Press Conference - Queensland fires

28 November 2018

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Prime Minister, Deputy Prime Minister, Minister for Emergency Management

PRIME MINISTER: Thank you for coming together. You probably would have just had the opportunity to see the briefing that was provided by Premier Palaszczuk in terms of the very concerning events that have been unfolding in Queensland over the last few days and they have certainly intensified over the course of today. As you just would have heard, we expect that continue certainly over the next 24 hours and indeed, potentially over the next 7 days. Earlier this evening, we were briefed, the Deputy Prime Minister and I, by the Director General of Emergency Management Australia, Bob Cameron, who was able to update us on this situation in Queensland and to particularly draw our attention to of the what is more than around about 115 fires that have been burning and three that are of particular concern. The Deepwater fire and the Ambrose fire and what is now being referred to as the Gracemere fire.

What’s also important to note is the quite serious set of weather conditions that has been giving rise to what we are seeing. Very low levels of humidity and record maximum temperatures which has been occurring for the past few days. This is very unusual, we are advised, and there is about a 4 to 8 per cent… sorry an 8 per cent average above, and 8 degree average above what we’ve seen and expect to see over the next four days and we expect to see a severe and extreme conditions be in place across all of eastern Queensland over the next 7 days. Wind changes, all of these things are occurring and it’s important that we keep a close eye, as the authorities are in Queensland. I want to commend the Queensland response. I’ve spoken to Premier Palaszczuk on a number of occasions today and to offer all forms of support that are available to her from the Commonwealth. And what I think is important to note has been the incredible response provided to Queensland from states and territories all around the country. The firefighting response has been provided by the civilian fire authorities, whether it's from New South Wales, the ACT, Victoria, Western Australia. New South Wales is actually sending more tomorrow, and they have been joining the Queensland effort and a very coordinated effort which has been run out of Brisbane from the state Disaster Coordination Centre. We have activated the Director-General of emergency management Australia, has activated the Commonwealth Disaster Assistance Plan. That is the formal mechanism by which it creates an open channel between the Queensland State Government and the Commonwealth to seek assistance in any range of areas from the Commonwealth.

Now, in terms of the ADF, the support that has been provided to date has been out of Amberley and providing refuelling capacity. New South Wales, by the way, has seven aircraft up in New South Wales, and, of course, the ADF are providing assistance as required there. As the Emergency Management Minister, the Assistant Minister for Home Affairs was pointing out today as well, the financial assistance has been triggered through the joint disaster recovery funding arrangements. They've been activated, particularly in areas of Gladstone, and that provides financial support for personal hardship and distress and to assist in a number of the counter-disaster operations that have been provided by the Queensland Government.

The messages that I think are important to Australians today, and particularly Queenslanders, up in north Queensland, and central Queensland, is to simply take the advice. You can rebuild a home but you can't rebuild a family, and there is, I think, a very clear set of warnings that have been provided and it's time to listen to those plans, stay calm and gather your family together. And the evacuation centre in Rockhampton for Gracemere, but it's not only Gracemere that's impacted by those orders that are in place and those emergency evacuation arrangements that are in place. But I'd be calling on people to respond calmly and to make their way to Rockhampton where there'll be support and there'll be assistance available to them. I know that will be very distressing to them and their families but know this - the entire country is coming to your aid. The entire country is there to help in this time of great need. And the members for Flynn and the members for Capricornia will have left the Parliament together with Senator Canavan and they're returning to their electorates to provide what support and comfort they can and assistance.

I have no immediate plans, nor does the Deputy Prime Minister, to visit the area. The advice to us is that we need people to focus on the firefighting effort and the firefighting response, so we will continue to monitor and manage things from, in terms of the Commonwealth's response here from Canberra, and working closely with Emergency Management Australia. I want to thank all of those who have taken the journey, all of those who have stepped up today, all of those who have reached out to friends, family, to comfort one another. All those who are working up there in Rockhampton tonight, all those who are working wherever they are tonight to provide the level of response that Australians would expect in a situation like this.

Before I throw to the Deputy Prime Minister, it has also been a very difficult day in New South Wales today. In Sydney, we have seen today heavy rains, flash flooding, damaging winds, severe thunderstorms, hazardous surf and hail in Sydney and the Central Coast. There has also been [inaudible] that been required to be activated at this point, we'll obviously be staying in close contact with the New South Wales State Government in terms of any assistance that they may require. So our thoughts are also with all of those affected by those quite extreme conditions in New South Wales today. We'll be there to support you as well in every way that is appropriate in those circumstances. So with that I might hand to the Deputy Prime Minister. Thank you.

DEPUTY PRIME MINISTER MICHAEL MCCORMACK: Thank you, Prime Minister, and Senator Reynolds. This is a very difficult day for Australia, particularly for New South Wales, particularly for Queensland, and as the Prime Minister has indicated, Michelle Landry the Member for Capricornia, Ken O’Dowd the Member for Flynn and Senator Matthew Canavan, Minister Canavan, have returned to Queensland to be with their people to offer what support they can. It's important that we do stand side by side, shoulder to shoulder with our friends, with our neighbours, at this time. But most importantly, as the Prime Minister said, for those people in the affected area, be as safe as possible. Please listen to the local emergency authorities. They know best. If they ask you to leave, then please do so. As the Prime Minister has just said, you can always rebuild a home, you can't replace loved ones. I can't stress that enough. The authorities have said it. Please listen to them. They know the conditions on the ground. They want you to act with calmness but certainly if you need to leave then please do so and listen to them. Many cane farms have been razed. The villages of west of Mackay, Eungella and Finch Hatton have been evacuated. They’re only small, tiny specks on the map but those people, they have homes. They're wonderful little communities and they've had to evacuate. So we think of them at this time. Our thoughts are very much with them. Of course, for all of those people who are evacuated, there will be support services available, and I reiterate again, don't panic, just take the action necessary. Thank you.

PRIME MINISTER: Thank you. Did you want to offer anything in terms of emergency management?

EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT MINISTER LINDA REYNOLDS: Thank you, Prime Minister. As the Federal Emergency Management Minister, it's my responsibility to ensure that all Commonwealth agencies work together and provide all the support required to Queensland, and when requested, New South Wales. The emergency management, EMA, has already responded and they are working very closely with the Queensland authorities in their special operations centre. Our Commonwealth crisis coordination centre has been activated and we are doing everything we can now to ensure that the Queensland authorities get all the emergency assistance they need with emergency services support, with firefighting resources and particularly now working with the Queensland Government to ensure that all of those families and men and women who have been affected and lost property and have nowhere to go tonight have the food, the clothing and the shelter that they require. The Commonwealth will then, of course, work with the Queensland Government over the coming days, months and possibly even years to make sure that all the support that the Commonwealth can muster goes to support these people. Thank you.

PRIME MINISTER: Thank you. Well thank you Linda, we don't have anything further to add at this point. I mean, obviously operational control in relation to this... these emergencies is being handled both in Queensland and New South Wales. So for operational details I'll have to refer you to both of those centres to get the latest updates. But we thought it was important to give you an update in terms of the Commonwealth's response tonight. I'll be taking further briefings in the morning at the centre here in Canberra, and will provide further updates in terms of any further response, whether it’s from the ADF or any other parts of the Commonwealth as and when is required. Thank you all very much.

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https://pmtranscripts.pmc.gov.au/release/transcript-41998

Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry Annual Dinner

28 November 2018

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PRIME MINISTER:  It’s wonderful to be here with you and I’ve got a lot of colleagues who are here tonight and if I was to read them all out, we’d be here all night. So I want to give them a general shout-out, as well as to other parliamentary colleagues who are here and my Ministerial colleagues. It’s good to be back here again, I was here last year and when I was here as Treasurer I said to you; “You’ve got to vote for the economy. You’ve got to focus on the things that are going to do the right thing for the economy”. That doesn’t mean you’re partisan or anything like that, but you run businesses and what’s good for the economy is good for business. So it’s important to back the policies and it’s important to back those who are putting in place the policies that are good for the economy. Now why is that important? Many years ago people used to talk about strong economy management. The Coalition is very good at it.

Peter Costello was Australia’s finest ever Treasurer. Kelly O’Dwyer is here, she worked with Peter, we both worked with him when we worked in the treasury portfolios together. We often seek his counsel. Our finest ever Treasurer produced outstanding economic management. But it’s not something you just put on a wall, a strong economy and go: “Well gee, isn’t that lovely, we’ve done terribly well for ourselves, let’s pat ourselves on the back.” For me and for my team, a strong economy is not an end in its own right. It’s the essential thing that this nation requires in order to deliver the services the infrastructure, the thing that matter to Australians. That’s what it’s for. That’s it’s utility, it’s not some sort of academic exercise. It’s not some economists picnic, it is what is absolutely essential for those of us who serve in public life, go into public life for. To ensure that Australians can have the services and the infrastructure, the opportunities that they rely on.

