Speeches
Prime Minister's Prize for Science Awards
17 October 2018
Well thank you very much Fred for your introduction and what a marvellous evening looking out here. All these great minds, all dressed up to the nines, you look fantastic. It’s great to have you here, I’m pleased to see you getting a night out.
[Laughter]
Closeted away all day doing experiments, on the computers working through all the amazing things that you do, going into your own minds and coming out the other side, this is what fascinates me about science. You know, the person who most fascinated me about science was Captain Cook. Now, you might go: “Why Captain Cook?” Well, yes he was an amazing navigator and his voyages and discoveries are legendary, but when you read Cook’s journals and you read about him, you discover that he was actually a scientist. And that’s what he should be remembered for more than anything else; an inquiring mind, a mind that wanted to understand, a mind that wanted to pass on that knowledge, a mind that wanted to explore the boundaries. I don’t know if you know this, but James T Kirk from Star Trek was actually -
[Laughter]
I’m not kidding, Gene Roddenberry confirmed this - was modelled on James Cook. To go where no one had been before, that’s what you do. As scientist you go where we haven’t been before, you dare to imagine the things that others haven’t.
I have no doubt that as you do that, you think it might be there, you suspect it might be. You turn it into a theory, then you follow the rulebook, but it all begins with something you believe. Something you think is possible. And if you look at all the great minds over time, those in Australia, those down through the generations around the world, that is that I think has always really encapsured, the great magic of science, if you like. It starts with belief, it starts with passion.
The people in this room are pressing forward in ways that are making our country stronger. Making our society stronger. You’re keeping people healthier, stronger, safer. You’re making an extraordinary difference to the daily lives not only of Australians but people all around the world.
Now, it’s true I actually have a science degree –
[Applause]
It’s true. But I hate to disappoint you; it’s in Applied Science, Social Sciences and Economic Geography. But that said –
[Applause]
BSc Hons is what I used to put on the card many, many years ago and I’ve always felt like I should have changed it to something else because I never really thought of it in the same way as those of you here. But look, I was passionate and I was interested and I did believe and I did want to learn and did want to know. You know, today in Australia, our people are our best asset, that’s been true for a long time. We’re accepting, we adapt, we’re not very hierarchical in this country and we are inquisitive. And if we want to keep up the huge pace and scale of change in technology and industry that we’re seeing and in our society, we need people who know how to lead us there. There’s people in the room tonight as you’ve gathered together, who exemplify that.
We are in a new fourth revolution, industrial revolution. A revolution that reflects breakthroughs in every field of endeavour. In your daily work in genetics, in artificial intelligence and robotics, nanotechnology, 3 –D printing – this is all the sexy stuff -
[Laughter]
Biotechnology. But in so many other areas which is not so much, that doesn’t often get the headlines but is equally important and people are equally passionate about. We used to think of our assets as being just those in the ground and it was many years ago at the start of the gold rush that it was pretty straightforward to get to surface gold. All you needed was a pick and a shovel, a panning dish and then you could sift with a cradle. It was hard work but it was relatively simple. But with those sorts of tools, you couldn’t get to the good stuff buried deeper down, the stuff that was covered by the basalt in the old creek beds or the gold-bearing quartz in the cracks and the crevasses. That was much harder to get at and very lucrative too. To get that, you had to go below the surface and you had to go below the surface of your own imagination as well, because you needed technology and you needed skills. In Ballarat, they realised this, that they were lacking in the know-how. So they decided to do something about it, as Australians always have. So they set up the Ballarat School of Mines in 1870 and upon opening the school, its first President declared the “era of the cradle and the tin dish was over”, and it was “time for the calculating and inventive brain and cultivated intelligence to play their part.” That’s what he said. Those words ring as true today as they were said then. The new school trained people in science, maths, engineering, geology, mineralogy, chemistry and metallurgy. Many years later, one of the principals of that Ballarat School of Mines was someone called Charles Fenner. Now if that name seems familiar to you, it’s because he was the father of the late Frank Fenner, in whose name we honour the annual prize for Life Scientist of the Year, that we’re presenting later this evening. I want to acknowledge Frank’s daughter Marilyn Fenner who is in the audience tonight, no doubt you’ve heard the stories Marilyn. Today’s gold rush though is a technological one as well. Just like then, it’s massive and just as we did back then we need to sharpen our knowledge if we’re going to take advantage and not miss this huge moment in our history. We’ll need knowledge of science and our knowledge of maths, because maths is the language of science, it is. We’ve got a maths teacher out there.
[Laughter]
I was asked a question recently, who was one of the most formative people in my time at school and in my upbringing. Now if you look at me you’d probably think it was his rugby coach or someone like that. It wasn’t actually, it was my maths teacher, a guy called Mark Reed. He was also our year master and he instilled a passion in his students for how what he was teaching connected to broader life. He was also a mad punter, which I think explained his keen interest in maths. Nonetheless he took what he was passionate about – horse-racing and maths – and it made him an amazing teacher. We did a lot of work on probability theory.
[Laughter]
We actually did. Now, I’ve lost my place. Our STEM education though, on a more serious note, in science, technology engineering and maths, we did used to lead the world in this area. It’s been about 12 years now that we’ve been slipping back into the middle of the pack. It’s something we need to continue to do things about. But not just governments, all of us. I want to ask you something; do you think intermediate level maths should be a prerequisite for studying engineering at uni? You’d think so. I would think so. But do you know in this country, more than 40 per cent of unis will let you into engineering degrees without it? Only 14 per cent of universities require at least intermediate level maths for entry into a Bachelor of Science and only 13 per cent for entry into a Bachelor of Commerce.
I think that sort of says: “No, don’t worry, you’ll be right, just Google it.” Well that’s - I don’t Google the Budget, I can tell you that. Now, some may disagree.
[Laughter]
But I’ll disagree with you, mine adds up. There has been some positive change, notably from the University of Sydney, where they’re working to raise that bar again and good on you to the University of Sydney. It’s just a start, there’s a way to go and as Vice Chancellors come to see me, asking me their usual questions – I don’t have to give you a guess about what it is, though it does relate to budgets, - I’m going to ask them what are your prerequisites for science and engineering courses when it comes to maths? Is it any wonder that there’s been a sharp decline in the number of Year 12 students choosing advanced maths subjects, when that’s the message they’re getting? Why would you bother putting yourself though all that mental challenge of difficult subjects, getting Bs and Cs instead of As, when all the signs point to it not being necessary? Universities and schools need to send that message about maths and science, to young people. It’s particularly important for female students, who according to the statistics are currently much less likely to participate in the more advanced maths and science subjects. As a father of two daughters, I can only encourage them to take a different view. I encourage my daughters and everyone else’s daughters to consider these areas for them. So, we do need to change that. We do need to reassert the importance of science and maths because that is essential if we’re to have the pipeline of students that we require.
You know, I was up in Boeing earlier this year and Boeing – I don’t know if you’ve ever been there and seen the sort of production line that goes into putting the Dreamliners and all of these things together. It’s an absolutely amazing thing to behold. Boeing’s presence in the United States is known, but the second largest presence that Boeing has outside of the United States is actually here in Australia. It’s down in Fishermans Bend. I asked them then, as the Treasurer, keen to see how we can continue to ensure a strong place and a future for manufacturing in Australia. I said: “Tell me, why? I don’t want to talk you out of it, I want to talk you into it, but why? What was the basis of your decision?” And they said: “Because the people who are there are smart.” They don’t have the luxury in a huge production line like that, with a supply chain that goes around the world, to be working with people who don’t know what they’re doing. The future of manufacturing in Australia today isn’t about companies coming to chase cheap labour around South East Asia and the Pacific, that’s not its future, they’ve worked that out too. The ability to get it right every single time is what matters today. That’s where the value is added and that’s where I’m excited about the future of manufacturing in Australia; because the gold mine that sits inside the noodles of Australians is what is going to ensure that Australia has a manufacturing industry that value-adds right into the future. But for that to happen, we need you. We need you breaking that ground. We need you out there like Jimmy Kirk, or Jimmy Cook, or Janie Cook, whichever you like. But we need you out there discovering those new frontiers, breaking open the ground, being the inquiring mind, having the passion whether you’re teacher infusing that passion like good old Mark Reed did when I was much younger and let them see the potential and the excitement and the opportunity.
I’ll finish with this and it’s a tribute to the great champions who work at the CSIRO. One of its former leaders the late Sir Malcolm McIntosh – and tonight we’ll have an award in his name presented to the Physical Scientist of the Year and I want to acknowledge Lady Margaret McIntosh and members of the McIntosh family here also tonight. Not long after Malcolm took up the top job at the CSIRO, he spoke with a science magazine about the importance of getting good science out of the laboratory and into the industry and community. He said this.
“It simply isn’t possible to live sensibly in this society without having some understanding of science. If we’re to progress the society and keep the standards of living of Australians high, then it has to be more than that. It has to be an active participation in science. It’s not actually you do with a big bang, but to inculcate a scientific community is a very long process. It doesn’t start with people like you and me making speeches, you’ll be pleased to know, it starts at school”.
I couldn’t agree more. Now Karen Andrews the Minister for Science, Industry and Technology, I couldn’t have been more pleased to appoint her to that role in my Cabinet. She’s a scientist and she’s a female scientist.
[Applause]
She’s an engineer, she has sat where you are, she worked in industry, she’s someone who absolutely gets it and she’s a great asset in my Cabinet. Both of us are looking forward to working with you in all of your fields of endeavour and giving you whatever encouragement we can to go out and make the difference you do on a daily basis.
I want to wish all the award recipients tonight congratulations and I want to thank you very much for the opportunity to be here with you this evening, an honourary scientist of sorts.
[Applause]
Statement on Indulgence - Ian Kiernan
17 October 2018
Mr Morrison: I rise, on indulgence, to acknowledge the passing of Ian Kiernan AO. We learnt of his death earlier today. His untimely death is a reminder that being a great Australian is within the grasp of every citizen of this country; you just have to be willing to have a go. Ian's approach was always to empower others. When he founded a movement first to clean up Australia and then to clean up the world, he sought not to attract followers but to produce leaders. Whether it was cleaning up beaches, parks and waterways, or planting trees, or conserving water, Ian's ultimate mobilisation of 30 million people in around a hundred countries was never about him. It was about empowering others to take action. As I said this morning, he observed the beauty of the land and the planet on which he lived and he tapped us all on the shoulder and he said: 'We've got to take care of this. It's our responsibility—each and every single one of us.' He did it by igniting that spark of personal responsibility in those supporters and volunteers who rose to the cause or, indeed, led that cause. 'You know best,' he would say.
Ian Bruce Carrick Kiernan was born near Sydney Harbour, which he loved, in 1940 to British migrants George and Leslie. As a builder, renovator and investor, he accrued a prodigious property portfolio, only to see it go belly up in the recession of '74. After that, he said he would do what any self-respecting young builder who sailed boats would do. 'I got on my yacht,' he said, 'and visited 36 of the most beautiful islands that I could find—Tahiti, Hawaii.' And he did it all in one year. But with the postcard imagery that had attracted him came an ugly awakening. It was while he was moored in Hawaii that an overnight downpour pushed a mountain of rubbish down from the local ravines, dumping it in the harbour. Ian surveyed the unsightly mass and instantly felt a twinge of new opportunity, of the difference he could make. However, it would be some years later, after he set an Australian solo world sailing record of 156 days in the 1986-87 BOC Challenge, that those feelings resurfaced into his life's mission. He later recalled seas that should have been magic and myth that were littered with rubbish:
First a rubber thong, then a toothpaste tube, a comb, a plastic bag … The rubbish popped up on both sides of the bow.
So Clean Up Australia Day began, as Clean Up Sydney Harbour Day, on Sunday, 8 January 1989.
The plan initially had been to contain the effort to Mosman's beaches, but Ian was the sort of guy with one eye always on the horizon, like a good sailor. One day he just said—and no offence to the member for Warringah, or indeed to the Speaker of the House for the language—'Bugger Mosman! Let's do the whole harbour.' And he did, with the help of an astonishing turnout of 40,000 Sydneysiders. It went national the next year. It also went gangbusters, bringing together 300,000 Australians to lend a hand.
On behalf of the government and this chamber, I extend our deepest condolences to Ian's family—to his wife, Judy; to his daughters, Sally and Pip; and to his son, Jack. Thank you, Ian Kiernan AO, for your service to our country and to our planet. May he rest in peace.
Honourable members: Hear, hear!
Press Conference with the Minister for Foreign Affairs
16 October 2018
PRIME MINISTER: Congratulations to the Duke and Duchess of Sussex. Tremendous news yesterday overnight and obviously we are looking forward to celebrating that good news while they are enjoying their stay here in Australia. They will be neighbours of Jenny and I, for the next week or so I'm sure we will take the opportunity to congratulate them both in person.
But today, on a more serious note, I wanted to make a number of statements with the Foreign Minister in relation to our Government's position on Israel and issues in the Middle East. Now, the first thing I want to stress very strongly is the Government's commitment to a two-state solution in the Middle East remains, has always been and I believe always will be Australia's policy in relation to the resolution of issues with Israel and Palestine. We are committed to a two-state solution and nothing has changed when it comes to the Government's position on this matter.
In dealing with the matters though that are coming up this week in the United Nations General Assembly and particular in relation to the vote that will be held on Wednesday morning regarding concessions and conference of official status on the Palestinian Authority to chair the G77, this is a significant vote. Our Government will be voting against that resolution. We won't be abstaining. We will be voting against that resolution because we don't believe that conferring that status, especially at this time, would add to the cause of moving parties towards the two-state solution. This is our objective. This is what we're seeking to achieve. In the context of that decision, as a new Prime Minister, I believed it was important to ensure that Australians and others had a much clearer picture of my broader position on these issues that are raised in relation to the Middle East and the many particular points of policy that relate.
First of all, there is the issue regarding the Iran nuclear deal and the joint comprehensive plan of action that has been in place and that Australia has voiced support for over the last three years. There are also issues that go to the question of the capital which come up quite regularly in these discussions around policy relating to Israel. There is also a long-standing and improving greatly defence relationship with our ally in Israel and the defence industry cooperation that has only been improving, particularly in more recent years as Australia has significantly recapitalised our defence forces. So taking each of those issues in turn, we share serious concerns about potentially destabilising behaviour in the Middle East when it comes to the activities of Iran and the Government has taken the decision to review, and I should stress without prejudice, review without prejudice, the Iran nuclear agreement, the JCPOA, to determine whether our current policy settings remain fit for purpose. Now this review will include an assessment of the IAEA and other agencies’ advice on Iran's compliance with the agreement and on whether the JCPOA can meet our long-term objective of preventing Iran from having the capability to develop nuclear weapons. Now, there are matters that currently exist outside that arrangement which have been noted and we need to be working with our other allies including the United States to determine how we can best address those other issues outside that agreement regarding terrorism and matters of that nature and how they're financed and sponsored and these things need to be brought into that discussion and we think that's very important to resolution of issues and creating a safer and more peaceful Middle East.
In relation to defence engagement with Israel, I spoke to the Israeli Prime Minister last night and proposed that we appoint defence attaches in each of our embassies of Australia in Tel Aviv and of course Israel in Canberra and that will only further enhance the cooperation on defence matters and security matters, but also on the defence industry collaboration. Now, in relation to our diplomatic presence in Israel. What I have simply said is this - we're committed to a two-state solution. Australia's position on this issue has to date assumed that it is not possible to consider the question of the recognition of Israel's capital in Jerusalem and that be consistent with pursuing a two-state solution.
Now, Dave Sharma, who was the Ambassador to Israel, has proposed some months ago a way forward that challenges that thinking and it says that you can achieve both and indeed by pursuing both, you are actually aiding the cause for a two state solution. Now, when people say sensible things, I think it is important to listen to them. And particularly, when they have the experience of someone like Dave Sharma. We are committed to a two-state solution, but frankly, it hasn't been going that well. Not a lot of progress has been made. And you don't keep doing the same thing and expect different results. And so when sensible suggestions are put forward that are consistent with your policy positioning, and in this case pursuing a two state solution, Australia should be open-minded to this and I am open-minded to this and our Government is open-minded to this. The proposal that Dave spoke about in his article back in May provided the opportunity for a capital for a Palestinian Authority in East Jerusalem and one for Israel in West Jerusalem. The whole point of a two-state solution is two nations recognised living side by side. And so, opening up that discussion does provide us with the opportunity, I think, to do what Australians have always done and that is to apply a practical and common-sense and innovative role in trying to work with partners around the world to aid our broader objectives, in this case a two-state solution.
So Australia and I as Prime Minister, am open to that suggestion. What I'll do in the months ahead is obviously confer with Cabinet colleagues. I will obviously take the opportunity during the upcoming summit season to confer with other leaders around the world and gauge their perception about this and to make the case that Dave himself has made about whether this can actually provide an alternative way forward and aid the cause that I believe all of us are interested in pursuing. So, no decision has been made in regarding the recognition of a capital or the movement of an embassy, and I should be clear – those two things, they are the two issues. You can recognise a capital, the issue of the real estate and your embassy is a separate one and as Dave argues in his article, those things can be dealt with sequentially. But at the same time, what we are simply doing is being open to that suggestion as a potential way forward and I'm not going to close my mind off to things that can actually be done better and differently to aid the great cause of Australian foreign policy and that's all we have said today. We're open to that discussion and I look forward to pursuing that with people and colleagues and leaders around the world.
So I'm happy to take questions as is Marise. Obviously we have been in the process over the last 24 hours of informing and briefing allies and partners and that process will continue.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, Dave Sharma wrote his article in May. As recently as June you were emphatic about not moving the embassy. Is this decision motivated by Wentworth or keeping the conservatives in your party happy, or both?
PRIME MINISTER: It is not motivated by either. It’s motivated by a commitment to a two-state solution, and listening to practical suggestions about how we can achieve it. In June I articulated the Government's policy. I was the Treasurer. The Treasurer is not responsible for matters of Foreign Affairs. It is my job to articulate and speak to Government policy as it existed at the time.
JOURNALIST: Is it the government's position to support the “It’s Ok to be white” motion?
PRIME MINISTER: Why don't we stay with Israel and Foreign Affairs for a while and I'll come back to that.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, one of the biggest supporters of Donald Trump's move to move the embassy to Jerusalem was American evangelical Christians. Do you believe as a Christian that the restoration of the Jewish temple in Israel… in Jerusalem, is a precondition to the return of Jesus?
PRIME MINISTER: My faith and my religion has nothing to do with this decision.
JOURNALIST: Nothing at all?
PRIME MINISTER: None.
JOURNALIST: I have a question for the Foreign Minister actually, because I think if you have been talking to neighbours and other national leaders or other foreign policy ministers, can I ask what would the reaction be from Israel be… sorry, from Indonesia be to this move? Wouldn't Indonesia object to this position by Australia?
MINISTER FOR FOREIGN AFFAIRS, THE HON. MARISE PAYNE: Well, the Prime Minister can speak to his engagement with President Widodo, but we have obviously briefed the Indonesian ambassador here in Australia and communicated through our embassy in Jakarta with the Indonesian Foreign Minister and we'll continue those conversations.
JOURNALIST: Are they happy with it?
MINISTER FOR FOREIGN AFFAIRS, THE HON. MARISE PAYNE: I think it's a conversation that we're having. We have to explain and we are doing that this morning with the release of a press statement and this press conference this morning and we will continue those conversations.
PRIME MINISTER: And the key point I made in my connection with President Widodo, is that the Australian Government has not changed its policy on a two-state solution. The Australian Government has not made a decision to actually recognise Jerusalem as the capital or to shift our embassy. We have not made a decision to change our policy when it comes to it the Iran nuclear deal. All we have said is that consistent with our commitment to a two-state solution, we are A) reviewing without prejudice the Iran nuclear deal and we are open to the arguments that have been made by our former ambassador to Israel about how we could progress that issue in the context of the two-state solution. So the nuances of this, the calibration of this, is what we are doing.
I also want to make this point - Australia, our Government, I have made this decision without any reference to the United States. It has not come up in any discussion I have had with the President or with officials. Marise has just recently been in the US. There has been no request and there has been no discussion with the United States. Australia makes its decisions about its foreign policy independently. We do so in our own national interests, consistent with our own beliefs and our own values.
JOURNALIST: Given the fact that there has been no discussion or no request from the United States and other allies, doesn't that only add to people who are questioning the timing of this announcement given that it is just a few days before a by-election which our former ambassador to Israel is running behind in?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, I think the point you overlook is that Australia has no control over when votes are scheduled in the United Nations General Assembly. There is a vote tomorrow morning, on Wednesday. Australia will be voting no. Now, that is a significant decision and in my view as a new Prime Minister of only just over seven weeks, that would raise questions about where do I stand on a range of other issues? And I thought it was important that that context be provided straight away. Look, I'm being up-front with Australians. I’m being upfront with leaders and others around the world. This is our thinking on this issue. We think after three years of the Iran nuclear deal, it is timely to have a good look and see whether it is meeting our objectives. Is it adding to greater stability or is it not? I think they are fair questions and I think if we're going to say internally that we're going to look at this question again that we should say publicly that we're doing that. Equally, on the question of the recognition of Jerusalem as the capital, I do find those arguments persuasive that Dave has put forward, but are they achievable, can they be taken through? Is there a consultation process that we now need to follow, particularly with regional leaders and other leaders? Of course, there is. But I am signalling that I think it is a conversation worth having. A discussion is not a decision, but I think I'm being up-front with people. I'm being very clear about what my dispositions are and how I'm forming these decisions and that's how I want to deal with the Australian people and others. I think people know where I stand and I think that can be a great comfort when people know where their Prime Minister stands on these sorts of questions.
JOURNALIST: So the fact that Wentworth has a large Jewish community has not been a factor of your thinking at all?
PRIME MINISTER: No. I have obviously over the last seven weeks had a number of discussions, not just in Sydney, but Melbourne and other parts of the country about these issues. And people from the Jewish community have been raising this with me from day one. From day one. It was literally put to me in the first couple of days of me becoming Prime Minister and I'm not rushing into anything here. But what I am doing today is recognising what is a real concern in the Jewish community in Australia, whether it is about the Iran nuclear deal which is an item of great concern to that community, or it is on this broader question of the two-state solution and how with go about achieving it. See, we want to see a two-state solution achieved and sometimes to achieve that you have got to think about doing things differently. The orthodoxy that's driven this debate which says issues like considering the question of the capital are taboo. I think we have to challenge that. Australians are pretty up-front people and I think we have to show the courage of our convictions in saying we're prepared to talk about other ways about achieving this goal because frankly the other ways have not been getting us there terribly successfully.
JOURNALIST: What about the concern in the Palestinian community when America moved their embassy. There was obviously a large outbreak in violence. Are you concerned about a potential outbreak of protest here, demonstrations or violence or retributions against Australia?
PRIME MINISTER: Well obviously we have been taking advice on those matters and assessments and processes are being followed. But again, this is why I'm urging a full appreciation of the position I'm putting forward. We are having a discussion about this. We are opening up a new discussion which is consistent with what I believe those who are committed to peace in the Middle East, whether from a Palestinian perspective or an Israeli perspective, we are committed to a two-state solution. I'm not doing this because I think it will take us away from that outcome, I'm doing it because I believe it will take us towards that outcome and that I think we need to be prepared, to be open-minded about new ways of achieving this. And Australia, I think, has always demonstrated a preparedness to show innovativeness and innovation in thinking when to comes to addressing these global issues.
JOURNALIST: Secretary Frances Adamson described the American move as being “unhelpful” back when that was made. Have you sought her advice?
PRIME MINISTER: The Government listens to all its officials but the Government is the one that is elected. The Government, and I as Prime Minister, is the one that has to articulate policy and the position of our Government. We will listen to all of our officials obviously but I must, and I’m not making any comment on any particular advice which we have received from any part of the public service, but… I haven’t finished my statement. But what I am saying though is that we want to see the outcome of a two-state solution. And following the orthodoxy of positions past I don’t believe has been making enough progress. So I’m prepared to challenge those positions wherever they may be put, and we may be standing amongst a very small number of countries who actually think this may be a better way to achieve this. But we are passionate about achieving it, and our passion is demonstrated I think in the courage of being able to identify there may be better ways about getting to this goal.
JOURNALIST: Senator Payne, your predecessor Julie Bishop, when Donald Trump walked away from the Iran nuclear deal, your predecessor warned that that could imperil efforts to reach a nuclear treaty with North Korea. Is that a concern you share or is that no longer a concern?
MINISTER FOR FOREIGN AFFAIRS, THE HON. MARISE PAYNE: Well we have an obvious focus, as we have continually, on complete, verifiable, irreversible disarmament, nuclear disarmament in North Korea, in Iran and other countries who would pursue the same polices. That is an absolute focus of our national interest and the review the Prime Minister has announced is I think after three years operation of the JCPOA, a timely look about whether it is actually achieving the outcomes it is intended to do. We are not a party to the JCPOA but I think we have every opportunity here to review its progress, to review its status and to ensure it is delivering on those outcomes. This is a good time to do that, it fits with the Prime Minister’s review of these other issues and I am confident that we will be able to engage with that in a very constructive way.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister…
PRIME MINISTER: Before I go, because I know that other question… what’s yours on, mate?
JOURNALIST: The issue…
PRIME MINISTER: The issue of the day?
JOURNALIST: The issue… the question is are you going to be looking at a solution on the treatment of children on Nauru and whether they can get any medical treatment in Australia? That’s been raised by some of your MPs.
PRIME MINISTER: Yeah it is, and I have been meeting with those colleagues as have the relevant Ministers and we have been acting on those issues. We have been acting on these issues. We haven’t been doing it by making public statements about it every day but we will always consider each and every case on its merits and in the interests of the child and we will continue to do that. I did make the point yesterday in relation to the New Zealand arrangement that there is a Bill still sitting in the Senate from 2016 that would close the back door for New Zealand to Australia which is opposed by the Labor Party and the Greens and the crossbench Senators which is preventing that protection being put in place. Now I would urge them to reconsider their position on that, but on the other issue?
JOURNALIST: Was there a directive from the Attorney-General Christian Porter’s office that the Government should support this “It’s Ok to be White” motion in the Senate?
PRIME MINSTER: Well I’m sure all Australians stand against racism against whatever form it takes. But I believe the Leader of the Government in the Senate will be making a statement about that.
JOURNALIST: Is that the Government position…
PRIME MINISTER: I’m saying that the Leader of the Government in the Senate will be making a statement about that later today.
JOURNALIST: Was it a mistake by Pauline Hanson? Was that wrong… opponents say this is straight out of the extreme right playbook, others say that there is nothing wrong with this motion. What is your position?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, I found it regrettable but the Leader of the Government in the Senate will be making a statement on that shortly. Thank you.
Statement on Indulgence - West Gate Bridge
15 October 2018
Mr Morrison: On indulgence, I rise today to remember an Australian tragedy and to remember those who were lost. On this day 48 years ago, Australians watched in horror as the West Gate Bridge collapsed during construction. It's not a particular anniversary this year, just like it's the 16th anniversary this year since the terrible Bali bombings that were commemorated just a few days ago. But, whether it's the 48th or the 16th or the 35th or the 55th, each time this date and this period is marked it's a chilling reminder and a terrible time of sadness for all of those who are touched personally by these tragic incidents.
On that day, Australians watched in horror as the West Gate Bridge collapsed during construction. Most of us who sit in this chamber would have been small children. Some would not have been born. But Australians around the country on that day watched in horror and 35 men needlessly lost their lives. Just before midday, on what should have been just another ordinary working day, 2,000 tonnes of steel and concrete crashed to the ground and the waters below. Thirty-five working men, many of them migrants who had come to Australia seeking a better life, were killed and lost. Kids lost their dads, wives lost their husbands, parents lost their sons and family members lost their brothers, and many, many more were seriously injured. Miraculously, 18 men escaped the carnage and, on that day, these survivors would be the first responders, doing what they could do to save their mates. It was a day that should never be forgotten, and it's not been forgotten today. I appreciate the Leader of the Opposition writing to me about this anniversary and suggesting us doing this here today together.
