison said locking in Australia’s fuel security would deliver benefits for all Australians.
“This is a key plank of our plan to secure Australia’s recovery from the pandemic, and to prepare against any future crises,” the Prime Minister said.
“Shoring up our fuel security means protecting 1,250 jobs, giving certainty to key industries, and bolstering our national security.
“Earlier investment in Australia’s ability to produce better quality fuels, including ultra-low sulfur levels, will also improve air quality and deliver an estimated $1 billion in lower health costs.
“Major industries like agriculture, transport and mining, as well as mum and dad motorists, will have more certainty and can look forward to vehicle maintenance savings and greater choice of new vehicle models.
“This next stage in our plan for Australia’s recovery will create jobs and make our country more self-sufficient and secure.”
Minister for Energy and Emissions Reduction Angus Taylor said Australia's economy is reliant on fuel and this significant package will not only lock-in our refineries, but the jobs of thousands of Australians.
“Fuel is what keeps us and the economy moving. That is why we are backing our refineries,” Minister Taylor said.
“Supporting our refineries will ensure we have the sovereign capability needed to prepare for any event, protect families and businesses from higher prices at the bowser, and keep Australia moving as we secure our recovery from COVID-19.”
The 2021-22 Budget initiatives include:
A variable Fuel Security Service Payment (FSSP) to the refineries, funded by the Government, which recognises the fuel security benefits refineries provide to all Australians;
Up to $302 million in support for major refinery infrastructure upgrades to help refiners bring forward the production of better-quality fuels from 2027 to 2024; and
$50.7 million for the implementation and monitoring of the FSSP and the minimum stockholding obligation (MSO), ensuring industry complies with the new fuel security framework.
The variable FSSP has been costed up to AUD$2.047 billion to 2030 in a worst-case scenario.
This figure assumes that both refineries are paid at the highest rate over the entire nine years in COVID-19-like economic conditions, which is unlikely as the economy recovers.
Actual payments are expected to be less than this, as payments are linked to refining margins at the time and to actual production of key transport fuels.
Payments will be made between the following ranges, limiting the downside risk for refineries:
Refineries will receive 0 cent per litre (cpl) when the margin marker hits $10.20/bbl (the collar)
Refineries will receive a maximum of 1.8 cpl when the marker drops to $7.30/bbl (the cap).
This will mean that the refineries are only supported in downtimes, and will not receive Government support when they are performing well.
Refineries will have an option to extend the support and their commitment out to mid-2030.
The Government is also ensuring better quality fuel is provided across Australia earlier.
We will work with the refineries to bring forward improvements to fuel quality from 2027 to 2024 by co-investing with domestic refiners to undertake the necessary infrastructure upgrades for low sulfur fuel production.
Accelerating the necessary major infrastructure upgrades will create up to an additional 1,750 construction jobs, bringing flow-on benefits to the Lytton and Geelong communities.
The Government will also accelerate the industry-wide review of the petrol and diesel standard to 2021, including a consideration of aromatics levels. This aims to create a Euro-6 equivalent petrol and diesel standard that are appropriate for Australia.
The Government will work with both refineries on their plans to consider future fuel technologies and other development opportunities. This will include the refineries’ roles in the roll-out of future fuels, such as electric vehicle charging and hydrogen transport infrastructure.
The Government will introduce the Fuel Security Bill to the Parliament in the coming weeks. This Bill will implement the FSSP to ensure it can begin on 1 July 2021, and set the key parameters for the Minimum Stockholding Obligation that will commence in 2022.
This package implements the Morrison Government’s commitment to the refining sector, announced as part of the 2020-21 Budget, and complements other measures including increased onshore diesel storage and taking advantage of record low prices to store oil in the US Strategic Petroleum Reserve.
Australia-New Zealand Leaders' Meeting
17 May 2021
Jenny and I will visit Queenstown, New Zealand from 30–31 May, to meet with New Zealand Prime Minister Rt Hon Jacinda Arden and her partner Clarke Gayford, and to attend the annual Australia-New Zealand Leaders’ Meeting.
This will be my first overseas visit for 2021, and it is fitting that our first trip should be across the Tasman.
Australia and New Zealand are family—and we share deep historical bonds of friendship, trust and the ANZAC spirit.
Both Australia and New Zealand have been world leaders in our response to the COVID‑19 pandemic, and this visit is a great illustration of the Trans-Tasman Safe Travel Zone in action.
We have many shared challenges to discuss. We are key partners in delivering COVID‑19 vaccines to our Pacific neighbours, we share common goals and values for the Indo-Pacific region, and we are major trading partners.
We look forward to the visit.
Doorstop - Callemondah, QLD
16 May 2021
Ken O'Dowd MP, Member for Flynn: Well, good afternoon, everybody. Welcome to Gladstone, in the heart of industrial land here and Scott Harrington, the owner of this premises, welcomes the Prime Minister Scott Morrison to Gladstone. This is the second trip to Gladstone Scott’s done in the last month or so and very welcome Scott. It’s good to be here. Isn't it great to be here and see how industry really works. We’re sitting on the Gladstone Harbour which is a great asset and everything's going well in Gladstone. People are being employed, we’ve got 150 people that work on this site here, young apprentices also. So it's great that Scott has the ambition and the drive to make this happen. He's been here since 2007. So, yeah, it’s really good.
Scott Harrington, Managing Director, Xtreme Engineering: Thanks Kenny. Thanks for, thanks for [inaudible]. It’s great Prime Minister to meet you finally. And you know, some of the benefits of what we've been able to do is this beautiful big crane here, first of its kind in Australia, 120 tonnes [inaudible]. We used the instant asset write-off to help us with a project that we secured, a Commonwealth Government project that we secured, fully fabricated locally in Gladstone, steel produced from Australian steel mills. And we've been able to use our local apprentices on this job and sustain. And the kids love it and they're really enjoying it. Scott’s got to meet a couple of young fellas today, so that's good. Thank you. Welcome to Gladstone, mate.
Prime Minister: Thank you. Well, thank you, Scott, and congratulations on everything you’re achieving here at Xtreme Engineering. I’ll say $1.8 million. That's a significant investment for any business to be making in their future, and the fact that businesses are investing in their future is key to Australia's economic recovery plan. The Budget was all about securing Australia's economic recovery and that recovery comes from investing in the skills and the training. And we've met some of the apprentices, those in their second and third year, even those who are coming out of the school system right now. There’s around eight apprentices that are employed here as part of these projects. And it's great to see the investment in skills and training leading to the workforce being available, for firms like Xtreme Engineering to be able to take on these jobs. We're making things in Australia, we're making things in Gladstone, we're making things in Queensland. And continuing to support making things in Australia comes by ensuring that we're backing in our steel producers, which we've certainly done that. Backing in our aluminium producers, and we're doing that. Backing in the training that is required for the skills that are needed to make things here in this country, and we're doing that. And to see this project, this contract, which comes from the Bureau of Meteorology, from an investment that our Government made a couple of years ago in the Budget to improve our weather systems here, particularly in northern Queensland, in north Queensland, where what you’re seeing here will predominantly go. That is also helping our producers in so many other sectors of the economy because that information in the north of Australia is so critical to them. So this is all about the incentives for investment, the instant asset write-off, the instant expensing initiative, which means companies can fully write-off these types of investments so they can compete for the work and do it on a competitive basis that sees the jobs stay here, whether it's in Gladstone, Queensland or anywhere else in the country. And so it's just great to see that virtuous cycle of a Government actually stepping up to address a major environmental challenge, to see that actually delivered upon by an Australian company with Australian apprentices using Australian steel to make things that are the best in the world. That's what our economic recovery plan is all about. And that's how we secure our recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic and recession. And it's great to see the evidence of that working out here on the ground. Happy to take some questions.
Journalist: Prime Minister, why is Queensland your first stop post-Budget?
Prime Minister: Oh, it's great to be back. I mean, it's hard to keep me out of Queensland. I love coming up here. It was a bit chilly down south, as you know, Mark. So it was very nice to get up in the warm skies again. Again I don't know if I'll get in Gladstone in the pool like last time I was up. But it's great to be here because here demonstrates, I think, where the Budget actually achieves the purpose of this recovery. What we're doing in the Budget, and we could be in any part of the country today to demonstrate, I think, where these instant expensing initiatives actually are supporting businesses to get work and get jobs. Here's a very practical example of it. And I think to be here with Ken in Gladstone and with Scott, even more significantly, and to see the apprenticeships working and see the manufacturing taking place, the fabrication, and where this is happening all within Australia. I think it highlights just how our plan is already working and needs to keep working, because the recovery cannot be taken for granted. The recovery can be lost. The hard won gains of Australians, particularly over these last 18 months, can be lost unless we keep doing what's working. And this is working.
Journalist: PM, yesterday the Leader of the Opposition was in central Queensland saying enough hasn't been allocated in the Budget for housing and social housing. How do you respond?
Prime Minister: Well, he can’t add up. I mean, his plan costs four times as much to deliver two thirds less housing. Our plan, the HomeBuilder plan, $2.7 billion being invested, around 100,000 homes. And then you add to that the National Housing Finance and Investment Corporation's work, which we put in, that's supporting affordable housing. Now, there's already 2,700 homes that have been built out of that direct action, and another 4,400 through the National Housing Infrastructure Fund, which are initiatives of our Government. So, you know, we're getting on with that job and that's occurred just in the last three years. I mean, his policy just doesn't add up. I understand that it's well motivated. It is important to get Australians into homes. We have the highest rate of first home ownership, people getting into that market, now than we've seen in years and years and years and years. The First Home Loan Deposit Scheme, the First Home Super Saver accounts, the HomeBuilder programme, the National Housing Finance and Investment Corporation. We've been taking action on these issues for many, many years. And we're getting people into their first homes at a rate that we haven't seen in a long time.
Journalist: PM, can I ask you just on the border issue.
Prime Minister: Yeah.
Journalist: Some of your backbench are, you know, disquiet over the lack of clarity, I guess, or certainty. We’ve had expats, a lot of skilled migrants, in [inaudible] newspapers, you know, thinking of leaving or staying and so forth. How certain can you be or what, or at least generically, how certain, what is the plan on borders?
Prime Minister: It's always about the next step, and the next step is to see us enable Australians who have been vaccinated in this country - this is what we’ve been working on now for many months. I first started tasking the medical expert panel on this some months ago - the next step is being able to, for Australians who have been vaccinated, to be able to firstly travel around Australia, particularly if there are states that are putting in place restrictions, things like that, from time to time. We’ve already seen that in the United States where those who have been vaccinated aren't subject to those restrictions. Great to see that happening here in Australia. The second part would be to enable them to travel to safe countries. I think in countries where the virus is raging, that would be, I think, a difficulty because it would also hinder our task of getting people out of those red zones. But for people to be able to do that on an abridged or a different form of quarantine on their return, this is something we've been working on now for some months. And I still think there are many months ahead of us before we're able to achieve that. But that, you know, we're always working on the next step. The next step is how we can safely have international students come back. I welcome the fact that universities are stumping up to work with state governments to put those facilities in place to support their customers coming back, their students coming back. And as the Treasurer said this morning, we'll look at that very favourably, very favourably.
Journalist: One of the laboratories that has been testing Australian citizens in India has been returning false positive readings. You must be concerned about that. What’s being done about that?
Prime Minister: Well, it's a very difficult environment to operate in, where India is right now, and we'll work closely with Qantas who are, they're obviously conducting our testing regime as part of their processes, and they’ll get every support from us. But it is a very difficult environment to operate in at the moment. I'm pleased that we've been able to get 80 people home already. I hope we, and intend for us, to get even more home in the other repatriation commercially facilitated flights in the weeks ahead, more going into Howard Springs, where we're expanding capacity - half a billion in the Budget to expand the capacity of our national quarantine facility with the Northern Territory Government from 850 up to 2,000, that's happening right now. We're looking at proposals that are coming forward from Victorian Government. It's a very comprehensive proposal and we're working through that with them now. That only, I mean, that's only just come in just prior to the Budget. So we'll work with them on those issues. But making sure we have a rigorous testing regime is very important. And I've seen the suggestions from others that, who seem to think we can put people who've tested COVID positive on planes and bring them to Australia. I mean, that's, that just doesn't make any sense, and I, we all want to support people as much as we can, but by importing COVID into the country I don't think that's a very sensible or sound thing to do. This sort of testing is, is required from all places where people are coming from into Australia, whether it’s the UK or elsewhere. And of course, it's, it’s important in India, and we've seen those high testing rates, and that's frankly why we took the action we did because the risk was very, very high.
Journalist: [Inaudible] recovery, what are the major threats to the recovery [inaudible]?
Prime Minister: Well, the major threat, I think, to the recovery is that we need to ensure we keep the momentum of our domestic economy moving. We need to ensure that we're supporting Australians to be in jobs, that those jobs are being supported by the strength of our domestic economy. We’ve obviously got to make sure that our connections with overseas, when it comes to our facilitated freight transport and things like that, are done, but largely our economy right now and for the foreseeable future, over the next 12 months, certainly is going to depend very much on the economic strength of Australians, their households, their businesses, the work that they've got, whether it's infrastructure works like are being done here, which is keeping our economy moving, that that continues to go forward. And that's why people having lower taxes, that's why the infrastructure programme, that's why the incentives to ensure that businesses like Xtreme here are investing in big kit like this to ensure that they can deliver on the contracts that are out there. There's a real opportunity, actually, Scott and I were just talking about this a little while ago, because of COVID that means there are many Australian companies now getting a go that they found quite hard to get before. And this is a good example of that, the very contract we're talking about. And so, and they're able to show their wares, and I think that will lead to even better business for them in the future because people know what the capability of companies like Xtreme Engineering are. Not just to do this job, but to do many other jobs and to do it well, for Australian apprentices, Australian steel and Australian jobs. So I think the big challenge, Chris, is to ensure that we keep our domestic economy strong. And that means we need Australians to be in a strong, as strong a financial position as we can put them in. And there will come a time down the track when, you know, things will move to another form of normal in this COVID world. But until then, we've got to keep leaning in as a Government to ensure we can keep the momentum of that economy.
Journalist: PM, if all Australians are vaccinated by the end of the year, as the Budget suggests, why can't the world open up sooner?
Prime Minister: Well, even in that circumstance, you're still talking about many Australians, millions of Australians, who wouldn't have been vaccinated because, for, a) they’re children, or b) they have chosen not to be. And you're also making assumptions about what the rest of the world looks like with COVID at the end of this year, the introduction of new variants and strains. We’ve secured those 15 million additional Moderna vaccines which are booster shots. And so, look, I think we've just got to do this each and every day. I was pleased that yesterday was actually a record for a Saturday - we had over 30,000 people get vaccinated yesterday. We tripped over the three million mark on Friday, as I said we would. And we're seeing the vaccination programme just go from strength to strength, and the rollout with states and territories again amping up next week. Tomorrow, if you're over 50, you can go to your GP who are providing these vaccines and you can get vaccinated from tomorrow with your GP. So I think we'll continue to see that build. But all the way through we’ll be guided by the medical advice, we’ll be guided by the economic advice, I would also stress. Straight from the start of this pandemic I've said that that we've got to save lives and we've got to save livelihoods. And we’ve balanced those, I think, extremely well over the course of the last 18 months or so, and we'll have to keep doing that. So the job now is just to keep getting the vaccination programme rolling out. We've made particularly good progress in aged care facilities, we're through about 85 per cent of those now and on track with completing that in the timetable, and that's our most vulnerable community. But we still need more people aged over 70 to go and get those vaccines. That's a very high priority for us, because if there were to be an outbreak in Australia, they are the Australians most at risk and that's where our focus is most at the moment.
Journalist: PM, there’s word that our cricketers might be coming back from India in the next few days. Have they asked for any special dispensation and have they been given any?
Prime Minister: They haven’t been given any, I can tell you that, and they'll come in additional to the cap in New South Wales. We’ve been working with the New South Wales Government on that. New South Wales Government is happy for them to come in over the cap. That's something we insisted upon and they were happy to agree with that. But they'll come back under their own steam, on their own ticket, and and they will, they won't be taking the spot in quarantine of any other Australian who is returning home under the New South Wales caps. As you know in New South Wales, they’ve done all the heavy lifting, frankly, on people coming back from around the world. They’re the ones who kept their caps very high. And so we appreciate the fact that the New South Wales Government and Gladys Berejiklian in particular has been so strong in supporting those higher caps, but in this case, ensuring that when the cricketers come back they don’t take the spot of anybody else.
Journalist: What are you doing to ensure COVID testing systems are accurate and Australians aren't being unfairly blocked from coming home?
Prime Minister: Well, I don't think they are being unfairly blocked. I mean, as I said in my excerpt earlier, we’ll work with Qantas, who run that testing programme for people getting on planes. One of the, we were having issues earlier with the testing regime, and that was one of the reasons why we, we actually put the pause in place to ensure we could firm that up, and it has. And I think in these areas, you've got to be cautious. And, and I'm pleased we’ve got 80 people home. I'm looking forward to more coming home. I’m appreciative that In New South Wales, in Queensland and Victoria, they'll also be taking repatriated commercially facilitated flights. That's tremendous. But the testing’s got to be up to standard. In this case what we've got is that, we've got the, the other side of the coin, in a number of cases, where people who had tested negative, sorry tested positive, who may not have been positive, but when it comes to protecting Australians’ health and safety here, then we're going to be cautious. I know what side of the line we need to be cautious on. Okay, thanks very much everybody.
Interview with Gareth Parker, 6PR
13 May 2021
GARETH PARKER: The Prime Minister of Australia Scott Morrison, a good early morning to you.
PRIME MINISTER: G’day Gareth.
PARKER: And happy birthday.
PRIME MINISTER: Well, thank you very much. Thank you.
PARKER: I don't suppose Jenny and the kids have had a chance to give you a present yet, have they?