And you create it; businesses represented here and well beyond this room, you create the economy that enables us to pay for affordable medicines. Spinraza is a drug that deals with spinal muscular atrophy. We listed that in this year’s Budget, saving kids lives. That’s what a strong economy does. We’re going to invest $30 billion more in hospitals over the next five years. That what a strong economy does. $37 billion more in schools around the country, a 65 per cent increase in per student funding. Backing in independent schools, non-state schools, state schools all of them, that’s what a strong economy does. It is helping Australians realise their opportunities.

Fiona Simpson is here tonight, $7 billion in support for our farmers and rural and regional communities in response to the drought. You can’t do that if you don’t have a strong economy. Its doesn’t happen and you don’t create a stronger economy by killing it with taxes. That’s what I said to you this time last year. You don’t do that, you cannot have a stronger economy, an even stronger economy, if you take a wet blanket of higher tax and throw it over the top. You’ll douse it, you’ll frustrate it, you’ll suffocate it, you’ll switch it down, you’ll turn it off. When you do that, they you cannot deliver on the essential services and the things that really, really matter to Australians.

Now, some will tell you: “Oh, we can pay for that with higher taxes.” It’s a false economy, it’s a false economy. You turn the taxes up, you turn the economy down, a zero sum game, it’s a trick, it’s a lie. Lower taxes, that’s what produces a stronger economy.

You know, I was up in Darwin recently and I spoke to the Chamber up in Darwin and I talked about our plan. I said; “Our plan for creating this stronger economy was about tax relief to encourage and reward hard-working Australians, whether they’re running their own businesses running their own farms, whether they’re hard=-working wage earners, we’ve legislated tax relief for all of them. $144 billion worth of personal income tax relief legislated through the Australian Parliament.

Now, if you tell Australians that you get to keep more of what you earn - because it’s their money by the way and it’s your money, running a small family business - you are able to keep more of that and invest it back into your business, more of what you earn is what you get to keep, then that can only be supporting what is going in and around the economy. If floats everybody’s boat, it lifts everybody up.  That’s why we believe in our heart of hearts as Liberals and Nationals that we need to ensure that we keep taxes down. Because we believe that Australians should keep more of what they earn.

They have worked hard for it, you’ve worked hard for it, why should you give more of it to me?

People say: “Oh, you need to pay higher taxes so we can pay for hospitals and we can pay for schools and we can pay for affordable medicines”, well I’ll tell you how we pay for that; we pay for that by the economy being stronger and stronger and stronger and stronger.

See, we are delivering all of those things at record levels and not in increasing your taxes. In fact we are cutting your taxes, because that is what we believe as Liberals and as Nationals. We believe in having a stronger economy, not being an end in its own right, but we believe in what it can produce.

How we can make the economy stronger, that focus on a stronger economy is getting the Budget back into balance. I announced this week, yesterday, that we will deliver a Budget on the 2nd of April. Josh Frydenberg will be the most successful Treasurer since Peter Costello.

[Applause]

I suspect he won’t be recognised by Euromoney, to his great disappointment.

[Laughter]

Apparently delivering surpluses is not what Euromoney recognise as being the essential ingredients for being the world’s greatest treasurer. But I’ll tell you what; he will be the next Treasurer to deliver a surplus in this country and the last one was Peter Costello. Now, I will tell him I gave him a bit of help. And I’m sure he will make mention of it or else –

[Laughter]

But the Budget is coming back into balance and that has been hard work, really hard work. Hard decisions, getting expenditure under control. The lowest growth in public expenditure growth in more than 50 years - that’s fair dinkum more than 50 years - we have constrained expenditure growth, we have constrained growth in taxation we have put a cap, a speed limit on taxes. You know, if you’re serious about controlling expenditure in this country you’ve got to be serious about controlling taxes.

I have sat round and chaired ERC for many years now. The best way to control how much people spend is making sure you only take in what you need and that’s what we’re doing as a Government. We’re keeping taxes under control, we’re keeping expenditure under control and it is bringing the Budget back into balance. Next year we are hitting surplus again and that’s a great achievement. It means that the Western Australia Chamber of Commerce and Industry – who I would argue have had the most successful lobbying efforts over the last few years, I don’t know whether you give out a prize within the Chamber for these sorts of things –

[Laughter]

I tell you they made their case and they convinced me. The reason they convinced me is that it was important and it’s been enabled by a strong economy and getting our Budget back into balance, that we can finally fix the unfairness that existed with how the GST was distributed across our states and territories. Western Australia was held back for too long and we’ve been able to fix that without holding or taking any from any other state or territory in the Commonwealth. Why? Because we have managed the economy well, we have managed the Budget well.

So we are guaranteeing that funding for schools and hospitals and essential services. We have record investments in infrastructure. I’ve got to say one of the proudest days I have had as a Member of Parliament, as a Minister, as Prime Minister, was to turn the first sod of Western Sydney Airport. I have been involved in that issue for decades and it’s now happening, because of a government that decides it is important to build things, that build our economy. People have talked about it -

[Applause]

Give yourselves a clap, you’re all part of it. People talked about this for decades, but as a Government over the last five years we set about doing it and ensuring that the top sod has been turned on Western Sydney Airport. That is now reality which is transforming Western Sydney, Craig Kelly will know this, out in Liverpool Western Sydney University has built their vertical campus in the middle of Liverpool. It’s the biggest training centre for nurses anywhere in New South Wales. The reason they decided to put it in Liverpool, which is a city which is transforming before your very eyes - it reminds me of Parramatta 25 years ago - they decided to put it there, because of the Western Sydney Airport. Because of what was happening in Western Sydney, because of the investment in infrastructure that our Government had put in place. That led them to make that investment and then others made investments and then others make investments. You know how it works, that’s how an economy grows and that’s why we’ve made those investments in infrastructure, the Inland Rail, the list goes on, the North South Corridor, the M1 up in Queensland, the new water pipe line up in Townsville. All of these infrastructure investments are designed to do one thing; Grow our economy. We want to have an industrial relations system - which I know Kelly O’Dwyer belives passionately in - which does not set employers against employees. I joked the other day - but it is not a joke it is a serious deal – that Labor’s industrial relations policy is a throwback to the 1970s. It was written by people with flares and long hair.

[Laughter]

This is a policy that will divide workers and their employers. You know, when I walk into businesses, particularly small and medium sized businesses I see people working together. That’s what I see. I see people who want to work together. I see people that have arrangements that enable them to all benefit from the success of the organisation, of the enterprise. That’s a healthy workplace and that’s what we want to see. We want to see Australian work places working together, employers, employees, managers all of them understanding that the way you get ahead, is not to pull some down and lift others up, but everybody gets ahead. That’s our vision for workplace relations in this country.

The result of our plan is pretty straight forward; we’ve got growth running at over 3 per cent. It’s got a 3 in front of it. We have got unemployment down to 5 per cent. 50,000 less people are unemployed today than in the last election. Over 100,000 Australians, young Australians, have got a job last financial year the strongest grown in youth employment in Australia’s economic history. How many weddings have you been to, how many bar mitzvahs, how many christenings, how many 21sts have you been to as business employers, as owners, of your staff? How many weddings and how proud were you when you looked at those young people that you gave a job to? How good is that? I mean you’re in it to make a living, but you’re passionate about what you’re doing and how you change lives, when it comes to how you run your business. That’s what small and family businesses are all about and that’s why we back small and family businesses. That’s why we see small and medium sized family businesses as being the engine of our economy.

Michaelia Cash is here tonight and she is responsible for that portfolio and she is doing a stunning job and together with Josh Frydenberg and Kelly we have been working on some packages and some plans to further support small and family businesses in Australia.

You already know that we’ve reduced taxes, as we were doing before, to 25 per cent and we have brought that forward. You already know that we have extended the instant asset write off. You already know that we have lifted the small business definition from $2 million to $10 million, so you get access to pool depreciation and GST on a cash basis and things like that. You already know about that, that stuff we’ve already done that has encouraged small businesses all around the country.

On that alone, the biggest support for small and family businesses from any government in generations, true to the Menzies foundations of our party as Liberals, supporting those small and family businesses. But in recent months I’ve decided as Prime Minister that we need to go even further. That we need to give even more support for small and medium family sized businesses across Australia.

The first one deals with cash, getting paid. Cash flow always starts with getting paid. If the invoices you issue are not being paid, that hurts your business, that makes it harder for your business. Businesses, small businesses should never be treated as a bank by governments or large businesses. We should all pay on time.