Mostly, when these things happen we call them accidents—a chance of fate—but that wasn't the case on this day. The collapse of the West Gate Bridge was not an accident; nor was it a chance of fate. As the royal commission found, the collapse was as a result of man-made errors—error upon error, mistakes compounded by efforts to rectify them, and all occurring within a confrontational culture marked by distrust, division and demarcation. Thankfully, much has changed since the 1970s and, of course, our workplaces are much safer today than they were almost half a century ago. Tougher laws have been introduced and workers have been given more of a say, as they should, about safety on the job. Safety is now something everyone is responsible for right across the organisation. We achieve so much more in our workplaces and, indeed, in a country where we work together and we look out for each other, whatever our role is within an organisation. As the report of the Royal Commission into the Failure of West Gate Bridge said:
It is widely accepted that the essential requirements for good labour relations are mutual trust, confidence and respect as between management, trade unions and men. Once this relationship is established, all concerned will work as a team and first-class production can be achieved. Without it, little if any progress can be made.
As a lesson for today, the mistakes that are made are not supposed to bind us forever; they're supposed to guide us into our future. On this 48th anniversary, we remember the lessons of those times and we remember the 35 men who needlessly perished and their families, who have lived with this every day from then till now and will into the future. Today, tens of thousands of vehicles will pass across the West Gate Bridge. Its flags will be lowered in an act of remembrance. Families, friends and former workmates will gather at the site of the collapse, as they do every year, to remember the loved ones they have lost. It's only appropriate for us here today to pause here in the nation's parliament to remember the lessons of that day so that they might shine a path forward for all of us. May the 35 souls lost at the West Gate Bridge rest in peace and may God bless their families.
Honourable members: Hear, hear!
Remarks, 16th Commemoration Ceremony of the 2002 Bali Bombings
12 October 2018
I want to thank you very much for the opportunity to come here once again and to join with you again on this very difficult day. People have come here today, not just from the Eastern Suburbs of Sydney. They’ve come from Tasmania, they’ve come from southern Sydney, where in my community, we lost seven beautiful girls. 88 Australians.
As we come together on this day, it’s sixteen years. There’s nothing particularly special about sixteen years. It’s another year that we come together, and we remember. We’re sad. We’re hopeful, at least we try to be on a day like today. We remember special moments, and all of those that were taken away in an instant of unspeakable evil.
But what is beautiful about this ceremony is the way that I think it has been embraced by a country that looks to a moment like this for a further step in healing. And that’s why we come together, and we shake hands and we swap embraces and we walk along this beautiful headland and we read the names and we reflect.
I did not know the Coogee Dolphins who perished in Bali. Or indeed the 202 who lost their lives on that terrible day. But we all felt the numbness that swept through this country in the days that followed that terrible night. None of us could believe it, and no one more so than the men and women who gather here and indeed those who were there that night.
In an instant, lives were upended, can’t forget what we saw, read and heard in those days. The fire, the chaos, the confusion. But also the courage, the love, the compassion. All of it’s remembered today. And through it all, we saw in the men and women lost in Bali that night, people who were as loving and as normal and as complicated as anyone else in our country today.
The Australians in Bali were there for no other reason than to enjoy and celebrate life and each other. A moment of happiness. An end of season trip, a family holiday, a surfing safari – the chance to make friends, learn to surf, even get a tattoo, hang out with mates, find love and laugh with strangers.
It doesn’t get more Australian than that. It doesn’t get more normal than that.
It is what made that night so shocking - the realisation that our daily living and our daily freedom could arouse such warped fury and hatred. It’s hard to understand. And those that were left behind - wives, husbands, mums, dads, children, brothers, sisters, clubmates, workmates, friends and loved ones who grieved.
So we carry that numbness today, we remember the survivors, who returned to lives that were never the same but have showed a courage that is truly remarkable.
And we also remember the Balinese people who suffered, and I acknowledge the Consul General today, who suffered. And we also remember today in a moment those who suffer in Indonesia because of the terrible tragedy in Sulawesi. That is a tragedy of nature. What was suffered on this day sixteen years ago was a tragedy of evil.
So places like Dolphin Point matter. For they allow us to draw strength – from our memories, from each other and from our country.
It’s a sacred place, and in the quietness you will hear the voice, the laughs, the jokes, the kindnesses, the mischievousness, the gentleness. So I would encourage you to listen to them. They are part of this place. They are not forgotten.
Thank you and God bless them all.
Address, Melbourne Institute 2018 Outlook Conference
11 October 2018
Thank you very much Paul and congratulations to you on your incredible work as editor at the Australian and I wish you all the very best for your new role at Sky. Can I welcome the great and the good of the economics and publishing community here and can I, well I can say this about the former Treasurer Peter Costello, as he is part as one of the great media chairs in the country these days. But can I particularly acknowledge Peter Costello in the room, the greatest treasurer Australia has ever had, ever had, there is no doubt about that. Angus Taylor is here, one of my colleagues as well. And I want to thank all of you who have come here for what is a landmark event. I’m always very pleased to participate and have been doing so for many years. So I want to thank the Australian and the Melbourne Institute for the invitation to be here today and I want to congratulate the organisers once again on this Conference.
Now the central theme of this Conference has always been about the balance between economic growth and social equity in Australia. And the Conference is a chance to take stock of what I would like to call the modern Australian Compact – a compact that supports enterprise, that supports growth, that supports fairness and social cohesion across our nation. It’s the compact in Australia, a very Australian compact, that makes us, I think different, from so much of the rest of the developed world.
What lies at the heart of this compact? Well you’ve heard me say it, I suspect, a few times, not only over the last seven weeks, but longer than that as Treasurer. A fair go for those who have a go, looking after your mates and leaving no one behind. It is a two-way compact, as it should be. Rights and responsibilities. Give as well as take. A focus on making a contribution rather than taking one. This is the promise that we all make as Australians and that we seek to keep as Australians.
Yet to fulfil this promise, we must never lose sight of this most basic truth. Without a culture of enterprise and growing our economy – without a strong economy that supports jobs, fairness and communities – social equity is a mirage. It is prosperity that pays for our social safety net, not sentiment. It thus falls to each and every generation of business, of citizens, of politicians, of indeed broadcasters and journalists and those involved in public commentary, each generation to stoke the fires of enterprise and growth in Australia if we are to remain both a prosperous economy and a fair society.
That is why today I am announcing a further step forward in the Government’s, our Government’s Enterprise and Growth Plan for Australia, that I first spoke of three years ago in my first Budget. A plan to give greater incentive to small and medium-sized businesses to invest and employ Australians by dramatically accelerating the tax cuts that we have already legislated for small and medium sized businesses. We are going to help our job-producing small and family businesses grow even faster, with major tax cuts for Australia’s millions of small business people.
Australia’s economy is growing, our Budget position is getting stronger and stronger. Because of our economic management, and because of that we can provide further and major tax relief to the more than 3 million small and family businesses around this country who employ more than 7 million Australians, which is more than half the workforce in Australia today. More than half the people who work for a living in this country today work for a business that has a turnover of less than $50 million, and if you go beyond Melbourne and Sydney, south east Queensland or Perth, you go out in the regions. It’s pretty much everybody, it’s pretty much everybody who is working in those businesses that will be the beneficiaries of our plan.
So if you are running a hairdressing salon, or a cleaning business, or a plumbing business, like Warren down in the Shire, who does our plumbing. I remember when Jenny, when we went on ACA, Jenny said she wishes I was a plumber. And I saw Warren down at Cronulla Mall and he said; “Mate, ScoMo, Jenny likes plumbers.” A very Shire thing. G’day Warren.
Or a news agency, or a coffee shop, a dry cleaners, any of these things. This is good news for you and anyone you’ve been able to create a job for in your business. If you are a mum or dad running a home-based business, this is fuel in your tank for your business that you’ve been waiting for and wanting. Your small businesses, if you run a business that has a turnover of less than $50 million, you will be moving to a tax rate of 25 per cent within the next three years.
That’s right, we are going to bring forward the scheduled reduction in tax rates to 25 per cent for small and family businesses up to $50 million in turnover forward by five years to 2021-22, with the first rate cut to 26 per cent to be done in 2020-21. And we will start this process next week. We will be bringing in the legislation next week to make those accelerated tax cuts for small and family businesses law in this country.
So there will be a clear choice, as Paul said, at the next election. Lower taxes for small and family businesses under our Government, or Labor’s promise for higher taxes for small and family businesses. Because they have already said they will reverse the legislation that would have small businesses - the smallest businesses in the country - a reduction of their tax rate to 25 per cent, they have already said they will change that law if they are elected. And now I can only assume that they would seek to change these laws that we are now seeking to legislate to ensure that within the next term of Parliament, by the end of that term of Parliament, these businesses under our laws will be at 25 per cent. Under Labor, they will be at 27.5 per cent.
Now our tax changes are paid for by not proceeding with the tax cuts for large businesses. As you know, we sought to put those through the Parliament and they were rejected ultimately by the Senate, and I don’t think anyone can accuse us of not having exhausted every opportunity to pursue those. Parliament has had their say, and we have decided to move forward to ensure that the benefits of that plan are now completely focused on small and medium sized businesses around the country. It is also not done as a result at any risk or any threat to the return to balance year which is projected for 2019-20, and we will be able to continue to meet that objective on the estimates as they’re currently presented.
Our Government is unashamedly on the side of the women and men who run small and medium sized businesses in this country. And we’re on the side of the millions of people they employ. These Australians tend not to obsess about politics. You won’t find people out there wearing t-shirts calling for lower taxes for small and medium sized businesses, in orange t-shirts or green t-shirts. They won’t be walking around with placards and they won’t be belting down the doors of politicians. They won’t be hassling editors, they won’t be writing op-eds. You know why? They’re pretty busy. Their days are already pretty full – balancing the books, paying taxes, investing in their future, playing by the rules, caring for their families, giving back to their communities and their country. That’s why it’s for our Government to stand up for them and to listen to them and to understand what the challenges are they face. This isn’t a response to advocacy. This is the action of belief and conviction of a Government that believes that small and family businesses and medium sized businesses are the hope of the side, and so we’re backing them in. We’ve been saying that as a Government consistently from the day we were elected. We are backing them in because they are the foundation of this Australian Compact for prosperity and fairness that we believe in.
Let me talk a bit more about the foundations of our national compact. I want defend it today from its opponents who are increasingly filling the benches of those who represent the Labor Party in the federal Parliament. Now this compact, this modern Australian Compact arose from a shared recognition by many people from across the political spectrum some 40 or so years ago. After years of economic underperformance, a generation of Australian leaders from different walks of life came to appreciate that we could only aspire to be a good and compassionate society with a stronger, more competitive Australian economy. Now some came to this view from a liberal perspective, and Peter Costello has been the greatest champion of that view on our side of politics. Our Government at that time under the Howard Government, moving forward to achieve things in this area like few other before it. Some came to that view from different points of political perspective. And they converged on the need for modernising reforms to liberalise our economy, open it to the world and make it more productive. Under the Keating reforms, that occurred and there was a consensus. Because when the Labor Party under Bob Hawke and Paul Keating were reforming our economy, you know who was voting for those reforms alongside them? John Howard and Peter Costello. Backing in those reforms. I can’t say the favour was always returned Peter, when you were moving some of the reforms when you came to Government as well. But you could at least say that there had been some consensus that enabled the economy to modernise and to go through rather significant reform. It led to an era of reform, and they agreed that advancing equity and fairness was best achieved off the back of a growing economy where businesses thrive, where Australians are in work, and our national income rises. Where those who have a go are rewarded. Where opportunities are created for individual initiative and enterprise.
Yes, people differed – sometimes fiercely – over policies. But the mindset was not that different; the direction of travel largely agreed. From Bob Hawke to John Howard, Bill Kelty to Hugh Morgan, if you cared about prosperity and fairness in Australia, you cared and were committed to growing our economy. And how did you nurture that growth? You nurtured it by fostering a vibrant, productive, free enterprise system. The private sector employs eight in ten Australians. To be strong and sustainable, our social compact demands a vibrant, productive, free enterprise system. From this mindset arose the foresight and determination to pursue bold economic reforms, the fruits of which help to sustain the Australian Compact to this day.
Now our Government has served that legacy and acted in accordance with that legacy over the last five years. We have continued the strong, long running economic growth now in its 27th year, a world record. More than a million jobs created in five years as we promised, and before time. The lowest percentage of working age Australians on welfare in 25 years and more. The protection and maintenance of our AAA credit rating under some if its greatest threats, particularly on the other side of the mining investment boom that ripped $80 billion out of the Australian economy. Record investments in health, education and infrastructure, the essential services Australians rely on supported by a strong economy. A progressive tax system where the top 10 per cent of taxpayers are paying almost half of personal income tax and the bottom 50 per cent of taxpayers pay around 12 per cent. The bottom 10 per cent of households by income achieving the highest income growth of any group since the Global Financial Crisis. A tax-transfer system that reduces income inequality in Australia by more than 40 per cent according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics. A social security system that targets benefits to the poor more than in any other high-income country according to Peter Whiteford from the ANU. A decline in what the HILDA research calls ‘relative poverty’ from 13 per cent in 2007 to 9.4 per in 2016. And we are doing this far better than many of our other friends in other developed nations.
The lesson of the Australian Compact is that you don’t reduce poverty by bringing people down, you do it by lifting others up. The recent Productivity Commission report tells us that unlike our friends in the United States, real incomes in Australia have risen strongly across all income deciles over the last 30 years. In Australia, disposable income per capita has increased by an average of 1.6 per cent a year since the 1980s. That compares with 1.0 per cent in the United Kingdom and just 0.7 per cent in the United States. Now should we aspire to do better? Of course we should – and we are, and we will continue to. But the evidence says our Australian Compact is delivering for Australians of all incomes.
Now those who claim the Australian Compact is broken are not just wrong on the evidence. They like to trash talk deliberately, irresponsibly, and cynically, casting a pall over the future aspirations we have as a nation. They do so because they want conflict. They want to divide Australia. They want to turn every single issue into us and them, winners and losers, for their own political advantage, to push their own ideology, and to push their own barrow. They have forgotten that our compact and our social fabric is a shared one. They tear down one part of it, and they weaken us all. For short-term political purposes they seek to take us down the path of other countries where citizen is set against citizen, and where the bonds of our shared endeavour would begin to corrode.
What’s become clear is that today’s Labor Party under Bill Shorten no longer sees economic policy like the Labor Party used to. They are no longer fellow travelers, I believe, on this modern Australian Compact that began roughly 40 years ago. They no longer see this as a project they are willing to stand by. In fact, they are willing to tear it down. They have discarded the mindset of Bob Hawke, and they have embraced Bill Shorten’s politics of envy, and you know hypocrisy is not far behind. In this vein, he and Labor now says millions of workers are ‘ensnared’ by workplace laws that were written by Labor, and him in particular. The trade agreements that were endorsed by Labor as the enemy of workers. The problem with Labor’s modern view of fairness is that it begins and ends and deals only with issues of redistribution. Carving up that under Labor and those mindsets and those policies will only ever be a diminishing pie - less for everybody is the product of that thinking.
For the Coalition - and the Australian people in my experience - fairness has a broader meaning and a more ambitious aspiration. It encompasses redistribution and help for those in need, and of course that’s true. But fairness also embraces reward for effort and responsibility to have a go and be given a go. It encompasses those who need a helping hand as well as those who work hard, get up early, take risk and employ or support others.
The goal of Labor’s anti-business, union bred, union fed and union led anti-enterprise crusade is clear. It is to stoke resentment within our market economy and towards it, with those having a go in business and with our free enterprise system itself. You know you can't lead a country that you want to divide, where you want to drive a wedge between employers and employees. Where you want to drive a wedge between parents who want to send their kids to one school and parents who want to send them to another. You can’t lead a country if you want to divide it. And that’s why under our Government, we want to keep Australians together, and we want economic plans that keep Australians together. None of this bodes well under Labor’s plan for middle Australia, for low income workers and those who rely on our social compact to get by. Because when you put growth at risk - this is the real kicker - the most vulnerable to what our opponents put forward as the alternative approach are the low and middle-income earners who have a higher chance of losing their jobs when growth slows. They are the victims, yet Labor claims they are their purpose. It is a bitter irony, and a costly one for those Australians.
The Coalition Government is determined to champion and strengthen this compact. We believe that only by maintaining a strong and growing economy with thriving businesses can we aspire to be a fair society. We believe for someone to do better in Australia, someone else does not have to do worse. You don’t have to tax some people more to tax some people less. We don’t believe that. We want to lift everybody up. We believe the best form of welfare is a job. We believe our safety net should work like a trampoline not a snare, bouncing people back up. We believe in Australians keeping more of what they earn, so families can get ahead and can plan for the future with confidence.
That’s why in this year’s Budget, we announced one of the biggest personal income tax plan reforms we have seen in generations, completely removing a tier of the tax system. And yes, we did it over seven years, you’ve got to do it responsibly, you can’t do it all at once. But people should know where their Government is going, they should know what the plan is. Our plan is you get to keep more of what you earn. When you put more in, you have the opportunity to keep more of that, and under our plan 94 per cent of workers will pay no more than 32.5 cents in the dollar on the extra income they earn. We believe in that.
The Government legislated tax cuts which we have put through, which Labor will cut in half, provide I think the guarantee that Australians are looking for from their Government that it’s worth putting the effort in. And we’re seeing the response. We’re seeing businesses respond, we’re seeing the jobs created. We’ve seen over 100,000 jobs in the last fiscal year created for young people in Australia. That is the strongest year of youth employment growth in Australia’s economic history, and I know as a former Social Services Minister, if you get a young person into a job by the time they’re about 24, their chances of living the rest of their lives on welfare radically diminishes. But if you fail, the chances of them being on welfare for the rest of their life goes through the roof. Getting young people in jobs is a game changer for our nation, and our Government is delivering that. Of all the things we’ve done over the last five years, I can’t nominate one greater than that. And you know who made that happen? Small and family businesses. The look in the eye of a small business owner who employs that young person that they know in their community, whether it is down in Burney or up in Townsville or wherever it is. The sense of pride that a small and family business owner has when they employ a young person and then several years later they’re at their 21st or maybe at their wedding or then they’re at their christening or Bat Mitzvah or whatever it happens to be. That’s what family business is all about, and they are revved up and wanting to put young people in jobs.
So we’ll continue to back them with our tax cuts, which I’ve already referred to. We’ve already lifted the definition of a small business from $2 billion to $10 billion, which gives them access to a whole raft of small business concessions to make not only their paperwork lighter but their interaction and their cash flow much more flexible. We’ve made changes to the consumer and competition law to put them on a level playing field, we’ve introduced the Australian Financial Complaints Authority. We’re tackling anti-phoenixing behaviour for small and family business to help them get ahead. We’ve extended the instant asset write-off which is enabling them to invest more. And when you’re cutting their taxes, and they can invest more in their business, and they can write these things off immediately as well, you’re allowing them to get ahead.
When it comes to the future of the economy, there really are two alternative visions. Our proven policies that have delivered jobs, investment and opportunity, or Labor’s radically different path. It never used to be that radically different, but there is a big difference now. Under our Government, we have kept real expenditure growth in check at 1.9 per cent, less than 2 per cent. That’s the lowest level of expenditure in half a century. Our responsible budget management has resulted in the smallest deficit in ten years and it is moving towards a balanced Budget in 2019-20. Indeed, the release of the Monthly Financial Statements just for July and August today point to a further strengthening of our Budget position. While this is a very early read, as Peter knows who would have seen these figures come through, the underlying cash deficit is $6.6 billion better than where it was estimated to be at by now in the Budget and our expenditure is lower than expected – and receipts are $4.2 billion higher resulting from a better performing economy – with more company and personal tax receipts.
The foundations of our fiscal strategy and success are keeping expenditure under control and keeping taxes under control, because that is what drives the economic growth that’s what’s supporting our revenue growth. Labor’s plan is to walk away from controlling expenditure and jack up taxes. Labor’s five point plan, as I said on the weekend - more tax, more tax, more tax, more tax and more tax. That’s Labor’s five point plan, and that plan will throw a wet blanket on the Australian economy. It’ll slowing growth and the growth that produces the revenue that pays for the services and essential services Australians rely on.
Now they say when they announce all their expenditure that it’s being funded by savings. Savings, they say. But they’re not savings. They’re tax increases. Tax increases are not savings. Well I suppose they are in one sense, because if you’re going to fund your Budget by higher taxes, what you’re telling Australian families to do and Australian businesses to do is they’ve got to make the savings in their budgets to pay the higher taxes. So Labor won’t control their own expenditure. So they say to every small and family business, they say to every retiree counting on the imputation credits, they say to every small business that will be paying higher levels of tax, they say, “You make the cuts in your budgets, you make the changes to your expenditure, because we couldn’t be bothered and we can’t control expenditure. So we’re just going to tax you more, and we’re going to outsource the savings target to your budget, to your family, to your business, to your retirement.”
Under Labor the Macquarie dictionary will have a new definition. Savings: taking someone else’s money and using it for yourself. That’s would be their definition. Even nine months out we know there is more than $200 billion in higher taxes. Taxes on housing, taxes on savings, taxes on earnings, taxes on business, taxes on investment. All slowing our economy down. So when you hear the shiny promises - $10 billion for this, $5 billion for this, $100 million for this. Every single one of those announcements are dependent on a higher tax, and you’ll pay for it. You'll pay for it twice, actually. You’ll pay for it in higher taxes, and you’ll pay for it in the slower growth that produces the slower economy that your job and your business depends on.
The best way we can continue to build a stronger economy is to support that Australian Compact that I have talked about. And I must say that this Conference has actually championed over a long period of time, and I’ve got to say Paul that the Australian has championed over a very long period of time. To support an Australian Compact that honours the hard work and efforts of its people. I was talking to the Irish Prime Minister the other morning, we caught up. And his party is known as the party who supports people who get up early. I felt a real affinity with that as a party, as a political movement in this country. And you know it’s not just the people who get up early to go to work, but it’s also the carer who gets up early to look after a parent, or a sibling, or to do the many other important jobs that are done around our society. Because that’s what this compact is about. It’s the connection between these two, and that’s what we passionately believe in.
It encourages and rewards those who work hard. It gives a hand up to those who need help. And we believe that prosperity and fairness are not mutually exclusive, they’re not an invitation for division or warfare and phony class warfare for that matter. Rather, prosperity is the foundation of fairness and the stronger Australia that our Government is looking to lead and to drive into the future.
We believe, I believe, our Government believes in the economics of opportunity. Bill Shorten believes in the politics of envy.
Thank you.
Press Conference with the Minister for Health and the Minister for Senior Australians & Aged Care
9 October 2018
PRIME MINISTER: I’m very pleased to be joined by the Minister for Health Greg Hunt and the Minister for Senior Australians and Aged Care Ken Wyatt. We’re here to announce today the Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety. Just over three weeks ago, I announced together with Greg and with Ken our intention to go forward to establish this Royal Commission. Since then, we have undertaken a very extensive consultation process and I want to thank the more than 5,100 Australians who have engaged with us over the last several weeks as we have worked together, together to form this terms of reference to drive this inquiry. I also had the opportunity, as Ken and Greg did, to meet with many of the sector representatives and many of those stakeholders right across the sector to ensure we had a very keen understanding of the priorities that needed to be addressed as we brought this Royal Commission together.
So I am pleased today to announce the Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety has been formally established by the Governor General. I am also very pleased to announce that the commissioners, the Honourable Justice Joseph McGrath and Ms Lynelle Griggs AO have been appointed by the Governor General to lead this important task. Both these individuals have had an enormous volume of experience, an exemplary record of Australian public service throughout their careers, in their respective fields and I am very grateful that they have taken up the invitation to undertake this very important task. They will need to determine the full extent of the problems in aged care and to understand how we can meet the challenges and the opportunities of delivering aged care services now and into the future. This is very much looking at what has happened, but it is also very much about understanding what needs to be done into the future. It is a very future-focused Royal Commission, but we are going to learn from the mistakes and the problems of the past as well.
The Commission will be required to submit their final report to the Governor General no later than, and I stress no later than, the 30th of April 2020, and to provide an interim report no later than the 31st of October 2019. Of course, if the Royal Commission is in a position to provide an earlier report if they believe that they are in a position to do so.
Our Government is committed to providing older Australians with access to care that supports their well-being, the dignity that they deserve, the choices that they are seeking, the comfort and the assurance that their families demand when it comes to making the biggest decision, often, that they have to make about the care of someone they love so deeply. And we need to do it in a way which recognises the contribution of those Australians who are being cared for. Their commitment over a lifetime as an Australian to our community and the service that they have provided. The Royal Commission will be the first step in re-establishing the trust that loved ones will be treated with dignity and respect.
The Royal Commission will be based in Adelaide, but it will also undertake hearings around the country. It will also have the opportunity to take evidence over video and other formats to ensure that people have the opportunity to participate in this very important Royal Commission. We will also recognize, at the end of the day, this is what it is really all about, and this is the major feedback that we have had over the last few weeks as we have consulted, as I said, more than 5,100 Australians. And that is that we need to establish a national culture of respect for senior Australians and Australians as they age. It’s that culture of respect that actually ensures that people are treated with dignity and the care that they deserve.
Now I know right across the sector, as does Ken and as does Greg, we have people working in aged care facilities, caring for young Australians with disabilities living in a residential aged care environment. Those providing in-home care services which are all covered by the terms of reference that we released today. We know that they work hard to provide exactly that care. But we also know that there are too many instances where that has not occurred. So we want to commend those who get up every day and work in our residential aged care facilities and provide that deep loving care that they do every single day they go to work. And I know that they would want, they would want, that all those who they support can have the confidence that all of their friends and all of their families can have confidence about the level of support and care that is provided in our aged care facilities.
So this is an important inquiry, we are very pleased to be in a position that we can do it. I think the country is going to have to brace itself for some difficult stories, some difficult circumstances, some difficult experiences. But that’s part of this process of the Royal Commission, to confront these stories honestly and to confront them in a way that helps us learn, to ensure that they are not repeated in the future. And at the end of the day, the national culture of respect for senior Australians and Australians as they age can become something that as a key outcome, a key product, a key deliverable of undertaking this very important task. I’m going to ask Greg to make a few points about the terms of reference. It mirrors very much what was first outlined a few weeks ago, but there are important additions to that as we have gone through the consultation process and I will also ask Ken to make a few remarks. Thank you. Greg.
MINISTER FOR HEALTH, THE HON GREG HUNT MP: Thanks very much, Prime Minister. This Royal Commission is about respecting and protecting older Australians. As Scott said, ultimately, it is about helping to build a national culture of respect for ageing and our senior Australians, and if we can achieve that, then everything else will follow. So in a way, this could be the most important legacy of everything that we do. By helping to build and helping to foster that culture of respect. In terms of the Royal Commission itself, the commissioners, Justice Joseph McGrath from the Supreme Court of Western Australia, and Lynelle Briggs, former public service Commissioner, former head of Medicare, distinguished career in public service but also now operating within the private sector as well, will bring a fearless and a frank approach. They have been selected, not just because of their history, not just because of their capabilities, but because they will bring a culture of caring and concern, but a frank and fearless approach to the findings that they will make. So now it falls to them to hear the stories, to listen to the concerns of families, to be the custodians of care and concern and future protection for older Australians.
We know, as the Prime Minister says, there will be some difficult times and some difficult stories, but above all else, this is about the future and laying out a foundation for the years to come. That is why the terms of reference are deliberately broad. They deal in particular with the quality and safety in relation to any examples of substandard care, how best to deliver care services, how best to deliver for the increasing number of Australians with dementia. The future challenges and opportunities for delivering accessible and affordable high-quality care. What the government and the aged sector community can do in relation to ensuring quality and safety, allowing people greater choice and control, best delivering services through innovative care and investment and in particular noting the importance of providing options for young people with disabilities who have been placed in an aged care environment and there is also the broad power for the commissioners to examine any matter that they believe are relevant to their inquiries. So they have an area of focus, but they are not constrained in the areas that they can examine as part of that.
So ultimately, this Commission has come about because of the concerns of the Government and the public because of the needs of the present and the importance of planning for the future, but if, at the end of the day, it contributes not just to better care, but a stronger national culture, then it will have been an abiding legacy of decades and generations to come.
MINISTER FOR SENIOR AUSTRALIANS & AGED CARE, THE HON KEN WYATT MP: Thank you very much. This Royal Commission has come about because our Government has listened. We have listened to the families who have been affected, we’ve been listening to those on the ground who have expressed their views. What we want is an aged care sector that is viable and is strong well into the future. A workforce that is trained to meet the needs of people who live not in residential care but in their homes, who have the level of support that is provided.
Geographically, we are a diverse nation. We are a nation of diverse people and in the context of the work that the Royal Commission will undertake, then they will consider the matters that are raised with them by the public during the consultation process. Our Government has been committed to building a stronger and better aged care sector for those who choose to live at home and for those who choose to go into residential aged care. And working with the structures and the structural reforms that are needed, this will give all Australian families a high degree of certainty that the quality of care that is provided in any setting in which they find a loved one will give them the assurance that they will live a quality lifestyle but live with the certainty of knowing that the wrap around services that they need to give them a safe sense of living will be provided into the future.