PRIME MINISTER: No, no. I won’t see them till late tomorrow night. But that's pretty normal for this time of year for me. It's been ever thus. Another day at the office, mate.
PARKER: I presume that you're hoping the Australian people will give you the birthday present of increased approval ratings as a result of this Budget?
PRIME MINISTER: Oh, well, those, those things are always up to them. You just do this job to the best of your ability every single day, and that's what the Budget was all about. It's about securing Australia's economic recovery. And, you know, we've come so far over these, over these past few years, particularly during the pandemic, and we've got to keep going. All of it can be so quickly lost if we're not continually diligent about this, and that's exactly what the Budget is doing. It's securing that recovery, keeping us going on the right track. We're living in this country like no other country in the world, almost, at the moment, and we want to make sure we maintain that for our jobs and for our health.
PARKER: The old rules of budgetary restraint don't seem to apply anymore. Has that freed you to sort of take on and tackle more of these social areas that perhaps a Liberal Government ordinarily wouldn't?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, we've always had a very strong record of tackling the sort of issues that we've addressed in this Budget. I mean, take mental health, for example. It was the Coalition Government that put headspace into position, and that's been an enormous success. And what we've done in this Budget on mental health is taking up that success with the new Head to Health programme, which is, basically a headspace for, for adults over 24 and also for young kids. A network of some 40 centres that we begin with, and then also 15 centres for those for children, supporting their mental health. But you're right, Gareth. I mean, we're in a pandemic, and in a pandemic ideology means nothing. You’ve just got to do what works. You’ve got to focus on the problem. You’ve got to save lives. You've got to save livelihoods. And given that Australia today has more people in work - 13.1 million Australians compared to the 13 million that were in work before the pandemic hit - very few countries in the world can say that. In fact, very, very few, if any, advanced economy countries can say that. And if we'd had the same average fatality rate of COVID as there is across the OECD - so they’re the same countries as Australia, sophisticated health systems, developed economies - 30,000 more people would have died in Australia. So when you look at those two metrics, it says that Australians have done incredibly well. And of course, we’ve played an important part in that. More than $300 billion now invested in securing this recovery directly through health and economic measures to get Australia through.
PARKER: There have been some Australians, of course, who have paid a heavy price for that success, and primarily they are Australians who have either business interests, or most acutely families who, who live overseas - that’s either Australians with adult children or perhaps elderly relatives overseas or just people who want to see their parents or their grandparents. The Budget assumes that the international borders will open in the middle of next year, and I noted with interest your commentary around that issue yesterday, saying that it's really a Budget assumption, not evidence of a plan. But what those hundreds of thousands, in fact, millions of Australians increasingly want to hear from you is just some pathway forward about when they'll be able to see their loved ones again. Why can't you give them some confidence about that?
PRIME MINISTER: I understand that concern, and as you know, in Western Australia, that hasn't just been about being able to connect with families overseas. It's been connecting with families within Australia.
PARKER: Indeed.
PRIME MINISTER: And, and so that obviously caused great anxiety, and this is what happens in pandemics. It does put constraints on us, and that does cause that, that suffering and that, and that hardship for Australians. We understand that. Suffering is far worse if you've got 300 people dying every day, as where they’re still seeing in the United States, and the absolute horror that we're seeing unfold in the developing world. The pandemic is worse today than it was a year ago. Now, what we've said about borders is, and Greg Hunt has made the same point, the borders don't just work - one day they're open and one day they're closed. That's not how it's going to work. We're working on ways at the moment where, if it's safe to do so and you get the health system right and the protections right, then Australians we would like to see, if they're vaccinated, to be able to make those trips and then return safely, and then quarantine under a different type of arrangement. Now, we're not there yet. The health advice doesn't support that. There is not one state or territory government in the country at the moment that is ready to do that. Similarly, other states - we've been working with South Australia, New South Wales, the Northern Territory - on programmes that can see elements of our international student industry return, but we're still some way away from that. So I can't provide certainty that doesn't exist anywhere in the world, Gareth. I mean, I know we'd like to know what this is, I know we’d like it. But I cannot risk the health and jobs of Australians. We're working to be able to establish such an opportunity.
PARKER: Just so I understand it, though, is it your position, though, Prime Minister, that it relies on the states to come to the table to allow people, for example, to quarantine in their homes? That once the states agree to do that, then you would be able to move on this? I'm just wondering what the hurdle is.
PRIME MINISTER: Well, that is exactly what we're working through at the National Cabinet now. That was the tasking I gave our medical advisers over at, well over about six weeks ago now, probably longer than that, where we're looking to provide. Now, some states are moving on those things. And but, you know, it's got to be safe, Gareth. I mean, we cannot take what we've achieved for granted. It can be so easily lost. And so, of course we're being cautious. Cautiousness has saved Australian lives. Cautiousness has kept Australians in jobs in a way that no other country, virtually in the world, has. So believe me, I understand the anxiety that this causes, but I also appreciate that making the wrong decisions on these things could cause absolute devastation, as we've seen in other countries. So they’re hard choices you’ve got to make in a pandemic. But we've been making them and we've been keeping Australians safe and we've been getting them back into jobs in a way that few countries have. So, you know, we've come a long way. We've got to keep going. That's what the Budget's about. And so I understand the anxiety, but when there, when you, when we can give greater clarity to a timetable, then, then we will. We're certainly working towards that. We're doing the work on it.
PARKER: The vaccination rollout is obviously the other critical component to this discussion. Overnight, Moderna have announced that they've signed a deal with your Government to provide 25 million doses of their mRNA vaccine …
PRIME MINISTER: True.
PARKER: … which is great news. Do you have any clarity about when that will be delivered and who will likely get it?
PRIME MINISTER: Well it’s 10 million doses that, that come for the Moderna vaccine now and that will come in this year, and that will support particularly that back end of the year where I've talked, you know, we've already got 20 million additional Pfizer vaccines that we were able to secure. We're trying to bring as many of those forward into the third quarter, not just in the fourth quarter. These ones are due, these 10 million - so there's two doses, that's effectively five million, for people - that was due to be here in the fourth quarter of this year. There’s then another 15 million of what is called booster doses. Now, that's a different vaccine again. That's next year, and that's to deal with, you know, possible variants and things like that. So we're now well in the phase of, you know, dealing with what's coming next because the pandemic’s not going anywhere. I mean, just because we can put, you know, 60,000 people over in Optus Stadium doesn't mean that the pandemic’s over. It’s, it is still there.
PARKER: Yeah. Is it likely under 50s will get the Moderna jab?
PRIME MINISTER: Oh, yes. Yes. I mean, that's, that's the point.
PARKER: Yep.
PRIME MINISTER: Because we've got AstraZeneca for those who are over 50. And from Monday, people will be able to go to their GP if they're over 50 - those who are part of the programme, the many of them - and be able to get their AstraZeneca vaccine from next Monday from a GP. You can currently do it from state, state based clinics, as well as the GP respiratory clinics at a federal level. And then we're bringing forward as much of those Pfizer doses as we can. And then we will also have these Moderna doses scheduled to come in, in the fourth quarter of this year.
PARKER: Prime Minister, thank you very much for your time this morning on 6PR Breakfast. I hope we can do it again soon.
PRIME MINISTER: Just before I lose you Gareth, one point in the Budget which I think all Western Australians want to know. The GST deal delivers $2 billion, $2.115 billion additional to the State Government in 21-22. That's on top of the $1.547 billion that that deal has delivered in the current financial year. So this deal keeps on delivering.
PARKER: You were never going to undo that. Mark McGowan said you were going to undo it. I didn't believe him. I said there's no way Scott Morrison will undo that deal.
PRIME MINISTER: And you, and you were right Gareth, and I know Mark believes it, too. And that $2.115 billion is in the coffers of WA next financial year because of the deal that this Government did, and secured the GST for WA.
PARKER: Point made and understood, Prime Minister. Thanks for your time.
PRIME MINISTER: Good on you, Gareth.
Interview with Ben Fordham, 2GB
13 May 2021
BEN FORDHAM: On the line, PM, Happy birthday to you.
PRIME MINISTER: G’day, Ben, thank you very much. Well, Ben, the plan that you referred to, the Premier and I have already discussed these matters before and they've been working away on this. And we've always said that we want to be working with the states and with the sectors about how we can address these issues and we will be working cooperatively with them. We already have been working with states like South Australia and the Territory up there in the Northern Territory where we've had pilots and other programmes running of a similar nature. So this is what we mean when we say you just deal with these challenges. You come up with these innovative solutions and we work together. And there's still a long way from landing this, I should stress, at this point. But it's something that we're encouraging of. But it's got to be done safely and we've got to be able to do it in a way that obviously doesn't risk the great success we've had. That's what the Budget is about, Ben. It's about securing Australia's recovery. And with all of these initiatives we're seeking to work our way through these challenges, then, you know, these are practical proposals and look forward to working further with them.
FORDHAM: So there's a possibility that we could welcome back foreign students under strict conditions before we allow Aussies to travel overseas without permission?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, not necessarily, because the other proposal we're working on, which I've tasked through the National Cabinet, the medical professionals who advise us on, is I've been seeking to get support for Australians who are vaccinated would be able to travel overseas and return in some sort of modified quarantine arrangement. I've been seeking that for some time, but that also has to be done safely. These are all of the options that we need to work practically on. Borders is just not a binary option of open one day, shut the next. There are various grades of that and that's actually what the Budget assumes. So that they need to be practical, they need to be safe, they need to ensure that we don't put at risk the great gains that have been made and that New South Wales has led the way there throughout this pandemic and been practical. So this is a cooperative process.
FORDHAM: I'm just having a look at the Budget papers. It does have an assumption that the national border will be closed until mid-2022. You say you can't guarantee that we’ll be able to return home without quarantine after 2022. Look, it's really a mug's game, isn't it? I know everyone wants to know the date. When can we fly? When can we can do this, when can we do that? But it's a mug's game when you're trying to guess what this virus is going to do next.
PRIME MINISTER: Well, that's exactly the point. And so what you do is you deal with what's known. You work with proposals that are real. You make them work within the medical advice, which keeps Australians safe and you get on with the job. And that's how we've been able to achieve what we've done over the last 18 months. That's what we've been doing. That's why right now, Australia has more people in work, 13.1 million, than there were before the pandemic hit. Those 900,000 and more people who'd lost their jobs in the months following the pandemic hitting us, those jobs have all come back. And also we've been able to protect the health of Australians. If we'd had the average fatality rate of COVID-19 in Australia that you have in the more than 30 countries of the OECD nations, like countries to ours, you know, developed countries with sophisticated economies and health systems, 30,000 more people would have died in Australia. So we've achieved a lot together as a country. And the Budget is about how we secure that recovery now as we go from that emergency phase and we're now well into the recovery phase and the Budget drives that forward by strengthening our economy, continuing to fight the virus, guaranteeing essential services and the resilience of our nation, whether it's against pandemics or natural disasters or changing climate or in particular the security threats in the region. That's what the Budget is about.
FORDHAM: Prime Minister, those repatriation flights from India are set to resume on Saturday. They were suspended because of the crisis in India and worries that it would put too much pressure on our quarantine system. So are we now confident that we're ready?
PRIME MINISTER: Yeah, that's the advice I have, Ben, and we took that decision last week, and that was always our intention. I mean, what is happening in India is a terrible humanitarian tragedy and that's why we're providing so much support to India at the moment. The oxygen concentrators, the respirators that we've sent. I spoke to Prime Minister Modi on Friday afternoon and India are very grateful for the support that Australia is providing, as many other nations are. And it's not just obviously Australian citizens and residents who'll be returning from those repatriation flights that we've been concerned for. But the people of India more broadly, that the virus now, Ben, is ravaging the developing world. We've already seen it ravage the developed world of the United States and Europe and the United Kingdom. But now we're seeing it move through these developing countries and it is truly heartbreaking. And it reminds us that this virus hasn't gone anywhere. It is a fierce enemy and that's who I'm fighting, that virus.
FORDHAM: I'm guessing going forward, we need a bit more muscle from the World Health Organisation. It turns out that the WHO can't tell the world about a new virus unless it has the permission from the country where the virus has been found and now this expert panel chaired by the former New Zealand prime minister Helen Clark says those rules need to change. I mean, it's crazy, isn't it, that they can identify something but can't tell the world about it or declare it a pandemic until the host country agrees?
PRIME MINISTER: Well Ben, I made exactly this point when I called for this very enquiry. I made exactly this point about ensuring that these are the World Health Organisation had the authority. I mean, I even used that example of things like weapons inspectors that you have in other areas. I was mocked, I was bagged, the Labor Party mocked me when I said it.
FORDHAM: No!
PRIME MINISTER: And now the WHO has come out and recommended the same thing. So, look, I think it is important that we learn the lessons from this pandemic, but that's not about any one country. We all know how this started, but what it's about is ensuring that we protect against future pandemics. And that's why we suggested this process should be done and that's come and they've made those reports and I thank them for doing it. But there's a lot more, I think, to discover there. But what's important is we learn the lessons to protect the planet, the world's population from future pandemics.
FORDHAM: Prime Minister, I know you'd be concerned about the rising tensions between Israel and Palestine. And yesterday, we had a woman charged in Sydney after burning an Israeli flag in Lakemba. How important is it to make sure that those tensions in the Middle East don't become tensions on the streets of Australia?
PRIME MINISTER: Oh, incredibly important. I mean, of course, we're all very concerned about what's happening there. And we've been urging restraint from all parties involved there to not take any unilateral action on those very stressful and tense situations that we're finding there. But those things should not be played out here in Australia. We're a peaceful country. We believe in a two-state solution. That's the Government's policy at least. And we want to ensure that people live in this country with tolerance and respect. By all means, I think people can have concerns and views and there's a tolerance for that. But at the same time, we do not want to import, import the troubles of other parts of the world into this country. We’re Australians,, that's who we are here. We're Australians and we're interested in Australian interests and we provide support around the world. And we're an agent for peace. That's what we want to see happen.
FORDHAM: I mentioned it's your birthday today. 53 today, is that right?
PRIME MINISTER: Starting to get up there a bit, Ben. But feeling good, feeling fit. I sadly won’t get to see Jenny and the girls today. But that's pretty regular for me. But that's alright. I'm sure I'll get to talk to them soon and yeah, it's just another day at the office, mate.
FORDHAM: I'm just having a look at a photo of you when you became Prime Minister and you looked about 43 when you became prime minister.
PRIME MINISTER: Well, the job certainly has its stresses, as you and I know this particularly these last two years. I mean, it started with those floods in North Queensland and it has gone through bushfires and it has gone through cyclones and more floods and of course, the pandemic. And you know what? Over that entire time, Ben, I've just been humbled every day by the Australian people. Today, we're going to be handing out Emergency Service Medals to the brave heroes of Australia. And I couldn't think of a better way to have a birthday than celebrating those who have done so much for our country.
FORDHAM: Happy birthday to you and I know you'll be looking forward to catching up with Jenny and your girls. Happy birthday, PM.
PRIME MINISTER: Thank you, Ben. All the best.
FORDHAM: Thank you for your time.
Australia Secures Moderna Vaccines
13 May 2021
Prime Minister, Minister for Health and Aged Care, Minister for Industry, Science and Technology
The Australian Government has secured 25 million doses of the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine to further diversify our vaccine portfolio as well as provide access to a booster or variant vaccine should this be required in the future.
As confirmed in the 2021-22 Budget, the Government will commence an approach to market for mRNA manufacturing capacity in Australia.
The Government also remains in discussions with Moderna in relation to establishing a manufacturing facility in Australia for mRNA vaccines.
Onshore manufacturing would ensure a secure, long-term supply of Moderna’s mRNA-based vaccines against COVID-19, including variants, and for potential future pandemics.
This is the second messenger RNA (mRNA) vaccine to be purchased by the Government, providing access to the current Moderna vaccine or variant-specific versions of the vaccine developed by Moderna, to address longer term immunity or emerging viral variants in the first half of 2022.
To date, the Moderna vaccine has shown an overall vaccine efficacy against symptomatic COVID-19 of 94.1 per cent, and 100 per cent efficacy against severe COVID-19. It has also shown strong protection of 90 per cent efficacy against COVID-19 for at least six months after the second dose.
The Moderna vaccine has been approved by leading regulatory authorities across the world and is being used successfully in the United Kingdom, Canada, the European Union, the United States and Singapore.
The agreement includes 10 million doses in 2021 and 15 million doses of Moderna’s updated variant booster vaccine in 2022.
Supply in Australia will only commence should the vaccine be approved as safe and effective by Australia’s regulator, the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA). An application by Moderna to the TGA is expected shortly.
The Science and Industry Technical Advisory Group, the Australian Government’s expert group advising on vaccine purchases, has recommended the purchase of the Moderna vaccine.
As Australia looks to 2022, the Moderna vaccine provides a strong booster and emerging variants supply if required.
A complete course of Moderna’s vaccination is likely to be two doses given 28 days apart.
The Moderna vaccine diversifies Australia’s supply of COVID-19 vaccines, provides more flexibility for the national vaccine rollout, and secures early access to possible vaccinations for emerging COVID-19 variants of concern circulating around the world.
Australia has five separate agreements to secure more than 195 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines if they are proved to be safe and effective. Around $6 billion has been invested to support the COVID-19 vaccine roll-out.
Interview with Leigh Sales, 7.30
12 May 2021
LEIGH SALES: Thank you for your time, Prime Minister.
PRIME MINISTER: G'day Leigh.
SALES: Your Budget priority is creating jobs and spending on things like aged care and child care with money that comes from economic growth. But how can you do any of it when growth depends on a concrete path for getting out of COVID and there are no firm targets for vaccination and no plan for how international borders can reopen without arduous quarantine?