[Applause]

I am pleased to say that our Government has been working to do just that. 97 per cent of Australian Government bills under $1 million are being paid within 30 days and we are taking this down to 20 days by the 1st of July 2019. I’m also taking payment times to COAG in just under a month, to encourage all states to catch NSW where they’ve gone to 20 days for those payments, where we are also going. I want State Government and Commonwealth Government to pay small businesses on time and recently when I spoke at the BCA dinner, I talked about their supply code. Qantas is here tonight, Trent is here, they are part of that. They’ve got 13,000 small businesses that are part of Qantas’ supply chain. They have signed up. That’s at 30 days, I’m hoping not just Qantas, but the whole lot will go down to 20 days as well. What we have said is that anyone who wants to work with the Commonwealth Government, you’ve got to agree to those terms as well. You’ve got to pay businesses on time, because the quicker the money moves around, the better the economy does, it’s just common sense. So we are working to deliver that.

We are also requiring that more businesses with a 100 million turnover, that’s 3,000 business to publish information on how they pay their small businesses. I want to see the score board. You need to see the score board if you are a small or family business. Who are the big businesses that pay on time? Now we already know that there are large businesses that are already dropping - as a result of what I announced only a week ago - their payment terms from 90 days in regional areas of Australia particularly Queensland, down to 30 days. That’s a big shift, that is a big shift and it is called leadership. It’s called leadership when you say as a Government you’re going to do it and you expect others to do it as well. We are already seeing others follow and we appreciate that. But there is more than that. You need to get access to capital, you need to get access to finance if you are a small and family business. So we are setting up the Australian Securitisation Fund, $2 billion to invest in deepening the capital base, the finance base for new lenders in the marketplace to be able to source their finance at a lower cost so they can lend it on to you, at a lower cost.

We need more competition in our banking and financial system, we want more of these new lenders, who get small business, who don’t say to you; “Give me your house and a mortgage over your kids and all the rest of it, and we’ll give you some money if we feel good about it.”

No. We want to see all these other businesses who are getting out there and establishing new payment models, new systems, new fintech companies who are going to go out there and they need to access lower cost finance to deliver that to you.

And we’re backing that in with $2 billion investment in the securitization market to ensure that is freed up.

We’re also working to establish with the banks the Australian Business Growth Fund modelled on the UK experience. Now that fund, together with the small business finance arrangements actually work together, as we’ve seen happen in other places.

Getting access to the capital, which can then be backed up by the access to the finance. Then, you’re realizing the ambitions the you have for your business.

But it’s not just about that. It’s about tax complexity and red tape.

Now, it may be a dry topic but if you’re running a small and family business, it’s a critical topic. As well as putting more incentive in the tax system, we’re working to ensure that it is fair, not only when it comes to the design, but to the implementation of the tax system.

As a former Treasurer I know the good work the ATO do. Now, I know there will be at least 200 stories in this place that won’t be that flattering to the ATO, but I suspect there will be some that are. Their job is to ensure the integrity of our taxation system, so we can deliver the essential services that all Australians rely on.

Taxes should be lower, but everyone should pay them. That’s also a rule I think it’s good to follow and the ATO seek to ensure that occurs.

But I understand the concerns, as does Michaelia, of small business when it comes to dealing with the ATO. There is no denying the complexity involved and we are focused on reducing that complexity. We know you’re focused on running your business, not studying the Tax Act or sifting through rules and determinations. The ATO recognises this too and they have taken steps – you’ve got to give them this - to improve the way they work with over 3 million small businesses.  

They’ve opened up more lines of communication with their after-hours call back service, gone out into the business community with their roadshows and they’ve looked at their debt collection and penalty relief processes. Small business interactions with the ATO should be smooth and the vast majority are. Ideally once you’ve lodged your return, paid your tax bill, or received the refund that you are entitled to, that should be it.  But for those who experience an audit or a dispute we understand the impact this has on you and your business. It can be stressful, intimidating and confronting and you will rack up some expenses when you deal with this. Under our Government, you’ll be able to deduct those expenses. Under the Labor plan, you won’t, it’ll be capped so if you’ve got a big fight with the Tax Office, your legal expenses will not be deducted over a certain amount. But those who experience an audit, we understand how it can impact you and while there are many good things the ATO does to make the process easier, we need to do that. The dedicated complaints hotline for small business, independent reviews of audits before they are finalised, advocates to support vulnerable and unrepresented taxpayers through the objections process and independent ,trained mediators to resolve cases.

But there is more that we have to do. That’s why I’m announcing tonight that we will be establishing ten new tax clinics, in conjunction with major and regional universities, to provide free assistance to small businesses and individuals with disputes with the ATO. These tax clinics will ensure small businesses in need have access to specialist advice from tax practitioners and students in the field on a pro bono basis.

The Government will also be reviewing the avenues through which small businesses are compensated if the ATO’s handling of the case causes an economic or personal loss. The review will be run out of the Department of Finance and they will report back in the new year.

A small number of cases go through the ATO’s disputes process all the way to the Administrative Appeals Tribunal. Tonight, I’m announcing a range of measures to make this path towards resolution easier.  Our Government will establish a small business concierge service within the Small Business Ombudsman’s office, to provide support and know-how about the AAT process before application. We’re creating a dedicated Small Business Taxation Division within the AAT, so small business will have a case manager supporting them throughout the entire process, a standard application fee of just $500 and decisions fast-tracked to within 28 days of a hearing.

This is just another step the Government is taking to ensure a level playing field for small business. It’s proof that we’re on your side, when it comes to what we want for you small businesses.

[Applause]

We want small businesses to succeed. Of course that’s in addition to the many other measures that we’ve announced, that include raising the thresholds for asset financial reporting, through from 25 to 50 on consolidated revenue, $12.5 to $25 million of assets and 50-100 employees. That means 2200 companies won’t be required to complete those annual asset financial reporting arrangements, saving $80 million in red tape costs over the year, which we think is a good thing.

Now finally, it’s also about the people who work for you and the skills that they need. Those skills are also key to the economic futures of Australians in a modern economy. We know the strength and dynamism of our economy has increased demand for new skills and a higher level of skills over someone’s entire working life. Providing a skilled workforce, especially for small businesses, depends on the vocational education and training sector, it comes not just from our universities. We believe in this form of education. We believe it equips Australians and it’s not just about training school-leavers to attain employment. It’s about ensuring people can update their skills throughout their entire working life. So in the VET sector, to be able to respond and adapt to future demands for higher skills, changing industry composition and structural change especially in regional and rural Australia and people working longer and in varied roles over the course of their working lives.

We need to strengthen our VET system, not simply as an economic imperative but to ensure Australians are equipped for the workforce of the future.

So tonight, I’m announcing that the Government has commissioned an important review of our vocational education sector in Australia, which will be conducted very promptly and quickly to make sure we’re training the right people for the right jobs in the years ahead. Now the person I have asked, with Michaelia Cash, to do this job has pretty good experience in doing it from across the ditch.  Steven Joyce the former New Zealand Minister for Tertiary Education, Skills and Employment and was also the former Minister for Finance in New Zealand. He will bring a fresh perspective on what is needed here and what we can do here, based on his extensive and successful work and reforms that he put in place in New Zealand.

He is the architect of those reforms to their apprenticeship and industry training system and was one of the most senior and most successful ministers in the Key Government in New Zealand. We’ve asked Steven to consult widely and I’m sure ACCI will be very involved in that process and that is the task that he has. The Review will have a particular focus on ensuring Australian businesses have the skills they need to support their business growth.

The Review will build on the work Minister Cash is already leading, including  the reforms to the Skilling Australians Fund. That fund, some $1.5 billion, supports state and territory governments to increase apprenticeships and every single cent of that fund, every single cent will be spent on vocational education and training in this country. Even where some states and territory governments – as is the case in Victoria and Queensland - where they haven’t signed up to that. That’s disappointing, that’s unfortunate and I would still hope they will look carefully at this arrangement with the Skilling Australians Fund and sign on to ensure they are getting the access to those funds to deliver the programmes that are important in their states and territories. But every single cent will be spent, of that Skilling Australians Fund, in vocational education and training in Australia.

But there’s one thing further I’m announcing tonight which will be supporting apprentices in Australia; I’m pleased to announce that we will be expanding eligibility of the Support for Adult Australian Apprenticeships Initiative, so that it will include apprentices aged between 21 and 24. Previously this initiative was only available for those 25 and older, but given that adult apprentices, for wage purposes, are now defined as being over 21 years of age this has left those between 21 and 24 at a disadvantage. This will mean about 12,500 adult apprentices over the next three budget years will be supported by a one-off $4,000 payment. We are doing this because getting young Australians to learn skills for meaningful employment is not just something that helps the economy; it’s something that can change people’s lives and ensure they’re on a path to a better life.