So I’m looking forward to the work being undertaken, and I certainly thank the Prime Minister for announcing this Royal Commission, which will give Australians greater certainty around aged care.
PRIME MINISTER: Thank you Ken. Well thank you also to Greg and Ken for the great job they’ve done in pulling this together and now the work gets on with it. Happy to take questions on this, let's stay with the Royal Commission at first. I'm sure there are a few other items of the day that we can cover on politics but on aged care?
JOURNALIST: This interim report by 31 October next year, is that enough time?
PRIME MINISTER: I would think so, but again, as is the case with any of these matters, if more time is required, more time will be given. That will be something that will be determined by the Royal Commissioners themselves. Having just announced it, I wouldn’t want to be prejudging those sorts of things. I think that they will get about the task and as is the case always with these sorts of inquiries, if more time is needed or requested, more time is given.
JOURNALIST: Does the Government anticipate that it will implement all the recommendations that are made by this Commission?
PRIME MINISTER: Well again, I’m not going to prejudge the inquiry I think it’s important- I mean we wouldn't be commissioning such an inquiry, if we didn't have such an intention to listen carefully as to what the outcomes and recommendations of the Royal Commission are. That’s why you commission a Royal Commission of this nature.
So, I look forward to it. I look forward to it because I think this will be a watershed in dealing with one of those most difficult of challenges that we have as a society. We are an ageing society like many other countries around the world and demands on our aged care system are changing. This as an important part of the inquiry, I really want this point to be made; it isn't just about the terrible incidents and the neglect and the abuse that have occurred, it’s about how we are going to deal with this problem and this challenge into the future.
More people thankfully are being able to make decisions to remain in their home for longer. That means as they enter into the residential aged care system, their needs are more acute. Last week I was with David Coleman, down in Hurstville and I was talking to leaders of the Chinese community. We are seeing whole cohorts of people from different ethnic groups in Australia now, who have come out in their 20s and 30s and helped build this country and they are now very much moving into the aged care sector. There are particular needs for those types of communities. So, you know, our country is ageing and that brings with it great challenges. What we need to ensure is that culture of respect and that dignity is provided to those senior Australians as they age.
JOURNALIST: There have been some concerns that some of the current reforms will be put on hold or delayed? For example the establishment of the Quality and Safety Commission.
PRIME MINISTER: No they won’t be. We’ll be moving ahead with all of those.
JOURNALIST: So the Commission will be established on the 1st of January next year?
PRIME MINISTER: We will be pushing ahead with all of those, it’s important. Look, the Royal Commission is of course important and it is in addition to all of the things we have already initiated. All of the additional funding we’re already providing and we will be getting on with our job as a Government to deliver quality aged services around the country. The Royal Commissioners will be getting on with their job independently, looking into these issues now and how they’re going to apply into the future.
MINISTER FOR HEALTH: And in fact, we have just passed legislation to review standards as well as having introduced legislation for the quality and safety commission.
JOURNALIST: If you wanted to encourage good people to join this workforce, is there going to be any financial incentives to help people work in the aged care sector?
PRIME MINISTER: I think these are one of the many issues that will be canvassed by the Royal Commissioners over the course of the inquiry. It’s workforce issues, it’s capability, it’s training, it’s sustainability. They have been the subject of previous inquiries and there have been some mixed recommendations that have come from those. So this is another opportunity I think to test what is really needed here and I’m looking forward to those outcomes as well. Anything else on aged care?
JOURNALIST: Just one last one, will the commission be looking at staffing ratios as part of it’s-?
PRIME MINISTER: Well the general issues of the workforce and how it’s engaging in the sector are covered in the terms of reference. So to the extent that the Royal Commission wants to address those issues, they’re able to do that through their terms of reference.
JOURNALIST: Just on banking today Prime Minister, they’re talking about additional compensation as well as repayment for customers who are mistreated or overcharged. Can you just expand on that and how you expect any compensation will work?
PRIME MINISTER: Well I can’t because they’re not sources from the Government. They’re not reports from the Government, that’s industry scuttlebutt. What the Government has done is set up the Australian Financial Complaints Authority, we have legislated it and its terms and it’s powers and what it plans to do is set out in the legislation. So I must admit, I’m a bit of a loss as to what the source of that other commentary is, because we’ve got another Royal Commission going on into the banking and financial industry currently and if there are reccomendations to come from that that deal with the Australian Financial Complaints Authority, then well and good. But I can’t really comment on something which has not come from the Government and is not currently under consideration by the Government.
JOURNALIST: Can I ask you about population and infrastructure? In 2010 you said it would be disingenuous to suggest keeping migrants in regions would ease congestion in Sydney. Do you still have those views?
PRIME MINISTER: At the time the policy that was being put forward by the Labor Party, I don’t think was really what is being contemplated here by our Government. On the impacts that population has across the country, there are many levers that you can pull. Your migration programme is just one of those. What I was referring to was migration in isolation being the solution to the system and it’s not, migration is part of a suite of policies that deal with congestion in our cities. That’s why I established a Minister for Population, which was also sitting alongside his responsibilities for Urban Infrastructure, because that is where the solutions to these challenges lay.
The policies that we are looking at carefully, which have been flagged today by Minister Tudge are all about how we align our migration programme with the economic and infrastructure policies of towns, regions and states all around the country. I was down in Tasmania on the weekend and in Tasmania, Premier Hodgman has a population plan. And how we can work in with his plan with the migration programme and our infrastructure programmes and our other policies, is what we are seeking to achieve as a Government. It’s equally true that what we’re talking about here is a very targeted use of our migration powers and our migration programme to ensure that we can direct and encourage those who are coming to the country, initially on a temporary basis and through those nonpermanent visas, to be able to go where there is a need for this labour, where there is a need for population growth and where there is receptivity to it.
I mean this is about actually trying to support, on the ground, the economic and population policies of local communities. It’s about working hand-in-glove with those communities and following their lead and backing them in on the programmes that they have.
JOURNALIST: Will there be extra spending on infrastructure in those regions to accommodate this?
PRIME MINISTER: There already is, that’s the point.
JOURNALIST: More to come?
PRIME MINISTER: This is the point, it’s about ensuring our migration programmes mirror what we’re doing without our infrastructure policies. Now, we’ve got a $75 billion rolling infrastructure program over 10 years, which is rolling out infrastructure all around the country, whether it’s the Midland Highway down in Tasmania or it’s the Northlink over in Perth or wherever it happens to be. And we’re not just talking about regional areas, we’re talking about cities like Adelaide where I know Premier Marshall is very keen, very keen to see population growth increase in South Australia and in Adelaide. I know up in the Northern Territory where Chief Minister Gunner when he was recently in Canberra, was announcing his very strong policy to encourage population growth in the Northern Territory. What we’re seeking to do as a Federal Government, as a national government, is to back in these local state and territory plans. To use the levers we have to realise the objectives which are being set at a local level.
So it’s very targeted, it’s very cooperative, it’s very consultative and it’s using the tools we have to achieve these broader objectives; to reduce congestion in the places which have a congestion problem and to increase economic opportunities in places that are seeking them.
JOURNALIST: If the policy though is going to apply to 45 per cent of the migrants at the most, would you consider introducing caps on say, international students, which does lead to some congestion.
PRIME MINISTER: We’re looking at all of these issues but we’d have to be very careful when it comes to the international education industry, it’s a very significant part of our national economy. It’s a very big part of the Victorian economy as Greg knows in particular. You carefully consider all of these options but you don't engage in policies which will actually hold our economy back.
We’re for driving our economy forward. The reason we can invest $1 billion and more extra, every year, in aged care, is because as a Government, we’re leading an economy that is growing. An economy, when you grow your economy, when you keep your economy strong, you can afford increases in aged care, you can support additional investment in education and in hospitals, in Medicare. You want a guarantee on Medicare?
The reason we can provide a guarantee on Medicare is because we can grow a stronger economy. We have demonstrated that over the last five years; More than a million Australians have got a job under this government, as we promised they would. We did it before we said that would be achieved, when we first promised it. So whether it’s on jobs or whether it’s on the growth of our economy, that is what is enabling us to guarantee the essential services that Australians rely on. That’s what we will continue to deliver as a Government.
JOURNALIST: In 2010 you said it was false hope to expect immigrants would go to the regions, what has changed?
PRIME MINISTER: That was in terms of permanent residents, and permanent residents can’t, you have no powers under the migration program to direct permanent migrants to live anywhere in the country. But for temporary residents, those on temporary visas, non-permanent visas, then the powers the Commonwealth have are very, very different. I’m sure, I mean I’ve been in this space a long time so I am sure people will look over what I’ve said in the last 10 years. I’m no stranger to this debate, I’ve been part of it for a very long time and I’m very passionate about it. I want us to see our immigration programme work for the strength of Australia. I want to see an immigration programme in Australia that keeps Australians together. I want to see an immigration programme in Australia that Australians are passionate and confident in.
Why did I stop the boats? I stopped the boats because I was concerned not just about the loss of life we had seen, but because the failure of the previous government to control our borders was crashing confidence in immigration in this country. Now our Government changed that. We secured those borders. We have the immigration plans that I believe Australians can be confident in, because we’re listening carefully to those who are being impacted by strong population growth in cities like Melbourne and Sydney. But we are also hearing the voices of those in Perth, in Adelaide, in Darwin, in Hobart, in Devonport or anywhere else around the country, in Wagga for that matter. I was speaking to the Deputy Prime Minister about this only today. Where they have a plan where they believe they can have additional population in those areas and they see it as good for their local economies. So that is the plan we are advancing.
JOURNALIST: Melissa Price says that 90 or so scientists have drawn a long bow in calling for the end to coal power. What’s your interpretation of the report, do you endorse it’s findings?
PRIME MINISTER: We take all reports seriously and we consider all of them and assess those, as you would be expect us to. That report was delivered not to Australia, it was a global report. It didn't contain any recommendations for any actions by Australia. It was making broader observations and Australia is part of that process. But I tell you what I’m about and what our Government’s about; our Government is about keeping our commitments. We have kept our commitments on Kyoto 1 as Greg as the Environment Minister at the time, knows all about. We will complete our commitments and beat them when it comes to Kyoto 2. We will meet our targets out to 2030 as well. We will meet the commitments that we have made. We have the lowest level of emissions per capita now in more than two decades and that is a good result. We had been working to achieve that and we will continue to do that.
But I tell you the other thing we’re going to do; that is we’re going to do everything we can to get electricity prices down. That is what the Minister for getting electricity down, is focused on and that’s Angus Taylor. The Minister for keeping the commitments that we’ve made on the environment is Melissa Price and that’s the job she’s doing. They’re going to do those jobs and they’re both going to do those jobs as part of our government. Thank you very much.
JOURNALIST: Is the Government considering nuclear energy as part of - ?
PRIME MINISTER: All I said yesterday was that I’ll consider options if they can stand up from an investment point of view. I said nothing, frankly, much further than that. What I would find surprising is the Labor Party would not consider something that if it stacked up on an investment basis and did lower electricity prices, they apparently wouldn’t consider it. I found that actually more amazing.
All the work that has been done on that issue to date has shown that the investment proposals haven’t stacked up and don’t stack up. So that’s where that issue rests from my perspective. But I’m not going to rule out things based on ideology, I’m not going to rule out things based on advocacy. I’m going to consider things that I think will ensure that we get electricity prices down when it comes to energy and I will always consider things that will help us practically we meet our environmental targets which is incredibly important to all Australians as well. Thanks very much.
JOURNALIST: Just on the Opera House very quickly, 260,000 people have signed a petition against the display of the race.
PRIME MINISTER: Yep.
JOURNALIST: Have you misread the electorate on this?
PRIME MINISTER: Look, I respect everybody having their say on this. I had mine, they’ve had theirs. I'm sure we can all respect each other's views on this and I’m sure the Premier, as they considered all that, will ensure that how they go forward with this will the done sensitively and respectively. I suspect in a few weeks’ time we’ll all look back on this a little differently. But look, it’s a free country, we all get to say our piece, I said mine. Everybody else has said theirs. We respect all those views and I’m sure Gladys Berejiklian will handle the issue with the sensitivity it deserves. Thanks very much.
Remarks, Hurstville Community Lunch
4 October 2018
THE HON DAVID COLEMAN MP, MINISTER FOR IMMIGRATION, CITIZENSHIP & MULTICULTURAL AFFAIRS: All right well good afternoon everyone and welcome to our lunch here with the Prime Minister Scott Morrison. Thank you very much for joining us. I’m David Coleman, the Federal Member for Banks and the Minister for Immigration, Citizenship and Multicultural Affairs.
The PM and I have just been chatting with people in Hurstville in small business, talking to people who employ so many Australians. You know, Hurstville is a tremendous success story of the success of immigrants investing in the future of Australia. There are so many people employed in the Hurstville area and so many of those people are employed by Australians of Chinese background who have come to Australia, who have invested, who have worked so hard to create those economic opportunities. Today in our group, we have representatives of so many of our local organisations, our non-profit social services organisations, a number of our artistic and musical groups, a number of our local religious leaders and so many other people who have come together to make this such a special community.
I’m so fortunate to have the region of the Hurstville area in my electorate and to represent such a diverse and fantastic community. In my new role as the Minister, I am so keen to talk about the great success stories of multicultural Australia. You know, we have about 1.4 million people in Australia who are employed in businesses that were started by a migrant, which is a fantastic success story. About one in three small businesses were started by somebody who has immigrated to Australia. Our multiculturalism makes us stronger, it is one of our great success stories. We should be very proud of it, we should celebrate it and it is great to have the PM in Hurstville today to meet with you all. So without further ado, please join me in welcoming the Prime Minister of Australia Scott Morrison.
[Applause]
PRIME MINISTER: Nǐ hǎo.
[Applause]
It’s great to be here with you today, particularly to be here with my friend David Coleman, who not only serves in the Ministry, but has been my neighbour here in Banks. I’m in the electorate of Cook, just across the river. Well it’s all across the river now as part of this council area Georges River Council also takes in the seat of Cook these days. But it’s wonderful to be here with you all today.
After I became Prime Minister some weeks back, I said that I wanted to keep Australia’s economy strong so we could deliver and guarantee the essential services that all Australians rely on. I said that I wanted to keep Australians safe, whether it was in the classroom and keeping our children free from bullying, or the broader threats of international terrorism and these things that all countries these days must deal with. I also said that I want to keep Australians together. Bringing all Australians together, acknowledging all the many different parts and contributions that are made to make our country stronger. I said if we do these three things - we keep Australia strong and our economy strong, we keep Australians safe and we keep Australians together - we will build an even stronger Australia than the one we have today.
I’m very pleased to be here today to acknowledge the contribution of the Chinese national Australian community to that story of making Australia stronger, which has been happening for a very long time over our history. It hasn’t always been the case that, I think, Chinese Australians, those who have come here from China over hundreds of years, have had it easy. And it wasn’t always the case that that contribution was acknowledged. The investment, the businesses, the hard work, the enterprise, the families, the education, cultural contributions, it wasn’t always the case. I think it’s great today that we live in an Australia that is, increasingly. But there is more to do.
One of the things I often like talking about, particularly around the time of Chinese New Year, is that just used to be a celebration within the Chinese Australian community. Now it’s a celebration of the entire Australian community, wherever you go around that time of year. It doesn’t matter whether people have come from a Chinese background or not, they celebrate it. It’s become part of Australia’s cultural calendar and it has taken on, I think, a very Aussie, a very Australian element to it. I think that speaks volumes about the contribution that has been made over many, many years.
There are 1.2 million Australians who identify as having Chinese ancestry here in Australia today. They are larger than any other people of non-Anglo Saxon background in the country today and we cherish all of their contributions, in all its facets. It enriches us and we are better and we are stronger as a nation for it. We’re also able to recognise the genuineness of Chinese-Australian commitment in the pages of our history; from our own battles as Australians in the theatres of war, through to our sporting achievements. The grandson of one of Australia’s first Chinese migrants, John Joseph Shying was the first Chinese-Australian serviceman serving in the Colonial Military Forces in the 1885 Anglo-Sudan War. Thereafter, Chinese Australians served in World Wars I and II, in Korea, Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan. I’m told the Goldfields Leagues that kicked off in Ballarat on August 26, 1892 included two Cantonese teams – the Miners and the Gardeners – gave birth to a golden decade of hotly-contested AFL matches and spread to Bendigo, Eaglehawk and Geelong. Those pioneering links with this very Australian code, the AFL as we know it today, carry through to today with Port Adelaide and the Gold Coast Suns teams recently playing before packed-out crowds in Shanghai. And Kochie, who I’m sure you all know from Sunrise in the morning, I saw at the AFL Grand Final and he was introducing me to people at the AFL Grand Final, had been very involved and supportive of seeing that representation, that celebration, of Australian life up in Shanghai.
Ladies and gentlemen, this afternoon, I want to affirm as Prime Minister that Australia will always, always welcome Chinese students, investors and visitors to our country, supporting our national interest. This is such a great driver of jobs in our nation. Trade, tourism and student numbers are at record highs. Total trade reaching $183 billion and Chinese student numbers eclipsing 184,000 last year. Chinese visitor numbers now hitting 1.4 million in 2017/18. Now when I started work in the tourism industry several decades ago, there weren’t that many total visitors to Australia, from countries all around the world. Today, Chinese citizens coming to Australia on holidays eclipses that number at 1.4 million.
So I can’t stress this enough; China, as the most populous nation in our region and our largest trading partner, is important to Australia. We welcome its’ remarkable success and we are committed – absolutely committed – to the long-term constructive partnership with China based on shared values, especially mutual respect. We believe in the prosperity of our region and the prosperity of our region depends on these increasingly strong and connected ties.
Our Government is strongly committed to working closely with China’s leaders to advance our Comprehensive Strategic Partnership. This is very important to us, because it’s the unique partnership that provides an invaluable framework for progressing our mutual and complementary interests. In September last year, as Treasurer I visited China for the bilateral Strategic Economic Dialogue, which was part of that partnership framework. And I am relishing further opportunities for engagement that are ahead. We have the East Asia Summit coming up, APEC and of course, the G20 Summit all to take place before the year’s end.
Now Australia and China won’t always agree on everything, we have different systems, different national interests and we have different concerns from time to time. Naturally enough, that will lead to different views, from time to time. But this is what is so crucial; that we manage these divergences constructively, in the spirit of this Comprehensive Strategic Partnership, guided by the principles of equality and our deep and abiding mutual respect and in the interest of the prosperity of our region where we all live. Because and above all, we are acutely aware of the strong fundamentals that we share; our deep-rooted economic, institutional and community links and particularly when we talk about education, when we talk about cultural exchange, when we talk about the people-to-people visitor exchanges. The connections between our peoples will always run even deeper, always run deeper and that provides the platform for the broad partnership that we share with China.
It’s in our two countries’ interests to have a strong relationship because we both benefit. And yet, there remains so much potential to take our relationship even further. Bilaterally on law enforcement, resources and energy including our LNG expansion, agribusiness, services, new technologies in the medical, biotech, and environmental spheres, investment, research and development and innovation. Internationally, working together to promote regional stability and development. To combat protectionism and address environmental challenges and natural disasters.
Now as Prime Minister, your Prime Minister, I am determined to build on the respectful, mutual cooperation that has forged such strong cultural rapport and led to the heights of economic success for both Australia and China over many years.
Now all of that, what I have spoken about, is represented here in our local community here in southern Sydney. It’s particularly represented here in Hurstville. My wife grew up not far from here over in Peakhurst, went to Peakhurst High School. This is where, when we were young people and those days are behind me, but nevertheless this is where we would come, up to Hurstville many, many years ago. We’ve seen this community grow in confidence and strength. As I walked down the street on Forest Road this morning, it was just so pleasing to see the investment and the thriving community, business community that it has become, here in Hurstville. It’s great to see as David said, 1.4 million Australians working in businesses that have been started by migrants. Migrants that have come to this country to make a contribution, not take one. And what a contribution you have been making. I really want to acknowledge that contribution today with the best way I can put it – xièxiè.
Remarks, Resources Roundtable
2 October 2018
Well thank you all for coming around today and it’s great to be joined here by Matt Canavan, Minister for Resources and Northern Australia and Melissa Price, the Minister for the Environment. Nola Marino who is here as the Chief Government Whip, but also as a passionate West Australian who has a keen interest in the resources sector here in Western Australia.
It’s great to be here in the west, the home of around about half our resources exports as a country. That’s why it’s incredibly important that while I’ve been here these few days to take a bit of stock about where you’re seeing things and where you want to see things going. I think it’s exciting to see the turnaround that’s happening. We’ve obviously come from a very difficult position over the last five years or so, that was not just a significant impact, obviously, on the resources sector, but had a very significant impact on the national economy. I knew that as Treasurer.
When WA is doing well, when the WA resources sector is doing well, Australia is doing well. It’s just fundamental maths when it comes to the Australian economy. While plenty was said about the GFC, frankly the fall off in mining investment off the peak of the mining investment boom had far greater impact on the Australian economy than anything else. For that to now be turning around I think is a great sign of encouragement and hope, not only for West Australians but I think for the entire national economy. So we only want to encourage that.
While there are many exciting things that are happening in many different parts of the economy, when it comes to digging things out of the ground, we do it very, very well and very profitably and we need to keep doing it. It’s an enormously important part of our national economic story and when people look into Australia from around the world, I know as Treasurer they always look at the health of the resources sector and the prospects for the resources sector and how the resources sector is meeting those challenges as a key barometer of how they see the performance of the Australian economy in the future. It plays into so many of the other sectors of the economy, whether it’s the housing sector, or whether it’s the manufacturing sector or all the others. While they might not be mining directly related, they are certainly linked ultimately in second and third round effects.
So there’s a lot of exciting things happening in this sector with some of the new base sectors around lithium and rare earths. There are also, as Melissa was reminding me just before, sort of new sectors from a climate and an environmental perspective as well. We’ll have a lot of renewable opportunities there and we’re excited about those. The CEFC and the NAIF have also been supportive in those sectors, but nickel and cobalt as well have come back into the mix of things and we welcome that.
There’s one thing I’ve checked every day for the last three years and that’s the iron ore price. As a Treasurer, I was in a regular habit of that and you know, as Treasurer I had it at 55 and I wasn’t too far off. I always like a surprise on the upside when it came to those things and I suspect you’re all pretty familiar with wanting to surprise your boards on the upside too. When it comes to these things, we’ve taken a pretty conservative approach; we haven’t over-estimated, we haven’t over-loaned I think on the resources sector in terms of how we built our Budgets over the last, particularly, three years. That has been a key part in our story in retaining our AAA credit rating. I think we’ve been pretty honest and pretty conservative about how we’ve been seeing things and it’s been able to perform. And the dividend of that has contributed, I think, to particularly the 2017/18 result, where we saw the lowest deficit in a decade. And it’s been a key contributor amongst many other things, I’ve got to say, people getting off welfare and into work has been one of the biggest, if not the biggest contributors to the Budget. But this has also played an important role as we go forward. We want to see that continue.
So today I was just hoping I could get a bit of a sounding, Matt and Melissa and Nola are far more directly involved in the sector. But I know certainty counts. I know stability counts. I know certainty in policy settings counts and some of you or others would have been involved in the work I was doing around the PRRT side of things and Matt was involved in that as well. We just have the view that when you engage in these sectors, you’ve got to be very clear and you’ve got to make sure that the people who are making investments which have long tails on them, can have certainty about the policy environment they are going to operate in. You know, this sector has been seen as a cash cow, I’ve got to say it, by the Labor Governments in the past. We don’t see it that way. We see it as an economic engine and the stronger the sector does, the stronger the economy does, the more jobs are produced. That’s where the revenue comes from. The revenue comes from people getting jobs and Australia doing well. So we want to see that continue.
Remarks, Western Sydney Airport
24 September 2018
PAUL O’SULLIVAN, CHAIR WESTERN SYDNEY AIRPORT CORPORATION: There are lots of other groups here who made this morning happen. I won’t mention everybody, we could be here all morning, but I do want to call out in particular the staff and the board of the Western Sydney Airport Corporation who are here. I’d like to mention as well our colleagues in the Department of Infrastructure in Canberra, to also acknowledge the Greater Sydney Commission, who has been instrumental. The Forum for Western Sydney, several of the members are here today. Our partners in construction, and our delivery partners, and of course members of the community, several of you who are here.
Today, doubt and uncertainty ends. Construction begins on the new Western Sydney International Airport. It’s a momentous occasion, an historic occasion and one which we are very proud to be marking in the presence of our national leader. So with that, I’d like to pass over to the Prime Minister of Australia, the Honourable Scott Morrison, to mark this occasion with a few words.
PRIME MINISTER: Thank you very much Paul, and Uncle Gordon can I also acknowledge the Darug people, elders past and present. Can I also acknowledge my colleagues who are here today, particularly Stuart Ayers, the Minister for Western Sydney, an absolute champion of the west here in Sydney and I know this is a very special day for you mate and for all of the people of Western Sydney. Alan Tudge, the Minister for congestion-busting amongst many other things, but that includes these big projects.
How good is this? This is an exciting day. Welcome to the future of Sydney. That’s what we’re seeing here. Our Government is into big projects, and there are few projects bigger than this one. This is a project that will determine the future of this wonderful city that I have known all my life. When I look out on these hills, and I think back hundreds of years ago, and when other people look west and they look north and the look south and they saw the potential of this incredible city and they went out and they started creating it. And that’s what’s happening here.
Our Government has been committed to this since the day we were elected back in 2013 and before. My own involvement in this project goes back to pre-1996 when I was in the tourism industry and we knew the importance of this project for our national tourism industry. Not just our New South Wales tourism industry but our national tourism industry. This is nation-building infrastructure, of course it is. It’s economy building infrastructure. It’s job-creating infrastructure. It’s city-shaping infrastructure. This will be a significant boost to Australia. It will make Australia even stronger. It’ll keep our economy even stronger, which means that our economy will be able to support the essential services the people of Western Sydney rely on, the people of Sydney, the people of Australia rely on. This will be a piece of economic infrastructure that supports our economy, that supports all Australians from one end of the country to the other. Some 27,000 jobs.
But building, as the NSW Government knows, to an aerotropolis that is supporting 200,000 jobs. The groundworks which we’ll see commence today – that engineering feat of its own will be significant, as these dozers really get to work in the months ahead. You’ll see that work taking place. So it is a tremendously exciting day. I’d like to pay tribute to those who have gone before Alan and I, particularly the former Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull and the Minister Paul Fletcher who did some very heavy lifting for the Commonwealth Government in this area and of course Tony Abbott before that and Warren Truss who had a big involvement in these projects.
We keep our promises as a Government and this has been a big promise. This isn’t the only nation-building infrastructure we’re engaged in. Snowy Hydro 2.0 of course, big energy infrastructure. But of course the Tulla Rail Link down in Melbourne. You know it was almost 50 years ago the last time we built a seriously big airport in this country? It was Tulla. Here we are out in Western Sydney today, kicking off the next one. It’s about time, I think as we’ve all felt about this. It’s about time and we’re very pleased to be here today to kick this off today.
I want to commend everyone who has been an advocate for it, everyone who has worked in it. I want to thank the local mayors and the local councils who have been so supportive of this project. I want to thank those who have been out there advocating in the media and winning the argument which said ‘this had to be done’. Now it is going to be done.
I think that’s something all Australians can feel very proud about.
So with those few words Paul, probably a few more than I’d planned but nonetheless, I’m going to hand back to you and I’m looking forward to giving the radio signal to get this going.
How good is this? How good is this?
Press Conference - Canberra, ACT
20 September 2018
Prime Minister, Minister for Education
PRIME MINISTER: Thank you, everyone. Our Government believes in choice in education. Our Government believes that parents should have choice in education. This has been a fundamental belief of the Liberal and the National parties for a very, very long time, indeed from our foundation. The policies that we pursue as a Government are about ensuring that choice for parents in education.
That's why I'm pleased to announce together with the Minister for Education, that we have been able to come to an arrangement, a final arrangement, to deal with the issues in education funding that have been of concern to the independent school sector and the Catholic Education Commission. I want to congratulate Dan on the work he's done in taking these issues forward and building on the work that was being done previously over the last three or four weeks.