PRIME MINISTER: We've got to keep doing what works, Leigh, and that's why this Budget is a plan to secure Australia's recovery. Already we've seen Australia achieve remarkable things over the course of this pandemic. Already we have achieved together as Australians the situation where more people are in work today - 13.1 million - than were in work prior to the pandemic, some 13 million. And that is done in concert with managing the health impacts of COVID, where if we'd had the OECD average of fatalities in this country, relating to COVID, 30,000 more Australians would have perished as a, as a result of this pandemic. This is what we've achieved already. So this Budget is about securing that recovery, that is already under way, but it's about moving from the emergency response measures like JobKeeper and the cash flow support and all of this which has got us to this point, and now moving into the next phase of recovery …
SALES: But as I point out …
PRIME MINISTER: … which is the incentives for taxation, the incentives for skills development, and putting the investment through businesses that creates those jobs into the future …
SALES: But as I point out, Prime Minister …
PRIME MINISTER: … The Federal Government is stepping up to ensure that we can secure this recovery, as we go ahead.
SALES: As I point out, Prime Minister, all of that is predicated on vaccination and borders. Let's unpack each of those things separately. Vaccinations first. What level of herd immunity is your Budget banking on by the end of this year? In other words, what percentage of Australians will be vaccinated or will have had COVID?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, it's nothing as precise as that, as the Budget papers say themselves …
SALES: You must have some modelling or forecasts?
PRIME MINISTER: No, what the Budget papers say is that there's a general assumption of a vaccination program likely to be in place and there by the end of this year. And, but what that means, Leigh, is that there is an understanding that over the course of this year the vaccination program will continue to roll out, and will reach as many Australians as we possibly can that want to have that vaccine. And that progress is achieving, at this point in time, some three million Australians by the end of this week will have received that vaccination. It's had its problems, particularly due to the lack of vaccine access from overseas at the start of the vaccination program. And then, of course, the medical advice that we had on AstraZeneca which contained that vaccination to over 50s. So it's certainly had its shocks.
SALES: That's right, Prime Minister. But we are at just over 10 per cent of the population. The US has vaccinated 45 per cent, the UK 53 per cent, Israel 60 per cent. You'd now need to be vaccinating 200,000 Australians daily to get as many people as you'd like to have done by the end of the year. Currently we're doing fewer than a quarter of that. How has the Government fumbled this so badly when everything relies on it?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, Leigh, the comparisons you make are to countries where the choice of vaccination was to vaccinate or have serious illness or die. That was the emergency situation the countries that you've referred to …
SALES: … But that could happen here any time.
PRIME MINISTER: Well, my comparison is to countries like New Zealand and to Canada which is also going through a terrible place at the moment. Japan, South Korea, where Australia's vaccination program is proceeding at a much faster pace than at the same stage of their programs when you make that comparison.
SALES: Does the buck stop with you on the success or otherwise of the vaccine rollout?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, Leigh, everything stops with me. I'm the Prime Minister at the end of the day. And so that's why we focus so hard on getting our general practitioners involved in the rollout of this vaccination program, and they're doing a great job. From next Monday they will have more doses. From next Monday they, we have brought forward the vaccination program for over 50s and we had 400,000 people get vaccinated in the past week. Our strongest week yet. And we're going to continue to see more Australians get that vaccination. But I want to stress this, Leigh, because you've raised the point about the assumption. The Budget rests on many things. And when it comes to the vaccination program, it does, it is important that we get this done. But what is in this Budget does not rely on that solely or even completely. The vaccination program, as it's set out in the Budget papers, just assumes that it's likely that this will be in place by the end of the year. But that could happen with two doses, one dose. It could be many months either side of that and that will not have a material impact on what is in this Budget, and it would be a mistake to think that it did.
SALES: In a speech on March the 9th, you said that with sufficient vaccine we can move to treating COVID like the regular flu. What will that look like?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, this is ideal. But what would be necessary in that environment is there would need to be a tolerance in this country, particularly at state and territory levels, that where you were getting cases in this country, because if you start to open up, if you start to have those controls relaxed, then you can expect to see large numbers of cases in this country, even with the vaccination program [inaudible]. In the United States right now, Leigh, there's …
SALES: Well a lot of comparison, Prime Minister, sorry …
PRIME MINISTER: Sorry, you're interrupting. I'll let you go.
SALES: I just want to keep it in Australia. If you look at pre-COVID numbers from the regular flu in Australia from the Bureau of Statistics - 2019, 4,000 Australians dead, that's deaths, not cases. 2018 - 3,000 deaths, 2017 - 2,000 deaths from the regular flu. Are political leaders going to have to have an honest conversation with Australians about what living with risk looks like?
PRIME MINISTER: That's exactly the conversation that Australia's government leaders are having through the National Cabinet. That is exactly the process that I tasked through the National Cabinet over a month ago, and our chief medical advisers are going through that process to understand that as we speak right now. And that's why we are having the conversation about how you can have gradual changes in how these restrictions operate. For example, if you're vaccinated with approved vaccines in Australia, whether you can travel and return to Australia and you can go into some form of home quarantine. Now, at this point there is not advice to support that, but I note in New South Wales the Treasurer there has been open to that idea. So I think they're important, they're important next steps and I've been saying that consistently. But understand this, Leigh …
SALES: Well on that point, Prime Minister, on that point, sorry on that point, because you raised quarantine, you raised quarantine, that's the other pillar of the Budget, international borders. The assumptions for the middle of next year. So if an Australian wants to go and visit their son or daughter in London say in July of next year, will they be allowed to do so without having to do the two weeks quarantine on return?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, it's impossible for me to say at this point, Leigh. I think, we need to understand …
SALES: Is that your goal, though?
PRIME MINISTER: It's impossible for me to make those sorts of predictions in the middle of a global pandemic, the likes of which we haven't seen for 100 years. I can fully understand why people want greater certainty but I can only provide the certainty that is available. And what we've been doing is being careful, being led by the medical advice, being led by the economic advice. And that has got Australia where we are right now. And let's not forget, Leigh, that today 300 people are dying in the United States, 300 people. That's what's happening in other countries around the world. That's what was happening in the UK not that long ago. This is what's happening across India, as the pandemic rages around the world. And we can't sit here complacently thinking that this cannot have a serious impact on Australia …
SALES: … So given that …
PRIME MINISTER: … which is why, Leigh, the Budget is all about securing the recovery and a plan to do that because that recovery is at risk …
SALES: … So if you need to …
PRIME MINISTER: … It is at risk if we get these decisions not as they should be. And that's, our Government is getting those decisions right.
SALES: So if, if you need to secure that recovery and if you need to manage that risk, shouldn't there be some more budgeting there for federal quarantine? You're going to need more than the 2,000 spaces that you have.
PRIME MINISTER: Well, Leigh, in the Budget, I can tell you, you can go to page 107 of the Budget and you can read there that $487 million is provided over two years to expand quarantine services …
SALES: … To how many places? …
PRIME MINISTER: … And they're the ones in the Northern Territory. That's to 2,000 places, Leigh …
SALES: … But I just made the point, you're going to need more than that 2,000?
PRIME MINISTER: Well this is why we're talking to the Victorian Government even now, and they've put forward a very constructive proposal …
SALES: You don't have a line item in the Budget for that.
PRIME MINISTER: Well, Leigh, what we've got, I've just told you …
SALES: Not for the Victorian project. That's the Northern Territory. That's the Northern Territory.
PRIME MINISTER: Well when we work through the details of that project, Leigh, we only received it not that long ago. And what I'm telling you is we've always been very open to constructive and comprehensive suggestions because we're working in partnership with the states and territories. The quarantine system has served Australia very well and it has to be backed up by the testing and tracing regimes with those rings of containment. And that's why Australia has been so successful.
SALES: On the point about working with the states and territories, does the buck stop with you on the effectiveness of quarantine?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, no, they are state public health orders that they're enforcing. And at the National Cabinet …
SALES: … But it is a federal responsibility?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, no, I'm sorry, they are state public health orders. That's what they are, Leigh, and states are responsible for public health, and that's why the quarantine is done on the basis of those state public health orders. We took this through National Cabinet over a year ago and the states and territories agreed that that was the best way to put this in place and give it effect, and at a 99.99 per cent effective rate for our hotel quarantine, and particularly when it's backed up, when inevitable occasional breaches occur, then the testing and the tracing regime is able to contain that. And we've seen that on many occasions. And again, that's why in this country we're living like few countries in the world today, and we need to preserve that. And that's why we need a Budget that we announced last night that does preserve that and can secure through our plan the economic recovery that otherwise would be at risk.
SALES: Well, on that Budget, aged care, you're injecting much-needed money. You've now got the Royal Commission findings and recommendations. From here, if there are further systemic cases of neglect, abuse and mistreatment, does your Government own it? You've got all the information you need.
PRIME MINISTER: Well, this is a five-year plan we're rolling out as a result of what we've announced last night, and this is a five-year plan to address the last 30 years and more, as the Royal Commission highlighted. This is a very complex problem. We've had, we'll see our population aged over 65 grow as we have even over these many years. We've increased, up until last night's Budget, we'd already increased in real terms our funding for aged care by 50 per cent. We're tripling the number of in-home aged care places and that was before last night's Budget, from when we first came to Government. The demands here are very significant and the needs are complex. And so what we've announced last night in response to the Royal Commission, Leigh, that I initiated, that I called, because I wanted to know, because I want Australians in this country to age with dignity and with respect. The proposals that were put in the Budget last night, that we'll put now into practice, in concert with the aged care sector, I believe will take us down that path as it needs to. And I suspect there will be more things we will need to do as we roll out this plan. But this plan at $17.7 billion, as you've said, is a very comprehensive response to a very complex problem. And we'll be putting all our effort to get this right. I have no doubt, I have worked on many complex problems in government, Leigh, and you never finish. You're always working at it. You're always learning but you have got to remain committed to that outcome and that is ageing with dignity and respect in this country.
SALES: If we can turn to some other issues, I understand that the Federal Police have now advised Phil Gaetjens he can resume his inquiry into who knew what, when in his office during the Brittany Higgins matter. Are you aware that has recommenced?
PRIME MINISTER: Yes, I am.
SALES: When would you expect that to come back to you?
PRIME MINISTER: He hasn't given me a date at this point but I would hope he can provide one at his earliest opportunity.
SALES: Do you know, so, how far has that investigation now progressed? Has everyone in your office been interviewed? Where is it up to?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, I'm not conducting the investigation. It's being conducted at arm's length.
SALES: But you must know, it's recommenced. So I'm just asking.
PRIME MINISTER: I know it's commenced, but I have no knowledge of its conduct. Why would I? That would be inappropriate. It's an independent, arms-length investigation from me.
SALES: Even with that inquiry going on, why have you never been curious to personally ask questions of your staff or ministers as to why you were kept in the dark regarding an alleged rape in a Defence Minister's office?
PRIME MINISTER: I became aware I think it was on the 15th. It was the 15th of February. That was a Monday morning. I remember that very, very clearly. My office had become aware of it on the 12th—
SALES: But we know that from the timeline there was lots of people knew before then, the Defence Minister, the Employment Minister, the Home Affairs Minister, the Department of Finance, the Federal Police, multiple staff in your own office.
PRIME MINISTER: Not of an alleged rape, I should stress.
SALES: None of them thought you should be informed. You apparently weren't across the details of what had happened, whether it was an alleged rape or whether it was a security breach?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, the security breach, we were aware of the security breach but not of any alleged assault, as you've said. And that's a matter of public record. My office did not become aware of that until the 12th of February and I became aware of it on the 15th of February.
SALES: I just rattled through all the other people in your Cabinet and who work alongside you.
PRIME MINISTER: Some of those didn't know about it until about the week before. The then Home Affairs Minister only became aware of it very soon before I did.
SALES: Don't you find it puzzling?
PRIME MINISTER: I've already made those points publicly, Leigh. The point I'd make, whether it was the now Attorney-General or the then Minister for Defence Industry, those were matters that were not relayed to me and were not relayed to my office because they were matters that were told to them in confidence and they didn't seek to breach those confidences.
SALES: On the question of the security breach, you've said in a press conference on the 23rd of March that it wasn't the first one, that the previous one had involved classified material. If that was the case, multiple security breaches of a Defence Minister's office, why hadn't anyone already been sacked?
PRIME MINISTER: Someone was sacked.
SALES: No, but they hadn't been. You said there were security breaches prior to that involved classified material.
PRIME MINISTER: There was an escalation of the caution on this individual and that final breach was the one that led to their dismissal.
SALES: You said at that press conference that classified material had been involved. Why had that not triggered at least an AFP investigation, a Defence Minister's office, classified material, security breach?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, Leigh, as I just said, as those matters had been addressed, there were sanctions and warnings put in place and then the individual was eventually dismissed for that final breach.
SALES: So you just get a sanction, do you, if you breach security in the Defence Minister's office?
PRIME MINISTER: Leigh, I'm not going to go into the details of something that relates to those types of issues. What I am telling you is the individual was sacked.
SALES: At the same press conference on March the 23rd, you said you were going to investigate whether anyone in your office had briefed journalists against Brittany Higgins's partner. What did you find?
PRIME MINISTER: That matter is still being addressed by my Chief of Staff and I understand that he'll be having a conversation with Brittany herself that was arranged not long after that I met with her just a little while ago. I found that a very helpful meeting. And I thank her very much for the opportunity we had to discuss, not that issue, that didn't come up. But the many other issues I know she's been very brave to bring forward.
SALES: Why should Andrew Laming be allowed to continue chairing a parliamentary committee given his track record against women?
PRIME MINISTER: Andrew's not contesting the next election for the LNP.
SALES: He's chairing a committee though.
PRIME MINISTER: Well, I have never made comments on that matter. But he has formed a view since then that the issues that were the subject of complaints made against him have now altered and there have been new facts that have come forward-
SALES: Are you comfortable with that?
PRIME MINISTER: …He made those comments to the Parliament the other day. Andrew will serve out his time serving in the Parliament. He's been here a long time. He's done many good things while he's here as part of the Government and I expect him to keep working hard for his electorate all the way to the next election.
SALES: What's empathy training and have you ever had it?
PRIME MINISTER: No, I haven't, Leigh-
SALES: What is it?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, there are lots of counselling courses that are provided to people, they're largely run out of the private sector. This is something that has become quite common and where these counselling courses are necessary, then I think they can be quite helpful.
SALES: On China, the trend of the diplomatic relationship under the Morrison Government has all been downhill. Have you attempted to speak personally to President Xi Jinping to reset it?
PRIME MINISTER: I have spoken to Xi Jinping when I've had the opportunity to meet with him at international forums and those exchanges have been very polite-
SALES: But what about phone calls or something more recently?
PRIME MINISTER: We've always been open to those, Leigh, and we remain open to those now. But there's no interest in that from the Chinese side-
SALES: Have you sought that?
PRIME MINISTER: Of course we are interested in having those and we've expressed that on numerous occasions. But that is not something the Chinese side are interested in having at present. We'll respect that. We continue our trading relationship. We're interested in peace and prosperity in the region and a strong trading relationship and we're interested in Australia's sovereignty and standing up for Australia's sovereign interests and our national interests and we will always do that and we won't step back from them.
SALES: Do you agree with your Defence Minister Peter Dutton that a war between the US and China over Taiwan in the not too distant future can't be discounted?
PRIME MINISTER: This was reflected at the strategic update that I spoke of in our Defence preparedness over a year ago, Leigh, and that is actually the understanding of those who advise us on these matters. Of course there are many tensions that exist in the region and it would be foolish of Australia not to be appreciating the potential risks that emerge. Now, that doesn't mean these things will happen but any Defence Minister, any Prime Minister in Australia who did not give consideration to these things and ensure Australia was prepared in these circumstances wouldn't be doing their job.
SALES: You've been the Prime Minister now for nearly three years and so Australians have had a chance to observe how you've responded to various things. When it comes to taking responsibility, they've seen vaccine stumbles, not your fault, it's a supply issue. Quarantine, that's mostly a problem for the states. Bushfires, I don't hold a hose. Brittany Higgins, I was in the dark. COVID deaths in aged care, mostly the fault of state governments for not controlling virus spread, Christian Porter, don't need to drill into the particulars. Minister's breaching standards, I reject that anybody ever has. Doesn't all that taken together add up to a tendency to blame shift and duck responsibility wherever possible?
PRIME MINISTER: That's your narrative, Leigh, but that's not one that I share—
SALES: I've just, I've spelt out the facts there.
PRIME MINISTER: I'll tell you what the narrative is, Leigh. I'll tell you what's happened over the last 18 months in particular. Australia is in a position and living in a way that the rest of the world is not. At the height of the pandemic where we looked into the abyss, my Government took action and ensured that we saved lives and we saved livelihoods. That is the same action we took, whether it was in the floods in North Queensland or the many disasters that have befallen this country over the last 18 months. Over the course, in particular, of this last year we've seen more than 900,000 people get on and get back into jobs. We've seen businesses survive. We've seen confidence in Australia's future lift. We've seen our defence forces prepared. We've seen our national preparedness for disasters escalated. And in the Budget last night, you saw some of the biggest changes to aged care and mental health that this country has seen. So Leigh, there will be an opportunity for Australians to express their view when the election finally comes. Right now, I'm fighting the virus and I'm keeping Australians in jobs and I'm seeking to provide the best possible support for their health in response to the COVID crisis. So I'll get on with my job and I'll let you get on with yours.
SALES: As you say, you get to take the credit for all of that but it does come at a cost. The record debt and deficit that the Morrison Government is posting in the Budget, does the buck stop with you on getting the Budget back into surplus or will that be somebody else's problem down the line?
