Press Conference - Black Mountain, ACT
9 November 2020
Ms Judi Zielke, Chief Operating Officer CSIRO: Prime Minister, good morning, welcome to our facility here at Black Mountain. This is one of CSIRO’s largest facilities around the country. We have 56 sites. So it's wonderful to have you here this morning to join us. Thank you.
Prime Minister: Well thank you very much. Well, it's great to be here with you and all the team here at Black Mountain, and it's particularly good to be here with Cathy Foley. Each year, the Government invests through various programs, science and research, research and development some $10 billion dollars. Indeed here, in the most recent Budget, we ensured that the CSIRO would be able to continue the important work it does by supplementing their funding, by over $400 million out over the forward estimates because they are doing critically important work.
In the recent Budget, we also announced our manufacturing plan and one of the key components of that manufacturing plan it that there is the science and the research and the technology to back it up. Just upstairs we were looking at how that's being put to work when it comes to plastics recycling and the intensive research that is required at the outset to get things to a scalable and commercial level of application. That is what's needed to ensure that we can realise these future advanced manufacturing industries in Australia. And so the work that we do here at the CSIRO and through so many other research institutions around the country, is absolutely joint when it comes to realising Australia's manufacturing strategy, which Minister Andrews has led in both its development and now it's implementation and one of the key people who will be involved in this process going forward to ensure that where we're placing our priorities and how we're understanding the many scientific challenges that Australia must face, is the role of the Chief Scientist.
And that's why I'm pleased to announce today the next Chief Scientist will be Dr Cathy Foley. Cathy has been the Chief Scientist here for the last two and a half years, but she's been with the CSIRO for 36 years. She's a physicist and she has worked in superconducting and a whole range of other programs which have included how to do maps underground, the resources, I'll let her explain that, I won't even attempt to, but this is the sort of level of sophistication and brilliance that we have in this country and I'm very pleased that Cathy is taking on this role. She is an outstanding scientist. She's she's recognised around the world. She's certainly recognised here as well and she will take up also the great work that's been done by Dr. Alan Finkel. Alan has served our country extremely well in this role now over many years and he continues to serve and you’ve seen from the work that he's doing for the National Cabinet around COVID-19 measures, particularly around contact tracing and other projects and so he has been an invaluable support to the Government as we’ve addressed so many of these great scientific challenges and so his work will continue and Cathy will pick up that work and add to it in her own style and we're looking forward to that very, very much, as we do with the challenges ahead.
I'm going to ask Minister Andrews to say a few words and then and then we're going to hear from Cathy, whose, her tendency is for just a few words I’m told that's her preference. But that said, Cathy, congratulations to you. You’ll do an outstanding job and I'm very pleased that Minister Andrews brought forward that recommendation to Cabinet. We're very pleased to accept it and we wish you all the very best in the role.
The Hon. Karen Andrews MP, Minister for Industry, Science and Technology: Thank you. I'm absolutely delighted to welcome Dr Cathy Foley as Australia's next Chief Scientist. Kathy has a particularly distinguished career as an applied physicist, as you heard from the Prime Minister, Dr Foley has worked with CSIRO for about 36 years. So she's had a very distinguished career here in a variety of roles, most recently as CSIRO’s Chief Scientist but she also has done a lot of work with CSIRO in manufacturing. So she brings to the role of Chief Scientist significant technical research, scientific skills in applied physics, but also experience in scaling up operations, particularly in manufacturing. Her role will be to work alongside Government with the implementation of a number of key strategies, including the modern manufacturing strategy, where she will be providing advice to us on opportunities for us to scale up manufacturing here in Australia, of course science and technology are key enablers of industry, and particularly over the last few months, we have seen just how significant science has been as we have worked our way through the COVID crisis. So I look forward to working with Dr Foley and of course, I would like to take the opportunity to thank Dr Finkel for the work that he has done over the last few years and wish him all the best for the future.
Dr Foley?
Dr Cathy Foley, CSIRO Chief Scientist: Well, Prime Minister and Minister, thank you so much this is an extraordinary honour for me not just to be in the role of being Australia's Chief Scientist, but the thing that’s really exciting from my perspective is that it’s a chance to serve the nation in a way which will allow science and technology to be able to assist the Government in addressing the many challenges which we've already seen are confronting us right now. We've seen the science sector come together along with what is in manufacturing and the ways to take science from the lab to make it be used every day and we've seen that the sector coming together to show what value we can add and I hope that I'm going to be in a position to support the Government, to be able to find the best information, the best knowledge from across all the science sector in Australia, and also to see if I can encourage the youth of today to see that science and technology, engineering and maths are really a way forward for them to be able to have careers that are exciting, well-paid, and something which will also contribute to society and so I actually thought as a way to start this off was actually to work with the Prime Minister's daughters and we’ve got some gifts for her, to actually hope that they will start off a journey to become CSIRO scientists in the future.