You know, under our Government we have reached the point where we have the lowest level of welfare dependence of the working age population, in more than 25 years.

[Applause]

That’s what turns a budget deficit into a budget surplus. It’s the old 12 point turnaround; you stop them scoring at the other end, your end, and you score down the other. You get someone who was receiving the welfare payment and you turn them into a taxpayer with a job. That’s what our Government has been doing and these initiatives I’ve been announcing tonight are all about that.

So I’ll conclude where I started; all of this is about building a stronger economy. Why? Because that’s the only way you can look Australians in the eye and say: “I’m going to fund your hospital, I’m going to fund your medicine, I’m going to fund your school, I’m going to fund the Disability Insurance Scheme.”

We’re going to make Australia stronger and you do that with a stronger economy. You can’t do it with higher taxes. You do it by encouraging the people who are in this room, the people who run businesses all around the country in our cities, in our suburbs, in our rural and regional areas all around the country. That’s how you create a stronger Australia and that’s what our Government is delivering, by focusing on delivering the stronger economy.

Thank you very much.

[Applause]

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https://pmtranscripts.pmc.gov.au/release/transcript-42000

Press Conference with the Treasurer

27 November 2018

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PRIME MINISTER: Since the Parliament last met, it’s been a busy time. A Drought Summit Action Plan has been put in place, including moving forward with a $5 billion Drought Resilience Fund, a Drought Future Fund, we're working through that even as we speak. Support for veterans, whether it's ensuring they get the recognition that they deserve and the respect that they deserve or supporting them to get into employment after their time of service, has been completed. Major infrastructure announcements from one end of the country to the other, whether it’s down in Geelong or up in Darwin, across in Townsville, important water infrastructure, the Gold Coast light rail, the Bundaberg-Hervey Bay regional deal; investing in the critical infrastructure and services that our country needs and demands to supporting our growing economy.

The Pacific ‘step up’ programme that I announced up in Townsville at Lavarack Barracks and then had the opportunity to discuss with our regional partners, and allies and others, which just had such a strong response particularly from our Pacific Island family. Showing the leadership that is necessary in our region as well as working with other countries like New Zealand, the United States and Japan to ensure that we are looking after and working with those who live as part of our Pacific family.

In small business and family business, we have made major announcements which demonstrate that our Government has been the strongest backer of small and family businesses that we've seen in generations, absolutely in tune with the great Liberal tradition. The Australian Business Securitisation Fund is ensuring that small businesses get access to the finance and the capital that they need to back in their businesses, so they don't have to go only on the terms that the big banks want. So that there is more competition and they can get a fair go than when they have a go, which is an important Liberal principle.

Cutting red tape, $300 million worth for small business, that the Treasurer announced and getting small businesses paid on time, so small businesses are not used as a bank by big businesses. We're moving on it. We're taking our payment terms to 20 days and other state governments are as well - particularly New South Wales, which I commend them for - and at COAG this year as I said at the recent Business Council of Australia address, I want businesses to come with us on that journey too. I want other state governments to come on that journey, to make sure that small businesses get paid on time. 

It’s a huge deal for them. It’s one of the most important things any of us can do; to can make sure the small and family businesses get the go they work hard for. The Women's Economic Security Statement, in particular providing the flexibility in terms of how paid parental leave is operating in this country, giving women, giving families more choices about how they manage their work-life balance and how they manage bringing up young children.

A new population policy framework, which I'll be taking to the states when COAG meets later next month. Responding to the India Economic Strategy. Just as recently as last week a huge new opportunity as well as concluding negotiations on the Hong Kong Free Trade Agreement.

Toughening up our stance when it comes to keeping Australians safe, whether it's radical Islamic terrorism, or ensuring that we can cancel the citizenships of those who have violated absolutely the gift provided to them, whether by birth or otherwise, when it comes to their citizenship of this country.

Now, that's just since we rose in Parliament just four weeks ago. Our Government is getting on with the job and our plan for a stronger economy is working. Josh can elaborate on that in just a second, but that plan for a stronger economy is what delivers the essential services that Australians rely on. Without a stronger economy, you can't make pledges about hospitals and schools, the National Disability Insurance Scheme, on affordable medicines, Medicare.

Those promises are worthless if you cannot manage a strong economy.

Our Government has been overseeing the management of a strong economy. Unemployment remaining at five per cent. The strongest growth in youth jobs in Australia's economic recorded history. Jobs growth of over a million since we first came to Government, ahead of time, of what we promised and importantly, bringing the Budget back into balance.

When we were elected in 2013, we said we would get rid of the carbon tax and we did.

We said we’d stop the boats and we did.

And we said we would bring the Budget back into balance and we are.

What I'm here today to announce is that before we go to the next election, we will be handing down a Budget and it will be a surplus Budget. It will be a Budget which is the product of the years of hard work of our Government, of successive treasurers and prime ministers, that has ensured that we have stayed on track to deliver a balanced budget, a surplus budget which is what we promised the Australian people we would do.

We've been delivering on our commitments as a Government. We've been getting things done. We can be trusted to run Australia's Budget and trusted to oversee a growing economy.

We've been investing in more services; record investments in hospitals, in schools, in disabilities, in affordable medicines, making life-changing decisions for Australians all around the country.

All of that has been made possible by ensuring that we focus on a stronger economy and we're doing it without increasing taxes. Labor will make lots of claims, but they're making those claims on the back of putting a higher tax burden on the Australian economy, which will suffocate growth, which will suffocate jobs, which will ensure that they don't have the wherewithal to deliver on the essential services that Australians rely on.

A stronger economy is not a prize you put on the shelf and admire; for Liberals, for Nationals, a stronger economy is how we deliver on the infrastructure, the services, the hospitals, the schools, the affordable medicines. That's how we do it. That's why you can trust the Liberal and National parties to be able to deliver on those essential services, because we are the ones who believe that the stronger economy is the ticket to achieving that, not higher taxes.

I'll ask Josh to make a few more comments on that. Later today we'll be tabling the sitting schedule which will make this all very clear. The Budget will be handed down on the 2nd April next year. There'll be a MYEFO in the normal course of events before the end of this year and I'll ask Josh to address that now.

TREASURER THE HON JOSH FRYDENBERG MP: Well thanks, Prime Minister. Yes, the MYEFO be on 17th December, which will be proceeded by national accounts.

The Australian economy is growing. The Australian economy is strong. The Australian economy is performing well. That's the view of the Reserve Bank of Australia. That's the view of the International Monetary Fund. That's the view of the OECD.

We're growing at 3.4 per cent through the year, the fastest rate of growth since the height of the mining boom.

We have created over one million new jobs and since we last met, unemployment has stabilised at five per cent. At the same time, wages have started to grow with the biggest jump in wages in three years, with the Reserve Bank of Australia saying that is a trend that will continue.

Our AAA credit rating has been reaffirmed by Standard & Poor’s and by Fitch. We're one of only ten countries in the world to have a AAA credit rating from the three leading agencies.

And as the Prime Minister said, the benefit of a strong economy is that you can provide the essential services, the defence, the border security, the infrastructure, the disability support, the things that Australians need and deserve. The Australian economy is not an end in itself; it's only a means to an end, which is to support Australians in every corner of our great country.

The next election will be a stark contrast. A contrast between a Coalition Government, which is growing the economy and has an economic plan that is working and is for the future; and the Labor Party, who wrongly believe you can tax yourself to prosperity. $200 billion of new taxes on everything from your income and your business, to your hard-earned savings and to your home. In fact, their plan on negative gearing will see that every Australian who owns their home, it will be worth less. And every Australian who rents their home, their rent will end up paying more.

So don't risk it with Labor.

The Australian economy is heading in the right direction and our economic plan is working.

JOURNALIST: Prime Minister will the election be in May?

PRIME MINISTER: Well, I'll let you guys do the maths.

JOURNALIST: In April?

PRIME MINISTER: I'll let you guys do the maths. There are options available to the Government, there are always options available to the Government, to call the election, as you know, any time between now and to have a half Senate election and a House of Representatives election concurrently, that would have to be conducted by the 18th of May.

JOURNALIST: So you want to have a Budget before?

PRIME MINISTER: It is absolutely our intention to have the Budget before the election and to deliver a surplus budget. A surplus Budget that we promised we would deliver. A surplus Budget that we will deliver and only a Coalition government would have been able to deliver; because it is only through the hard work of the last five years that has put us in the position to be able to have a surplus Budget, a surplus Budget which the Labor Party would have trashed in a heartbeat.

JOURNALIST: [Inaudible] forecast of [inaudible] balance of that plus $2.2 billion. Are you saying that would be the surplus?

PRIME MINISTER: Well, there's no change to the projections in terms of when we anticipate the Budget going into balance. There'll be a MYEFO which will update those figures and of course, there will be a Budget which will update those figures.