PRIME MINISTER: We've done it once before, Leigh, before we hit this crisis the many steps we took got the Budget back into balance before we hit the crisis and I'm glad we did that and I had my role in that, particularly as Treasurer. And now we're in a position to respond like no government has ever had to respond before in our history. What we're going through at the moment, the recession that has been caused globally by this pandemic is 30 times worse than the GFC. 30 times worse. And we have responded like no other government in Australia's history. That has put Australia in a place that many countries, if not most countries, around the world envy. And we're going to keep on with that job and that's why last night's Budget was the plan to ensure we continue to secure Australia's recovery. I'm going to get on with that job. That's the fight I'm in. Fighting for Australia, for Australia's national interests and protecting Australians through this COVID pandemic, keeping them in jobs, protecting their lives and protecting their livelihoods.
SALES: Prime Minister, thanks for your time this evening. We appreciate it.
PRIME MINISTER: Thank you, Leigh.
Interview with Neil Breen, 4BC
12 May 2021
Neil Breen: Good morning to you, Prime Minister.
Prime Minister: G’day, Neil.
Breen: I heard you’re stuck in Parliament House because Extinction Rebellion is hanging around again, those pests.
Prime Minister: No, mate, we're just hard at work here. There’s a pile of interviews we’re doing today, and I don't know what they're up to. I’m not really fussed, frankly. We've got a pandemic to fight, and that's what the Budget’s about. It's about securing Australia's economic recovery in the face of this pandemic. That's the only opposition I'm interested in.
Breen: Now, this morning I've spoken to the Queensland Treasurer Cameron Dick, who was quite strong and vehement and was going off his head saying that Queensland's been ripped off. Have we been ripped off in Queensland by this Budget?
Prime Minister: No, that's rubbish. Look, I've seen this quite a bit now. They just sort of go into the political jibes and the language and all this sort of thing, and I've got no time for that because the facts are this - that under this Budget, Queenslanders will receive a higher share of infrastructure funding than actually per head of population. So it's 20.7 per cent of the Commonwealth's investment in infrastructure over the next decade is in Queensland. The share of population over the same point of time is 20.2 per cent. So, look, his facts aren't right. But really, that's not the point. The time for all of this politicking and grandstanding and carrying on and name calling that we keep seeing from the Queensland Government, it frankly is quite juvenile and we've got a pandemic to fight here. So I'm not interested in those juvenile and undergraduate games. I'm interested in continuing to fund important works. And remember, this comes on top, this comes on top of what we've already said in going 50-50 with a fair dinkum partnership to deliver an Olympics for south east Queensland. So, you know, we're stepping up here and I would just prefer to just engage, work together, rather than going on with this endless squabbling.
Breen: And there's been $5.8 billion, we've read today, has been set aside or is available if we're successful for the Olympics. Is that number correct?
Prime Minister: Well look, as we said, this is a 50-50 partnership. So, all projects, there’s scoping, there’s planning, how they'll be delivered, the contracting and all of these things will be done on a shared basis. So that's the situation. That's the set up we will put in place to make those decisions. It will be a joint partnership. It won't be one side of one government telling the other what, how it will work. It will be done together and it will be done in a disciplined and responsible way.
Breen: Prime Minister, $161 billion. That's the deficit this year. It's a lot better than the predicted $213 billion from last October. But the number that stands out to me is 2032 is the next time we can expect to see a surplus. It's a long time away, to think that we're going to be in deficit for another decade or more.
Prime Minister: Well, it's because we're dealing with a pandemic, which economically is 30 times worse than the global financial crisis. You know, I think we have to just take stock here for a second. This is a pandemic Budget. These are not usual times. We've been facing the biggest economic challenge in 75 years, and that has required the Government to step up and do what we've done. Our economic recovery plan and response has, there’s been over $300 billion. Now, that's more than all the states and territories combined in their responses, double it, and go further, and that's where the Commonwealth Government has stepped up to support Australians, whether in Queensland or anywhere else around the country, to protect those jobs, to protect those livelihoods, and to protect their health, to protect their health. I mean the underwriting that we have put in place to ensure that the actions of the Queensland Government have been able to be done without impacting on the economy, as they might have otherwise done so severely. That has ensured Queenslanders have stayed in jobs. So we'll keep working together with the Queensland Government. I’ve got a mature relationship with the Queensland Premier, and I'll continue working with Annastacia Palaszczuk to ensure that we can deliver for the health and jobs of Queenslanders. And we've got a strong investment plan there in Queensland on projects right across the state, from the north to the south. I was only up in north Queensland, central Queensland, last week. In particular, right up there in the north, what we've done for the reinsurance pool, ensured that there’ll be affordable insurance premiums in northern Queensland. The responses to drought, the resilience agency to deal with cyclones and floods. And then you come down to the tax cuts for low and middle income families to ensure that they can continue to make the decisions that they need to make to get them and their families through. Incentives for manufacturing, for small businesses, lower taxes, this is what will get us through. It's a Budget, it is a plan to secure a recovery that you cannot take for granted, and we're very focussed on fighting this pandemic and keeping Australians in jobs.
Breen: Two other things that stood out for me. One, the push to get the unemployment rate down. And you talked about a lot of those things just now - incentives for business - but a lot of traineeships and things that are going on.
Prime Minister: Yep.
Breen: Five per cent, then down to 4.5 per cent unemployment. That is a low figure. That's a, that's a bullish number.
Prime Minister: Well, it's a bold goal, and that's what we have to do. That's what our plan has to seek to achieve, because the more people we get in work, that’s fewer people on welfare, and the more people you have in work, that means you’ve got more people who are making the contribution rather than having to take one. And that's how you balance the Budget. That's how we actually got the Budget back in balance before the pandemic hit. We got people into jobs, record levels of employment before the pandemic. And now, as we're still fighting this pandemic, we've got employment levels back to above where they were. We have 13 million people who were employed before the pandemic really hit us back in March of last year. Then 900,000 Australians lost their jobs. We thought it would have been far worse. We ended up having three million Australians and more supported by JobKeeper. Now, today, there are 13.1 million Australians in work. We’re the only advanced developed economy in the world, pretty much, that can actually say that at the moment. And so that's, that's something we can't let go. It's something we can't put at risk. And that's why the Government has continued to do what works, to go even further in this Budget to secure this recovery.
Breen: It’s a very generous budget to vulnerable Australians. Obviously, there's the special women's addendum, but then there's the extra funding for the NDIS, funding for veterans affairs. It's been something the Government's been conscious of here.
Prime Minister: Yeah, absolutely. I mean, you've got to guarantee the essential services Australians rely on. That is the task at every Budget. And we've got some big demands in this Budget that we've had to meet - aged care significantly, the mental health of Australians. This is big change in mental health, and we all know how successful headspace has been to support young Australians. This programme ensures that we have an extension of that, called Head to Health, which is providing those same sorts of mental health support for Australians aged over 24, and to young children as well. So this is real game changing investment in services to improve the mental health of all Australians. And that's just not a health issue, it will grow our economy for years. As Treasurer, they used to say to me quite clearly, the Productivity Commission, if you want to boost productivity in this country so Australians can earn more, you’ve got to invest in mental health. We've doubled our investment in mental health.
Breen: There's some predictions in the Budget. The national border could reopen in the middle of 2022, later in 2022. That's a debate that could be had later. But Australians will be fully vaccinated by the end of this year. Would it help if Queensland put a mass vaccination hub or two online? Would that help with that goal?
Prime Minister: Well, we'll see where we get to by the end of this year. I mean, these aren't Government commitments. There’s some assumptions that are being made around first doses and things like that. But whether we get there, well, we've got still a lot of work to do. But what I'm pleased about is that, you know, we're getting through this task. From next Monday, those over 50 could go to their GP and they can get their vaccination. We’ll soon hit three million people having been vaccinated in Australia. More than 10 percent of the eligible adult population has already been vaccinated, around a third of those aged over 70. And so the states, you know, over this last month and a bit, we've been working together, as I pulled the National Cabinet back together, to that operational footing. We put those new plans in place. We brought forward the vaccination programme. States are doing more and, and I believe Queensland will do more as well. This is a task we all have to get through. But I’ve got to tell you, the thing that'll actually impact more on this Budget and our economic recovery. We do need to keep those international borders shut and it'll be a step by step gradual process of getting people back into this country over time. But we cannot allow COVID to get back into this country, because once it's in, you can't get it out. And the strains that are coming through, the new strains, the pandemic is more severe and ravaging today than it was a year ago. So we do need to keep those protections on our borders in place, but we need to keep Australia open within those borders. That's what keeps jobs in place, particularly in Queensland in the travel and the tourism sector. So we need to keep working together to ensure we keep Australia as open internally as we possibly can.
Breen: Prime Minister Scott Morrison, thanks for your time this morning on 4BC Breakfast.
Prime Minister: Thanks a lot, Breeny. Cheers mate.
Interview with Kieran Gilbert, Sky News
12 May 2021
KIERAN GILBERT: Good morning, Prime Minister. If I handed these numbers to you in the middle of last year when unemployment was forecast to be 15 per cent, what would you have said to me?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, I would say that that would have been heroic, that we would have achieved what Australians have achieved. I want to stress that, Kieran. This is what Australians have achieved. The fact that there are more people in work today than there was before the pandemic. The fact that if we had gone down the path of so many other countries. In the OECD, the average fatality rate from COVID would have seen 30,000 more people perish here in Australia. And that we can stand here today, that you can put 100,000 people in the G, that we can talk of the jobs growth in this country, which has seen all of those people getting back into work. This is a great testament to the spirit of the Australian people and this Budget, which is a recovery plan. It's about securing that recovery. This all could be lost. This all can be forsaken if we can't continue to do what is needed to keep our economy on track.
GILBERT: There was some scepticism about the idea of a bounce back. This is a massive bounce back.
PRIME MINISTER: Well, it is. It's V shape. There's no doubt about that. But we can't be complacent about it and that's my point. We're seeing Europe going into a double dip recession. We're seeing the wave of the pandemic now moving to an even more intensive, fierce phase as we've seen it roar through the developed world. It is now absolutely horrifically and heartbreakingly destroying the developing world. We're seeing what's happening in India. We'll see how that goes through other developing countries. We're seeking to do everything we can to support them. But this is a deadly pandemic, and I'm afraid we're still in the midst of it.
GILBERT: Given how well we've done, though, could you have moved more quickly to try and repair the Budget? Still deficits out to 2031-32.
PRIME MINISTER: We’re still in the pandemic and in a pandemic, you need to throw everything at it to ensure you bring Australians through. I mean, our pandemic recovery plan now, it's over $300 billion that we've already invested, including what was invested last night. And it is about the rebuilding. It's about the infrastructure, of course. But we've moved past the immediate emergency phase and now we're into that recovery phase. So you're investing in skills. You're investing in infrastructure. You're investing in our response to the digital economy. But you're also guaranteeing essential services that Australians need, mental health, a very good example. Not only incredibly important for people's own wellbeing, but mental health has been nominated time and time again by the Productivity Commission as one of the key factors holding back productivity in this country and boosting our economy. So there's a double dividend there from what is a record level of investment in mental health support in this country.
GILBERT: You were one of the key members, I remember very vividly as the Treasurer, then trying to repair the Budget. How does it, as you now PM and delivering this Budget, it's such a huge turnaround from those days talking about the need to rein things in. And now as far as the eye can see, it is deficits.
PRIME MINISTER: I’m glad we did what we did. I'm glad we got the Budget back to balance before the pandemic hit. I'm glad we did all that work that put Australia in a position to be able to respond in the way that we have, which now means Australia is a position which is basically the envy of the world. Now, that is because of what Australians have done and how our Budget support has enabled Australians to carry this country through and we're going to keep doing that. We can't turn back from that. We can't go down an alternative path. We'll spend responsibly. But we have to spend to ensure that we keep this recovery on track. I mean, JobKeeper is a good example. The single biggest economic support the country has ever seen. We announced it just over here. You were there, but we also knew when to turn it off. See, in our Government, we know when to do it and we know when to stop it. And right now we need to keep leaning in, particularly with infrastructure and skills and the digital economy and workforce support. All of this needs to continue so our recovery can continue.
GILBERT: Your investment in aged care and you spoke about skills because there's this disconnect, isn't there? We've got the unemployment rate coming down, which is fantastic. But we've got these cricks in the Budget, the economy, where there are labour shortages. So how do you fill those jobs with youth unemployment remains a big problem. How do you connect one to the other?
PRIME MINISTER: You spend more than $2 billion on training in this Budget. You create another 170,000 apprentices. You remove the blockages that are preventing young people getting into work with foundational skills training. You ensure you have programmes for people to be trained in things like digital literacy, digital skills. You're training people in the care workforce.
GILBERT: You boost the wages too, don’t you?
PRIME MINISTER: All of these things will be driven by a stronger economy at the end of the day. But the record funding we're putting into aged care, $17.7 billion, the over $3 billion we're putting into, you know, into skills training and all these sorts of things right across the board. I mean, these are important investments to ensure that we can secure this recovery. Because at the end of the day, that's what this Budget is about. What’s this Budget about? Securing the recovery because the recovery we cannot take for granted. We cannot take where we've got to as a country over these last 18 months for granted. And the only thing I'm fighting is the pandemic to secure people's health and to secure their jobs.
GILBERT: Your mind’s not turning to the election just yet by the sounds of it.
PRIME MINISTER: No, I mean, because this pandemic is raging. And as Prime Minister-
GILBERT: But if you look at this, you could run to an election on this.
PRIME MINISTER: People who focus on politics will do that. But as Prime Minister, I have to focus on the pandemic and Australians out there, that's what they're focused on. They worried about their jobs. They're worried about their health. They’re worried about their family members who are struggling with mental health or struggling with putting their family into residential aged care. And what I have to do is give them confidence that there is a plan and there is because that plan is working, the plan is working. What we're doing in this country is working and we have to keep doing it.
GILBERT: There's a paradox at the heart of the Budget, though, isn't there? Because you've got this huge windfall from iron ore. China continues to hoover up our resources and is our best customer. Yet we've got this tension, this geopolitical tension on the other side of things. Can you cool that down, is that possible?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, you're right to highlight that COVID is not the only challenge Australia faces. Not only that, natural disasters. And in this Budget, as you know, there's a very big plan to support Australians to deal with natural disasters and climate change and things like this. But importantly, we're living in a very uncertain region, and that's why we're investing in our intelligence and our security and our cyber security and our defences and all of these things.
GILBERT: What about diplomacy?
PRIME MINISTER: We've invested heavily in that as well. And we will continue to be Australians, stand up for what we believe in, counter any sort of threats that might arise in our region. But what is our goal? Peace. What is our goal? Trade. What is our goal? Prosperity for our region and sovereignty for every single country that exists within our region. And at the end of the day, we'll always stand up for a liberal democratic principle, we’ll always stand up for a world order that favours freedom.
GILBERT: It's just an interesting paradox because you’ve got your best customer, but also an increasingly assertive, right?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, it's a complex and it's a challenging world. But what's also important, I think, to reflect on, Kieran, is that we have to maintain a strong economy to ensure that we can deal with these challenges. I mean, in this Budget, aged care, mental health, support right across the board in services that Australians rely on every single day. The National Disability Insurance Scheme, all of that is only made possible if we can ensure that the economic recovery that we're pursuing and achieving as a nation is secured into the future.
GILBERT: Prime Minister, there's a commitment to an mRNA facility. How far away would that be? I know it's a commercial in confidence negotiations, but are we talking within a year?
PRIME MINISTER: No, look, I think those sort of capabilities are very significant ones. I mean, a year ago, mRNA vaccines are being used as vaccines more broadly. It was almost seen as science fiction. And here we are a year later. And so in this Budget, and mRNA vaccines, this won't just be important for COVID. This will be important for vaccines more generally right across the spectrum. And so we will establish that capacity here in this country. We will do it as soon as we possibly can. We already, as a priority, put in place the vaccination capability manufacturing here in Australia that is ensuring that more than 10 per cent of our eligible adult population is vaccinated right now. We're not relying on those overseas vaccines for AstraZeneca and, importantly, we’ll be moving to ensure that Australia has a sovereign capability on mRNA vaccines. But a sovereign capability across a whole range of secure supply chains is needed to drive our economy into the future.
GILBERT: Prime Minister, just finally, the one cut that I did notice in the Budget is for foreign aid. Given we are one of the wealthiest countries in the world and as you rightly said, this V-shaped recovery, we're doing great. Why don't we turn our attention more to foreign aid. We’re the third lowest in the OECD according to analysis done in the last couple of weeks by the Development Assistance Committee of the OECD.
PRIME MINISTER: We continue to increase our support, particularly we're doing that here in our region. I mean, what we've done in our foreign aid budget is we're focused here on our Pacific family and we're focused on vaccinations here and supporting the capacity to deliver those vaccinations. We're focused on Papua New Guinea, on Indonesia, on the ASEAN countries of our region. I've been in constant contact with leaders across particularly our part of the world and all of them are incredibly, incredibly appreciative of the strong role Australia has played, particularly here in our region. Now, we're very concerned about what's happening in Papua New Guinea with COVID. But when you look across the rest of the Pacific family, they are not seeing, they are not seeing the infiltration of COVID like we're seeing in many other parts of the world. And that is in significant part because of the ongoing support that we're providing.
GILBERT: Hopefully that continues.
PRIME MINISTER: I certainly hope so.
GILBERT: I very much appreciate your time. Thanks.
PRIME MINISTER: Thanks a lot, Kieran.
Interview with Karl Stefanovic, Today Show
12 May 2021
KARL STEFANOVIC: PM, good morning to you.
PRIME MINISTER: Good morning, Karl.
STEFANOVIC: You must be pretty pleased with the reaction. The only thing missing was the steak knives.