Prime Minister: My youngest in particular will be very pleased about that, thank you.
Dr. Foley: Fantastic. I think it's really important for us to make sure that our youth realise the importance of science and technology.
Prime Minister: Thank you, thank you very much.
Dr Foley: And it's something which I hope you will enjoy.
Prime Minister: She’ll have a lot of fun with it.
Dr Foley: So thank you. Thank you Prime Minister and Minister, this is for me such a wonderful opportunity. It’s going to be terrifying leaving CSIRO after 36 years but I also know that I can reach into not just CSIRO, but the whole of the science sector to be able to support me. So thank you very much.
Prime Minister: Thank you Cathy. Now we're happy to take questions on this announcement and then move to other issues.
Journalist: Dr Foley, your predecessors have been drawn into controversy in the past over the issue of climate change and, of course, your predecessor has previously been criticised, for suggesting that gas is a safe part of the future solution. Can you just tell us how significant or immediate do you think the threat of climate change is? Do you have a view on gas as part of the solution?
Dr. Foley: So first of all, I think everyone agrees that climate change is something that has to be dealt with and it's something which is not just a single solution, we're going to have to see over a long time a whole range of different things and approaches that have to come together. Alan Finkel, our current Chief Scientist, has identified gas as a transition to being able to deal with the future, and I guess my role is to see how to build on that, to be able to make sure that we've got what's needed into the long term, because it's not as though we can swap things over overnight. You have to actually work towards that and have a really, I guess, methodology, which actually brings together a whole range of different components.
Journalist: Do you have a view on the debate though, remember when the Climate Scientist wrote to..
Dr. Foley: I think everyone has to say that at the moment that debate is, everyone realises that climate is changing, that now we have to deal with it.
Journalist: Prime Minister on that, sorry I’ll re-frame you as well.
Prime Minister: You’re multitasking.
Journalist: That’s right. With the Biden election, does that now mean you've got a target of zero emissions by 2050. Will Australia look at tweaking our approach then over the next little bit in consultation with the US?
Prime Minister: Australia will always set its policies based on Australia's interests, Australia's national interests and the contributions that we're making in these areas as I said yesterday, we would be welcoming the United States back into the Paris Agreement, somewhere we've always been. We are committed both to Paris, we committed prior to that to Kyoto. We meet, we met and beat our Kyoto targets, and we believe we'll do the same when it comes to our Paris commitments as well. So we welcome them coming back in but not only there, I understand that will also extend to organisations like the WHO as well, a place that we also stayed and so we would welcome them back into those arrangements and then there's opportunities potentially around the TPP as well, where the United States has always been welcome to rejoin them. Whether they do that or not, this will be a matter for them but the United States will make their decisions based on their interests and their capabilities and how their economy is structured and we will do the same. There are many countries that have made commitments in this area, but they have also made those commitments with qualifications. For example, in New Zealand, their commitment to 2050 excludes methane. So it basically excludes agriculture and forestry, which are about half their emissions. So countries also have qualifications that deal with export parts of their sector. So it isn't a one size fits all in terms of the commitments that are out there. Our goal is to achieve that as soon as you can, but we'll do it on the basis of a technology roadmap, which Dr Foley will play a very important role in as we go forward and so we have the technology to achieve lower emissions in the future and to you know, you've got to have the plan to get there and I owe it to Australians that if we make such commitments, I have to be able to explain how we get there and what it would cost and what it would mean for things like the 2030 targets that we have, you know our 2030 targets are set and we'll meet them and so I do know that when the Labor Party here in Australia said that we should sign up unconditionally to a 2050 target, well the, having done that as the Labor Party, I think it's incumbent on them to tell the country what does that mean for their 2030 target? I mean, when we went to the election in 2013, seven years out from the 2020 Kyoto commitment, we were very clear about what we were going to do and how we were going to meet that target and when we were elected, we set about that task and we achieved that and we bettered it and so if there is to be an alternate view on this question, then you need to be able to explain well what does it mean for the 2030 target? Labor have walked away from every 2030 target now, our commitment to Paris is even stronger than the Labor Party's because we have a target and we'll meet it and we have a plan to achieve it.