From 2020, the Commonwealth will transition to a new method of calculating how non-state schools are funded and that will make the education system fairer and more equitable. The updated calculation was recommended by the National School Resourcing Board and its’ review on how the non-state school sector is funded. To support schools during the transition, the Commonwealth Government will provide over the medium term $3.2 billion to support students, parents and teachers of non-state schools. For students, this will mean the opportunity to get the best results from school.
For parents, it will mean that choice remains affordable. An affordable choice in non-government Schools. For teachers, it will mean certainty of funding so they can get on with the job. In addition to this funding, interim arrangements for 2019 will allow schools to plan with confidence for their 2019 school year. The Government will provide $170.8 million to non-government schools for these arrangements. The Government is also committed to supporting parental choice and diversity in the schooling system with a new $1.2 billion fund over the medium term that will provide a flexible means of targeting extra support for those schools in the non-government sector that require the extra support. Such as schools, I should stress, in rural, regional and remote locations, schools in drought-affected areas or underperforming school. I particularly want to welcome the offer by the National Catholic Education Commission and Archbishop Fisher for doing all they can to provide relief for students from families in drought-affected areas where they're attending school, which has been a key part of our discussions. Of course we remain committed to the state school system. We’re delivering record levels of additional recurrent funding for government schools growing from $7.3 billion this year, to $13.7 billion in 2029. I want to thank the National Catholic Education Commission for issuing a statement today where they make it very plain that the National Catholic Education Commission fully supports the package of measures unveiled today. I welcome also the correspondence from the Independent Schools Council of Australia where they say; “The proposal for the phased introduction of a new model for calculating government funding for non-government schools creates a foundation for a fair and reasonable resolution of the current funding issues. It has our full support.”
This is an important issue the Government has been working on for some time and it's been a keen area of focus of our Government over the last three to four weeks. I'm going to ask Dan as the Minister for Education, to take you through some more of that detail. But as a former Treasurer, indulge me for just one second. $1.1 billion over the forwards, $171.3 in 2018/19, $84.8 in 2019/20, $418 in 2020/21 and $499.2 in 2021/22. All of these will be reconciled in MYEFO. Dan?
THE HON. DAN TEHAN, MINISTER FOR EDUCATION: Thanks PM, and can I just start by thanking the Catholic and independent sectors for the very good faith they’ve shown in these negotiations. They’ve conducted themselves thoroughly decently and I’ve really appreciated the time that I’ve spent with them over the last four weeks and the way that I’ve got to know them. Obviously what they provide for parents and communities around Australia is incredibly important. I see it on a daily and weekly basis in my community in western Victoria. A small town like Penshurst in western Victoria, 750 people and there’s 35 students attending the Catholic primary school there and six kids which attend the local state school there. They both provide excellent schooling, but importantly, the way our system works is those parents in those communities have a choice. That is so important.
What this package today is, is making sure that affordable choice for parents continues. It builds on the good work of my predecessor Simon Birmingham and the work of Michael Cheney and the review of the SES methodology which he undertook. Very important work and we are announcing today that we are accepting all the six recommendations of the Cheney review. What that means is that we are creating certainty going forward for the Catholic and independent sectors. For next year, the 2018 interim arrangements will continue for 2019 with some minor tweaking based on the Cheney review. We will then transition to the direct measure, the personal income tax, or as it's described, the PIT measure that was recommended by Cheney. But we will provide some flexibility for both the independent and Catholic sectors as to how they transition. Finally what this package does today, is create a fund, a sector-blind fund which is called the Choice and Affordability Fund which, as the Prime Minister has said, will have $1.2 billion in it to ensure that going forward that parents across our nation will continue to have the choice that we believe they should have, for their kids' education. Thanks Prime Minister.
PRIME MINISTER: Thanks very much Dan and congratulations for putting this together. My thanks also to all of the non-government school agencies that have been part of this discussion. Happy you to take questions.
JOURNALIST: Could you explain to us the flexibility that's included in this arrangement? Does that mean that people will be able to choose or school systems will be able to choose which SES system they use in the interim period?
MINISTER FOR EDUCATION: Yes, so the systems approach continues, consistent with what was there for this year in 2018. That continues for 2019 and then will continue as part of the approach which Michael Cheney recommended with the move to PIT.
JOURNALIST: But sorry, can you just clarify whether they will be able to make a choice of which SES model they use, whether it will be the parents' income or the existing SES system or?
MINISTER FOR EDUCATION: So they will be able to transition, so between 2020 and 2022, it will be up to schools as to when they will make that transition. So they have a 3-year period in which to transition.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, the systems will have the authority and autonomy to decide where they put the funding for their schools?
PRIME MINISTER: Yeah, those arrangement haven’t changed.
JOURNALIST: When Malcolm Turnbull first got up to announce the second Gonski review in 2017, he said he wanted to end the school funding wars once and for all. Since then, you first announced an $18 billion policy and then a $23 billion policy and now it looks like you're up to about $30 billion. How can you say this is now going to end the school funding wars?
PRIME MINISTER: We’re funding school education at record levels. I think all Australian parents, all Australian teachers and all students would be very pleased with that outcome. We're preserving choice, we're supporting state school education, we're stepping up at record levels of funding. I think that's good news.
JOURNALIST: How does this compare to Labor’s promise of an extra $250 million a year to Catholic Schools?
PRIME MINISTER: We can pay for it because we’re going to run a strong economy. That’s how you pay for these things. Labor makes lots of promises, but you can't trust them because they can't fund them. Because they don't know how to run a strong economy and they don’t know how to manage a budget.
That's why you can always rely on Liberal-National Governments. Because what we promise, we deliver. Our Government keeps our promises and we’ve kept them in Government. All the promises we have taken to the last election, we kept. We’ve pursued them and we will keep these because we know how to pay for them. That's why Australians can trust our Government. Because they have seen that our Government knows how to manage a budget, knows how to manage an economy, knows how to deliver on its’ promises.
JOURNALIST: Mr Tehan, the principle behind Gonski 2.0 was for non-government schools to get up to the 80 per cent of the school resourcing standard. Is this package consistent with that or does the extra $1.2 billion give the non-government sector an unfair advantage?
MINISTER FOR EDUCATION: No, no it's consistent with that.
JOURNALIST: What do you say to public school parents who watch private schools get another $3.2 billion over the medium term, just because they kicked up a fuss? Doesn't this just show if you lobby hard enough, you can extract whatever money you want from the Government?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, I’m not surprised you have a very cynical view about this, but I don't think parents will be cynical like that. They will know that we're funding public schools at record levels. All parents want to have choices about how they educate their children. Where there are issues that need to be addressed, we’ll address them. As you know, state governments are the principal funders of state schools. The Commonwealth Government has always been the principal funder of non-government schools. That's not news, that's a longstanding arrangement.
We’ve stepped up on public schools, we’ve stepped up on non-government schools. We believe in choice in education. We believe Australian parents should have choice and we're guaranteeing that choice through the decisions and the commitments and the agreements we reached today.
JOURNALIST: Mr Morrison, what impact will this have on the Budget trajectory?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, I have just outlined it. It’s 1.1 over the forward estimates.
JOURNALIST: What about in terms of the return to surplus timetable?
PRIME MINISTER: Those issues will be resolved in MYEFO. But I’ve set it out year by year and we’re currently going through the MYEFO update process and that will be fully reconciled then.
JOURNALIST: You just survived a motion, a vote to suspend standing orders in the Parliament against Peter Dutton. One of your backbenchers said to another; “Supporting that man goes against what I want to do.” Does this not show that you don't have the unity in the Government, in the Party, you are seeking?
PRIME MINISTER: I think that’s nonsense. The Labor Party have been kicking up a lot of dust this week about votes and how it's all going to go. On each and every occasion, our team has stood fast in the Parliament. So what it has shown today, is frankly that Labor are just full of a lot of hot air. They trumped up a partisan-based committee report in the Senate, which I said this morning, if that same committee used its’ numbers to say the sun didn't come up this morning, well, that wouldn't make that true either.
The Parliament has dealt with this matter now and it continues to deal with the matter. I think it's time for the Labor Party to move on from their games and the Greens to move on from their games.
The Government is focused 100 per cent on the needs of the Australian people.
This week, a Royal Commission into the aged care sector.
This week, dealing very quickly with the issues of alarm that has been happening in our farming community, whether it's with strawberries or whether it's drought today, with the announcement we made about ensuring you can get the hay to the farmers.
Here today again, demonstrating that we are focused on the needs of Australian parents and students.
So that's what the Government's been doing this week. The Labor Party and the Greens and others have just been playing the usual Canberra games. When politicians play Canberra games and when others play Canberra games, you know what the Australian people do? They grab for the sound and they turn it down. They're turning it down on Labor. They’re turning it down on the Greens. They’re turning it up on our Government because our Government is focused on what they're interested in. Yes, Phil?
JOURNALIST: Mr Morrison, earlier this week you postponed or cancelled the COAG meeting with the states. There was also, before the leadership change also scheduled an Energy Ministers meeting this month, state and federal. Can you tell us what the status of that is?
PRIME MINISTER: I haven’t made any decisions in relation to that Energy Ministers meeting and the meetings between ministers have been progressing. In fact Dan was at one last Friday with Education Ministers and they are quickly moving to resolve the issues around how the state’s contribution to the funding arrangements in part we have been talking about today, are being resolved. It was a matter I was pursuing as a Treasurer. The Treasurers are also meeting next month and they'll finalise those issues. So those things have been well addressed, I understand.
You don't have to have meetings if you don't need to have meetings, that's my view. The Labor Party can have as many meetings as they like, they doesn't seem to be able to resolve anything when they in Government. They were great at having meetings. The only thing that happens as a result of not having that COAG meeting, is less Tim Tams will be consumed in Canberra that week. But when the Drought Summit is held, that’s when you’ll see some real work being done.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, just two, if I may, to be greedy? Just on the Budget and the education announcement, you said the figures would reconciled in MYEFO?
PRIME MINISTER: Yes.
JOURNALIST: Will the savings be offset in MYEFO? Second - if I may - the AMA President has written to you and the AMA is in the building today lobbying on asylum seekers. They’ve described the conditions on Nauru as a humanitarian emergency and they’ve asked for families to be removed and for a delegation of doctors to attend in order to assess the physical and mental wellbeing of people in offshore immigration detention. What's your response?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, firstly, the announcement we’ve made today and the funding implications of that, that will be reconciled in MYEFO. That's where that will be announced and MYEFO is in the middle of December. There's still a lot of work between now and then, particularly as you update the various elements of the Budget. That also includes the revenue estimates and as you must have seen from the most recent national accounts, we’ve seen a very improving performance when it comes to the corporate sector and we'll reconcile that along with these other measures by the time we get to MYEFO.
In relation to the other matter, we are getting family off Nauru. That's exactly what we're doing. That's why we have the arrangement with the United States and that's why we're pursuing that. We thank our partners in the United States for the way we’re able to progress with that. But I think you all know my views about this. I'm not going to put at risk any element of Australia's border protection policy because I know when you do that - which is what Labor did last time, thinking it would have no effect - 1,200 people died. So I'm not going to do that.
JOURNALIST: On the school funding, how close was the Turnbull Government to landing this deal and do you give Malcolm Turnbull credit?
PRIME MINISTER: Sure, I mentioned that in my opening in terms of the work that had already been done. This process had been going on for some time and both Malcolm and Birmo had both been involved with those discussions. We’ve picked up those discussions and brought them to a conclusion. But this is my point; our Government has resolved this, our Government was elected in September 2013 and our Government has been getting on with these jobs and our Government has delivered this outcome today. Brett?
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, in March Peter Dutton told the Parliament; "I don’t know these people," in relation to the au pair issue. The evidence presented to the Senate inquiry shows very clearly that he did. Your Minister misled the Parliament, didn't he?
PRIME MINISTER: No, I don’t accept that at all and neither does he and the Parliament doesn't take that view as well. Thanks very much, thank you.
Press Conference - Royalla, NSW
20 September 2018
Prime Minister, Deputy Prime Minister, Assistant Minister for Roads and Transport, Special Envoy for Drought Assistance & Recovery
PRIME MINISTER: Well I’m pleased to be here, just outside of Canberra today at Royalla. We're here today to make an announcement about basically common sense. I'm not going to call the roll this morning, as you can see there’s quite a lot of people here with us today and everyone has been playing an important role in what we're announcing today. Dealing with the relief and the recovery of the drought and building the resilience into the future is what we're about. Major General Stephen Day is pulling together his plan with the rest of the Government. I announced yesterday that we were having the Drought Summit on the 26th October and we’ll have more to say about that over the next few days as well.
But in dealing with this challenge, there is just a lot of common sense things you've got to do. One common sense thing that we need to do is make sure when you're driving a truck full of hay, they don't stop it at the border because it doesn't comply with some rule that frankly doesn't need to be there, particularly in circumstances like this. So, one of the things we've identified early is the need for these trucks, large trucks carrying the hay, to move past state borders and not be pulled up, not be fined, not have to face 6,000 permits a year, all of this red tape when we just need to get the feed to the farm. That's what we need to do. We want them to keep on trucking all the way and not get caught up by unnecessary red tape. So the entire team here, with Michael and Scotty Buchholz, who I particularly want to commend here for his work coming into the portfolio, he used to run trucking companies, so he knows these issues, very, very well.
We're just getting on and fixing the things that need to get fixed. It’s a very common sense thing. As the hay - as I've learned over the last few weeks - as it starts to compress, it expands and that means it becomes non-compliant with the regulation. So common sense must prevail. I think what we're seeing here, is a good demonstration of people working together, states and territories, the trucking industry, farmers and of course all of truck drivers as well, all wanting to get the right answer here and to be able to be supporting our farmers in whichever way we can.
So it’s a great announcement today. I'll let others go into more detail about it but I want to commend everybody on just showing some really good common sense and there’s a lot more that we need to do. Michael?
THE HON. MICHEAL MCCORMACK MP, DEPUTY PRIME MINISTER: Thanks Scott. Tough times require common sense and I’m really pleased that this decision has been made to enable larger loads of fodder and hay to be transported interstate to enable farmers, sheep and cattle and other animals to be fed quicker. If they can get the fodder, they can now get it to their animals quicker. This is a sensible move. I certainly commend everyone involved and particularly our state colleagues, our road transport ministers across all the states.
This particular truck behind us, Jeremy Taylor has driven it yesterday from Jerilderie, it’s headed to Milton. This is an example of a truck that now, moving interstate, won’t be getting pulled up from midnight tonight. It will not be getting pulled up. It’s got a large load of hay on it, we need to get these bales of hay to where they’re most needed, in those drought-affected regions. This is good.
Delighted that of course we’ve got that summit later next month dealing with the drought. These are critical times and the Government wants to work with all communities, all stakeholders, to make sure that we get the help, the assistance and cutting through that red tape, cutting through that bureaucracy. That’s exactly what we’re doing. I’d like to now call on Scott Buchholz to make a few more comments about the particular details.
THE HON. SCOTT BUCHHOLZ, ASSISTANT MINISTER FOR ROADS AND TRANSPORT: Thank you Deputy PM, thank you Prime Minister. Just on some of the details, basically the width of a semi-trailer is 2.5 wide. Different states and different jurisdictions have different weight and measures lengths. So what this does, is harmonise across the eastern seaboard, South Australia, Tasmania – not that you can get trucks into Tasmania that easily these days – but this blows us out to 2.83 metres. Which means the extra width that we’ve got is 33 centimetres, so 15 centimetres plus a bit on either side of each truck. Makes an enormous difference.
It’s the difference between operators getting their loads from point A to point B, without tens of thousands of dollars of fines. It allows them to go to 4.6 metres height. Vehicles that will be eligible in this category will be heavy rigid vehicles, prime movers and semi-trailer combinations, prime movers and loader combinations, B-doubles, low loaders. What is doesn’t allow is for road train access. So any of those operators that are using road train access, there are still some areas that we’re looking at. I would direct them to the National Heavy Vehicle Regulator, because some states are allowing it and some aren’t.
Also truck and dog operators. We don’t get many truck and dog operators doing the long haul, but in Queensland there’s a provision for them to move, in other states there are not. So I want to acknowledge the National Heavy Vehicle Regulator, Sal Petroccitto, who has done an amazing job pulling this together out of Queensland. He is not here at the moment. I join with the Deputy Prime Minister on his acknowledgment of the state transport ministers with this common sense approach. Thank you gentlemen.
PRIME MINISTER: Thanks Scotty. Now Barnaby, put it in a bit of perspective, mate?
THE HON. BARNABY JOYCE, SPECIAL ENVOY FOR DROUGHT ASSISTANCE AND RECOVERY: Well thank you very much Prime Minister, Deputy Prime Minister. I hope you’ve all been listening to Scotty because we’re going to ask him some questions before we all go home. There’s eighteen tonne on the back of this. To give you a clear example, there’s 6,500 tonne over New Norcia, that’s a small amount. There’s a wheat crop over there that’s been frosted. If it fails, it could be close to two million tonne. So there’s 18 tonne and we might have to move two million. This is a large operation.
What we’re saying to the Australian people quite clearly is that we are moving, things are happening. This is no longer a talk-fest. These are things that are moving, happening, because we’re going to go into bat for the people who are under-the-pump and make sure that we help their lives get a little bit better.
PRIME MINISTER: Good on you Barnaby, thanks mate. Major General Day, this forms part of your broader plan that you’re bringing together and we’re looking forward to that coming forward at the National Drought Summit on the 26th of October.
But you know, we’ve been listening, we’ve been planning and you can see now, we’re really acting. This is part of a broader response to the drought as you know. One of those key measures about the towns is the million dollars that we’re putting into all of those drought-affected shires and councils, right across the drought-affected areas. This is going to be incredibly important to keep those towns, those economies, those communities firing. We can’t make it rain, but we can support those towns and those places to continue to be vibrant, to keep everything open there.
I’d say once again to all those Australians who have been reaching out and extending their great support for our farming and regional communities, the best way to do that is through direct donations through the registered charities and other organisations. By using vouchers, because that keeps the money in the towns. That is absolutely critical. So happy to take some questions, let’s keep it focused on the drought at first and then we can move to other issues, if that’s what you’d like.
JOURNALIST: How important is it to get positive stories out there about farmers dealing with the drought? I know Fiona in her address recently said farmers really resent the down-and-out portrayal?
PRIME MINISTER: I’ll ask Fiona to comment on this as well. But look I agree with that sentiment. A few days after coming into the job, I went up to Quilpie and we went up to Longreach. What I was really, I suppose, not surprised to see in one way but really pleased to see, was the story of resilience, the story of vibrancy, the story of hope. There is a lot of hope and we need to give people that hope.
In the cities, where we don’t know one end of a sheep from the other, we can get captured by a lot of those other more distressing stories and they are. But the reality is out in rural and regional Australia, drought is nothing new. This one is particularly severe, but the resilience, particularly of those farmers up in Queensland have been doing it for six years, I think demonstrates the great skill and the great capacity and endurance and resilience. So I think there are good stories that are out there. There are a lot of them and Fiona knows all about it. Fiona, do you want to comment?
FIONA SIMSON, PRESIDENT, NATIONAL FARMERS FEDERATION: Thanks PM, I will say a few words. Thanks very much and first of all can I just commend the PM and his team? It’s been a multi-effort but certainly the National Farmers Federation was really pleased to sit down with the PM when he came back from Quilpie and to talk about some of the things that he saw. Certainly I think the resilience of the agricultural industry, the fact that drought is not new. It hits people in different ways, it’s really difficult to work out in each community how it’s going to work.
But one thing is clear; that people are strong, people are resilient, people are buckling down, people do want to get on with it.
The PM said; “What is one common sense thing, do you think, if I could do one little tiny thing today, what would it be?”
I said; “Well to be honest, bringing hay up from the south to New South Wales is too difficult. It’s 2.7 metres in Victoria and South Australia, 2.83 in New South Wales. It doesn’t make sense.” The PM texted Scotty Buchholz, we got on the job and here we are.
PRIME MINISTER: One job, one job, you did it. I’ll give you another one now, you can come back tomorrow.
[Laughter]
FIONA SIMSON, PRESIDENT, NATIONAL FARMERS FEDERATION: So look, obviously the bulk carriers, the trucking industry, NHVR, everyone has had to get involved in this effort. So it’s a great thing, it’s common sense and it’s these common sense outcomes I think that people who are out there fighting the drought now and just battling with the drought will really appreciate it.
So on behalf of the farmers in Australia, we want to thank the Government, we want to thank everyone who has had anything to do with this, because it’s a really common sense outcome.
PRIME MINISTER: Thanks Fiona, thank you.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, at what point do you declare a natural disaster and would you bring the Army in at some stage?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, in many respects we have.
PRESIDENT, NATIONAL FARMERS FEDERATION: Here it is!
PRIME MINISTER: You bring the skills to the task you need to bring to the task. That’s what we’re going to keep doing. In some respects it’s different to other national disasters that occur very quickly, when you look at cyclones, you look at floods, things like that. This happens over a much longer period of time, but what’s important is you do the work. What’s important is that you do the work, you make the response. What’s important is you give the support and the help. That’s what’s happening.
JOURNALIST: Carting water and that kind of thing? Are you talking about -
PRIME MINISTER: All of these things are what the Government is looking at and working on. I’ll tell you one thing I want to do though. We’ve got Jeremy here; what I’m not going to do is put people whose job it is to truck things around, out of work. I’m not going to use the Army to put the truck drivers out of work. We’ve got great truck drivers and the trucking association have done a great job here working closely with us.
So this is a massive national effort. There’s a civilian effort, there’s a corporate effort, there’s a community effort. There are kids playing clarinets in main streets raising money down in Albury. And of course there is the military who can support us with their expertise and their assets and their resources, as needed. But the real job we have to do which Major General Day is leading as part of our taskforce is to coordinate all that. There are direct things that we can control, like the Farm Household Allowance form, which takes too long to fill out. I know how much Major General Day is on that, absolutely on that. We hope to make some further announcements about that and getting that down. Or it’s using our other resources, whether in the military or otherwise, to bring relief where we need to.
We’re going to do it in a smart way, we’re going to do it in a planned way and we’re going to do it in a coordinated way.
JOURNALIST: The summit next month, how important is that and what do you think can be achieved during that?
PRIME MINISTER: The summit is important I think to actually get everybody on the same page. I mean everybody is doing a lot of things and I think the states are doing some very good things and getting together with the drought coordinators in those states and just linking up all of our effort.
ASSISTANT MINISTER FOR ROADS AND TRANSPORT: Harmonising.
PRIME MINISTER: Harmonising, that’s very important. We’re looking at the intergovernmental agreement on the drought and looking at how that’s working and to see if there are any improvements there. There’s states like Tasmania and Western Australia, for example, who aren’t caught in the middle of this. But at the same time, they have a role to play. Drought is not unheard of in those places either. So in the middle of dealing with this very significant crisis, we’re looking at how the system can work better for the future. Because as Michael keeps saying and as Barnaby keeps saying, we’ve got to look to long-term resilience. Yes, it’s about the relief now. Yes, it’s about the comeback and the build back. But then it’s about the long-term resilience. The summit will provide an opportunity to coordinate across all of those issues. Where there are other straightforward, simple common sense things we can agree to and get on with, well, let’s identify and get on with them.
JOURNALIST: There was a group of farmers up in Parliament last week calling for action on climate change. What’s your position on climate change and how it’s affecting the drought?
PRIME MINISTER: My position is that we’ve got our commitments and we’re implementing them. Our Government made commitments in this area and our Government is going to keep those commitments. So nothing has changed on that front. What we’ll continue to do are the practical things needed to provide relief from the drought, to provide support for recovery from the drought and then resilience into the future.
JOURNALIST: Are you considering a plan to push international students out into regional institutions like Armidale or Ballarat, or other regional areas?
PRIME MINISTER: I’ve made no secret of the fact that what we’re doing is we’re going to better manage population growth in this country. We now have a population minister in our Government and that’s a I think positive step forward. Because we’re managing population impacts all around the country. We’re here talking about drought, but anyone who knows anything about drought knows that the average rainfall in Australia is about the most useless statistic you can think of.
[Laughter]
I’m sure that means a lot to Vern here on his property, the average rainfall in Australia, which is impacted by the rainfall up in Darwin. It has no impact on his property here. Now average population growth is about as useful a statistic. I mean, population growth in some areas like when we were up in western Queensland, they want more population. Up in the north, they want more population, in Adelaide they want more population. I can tell you, in the outer suburbs of Sydney and Melbourne, they don’t. So it’s about how you manage population and there are plenty of levers for how you do that. Our Government is working very strongly on those issues.
JOURNALIST: But are you actually considering the push to send these students?
PRIME MINISTER: All I said yesterday was there were levers that you can pull and the Government is going to be managing population growth.
JOURNALIST: And if that lever is available to you, will you consider pulling it?
PRIME MINISTER: I think I’ve answered the question three times, but you want to have a go on a fourth?
[Laughter]
JOURNALIST: Newstart allowance, ACOSS came out this week and said Newstart allowance is too low. They had Deloitte Economics checking it and said it hasn’t changed in 24 years. Are you considering?
PRIME MINISTER: The Newstart allowance is an allowance that provides temporary support for people while they’re out of work. Our Government has got record jobs growth, the best thing I can do for people who aren’t in work, is get them into work. Our Government has had an achievement of jobs growth like none before it. Literally none before it have had our success of getting Australia into jobs and in particular getting young Australians into jobs.
Last financial year, we got over 100,000 young people into work. The youth unemployment rate now is down to just over 11 per cent. It’s lower than it was when we came to government in 2013 and we’re getting young people into jobs, off welfare and into work. Under our Government, welfare dependency of the working age population is now at its’ lowest level in more than 25 years. The best form of welfare is a job and that’s what our Government is delivering.
JOURNALIST: But if you’re on welfare and you don’t have a job, 275 bucks?
PRIME MINISTER: I’m going to get them into a job, that’s what I’m doing.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister thank you for today. This is great not just for farmers but for the trucking industry. Is this the start of some potential to rethink how we regulate across borders with industries like transport?
PRIME MINISTER: Look Scotty is going to be looking at that with Michael and the team.
Right now, we’re focused on what needs to be done with these regs to deal with what’s happening with the drought. It’s a bit like yesterday, when I was talking about strawberries. People wanted to apply what we were talking about with strawberries, to a whole bunch of other issues. Look on that issue, I’m just focused on making sure no idiot goes into a supermarket this weekend and does something ridiculous. Today, those laws on strawberries will come into the Parliament, this morning. We’ve booked the hall in the Parliament for the day, we’ve paid the rent on it. That means no one goes home until those Bills are passed. I think that will send a very clear message.
So whether we deal with specific problems right here and now, just like we are today with the 2.83 here on the hay truck, but the extent to which we can continue to reduce unnecessary regulation and the burdens on our industries, I mean, Jeremy here runs his own business. He’s a small businessman. It’s a family business, his father has been in what is it, 50 years almost?
JEREMY TAYLOR: 47 years.
PRIME MINISTER: 47 years, just to be precise. Family businesses are who we support and we don’t want to see them faced with unnecessary, burdensome regulation. 6,000 permits will not be required because of the common sense decision we’ve been able to make here today. That’s red tape, that’s paperwork the trucking industry can do without. I think that’s a further, good by-product of what we’ve announced here today.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, are you confident that no Liberal or Coalition MPs would abstain or cross the floor on a vote against Peter Dutton regarding Section 44, particularly after this Senate report?
PRIME MINISTER: Yes and I don’t know why they would. Okay, thanks.
Press Conference - Canberra, ACT
19 September 2018
PRIME MINISTER: Good afternoon everyone. Over the last few days, we have seen a very distressing series of events unfold relating to the tampering with strawberries, particularly out of Queensland. This is a shocking and cowardly thing for this individual and others who have jumped on the bandwagon, to have engaged in.
It’s shocking because it is taking away from strawberry farmers what they have invested in to reap at this time of year. They made their decisions. I was talking to a Gavin from Caboolture a little while ago. They invested back in their crops in January. This is the peak season when they get the return from that investment, so they can start investing in next year. This is their way of life.
Some idiot, for his own reasons, or her own reasons, has engaged in an act of sabotage it would seem that has put all of that at risk for these people, just out there having a go. Not only that; mums and dads and their kids have been put in the position of having real concerns and indeed fears. It's not on. We can't put up with it.
Now, the authorities are pursuing this matter with full vigour. The Queensland government and the Police Service are the lead agency on that investigation and the Minister for Home Affairs will appear here later today and provide you with an update on those matters. In fact, the Commissioners are all here today for a broader meeting and so there will be an opportunity for them to update you on that investigation.