PRIME MINISTER: What's important is to understand there is a pandemic raging and this is our second pandemic Budget and what the Budget is is a plan to secure Australia's recovery. That recovery can't be taken for granted, Karl. As you know Australians, we are living in this country like virtually nowhere else in the world and that has been hard won and we need to ensure we continue to hold on to these gains and we build on them. What we're doing is working, more people in work today than there was before the pandemic, and we have avoided the absolute terrible tragedy that we have seen in so many other parts of the world. You know, if we had the average of what OECD countries, countries like ours, experienced with the fatality rate from COVID, more than 30,000 Australians would have perished during this crisis. So Australians have achieved a lot, but this Budget is about the plan to secure that recovery because, as we have seen in Europe, they're going into a double-dip recession. We need to avoid that outcome, we need to keep doing what is working and keep pressing ahead.
STEFANOVIC: It was Gough Whitlamesque though, wasn't it?
PRIME MINISTER: It's about a pandemic, that is what it is about. In a pandemic you have to do what you need to do to save lives and save livelihoods. That's what it is about. That is the enemy here. That is the opposition I'm focussed on. It's the pandemic. Because that is what will rob Australians of their health, it’s what will rob Australians of their jobs and livelihoods and what we're achieving here as Australians together is quite unique and this Budget is about continuing to secure that because it is the Federal Government that needs to step up in these circumstances and lean in to ensure that we can provide Australians with that security and that confidence which we are seeing.
STEFANOVIC: You went especially hard at Labor and accused them of spending like drunken sailors during the global financial crisis. Your Government has a record debt almost five times that size. It is hard to imagine a Budget further from the Coalition heartland.
PRIME MINISTER: 30 times worse, that's what this pandemic is compared to the global financial crisis, Karl. When you're faced looking into the abyss as we were this time last year, when we launched JobKeeper just over a year ago and put it into place, the biggest single intervention we have seen from a government, that together backed Australians to get where we are now and there's a long way still to go, I just don't think the situations are comparable. In a pandemic there is no politics, there is just a virus that is looking to take your health and to take your livelihood and this Budget is a plan to ensure we secure that recovery that has been so hard fought for in this country and I'm going to make sure that we keep it. I'm going to make sure we keep making those gains. So last night we did what we had to do to secure that recovery.
STEFANOVIC: You're not at all worried about the size and magnitude of that debt?
PRIME MINISTER: Of course I am, Karl, but I don't do it lightly and it's why we did the hard work before the pandemic to get the Budget back into balance so we could respond in the way we have. This pandemic is 30 times worse globally, economically, than the global financial crisis. That is how serious it is and it is still raging now. Just because we can put 100,000 people at the G in Melbourne for a football game does not mean this is over. We are seeing it already having ravaged the developed world and now it is ravaging the developing world. As we were talking about last week when I was up in Rockhampton, this virus is not over and Australians, we can't be complacent, the Government is not being complacent, this budget shows we are not being complacent because we are not being complacent because we are continuing to lean in, to protect lives and to protect livelihoods to ensure that we can maintain the gains and keep surging forward doing what works.
STEFANOVIC: But your party, Coalition, prides itself on being economically more conservative. When will you deliver a surplus next?
PRIME MINISTER: There's not one scheduled and foreseeable within the next decade because of the significant investments we've had to take. This wasn't a choice, this is something we had to do.
STEFANOVIC: That’s a huge philosophical shift, though.
PRIME MINISTER: John Howard reminded Josh Frydenberg and I constantly... It has nothing to do with philosophy, it has to do with a pandemic, Karl. If Australia didn't take the actions, as John Howard told me himself, there's no politics or ideology in a pandemic, there is just government needing to do what we need to do to save lives and livelihoods and that's what we've done. Couldn't care less about the politics. I care a lot about people's jobs, I care a lot about their health and doing what is necessary. The only opponent I have got right now is the pandemic. That's the opponent I'm focused on. That is the fight Australia is in and as Australia's Prime Minister, that is the fight I'm focused on.
STEFANOVIC: You do care about being re-elected though again. You've left $10 billion for an election splash.
PRIME MINISTER: No, what we've done is kept things in reserve over the course of the balance of this year to keep fighting this pandemic. That's what we're doing, Karl. That's what we're doing. See, Australians like me, we're focused on ensuring we come through this. Nothing else matters. The thing that matters is family's jobs, family's health and, in particular, in this Budget, focusing on important needs they have in mental health and aged care and disability services. But none of that can be funded unless you continue to strengthen your economy and this Budget leans in to strengthening the economy with focus on skills, on manufacturing, on innovation, on the digital economy, on infrastructure, lower taxes, tax incentives for people to invest in their businesses and keep people employed. The reason the Budget is $50 billion better than it was when we were here in October of last year is because more Australians are in work today than we'd anticipated. Since the last Budget, half a million Australians have got back into jobs. From December of last year, there's 200,000 more jobs than we anticipated even at that time. What we're doing is working and that's why we need to secure the recovery with this plan to ensure that we can keep forging ahead and maintaining and extending on what we've gained in the country.
STEFANOVIC: Vaccinations are important and that has been slow. Quarantine is a huge issue with state governments crying for help yet there is no funding for federal facilities. We have flights arriving from India at week's end. You don't think we need those facilities up and running?
PRIME MINISTER: We do have federal facilities. We have got half a billion dollars in federal facilities which we have expanded from 850 capacity to 2,000 this month in Darwin which is where we are bringing those repatriation flights. So we are doing that and we are working with the Victorian Government on what I think is a very comprehensive proposal there as well. So no, I don't accept we are not funding those and I don't accept we are not acting on those and I don't accept we are not working with the states and territories because we are doing all three things.
STEFANOVIC: We have had more breaches in hotel quarantine. I think people want to see more done in that regard.
PRIME MINISTER: That's why we're working with the Victorian Government, that is why we have upgraded the facility at Howard Springs. But let me remind people when it comes to quarantine, that is only one ring of containment. It doesn't matter where the facility is or who is running it, there will be breaches in quarantine. Our quarantine system has a 99.99 per cent effectiveness rate, with Howard Springs it's 100 per cent. But it's the containment beyond that, the testing and the tracing. That is where NSW in particular has been so successful, but so have other states, Queensland, Western Australia and I believe we will see the same thing in Victoria now as their systems have improved greatly from when we had the second wave. We need to keep COVID out of the country as much as we possibly can because that is also supporting our economic recovery. The borders for now, of course they have to remain closed. The pandemic is raging around the world. The idea that we could open Australia up in that environment is not responsible, it's not sensible. But you made a point earlier about responsible decisions, Karl. We put JobKeeper in and we also decided to take JobKeeper off. Now, that was a decision that was criticised by our opponents, by others who said it should stay in, but we knew you put the measure in place, it's targeted, proportionate, you have a clear exit strategy and that is how we are running the finances, even in the midst of what has been a very big Budget, we also know how to that responsibly and in a very targeted way.
STEFANOVIC: It is a very big Budget. Josh Frydenberg had a very big smile on his face this morning. I thought you might be happier this morning, PM. Everything Ok?
PRIME MINISTER: I'm fine, mate. I appreciate the care and concern. I've got to tell you, Karl, the reason is this. I know, look, budgets are big events and that's all fine, but I just know the fight we're in and the fight we're in, and me as Prime Minister I'm in, is to be protecting Australians at this incredibly difficult time. I am very cognisant of how big those challenges are. It is with me every second of every day. That's where my focus Australians can be assured of will remain. Every single day I'm going to fight this virus to protect lives and livelihoods.
STEFANOVIC: And that's why you won't go to an early election?
PRIME MINISTER: The election is next year, mate. The election is next year. I've said that. I can't control every circumstance in Australian politics, but what I can do is stay focused on the fight that matters and that's the pandemic and securing health and livelihoods of Australians.
STEFANOVIC: Thanks, PM. Appreciate your time today.
PRIME MINISTER: Thanks, Karl.
Interview with Michael Rowland, ABC News Breakfast
12 May 2021
Michael Rowland: We are now joined by the Prime Minister Scott Morrison. PM, good morning.
Prime Minister: Good morning, Michael.
Rowland: Spending is far as the eye can see. Is this Budget part economic recovery and part attempted political recovery for the Coalition government?
Prime Minister: This is an economic plan to secure our recovery, Michael. That's what this is. This is all about ensuring that we come through the worst pandemic we've seen in 100 years and that recovery cannot be taken for granted. There are more Australians working today then there was before the pandemic. If we had the same fatality rate that we have seen across the OECD from COVID-19, 30,000 more Australians would have perished during this crisis. We've come a long way, but we have to keep going further. This Budget is about securing that recovery, because it can be risked, it can be lost, the gains can be taken away. Just like we’ve seen in Europe as they go into a double dip recession. We need to keep going on the path that we have set ourselves. Over $300 billion already invested in this plan and that has been upgraded in the Budget we released last night. That is about securing jobs, protecting lives, about protecting livelihoods.
Rowland: When you speak about risk, the big risk, of course, is the ongoing pandemic. Let's turn to the vaccine rollout. The Government committing an extra $1.9 billion. You talk in the Budget Papers about having a population-wide vaccine rollout in place by the end of the year. Does that mean every Australian will be fully vaccinated come December 31?
Prime Minister: No. There are assumptions that go to the rollout. They are not policy settings. We will continue to roll the vaccine out, as we have been, and accelerating it. From next week we will see over 50s being able to go to GP clinics all around the country, to our GPs. We will soon hit 3 million Australians vaccinated. We're already over 10 per cent of the adult population that is eligible for the vaccination. Over 30 per cent for those aged over 70. We will continue to do everything we possibly can to ensure we're progressing that vaccination program. But, more importantly, when it comes to our economy, the reason our economy has been able to perform strongly is when we shut those borders, we have allowed our domestic economy to continue to grow. That is what is driving or jobs growth. So it is important we secure Australia from the incursion of COVID-19 into the country and it is important we keep Australia within our borders open as possible, because it's those closures internally that can really risk Australia's economic recovery. And so we need to keep creating that confidence, keep providing that support. Australians have done incredibly well during the course of this pandemic. We need to keep going, we need to keep going further and this plan for our recovery will ensure that we stay on that course.
Rowland: Prime Minister, Melbourne is on edge, as you would know this morning, care of that case of community transmission. I know you talk about hotel quarantine being 99.99 per cent effective. This came from hotel quarantine in South Australia. Isn't it time and shouldn’t it have been time last night for the Government to at least commit to what the Victorian government is proposing to do, and that is build a separate Howard Springs-type purpose-built facility? Where was the money for that?
Prime Minister: Well, as you say, we've already invested in the Howard Springs facility. Half a billion dollars. This month it goes from 850 to 2,000 people, which will enable us to be particularly bringing those commercial repatriation flights for people coming back from India. The Victorian government has put forward, I think, a very good proposal and we're working through the detail of that right now. And so we will work with the states and territories. Hotel quarantine is one of many links in the chain and what we have seen, whether it's been in New South Wales, indeed, Western Australia, Queensland, and now I believe what we will see in Victoria, it's not just hotel quarantine, which as you rightly say, 99.99 per cent effectiveness rate. If there any other country that has a more secure system than that, I would like you to tell me who it is. But beyond that, it is the ring of containment that is by contact tracing. The Victorian second wave was not just a product of obviously a quarantine failure, it was the product then of not being able to contain it once it got out. Now, all the other states and territories, and I think Victoria, has done the work to ensure that even when the things occasionally happen, and they will, that we can move quickly to ensure that that is contained. And that's how we have been so successful. I have seen the states and territories only improve their effectiveness on that tracing and testing, which ensures that we can keep Australians safe through COVID.
Rowland: You can increase Howard Springs, though, to 3,000. That's the maximum capacity. It is only up to 2,000. What is stopping you doing that?
Prime Minister: It is also used for other purposes. But we have got it from 850 to 2,000, Michael. And that's also a function of-
Rowland: What are the purposes, excuse the interruption. What other purposes is it being used for at the moment?
Prime Minister: It has been used for other purposes. My point is it is also about workforce, Michael. I mean, a quarantine facility isn't just beds. It's actually about the workforce you have to bring to support that and the facilities that need to be supported through infection control and support services of police and others. So they are the things that need to be brought to bear in a quarantine facility. And those are particularly involved around our major state capitals, where the flights actually come in. That's why it's important that we continue to work with the state and territories, so we have got a 2,000-bed facility. We're spending half a billion dollars on that, as it was recommended to do in the Halton Review. Now we're working closely with the Victorian proposal and we will see how we can work together on that initiative.
Rowland: Lots of potential election sweeteners in the Budget, but you are on record, Prime Minister, of describing yourself as a full-termer, full term means an election not until next year. Will you hold on to that pledge to the Australian people?
Prime Minister: The fight I'm in is against the pandemic. That's the fight I'm in. That's what we're contesting this year and I believe we will be for some time to come. It's the pandemic, it's the virus that threatens people's jobs and livelihoods and, indeed, their health. So, the only fight I'm focused on, the contest I'm focused on, is fighting this pandemic to ensure we can protect the lives and livelihoods of Australians. I will leave the politics to others. As I’ve said, the election is next year. I can't foresee all the circumstances that can contribute to things like that in this country. But my focus isn't on that. My focus is on this pandemic. That's why this is a recovery plan to get us through this pandemic and get us beyond that. Australia is doing better than almost every single country in the world and that can all be placed at risk, unless we continue down that path, going further, ensuring we're doing the things that back Australians in. Because it's Australians, their efforts, their sacrifices, them keeping Australians in jobs, just backed in by the Budget. Lower taxes, incentives for investment, supporting our manufacturing industries, securing supply chains, building the infrastructure, investing in the skills and training with more apprentices. All these things designed to drive growth in our economy, to ensure that we can continue to keep Australians safe, that we can keep Australians in jobs and in work, and we can improve the resilience and security of our country into the future.
Rowland: Prime Minister, we will leave it there. Thank you for joining us this morning.
Prime Minister: Thank you very much, Michael.
Interview with David Koch, Sunrise
12 May 2021
David Koch: Prime Minister, morning to you. Seems to be universally accepted. Are you happy with the reaction?
Prime Minister: Well what's important, David, is that we’re in the middle of a pandemic, we’re still in the middle of this pandemic. This is our second pandemic Budget and this Budget is all about securing that economic recovery from that pandemic. I mean, Europe’s going into a double-dip recession, there are 800,000 cases a day, and we need as a Government to keep leaning in to ensure that the Australian economy comes through, we keep people in jobs and we put more people in jobs, because the more people there are in jobs, the more we’re able to support the economy and the Budget which is guaranteeing those essential services, whether it’s aged care, mental health or so many other things that Australians rely on. We’ve done very well as a country. We’re backing Australians in to get those results that we’ve been able to achieve through the pandemic, but we’ve got a long way to go, and it can all be lost unless we continue to do what works and we go further.
Koch: And I know we need to create jobs, but you talk to a lot of businesses and they say we just can't find the people to hire. Job vacancy rates are at record highs. Where are all the workers going to come from?
Prime Minister: Well this is why there's so much investment in skills training and apprenticeships, additional places in university, all of this to ensure that we deal with those workforce challenges. You’re absolutely right, the three big challenges we’re facing in our economy is getting that workforce, embracing the digital economy, which is changing the world, having reliable, affordable energy there to support businesses, particularly in manufacturing. The economic plan that is in this Budget to secure that recovery is about supporting those businesses, supporting innovation. There’s a new patent box which is there for research and development to see new inventions come through our manufacturing sector. Critical supply chains in areas like medicines and so on, to ensure that in the future we can always produce what we need to produce here in this country to deal with any situation that arises. So it is a plan to secure this recovery. We can't take our recovery for granted. There are more people working today than there was than when the pandemic hit. There’s no other major advanced economy in the world today that can say that. Australians have achieved that and this plan is backing those Australians in by investing in them being in jobs, investing in them investing in their businesses, because that is the way you grow your economy to support the services that Australians rely on.
Koch: The opposition leader told us just before the 7 o'clock news that there’s $3.8 billion unaccounted for in this Budget that you've squirrelled away in what he calls slush funds, because this is an election Budget. Is he right?
Prime Minister: No. The only opposition I'm focused on at the moment is the pandemic, that's what I'm fighting. Because it’s the pandemic that threatens people's health and threatens people’s jobs. And that’s why this is a pandemic to combat that. I’ll let others focus on the politics. As Prime Minister, I have to lead the country through this pandemic, and that’s the opposition that can take away things from people in this country - their health, their jobs, their economic security. So this Budget is very focused on addressing that pandemic. That plan now is over $300 billion, keeping Australians in work, protecting lives and protecting livelihoods. We’ve done well up to this point as Australians, and with Government supporting Australians. We see Australians as the answer as to how we come through this pandemic and we’re backing them in with investment incentives, with lower taxes, with health services that support them get through this very difficult time. That’s the opposition, that's the challenge, that's who I’m fighting. I’ll let the Labor Party fight amongst themselves.
Koch: Okay, a couple of things to hone in on the child care initiative. Why is it only starting in July next year? Why not, why not July this year? Why wait a year?
Prime Minister: Because of the changes you need to make to the systems in order, to be able to make the payments to people. Now if that can be done sooner David, then we will certainly, we will certainly move on that. When I was previously the Minister for Social Services and we were responsible for those changes many years ago. The systems changes that are required are quite complex, so we're not going to overpromise and underdeliver here. If it's possible to do these things earlier then we will certainly look at that. But right now what I can tell you is we can start it on that day, that is the date when our department says that we can get those changes in place. If we could do it sooner, we would. But right now that is the advice we have, and we’ve been following that expert ...
Koch: Seems a long time, 15 months, to get systems up and going.
Prime Minister: Well I can tell you, these systems have, you're dealing with millions of, millions of people around the country that use these systems and operators. And as a result, you know, we will work night and day to ensure we can do this as soon as possible. But what I can tell Australians in this Budget is that when it can be delivered by, and if it can be done sooner than that, then we will.
Koch: Okay, we’ll keep following that up. One point, almost $2 billion in funding for the vaccine rollout. Is there any funding for, for more quarantine places that people can go to? More Howard Springs equivalent, or is it just all to get vaccine?