Journalist: Prime Minister, the ABC will be broadcasting a program tonight that's billed as some sort of sex scandal involving senior members of your Government. There are reports this morning that the Government's applied pressure to the ABC via the Managing Director, the News Director, Gaven Morris, and possibly the Board as well. Have you, any members of your Government, or your office been pressuring the ABC to pull that story and why would you do that?
Prime Minister: Well, there's a lot of allegations in there Sam and I'm not sure what they're based on. So I’m not in the habit of responding to allegations people make based on a program that I haven't seen and I don't even know what's in it. So I think that it's a bit difficult for me to respond to a whole bunch of hypotheticals but I'd say this, we would just expect that the ABC always is that they would act in an independent and an unbiased apartisan way. And if they're going to make enquiries, I would think they'd want to do them across the political spectrum and it's really for the ABC under their charter to remain true to that and it's always important the ABC remains true to their charter, and I would expect them to do that.
Journalist: Do you still support the bonk ban, if you want to call it that, that Malcolm Turnbull put in place? What would be the penalty if one of your ministers was found to have been in breach of that?
Prime Minister: Well Sam I more than supported it, I ensured that it continued and you use that term to explain it but it's actually a very important issue. I mean, when the former Prime Minister introduced it, I was one of its strongest supporters and why it's there, is to protect, I think the culture in the Parliament and it's not just on any one side of politics can I tell you, it's important as a cultural change within the Parliament. And certainly the former Prime Minister and I supported it and continued it as Prime Minister to ensure that you have these sorts of standards that they are important to ensure you have the right sort of a workplace. I note that the Labor Party has mocked the ban and hasn't supported it. It wasn't supported by the former Leader of the Opposition and it's not supported by the current Leader of the Opposition. So our standards and that we've set as a Government are very clear. I'm unaware of the matters that you're referring to because I can't know about a program that I haven't seen but that arrangement was put in place on a prospective basis by the former Prime Minister and I have continued it.
Journalist: So I don't want to ask you about a question, a program that you haven't seen. I do want to ask about any pressure that the Government has applied. Are you aware that your office or other members of your Government have contacted the Managing Director of the ABC or the News Director Gaven Morris, to try and pressure them not to run the story? Have you applied pressure?
Prime Minister: Well, the only thing I'm aware of is that the Government always stands up for ensuring that the ABC would act consistent with its charter and I would think all Australians would expect the ABC to act consistent with its charter.
Journalist: How can you determine that they wouldn't be acting consistent if you haven’t seen the program?
Prime Minister: Well Sam you’re making assumptions. You’re making assumptions.
Journalist: I don’t think it’s an assumption, I understand that you have contacted the ABC Managing Director.
Prime Minister: All I'm simply saying is the Government wants the ABC to stand up for it’s charter and act consistent with it’s charter and Australians will make the judgement about whether they do, or they don't. Ok thanks very much.
Journalist: Over the weekend, you welcomed the new President to Australia at some point. Have you spoken to either Donald Trump or Biden directly?
Prime Minister: Not at this point and there are processes for that. And, but we've had those reach outs obviously, to President, sorry President-elect Biden and we'll be working through that in the days ahead.
Journalist: And are you hoping to try and get the United States back in the Trans-Pacific Partnership?
Prime Minister: I addressed that before. I mean that's a matter for them. I think, look it's very early days on many of these issues. It's not clear how a lot of those policies that were announced by the Vice President during the course of the election campaign will be implemented. Obviously, they'll go through their transition period, we’ll be patient and respectful about that process. Of course, we will continue to work with the current Administration. And there are still many issues, very important issues that we're working on with the current Administration. And you can expect us to remain in close contact with them about those matters.
Journalist: And on China, Australian exporters have had difficulty getting their products into China, are there jobs at risk? And what are you doing about trying to get those to remedy that situation?
Prime Minister: We're working through the processes with the Chinese Government to address what they describe as the technical issues that they're raising in regards to those products as they're coming into China. Now there's a process for dealing with that and we're following it, we’re working closely with industry to seek to resolve those technical issues. But at all times, we will do what's in Australia's national interest and we will act consistent with our values. That has always been our position, both now and back under, the time of previous Governments, most notably under John Howard, there's no difference in the policy that we hold today in relation to all of these matters that was pursued by the Howard Government. Times have changed of course, there are new developments, there are new tensions that weren't there well over a decade ago but what hasn't changed is our values and our interests and I can assure Australians that my Government will always put those first.
Thanks very much.