But what is important is the action that needs to be taken. Now already, I commend the Queensland Government, I spoke to the Queensland Premier yesterday and they’ll put in $1 million into some investment to help the industry get back on its feet. That’s good and we support that. We’ve also announced $1 million that we’re putting in to support the industry and for FSANZ which is the food regulation authority to support additional inspectors and other industry-based programs. So, that’s important and we’ll be doing that.
But it’s also important to send a very clear message, to ensure that we have the right penalties and have the right offences that are in place to ensure that we protect against these sorts of things into the future. So yesterday I asked the Attorney-General to consider these matters and what we’ll be doing is two things when it comes to federal offences.
The first one is increasing the penalties for those who would be found guilty under the existing provisions, from 10 years in prison to 15 years in prison. That basically takes you from someone who has an offence for forgery or theft of Commonwealth property, they currently get 10 years. That's what you get 10 years for. What you get 15 years for, are things like possessing child pornography and financing terrorism. That's how seriously I take this, that's how seriously our Government takes it. That will be an increased penalty for those who engage in this sort of thing.
But the other thing we’re doing is to create a new offence which deals with the issue of recklessness. Now, any idiot who thinks they can go out into a shopping centre and start sticking pins in fruit and thinks this is some sort of lark or put something on Facebook which is a hoax, that sort of behaviour is reckless. Under the provision we’ll be seeking to introduce swiftly, that type of behaviour would carry a penalty of up to 10 years in prison. It's not a joke. It's not funny. You’re putting the livelihoods of hard-working Australians at risk and you’re scaring children. You’re a coward and you’re a grub.
If you do that sort of thing in this country, we will come after you and we will throw the book at you. We will be seeking to have that law brought in before this Parliament rises this week. Of course I’ll be seeking the support of all parties in the Parliament, which frankly I’d be very surprised if we don't receive. I’m sure we will and we will be working to that end very swiftly.
The Attorney will seek to introduce that into the Parliament tomorrow morning. As soon as we have those amendments in a position to be shared, we’ll be doing that and working cooperatively. I expect nobody goes home until that is done. Because anyone who is thinking of engaging in this copycat behaviour, should know - there should be signs up in every single grocery store or wherever you buy your strawberries or wherever you buy your other fruit - you do that, you face jail. They can be very clear about those warnings. I want that to be law by the time we rise from this Parliament at the end of tomorrow.
Now, the other thing I want to suggest to people, having spoken to Gavin today, is we’ll put these deterrents in place, but we need to encourage a calm.
I encourage you, as Gavin was saying to me, the strawberry farmer, they don't want people to go back and buy twice as many strawberries or anything like that. Just go back to buying strawberries like you used to and take the precautions that you should. Because this is an industry that can right itself more quickly than others, if that demand returns. He told me there are some 120 growers in Queensland alone affected by this and they’ve seen the prices drop by about 50 per cent, which they have had to do in this circumstance. But the demand has still fallen. Now it’s important that they can get out there and be paying their workers to be picking the strawberries in the fields, so those fields don't get contaminated. That’s another issue we’re going to have to deal with and work closely with the State government to ensure that we can preserve the fields. That strawberry farmers don't have to walk away from the fields because there is that risk of contamination and other diseases that can get into those fields. That means they have to be just written off. We don't want to see that happen. It’s already starting to happen but if Australians can just go back to loving their strawberries and buying their strawberries, of course taking the necessary precautions, then I would encourage them to do that and be careful how they go about it. There’s been a lot of other things being done to provide that protection, but common sense is always the best one. The clear message is this; this is not on. This is just not on this country. We will act, the State governments I know will act as well, and that’s to protect and keep Australians safe, for the food that they love.
ATTORNEY-GENERAL: Thank you PM. As the PM noted, later today there will be a more fulsome briefing about the progress of the investigative side into this matter. Needless to say, it looks at this stage like you are looking at multiple instances across multiple states. No doubt investigations will show a whole variety of motivations, all of them criminal, but different motivations nonetheless. I think it’s fair to say that the reasons for the actions I'm about to describe, as far we’re concerned is that it represents a scale of criminality relating to primary food products in Australia, that is unprecedented in Australia.
Yesterday, the PM asked me to consider whether the strength and adequacy of the existing laws to punish and deter the sort of shocking behaviour that we’re seeing, is adequate. Having considered it overnight, I’ve made two recommendations, broad recommendations to the Prime Minister, which I will describe to you as briefly and as accurately as I can. As was noted, we’ll proceed with urgency in the drafting of the Bill. As soon as that Bill is available, which we except to be later on this afternoon, I’ll liaise with the Opposition to secure their support for the passage of that Bill which we’ll hope to be tabling tomorrow.
Before describing the two changes that have been recommended based on my advice, I just wanted to make the point that proposing ways to strengthen or improve the criminal law should not be taken for anyone who is engaged in this behaviour or thinking about this behaviour, it should not be taken to mean there are not already very significant criminal offences on the Commonwealth and State books and very significant penalties. There are ways to improve those, which I will note. But at the moment, the essential penalties and laws are in section 380 of the Commonwealth Criminal Code Act. They relate to the contamination of goods, including food. There is a general offence of contaminating food or other goods with the intention of causing public alarm or anxiety or significant economic loss or the intention to cause harm to public health.
As the Prime Minister noted, that presently carries a maximum of 10 years. There are also separate offences relating to similar behaviour, specifically where the loss is borne by a corporation or a Commonwealth authority or relates to trade. There are also offences of threatening to contaminate goods and making false statements about the contamination of goods, they also presently carry 10 years.
The very serious a starting point here is to note that in the age of social media, if anyone were to do something as criminally stupid as make a false statement about the contamination of food or post a YouTube video of yourself contaminating food - even if you didn’t intend for that to be consumed by someone, you are potentially engaging in what is already very, very serious criminal behaviour.
The two changes that can strengthen and improve the situation overall. The first relates to broadening and strengthening those contamination of food offences I’ve just raised. As the Prime Minister noted, the existing maximum penalty will be increased from 10 years to 15 years for all four of those offences, which already exist on the Commonwealth statutes. Now, I’ve just noted that those existing offences rely on their existing an intention to cause the anxiety or cause the harm or cause the loss. We will introduce four new additional offences that mirror the existing offences and in each case, the mental element will be lowered to that of recklessness, rather than intention. The simple point here is that if you’re a copycat perpetrator or you have some motivation other than intention, if you attempted to argued that it could not be shown beyond reasonable doubt that you had formed any specific intention to cause the anxiety or the loss or risk of harm, that would not prevent your prosecution. That is a very important addition to our criminal offences, which is why the PM is going to insist that it be passed by the end of the week.
The second change relates to more the recent offence of sabotage that was set out in the Espionage and Foreign Interference Bill. You will recall that the Espionage and Foreign Interference Bill amongst a variety of other changes, modernised the offence of sabotage. It did that by broadening the range of infrastructure that could be the subject of sabotage, so that the modern meaning of sabotage is now to include infrastructure that related to the provision of utilities or services, including the transport of people or goods related to those utilities or services. Now the sabotage offences will be amended by amending the definition of sabotage to cover sabotage of goods intended for human consumption where it’s prejudicial to national security. That would be done by amending the definition of public infrastructure in the Criminal Code.
The simple point here, is that on a larger scale sabotage has been recently conceived to include sabotage of infrastructure that allows for the provision of electricity or water to Australian citizens, because they are essential to our citizens wellbeing and therefore our national security. While this is not a national security issue particularly, it is unprecedented behaviour that highlights how food supply chains can potentially be just as important to Australia's wellbeing, so our national security, as the provision of water or electricity. So, that would be the second type of amendment that will occur.
The Bill should be drafted by the end of today and I’ll be discussing it with Labor this evening. Thank you.
PRIME MINISTER: We are not mucking about on this. We’re going to get about it. Happy to take questions.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister is there any prospect – I’m not a lawyer so this might be a dumb question – but is there any prospect of this being applied retrospectively to cover the current action?
PRIME MINISTER: I’ll let the Attorney-General answer that.
ATTORNEY-GENERAL: The answer is no, for two reasons.
PRIME MINISTER: Because he is a lawyer.
[Laughter]
ATTORNEY-GENERAL: Sometimes I forget. There are already very significant offences and penalties. This represents a refining and improvement and strengthening of the penalties. It is something that Commonwealth governments and State governments have rarely, if ever done, is to retrospectively apply criminal law. The reason we are doing this so quickly is that we do think there is a need to strengthen and improve the law and this sends a massive deterrence message to anyone out there who would further cripple this industry.
In my electorate, Berry Sweet Farms that I’ve visited many times with Anthony and Leanne, they’re some of the people that have been affected by this. We are moving to do this very quickly.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, what if anything do you know about the motives of the person or people doing this and what makes you think increasing the sentence from 10 years to 15 years will stop them, if they’re not deterred by the 10 year penalty now?
PRIME MINISTER: On the first point, I’ll allow the Minister for Home Affairs and the Federal Police Commissioner to provide you with an update on where the investigation is. That’s appropriate for them to comment on that and not for me.
There are two parts to what we’re doing here. I’m trying to stress very clearly the seriousness with which these types of acts of sabotage should be considered.
I don't care if you’ve got a gripe with a company, I don't care if you’ve got a gripe with your fellow worker. This is a very serious thing, which is damaging our economy, but it’s affecting families. The amount of traffic, I know, just mums and dads talking to each other the course of this week is totally understandable. They need to know that there’s a clear message being sent about how we see these things. On the second point and the new offence which relates to recklessness - and we would hope the states would look at similar measures in their own jurisdictions - is to have that deterrence value straightaway. That people do not go and add to this problem and that they understand and they checked themselves. Because if they don't check themselves, we will.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, do you think it’s right and appropriate for Rupert Murdoch and Kerry Stokes to have such a heavy hand in the recent leadership spill?
PRIME MINISTER: Why don’t we talk about strawberries and not politics for a second?
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, to what extent does this new “reckless” measure, with social media, provide potential for further action against reckless behaviour in other areas?
PRIME MINISTER: Right now I’m focused on what is happening around the contamination of the fruit that Australian children eat. That’s my primary focus now, I’m not considering the broader potential applications of these things, I think that can be done at a different time period. Right now, this is about acting to address what I think is a very significant concern to the Australian community, which they would expect, the Commonwealth, the Prime Minister, the Government, our Government, to act upon.
JOURNALIST: Can you tell us or the Attorney tell us maybe how recklessness is likely to be defined, that would be helpful. Do you have an idea about how?
ATTORNEY-GENERAL: I’m afraid the unfortunate answer I have to give you is that it’s always determined by the facts of the case. But “recklessness” is a standard known to the criminal law. It applies to many Commonwealth offences.
Perhaps if I can give you this broad summary. If you were to put a pin in a strawberry because you wanted to cause damage to a former employer's business, then clearly you would be able to be shown to have the intent to cause that harm. Unfortunately - and this has always been the case and perhaps there is a greater and more elevated amount of this that occurs in the modern age - but there are also acts that you could describe as “callously and criminally stupid”. This type of new offence is meant to scoop up those offences and make it easier for the prosecution to successfully prosecute and then have punished, people who act with that sort of “callous and criminal stupidity”.
JOURNALIST: PM, Pauline Hanson has [inaudible] today saying that this is an act of terror and the farmers should get up to $75,000 in compensation. Can I ask whether you agree with that and secondly, Mr Porter is there any guarantee that the person who is caught and charged or tried for conduct under Commonwealth legislation, under current legislation [inaudible] state legislation?
PRIME MINISTER: On the first question, I think we have to choose our language carefully here and how these things are described. You’ll see with the Minister for Home Affairs and the Federal Police Commissioner brief you, they will describe these offences and these activitis really concerning me, as I said in my opening remarks, is to ensure that these fields continue to get picked. Because when the demand drops by half and you can’t pay people to pick them that means you can't pay people to pick them even to destroy them. Then you’re having to walk away from a field.
Now the primary responsibility for those things actually rests with the State Government and in the same way, it’s a bit like how we’re dealing with the drought. The issues of what happens around feed and transport, all these things held by the State Governments. We are looking after the people directly involved in terms of farm household assistance and so on. So there is I think, a clear separation of who is responsible for what. In these circumstances, I think it’s always important that people focus on the job they have, to do that as best as they can and to work with others and cooperate with the jobs that they have to do.
So we’ll stay in close contact, particularly with the Queensland Premier, but as we know, this issue is not now restricted to just coming out of Queensland. But as you’ll be briefed on later today, the primary offences that led to this, allegedly were coming out of Queensland. They can add to that more.
ATTORNEY-GENERAL: So these offences which had recklessness as the new mental element, would be meant to cover the field. This is one of areas of criminal law where there are parallel State and Commonwealth offences. Once this change is made, we're confident that based on the nationhood power and corporations power that the new “recklessness” offence would apply to all this misconduct, irrespective of where it occurred. It may also be the case and I think it will be the case that each of the states and territories, when there's slightly more time at hand, are able to update their offences so they would then mirror the Commonwealth offences, so there'll be clear alternative. But this is meant to cover the field.
JOURNALIST: You have mentioned that there’s different jobs for different people. How much data have you got across the country about the impact on the industry and how much risk there is of contaminated fields and things? Therefore what scope there is for the Commonwealth to possibly provide further or alternative forms of assistance to the industry?
PRIME MINISTER: That data is coming in and the impacts are just now starting to be felt. It's very anecdotal at this point, about how many fields have been affected. There are a lot of people who were picking strawberries a couple of days who are now no longer picking strawberries. A lot of those are on backpacker visas and things like that. They're starting to move on from the towns, so that also has an impact on the towns, with those workers not being there, with their wages not being spent at the local pub and things like that. They're the obvious second round effects that you see in an instance like this.
So the data will continue to be collected, the incidents will be looked at. Predominantly, I think that falls to State governments to deal with that. But at a Commonwealth level we'll stay closely in touch. I'm not ruling anything out. But we've got to make decisions based on the data.
But the one thing people can do to avoid all that, is what was said to me earlier today by Gavin; that is, go back to buying strawberries in the usual way. You know, make a pav this weekend and put some strawberries on it.
JOURNALIST: Is there some possible intervention you can make at a workforce level to sort of say the Commonwealth will help fund the cost…
PRIME MINISTER: I’m not going to pre-empt anything here. I think that these are the steps we’re taking now. We’ll continue to monitor what is occurring on the ground and what additional measures may be necessary. But right now I think it’s about in particular, putting the deterrence in place so that the issue is not compounded. I just hope whoever was involving themselves, particularly not just in the original incident and offences, but those who compounded it just by being idiots, that they just check themselves and wake up to themselves and understand that there’s nothing funny about that. I would hope that common sense would prevail. But we’ll continue to work with them, alright? We’re going to take it step by step. We’re aware of some of the risks here. We’re aware of those risks and we just have to see the extent that they’re materialising and what’s the best way of dealing with them. We’re just going to work together, we’ve just got to work together on this each day and try and get things back to normal as quickly as we can. The Australian public can do that as well.
JOURNALIST: [inaudible]
PRIME MINISTER: I'm not that interested in the politics today, I'm staying with the strawberries.
JOURNALIST: You’re not going to address my question at all?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, I may, but I'm going to deal with strawberries first. I know the media is gallery is terribly interested in politics but frankly I'm more interested in what kids are eating at the moment.
JOURNALIST: Well I actually have a question that comes from the Blacktown West Public School who are in the building today. One of the children asked this and I couldn’t answer the question so perhaps you can Prime Minister. He said, “Why do so many Prime Ministers get replaced?”
PRIME MINISTER: When you’re asked to do a job, you step up and do the job. That would be my encouragement to that young person. He's - is it he or she?
JOURNALIST: He.
PRIME MINISTER: He's going to be asked to step up to do jobs over the course of his life and you prepare yourself to do that when you're called upon. That's what I'm doing. That’s what I’ll continue to do that and today that’s exactly what I’m doing.
We have a real issue going on here, with what’s happening with strawberries and other fruit. We can't allow that to keep going on. I'm not going to get distracted by those other issues, I know there are plenty of people who are interested in them, but I think they're more interested in the real damage being done to these farmers and the concern and anxiety it's causing in our community.
So my answer to him is I'm going to stay 100 per cent focused on those issues. Last one?
JOURNALIST: [Inaudible] died in Darwin, we’ve learned that multiple complaints were made to Child Protective Services about the family and they fell on deaf ears. Is there a problem with Child Protective Services in the Northern Territory?
PRIME MINISTER: Well I’ve just been with Chief Minister Gunner today and we've had a discussion about a number of issues. These are matters that really, they're responsible for and they need to address. If there is a need for any Commonwealth action here, then I will always be open to protect children.
I think I mentioned to Paul Murray the other night, in my office I've had for many, many years, a plaque of a young girl who was 11 years old, Shirley Ngalkin. She was raped and she was drowned in the Northern Territory. That led to the Government taking a lot of serious actions at that time, under the Howard Government. If I ever believe it's necessary for the Commonwealth to take action in this area, then I will. Because I want to see children protected. Now, there was a politics question.
JOURNALIST: Yes Prime Minister, just in terms of the recent reporting and the revelations that both Kerry Stokes and Rupert Murdoch had quite a heavy hand in the leadership spill? Do you think that is right and appropriate?
PRIME MINISTER: Well I don't think it happened.
JOURNALIST: You completely contest this?
PRIME MINISTER: I don't believed it happened at all and you'd think I'd know given I was involved.
Thank you, cheers.
Press Conference - Canberra, ACT
16 September 2018
PRIME MINISTER: Good afternoon everyone. I’m very pleased to be joined by the Minister for Health, Greg Hunt and the Minister for Senior Australians and Aged Care, Ken Wyatt. One of the hardest decisions any Australian makes is when they are entrusted with the complete care of their partner, their husband, their wife, their mum, their dad, auntie their uncle, niece - these are hard decisions. We make a lot of hard decisions in this place, but that would have to be one of the toughest decisions you make. They are relying on you, 100 per cent, in their time of greatest vulnerability, about the decisions you’re making about their care.
Every Australian who makes that decision and for every Australian whom that decision is being made for, they deserve to have great confidence about the care that their loved ones will receive in our aged care sector, our residential aged care sector, our in-home care provision of service. That also includes young Australians with disabilities who live in a residential aged care facility.
Over the past three weeks coming into this role, you’d appreciate that I receive many, many briefings. There is a lot of information that is presented to you. One of the briefings and one of the sets of information I just could not get past, was what was occurring in our residential aged care sector. As a result of the work that the Government has been doing - the unannounced visits, the compliance audits - it has revealed a very disturbing trend in what is happening in terms of non-compliance, abuses and failures of care that have been occurring across the sector.
Now that said, we know that across our residential aged care sector and in-home care, we have some of the finest facilities anywhere in the world, indeed better than anywhere in the world. Indeed this is an area of export growth actually, training in services, building of facilities, this is something that Australians are very good at. I want to pay tribute to all of those who work in these facilities. I and Ken and Greg have visited many as you’d expect, as local members, as Ministers, as Treasurers and as Prime Minister. What that says to us is that we have great people doing a great job. They’re a great team, but every great team wants to do better. Every great team wants to be able to ensure that where there are problems in their sector, in their industry, that they want them to be addressed.
A 177 per cent increase in services with serious risk identified in the past year. A 292 per cent increase in services with significant non-compliance, one service being shut down by the Department of Health every month. 154 notices of non-compliance, that’s an increase of 185 per cent. Sanctions up 136 per cent. That's impacted some 2,000 residents out of what is a standing group of just over 200,000, who are living in residential aged care and over 80,000 who are living with in-home care support, including those who receive that within retirement villages. 2,000 residents were impacted by that. Some 300 had to be placed in other services.
So when you're confronted with that, you ask a simple question; “How widespread is this? How far and wide does it go? Does it touch on the whole sector?” Now, until we can have clear answers to those questions, I think Australians will be unsure. That's why as Prime Minister, last week, we discussed this together as a Cabinet and we decided it was necessary to move forward with a Royal Commission into the aged care sector, which includes the care provided to young Australians living with disabilities in the residential aged care sector.
It is our intention to keep doing what we're doing and I will ask Ken to talk more about that. We are not going to stop and wait for this Royal Commission to finish before we keep getting on with the important work that we're already doing. We will walk and chew gum at the same time when it comes to this issue and that is important because there is great work that is being done. But more needed to be done in my view and that's why I've brought this forward.
Secondly, we've got to take the politics out of this issue. I spoke to the Leader of the Opposition last night. We've had good bipartisan support, when Labor was in government and when the Coalition has been in government. We want that to continue and we want the issues to be identified as the facts. We want there to be an impartiality to this. We want political agendas taken out of it.
So let's get an independent, credible, honest look at what's happening in the sector and let that be the basis for our continued working in partnership all around this place, focusing on the care and needs of Australians and the choices Australians are having to make about aged care. That will be an important opportunity I think, with this Royal Commission, to ensure that that's the case. When you pull all that together, I think, combined with the work we are already doing, we will be in a better place to be able to give Australians the assurance they’re seeking.
The Royal Commission terms of reference will be worked up over the next few weeks. We will be consulting with the sector of course and we will be listening carefully. As various teams around the country are preparing for the finals, we’ll be preparing for this, the terms of reference, to finalise the commissioners and the model that will be used to pursue this Royal Commission and to finalise that terms of reference ultimately and letters patent, with the commissioners that are selected. So there is a lot of work to do there, but to just run through what we expect it to cover, it will be as follows.
The quality of care provided to older Australians and the extent of substandard care. The challenge of providing care to Australians living with disabilities living in residential aged care, particularly younger people with disabilities. The challenge of supporting the increasing number of Australians suffering dementia and addressing their care as they age. The future challenges and opportunities for delivering aged care services in the context of changing demographics, including remote, rural and regional Australia, and any other matters the Commission wishes to pursue that they believe is necessary.
So, the issue isn't just in metro centres or just in rural centres. It’s not just in for-profit or non-profit. It is right across, as best as we can determine from the compliance work that has been done today. So we do want to look right across the board at what is occurring.
So I want to thank particularly Greg and Ken for the great work they've been doing in this area. You know, you put a cop on the beat, they’re going to find the problems. That's why you put the cops on the beat. So these figures that we've seen today are a result of taking that action and then you ask yourself; "Well, what do you do next?"
You do this. That's what you do. Greg?
THE HON. GREG HUNT, MINISTER FOR HEALTH: Thanks very much, Prime Minister. Scott is right, one of the hardest decisions and one of the highest responsibilities that anybody can take, is to see that their parents have the best care at the moment they’re going into care. I know that as a son. Six years ago we were looking at the circumstances for my own father and I remember the weight of the decision and I remember the absolute focus that myself and my family put on that. We were lucky, we had tremendous care and the overwhelming majority of Australians in care and of sons and daughters who are looking to care for their parents, are able to have absolute confidence that their parents are getting the highest quality and standard of care that they can.
But we also know, precisely because of the work that has been done, that we have seen an increase in evidence of cases where not everything that can be done has been done, not everything that should be done has been done. We know from the work of the quality agency that we've gone from two, to 22, to 61 cases identified, where facilities would have residents at risk over the last three years. In the last year, that's 177 per cent increase. Now, in part that may be a case of changing practices, but in particular it’s about shining a light on the challenge and then recognising what that challenge is and responding to it. So that's why we need to deal, now, on a level never before done, with the challenges facing the current sector, where the overwhelming majority of facilities and overwhelming majority of staff do an amazing job. But we need to give all the support we can.
But looking forwards to the future which is also a key part of the Royal Commission, we know that from 2015 to 2055 there will be an almost fourfold increase in the number of Australians over the age of 85, from 500,000, to 1.9 million. That means we will have a systemic demographic challenge on a basis never before seen in Australia. So we need a systemic demographic response. In other words, this Royal Commission is about the safety and quality of care for Australians who are in facilities and receiving Commonwealth care now, but it's also about ensuring that we have a system that is planned for, to last for the coming decades.
PRIME MINISTER: Thank you, Greg. I'm going to ask Ken to talk about how we've got to this point here, but also how the Royal Commission will be supporting him and the important work that he’s doing.
THE HON. KEN WYATT, MINISTER FOR SENIOR AUSTRALIANS AND AGED CARE: Thank you very much Prime Minister. I want to say it is an incredible privilege representing in many senses senior Australian who’ve given this country everything that it has. In our work, which commenced with the road map, co-designed by the aged care sector, we've made significant reforms. But following Oakden, we went one step further and we looked at the circumstances that senior Australians found themselves in, in their vulnerable state of both frailty and in their mental state.
What was important was bringing together the relevant agencies to provide an organisation that focuses very sharply on the quality of care within residential care, but also home care. What's important is that we look after the mothers and fathers, uncles and aunties of families who are in aged care. When we talk of the crisis in aged care, I don't see it as a crisis in aged care per se, I see it as a crisis for the families affected. The families who expect that the love and attention will be given to each of those entrusted to a provider. I have no compunction saying I’d stand beside and support the workforce that is in the aged care sector, they’re an outstanding, compassionate group of people whose commitment to looking after senior Australians with love and devotion, so much so that I see some of them at the funerals attending and acknowledging the passing of a significant Australian.
So we’ll continue to work towards a workforce that we need for 2050. That workforce activity will be undertaken by John Pollaers working with the sector, so the sector is redesigning it’s thinking it’s direction for the workforce it’ll need. It’ll consider not only the horticulture, the gardeners who work within their facilities, but the whole spectrum of people involved in caring for senior Australians, including those careers that will evolve with technology and with artificial intelligence. But we as a Government are committed to making sure that when you put somebody into a residential aged care facility, they’re given all of the assistance and care that they need.
I want to make a point that there are two points in our life in which we are frail; when we are born, we are frail and we rely on others to nurture and to love us and provide the growth that we need. The other point is when we become frail and aged. At that point, we need to ensure that that same consideration is given to senior Australians. I've been into more than 100 aged care facilities across this nation, I have talked with senior Australians about their hopes and aspirations living in their home, living with people that look after them. So this Royal Commission will enhance and complement the ongoing work that we will continue to do. It will look at the systems, systemically, but equally we won't take our eyes off the way in which we consider the needs of all senior Australians.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, the man to your left told Four Corners a few short weeks ago that a Royal Commission would be a waste of time and money. A royal commission, after two years and maybe $200 million being spent on it, will come back with the very same set or very similar set of recommendations that the Government will respond and put into place similar bodies. Haven't you just thrown him under the bus here, with a needless Royal Commission, as he regards it?
PRIME MINISTER: I believe it's important to do this Royal Commission and I've consulted closely with my colleagues. We all believe it's important that it be done. I’m not going to get into those sorts of comments. I’m just going to focus on supporting senior Australians and ensuring that their care is up to the standard that they all expect. I'm not interested in the politics of it, I’m not interested in the media commentary on it. I'm only interested in the care provided for senior Australians. Phil?
JOURNALIST: PM, you also flagged a Royal Commission into the energy sector.
PRIME MINISTER: I couldn’t hear you.
JOURNALIST: Sorry, you also flagged a Royal Commission into the energy sector?
PRIME MINISTER: I just said I wasn't ruling it out.
JOURNALIST: Well okay, what would be your trigger point for calling that?
PRIME MINISTER: Again, I'm not ruling that out. But the difference here is that the residential aged care sector and in-home care arrangements, plus those younger Australians living with disabilities in residential aged care, these are areas where the Commonwealth is directly involved. We’re spending $1 billion extra every year on aged care in this country. We've increased the number of in-home care places just recently, by 20,000 in the last MYEFO and this Budget. Over the forward estimates, we will go with high care places in at-home care from just over 40,000 to over 70,000. So this is an area where we are very much involved. There are other parts of this sector and retirement villages and things like that, where state governments have their responsibilities.
We will be responsible for what we're accountable for and making sure that we act in those areas. So this is very much a core area of both fiscal and direct service provision responsibility in what we’re getting in and supporting, so that's why it needs to have the focus and that's why we're giving it that focus.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, when you were Treasurer you cut $2 billion from aged care.
PRIME MINISTER: No, no. That’s what the Labor Party says –
JOURNALIST: No, no, you did.
PRIME MINISTER: No, I didn’t. The Labor Party says that –
JOURNALIST: You cut $1.2 billion from the aged care funding.
PRIME MINISTER: No, I don't accept that. If people want to put questions, they’re not allowed to put lies.
JOURNALIST: Aged care funding had $1.2 billion –
PRIME MINISTER: No, no. We’re increasing aged care funding by $1 billion every year.
JOURNALIST: No, it’s a direct question, Prime Minister –
PRIME MINISTER: We’ve put in place compliance measures to ensure that public funds don’t get misused. So, this is why we are going to have a Royal Commission -
JOURNALIST: Are you ignoring the facts?