Prime Minister: Well as you know we’ve put a half a billion dollars into the resilience facility up there in Howard Springs, and that’s got a capacity of 2,000. We’ve just gone from 850 last month, and in this month we’ll get to 2,000. Now, there’s a very good proposal that has come forward from the Victorian Government and we’re looking at that very closely, and I thank them for what is a very comprehensive proposal. And in that proposal they make it very clear that the state would run these type, this facility because they have the workforce and they have the systems, as they do right across all states and territories. But I’ll keep working closely with all the states and territories on those issues, their state public health orders they’re enforcing there, but as we say, we've put the, we’ve put the half a billion dollars into that facility in Howard Springs. When it comes to the vaccine itself, that’s some $7 billion we’re investing in that rollout. So we’re sharing these costs, but when it comes to what the Commonwealth has done through the pandemic, add everything up, everything the states and territories have done, double it, go more, and that's what the Commonwealth has invested to get us where we are today. You know David, if we had the average fatality rate of the OECD countries in the world today, more than 30,000 Australians additionally would have perished as a result of this pandemic. That's what Australians have prevented from happening, and with more Australians in work today than before the pandemic, I’d rather be in this country than anywhere else in the world. I'm so proud of what Australians have achieved.
Koch: Yep, absolutely. I think we all are. Look, the other big criticism of the Budget is you’ve splashed the cash, you put it on the credit card, because Government debt is, on my calculations, going to rise by 50 per cent, mind you the interest payments will only rise 18 per cent. What do you say to people saying, `look, we’re just going into hock with all of this’?
Prime Minister: We’re in the middle of the worst pandemic we’ve seen in 100 years. The worst economic crisis we’ve seen around the world since the Great Depression, and we’re rebuilding the country through this pandemic and onto the other side of it. That’s what’s necessary in this environment. This is a, this is a pandemic Budget to address the times that we have, and it is true, as the Reserve Bank Governor and others have said, borrowing costs are low at the moment and so Australians need their Government to lean in at this time. Monetary policies basically spent. We don’t have population growth because we need to keep our borders closed to keep Australians safe. And as a result, it still remains the task of the Federal Government to be there. But we’re responsible about it. Just remember what we did with JobKeeper - we knew when to bring it in and we knew when to take it off. That was a responsible economic decision. Others wanted just to see it run on forever. We knew that wasn't the responsible thing to do. So we will do the things that are absolutely necessary to get Australians through this crisis, and the way we do that is with the plan that backs them in. This is a plan for economic recovery and it can all be lost unless we keep doing what is working and we keep our focus and determination to keep bringing Australians through what is the worst pandemic we’ve seen in a century.
Koch: Alright, Prime Minister, thanks for your time.
Prime Minister: Thanks a lot, David.
Interview with Sabra Lane, ABC AM
12 May 2021
Prime Minister: Good morning, Sabra.
Sabra Lane: This Budget is banking on everyone who wants a COVID vaccine getting one by the end of the year. So is the Government now guaranteeing that deadline?
Prime Minister: No, there's assumptions in the Budget. But as we've said repeatedly, we're working hard to get that first dose to all Australians as soon as possible. And when we're able to get a further understanding of how this will play out, well, we are updating people every day on how we're progressing the vaccine. We’ll hit around about three million people having been vaccinated soon. We've already got over 10 per cent of the eligible adult population that is vaccinated and a third of those aged over 70. So we'll keep progressing through that. But what is going to guarantee what's in this Budget is Australians continue to getting in jobs. That's what is actually sitting behind this Budget, backing Australians to get people into jobs and to get the businesses to be investing in this country. That's what this Budget is relying on.
Lane: We'll dig into more of that shortly. But if that deadline is not met, or people continue to hesitate about getting the vaccine, will that undermine Australia's economic recovery?
Prime Minister: No. I think what we will see, though, Sabra, is that we'll continue to make progress with the vaccination program. I mean, what we're seeing at the moment, and you're right to point out that this is a pandemic Budget. We are in the midst of a raging pandemic and all the health measures that we're putting in place to support the health of Australians are critical to our success. But the real issue that is keeping Australia's economy moving ahead in the way it is at the moment is we are not allowing the virus to come into this country. I mean, that is what has ensured that over the past 18 months we've been more successful than almost any other developed country in the world. I mean, Europe is going into a double dip recession. The strength of the jobs growth we've seen has become about by protecting Australia from the incursion of the virus into this country and border protection and keeping our borders closed has been critical to that.
Lane: There’s $68 billion in new government spending, much of that is on aged care and mental health and tax cuts. When will you explain to taxpayers how some of this debt’s going to be paid off?
Prime Minister: Well, what we see at the moment is the Reserve Bank Governor has advised for a long time with borrowing rates where they are at the moment it gives the Government the opportunity to step in to ensure that during the pandemic we can keep our economy whole, keep doing what's working, ensuring that more Australians are getting into work. Let's not forget that there's 500,000 people more employed than they were when we did the Budget just in October of last year. And there are 200,000 more employed than we thought would be the case at the end- in December of last year. I mean, we have more people employed now, 13.1 million Australians employed today, than they were before when the pandemic hit in March of last year. There are few developed economies in the world, Sabra, that can actually say they're in that position. So getting people in jobs, Sabra, is what restores the Budget because people go from taking support payments to paying taxes. That's how we brought the Budget back to balance before we went into the pandemic.
Lane: But to the point of the question, when and how will you explain to taxpayers how that debt will be paid off?
Prime Minister: Well, I was just doing that, Sabra. What we're doing is we're growing the economy by getting Australians to invest, by getting Australians into jobs. The way you actually support a Budget is by ensuring that there are taxpayers in the economy. You don't have taxpayers if you don't have people in jobs. And that's why this Budget has to focus in the middle of a pandemic, when monetary policy is basically spent, when you've got global borders shut because of the raging pandemic all around the world, which is worse today than it was a year ago. So the suggestion, the suggestion that somehow you might open up to that raging pandemic now, I think would be one of the worst things you could do for our economy. And so we have to continue to strengthen our economy. I mean, we've seen the results of what we've done to date and we need to go further and that's what we are doing in this Budget to ensure we get more Australians into work. That's why this Budget is so focused on getting people in jobs.
Lane: On aged care, the past is a good indication of future performance. The Government has struggled to meet demand for aged care home packages and now you're promising 80,000 new packages during the next two financial years. How will you make sure those are actually delivered, including appropriately qualified staff to care for older Australians?
Prime Minister: Well, I think that is one of the great challenges, and that's what was highlighted in the Royal Commission. And we've always understood, that's why at every single Budget update for years now, we've added more and more and more in-home care places.
Lane: Sure, but how will you guarantee it? You’ve struggled to meet that.
Prime Minister: By investing in the… we’ve been adding an additional 1,000 places every week now for months. And we've been doing that because we've been supporting it with the funding that ensures this can be delivered. But a huge part of the aged care package is continuing investing in creating the workforce, some 30,000, 30,000 skilled places to get the workforce we need. Now, our response to the Aged Care Royal Commission, I think is a responsible one. It's over five years and it's understood that the scale of change that we're doing, you cannot do overnight. The system won't cope with it. And you can put people at real risk. Our focus here is very important that Australians can age with dignity and respect. That's what these changes are designed to achieve. And the governance reforms, how the funding is delivered, the oversight that is there for the condition and all of those measures are there to back in what is an enormous investment to really start improving a system that has taken 30 years, 30 years. That's what the Royal Commission was talking about. The problems we're dealing with go back a long time and many governments have wrestled with this and we're certainly addressing ourselves to this so Australians can age with dignity and respect.
Lane: And the Government is talking about beefing up governance of the sector. What will happen to the providers who fail to meet new standards?
Prime Minister: Well, the same thing that has happened for those as the Commissioner has brought down reports and ultimately, they could lose their ability to operate in the sector. But what we've been focusing on in this Budget-
Lane: But that just hasn’t happened in the past, Prime Minister.
Prime Minister: No, it has actually, Sabra, it has. But what is important is that we focus on ensuring we've got a viable-
Lane: Sorry, Prime Minister, we’ve had inquiry after inquiry. Australia got into this position where the Royal Commission found that there was a situation of neglect in the sector. That didn't happen.
Prime Minister: It is the case that on many occasions the sanctions that have been handed down by the Commission and acted upon it resulted in very serious sanctions to operators. That is true. But what we're doing is beefing up the capacity for the cop on the beat in this sector to be able to do their job. I don't deny that there aren’t serious problems here, Sabra, I think there are very serious problems. That's why I called the Royal Commission and that's why we've responded with $17.7 billion to ensure that we can address the quality issues, the training issues, the workforce issues, the governance issues, to ensure that with the care issues, the 200 minutes a day for each and every resident, of the home care places to give people choices. I said in the Parliament yesterday that our population aged over 65 has grown since we first came to government by just under a quarter. The real increase in funding, even just to now without these changes, is over 50 per cent. It's almost 200 per cent when it comes to what we put into in-home aged care places. So the challenge is huge. That is true. The demand has been great, but our funding and support into the sector has been increasing well above the growth in the population that depends on these services for many years.
Lane: The suicide prevention goal is zero. When do you want to achieve that by?
Prime Minister: Well, I think this is a goal that all Australians would want to achieve and we know how difficult it is and you can have no other goal than that, Sabra. You can have no other goal than that. We're realistic about the nature of this challenge. But how can you have a policy in this area where that is not what you're trying to achieve with any country. Whether any government, whether any society can achieve that, I think is incredibly difficult. But I can tell you, that's the goal that we should have as a country that does not want to see Australians die by suicide.
Lane: A billion dollars has been set aside for frontline services to help victims of family violence. That's over four years. Those agencies argue that there's a need for that kind of money each year. If you hear at the July summit that this money is not enough, will you commit to reviewing that?
Prime Minister: Well, you're right to say that the national plan that we've been involved with, going back to- it was first initiated by Julia Gillard, has seen states and territories work together with the Commonwealth to deliver these services to. Our Government has put a billion-
Lane: And the point of the question, sorry, Prime Minister.
Prime Minister: I'm getting to that, Sabra. We’ve put a billion dollars into that plan already, and last night we've doubled that. So we've gone for a billion dollars and up until now and we're putting in another billion dollars on top of that. So when we get together with the states and territories and fashion the next agenda on women's safety, then we've already put a lot there on the table. But we will always work in a bipartisan way with the states and territories to make sure we're addressing the issue of women's safety and children's safety, too, I would stress. And so we've demonstrated our ability to do that and meet the challenges that are there and to respond to the need that is there. Whether it's helping women go through the justice system or migrant or refugee women who can be terrible victims of violence and coercion and abuse, that's what this package deals with. And we will work with the states and territories to address the need, as the Commonwealth Government always has with the states and territories. No politics there, shouldn't be. This is about the safety of women and indeed of children.
Lane: Prime Minister, we're out of time. Thank you.
Prime Minister: Thanks a lot, Sabra. Thanks for your time.
A New National Strategy to Prevent Child Sexual Abuse
11 May 2021
Prime Minister, Assistant Minister to the Prime Minister and Cabinet
The Commonwealth Government will provide $146 million over four years for the first phase of a new National Strategy to Prevent Child Sexual Abuse.
The Strategy will be a 10 year, whole-of-nation framework to establish a coordinated and consistent approach to prevent and better respond to child sexual abuse in Australia.
“Every child deserves safety and protection and today’s new measures will prevent, detect and respond to child sexual abuse committed within Australia, online, and by Australians overseas,” the Prime Minister said.
Assistant Minister to the Prime Minister and Cabinet, Ben Morton, said measures being announced today will lay the foundation for the landmark new National Strategy, which will be released in full in September 2021.
“The Commonwealth has a leadership and coordination role in tackling child sexual abuse, and many of these measures address our responsibilities under the Commonwealth Criminal Code,” Assistant Minister Morton said.
“These measures will deliver on commitments made in response to the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse.
“Any sexual crime against a child is one too many, and this National Strategy aims to deliver ambitious and world-leading measures to prevent all forms of child sexual abuse.”
The National Strategy will complement and align with other national policy frameworks, such as the current and future National Plans to Reduce Violence against Women and their Children, and Closing the Gap.
Key initiatives include:
$59.9. million worth of initiatives to be delivered by the Australian Federal Police to combat child sexual abuse, including an additional $35.4 million for new frontline operational activities to keep our children safe.
$13.9 million to bolster the capabilities of AUSTRAC, the Australian Institute of Criminology, the Australian Border Force, the Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission, and the Department of Home Affairs to equip intelligence, research and border protection agencies to disrupt the cash flow behind child sexual abuse, prevent and disrupt livestreamed child sexual abuse, intercept material and offenders at the border, and enhance our ability to identify offenders within the community.
$4.1 million for the Department of Home Affairs to work with Indo-Pacific partners on regional policy and legislative responses to child sexual abuse.
$2.95 million to help the Department of Home Affairs build relationships with the digital industry to drive a coordinated and collaborative charge against offenders’ exploitation of online platforms to commit child sexual abuse related crimes.
$24.1 million to strengthen Commonwealth capacity to prosecute perpetrators of child sexual abuse.
$16.8 million for the Attorney-General’s Department to enhance and expand legal assistance concerning child sexual abuse.
$10.9 million for the National Indigenous Australians Agency to co-design place-based Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander healing approaches to support survivors of child sexual abuse.
$4.7 million for Sport Integrity Australia to enhance child safeguarding in sport.
$3.0 million to the eSafety Commissioner to deliver targeted online education programs to support parents and families to prevent online harms to children.
$5 million to expand the National Office for Child Safety’s national leadership role to deliver the National Strategy to Prevent Child Sexual Abuse.
Further announcements will be made with the full National Strategy, including additional measures to be jointly delivered by the Commonwealth and its state and territory partners.
The Australian Government is working with states and territories as well as non-government stakeholders to finalise the National Strategy for release in September 2021. For more information, visit: National Office for Child Safety.
$17.7 Billion to Deliver Once in a Generation Change to Aged Care in Australia
11 May 2021
Prime Minister, Minister for Health and Aged Care, Minister for Senior Australians and Aged Care Services
In response to the final report of the Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety, the Morrison Government will deliver a $17.7 billion package of support and a once in a generation reform to aged care to deliver respect, care and dignity to our senior Australians.
Senior Australians built our nation. They are our parents and grandparents, our founders and protectors, and they have contributed so much to our Australian communities.
It is our duty and responsibility to give every Australian the care they need in their later years.
This investment of an additional $17.7 billion will deliver generational change with improved quality care, increased viability in the sector with services respecting the needs and choices of senior Australians. It is also the largest investment in aged care.
We welcome the final report of the Royal Commission and have founded our response on the principles of respect, care and dignity.
The Morrison Government is, therefore, responding to the Royal Commission with its five year – five pillar aged care reform plan addressing:
Home care – at home support and care based on assessed needs
Residential aged care services and sustainability – improving service suitability that ensures individual care needs and preferences are met
Residential aged care quality and safety – improving access to and quality of residential care
Workforce – growing a bigger, more highly skilled, caring and values based workforce; and
Governance – new legislation and stronger governance
The Government thanks Commissioners, the Hon Tony Pagone QC, Lynelle Briggs AO and the late Hon Richard Tracey AM RFD QC, for their efforts delivering one of the most important documents in the history of aged care in Australia.
In responding to the 148 recommendations, of which 123 were joint, and 25 were specific to the individual Commissioners requiring a decision by Government, the Morrison Government has accepted or accepted in principle 126 recommendations. In addition, the Government supports instead an alternative on four of the recommendations. Twelve recommendations were subject to further consideration or noted in the government response. Six were not accepted, including four which note the discordant views of the Commissioners.
The key elements of the Morrison Government’s response include:
Pillar 1 of the Royal Commission Response - Home Care: $7.5 billion towards supporting senior Australians who choose to remain in their home, including:
$6.5 billion for an additional 80,000 Home Care Packages – 40,000 released in 2021–22 and 40,000 in 2022–23, which will make a total of 275,598 packages available to senior Australians by June 2023
$10.8 million to design and plan a new support in home care program which better meets the needs of senior Australians
$798.3 million to support the 1.6 million informal carers, including additional respite services for 8,400 senior Australians each year, and
$272.5 million for enhanced support and face-to-face services to assist senior Australians accessing and navigating the aged care system.
Pillar 2 of the Royal Commission Response – Residential aged care services and sustainability: $7.8 billion towards improving and simplifying residential aged care services and to ensure senior Australians can access value for money services, including:
$3.9 billion to increase the amount of front line care (care minutes) delivered to residents of aged care and respite services, mandated at 200 minutes per day, including 40 minutes with a registered nurse
$3.2 billion to support aged care providers to deliver better care and services, including food through a new Government-funded Basic Daily Fee Supplement of $10 per resident per day
$102.1 million to assign residential aged care places directly to senior Australians, and to support providers to adjust to a more competitive market
$49.1 million to expand the Independent Hospital Pricing Authority to help ensure that aged care costs are directly related to the care provided
$189.3 million for a new Australian National Aged Care Classification to deliver a fairer and more sustainable funding arrangements, and
$5.5 million to reform residential aged care design and planning to better meet the needs of senior Australians, particularly those living with dementia.
Pillar 3 of the Royal Commission Response – Residential aged care quality and safety: $942 million to drive systemic improvements to residential aged care quality and safety, including:
$365.7 million to improve access to primary care for senior Australians, including the transition of senior Australians between aged care and health care setting and improved medication management
$262.5 million to ensure the independent regulator, the Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission (ACQSC), is well equipped to safeguard the quality, safety and integrity of aged care services and can effectively address failures in care
$7.3 million for additional resources to build capacity within residential aged care for the care of senior Australians living with dementia
$67.5 million for the Dementia Behaviour Management Advisory Service and the Severe Behaviour Response Teams to further reduce reliance on physical and chemical restraint (restrictive practices), and
$200.1 million to introduce a new star rating system to highlight the quality of aged care services, better informing senior Australians, their families and carers, including
$94.0 million to expand independent advocacy to support greater choice and quality safeguards for senior Australians.