JOURNALIST: So you’re saying the surplus will be in 2019/20?

PRIME MINISTER: Well, the figures will be outlined at the MYEFO.

JOURNALIST: I’m not after the figure, I’m just trying to get - you’re setting out –

PRIME MINISTER: No, no what I'm saying is there's still further work to be done between now and MYEFO. We'll update all the figures. In the most recent Budget we said that the balance would be achieved in 2019/20. We will be updating that in MYEFO and of course there will be another update in the Budget of this year for the current year, as well as for next year.

JOURNALIST: So could the surplus be this financial year?

PRIME MINISTER: I'm just saying there will be those two statements. Wait to see those two statements. I'm not suggesting anything either way on that, Michelle. I think the projections have all been fairly clear and if we’re in a position to announce something different, we would be.

But in the Budget this year, we said that the balance would come forward a year earlier to 2019/20 and we're absolutely on track to achieve that. We'll have more to say about the progress on that and the numbers at MYEFO first and then obviously the Budget that follows.

JOURNALIST: Treasurer, you would have seen iron ore and coal prices fall over the last fortnight, down substantially [inaudible]?

TREASURER: Well historically, we've been pretty conservative with our commodity forecasts, as the former treasurer, now Prime Minister, knows.

PRIME MINISTER: Yeah.

TREASURER: We'll take the usual approach to those forecasts.

PRIME MINISTER: We've had a very modest forecast when it comes to those prices and we're still well above - even with those changes - still well above, remembering we had a forecast in there I think of around about 55 and that was going back to the 1st of July this year. So our forecasting on commodities has proved to be very conservative.

JOURNALIST: PM, the latest figures show that there’s about $9 billion extra coming into federal coffers Assuming you can still get into surplus, there'll be a bit of excess. What will be your priorities?

PRIME MINISTER: Well, we'll be outlining the Budget, in the Budget. We'll be outlining the decisions we've made between now, the Budget and MYEFO at the time of MYEFO. We've already made a number of announcements in that regard. We made announcements like I just indicated prior to taking questions; what I said was, we have been investing in infrastructure. We've been investing in services. We've been ensuring we maintain our trajectory back to a surplus. That has always been a core focus of our fiscal strategy over the last five years. We're achieving it.

See, these improvements in our Budget have not happened by accident. Whether it’s been the decisions we've taken on spending which means our spending growth has been at the lowest level of any government in more that 50 years. So, we have exercised spending restraint in terms of the growth of expenditure. We've also exercised restraint when it comes to taxes, we have put a speed limit on taxes.

Labor has removed the speed limit on taxes. Labor will tax it until they break it. That’s their plan when it comes to taxes.

So the next election is a choice between a stronger economy - to pay for the hospitals and services and education and schools and border protection and defence, that Australia needs - or higher taxes. We can deliver it on the basis of a stronger economy and we can do it while keeping taxes under control. Labor ‘s policy on taxes is; “Let it rip.” They will let the taxes rip on every single taxpayer, every single business, every single saver, every single retiree. They will let taxes rip.

JOURNALIST: You’re here, the Deputy Prime Minister and the Prime Minister -

TREASURER: Deputy leader. [Laughs]

PRIME MINISTER: He's a humble Treasurer.

TREASURER: That’s right.

JOURNALIST: A humble Treasurer, sorry, and Deputy Leader of the Liberal Party. You’ve [inaudible] quite strong in the Liberal Party [inaudible] that result. What do you say to those Liberal voters who turned against the Liberal Party this time, to get them back before the federal election? What do you say and the Prime Minister, the same, what do you say to people around the country who are Liberal Party voters who might be feeling the same way?

TREASURER: Well as Matthew Guy said, it was a state election fought on state issues and it's worth remembering that we've lost five out of the last six state elections in Victoria, at the same time as we've won four out of the last six federal elections.

My message to those people in, obviously my electorate and beyond, is that the benefits of a strong economy that we have helped create, are delivering the services that they rely on. The better infrastructure spend, the education and health spending. The work that we are doing to cut taxes, which we've actually legislated, both for households and for small businesses. That’s the traditional thing that the Liberal and National parties do; we cut taxes and we create jobs and that is a proven record.

As for Daniel Andrews, well, he reminded people of some of the things that he had achieved in his time. We're going to be reminding people of the things that we've achieved.

JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, will there be sufficient time before you call an election for Bill Shorten to get a right of reply and do you want Parliament to pass appropriation bills before you call an election? 

PRIME MINISTER: We'll deal with the normal Budget week in the way budgets are always handled. So yes I would anticipate that the Leader of the Opposition would make his reply in the normal way.

JOURNALIST: [Inaudible] comments in your meeting with Victorian colleagues yesterday that Liberals were seen as anti-women, homophobic, climate-change deniers?

PRIME MINISTER: That's not our view and it’s also not Kelly’s view that that’s what the Liberal Party is about. What we're about is the Women's Economic Security Statement which is what Kelly O'Dwyer handed down. I mean Kelly O'Dwyer, when it comes to women's superannuation, when it comes to women’s employment, when it comes to women in small business - female participation in our workforce is at record levels. The gender pay gap under the strong economic policies that we've been pursuing for the last five years, has contracted to it’s lowest level in many, many years, in many, many years.

So what we're doing is getting on with the job of delivering the services that are necessary for families and particularly women and families, to make the choices they want to make. The child care change that we made, that came in on the 1st of  July are actually reducing the cost of childcare. On top of that, what they're also doing, is giving women and particularly women and families on lower to middle incomes, the opportunity to keep their children in child care for longer. No longer do they hit that cliff in about March when the rebates run out. They have the certainty to be able to have their kids in child care and make those plans and make those choices. As I've gone around child care centres all around the country, the response from the staff in those child care centres as well as the parents is; “This is giving us more certainty. We can actually make decisions. We can actually plan.”

I remember when we first brought in those reforms - I was the Social Services Minister at the time - we called it Jobs for Families. Because that's what it was doing; it was giving women choices that they didn't have before. So our record is one of increasing women's economic participation, increasing their opportunity to save more and deal with the changes in the normal course of life and family life and to give them greater choice about how they have economic participation into the future.

I want to commend Kelly O'Dwyer for leading the charge. She has done it as Minister for Women, both as a treasury minister and colleague of mine when I was Treasurer and now in the important role of industrial relations. So she's championing the cause of women and we will continue to speak of the important things we are achieving for women and families.

TREASURER: Can I just add to that, can I just add to that. David, I'm a proud dad of a young daughter and Scott, the Prime Minister, is a proud dad of two young daughters. We want our Party to provide the best opportunity for our daughters.

PRIME MINISTER: That's right.

TREASURER: And it is. So we are part of a party that believes in their aspiration and their hope. So this view that some in the media are trying to promote, is wrong. The reality is our Party will deliver the best possible outcomes for my daughter and Scott's daughters.

PRIME MINISTER: Thank you very much.

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https://pmtranscripts.pmc.gov.au/release/transcript-41994

Statement On Indulgence - Melbourne attacks

26 November 2018

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Mr Morrison: (Cook—Prime Minister) (14:02): Thank you, Mr Speaker, for your indulgence. On Friday, 9 November, a lone Islamic extremist launched a terrorist attack in Melbourne. The terrorist thought his actions would divide us and frighten us. Instead, he met the will and resolve of Melbourne and Melburnians: two brave police officers who stepped up and confronted the terrorist; bystanders who refused to be cowed; first responders who put themselves in harm's way; and every part of government, state, federal and local, standing as one.

In a moment, a great city understood a simple truth: we are stronger together because we have each other. That strength is needed to deal with the grief, and we grieve for who and what was attacked on that day. We grieve for Sisto Malaspina, known to many in this place, a man who in so many ways embodies everything marvellous and wonderful about this great country; a man who came to this country as a young man and brought with him his Italian joy and an unquenchable openness of heart. We think of his family and we grieve with his family. Our thoughts go to those injured and those who are struggling with the violence they encountered on what should have been any other lovely day in Melbourne.

That day, everyone was tested and no-one was found wanting, particularly the two police officers, who thought they were going to attend a traffic incident. Having met with both of them and their families, their families have every right to feel very proud of those two police officers, as we do today—one very early in their service and one very experienced in their service. As the son of a policeman, I could only look into the eyes of his children and see that same pride in their eyes for their dad. They should always feel incredibly proud—as should all children of police officers around the country feel proud of the great service police officers provide to our country, in our cities and our rural and regional areas.