PRIME MINISTER: No, I'm not ignoring facts. That's why I'm calling a Royal Commission, if you just let me finish the answer. This is why I'm having a Royal Commission, because I'm not going to put up with lies being told about what's happening in the aged care sector. Policy must be based on facts. Not facts that are dreamt up, not facts that are misinterpreted, not facts that have agendas sitting behind them. A Royal Commission doesn’t have any of those maladies. A Royal Commission will actually look at the actual facts, not at the agendas of advocates, not at the agendas of media, not at the agenda of politicians. A Royal Commission will be focused 100 per cent on the needs of residential aged care residents.
JOURNALIST: Mr Wyatt, can you perhaps explain your comment to Four Corners?
MINISTER FOR SENIOR AUSTRALIANS AND AGED CARE: In my comment to Four Corners, when I was asked about a Royal Commission, I said I would rather spend the money on frontline services for aged care than a Royal Commission, at that point. But there are a set of circumstances that I’ve seen in aged care since that time, including in my own electorate, that takes me to the point that there’s a crisis issue that individual families face when a daughter wants to get her father into aged care, has him placed and then the aged care provider in that circumstance saying; "We can't take him." She went through incredible emotional experiences in trying to accept the fact that her father had been rejected. On that basis, I gave reconsideration to the need for a Royal Commission, it's something that I had been talking to the Prime Minister about in terms of senior Australians when I first took on the portfolio. We had a lengthy discussion in Perth about senior Australians and what we needed to do -
JOURNALIST: Do you mean Mr Turnbull?
MINISTER FOR SENIOR AUSTRALIANS AND AGED CARE: Scott Morrison as Treasurer.
PRIME MINISTER: As Treasurer, it was about a year ago.
JOURNALIST: But these comments, you made these comments on 16 August, Mr Wyatt. I mean, is it one case since 16 August that has changed your mind ,where you think it’s a waste of time and money?
MINISTER FOR SENIOR AUSTRALIANS AND AGED CARE: No, Andrew let me correct you. If you read the transcript it says I didn’t support a royal commission, I would rather spend the money – no, hold on – I would rather spend the money on frontline services that were important, because among senior Australians in aged care –
JOURNALIST: [Inaudible] said you’d rather spend the money on frontline services?
MINISTER FOR SENIOR AUSTRALIANS AND AGED CARE: Andrew, let me finish. We have senior Australians in aged care who need mental health support. We have senior Australian who need palliative care support. We have senior Australians who need support at home, in terms of emotional, social wellbeing issues. That's where I wanted to put the money. That's where I wanted to look at the changes that we put into place to help those who are vulnerable. Now, a Royal Commission is necessary, it will build on what we are doing.
JOURNALIST: When will the Royal Commission begin, Prime Minister and are you prepared for what it will find? Whenever we have one of these Royal Commissions, we turn over rocks and we have all sorts of cockroaches. It might end up looking very damaging for the Coalition that this Royal Commission wasn’t commenced much sooner.
PRIME MINISTER: Well in the first three weeks I’ve been Prime Minister, I've taken the action to initiate a Royal Commission into this sector. I don’t know if I can look at it more properly than that, as a new Prime Minister looking into these areas. I think you're right, I think we should brace ourselves for some pretty bruising information about the way our loved ones, some of them, have experienced some real mistreatment. I think that's going to be tough for us all to deal with, but you can't walk past it. You can't not look at it and that's what the Government is ensuring that we don't do –
JOURNALIST: Have you got a date?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, the date we will seek to finalise the terms of reference, as I said, over the next few weeks. We would then seek to ensure we have the commissioners appointed. I’ve been consulting on the appointment of commissioners and the letters patent –
JOURNALIST: I’m just wondering if this is before or after the election?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, this Royal Commission will take until at least the second half of next year. I have no doubt about it.
JOURNALIST: But will it start before the election?
PRIME MINISTER: Of course it will. It will start as soon as possible, but we're not going to rush the terms of reference and letters patent and the appointment of commissioners. We’ll be working carefully through this to make sure it gets set up on the right basis. There is some consultation to do now and so that's the work immediately before us. Then I would anticipate it reports some time in the second half of next year.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, you made your last Budget an aged care Budget. Then this week, we saw you come out with the same Ministers again, bringing forward some of those measures, but [inaudible] starting immediately for aged care and you released one of the Workforce Strategy Report the next day on Thursday. It looks like you are clearing the decks and that maybe the Budget in May didn’t quite get the messaging right for older voters. Do you think the Coalition has missed those moments over the last five years?
PRIME MINISTER: No, I think that's a very cynical view Rick. I mean the media are paid to be cynical and that's fair enough, I get it. But what we've been focusing on over the last few weeks as I’ve been in this role, I’ve been working with Greg and with Ken, as I have been confronted with this data.
Now, it is true that in the Budget, we put in place some very significant initiatives and our plan for a longer life for Australians. It is true that we've provided another 20,000 places, another $106 million which is toughening up the cop on the beat, providing capital grants to regional and rural residential aged care centres and improving the standards of care. So we are going to keep doing all of that. This is not a binary proposition. This is a comprehensive proposition and that is the work that we’re doing will continue, so people can have more choices as they grow older. Everything from their physical activity to working longer where they choose to and having that support, plus when they’re at their most frail and their most vulnerable, then they can rely on the support they are getting.
I mean, this is a never-ending task and we will always have to be lifting the standards. That's why I make the point that our residential aged care, when you look at it at an international level, it’s a very strong sector, there is no doubt about that. We have a lot of things to both to present to the rest of the world in how you we go about this, but the best of industries, the best of sectors, the best of teams, is always looking for ways to do better. That's what this process is seeking to do. David?
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, there are millions of older Australians who are living in retirement villages, sometimes their issues may be different to those living in full-time care. Sometimes their issues may be financial in terms of the arrangements they make as they transition to one place to another.
PRIME MINISTER: Sure.
JOURNALIST: Should they be part of the Royal Commission as well, should financial factors as well as care factors be investigated?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, I don't want to delay this by seeking to incorporate matters that fall under state jurisdictions. But where the states and territories wish to participate or wish to suggest an involvement or have the matters for which they are responsible brought into this, then the Government would be very open to that. But I always take the position that you must be accountable for the things that you're responsible for. That's what we're making the subject of this Royal Commission.
That's right, there are a lot of other issues that go well beyond the residential aged care sector and in-home care, that is very true, but this Royal Commission will have a very strong focus and it’s important that we both do this and keep doing the things we are doing. In politics, in public life, you've got to learn from the things you've been involved with in the past.
You all know my view previously about the banking royal commission and you’ve heard what I said in the House last week. It has been my learning that it's important to go forward with a Royal Commission in this area, because I can see the value that it will create in addressing these serious issues. But the other learning is this; you just don't stop and wait for a royal commission to finish. You keep doing the things that you know you can do day to improve the lives of ordinary Australians.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, what is this going to cost? Do have an allocated budget for it?
PRIME MINISTER: At this stage we’re working that through with the Treasurer, but there is a standard cost that sits around this. The Royal Commission into the Banking and Financial Sector, we’re looking at about 50 to 75. But that will all depend ultimately on the terms of reference, the letters patent, the number of commissioners, the length of the Royal Commission itself and it’s reporting date. So there are a lot of factors there to take into account and we’ll be working that out and taking that up through the normal budget process.
JOURNALIST: The staff issue is one of the most [inaudible] getting enough staff, qualified staff. I mean, what's your gut feeling? Do they need to pay more, to get more?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, it is not for me to have a gut feeling, it’s for me to commission a Royal Commission. That's what I'm focused on. Now, the issues that you've referred to will be taken up and they’ll be clearly available, there for the Royal Commissioner to be there to look at the issues and to address those in the Royal Commission and to do the work on that. So I look forward to them undertaking that work and them reporting back and then, as I say, not just to the Government, but one of the reasons I'm doing this is because there has been good bipartisanship on this issue over the last eight years, hasn't it, Greg, Ken? I want to see that continue and the discussions I've had with the Leader of the Opposition, I believe he does too. That means you can allow the Royal Commission to proceed without all the fighting. I don’t want us to fight about what’s happening in aged care, I just want us to fix it.
JOURNALIST: Your own workforce strategy suggests that nurses and aged care workers [inaudible] are underpaid by about 15 per cent compared to [inaudible] in the industry. The [inaudible] that nurses were underpaid by about 10 per cent compared to hospitals. So we’re not working on gut feelings anymore, you do have evidence that the pay rates are not –
PRIME MINISTER: We’ve got a Royal Commission going and we’ll continue to review all the evidence –
JOURNALIST: Can I ask the Health Minister –
PRIME MINISTER: With the action we’re taking.
JOURNALIST: About strawberries or just to flag an interest in asking the question, I don’t want to take you away from the Royal Commission. But is enough being done with the strawberry crisis we have at the moment? Is Queensland Health meeting the challenge and are the strawberries safe to eat?
MINISTER FOR HEALTH: Sure, look firstly, this is a very vicious crime and it’s a general attack on the public and it’s also obviously an attack on a specific industry.
Secondly, it’s primarily the responsibility of the states through their policing mechanism and Queensland has taken strong steps, I’m not critical of that. But thirdly, I have also through my Department, asked for an immediate appraisal by the Food Safety Authority of Australia and New Zealand. So I’ve made that request, but in the meantime though, the police through Queensland are taking steps and I’m not critical of that. I think they’re doing the right thing.
It’s a vicious crime and it’s attacking the general public and a part of the agricultural sector.
JOURNALIST: Back on aged care, Prime Minister, can you say now, your own terms of reference, is it clear that pay rates and staff ratios will be subjects for the Royal Commissioner to look into and make findings on?
PRIME MINISTER: It’s all encompassed in the areas I’ve already outlined. So I would absolutely expect it to be and that along with all other issues like this for example; one of the things that has been my observation for some time now is, because more Australians – happily - are choosing to take the opportunity of in-home aged care places and remain home for longer, I’m pleased to see that more and more in the housing industry, we’re seeing more private accommodation and other accommodation built for people’s own home where they can live longer in their own homes. That means you’re there for birthday parties of the grandkids. You’re there for important family events. Now, I know in retirement homes and I know in residential aged care facilities, they’re doing a wonderful job in trying to maintain as much of that home feel to where those Australians live.
But with more Australians staying at home for longer, it means that when they’re going into residential aged care, they’re going in at a more advanced stage, at a more acute level of need.
MINISTER FOR HEALTH: Exactly right.
PRIME MINISTER: That has real, serious implications for this sector. So, we want to get ahead of that problem. That’s the constant feedback I get from people who are working in aged care facilities. It’s the one issue above every other issue by the way. They put those they care for all the time, above themselves in these things and that’s why they’re such amazing Australians. But that’s the issue they are most concerned about and that they can meet the needs of those that are coming into those facilities now. That’s a real gear change from what we’ve seen over the last 25 years. It is a very different environment. Yep, last one.
JOURNALIST: Did you ask Ann Sudmalis not to announce that she’s quitting Parliament until after the by-election?
PRIME MINISTER: I don’t speculate on media speculation and that’s going to be a golden rule. Thanks very much.
Statement on Indulgence - John McCain
10 September 2018
I rise, on indulgence, to acknowledge the recent passing of United States Senator John McCain. It is not the usual thing in this House to express condolences for overseas politicians who are not the heads of governments or heads of state, but I think all in this House would agree that Senator John McCain is a worthy exception. We honour him in this House today because of his service to the United States and his service to this country as well, through his friendship.
From Prime Ministers Hawke to Turnbull, John McCain was a steadfast friend who understood that our alliance is a reflection of two similar peoples. As he put it, we are both societies of immigrants and pioneers:
… who put our faith in the rule of law, and who believe that our destinies are inseparable from the character of the broader world order.
His understanding of our Australian character was something passed on to him by his own family's service. His grandfather, the first John Sidney McCain, first came to Australia aboard the Great White Fleet in 1908 and later commanded US air forces in Australia's defence during World War II. His father was a submarine captain based in Perth during the Pacific War, and later, as Admiral McCain, he became Commander-in-Chief, Pacific Command, during the Vietnam War. In time, Senator McCain's own sons, Jack and Jimmy, would serve alongside Australia's soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan.
At the Naval Academy, Senator McCain, the son and grandson of two admirals, came 894th out of a class of 899, but that's not where his distinction would be recorded. That would occur in Vietnam. The sailor became an aviator and, on his 23rd mission, his plane was shot down over Hanoi. As we all know, John McCain was injured in the crash and captured by the enemy. Vietnamese medical treatment of POWs was rudimentary at best. As the son of an admiral, he was offered repatriation and he declined because the honour code demanded that any repatriation be first given to POWs who had been in captivity the longest—character. During the ensuing 5½ years, John McCain would withstand torture, years of solitary confinement and was tested to the point where eventually he would say, 'Every man has his breaking point.' What kept him going during these darkest times, in his own words, was: 'Faith in God, faith in fellow prisoners and faith in country.'
Somehow in a hell hole, John McCain became stronger. He learned to rise above the times. He took that strength and perspective into politics. He was elected to the US Senate six times and was, in 2008, the Republican nominee for President of the United States. I had the great privilege, as members of this place did recently, to meet him in person, and it was a great honour for all of us. And though he always talked straight, even at the end he did so also. He left an admonition I think to politicians all over the world—in his own country but also here in this country. He said:
We argue and compete and sometimes even vilify each other in our raucous public debates. But we have always had so much more in common with each other than in disagreement. If only we remember that and give each other the benefit of the presumption that we all love our country we will get through these challenging times.
There is grace in his words and a lesson for all of us. On behalf of this House and our nation, I extend our deepest condolences to Senator McCain's wife, Cindy, his family and the American people he served so magnificently. May he rest in peace. God bless.
Address, Menzies Research Centre - "Until the Bell Rings"
6 September 2018
Thank you very much Sussan for the very warm welcome to Jenny and I, and to my senior colleagues here particularly my Deputy Leader here, Josh Frydenberg and I, the ‘ScoJo’ team, as we’ve been dubbed amongst other things. I don’t know if that one will stick Josh, but let’s see how we go. Can I also acknowledge the Indigenous people and the land on which we stand and where we meet today, and acknowledge elders past and present and pay my respects to them, our first Australians.
I like rituals. I’m a keen fan of rituals. I try and create rituals in my family, Jen and I, we have a number of rituals with our kids. We had them when I was growing up as a kid. They’re important because they help you connect and remind you about the things that matter most. They connect you to your past, and they help you connect your past to your future. Just as Indigenous peoples have been doing for centuries, thousands of years. I like rituals.
One ritual we have as a family, as a broader family, is every year, on my grandmother’s birthday, we called her Mardie, and we loved her dearly. She was the matriarch of the family who kept everybody together because we’re a pretty disparate family. Very disparate. All different views, all different walks of life, all different ages. But we all love each other, because Mardie always brought us together. After she passed away, we were a bit worried that, well, how are we all going to stay together. We live such different lives. And we had this idea. We said let’s get together on her birthday, all of us, and we do it down on the South Coast of NSW, where a lot of my family also live. We get together and we tell our kids who didn’t get to know Mardie, because she passed away before most of them were born. And we tell stories about her and all the funny things she used to do.
The ladies were out there making the embroidery, there was a rug, a crochet rug they were putting together. Mardie crocheted us all a rug as kids. We call it the Mardie rug. Now, we call this get together the ‘Mardie Gras’. I know there are other events that have that name and good luck to them too. But what it does is we get together and we remember what holds us together as a family. The things that she taught us, the things that we loved.
This is why I’ve come here today with the next generation of the leadership of the Liberal Party. This is an important ritual, for us to come here today where Robert Menzies came all those years ago. To come here and pledge to that legacy, to that heritage, as a ritual. To show the things that we believe in today are the things that he believed in then and the things we will always believe in as a Liberal Party. After the 1943 election, it was a horror election for what were known as the non-Labor parties. They were wiped out. You’d think after a big election loss like that, that everyone and I’m sure quite a lot of them were, they were in the grumps and the mopes. That ‘it’s all done’, ‘it’s all finished’, that ‘the Labor Party will run the country forever’, it ‘was all doomed’, all that sort of thing. But Robert Menzies at that time, 75 years ago, almost to this day, it was in August 1943, he wrote to the President of what was called the Australian Council of Retailers, a fellow called Mr Lamp. And he said this to him in his letter, he said, “There is a great opportunity if we are ready to seize it.” That’s what he said. Now Mr Lamp thought this was just ‘Ming’ going off again. He was an enthusiast.
Fifteen months later, here in Albury, not far as you’ve just heard, they were putting the final touches and bringing together the formation of the Liberal Party, which has been the most successful political party at a federal level of any party. Of any party. And including most recently – six out of the last eight elections.
They write us off every time, and every time we come back and we come back hard. Because of the things that we believe in. Now on that day, when he brought everybody together, there were 18 different political organisations and parties. Eighteen!
He got them together, and the only thing they had in common up until that point in time was what they were opposed to. They were known as the non-Labor parties. There was one great one, it was called the Australian Women’s National League. The Liberal Party was founded on both the capital and the volunteers of one of the most successful Australian women’s movements in our country’s history. They got together, and what held them together at that point loosely was what they were opposed to. But Robert Menzies brought them here to unite them about what they believed in. Because you can’t just be about what you’re opposed to. You’ve got to be about what you’re for. As a country, as a political party, as an individual, as a family. It’s about what you’re for, not just what you’re against.
So those 18 organisations came together and Robert Menzies brought them together, and he didn’t come with a to-do list of stuff, and I haven’t come to you today with a to-do list of stuff. All the journalists who were hoping I was going to make 17 policy announcements and all the forms are out there and you can pore over all the documents, and there’s Morrison’s manifesto… No, it’s not happening today. Sorry to disappoint you.
I’ve come to talk to you today about what’s in here, and what’s in each of their hearts and in every heart and in every mind of my team. When Menzies came here, he didn’t bring a to-do list or a manifesto. He brought a list of beliefs that they had agreed in Canberra a few months earlier.
Let’s talk about what some of those beliefs were that he brought together. Menzies’ vision, and all of those who joined him, it all began and started with the individual. It’s all about the individual, and the capacity and the value and sanctity, the inherent virtue of every single human being that has the privilege to call themselves an Australian whether by birth or by pledge.
He understood that for the individual to be successful in life, and to be able to realise what they wanted, to realise for themselves, they needed some very important things. If they were fortunate enough, they would have a family that loved them, and not all Australians have that. If they were fortunate enough they would have a family and the family would support them. That is the first building block of any successful country, community, society, is family. That’s what it is for me and Jen, that’s the family we’ve come from, and we have been blessed beyond measure when it comes to the love of family. And my heart breaks for those Australians who don’t know that. I hope that they will. In one way, shape or form.
Then there's the community. So the individual, the family, the community that you're part of – a wonderful community, Susan here has represented today. All walks of life. People from school, people volunteering for Emergency Services, people just getting together and crocheting. A community supporting itself. An individual can thrive in a community like that.
But it's more than that. Menzies talked about the other things that were needed. You know, he talked about a ‘comfortable home’ and an ‘affordable home’. As important today as it was then – one of Menzies' greatest achievements was the increase in home ownership, and affordable home ownership. I think it went from around 40 per cent to around 70 per cent. We've slipped back a bit from there. We need to do better on that score. He talked about health services being accessible to all. Adequate health services. What's more important in regional parts of the country and remote parts of the country than ensuring we have accessible, adequate – indeed, better than adequate – health services accessible to all Australians?
He talked about having a stable job and good pay. Those who think that the Liberal Party aren’t interested in pay – we are. Because we know a job changes a life, and a wage changes a life and a family. I know Kelly O'Dwyer, my Minister for Industrial Relations, which we say proudly, is very keen on ensuring that people get good wages in this country, and that they have jobs. Menzies talked about employers and employees being on the same page. He talked about protecting Australia from ‘aggression’ – was the phrase they used back then. Having still been in the Second World War at the time that meant something real. We must continue to do the same thing today.
And he talked about the importance of freedoms. Of faith. Of religion. Of speech. Of association. That's a great place to start a party, I reckon, and it's a great place to continue to run a party from.
So, in coming here today, a new generation of Liberal leaders are embracing all of those beliefs. They remain as relevant today as when he first said them. This is what Robert Menzies said, though, as they broke up that meeting in Albury, he said this – I'm sorry I have to write these down – Josh has a much better memory than me. I wasn't very good at remembering verses at Sunday school either, but Jenny was a cracker. She used to sing them, too. I don't think she's going to do that today... [LAUGHS] I'll be in trouble... Robert Menzies said this in Albury: "No party seizes the imagination of the people unless the people know the party stands for certain things. And we'll fight for those things until the bell rings." Well, we're here today to affirm ourselves to those beliefs that I've just outlined, and pledge ourselves to them until the bell rings. Until the bell rings. Just like Robert Menzies did, and his team, and they went on to do great things for Australia.
Let's fast-forward to now. As we go forward as a party, under a new generation of leadership. In just 24 hours’ time, tomorrow, we will mark five years since the Coalition Government – the Liberal and National parties – formed government. Tony Abbott led us back into government after those six years of the Rudd/Gillard/Rudd Labor administration. I pay my respects and my honour to Tony for what was a Herculean task, to take our party from opposition back into government. Over the last five years, both under Tony's leadership and under Malcolm Turnbull's leadership – who I also pay respect and honour to today for his three years of service, of service to his country – over those five years, we've been doing what we said we would do at that election. We said we'd stop the boats, and we did. We said we'd get rid of the carbon tax, and we did. We said we would repair the budget that had been put into recklessness and mismanagement by the Labor Party, and we have been. We said we would create a million jobs within five years, and we have. Including 95,500 jobs for young people in the last financial year – 2017-18 – more than half of them full-time jobs, the single largest growth in youth employment in 30 years. Nothing, as these guys know, gets me more fired up than seeing a young person get a job. Because I know from when I was Social Services Minister, if you get a young person into a job and not on welfare, by the time they're about 22 to 24, you save them from a life on welfare. That's generational change. And particularly in Indigenous and remote communities, the impact is even greater.
Creating jobs is the best job there is, isn't it, Kelly? It's the best job there is as a politician, to see Australians get into work. And that's what we've been about. We've opened up new markets, new trade. I was up with the President Widodo on the weekend, and we'll finalise that most recent agreement to add to the work that was done under Tony and Malcolm, whether it was on the China Free Trade Agreement, and Simon's here carrying on that work. Or the Japan free trade agreement. I spoke to Prime Minister Abe last night, and we're continuing that relationship. Whether it's the work we've done with Korea, the work we're doing in the Pacific, opening up new markets, backing small businesses and medium-sized businesses. The biggest changes to taxation arrangements for small and medium-sized businesses in decades. Backing small business to create jobs.
We've been meeting our emissions reduction targets in a canter. We smashed the Kyoto 1 and 2 and, I believe, we'll absolutely be able to deal with our present target out to 2030 with no impact on electricity prices at all. That's why we're focusing on getting electricity prices down – simply by the key measures that relate to how energy is priced, how energy is delivered, and how the regulations protect those – us as Australians from the companies who can sometimes take a bit of a loan of us.
So we are making progress. Infrastructure. Nation-building and congestion-busting. Our Defence Forces back up on its way to 2 per cent of expenditure, as a share of our economy. Rebuilding. Rebuilding. But you know what, that's an impressive list of achievements, and it's a list that we will continue on.
But that's the "what?" Australians are asking me and my team more questions about the "why?" Between now and the next election, you will hear a lot of promises. You know that. You've heard politicians make promises for decades. You'll make up your mind about whether you believe those promises or not. But I'd give you two suggestions about how you can weigh them up. Can they pay for them? If you don't have a strong economy, it's not worth the paper it's printed on. A strong economy enables everything else to happen. And the other thing is – do you trust them that they believe it? You assess that based on their own beliefs.
Because you know, when it gets tough – I remember when we were stopping the boats and there were some tough days in that process. Now, you're only going to do that if you really believed it. Because there were some hard choices, and heavy burdens that you had to carry. And it's the same in putting a budget back together, and the difficult choices. When it's just you and your Cabinet or your other colleagues sitting a in a room, there’s no cameras, there’s no one else, and you’ve got to make those calls – what is going to make sure you deliver is whether you really believed it in the first place.
So it's about the "why?" and I want to tell you about my "why?" Like Menzies, no to-do list today. This is my why. These are the things that I believe in. I believe in a fair go for those who have a go in this country. I think that's what fairness means in this country. It's not about everybody getting the same thing. If you put in, you get to take out, and you get to keep more of what you earn. That doesn't matter what your level of ability is.
The reason I was in Yunkar yesterday up in Brisbane with young, disabled Australians who are an inspiration, because they're having a go. They wanted to live on their own. They wanted to be in their own accommodation, living together, having the same choices as other young Australians. They're having a go and they're getting a go. If you're running a small business, you want to have a go? You should get a go. That’s why I think your taxes should be lower, if you’re running a small or medium-sized business, and that’s what I’ve delivered. A fair go for those who have a go.
Secondly, we've got to look after our mates. That's what I believe. Every Australian matters, and that's why we have a safety net in this country – to protect people – but it works as a trampoline, not as a snare. The best form of welfare is a job. And our safety net – our social safety net – enables people either to bounce back up and to get back up on their feet, or it provides them with that place of comfort and support that they need during challenging times in their lives. As Australians, we look after our mates. If you're wondering, perhaps in the future, "What's the Prime Minister going to do when he comes to thinking about the social safety net? About Medicare and things like that?" Remember, my value is: we look after our mates.
As Australians, our goal is to make a contribution, not to seek one. It doesn't matter what walk of life you're in. We always want to look in our community – and this room is full of people who always make that choice – wanting to make a contribution rather than take one. See where they can contribute rather than whether they can take out. That is what creates a noble society. That's what creates a growing and benevolent society. A caring society. Always looking to see where you can make the difference.
Here's a key one for me. I think this is where there's a key difference between us and the Labor Party today. Particularly today. I don't believe that for you to do better, that you have to do worse. I don't think you need to be taxed more for you to be taxed less. I don't think that, for someone to get ahead in life, you've got to pull others down. I believe that we should be trying to lift everybody up at once. That we get away from this politics of envy.
I know things are tough for Australians right across the country. Some are doing well. I've been in drought-stricken areas and I know how tough they're doing it, I'll talk about that in a few minutes' time. But we don't get anywhere by trying to say, "Well, it's all their fault, it’s their fault..." "We bring them down, I can go up." That's not fairness in Australia. That's just ugly envy. And I have no truck with that whatsoever. I want to see all Australians succeed, and none at the expense of another. That's an important value.
Now the touchstones that I have as a Prime Minister will be these, and I'll be laying these out in more direct presentations over the next few months. I want an even stronger Australia based on the values. We are a strong country. We are one of the most – if not the most – remarkable country on earth, and we are all privileged to be here. We celebrate it all the time.
But we can be even stronger if we adhere to these values. We'll be a stronger Australia on the basis of my plan, which is about keeping our economy strong so we can guarantee the essentials that Australians rely on - the services, the Medicare. On the weekend, we announced a new drug under the PBS. A drug for cystic fibrosis which will extend the life of Australians by 20 years. We were all thrilled when John (Millman) won the tennis, but I tell you what – the thing that makes me a passionate Australian is when I know that we can list a drug that does that. We can do that because we have a strong economy. We can do that because we're a generous society. Our kids are growing up in a country where that happens. That's something you can celebrate on Australia Day every time. The Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme. The pension. The Disability Support Pension. The National Disability Insurance Scheme. All of these things are made possible because of the sweat and the work of Australians who create a strong economy that make all that possible.
That's why we keep Australia strong and we keep our economy strong. You can't take it for granted, can you, Josh? 3.4% growth through the year. He's only been Treasurer for two weeks and he's already smashed my growth records. [LAUGHS] I know Mathias would have a lot to do with that. That's the consistency. Unemployment coming down. Youth unemployment down to 11.1% – the best in five years. That's – they’re great numbers, but it's what it enables us to do which is important.
In regional Australia, keeping the economy strong. Let's talk about the drought for a sec. I've been out in those drought-affected areas and I have been listening, and we have Major General Stephen Day out there doing the same thing, coordinating our response. I've been talking to the Premiers. And of course we've got Barnaby Joyce out there as a special envoy as well, working with the other ministers, listening hard. It's a big task. There are all levels – different levels of support, whether it's the feed, whether it's the farm household assistance, and making sure a form that takes seven hours to fill out – which is not good enough, it should take a tenth of that – that that can get the support where it's needed, that the water turns up where it needs to. It's a big mobilising effort, and we're on the task.