Pillar 4 of the Royal Commission Response – Workforce: $652.1 million to grow a skilled, professional and compassionate aged care workforce, which will be the powerhouse of the Government’s reform agenda, including:
upskilling the existing workforce and providing training for thousands of new aged care workers, including 33,800 subsidised Vocational Education and Training places through JobTrainer.
$228.2 million to create a single assessment workforce to undertake all assessments that will improve and simplify the assessment experience for senior Australians as they enter or progress within the aged care system
$135.6 million to provide eligible Registered Nurses with financial support of $3,700 for full time workers, and $2,700 for part time workers, nursing scholarships and places in the Aged Care Transition to Practice Program; and
$9.8 million to extend the national recruitment campaign, to help increase the skilled and dedicated aged care workforce.
Pillar 5 of the Royal Commission Response – Governance: $698.3 million to improve the governance across the aged care system. This will embed respect, care and dignity at the heart of the system, guaranteeing better choice, high quality and safe care for senior Australians, including:
$21.1 million to establish new governance and advisory structures, including a National Aged Care Advisory Council, and a Council of Elders, and to work towards establishment of an office of the Inspector-General of Aged Care
$630.2 million to improve access to quality aged care services for consumers in regional, rural and remote areas including those with First Nations backgrounds and special needs groups
$13.4 million to improve rural and regional stewardship of aged care, with Department of Health aged care officers embedded within eight of the 31 Primary Health Network regions, and
The drafting of a new Aged Care Act to enshrine the Government’s reforms in legislation by mid-2023.
The initiatives outlined within the Morrison Government’s five pillars response will be introduced through a five year plan in response to the Royal Commission.
Phase One (2021) will see the Morrison Government focus on setting the foundations for generational change, commencing with key structural and governance change across the aged care system, building the workforce, and addressing immediate priorities across each of the five pillars:
2021
Home care
Release of 40,000 of the 80,000 additional home care packages throughout the year
Investment in home care with at home support and care based on assessed need, building towards a new support in the home model
Residential aged care services and sustainability
Supplement ($10 Basic Daily Fee) and continue Viability Supplements
Independent Pricing Authority
Begin phasing in enhanced financial and prudential oversight
Residential aged care quality and safety
Improve Quality Standards for dementia, diversity, food, nutrition
Enhanced regulatory and monitoring powers of the Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission to improve clinical standards
Additional GP services and access available for aged care residents
Workforce
Additional training places provided for new and existing aged care workers
Scholarships to attract nurses and personal care workers
Additional advocacy, dementia and palliative care training
Governance
Council of the Elders
Inspector-General of Aged Care
Funding uplift for MPS and NATSIFAC residential care
Phase Two (2022–2023), the Morrison Government will be rebuilding institutions across the sector ensuring their resolute focus on the dignity, care and respect for senior Australians.
We will develop and pass new legislation and embed regulation with a focus on high quality support for older people, which is simpler to access and better tailored to the needs of the individual. We will reform funding arrangements and make significant changes to service delivery. We will continue to enhance workforce capability, and improve the culture in aged care.
2022
Home care
Release of 40,000 additional home care packages
Residential aged care services and sustainability
Transition to AN-ACC funding model
Increase in the residential funding base
Residential aged care quality and safety
Serious Incident Response Scheme (SIRS) expanded to home and community care
Reporting of staffing hours
Enhanced financial reporting transparency
Worker screening (workforce register) and code of conduct introduced
Stage one implementation of Star Ratings
Workforce
Single assessment workforce model implemented in residential care
Financial incentive payments for registered nurses
Additional training places provided for new and existing workers, including 6,000 new personal care workers and 33,800 additional training places for personal care workers to attain a Certificate III
Governance
Procurement of Indigenous care finders
2023
Home care
Network of 500 local Care Finders in place
Single in-home care program
Residential aged care services and sustainability
Mandatory care time (200 care minutes)
Residential aged care quality and safety
National Aged Care Minimum Dataset to improve information metrics about aged care
Expanded National Mandatory Quality Indicator Program (NMQIP)
Workforce
Single assessment workforce model implemented in home care
Additional training places provided for new and existing personal care workers to attain a Certificate III
Governance
New Aged Care Act commences
Phase Three (2024–2025) will begin to realise the vision of a high-quality and safe aged care system. We will deliver an aged care system that places the needs of senior Australians at its core. Most of all, our care system will treat our senior Australians with dignity, care and respect.
2024
Home care
Expected new support at home program supports senior Australians to stay in their homes and keep connected to their communities
Residential aged care services and sustainability
Reformed residential aged care accommodation framework implemented
Discontinue the Aged Care Approvals Round process from 1 July 2024
Residential aged care quality and safety
Full implementation of Star Ratings
2025
Residential aged care services and sustainability
Young People In Residential Aged Care targets met – no people under 65 living in residential aged care (Dec 2025)
Governance
Strong and effective governance of aged care is in place with senior Australians at the center and improved care outcomes consistently delivered.
Historic $2.3 billion National Mental Health and Suicide Prevention Plan
11 May 2021
Prime Minister, Minister for Health and Aged Care, Assistant Minister to the Prime Minister for Mental Health and Suicide Prevention
The Morrison Government is continuing to guarantee essential services by investing $2.3 billion in the National Mental Health and Suicide Prevention Plan to lead landmark reform in mental health support and treatment for Australians in need.
Based on the principles of Prevention, Compassion and Care, the Plan will invest $1.4 billion in high quality and person-centred treatment, which includes the development of a national network of mental health treatment centres for adults, youth and children through the Head to Health and headspace programs.
Mental health and suicide prevention are key priorities for the Morrison Government in keeping Australians safe and a central feature of Australia’s Long-Term National Health Plan.
Every year more than 3,000 people lose their lives to suicide, and suicide remains the leading cause of death for Australians between the ages of 15–44 years.
In addition, one in five Australians experience some form of chronic or episodic mental illness each year. The personal toll on the lives of individuals and their families and carers is immense, and also has a profound effect on our society, health and social systems, and economy.
The Morrison Government is committed to working towards zero suicides and transforming the mental health system to ensure that all Australians can access the right care and essential services whenever and wherever they need.
We have undertaken an ambitious reform plan, recognising that Australians need a system that acts early to help people before mental health conditions and suicidal distress worsen, and that whole-of-government and whole-of-community changes are needed to deliver preventative, compassionate, and effective care.
The $2.3 billion Plan builds on the Morrison Government’s significant existing investment in mental health services for Australians throughout the 2019–20 bushfires and COVID-19 pandemic, and brings the Government’s total estimated mental health spend to $6.3 billion in 2021-22, an increase of around 90 per cent since 2012–13.
The Plan is based on 5 key pillars:
Prevention and early intervention
Suicide prevention
Treatment
Supporting the vulnerable, and
Workforce and governance.
The Plan helps set Australia up for the future by introducing landmark reforms and will transform mental health care in Australia in several fundamental ways, including by:
building a world-class Head to Health digital platform to harness the power of technology to help Australians dealing with mental health issues
ensuring that our mental health and suicide prevention system reaches places where Australians work, learn and live – not just at emergency departments and health services
enhancing mental health care in primary care by supporting our GPs, strengthening the involvement of consumers and carers, and expanding Medicare services, so that Australians can access new and innovative types of mental health care
establishing a network of multidisciplinary mental health centres for adults, young people and children through the adult and child Head to Health and youth headspace programs
embedding multidisciplinary teams, care coordination, consistent intake and assessment tools, greater data collection and continuous evaluation into the system to ensure it is joined up, easy to navigate and, most importantly, patient focused
providing every Australian who is discharged from hospital following a suicide attempt with appropriate, ongoing follow up care in the community, and
improving the efficiency of the system so that resources are invested in delivering truly person-centred care.
This $2.3 billion investment is the first phase of the response to the findings of the Productivity Commission’s (PC) Inquiry into Mental Health and the National Suicide Prevention Adviser’s (NSPA) Final Report.
The Government has accepted all of the recommendations of both reports in full, in part or in principle. The majority of these recommendations require collaboration with state and territory governments, with a number to be pursued jointly through a new National Mental Health and Suicide Prevention Agreement.
Pillar 1: Prevention and early intervention ($248.6 million)
The Government is committing $248.6 million to prevention and early intervention, guaranteeing Australians access to these essential services. Key to this is an investment of $111.2 million in digital services, including the creation of a single, world-class digital platform under Head to Health that will provide online professional counselling, peer support, clinical support and referrals.
This also includes $77.3 million to continue support for existing digital mental health services, and to provide additional funding in 2021–22 for support services that manage increased demand due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the 2019–20 summer bushfires.
$13.1 million will also be provided to support ReachOut Australia to continue delivering free and high quality digital mental health services to young Australians aged 12–25 as well as their parents, carers and schools.
Additionally, we will invest $47.4 million to support the mental health and wellbeing of new and expectant parents, including by providing $7.8 million for the Perinatal Anxiety and Depression Australia (PANDA) helpline, enhancing digital screening and data collection, and working with states and territories to achieve universal perinatal mental health screening across antenatal and postnatal care settings.
We will also fund:
$77.1 million for the National Legal Assistance Partnership to support early resolution of legal problems for those experiencing mental illness, and for mental health workers in Domestic Violence Units (DVU) and Health Justice Partnerships (HJP) to support women who have experienced family violence
This will include increased mental health funding for the existing 21 DVUs and HJPs, with additional funding to seven of these for regional and remote outreach activities.
$6.3 million to increase mental health support services for fly‑in fly-out and drive-in drive-out workers
$5.7 million to build on the Individual Placement and Support (IPS) program to assist people with mental illness to participate in the workforce. This includes trialling the extension of the program to support adults through two Head to Health adult treatments centres and piloting vocational peer support workers with lived experience of mental health whilst seeking employment in at least two headspace IPS sites, and
$0.9 million to continue the Ahead for Business digital hub, supporting small business owners to take proactive, preventive and early steps to improve their mental health.
Pillar 2: Suicide Prevention ($298.1 million)
The Government remains deeply committed to work towards zero suicides and is committing $298.1 million to do so. For the first time and in partnership with states and territories, we will fund aftercare for every Australian discharged from hospital following a suicide attempt, at a cost of $158.6 million. Aftercare services provide follow up care in the immediate months after a suicidal crisis or attempt, and support individuals to seek appropriate help when they need it most. We will also trial aftercare services for anyone who has attempted suicide or experienced suicidal distress that may not have presented to a hospital.
The Government will also fund:
$12.8 million for a National Suicide Prevention Office to oversee the national whole-of-government approach to suicide prevention
$61.6 million to expand the National Suicide Prevention Leadership and Support Program to increase investment in whole-of-population suicide prevention activities and services
$12 million to continue the delivery of local suicide prevention initiatives across Australia through the former National Suicide Prevention Trial sites
$22 million to provide, in partnership with the states and territories, national suicide postvention services which help those bereaved or impacted by suicide, including families, friends, workplaces, schools, community groups, frontline responders and witnesses, and
$31.2 million to pilot, in partnership with the states and territories, a national Distress Intervention program which will reach people in crisis earlier and provide immediate support.
Pillar 3: Treatment ($1.4 billion)
The Morrison Government will invest $1.4 billion to improve and expand accessible and effective mental health treatment for all Australians who need it, at the right stage of life.
The heart of the Government’s reform is an $820.1 million investment to create a national network of multidisciplinary mental health treatment centres based on three models:
Head to Health adult mental health treatment centres: We will improve access to community-based mental health services, including through the initial establishment of eight new centres, 24 new satellite centres, and ongoing funding for eight existing centres. We will also establish a dedicated phone service to support intake, assessment and referral, at a cost of $487.2 million
As part of this initiative, the Government will also work in partnership with state and territory governments to continue to expand the network of community-based adult mental health services.
Headspace youth treatment centres: We will continue to safeguard the wellbeing of young Australians aged 12–25 by strengthening, enhancing, and expanding the headspace network, at a cost of $278.6 million. This includes:
expanding the national headspace network by establishing ten new headspace centres and upgrading five satellite services, bringing the total number of headspace services across Australia to 164, and
working jointly with states and territories to boost clinical capacity at existing headspace services.
Head to Health Kids: In partnership with state and territory governments, the Government will create up to 15 new Head to Health Kids mental health and wellbeing centres for children aged 0–12 years. These centres will provide multidisciplinary support for infants, children and their parents, and improve early intervention outcomes for children’s mental health, at a cost of $54.2 million.
Operating under a ‘no wrong door approach’, these new services will ensure the delivery of easy to access, high quality, person-centred treatment and supports across the mental health care system in our cities, regions and rural areas, providing stigma-free and compassionate care.
They will also contribute to addressing the ‘missing middle’ service gap (the availability of services for those who are too unwell for the general primary care system but not unwell enough to require inpatient hospital services or intensive state-based community care).
The Government will also provide:
$34.2 million to support General Practitioners (GPs) in their role as a key entry point into the mental health system by expanding and implementing the Initial Assessment and Referral (IAR) tool in primary care settings
$26.9 million to provide additional support for people with eating disorders and their families, including:
$2.5 million to deliver the final phase of the workforce credentialing project to ensure access to high quality care under the Medicare eating disorders items
$1.9 million to provide training to staff in the Head to Health adult mental health treatment centres
$13 million to establish a National Eating Disorder Research Centre
$0.3 million to continue Eating Disorders Families Australia’s strive program, which provides support for families and carers of people with eating disorders, and
working in partnership with states and territories to explore opportunities to establish additional eating disorder day programs.
$288.5 million to list Repetitive Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (rTMS) therapy on the MBS for patients with medication-resistant major depressive disorder
$111.4 million to support the take up of group therapy sessions and participation of family and carers in treatment provided under the Better Access initiative
$171.3 million over two years to continue psychosocial support for people with severe mental illness who do not qualify for the NDIS. This funding is in addition to that provided under the NDIS
$42.3 million to support access to parenting education and support, to build parenting strategies and help parents to identify problem behaviours early, and
$0.5 million to develop national guidelines to support states and territories to include social and emotional wellbeing and indicators in early childhood health checks, so any emotional difficulties can be identified early and in a nationally consistent way.
Pillar 4: Supporting the vulnerable ($107 million)
The Government is committing $107 million towards supporting vulnerable groups, including:
$79 million to implement key initiatives under a renewed National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Suicide Prevention Strategy, including:
$27.3 million to implement culturally-sensitive, co-designed aftercare services through regionally-based organisations, with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander organisations being preferred service providers
$23.8 million to support the establishment of regional suicide prevention networks and a lead commissioning officer in each jurisdiction, and
$16.6 million to Gayaa Dhuwi and Lifeline to establish and evaluate a culturally-appropriate 24/7 crisis line governed and delivered by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.
$16.9 million to fund mental health early intervention supports and preventive measures for migrants and multicultural communities, and address the cultural competence of the broader health workforce through the Program of Assistance for Survivors of Torture and Trauma, and Mental Health Australia’s Embrace Framework, and
$11.1 million to improve the experience of and outcomes for people with complex mental health needs through a range of targeted initiatives, including:
funding for SANE Australia to pilot specialised mental health services and interventions for people with complex mental health needs, and
additional training and education for the mental health workforce to better meet the needs of people with cognitive disability and autism.
A number of the new adult and child mental health centres will also be established with expertise focused on providing care for particular vulnerable groups, such as LGBTIQ+ or Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander mental health, based on identified areas of need.
Pillar 5: Workforce and governance ($202 million)
The Government is committing $202 million for mental health workforce and governance measures. This will ensure the system has the capacity and capability to provide quality and compassionate care. Key measures include:
$58.8 million to grow the mental health workforce by providing:
$27.8 million to increase the number of nurses, psychologists and allied health practitioners working in mental health settings through up to 280 scholarships and 350 clinical placements
$11 million to boost the psychiatrist workforce by making available 30 additional training posts by 2023, supporting regional and remote training pathways, and promoting psychiatry as a career pathway
$8.3 million to support greater representation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in the mental health workforce through 40 additional mental health‑specific scholarships, and providing training to support healthcare workers to deliver culturally safe care
$3.1 million to boost and support the mental health peer workforce through up to 390 scholarships and opportunities for professional collaboration
$2.4 million to continue mental health training for practitioners working in aged care and support professional collaboration through the Mental Health Professionals’ Network
$1 million for initiatives to reduce the stigma associated with mental health among health practitioners, and promote mental health as a preferred career option, and
$0.3 million to identify opportunities to boost the skills of mental health professionals who work with children and families.
$15.9 million to support GPs and other medical practitioners to provide primary mental health care. This includes the provision of additional training in psychological therapies, reviewing and improving mental health training for medical practitioners, developing a nationally recognised Diploma of Psychiatry for medical practitioners, reviewing mental health prescribing practices and developing guidelines for the safe use of antidepressants in youth and children, and continuing to deliver the Equally Well Program promoting improvements to the physical health of those living with a mental illness
$7.3 million towards additional staff resources for the National Mental Health Commission (NMHC) to support the Australian Government’s mental health and suicide prevention reform agenda
$2.6 million to provide tailored mental health supports to health practitioners and reduce stigma associated with health practitioners seeking support for their own mental health
$0.3 million to engage with mental health stakeholders to investigate and co-design future national peak body arrangements to provide consumers and carers with a greater say in the future of the mental health system, and
$117.2 million to establish a comprehensive evidence base to support real time monitoring and data collection for our mental health and suicide prevention systems, enabling services to be delivered to those who need them, and improving mental health outcomes for Australians.
Funding from a number of these measures will be used to grow the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander mental health workforce, building the capacity of culturally safe treatment for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.