We can be proud of everyone acting as one on that day, the unflinching resolve of 25 million people. Sadly, we know enough about our modern world to know that we will be tested again. Last Tuesday, the Victorian Joint Counter Terrorism Team arrested and charged three men for undertaking preparations for a terrorist attack. I applaud the Victorian Joint Counter Terrorism Team for thwarting their heinous plan. ASIO has no information to indicate any further related threat following from this incident. Our overall threat level remains unchanged at 'probable'. This means, sadly, that there are groups and individuals with both the intent and the capability to conduct a terrorist attack on our soil, so we must remain vigilant.

Since September 2014, our law enforcement and security agencies have undertaken 15 successful counterterrorism disruption operations in response to potential attack planning here in Australia, and they should be commended for doing so and thwarting those attacks. Ninety-three people have been charged during 41 counterterrorism operations. The Commonwealth is working closely with the states and territories to combat these threats. Though we will do everything—everything—to keep Australians safe, we must accept that being part of a free society means that what is targeted is our very freedom. The government has responded to the emerging threat. Since 2014 we have invested an additional $2.2 billion in keeping Australians safe and have passed 12 tranches, with the support of this House and the other place, of counterterrorism legislation.

We are a free people from many nations and many faiths. In this House I want to thank and acknowledge the many brave and passionate Australians in our Muslim community for their leadership and their courage in speaking out against the things which would seek to corrupt their very religion and put their own families and their own communities at risk. These are brave Australians who deserve our support, and they have mine. Last week, I met with leaders from our Muslim community, and I'm committed to working with all in the community, in partnership with them, to tackle violent Islamic extremism.

These have been testing days but days of strength as well. Last week, Melbourne and Victoria grieved at Sisto Malaspina's state funeral. I was pleased that Jenny was able to attend on that day, representing me, along with Assistant Minister Steve Irons. The Leader of the Opposition was also there, as many were. In cabinet that day we paused for a moment's silence during the funeral, and at the Ethnic Business Awards we also paused to celebrate an incredible life lived.

As I've reflected on the events of recent weeks I've been reminded about a small thing, which I remarked on at the Ethnic Business Awards the other night, that Sisto said when he was interviewed a few years ago. As those of Italian heritage will verify, if coffee has a spiritual home, it is in Italy. In Italy they follow a bible when it comes to drinking coffee. Italians usually don't drink cappuccinos after midday, I'm told, and it is unthinkable to have one after dinner. But in Australia Sisto didn't follow those rules. He'd say, 'People should drink their coffees how they like it; the way they like it, when they like it.' It might sound like a small thing, but that respect for others—the tolerance and the acceptance of difference—is the foundation of modern Australia, the most successful immigrant country in the entire world. It is something we should be very proud of. Sisto got it. He lived it. He displayed it. He demonstrated it. Though his life was taken from him in that terrible terrorist act, he overwhelmed it and conquered it through the life that he lived and the freedoms that he enjoyed.

It is a sad day, as we pause and reflect here again today, but it is a day when we can think about his great achievements as a migrant who came to this country and fulfilled every moment of freedom he had to make Australia a better place. We thank him and we thank all of those who stood as one on that day.

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https://pmtranscripts.pmc.gov.au/release/transcript-42922

Press conference with the Minister for Home Affairs

22 November 2018

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PRIME MINISTER: Thank you for coming together. I’m very pleased to be joined by the Minister for Home Affairs Peter Dutton. We will always as a Government do everything within our power to keep Australians safe and we will never rest when it comes to looking at things we can do to make Australians more safe than they are now. Making a number of announcements today that have been determined by the Government that we believe will further strengthen the Government’s position to do just that, to keep Australians safe. And particularly to keep Australians safe from the threat of terrorism.

Being an Australian citizen is a privilege. It is a privilege that carries with it expectations on those who hold it. People who commit acts of terrorism have rejected absolutely everything that this country stands for. They have rejected the beliefs of this country, the values of this country, they have disrespected every other citizen who shares that privilege of citizenship with them. The stripping of Australian citizenship from dual nationals engaged in terrorist conduct is a key part of our response to international violent extremism and terrorism. Since the amendments to the citizenship loss provisions of 2015, dual nationals with Australian citizenship have been automatically ceasing if they engage in terrorism offshore.

I can confirm that these actions have been taken in relation to a number of individuals. But when the legislation was introduced by the Minister into Parliament, some of the passing threats to the security and safety of our community came from those engaged in terrorism and it is appropriate that we seek to modernise these provisions and take further steps where we believe they are necessary to firm up these powers to ensure the necessary deterrent response is an place. So there are a number of things we are proposing to do and we will seek to legislate these at the earliest possible opportunity.

First of all, we will seek to introduce legislation before the end of 2018 to enable the Minister to strip an Australian citizen of their citizenship, or anyone who is convicted of a terrorism offence in Australia. There will be no condition on the length of sentence, they would only need to have been convicted of a terrorist offence. It currently requires that there be a sentence of imprisonment of six years. We will be removing that requirement. It will only be if they are convicted of a terrorist offence. We believe the current wording of the law is unrealistic and it needs to reflect what is the genuine threat that has been posed by those engaged in this activity.

Secondly, the standard by which the Minister will be determining issues of dual citizenship will be changed, to ensure that the Minister will only need to be reasonably satisfied that a person would otherwise have another citizenship, which is a change from the standard that exists today. We will be reviewing all the onshore and offshore cases in relation to these matters.

The third action we are going to be taking is to deal with the threat posed by those Australians who have travelled into the conflict zone, returned foreign fighters. This was a matter that was discussed during the recent East Asia Summit and has been a constant topic in our dealings and working with other countries in this area. It remains a threat to the region and of course to Australia. We are determined to deal with those individuals who have done this as far away from our shores as is possible.

So we will be introducing a scheme based on the scheme that exists in the United Kingdom for Temporary Exclusion Orders. Those Exclusion Orders would enable the Minister to impose a condition on the control, return and re-entry into our community of Australians who have been in conflict zones like Syria. It will enable the Minister for Home Affairs to impose an Order for up to two years on Australian citizens of counterterrorism interests who are located offshore. It would be a criminal offence for them to return to Australia, unless a permit of this nature is provided - that is the Temporary Exclusion Order. Once the person is back in Australia it would impose controls on them to mitigate the risk to the community, such as reporting to police, curfews, restrictions on technology used and the like. Failure to comply with the terms of that Temporary Exclusion Order, would be also an offence and subject to penalties for that citizens.

These actions we are taking are designed to ensure that we have the powers that are necessary, in the toolkit, to ensure Australians are kept safe. But also, it's to protect the integrity of Australian citizenship. Terrorists, terrorists have violated everything about being what an Australian is all about. It's a crime against our country, not just against other citizens. This is something that can't be tolerated and permitted, and for those who would engage in this sort of activity, if they have citizenship elsewhere and we have reason to believe they do, well they can go. That is our clear message.

I will pass over to Peter to talk about the operational elements of this. I also want to stress in relation to the matter that he raised during the course of this week on the Government’s Telecommunications and Other Legislation Amendment Assistance and Access Bill which deals with the authority to deal with encrypted communications. Now this is a Bill that is before the Parliament that I want to see passed in the next fortnight. We know from the matters that are currently under investigation, the ability for our authorities to have these powers, to engage and intercepting these communications is incredibly important. Now it is with the Committee currently, and I would urge the Committee to complete their review as quickly as possible. Our police, our agencies need these powers now and I would like to see them passed. In fact, I would insist on seeing them passed before the end of the next sitting fortnight. Peter.

MINISTER FOR HOME AFFAIRS, THE HON PETER DUTTON MP: PM, thank you very much. Ladies and gentlemen, all of us of course were shocked by the graphic scenes in Bourke Street in Melbourne. As we know, three men are alleged to have been involved in planning for a terrorist event, they have been arrested in Melbourne in the last 24 hours or so as well. Their intent was to, we allege, obtain a semi-automatic weapon. Now we haven't seen an incident like that in our country. Man Monis was a terrible event but we haven't seen the sort of incidents that we’ve seen in Paris and elsewhere in our country and we never do. And this Government has been able to work very well to support the agencies. I have praised the ASIO officers, the AFP and state officers for the work they do every day to keep us safe.

But this threat is very real. We know that we have now been able to thwart 15 attempted terrorist attacks, seven have got through tragically and we have had significant numbers of arrests since 2014 when the threat level was elevated. We are finding that many of the individuals of concern are people who have at some point, had Australian citizenship conferred on them, or they have been born here as second or third generation members of families that have migrated earlier. And so we are dealing about the issue of Australian citizenship and how we treat those people, as the Prime Minister points out, who have betrayed their country. Who have surrendered what it means to be an Australian citizen through their actions, seeking to blow up or to cause harm to other Australians is unacceptable of course.