But the one thing we need to remember is keeping those towns alive. It's great to see it raining here in Albury today. I pray for that rain everywhere else around the country. And I do pray for that rain. I'd encourage other – others who believe in the power of prayer to pray for that rain and to pray for our farmers. Please do that. To everyone else who doesn't like to do that, you just say, "Good on you, guys,” and “You, you go well." And think good thoughts for them. Or whatever you do. But putting the money into the towns – $1 million for every shire that's out there – to keep the money flowing in the towns, keeping those towns alive. We can't make it rain, but we can keep those economies going until it does. Because what really thrilled me when I went to Quilpie was this – I didn't find despair, I found hope. They've been going through the drought for six years. I found young families with kids, little dogs running around, kids going to school... I found hope. They showed me a photo of the pasture which had grass up to here 2 and a half years ago. They said, "We know this – we know this place can work. We've just got to get ourselves to that point, and we thank Australians for backing us in." But let's not think of those who are going through there, only having, dealing with despair, and I know many are, and that's why we've got the mental health counsellors out there. But let's get give them hope as well, and let's encourage them in how they think about hope.
The second one is we're going to keep Australians safe. Our government can always – a Liberal National Government, a Coalition Government – can always be counted on when it comes to national security. I've already talked about the achievements of our Government and how we're continuing to work in areas of cybersecurity to keep our kids safe from predators and the work that's done by the team, and I commend Peter Dutton for the work that he's been doing, particularly. You all know about stopping boats and things like that, which I know a bit about too. But one of the things that Peter has done and been passionate about is making sure our kids are safe from predators, and kicking those out of this – kicking those people out of this country who would be predators against them. They’re the people we've got to keep an eye on. So, keeping Australians safe is important. But there's one great principle that John Howard, I think, put it best in Sydney many years ago: "Our sovereignty in keeping Australians safe is critical,” and that means – we decide. We decide, as he said, who comes to the country. But we decide the things of national security that determine our future. That's very much a key direction from my government.
And thirdly, we want to keep Australians together. I don't want to set Australians against each other. I want to bring them together. I'm bringing my party together around the values and the beliefs that I've outlined to you today. Beliefs I hold. You know, values are things politicians talk about. Beliefs are things that, you know, you and I talk about. You talk about what you believe to your kids. You talk about what you believe as a community. And keeping Australians together to ensure that we respect our senior Australians so they have dignity in those years, that we respect our young Australians by listening to them about their hopes for the future and their concerns for the future.
Where it's environment issues in particular, my ears are very alert. The War On Waste – yes, I have seen it, on ABC – the War On Waste. I get it. That's what's focusing and concerning them, so that means it matters to me too. That's how you bring Australians together. You take all of their concerns seriously, and you work with all of them, and you listen to them. That's why, coming back to those fundamental freedoms of the individual, of their faith, of their association, of their right to free speech and all of these things are so critical. Because you know, I'll finish where I started – I'll finish where Menzies started. It all starts with the individual. I love Australia. Who loves Australia? Everyone. We all love Australia. Of course we do. But do we love all Australians? That's a different question, isn't it? Do we love all Australians? We've got to. That's what brings a country together. You love all Australians if you love Australia. Whether they've become an Australian by birth 10 generations ago, when my ancestors came – not by choice, but in chains, rocked up in 1788 – they did alright. Or if you came last week. If you've chosen to be here in this country, that's even more special, in some ways, isn't it? Mathias knows that.
Let's love all Australians. Let's love this wonderful country. That's what I believe. That's what you can expect from me. That's what you can demand from me. That's what you can hold me to account for and all of my team. So we're just going to get on with it. Thank you very much for your attention.
Address, Indonesia-Australia Business Forum
1 September 2018
Good morning and thank you.
I was in a school yesterday in Bogor and I was sitting with the students and telling them a story about an incredible man I was going to meet. I said he was like you, he sat in a classroom like this and came from a very humble background. He worked hard and worked jobs and put himself through university and studied forestry and set up a business. I said do you know who this is? They all looked at me wanting to know who this incredible person was. I said, well his picture has been in your classroom the entire time and I pointed at the President.
President Widodo is a sign of hope to every young boy and girl in this country in what he has been able to achieve and it was indeed a privilege to meet such a wonderful man as him yesterday.
President Widodo is heading to Lombok today to view the earthquake recovery efforts.
What has occurred on Lombok has been devastating more than 560 who have perished, countless homes and buildings destroyed.
We express our deep sympathies for the nation of Indonesia and the people of Lombok - Australia stands with Indonesia, as it has always done.
There is currently a team of Australian engineers and construction experts working on the ground with their Indonesian counterparts, assessing the structural damage and integrity of buildings, particularly local schools, many of which have been funded through the Australian development program.
I wanted to make a statement by coming to Indonesia on my first international visit as Prime Minister.
I also wanted to underline Australia’s commitment to regional engagement and pursuing economic opportunities through trade.
As Australia’s Prime Minister, I know that Indonesia’s success is our success. But it is bigger than that - it is important to our regional and global economy.
As the world’s third largest democracy. Fourth most populous nation. The home to the largest Muslim population in the world. The prosperity, harmony and success of Indonesia is a ‘must’ for our shared global future.
And I am delighted to be here focused on the opportunities and potential of our partnership.
Most of all, I come recognising our two countries as friends.
And we have no greater friends here than President Widodo and Vice President Kalla.It was a real pleasure to meet President Widodo yesterday.
We elevated our ties to a Comprehensive Strategic Partnership and announced the conclusion of negotiations to the Indonesia-Australia Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement, known as IA-CEPA.
A landmark agreement and Indonesia’s most ambitious to date.
Both are real achievements and I’ll return to them shortly.
Let me start though by talking about what I want to achieve for Australia in our international engagement. We are witnessing the most fundamental shift in global economics in 200 years. Our region, the Indo-Pacific, is now the fulcrum of the global economy.
At the same time, unprecedented technological changes are creating new opportunities and posing unique risks.
Set against these rapid social and economic changes, our region is experiencing sharpening strategic competition. In an era of rapid change and uncertainty, we must know who we are, what we offer and what we’re about. There can be no wasted effort.
My Government has three clear goals to ensure an even stronger Australia: keep our economy strong so we can guarantee the essential services Australians rely on, keep Australians safe and keep Australians together.
Prosperity, security, unity.
Australia’s Foreign Policy White Paper, which as the new Prime Minister I am pleased to affirm, works to achieve these goals.
The White Paper outlines an agenda for opportunity, security and strength, working with our partners to drive better outcomes for all of us.
That is my agenda, whether here on this my first international visit and for my engagement with other world leaders.
We pursue opportunities through trade and investment because this makes our economy stronger and helps deliver jobs for Australians.
And trade brings opportunities for our partners, as President Widodo affirmed yesterday when discussing the potential for trade and investment between Australia and Indonesia.
We pursue security with our neighbours to keep Australia and Australians safe and our region secure and open. And by working with partners, we keep their citizens safe and secure.
We are committed to close cooperation with Indonesia and others to tackle common threats such as terrorism. We are steadfast in strengthening our alliance with the United States.
We will deepen our engagement with our regional partners like Indonesia, India and Japan to keep the Indo-Pacific secure, prosperous, open and inclusive.
I am committed to deepening our Comprehensive Strategic Partnership with China, which has brought great benefit to both sides.
Australia will remain a leading security and economic partner of ASEAN.
We had a very successful ASEAN Australia Summit in Sydney in March.
I will build on that foundation because ASEAN sits at the centre of Australia’s vision for the Indo-Pacific. Together we must build our region’s resilience to all forms of coercion and commit to protecting the rights of all states.
My Government will boost further our engagement with our partners in the Pacific, with whom we agree a new security declaration next week.
The peoples of the Pacific hold a very special place in our regional family. There is a special affection and closeness between us that enables us to speak warmly but candidly with each other to address the many challenges and opportunities that we face together. The key is we will always face them together.
At the Pacific Island Forum Leaders meeting next week in Nauru we will continue Australia’s walk together with our Pacific friends. We will keep our commitments and do all we can to protect and preserve the sustainability, prosperity and security of the Pacific family of nations, as we always have.
While I will be a reluctant absence at next week’s meeting, I look forward to remedying this when we gather together at the time of the APEC meeting in Port Moresby.
We will also work with others around the globe to guard the institutions and rules that keep markets open, keep the world safe and help build a better future for the next generation. To be successful and influential internationally, Australia needs to be strong and united at home.
Our democracy, our economy, our multicultural society and our people give us the confidence and strength to make our way in the world.
We are pragmatic and committed to action.
We come to get things done.
We also come with respect to listen and to learn.
As a partner and a friend, we are committed to doing the heavy lifting when required, to deliver for our people in partnership with our friends and neighbours.
Under my leadership, the Australian Government will continue to work with Indonesia and our other partners to pursue common interests.
Indeed Australia has no more important partner in our region than Indonesia.
I want to work together to make our economies stronger, to make our people safer and to keep our people together. One thing both Australians and Indonesians know is that we can’t achieve prosperity without security — one underpins the other.
That has never been more true than it is today.
Which is why on this visit President Widodo and I have elevated the formal status of the relationship between our countries.
We’re already partners. But this new agreement— the Comprehensive Strategic Partnership — reflects the new ambition we share for our relationship and our region, and the increasing importance each of us places on working together.
This new partnership gives Australia and Indonesia the framework to build even closer ties — to boost prosperity for our people, strengthen the connections between our communities and increase security not just for us, but across the Indo-Pacific.
As Australia’s Prime Minister, I’m proud of our shared efforts to make the world, and our region, safer. This agreement will ensure we work together more closely than ever to keep the oceans that surround us open to trade and free from trans-national crime.
We will step up our cyber security cooperation, protecting our growing digital economies from the scourge of cybercrime.
Indonesia and Australia are together leading the fight against terrorism and transnational crime in our region. As co-chairs of the sub-regional meeting on Counter-Terrorism and the Bali Process on People Smuggling our partnership is having a genuine impact. We are achieving so much more together than what either of us could do alone.
But we must be ever vigilant. Terrorists continue to seek new ways to spread fear and violence. As the tragic bombings so recently in Surabaya show us, the threat of self-radicalisation is real and it is serious. We must continue to stand as one against this ideology of hate.
Indonesia, like Australia, understands that there is “unity in diversity” and that our societies are strengthened by embracing a wide range of faiths and cultures.
We must continue to learn from each other.
Connections between our faith communities and young people, through initiatives such as the New Colombo Plan and Muslim Exchange Program, have brought depth and resilience to our relationship and have our support.
We need to make much more of these people-to-people and community contacts, especially among our young people.
As Prime Minister I will strongly encourage young Australians to embrace the opportunities offered by our dynamic, diverse neighbour to the north.
Our strategic engagement underpins our economic prosperity and every year our economies are becoming more integrated.
But there’s still a huge amount of untapped potential.
I don’t think anyone in this room would disagree that for two economies the size of ours, two G20 nations, our trade and investment relationship has been underdone.
I am here to put more grunt into the economic relationship.
That is why IA-CEPA is so important.
IA-CEPA is not a transaction; it is a partnership.
It will open the door to a new era of opportunities for Australian and Indonesian business. Whether in agriculture and manufacturing, services or investment, this new agreement lays a foundation to realise the economic potential of our partnership.
It will create jobs and it will create wealth for both countries.
Ninety-nine per cent of Australia’s goods exports will be able to enter Indonesia duty free or with significantly improved preferential arrangements.
And all of Indonesia’s exports will enter Australia without tariffs or tax – which means more exports for Indonesia and cheaper inputs for Australian business.
Because we know from first-hand experience that free trade works — it has underpinned Australia’s economic success for more than half a century and fuelled Asia’s rapid growth.
It will enable companies like BlueScope, Telstra, Elders, Astra, Indofood and Tatalogam to create new opportunities — shared opportunities.
Just take Bluescope as an example.
Once this agreement is ratified, the raw materials Bluescope Indonesia needs from Australia to produce its high-quality steel will be more affordable and supply will be more reliable.
That means Bluescope’s manufacturing facilities in Indonesia, and other Indonesian steel manufacturers, will be better able to supply markets across the region – further boosting the attractiveness of Indonesia as an investment destination and creating more jobs and economic opportunities in both Indonesia and Australia. In agriculture, Australian cattle producers will benefit from greater certainty, while Indonesia will have greater food security and cheaper beef prices, as well as the space to continue to build its own cattle production. Prospects are better for investors like Jetstar, which is now expanding its presence with more flights, jobs and training in Indonesia.
Because the driving principle of these agreements, just like the Australian concept of a fair go, is that another country does not have to be worse off to make Australians better off. When we reduce barriers to trade, we create win-win outcomes.
Both Indonesians and Australians can be, and will be, better off.
That’s how the global trading system works.
We both gain from trade and investment.
The agreement is a win for both sides as we prosper together.
For example, Australian majority-owned vocational educational providers will be able to partner with Indonesian firms, giving young Indonesians the chance to gain internationally competitive skills, and Indonesia the opportunity to make the most of its young and dynamic workforce.
But this agreement isn’t only about the goods and services that we buy and sell.
Importantly, it will give Australian investors greater certainty in Indonesia and promote more two-way investment. The hardest part is over – we’ve finished the negotiation.
We’ve both still got some legal and technical details to finish and domestic processes to work through, but we want the agreement signed and up and running in the months ahead.
Before I conclude, may I personally thank Vice President Kalla for your decisive leadership in bringing this agreement to fruition.
I’d also like to thank the business community in both countries for your strong support, including the Indonesia-Australia Business Partnership Group, which played such an important role in the negotiations. The people at the coal face of both our economies know that with perseverance we can make it. As partners, we need to deliver for our people to make most of the opportunity and potential between us. Our partnership has a promising future built on a long history of cooperation, going back to the origin of Indonesia as an independent nation.
It’s a fact perhaps lost to time for many, that Australia was one of Indonesia’s strongest supporters in its bid for independence.
So strong, in fact, that President Sukarno chose Australia to represent Indonesia in the United Nations negotiations in the lead up to Independence.
It was an honour for Australia then, and remains so today, to have been present at the birth of modern Indonesia. And so to all of you here today and all of the people of Indonesia, on behalf of all Australians I say: Ayo! Kita maju bersama.
C’mon lets go forward together.
Thank you — thank you for your friendship in the past, thank you for welcoming me here today as Australia’s Prime Minister, and thank you being our trusted partner in the exciting journey ahead. Terimah Kasih.
As I conclude can I ask you to do one thing? Think about the kids in the local school where you live - in your kampong, in your part of Sydney or Perth. What we have done here in this agreement was for them. It will long outlast any of us in this room today and we can feel good about that.
Good job. Thank you very much.
Remarks, Ministry Meeting
28 August 2018
PRIME MINISTER: First of all let me say welcome. The next generation of Liberal and National Party leadership sits around this table and sits around this room today. I want to congratulate you on the oath of office that you’ve taken today. It’s both a very solemn moment for us all, reminding us of the most important of all things, but equally it is a time, I think, to spend with your family and your friends and I’m glad you’ve been able to do that. But the time for those sentimentalities has finished, because now is the time to go to work.
Now, for each of you today, I gave you a lapel pin with the Australian flag on it. I’ve been wearing this now for many, many years. I can’t remember when I first started doing this. The reason I wear it is because it reminds me every single day whose side I’m on. I’m on the side of the Australian people. That’s what I’m saying to myself, that’s who I think about first, every single day. Now I know you all feel the same way. I’m sure you had other devices and other things you do to keep that focus, and we’re going to keep that focus. So I gave that to you as a reminder today of how I remind myself: we are on the side of the Australian people. That’s who our clear focus must be on. It’s because we share their fundamental beliefs and values. We believe in a fair go for those who have a go. That’s what we believe, that’s what they believe. We do not believe, as our political opponent’s do, that for someone to do better, someone has to do worse. That’s not fairness. We’re going to redefine what fairness means in this country. Fairness means a fair go for those who have a go. When I think of all the people who have come from all over the world to make this great country, that’s why they came here. That’s why they stayed here, and that’s why together we are all Australians and we can be proud of those values. Those values, those Liberal values, those National values, will be the basis of everything we continue to do, as it has been ever since we have all walked into this place. We must remind ourselves of those things every single day.
Our job now is to provide stability, to provide a unity, and a unity of purpose for the task that we have ahead of us. We have some immediate priorities and yesterday I was pleased to be with Michael and Bridget and David up in Quilpie and the drought. What I was particularly impressed with yesterday was there wasn’t a sense of despair; there was a sense of optimism and a sense of hope. Stephen Tully showed me this picture of a paddock which was brown yesterday, but two and a half years ago, the grass was up to your knees. That’s the hope that sits inside his head, every single day when he thinks about his kids. And so as we provide relief and we restore in rural Australia for the drought, then we need to provide people with that hope, with that assurance, that we will achieve this with them together.
We’re going to get electricity prices down, Angus. That’s what we’re going to do – they’re going to go down, those electricity prices. Absolutely. The Minister for getting electricity prices down. And that is something that I think will demonstrate to all Australians how just how much we are on their side. There will be continuity in our policy in this area, but there will also be new ideas in this area, to ensure that we get those prices down. We’ve got to move quickly, Dan, as you know, and I commend
Simon for the work that you’ve done in that area, taking on your new responsibilities. I know you’ll be working together on this. Our needs-based education funding model that was introduced by Malcolm Turnbull was a bold vision for this country and how our schools are funded. We’re going to bring that home and we’re going to bring everybody in the schools sector with us, from every part of that sector. We’ll be reaching out and concluding the work that Simon and Malcolm started and ensuring that we can complete that job.
There are many other things that we’re going to be having to be doing over the weeks, months ahead, and we’ll get about that around this table, working together. Just like it has been done under the former Prime Minister and the Prime Minster before that. Again, I particularly want to thank Malcolm and Julie, who have both made various statements in recent days. They have been great contributors to our country and I thank them all for the opportunity from us who have had the opportunity to serve around a table with them.
I stood with Tony Abbott when we stopped the boats. I stood with Malcolm Turnbull when we balanced and brought the Budget back into balance - that’s where we’re heading. And now you’re all standing with me to create an even stronger Australia. Where we keep our economy strong to guarantee the essentials that Australians rely on. Where we keep Australians safe. There are a few people not here today, Dutts is up there at the Five Eyes meeting, at work, along with Christian, on this very task – keeping Australians safe. And we’re going to keep Australians together. At all times we’re going to remember one thing when we look at this on our lapel, and we’re going to remember – we are on the side of the Australian people. Thanks colleagues.
Press Conference - Quilpie, Qld
27 August 2018
Prime Minister, Deputy Prime Minister, Minister for Agriculture and Water Resources, Minister for Regional Services, Sport, Local Government and Decentralisation
MINISTER LITTLEPROUD: Welcome to Maranoa, and welcome to just west of Quilpie, to Annabel and Stephen Tully’s property here. Welcome particularly the Prime Minister, who has taken time and taken drought on, taken it by the scruff of the neck as soon as he was awarded the leadership of the Liberal party and then became Prime Minister. Drought was the key issue, and the Deputy Prime Minister and Senator Bridget McKenzie and to Major General Day, thank you for coming out and hearing the stories. This is about listening and looking and understanding. To have a Prime Minister who is prepared to come out, to kick the dust, to get an understanding of what these people’s stories are, of real Australian stories in the outback are. This drought, it’s been prolonged in many parts of my electorate in Queensland for close to eight years in some parts. So the resilience and strength that some people like Annabel and Stephen show are the true stories of Australia. I’ll let the Prime Minister speak but this about trying to let him understand some of the investments that we’ve made as a Government around building resilience. Our job as a Government is around farmer welfare, and then building resilience and preparedness, things like dog fencing and investments in write-offs of hay storage are important. But also, can I just make one plea – put the politics aside. Can I say to the Labor State Government, to Annastacia Palaszczuk, can you please, can you please re-think your vegetation management laws, particularly with respect to Mulga. We are seeing farmers out here in the Mulga lands that have lost over 35 per cent of their fodder because of the draconian laws around Mulga’s and vegetation management. This is a land management that has been done sustainably by our farmers for generations. We should trust our farmers to continue to manage the Mulga lands the way they have, but to also maintain their dignity. To be able to make a living to get through this drought. This isn’t our first drought and it won’t be our last, but the Mulga is so important. So to Annastacia Palaszczuk, can I say please, I plead with you, pit politics aside and re-think your vegetation management laws around Mulga. So the Prime Minister, to you, thank you, and I ask you to say a few words.
PRIME MINISTER: Thanks David and it’s great to be here with the Deputy PM who was here, not here, but in other drought-affected areas with the previous PM. Our Government under Malcolm Turnbull and today under me is 100 per cent focused on what we need to do as a nation together to ensure there is not just relief from the drought but recovery from the drought. I’m accompanied also today by Major General Stephen Day who I will speak about in a second. I particularly want to say thank you to Annabel and Steve for inviting us to your home today. It’s not just their home today, it’s been their home in the Tully family for five generations. They were here some 10 or 15 years after Burke and Wills went through this strip. This is a long-term generational farming family that we have come to visit today. The reason I wanted to come to Queensland today was because this is an area that has been dealing with drought not for one year, not for two years - for six years. I want to show you something Steve just showed me. This property in 2016, just over there, that's what it looked like. This is successful country when it comes to what they've been running for five generations. This is what we've got to keep in mind because that says hope, that says the future, that says why these communities live here because it is sustainable, it is achievable and it's coming back. What our challenge is, is to ensure that until it comes back, we do everything we can to ensure that these families, that these communities, that these towns get from now until then. So today… Look, I've been in the job a couple of days. Stephen has been in the job just over a week, so he's not too far ahead of me on this. The reason I've asked Major General Day to continue on the work that Malcolm Turnbull asked him to start with the Deputy Prime Minister is because we need a national response to what this drought is. It's not just in New South Wales or Queensland. It's getting in Victoria, isn't it, Bridget?
MINISTER MCKENZIE: Yeah.
PRIME MINISTER: Bridget is from Victoria. It is getting down there into South Australia. We all needto work together. I said the other day that I want to have an even stronger Australia that is keeping Australians together. Now the reason just chatting to some of the families a few minutes ago, that they're able to achieve and show the resilience that they are, not just now but over generations, is because they stay together. We have got to stay together as a country in our support. Governments and the Commonwealth Government have to stay together and work together to ensure that we can give the support that is necessary. We’ve already got a number of very well-targeted initiatives that are out here. Rod’s here, where’s the Mayor? He’s around here somewhere. We’re meeting with the Mayors and other Shire representatives this afternoon. One of the things that Prime Minister
Turnbull announced just recently with the DPM was a million dollars for every single Shire Council that was affected by the drought and what that's about is putting money into potentially even the dog fencing we've been talking about or the road programs that they have or fixing up the local library or anything like that that puts money into these towns and into these areas. We can't make it rain but what we can do is ensure that these local economies and regional economies can get from A to B and when B looks exactly like that. Now Major General Day's job is to bring together and to provide us with a plan. He is listening, then he will plan and then he will act.
That's how we can draw together all of the resources of Commonwealth, state, local governments and the charitable sector, everyone who is out there trying to make a difference to support the situation. That's what Major General Day is doing. That's what he has been tasked with. It is an enormous task. I have to give him the time to be able to form his plans, to get the information and ensure that he can bring back to us what we need to do to make this work. Let me make another comment; yesterday when we announced the ministry, I will ask Michael to speak in a second, we talked about the role that Barnaby Joyce would have. Barnaby will provide a connection point between Major General Day and the Government, out there listening to people, providing that feedback directly. He is not there as the Minister. He is not there to defend government policy. He's there to hear about what the issues are and to be able to be trusted and faithfully relay that back to us so we can make those decisions.
We need someone to be there who people can talk directly to and then they can make sure we know what we need to do, whether it's Major General Day or it’s Michael or it's I or David or the whole team. Anyway, over to you, Michael.
DEPUTY PRIME MINISTER: Thanks, Prime Minister. A lot of people get excited about the Coalition agreement but one of the first orders of business - and I didn't need to tell the Prime Minister, the new Prime Minister, he was already coming out here, he was already making sure that he knew exactly what these people are enduring here out in outback Queensland. Indeed, all throughout New South Wales, South Australia and Victoria, parts of Victoria. It's grim out here. But that's why we have got the best people on the ground to do the right job. We've got David Littleproud as the Minister for Agriculture and Waters Resources. We’ve got Major General Stephen Day and Barnaby Joyce is going to be a very vital conduit between drought-stricken communities and Government and making sure that message, as the Prime Minister just said, making sure that message gets through. But what I want to do is I want to implore people in metropolitan areas, wherever they might be, come out and visit these areas. There’s lots to see and do.
These drought-stricken communities more than ever need your help, need your support, need your dollars. Just down the road, the best dinosaur museum I will say anywhere in the world butcertainly anywhere in Australia. Great dinosaur museum. Believe it or not, this used to be part of an inland sea. They found dinosaurs here. Come visit it, come and have a look, spend a bit of money, get a haircut, go and have a coffee, a meal. Spend some money in a petrol station. You'll be greatly accommodated here. Friendliest people anywhere in the bush, friendliest people anywhere in Australia. They need to see you, they need your dollars, they need your support more than ever during these times of drought. Certainly we need these rural economies to stay strong. They will. They also, as well as being the friendliest, they are also the most resilient. They have to be, they really do. The Prime Minister is very, very much on board. As soon as I sat down to talk with the Prime Minister, when he had just been elected as Liberal leader, first order of business was drought. He wanted to know what he could do to help. He has come out here as his first visit as the Prime Minister and I commend him for that. So, thank you, Scott. We will keep helping, as a good government should, side-by-side, shoulder-to-shoulder, with drought-stricken communities. Not just farmers, it doesn't just stop at the farm gate but all the small businesses. So what I say is come out and visit, have a look and spend a few dollars here.
PRIME MINISTER: Stephen wanted to say a couple of things.
STEPHEN TULLY: I'd just like to say thank you very, very much, Prime Minister, for coming out. For you to come here before you swear in Cabinet is a great priority for drought. I was asked this morning whether you can come with all the solutions. I said I hope not because you don't know the problems yet. So that's quite rewarding as well. I can't wait to sit down and we’ll have a good conversation. I will have some solutions but there's many others out there and I'm sure you will have a good listen to everybody as well. So thank you very much, really appreciate it.
PRIME MINISTER: Thanks mate, I really appreciate it, and thanks for having us here. It was great to catch up with Hugo, I enjoyed his class. That was a bit of fun, they got a bit of a surprise.
STEPHEN TULLY: Did you learn anything?
PRIME MINISTER: I can assure you I learn something every day! If you don't have that attitude, you never do. So, questions.
QUESTION: PM, can I just ask you to reflect on the fact that in some parts of Queensland, we haven't seen rain for seven years. That means some kids, seven years old, just a few years younger than your daughters, have never seen water fall from the sky. How does that make you feel as a parent and how does that make you feel as a Prime Minister?
PRIME MINISTER: What upsets me about that is they don't know what that looks like. While it was only a couple of years ago here, they haven't seen yet what has kept their parents here and their families here for long periods of time. They're here basically on faith from what mum and dad have told them about this lifestyle. That's what makes me sad about it. When I was talking to Annabel before, there’s a lot of hardship here, there’s a lot of struggle, they're incredibly resilient people, and they’re not complaining about anything, they're getting on and doing it. Doing a lot. We have looked at innovation, the works they're doing, they're getting on with it, they’re just getting on and doing a lot. We’ve looked at the innovation, looked at the works they’re doing, they’re just getting on with it. But when you talk about your kids, it's another matter altogether.
What we need to do isn't just about dog fencing, and all of that's important, but kids still have to go to school and getting kids to school can't be causing stress and heartbreak for parents. So there's no end, it would seem, at the moment to the issues that we have to sort out and coordinate here and that's why Major General Day's job is so important. It's to work across everything from education to human services to coordinating with the States, to my old department in Treasury and the Tax Office and places like that. It's a whole-of-government response and then working with the States. I think that's what frustrates people. They look at governments going, "Why aren't you talking to each other?" We are going to try and talk to each other a lot better because that's a big part of the solution, all the governments working together. I spoke to Annastacia Palaszczuk before coming out here today. We had a good chat about that. I spoke to Gladys Berejiklian during the course of the week in New South Wales. I was actually talking to Mark McGowan just the other night. They're a long way from the drought but that's where the feed is coming from. There is a lot of connections on how we deal with that. For those kids, I want them to see that pasture again.