The reforms included in this historic Mental Health and Suicide Prevention Plan will continue to guarantee Australians with essential services, and are the first major step in what will be an ongoing effort to create a world-leading mental health and suicide prevention system.
Many of these reforms will require a phased approach and ongoing cooperation with states and territories and with stakeholders, but by working together we can build the mental health and suicide prevention system that Australians deserve.
Budget Delivering for Australian Women
11 May 2021
Prime Minister, Minister for Foreign Affairs and Women, Attorney-General and Minister for Industrial Relations, Minister for Social Services and Minister for Women's Safety, Minister for Superannuation, Financial Services and the Digital Economy
The Morrison Government has announced a landmark package of around $3.4 billion new measures to improve outcomes for women’s safety, economic security, health and wellbeing in the 2021–22 Budget.
This includes the Government investing $1.1 billion in funding for women’s safety; $1.9 billion to support women’s economic security including $1.7 billion to improve the affordability of child care for Australian families and $351.6 million in women’s health and wellbeing measures.
“Our approach to developing this Women’s Budget Statement has been informed by our values of respect, dignity, choice, equality of opportunity and justice – these are fundamental to the safety and economic security of women in Australia,” Prime Minister Morrison said.
The package builds on the Government’s investment for women in Australia, including under the National Plan to Reduce Violence Against Women and their Children 2010-22 (the National Plan) and the 2018 and 2020 Women’s Economic Security Statements.
Minister for Foreign Affairs and Minister for Women, Senator the Hon Marise Payne, said the package covered three key pillars —women’s safety, economic security; and women’s health and wellbeing.
“Everyone has a basic right to safety, equality and respect in our society, and we all have a responsibility to address gender imbalances in Australia to create real change and genuine advances for women and girls,” Minister Payne said.
Women’s safety
Minister for Families and Social Services and Minister for Women’s Safety, Senator the Hon Anne Ruston, said this package represents the Commonwealth’s down payment on the next National Plan which will commence in mid-2022, with further investment to follow after consultations including the National Women’s Safety Summit to be held on 29-30 July this year.
“Since 2013, the Australian Government has invested more than $1 billion to prevent and respond to violence against women and their children. This budget is yet another important step toward our target to end violence against women and their children,” Minister Ruston said.
The package includes a new, two-year National Partnership Agreement in which the Morrison Government will provide up to $261.4 million to partner with states and territories to boost local frontline services and trial new initiatives during the transition to the next National Plan. States and territories will be asked to contribute funding to the agreement reflecting their primary role and responsibilities in the delivery of frontline services.
The Government will commit $164.8 million over three years to establish Escaping Violence Payments to provide up to $1,500 in immediate cash and a further $3,500 in kind for goods or direct payments of bonds, school fees or other items. The payments will be provided under a two-year trial through a domestic violence frontline service and include wrap around support for women and their children. The Safe Places emergency accommodation program will also be expanded with additional funding of $12.6 million to support women and children experiencing family and domestic violence.
The Government will build on its efforts to prevent violence with a $35.1 million investment including expanding national primary prevention campaigns to address new and emerging issues targeted at young people as well as continuing the award-winning campaign, Stop It At The Start.
An additional $26.0 million will be provided to Family Violence Prevention Legal Services (FVPLS) to improve support services for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women. Funding will be directed to improving the quality, capability and cultural safety of indigenous and non-indigenous family violence services.
The Government will also invest $31.6million over five years to establish an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Personal Safety Survey conducted by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS). This will enable us, for the first time, to measure the prevalence of family, domestic and sexual violence experienced by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women and girls. We will also commit funding to establish a new Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Advisory Council.
The Government will invest $29.3 million over three years to improve migrant and refugee women’s safety through early intervention, grass-roots programs, and social and economic inclusion support. The Government will also invest an additional $10.3 million over two years to extend the new pilot program supporting women on temporary visas experiencing family violence for an extra year, making it a two-year trial ending in 2023. This will provide support for women who may be unable to access social services and welfare payments due to their visa status. It includes access to support through the Australian Red Cross, with women able to receive up to $3,000 to help them cover expenses such as food, accommodation, utilities and other essentials and medical care. Extended funding will also be provided to nine Community and Women’s Legal Centres nationally to help this group of women in these challenging situations access legal assistance and migration support.
$26.2 million over four years will address the increasing use of technology facilitated abuse, improve online safety for women and girls and raise awareness of the Online Safety Bill.
Under this investment, the Office of the eSafety Commissioner will pilot a program to develop software to better investigate cases of image-based abuse and provide targeted support for children. A further $4.9 million will also be invested in expanding support for men at risk of using violence and trialling new perpetrator interventions, including funding for No to Violence program and Men’s Line, which provides advice and information to men about services available to them such as a men’s behaviour change program.
Improving our family and justice responses
Attorney-General, Senator the Hon. Michaelia Cash, said having a family law system that was safe and fit for purpose to protect and assist victim-survivors of family violence was a key priority of the Budget.
“We are committing more than $400 million across a range of measures to provide additional legal assistance funding for women, and to boost investment in Children’s Contact Services to reduce safety risks and expand Family Advocacy Support Services.”
These measures include $129.0 million in additional legal assistance funding to women’s legal centres to help women access justice. This funding will be directed to women’s legal centres, to enable these providers to respond to increasing demand for domestic violence assistance.
An extra $101.4 million will be put towards Children’s Contact Services (CCSs) to reduce safety risks to family law system users, including the establishment of an additional 20 CCSs.
Almost $85 million will be invested in the Family Advocacy Support Services to maintain, enhance and expand access to their services.
More than $60.8 million will fund the reform of family law case management in the federal family courts to improve outcomes and better meet the needs of families and children.
Addressing sexual harassment
The Government will invest an additional $9.3 million to further implement recommendations made in the Respect@Work report. This includes funding to support the Respect@Work Council to implement a range of practical measures highlighted in the Roadmap for Respect, and driving amendments to improve legal and regulatory responses to workplace sexual harassment. It also includes interim funding to continue the targeted delivery of support for women experiencing workplace sexual harassment, while the Government consults with states and territories in line with its commitment in the Roadmap for Respect.
We are also investing $5.3 million over three years to build evidence and further develop primary prevention initiatives to respond to sexual harassment. We will also invest $6.0 million over four years for the Workplace Gender Equality Agency to work with the Respect@Work Council and extend reporting to the Australian public sector.
Increasing women’s workforce participation and securing their economic futures
The Minister for Women’s Economic Security, Jane Hume said “women’s workforce participation is a social and economic priority and critical to Australia’s recovery, which is why the Government is prioritising investment in childcare.”
The Budget includes targeted measures to increase choice and flexibility for women by addressing barriers to working in the paid workforce, and supporting women to build financially secure futures.
As part of our plan to secure Australia’s recovery, the Government is investing an additional $1.7 billion in childcare, building on around $10.0 billion already provided annually. We are removing the childcare subsidy annual cap and, starting in July 2022, increased childcare subsidies will be available to families with two or more young children, benefitting around 250,000 families. This will help give families greater choice and flexibility to manage work and care.
The Government is investing an additional $12.2 million for the National Careers Institute Partnership Grants Program for projects that facilitate more career opportunities and supported career pathways for women.
In recognition of the economic and social benefits of home ownership, we will establish the Family Home Guarantee to assist 10,000 eligible single parents with dependent children, the vast majority of whom are women, to enter the housing market with a two per cent deposit.
The Government is also investing $42.4 million over seven years to support more than 230 women to pursue higher level STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) qualifications.
The Government is focused on improving retirement outcomes for women by increasing superannuation coverage and making our system fairer. This includes removing the $450 per month threshold under which employers are exempt from paying employees, predominantly women, the Superannuation Guarantee. The Government is also extending access to the downsizer contribution and removing the work test to improve the system’s flexibility.
Promoting women’s leadership opportunities and choices
The Government has made significant strides in its commitment to see more women serving on Australian Government boards.
“I am pleased to announce that as at 31 December 2020, we have a record 49.5 per cent of positions on Australian Government boards filled by women, which is a significant achievement and the highest overall result since reporting began in 2009,” said Minister Payne.
Women in visible positions of leadership is vital in bringing about cultural change, ensuring respect for women in the workplace and providing role models. That is why we are again investing $38.3 million over five years from 2021-22 into expanding the successful Women’s Leadership and Development Program.
This program funds innovative projects, many of which assist women into leadership roles, and builds on the Government’s $47.9 million investment in the 2020 Women’s Economic Security Statement.
Sport is a fundamental part of Australian life and women athletes are inspiring the next generation to get involved. The Government is investing $17.0 million to support a number of world class sporting events over coming years including eight additional Matildas international matches and the FIBA Women’s World Cup for basketball. This funding also supports development programs for women and girls in football and basketball.
Supporting women’s health and promoting wellbeing
The Australian Government is committed to promoting the health of all Australian women and girls throughout their lives. The health of Australian women and girls is critical to their social and economic wellbeing. The Women’s Budget Statement highlights a number of targeted measures.
To ensure that Australian women have access to life-saving medicines and access to essential services, the Government is investing in new and amended PBS listings to treat a range of conditions, including breast cancer. The Government is also investing $148.0 million in women’s preventive health measures to further reduce the personal and financial costs of ill‑health.
This Budget demonstrates the Government’s continued commitment to creating more opportunities for women to fulfil their potential. To ensure Australia achieves the greatest and most enduring gains for women and girls, everyone needs to play a part — government, business, community and individuals. In this way, all Australians gain, and we are a better nation for it.
For more information, including the full set of measures and detailed analysis is outlined below, you can also read the Government’s Women’s Budget Statement.
Ministerial Statement: His Royal Highness The Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh - Australian Parliament House, ACT
11 May 2021
PRIME MINISTER: Mr Speaker, I move that an address to Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II in the following terms be agreed to.
We, the Speaker and Members of the House of Representatives of the Commonwealth of Australia received with great sorrow the news of the death of His Royal Highness The Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh.
On behalf of the Australian people, we express deep sympathy to Your Majesty and other members of the Royal Family, and give thanks for a remarkable life dedicated to service, devotion and commitment.
Mr Speaker, for almost 80 years, Prince Philip served the Crown, his country and our Commonwealth.
He was part of a generation that we will never see again.
A generation who defied tyranny, who won a peace, and built a liberal world that protects and favours freedom.
A generation who found meaning in service over self and to whom we owe so much.
Prince Philip, as consort to the Monarch, is said to have remarked “constitutionally I don’t exist”.
That, no doubt, is true. But it belies the Prince’s lifelong support of the Queen and as an exemplar of a life of service.
In Her Majesty’s own words, Prince Philip was her ‘strength and stay’.
Married a remarkable 73 years. Remarkable in any time and any context, but even more remarkable, under an unrelenting public gaze.
It was a romance that began when he was a young officer in the Royal Navy.
Prior to war, he graduated top of his class at the Royal Naval College in Dartmouth.
At 21 he was the youngest 1st Lieutenant in the Royal Navy.
Like so many others, the war had tempered this young Lieutenant.
It forced him to confront who he was, what he valued and how he would live.
As he wrote after War’s end to his betrothed:
“To have been spared in war and seen victory, to have been given the chance to rest and to readjust myself, to have fallen in love completely and unreservedly, makes one’s personal and even the world’s troubles seem small and petty”.
The then Lieutenant Mountbatten and Princess Elizabeth married in 1947 and in keeping with the times, ration coupons were used to purchase the wedding dress.
Five years later, the Princess became our Queen and Prince Philip put aside his active military career, and took up the role of royal consort and companion.
It was a role that required another to shine, not him.
That takes a certain humility as well as a deep understanding of what service truly means.
Whilst their partnership embodied tradition and timelessness of Monarchy, their partnership in another way was one ahead of its time. A husband who put aside his career to support and affirm the work of his spouse.
The role of consort is one without a rule book.
Prince Philip put his own unique stamp on the role with geniality, good humour, a genuine interest in others and a fair dinkum authenticity.
By the time he had retired at the spritely age of 96, he had undertaken some 22,000 public engagements.
For those of us here who have been to plenty of engagements, I don’t think any of us would pretend to a number of that scale.
Again and again, he deployed his trademark lightheartedness to draw out people and put them at ease.
It was an unfaltering service.
Always walking two steps behind Her Majesty.
And what you saw is what you got.
If the photographers were taking too long, he’d tell them.
If the environment was in danger, he’d indeed say it.
And if Monarchy could encourage and inspire, he made sure it did.
Sixty five years ago, Prince Philip created the Duke of Edinburgh Award.
An award that is about young people giving their best, taking responsibility, persevering, developing skills, giving back, and making a contribution.
He described the Award as a ‘do-it-yourself growing up kit’.
An Award modelled on how the Duke himself saw life.
In Australia alone, 775,000 young people have completed the Award. Millions more have around the world.
Every one of those lives gaining a layer of texture because of that experience.
Internationally, the Prince was Patron or President of more than 750 organisations. Of those hundreds, 50 were here in Australia.
Many of them reflected his personal passions for conservation, science, industry and design, engineering, sport and, of course, the military.
Prince Philip was a frequent visitor to Australia over his life.
In fact, he first came to our shores as a midshipman aboard the battleship Ramilles in 1940. And again in 1945 aboard the Royal Navy Destroyer Whelp.
One trip that is almost lost to history, but is worth recounting today here in this place was his visit in 1967, some fifty four years ago.
In February of that year, Tasmania experienced its most deadly bushfire, Black Tuesday. A day when 64 people died and more than 7,000 lost their homes.
Less than a month later, The Duke visited Tasmania’s fire-ravaged southern region on what some dubbed ‘a protocol-wrecking tour.’
He travelled through Taroona, Kingston, Margate, and Snug.
He met with people and heard their stories.
He listened, he consoled and did his best to lift everyone’s spirits.
But that is not where that story ended.
Because a year later, he returned to visit the same sites and the same people.
He was checking in.
Over his eighty years of service, Australians saw the measure of Prince Philip.
More than the husband and partner of our Sovereign, he was an authentic man, who despite the protocol and privilege that surrounded him, sought to reach out and connect with people and good causes in his own way.
He was a genuine friend of Australia.
Today we place on record our gratitude for his lifetime of service to the Crown, to our Commonwealth and to our country.
We honour indeed a remarkable life that bore witness to almost a hundred years of history and the making of our modern world.
On behalf of all Australians, I extend our sincere condolences to Her Majesty The Queen and to the Royal Family in this, their time of grief, but especially to Her Majesty.
The image of her seated alone at her Prince’s funeral service was a very sullen one.
I know she would have been drawing, as she always has, great comfort from her very deep faith.
But let also now our Commonwealth seek to sustain her, as she continues in her selfless and devoted duty to our Commonwealth and indeed to Australia.
Let us, her Commonwealth, be her strength and her stay.
To Her Majesty, we send Australia’s love and respect and to His Royal Highness, may he rest in peace.
Federal Budget Supports NSW's Recovery Plan
10 May 2021
Prime Minister, Deputy Prime Minister, Minister for Infrastructure, Transport and Regional Development, Minister for Communications, Minister for Communications, Urban Infrastructure, Cities and the Arts
New South Wales continues to benefit from the Federal Liberal and Nationals Government’s record infrastructure investment, with funding for major new projects to be announced in this week’s 2021-22 Budget, securing Australia’s recovery.
Key projects to be funded include:
$2.03 billion for the Great Western Highway Upgrade – Katoomba to Lithgow – Construction of East and West Sections
$400 million for the Princes Highway Corridor - Jervis Bay Road to Sussex Inlet Road – Stage 1
$240 million for the Mount Ousley Interchange
$100 million for the Princes Highway Corridor – Jervis Bay Road Intersection
$87.5 million for M5 Motorway – Moorebank Avenue-Hume Highway Intersection Upgrade
$52.8 million for Manns Road – Intersection Upgrades at Narara Creek Road and Stockyard Place; and
$48 million for Pacific Highway – Harrington Road Intersection Upgrade, Coopernook.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison said these projects will make New South Wales roads safer, reduce travel times and support thousands of jobs across the state.
“From upgrading the Great Western and Princes highways, to improving the key road connections in the outer suburbs and regional areas - these projects will support more than 6,500 direct and indirect jobs across New South Wales,” Prime Minister Morrison said.
“Our record funding commitment is creating jobs, boosting business investment, while securing Australia’s COVID recovery.”
Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Infrastructure, Transport and Regional Development Michael McCormack said this additional investment demonstrated the Government’s commitment to nation-defining infrastructure right here in New South Wales.
“Whether it’s the Western Sydney International (Nancy-Bird Walton) Airport, the Sydney Metro – Western Sydney Airport or the transformative Melbourne to Brisbane Inland Rail, we are investing to build Australia’s future,” the Deputy Prime Minister said.
“Our more than $2 billion investment in upgrading Great Western Highway will bring enormous benefits, both in road safety and in the ongoing jobs that construction will support.
“The Government is driving the delivery of major infrastructure projects to map the economic road back from the pandemic, building the economy and providing certainty for businesses over the long term.”
Minister for Communications, Urban Infrastructure, Cities and the Arts Paul Fletcher said the Australian Government will continue to invest in the NSW economy in the coming years through investments in key urban pinch points such as the Moorebank Avenue and Hume Highway intersections with the M5, and the planning for the Stacey Street corridor in Bankstown.
“This is complemented by targeted road investments along key commuter corridors, including $240 million for the Mount Ousley Interchange near Wollongong and an additional $18 million for Appin Road upgrades,” Minister Fletcher said.
“Major projects delivered over the last year include the Pacific Highway – Woolgoolga to Ballina, which completed the duplication between Hexham and the Queensland border, as well as NorthConnex, which bypassed one of NSW’s most congested routes – Pennant Hills Road.”
The Australian Government looks forward to working constructively with the New South Wales Government to deliver this infrastructure, supporting jobs and businesses right across New South Wales.
For more information on investments in NSW visit Infrastructure Investment Program.