So what we have been able to do through the legislation so far, and I can update the figures today, is to increase the number of cancellations from six to nine. So nine people now who have had their Australian citizenship through their own actions, revoked, and this is an important step we make today. We have legislation that needs to be approved, and the areas that the Prime Minister has pointed out will go to improving legislation.

So again, we call on the Committee to deal with that, to examine what the Government will be putting forward very shortly, and it is important that we get these matters, these amendments, these improvements to legislation through the House as quickly as possible. Because we want our authorities who are dealing with 400 high priority cases now to have every tool available to them. The temporary exclusion order as it operates in the United Kingdom is an important power. When you have Australian citizens, as I say, whether it is third or second generation, or by conferral going overseas to fight and then seeking to come back, we need to have a better structure about that arrangement. People need to know if they are coming back into our country, and they breach the orders put in place, then they faced a serious penalty when they get back here. It is unlawful under the legislation as it operates in the UK for those people to come back in an unmanaged way, without it being agreed between the Government and the individual in certain conditions.

So that’s where it’s at. Just to finish very quickly, the encryption bill is certainly a high priority for the Government as the as the Prime Minister says. I have written to the chair of the committee and I would call on all members of the committee to do whatever they can to deal with this matter in an expeditious way. Because we do want to arm the police with the ability to look at these encrypted messages. At the moment many of these people are using encrypted messaging apps and police are dark to those messages and the exchange of that planning. That is unacceptable in the current threat environment.

JOURNALIST: Prime Minister can you just confirm, is this just the dual citizens? What about those extremists who have been charged with terrorism offences that are born in Australia, what will you do with them?

PRIME MINISTER: Well if they are born in Australia, that doesn’t mean that they are not dual citizens as we have learnt. There are many Australian citizens who were born in Australia who can have citizenship by descent and under other circumstances and where the Minister is reasonably satisfied that it would be the case that they would be dual citizens for the purposes of taking the actions that would be available to the Minister under these provisions, which means that there would be stripped of their Australian citizenship.

JOURNALIST: Prime Minister what process will the Minister have to undertake to strip citizenship?

PRIME MINISTER: He would have to undertake the test of reasonableness and there will be the normal natural justice processes that would apply to their circumstances. But what’s important here, is that the test is one that where it was in the Minister's belief, for example, that where somebody was born in a country where being born in a country automatically confers a right of citizenship, that would be sufficient. That would be sufficient, or there is a clear citizenship right by descent and the law is clear about that, well that would be sufficient. There will be no need to go around looking for paperwork. This would enable the Minister to act.

Now there are safety provisions that already exist within the legislation that enable any such matters to be addressed. In many cases here, we’re talking about people that would be convicted of offences and they would be residing in jail at that time and that will provide an opportunity for us to address matters there. But that said, we believe it’s necessary to ensure that these powers can be applied in a broad array of circumstances and paperwork can’t be an excuse for that, somebody being subject to these issues.

JOURNALIST: Have you spoken to Bill Shorten and when will you be introducing these [inaudible]?

PRIME MINISTER: The Minister will be undertaking briefings with the Opposition in the normal way. I anticipate he’ll introduce particularly matters that relate to the dual citizenship cancellation and this new test as soon as possible, so that will be in the next sitting fortnight. The Temporary Exclusion Order may take a little longer but if they can be expedited sooner or on a better basis, then we will move on it.

JOURNALIST: You’ll also be meeting with Muslim leaders today, will you be explaining this to them and what do you expect their response to be?

PRIME MINISTER:  Those meetings are private. I’m not intending to go into the details of those discussions.

JOURNALIST: Can I just ask you on an important issue of the day. In relation to the Kogarah sexual assault of a seven year old girl, New South Wales Police have today admitted that they should have informed the state parole board here that he had breached that parole. As a father yourself, how does it feel to you that this man was on the streets?

PRIME MINISTER: It’s abhorrent. I am appalled and I am sure that those, whether it’s in the New South Wales Police or elsewhere, they would be equally appalled. I know they will be doing everything they can to remedy the situation, as I’m sure the Premier is. It’s matter of state jurisdiction as I’m sure you appreciate, so I don't intend to have much more to say than that. But as a dad, how would you expect me to feel? Just like any other dad, I'm just appalled.

JOURNALIST: On the topic of terrorism, on what grounds would you actually seek to deport an Australian with alleged extremist links?

MINISTER FOR HOME AFFAIRS: In terms of the conviction aspect, at the moment there is a requirement for somebody to have been convicted to six years imprisonment or more. We propose to reduce down to on conviction of a terrorist related offence. So that is the change in the threshold if you like, that would bring more people into scope, including people who have been charged now, including that some prospectively that may be charged as well. I think frankly that reflects what most Australians would believe; that if you’re convicted in our courts of a terrorist-related offence, you can expect to leave our country.

JOURNALIST: [Inaudible]

PRIME MINISTER: We’ll just stick to national security for the moment. Happy to come to other matters.

JOURNALIST: How many of the current, existing deportation laws, do they pose a risk as it stands now?

MINISTER FOR HOME AFFAIRS: Well, we have had a look at a number of cases, frankly, which we think should come within scope and don't, under the existing legislation. The existing legislation obviously was crafted by the Joint Committee and the Government implemented the recommendations of the joint committee. We have had a look at the way that has worked in the last couple of years and there are some people that I think pose a serious threat to the security of this country, who shouldn’t be here. Who, if we possibly can, we should deport them. Our country and Australians would be safer if we did that. So that’s the motivation here. We need to keep Australians as safe as possible. We have all the requisite protections in place, but the reality is that the law needs to be updated. Our Government now has introduced 12 tranches of updates to our national security legislation. Similarly with the encryption Bill, ASIO and the AFP are telling us that that is a very important measure to get through the Parliament. That’s why we need the Joint Committee to deal with it very quickly.

Instead of opposing it, Mr Shorten should support it and hopefully we’ll get it through the Parliament as quickly as possible.

JOURNALIST: In regards to the encryption bill, the intel committee passed recommendations that are being put forward [inaudible], by moving this so quickly and truncating the hearings are you jeopardising the possibility to in fact improve the Bill?

MINISTER FOR HOME AFFAIRS: No we’re not and again, there has been a period of time where committee meetings have taken place, witnesses have given evidence, including the Director General of ASIO and the Commissioner of the Australian Federal Police. As I say, the evidence there is overwhelming that we need this change. We cannot have paedophiles or terrorists using encrypted messaging apps. In the case of paedophiles, directing sex scenes that are being streamed into their bedrooms and providing that instruction through an encrypted messaging app. That’s not the purpose of encryption. Encryption has an important place in our society and the privacy requirements are always important, always will be important. But we are in a situation where we have terrorists who are using encrypted messaging apps to plan attacks and ASIO and the Australian Federal Police have no sight of that. It’s unacceptable, particularly given the current risk environment.

PRIME MINISTER: Now, I have to have an engagement with the President of India, so I’m happy to address any other issues.

JOURNALIST: Just really quickly, Bill Shorten is offering to sit down with you and talk about the National Energy Guarantee. This is your policy, you applauded it, it passed the Coalition Party Room, is it now the case the Morrison Government is standing in the way of bipartisan energy policy?

PRIME MINISTER: Let me make a couple of comments on what Bill Shorten has announced. This is a throwback; a throwback to the Rudd-Gillard-Rudd failures of their time in government. Let’s remind ourselves of what he’s announced today; a 45 per cent emissions reduction target, and a 50 per cent RET, which on the current work is five times worse than the carbon tax that was put in by the Labor government when they were last in place.

Secondly, the ramping up of expensive subsidies, paid for by higher taxes. Another example of what was done under the Rudd-Gillard-Rudd government. And can everyone remember the last time the Labor Party, when they were in government, tried to put something in your house, the insulation bats? What we have got here, is we have gone from “pink batts” to “pink batteries”. They never learn from their mistakes, the Labor Party. What we have here is a repeat of the same failed approach to policy that we saw from the Rudd-Gillard-Rudd Labor government five or six years ago. They have not learned from their mistakes.

Frankly at the end of the day, I don't know how out of touch Bill Shorten can be, but if he thinks a family here in Sydney with two people learning about $90,000 a year can somehow have a lazy $10,000 laying around to go and buy one of his pink batteries, and somehow they will be able to afford to do that when they’re actually keeping the pressure on to just pay for the electricity bills as they are, I can’t understand how he thinks he’s in touch with the real cost pressures facing Australian families.

This is just a reheat, a throwback, to the same failed approach that we saw from the Labor Party last time they were in government. They have learnt nothing. They have learnt absolutely nothing. And if you couldn't trust them to put pink batts in your own roof without setting it on fire, I wouldn’t be trusting Bill Shorten to put a big battery in your house either.

Thanks very much.