QUESTION: Prime Minister, can you tell me whether you believe that the prolonged dry period that people are experiencing out here is associated with human-induced climate change?
PRIME MINISTER: I don't think people out here care one way or the other whether it's that.
QUESTION: I'm asking you.
PRIME MINISTER: But I care what they think.
QUESTION: But I’m also caring about what you think as Prime Minister.
PRIME MINISTER: I don’t think that’s the issue.
STEPHEN TULLY: I'm happy to talk on that.
PRIME MINISTER: Yeah sure. The person you should be asking is Steve.
QUESTION: Well actually, you're the person making the policy decisions, so I’m also interested…
PRIME MINISTER: Well let's listen to Steve first.
STEPHEN TULLY: So we’ve got 100 years of records, so there’s two families out here that have 100 years of records. What happens so far still sits within those records. Whether it is climate change or it is not, is completely irrelevant to everybody here. It’s still marginal; you can’t argue any other way. People are hurting now. We need it fixed now. Whether it is, whether it's not is really irrelevant now.
QUESTION: I appreciate that but I want to get a yes or no answer from you. Do you believe it is associated with human-induced climate change?
PRIME MINISTER: You are talking about right here. I mean we’re talking about… climate is changing, everybody knows that. I know what you're trying to ask, OK? I don't think that's part of this debate. That's my point. If people want to have a debate about that, fine. It's not a debate I've participated a lot in in the past because I'm practically interested in the policies that will address what is going on here right and now. I'm interested in getting people's electricity prices down and I'm not terribly interested in engaging in those sorts of debates at this point. I understand the arguments about all that. I understand the positions that are held. But practically, it doesn't help me a lot in terms of working out how you make a human services form which is too long and invasive and takes people a lot of time to fill out. That debate doesn't help that form get filled out any sooner and it certainly doesn't help ensuring that you are keeping dogs out of your pasture lands and things like that. So, I'm going to leave that debate for another day.
QUESTION: Can I clarify something else with you on the drought? The difference between, say, a small business in your own electorate and a farming enterprise like the one we're at now, what do you see is the difference and the reason why somewhere like this is eligible for emergency assistance whereas a business that’s struggling in your own electorate might not have that money?
PRIME MINISTER: Well I’ll give you an example. In my electorate in southern Sydney, you know, I've come from the quarter acre out to 180,000 acres out here - that's a big difference for a start. We had the Kurnell refineries closing down. They were a big employer in my electorate and that was managed over a period of time. Now the people that used work there, because we live in a large city, means that they’ve been able to pick up jobs elsewhere in the city. But these economies and these communities don't have those same sort of options. And these communities are providing the food, they’re providing the wool, they’re providing what Australians need. And, you know, it is different in different parts of the country. As a result of that, I think that means there's a special responsibility here. Not just to ensure that they can be successful - I'm looking at some of the innovation they've been putting on around this property, but this is a way of life that is important to Australia's future. I want to make sure that way of life continues to be preserved as I know Michael and Bridget and my Liberal colleagues feel the same way.
QUESTION: As a former Treasurer, can we expect some actual subsidies from the Federal Government? To date we haven't seen direct subsidies as part of the assistance. As part of the national response, can we expect to see some action?
PRIME MINISTER: There has been significant action when it comes to farm household assistance…
QUESTION: I mean direct subsidies to farmers? Is that on the table?
PRIME MINISTER: We are already providing farm household assistance and Michael and others can speak to other items. There’s a number of things we are doing and we are $1.19 billion in terms of financial assistance that's gone in as part of a drought response over many years now. It has many components. The most recent one was the $70 million-odd that was announced for funding grants directly into local councils to ensure those economies could be sustainable. That's incredibly important. So look, where there is a problem and where we think there is a solution that requires that type of support, then you'll do it. If Major General Day turns up and says, as part of his plan, we need to coordinate financial assistance in this way as opposed to that way, well that's what he is there to tell us and we can respond on that and act on that. I'm not pretending to come here and suggest we have all the answers to all the problems. I got a great text from Barnaby last night on day one, as you expect, he has given me quite a list of things that he reckons. We're already about that.
QUESTION: So there's other options on the table?
PRIME MINSTER: We will look at every option. Let me tell you this, too - the drought package is an ongoing thing. It doesn't sort of get announced one day and then that's it. It goes on as long as the drought goes on. We need the ideas to keep coming as long as the drought goes on and beyond. It's about drought relief and drought recovery as well. Those two things have got to go together. It is a constant work in progress. I mean, that way people deal with the drought here is a constant work in progress. It's a struggle and it's a strain but they're constantly innovating and finding ways to actually go forward every single day. Our response is going to be exactly the same. An enormous amount has already been done under Prime Minister Turnbull and I'm seeking to continue that work by being responsive.
QUESTION: Prime Minister, this morning Tony Abbott did a radio interview and said that the era of the assassin is over. Is that a relief to you?
PRIME MINISTER: I think it's important that the bitterness of years past, not just on our side of politics but on the other side of politics as well. I mean, I've been in this Parliament about the same time as Michael, just a little bit longer, I think, and it's been a pretty tumultuous time. I think Australians would welcome the fact that that period of time is over. And it should be over. Australians expect that of their Parliament and I'm pleased that that's the case. The age of bitterness has come to a close and the age of working together and focusing on the future has come.
QUESTION: He says the job that was on offer was a title without a job. Is he being ungracious in terms of what you offered him?
PRIME MINISTER: Tony and I are continuing to talk about the role he can play and, as a former Prime Minister, I want to use his experience, I want to use his insights in an area I know he is deeply passionate about. Just like Michael and I want to ensure that, as former leader of the National Party, we're using Barnaby's skills and experience as part of our Government. He deserves the respect of a full proposal as to what I see his role as and I'll give him the respect of that and we will keep working that through.
QUESTION: Back to the drought, you're the first Prime Minister since Paul Keating to go from Treasurer to Prime Minister. Given you have held that role, does it make easier now for you to - you know where the money is, that's what I'm trying to say. So is it easy to find money? Secondly, this drought has been going on for seven years. What was the tipping point, the switch, because this only happened in the past six months, so what changed?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, I can remember as Treasurer earlier this year, and I remember Michael saying in Cabinet - sorry to breach Cabinet confidence...
DEPUTY PRIME MINISTER: You're about to. But you're allowed, you're the Prime Minister.
PRIME MINISTER: Michael was pushing this had to be put on our agenda and what our response was. That had a big impact on me, Michael, and, as you know, we went through a range of packages that went through the budget. Since then, we've been doing the same thing. I was very involved in that as Treasurer, as Michael knows, and had some pretty strong views about particularly keeping the regional towns and communities going. They're all little economies. No different to the economy of the Cronulla Mall or out here in Quilpie, they’re little economies that support a lot of people. Now the Cronulla Mall gets support from a much bigger customer base than they do in Quilpie. You have got to keep the towns going. The broader farming community around these towns are a huge part. A lot of other things are part of those towns. You have people working at the council everywhere from answering phones to doing accounts to managing programs. You've got people running small businesses. A lot of people and a lot of different jobs depend on money continuing to come through these towns.
QUESTION: What do you know about the illegal fishing boat off far North Queensland coast? How many people are still missing? What do you know about the situation?
PRIME MINISTER: I have spoken to the Home Affairs Minister, Peter Dutton, and he was a designate at that point when I spoke to him - he has been sworn in now, he is in Brisbane - I should say the Gold Coast - attending the Five Eyes meetings with others there. The vessel, as I understand the briefing that has been provided to me, relates to a fishing vessel and, as a result, that doesn't fall into the category of what I often used to refer to as these illegal vessel arrivals so what we're seeing with that is the usual process kicks in and we'll manage that as we've managed the others but it's a reminder to all Australians, we did stop the boats. I had a significant role to play as part of that under the Abbott Government. I have had a significant role to play under the Turnbull Government as the Treasurer. But under my Government, I'll be focusing on all of these things and we can't take the success of our country and the achievements we've had under the Abbott Government and under the Turnbull Government for granted. I mean, these things don't stay fixed. You've got to keep them fixed. You need to continue to apply the same application, the same strength, the
same focus to ensure that we maintain and keep those things in place. So that's a reminder. What we saw today on the coast is a reminder of the need to have strong border protection. That's why Peter Dutton is back there doing that job.
QUESTION: Sorry to interrupt. Are people still missing and what does it say that a boat got that close?
PRIME MINISTER: I've been on a plane for a fair bit of time and I haven't been able to speak to Peter since earlier today. I will be seeking an update later today. I have no doubt about the ability of Peter Dutton to carry on the work which I started many, many years ago and keep the issue right under control.
DEPUTY PRIME MINISTER: I’d just like to… Bridget McKenzie has got a new role as far as regional issues are concerned and I'd like her to talk to that role and what it means with the drought.
MINISTER MCKENZIE: Thanks, Deputy Prime Minister. It is fantastic to be here in Quilpie. And I think, backing up what everyone else has said today is that right now we need local solutions. We have had some rain down south, in New South Wales over the weekend, it's not drought-breaking rain but it will make a difference to those communities going forward. Up here not so lucky. We need to make sure our response as a government is very localised. Making sure Palaszczuk deals with the Mulga issue is a great example of actually applying a local solution instead of assuming that the native vegetation laws that work in Brisbane work out here in Quilpie. We have got five generations of farmers say we can make a fabulous living here, raise a family, and do an honest day work and ensure we can have a continuous business model but you can't keep tying us up in red tape. I would be calling, like we have as a Federal Government, for a local response.
That's why our local councils that are affected by drought, I will be overseeing how they are going to be using the $1 million each provided as part of our response over the recent past and just talking here locally, they've got some really great ideas they are taking them to council tomorrow, so I can't speak about them in detail, but it is going to be a very local response where they will be building those local economies and growing them. It was great to sit down, as Regional Communications Minister, to sit with young Hugo, say g'day to his classroom and hear first-hand the importance of our Government’s investment in initiatives like Sky Muster which means Annabel and Stephen’s kids can stay here on the property for as long as possible before heading off to boarding school and so they can have this love of country, love of place embedded in their lived experience and hopefully return once they finish their education.
Thanks.
Press Conference - Canberra, ACT
26 August 2018
Prime Minister: Good afternoon everyone, thank you for coming together. Over the course of the last few days, after the rather significant events of the past week it has been my task, together with the Deputy Prime Minister and Deputy Leader of the Liberal Party Josh Frydenberg, and the new Treasurer, and the Deputy Leader of the National Party, Bridget McKenzie, to restore stability to the Government. We have moved quickly to do that and focus on the most urgent of those tasks. But in addition to that, we begin the work of this new team that we will be taking forward as a Coalition team of Liberal and National Parties to the next election.
Before I do that, though, there has been significant events today in relation to the passing of Senator John McCain. I remember when I met Senator John McCain when he visited our Parliament, and the impact that he had on so many people here on that occasion. You knew you are in the presence of a truly great man. He embodied everything that we respect and value and love about our American friends. They are like family and his loss today is like the loss of a family member to us as Australians. When I spoke to President Trump the other day, I told the story about a fellow called Leslie “Bull” Allen. He was an Australian who fought at Mount Tambu near Salamaua, up on the northern part of Papua New Guinea. He pulled 12 American soldiers off the hill that day and for that he was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honour. An Australian, from Queensland. Such is the bond between our nations. And so on this day we share in our sympathies for our American friends and we show our great respect to them.
Returning now to matters domestic, this new Liberal-National team is a next-generation team. It is a team that I have brought together working with my senior colleagues today to ensure that we have the stability necessary, but in addition to that, we begin the work of healing that is needed after these most recent events. That we tackle the big challenges that are before us with some new ideas and a fresh emphasis, while restoring some of the emphasis of the times past where the Liberal and National Parties have focused on these types of challenges. I said the other day that my plan is for an even stronger Australia. It will focus on keeping our economy strong, keeping Australians safe, and keeping Australians together. And that is the task that I have set for this team as I've gone through the process of inviting them to be part of this.
I will run through the key elements of the new Ministry, but before I do that, I want to thank those that have been serving, in particular Julie Bishop, who I would have very much welcomed her continuing role in the Ministry, but totally understand and respect the decision that she has made. She will make more comments about her own position in the weeks ahead. Julie has made an extraordinary contribution to Australian public life and I have consulted her also as I have gone through the process of forming this new team. She will be a passionate campaigner in every sense of the word, as she always has been for the Liberal Party into the future. I'm sure many of us, in particular my female colleagues, who will continue to look to her as a mentor and a great supporter and encourager in our joint efforts. But others such as Jane Prentice, who is not contesting for the Liberal Party at the next election, Craig Laundy, for personal reasons has advised me that he did not wish to be considered for today's Ministry team, and so has John McVeigh. They have provided incredible energy in a short time in their service to our Ministry and to our Government. I'm sure and I have no doubt that they will return to important positions serving our country and our Party in the future.
I want to turn now to key elements of the package that we have here today. First of all, in terms of stability, you will continue to see some key faces in the key roles that Australians know and trust. Of course, in addition to myself and Michael McCormack as Deputy Prime Minister, Mathias Cormann, who will continue in the role of Finance and Leader of Government in the Senate. Christopher Pyne will continue his responsibilities in Defence in a new role in the strategic end of the portfolio. He will be supported, though, by Steven Ciobo in the role of Minister for Defence Industry. Nigel Scullion will continue in the role of Minister for Indigenous Affairs and, importantly, Peter Dutton will continue in the role of Minister for Home Affairs. Though I do stress that we are going to make a change in the way that we combine the components of that portfolio. The Home Affairs initiative is a very strong one to ensure that we coordinate right across all agencies to keep Australians safe. But I will be appointing as a new appointment David Coleman to the position of Minister for Immigration, Citizenship, and Multicultural Affairs. David has a keen understanding of the many different backgrounds and many different issues that need to be managed to ensure that Australians who have come from so many different backgrounds get that fair go I spoke of only just last week after the change that we experienced. Moving through the list, Mitch Fifield will continue in the role of Communications and the Arts, Greg Hunt will continue in the role of Health. Matt Canavan, of course, in Resources and Northern Australia, David Littleproud in Agriculture and Water Resources.
These are all key portfolios where I believe that we have had excellent performance and there is a need for continued stability. But there are also big challenges that we are facing and the very capable members of the team that have been performing in other roles, I am keen to see take on some new challenges. They include Marise Payne who will be taking on the role left vacant by Julie Bishop. Marise has been part of the many engagements, particularly with our key allies, as the Minister for Defence previously, and has participated with Julie Bishop in the Two-Plus-Two and other engagements we have, and is well known in all of these relationships. So there’ll be a strong continuity in passing that role to Senator Payne. I should note that is was Julie Bishop’s strong recommendation that she should take on that role, and Julie having served so well in that role, I thought was well placed to consider who could take it on, following in her footsteps. Kelly O'Dwyer will move from the Minister for Revenue and Financial Services portfolio and she will move into the portfolio of Jobs, Industrial Relations, and while retaining the role of Minister for Women. This is an area where I know the Liberals and Nationals across Australia have always had a keen interest and it is always a key part of ensuring that our economy is strong. That we get the relationships right in our workplaces and that we look forward to the future of work and how that can be accommodated in workplaces all across the nation. Restoring an Industrial Relations portfolio into the ministry line-up is an important signal of how important we think it is to future productivity. Productivity is about ensuring that Australians can earn more from what they do. That is what we are interested in. We are interested in seeing Australians earn more and ensure that they can keep more of what they earn.
In the critical area of education that will now be taken up by Dan Tehan, while the former Minister for Education, Simon Birmingham, will take up Trade, Tourism, and Investment. In terms of education, there are some clear issues we are still seeking to resolve, and I can assure you that with Dan we will pick up the work that was being done by Senator Birmingham to ensure that we can move quickly to resolve any concerns that have been raised and I look forward to working closely with him as we seek to address those issues. I've already mentioned Steven Ciobo taking on the role of Defence Industry, and I congratulate Paul Fletcher for being taken up into Cabinet. He has served incredibly well as a Minister for Urban Infrastructure, and whether it was initiating the work that we have done on Western Sydney Airport under the new structures or ensuring that we are dealing with congestion in our cities right across the country, working with our states.
The other new faces in the Cabinet are Melissa Price from Western Australia. She moves into the Cabinet and takes on the role of Minister for Environment. She is joined by Karen Andrews taking on the role of Minister for Industry, Science, and Technology. These are important areas both for our economy and for the quality of life and the quality of the land which we love so much in terms of its environment. Melissa and Karen will bring an important focus and I commend them and congratulate them on appointment. But of all the issues, the one that I think is concerning Australians most where we’re bringing in a new face and new ideas into the challenge, is in the area of getting electricity prices down. The Minister for getting electricity prices down, also to be known as the Minister for Energy, will Angus Taylor. Angus Taylor has an incredible background working outside of this place and inside this place to solve complex and difficult problems. He will pick up the work that is being done by the now Treasurer and other ministers that have formed the package of initiatives that will be bringing electricity prices down for Australia. And so I look forward to working with Angus in that role, as I know, the Treasurer, Josh Frydenberg, also looks forward to working with him. This is such a critical issue and we are going to bring Angus's passion, enthusiasm, focus, and experience to the task, so we can add to the measures that we have already announced. It is great to see Michaelia Cash also continuing in the Ministry, but with a new portfolio. She will be focusing on Small and Family Businesses, Skills, and Vocational Education. There is not a business in the country that I don't expect that Michaelia Cash won't visit over the next six months or so. She will be there laying out very clearly how this Government, since we were first elected back in 2013, has done more for small business than any government in generations. I know Michaelia Cash will bring a great deal of enthusiasm to that task.
I want to thank also Michael Keenan. He has performed admirably in so many different roles and he will continue to in the role of Minister for Human Services and Digital Transformation. Stuart Robert will take on the role of Assistant Treasurer. Alan Tudge will take on one of the larger challenges that I know is burning in the minds and the conversations of Australians, and that is the issue of population and infrastructure. He will be the Minister for Cities, Urban Infrastructure, and Population. Alan Tudge is the Minister for congestion busting. He will be able to draw on the resources that we have made available in our most recent budget. Ken Wyatt will continue in his current role where he has performed very very well and is well received by senior Australians. His task as set out in his portfolio is the Minister for Senior Australians, speaking up for them, understanding their quality of life challenges, and their cost of living pressures in addition to service delivery such as aged care. He will continue in the role of Minister of Indigenous Health. Alex Hawke will take on the role of Special Minister of State.
In the Assistant Minister ranks, there are a lot of new faces. While Senator the Honourable Anne Ruston will take on a new challenge in International Development and the Pacific, Richard Colbeck returns to the Executive in the area of Assistant Minister for Water and Agriculture. The Honourable Zed Seselja will remain in the role, or should I say go into the role of Assistant Minister for Treasury and Finance, which is a big combination of portfolios for the Assistant Minister. Sussan Ley returns to the Executive, and will be working closely with Minister McCormack, the Deputy Prime Minister, in the area of Regional Development and Territories. David Fawcett has been an unrecognised talent in this place in the executive ranks for a long time. There are a few people in this place who have as deep an understanding of defence issues as Senator Fawcett. As a former pilot himself in the Air
Force he is someone who I think has a great deal to offer my team. Steve Irons and Andrew Broad join the Executive, as does Scotty Buchholz. Sarah Henderson and Michelle Landry join the team, and they are all part of a group of Australians in my team that are focused 100 per cent on creating an even stronger Australia. I commend all of them. We do have an increased number of women in our team, which I know that the Minister for Women will be very pleased to see. We want these new perspectives. We want this fresh energy. There are big challenges that we have. The Government's ability is being restored and we are getting on with the job and tomorrow, Monday, when you go to work, we will be going to work, too.
QUESTION: There has been speculation about the fate of Tony Abbott, and whether he should be returned to Cabinet. John Howard suggested someone like that. What are your thoughts on why that should not have happened?
PRIME MINISTER: Well let me make another announcement, because I’ll also address the issue of Barnaby Joyce. On the area of drought, which I have advised is a key first priority for me, and we went through those briefings yesterday and I'll be out visiting drought affected areas in western Queensland tomorrow. We have experience. We have an ability for our members who have served in leadership roles in the past to be drawn on and engage Australians on some of these big challenges. I'm pleased that Barnaby Joyce has agreed to take on the role of Special Envoy for Drought Assistance and Recovery. These roles, I think, provide an opportunity for those who have served at senior levels in the past can continue to make a very constructive contribution. I look forward to continuing to engage with Mr Abbott on how he can play a role in those areas, but I fully respect his right to look at these issues as he sees fit.
QUESTION: And Mr Abbott?
PRIME MINISTER: Well that is my point. I will continue to work with him on the role that he can play if he wishes to in a similar capacity to that which the former leader of the National Party, Barnaby Joyce, has played.
QUESTION: Prime Minister, you have separated energy and the environment, they were one portfolio. Is that effectively it insofar as emissions reductions being associated with the energy policy? Are they now two separate things? Have you dropped the NEG for good?
PRIME MINISTER: Any changes to the Government’s policy settings will go through the normal process. I will consult with my colleagues on those, particularly the ministers who have announced today who will be responsible for these things. The challenge that we have in energy is to get the reliability, the dispatchable power. The challenge is to ensure that the market works to drive the prices down, that the big companies that are setting these prices stay inside the lines. I'm looking for more and new and more innovative ways for Angus Taylor to bring a greater opportunity to bring those prices down and I'm sure he’ll be doing that. But it is reliability, it is price, it’s keeping the lights on, and it’s getting the prices down.
QUESTION: Are you confident that this is an election winning team?
PRIME MINISTER: Yes, I am.
QUESTION: Mr Morrison, you changed it so the Home Affairs Ministry is separate – or inside the Home Affairs Ministry is the Immigration Portfolio. Have you made that decision because you think that immigration needs to have less of a national security focus, and also with your new Population Minister, does that mean that you will expect a population policy to be rolled out soon?
PRIME MINISTER: A couple of issues. The Home Affairs model that we have adopted here in Australia is based on the United Kingdom. In the United Kingdom, there is a Minister of Home Affairs, and that Minister for Home Affairs from the UK will be here this week for a series of meetings up in Queensland on the Gold Coast. Within that Home Affairs structure, there is a Minister of Immigration as well. These issues fall within the Home Affairs family of portfolio responsibilities. Immigration, of course, forms part of national security policy, but it also has always played an important role in economic and social policy, and I've had quite a bit of experience with this myself. We need a strong focus on our immigration program so it brings the skills and it brings the harmony and the unity that we want from that program. We are the most successful immigration country on earth. And we have worked hard to achieve that record, and I want to keep a strong focus on immigration policy within the Home Affairs portfolio. And Minister Dutton as the Minister for Home Affairs will be focusing on everything from cyber security to law enforcement, border protection, security agencies, and he will have his focus more principally on those security tasks.
QUESTION: With the Royal Commission into the banking sector will be giving its preliminary report in a month, you’re going to have your two brand-new ministers in areas directly responsible for what will come out of that. Will you be taking your role because of your experience Treasury into whatever comes out policy wise in response to the RC?
PRIME MINISTER: Well the people who are performing in these roles already have a great deal of experience in them. Of course the Treasurer, as well as the Assistant Treasurer, are well versed on these topics. My own role as Treasurer in the past will mean that as Prime Minister I will have the opportunity to deal with whatever might come forward from the Royal Commission, both in the interim report, and subsequently what comes out next year. The Government has already been taking measures on this for years. Many, many years. Everything from our executive accountability regimes, the levy, the work that we have done to improve competition in the banking sector, and more initiatives to come. These ministers will continue to roll out these changes that will make our banking system more competitive, more accountable, more innovative to meet the needs of customers. So I think that we are more than well equipped to continue to respond to the challenges we’re seeing in that sector. It is incredibly important but I have no doubt about the ministers' capacity to both absorb the information quickly and ensure that we are providing the appropriate responses. Just let me come back to population, the question before. Population is driven by many different forces, immigration is one of those. Immigration policy does impact on population policy. What I am seeking to do with congestion busting Minister in Alan Tudge is to ensure we having the appropriate services and infrastructure response to what we’re seeing with population, that we understand where our population is heading. That information gets drawn down from the intergenerational reports as they are done from time to time. But this provides for a Minister to have a more constant watch on what the population pressures are in Australia and how we need to be responding to that. And that is why I have linked that portfolio with Urban Infrastructure in particular where the population pressures are greatest.
QUESTION: Prime Minister, how long do you think it will take to solve the issue of school funding, the issue with the Catholic sector?
PRIME MINISTER: Well we’ll sit down once we’ve sworn in the new Ministry on Tuesday, and Minister Tehan I know will be getting quick to work on that. There’s already been great progress made by Minister Birmingham. There will be a handover. The former Prime Minister was also making a lot of progress on this and I'll be picking that up once I have dealt with the most immediate issues we’ve been talking about with drought. I’m sure and I hope we’ll be able to get to a resolution before not too long.
QUESTION: Prime Minister, Nick Greiner has suggested that the Liberal Party’s leadership election process should be changed. Do you think there is any merit and looking at that given what’s…
PRIME MINISTER: Sorry?
QUESTION: Nick Greiner has suggested that the Liberal Party’s leadership election process should be changed given the instability. Do you think there is any merit and looking at that in the future?
PRIME MINISTER: These are things that members of our party room will discuss from time to time. In the course of the discussions over the last few days, there were members who did raise those issues with me. But what has to change in this place and what Australians expect of us in this place is a change in the culture and the behaviour and I said in the party room on Friday that issues of bitterness and these things that arise from these events - that has to go. Australians expect us to focus on them, rightly. I said the other day we are on your side. We share the values of Australians. That is what drives our policies. And that must drive our behaviour, also. Regulating for culture is never effective and, as a team, a new-generation team, we are about changing that and addressing and learning from the things that have caused us problems most recently. And I'm very optimistic about that. This is a passionate team looking forward, ambitious, and hungry for the next election, to demonstrate how, as a government, we will continue to offer what Australians need. And that is an economy that produces and guarantees services they rely on. That keeps Australians safe. The keeps
Australians together. That is what the Australian people looking for. The Labor Party does not share our values and they don't share those values with the Australian people. We don’t believe it is the right thing to do for someone to be put down so that another can be raised. Of course in a ministry such as this, sadly that is often the case. That is the practicalities of arithmetic. My point though is that our team has a set of values that resonates with the Australian people, and it is our job to ensure that we reflect those, not just in our policies and in our communication, but indeed in our behaviour.
QUESTION: Prime Minister, there is little room in your frontbench for people that your predecessor described as the insurgents. You’ve been asked about Tony Abbott but there are more out there who were responsible for the turmoil that we saw last week. Are you confident that they, because they weren’t in the ministry before, and that is why they were causing trouble, that they won't still cause trouble because they’ve been left out again?
PRIME MINISTER: What we are doing today in pulling this team together is providing for stability, which is what Australians expect of their government. But it does begin that process of healing. I’m not going to pretend to you that those things are fixed quickly. But I do believe that this provides the opportunity, having reached out, having ruled a line, in ensuring that the events of the past week go no further than that, and I'm confident that they won't. In any exercise like this, I suppose my challenge as a Prime Minister, as has been the case with the Prime Minister prior to me, there is a surplus of those obvious and able and willing to serve with great capacity. My entire parliamentary team of colleagues are all capable of serving in this team. The choices that you have to make are difficult and are disappointing for some - for others they are a moment of great opportunity for them to demonstrate what they have to offer. Balancing up new faces, new challenges for some who have proven themselves so well. Drawing in those at the more junior levels of the Ministry and the outer Ministry that will give them the experience that will see them become very strong ministers in the future. I mean, this is not just about a new generation. This is also about generation building and seeing the talent come in and nurtured. It respects and honours that those, particularly in Barnaby’s case, who has taken on this role of drought, the great capacity he has to really listen and convey messages and communicate and help us console and put our arms around people who are being affected by drought. And he will be working closely, of course, with all the ministers, but of course, also, Major General Day, who has the task we spoke of yesterday to co-ordinate a national drought response.
QUESTION: On tax cuts, is your position still the same as when you stood out here with Malcolm Turnbull? Off the agenda for now but perhaps in the future?
PRIME MINISTER: Yes this will be one of things that will be brought forward through a new Cabinet process. Those large business tax cuts won't be going forward, I won’t be calling for those to continue. That policy remains in place, that decision has been taken. But we will be forming a new, exciting, tax policy, for small and medium-sized businesses, which I know that Senator Cash will be able to explain right around the country. They’re the engine room of growth. I know that this team can deliver the economy we need, the safety we need and the togetherness we very much need. Thank you very much.