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https://pmtranscripts.pmc.gov.au/release/transcript-41987

Address to the Australian Financial Review India Business Summit

22 November 2018

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PRIME MINISTER:  Well thanks very much to the Australian Financial Review. It’s great to be here and a very warm welcome once more to Your Excellency Mr Ram Nath Kovind, President of the Republic of India. Your Excellency, it’s a pleasure and a great privilege to have you visit Australia. Australians have spent a bit of time in recent years thinking about our history, especially our military and war history, as we’ve commemorated the centenary of the First World War.

That terrible war, so early in our nationhood, the heroics it produced and the devastating loss of 62,000 Australian service personnel is etched in our national psyche. Gallipoli is a touchpoint for Australians as we reflect on those times. What is not widely known, but should be, is the contribution of Indian soldiers to the Gallipoli cause. They numbered 5,000 men and they served alongside our troops.

Battalions of professional soldiers, including Sikh infantry units and mule drivers from Punjab. Diggers sent home photos with their new Indian mates. Later in the war, at least a dozen Indian soldiers actually served as ANZACs – as members of the Australian Infantry Force. It is to those men, Your Excellency, that a local community in Cherrybrook, here in Sydney, decided to fund and build a memorial to the Indian soldiers who joined the AIF. That new memorial, was officially opened just 12 days ago – the High Commissioner helped officiate.

As much as anything, that small community memorial, speaks of the deepening affection between our two countries, people to people linkages. It is an irony that our peoples have been ahead of governments. They have understood the shared enterprising spirit; the willingness to accept each other on the basis of who we are rather than on the basis of class; a devotion to family and community; and to what we call in Australia a ‘have a go’ approach to life.

Our cultures might be different, but we believe in similar things. We believe of the supremacy of the ballot-box in our national life; in the rule of law; in institutions that safeguard rights; and the responsibility of free people to build a better world. And we believe in the rights of nations to live free and not under the controlling hand of others.

So today, while I wish to talk to you about a new chapter in the story of Australia and India – it’s an old book. We’ve been friends for a very long time.

Australia, like the rest of the world, marvels at the transformation of India that is occurring before our eyes. The facts are compelling. India is already the fastest-growing large economy in the world. Within two decades, it will become the world’s most populous country. In just seven years’ time, one-fifth of the world’s working age population will be Indian. Twelve years from now, it’s expected that one quarter of the world’s university graduates – one in four – will have been educated in India’s higher education system.

Our history and future is interwoven because of the deep-ties between our peoples. 700,000 people of Indian descent call Australia home – the fastest growing diaspora in our proudly multicultural nation. More than 87,000 Indian students are enrolled at our educational institutions and we welcome more skilled migrants from India than any other nation.

Though so different, we understand each other. Australia and India are both proud democracies, with the shared belief that the way to create the fairest society is to ensure a more prosperous society.

And we know that you do that by keeping our economies growing. Our economic ties saw two-way trade between Australia and India hit $27.5 billion last year. That only portends more opportunities for the citizens, exporters and investors of both nations.

That’s why the Government commissioned the India Economic Strategy. The report by Peter Varghese, a former High Commissioner to India and Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade Secretary, sets out a roadmap for the Australia-India economic relationship to 2035, with recommendations for how to boost our trade relationship threefold and Australian investment in India tenfold - an ambition that would bring India into the top tier of our economic partners, where it should be.

Our Government has endorsed the Strategy, including 10 short-term and 10 long-term priority recommendations and we have agreed to an initial implementation plan across government. We will build on that plan over the life of the Strategy.

We are prioritising four key sectors: education, resources, agri-business and tourism. Education is our biggest area of partnership, with outstanding opportunities to take it further. We’re already working to reposition Australia’s education brand to appeal more broadly to Indian students – including the  introduction of a new one-stop shop digital education hub bringing together everything there is to know about studying in Australia – and increasing our digital and social media presence. The Minister for Education Dan Tehan will champion these initiatives, in line with a key recommendation of the strategy.

Resources Minister Matt Canavan and Minister for Agriculture David Littleproud will champion the implementation on resources and agriculture initiatives, with Trade, Tourism and Investment Minister Simon Birmingham focusing on tourism.

My Government is driving new efforts to attract visitors from one of the fastest-growing outbound tourist markets in the world, reflecting a key recommendation of the India Economic Strategy, we’ve already taken steps to make that easier. Just a few months ago we updated our air services agreement with India to increase the number of direct flights to Australia. So it will be quicker and easier for Indians to travel to Australia and it will also be easier for Australians to explore the true wonder of the world that is India.

Now coal is our single biggest export to India — worth more than 9 billion dollars in 2017. It’s been a great partnership since coal was first exported from Newcastle to Bengal in 1801. Australia can be proud of the contribution our resources sector has made to India’s extraordinary development, and demand for our resources is likely to grow further to fuel India’s growth. But there’s scope for much closer collaboration. We want to work more closely – using the expertise of our mining services sector – to help develop India’s own significant resource deposits. So in accordance with the India Economic Strategy, we will be boosting our support for the Australia-India Mining partnership at the Indian School of Mines in Dhanbad and establishing a Consulate-General at Kolkata.

But none of these initiatives can exist in isolation. We need to work together with business to bring the opportunities to life. The 2019 Australia Business Week in India will be a big part of that and I want state governments to get on board and look at how they can convert their relationships with India into real commercial partnerships. I want to see a big push on increasing our business community’s comprehension and grasp of India.

Agri-business is also essential to the way ahead. I’m not going to pretend that Australia and India have always seen eye-to-eye on agriculture. It’s a critical sector for both our countries, but that doesn’t mean there’s not plenty we can do together. We’re working towards establishing an Australia-India Food Partnership that strengthens engagement between our agriculture industries, and we’re creating a new diplomatic position at our embassy to focus on that work. Working more closely together means a more consistent and cooperative trade relationship, opening up new opportunities for Australia’s farm sector.

So those are the big four — education, tourism, resources and agriculture.

Over the next few weeks and months we’ll be announcing more initiatives in these areas, as well as in other sectors such as energy, health and financial services. Some of that extra effort will be around boosting the investment relationship. That includes a MoU between Austrade and Invest India that commits to promoting stronger two-way investment – that is being signed during the President’s visit. That’s a leap in the right direction. In most of our economic relationships with Asia, investment lags behind our trade in goods and services. With India, we can break new ground. We both have world-class businesses, adherence to the rule of law and we share language. That makes India an attractive investment destination for Australian businesses.

I’d like to see it on our top three within 20 years and it’s great to see companies like Enzen Global Solutions, based out of Bangalore, opening an Australian head office in Adelaide and creating 100 new highly-skilled jobs in the next couple of years.The benefits of investment go both ways.

Friends, I spoke a little earlier today at an event in Parramatta about my own journey into the intricacies of Indian cuisine over recent years. There’s a lot of love in our house during Morrison family curry nights; family, friends, laughter, jokes, stories, and curry, the essence of life.

But I am not the first Australian Prime Minister to have a love of India. Our second Prime Minister Alfred Deakin travelled to India before he entered national life. He fell in love with India and wrote two books about India before he became prime minister; the complexities, contradictions, colours, faiths, architecture and vibrancy of India captivated him. He returned to Australia as an evangelist for the opportunities for India.

Like others before him, to use his phrase, he ‘spread his sails to catch India’s breeze’, and Deakin had a message for Australia in his book Temple and Tomb in India, published 125 years ago, he wrote:

“What can we know of Australia if we limit our inquiries within our borders, to the neglect of our relations far and near and of those Asiatic empires which lie closest to us, with whose future our own tropical lands may yet be partially identified”.

He then went on to write; “the distance which separates us…is being steadily diminished between us, year by year.”

Your presence today Mr President confirms that early hope of one of our nascent prime ministers. We are fulfilling the hope of times past and embracing a future which will deepen further the ties between our two peoples.

Thank you for your presence today.

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https://pmtranscripts.pmc.gov.au/release/transcript-41988

Remarks with His Excellency Ram Nath Kovind, President of India

22 November 2018

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PRIME MINISTER:  Namaste.

[Applause]

Well it’s wonderful to be here and to Your Excellency, Mr President Ram Nath Kovind. The Minister for Foreign Affairs Marise Payne is here, Parliamentary colleagues who are joining us here today, present and former, I can see you over there, it’s great to see so many of you coming out today. Lord Mayor, ladies and gentlemen, it’s an honour to welcome you here to stand beside the President on Australian soil for such a significant occasion, the unveiling of this commemorative statue of Mahatma Gandhi, the great soul.

As you can see from the crowd here Your Excellency, we in Australia are delighted to be hosting you here. Like Prime Minister Modi, whom I had the opportunity to meet with just a week or so ago in Singapore, you are a leader who exemplifies that great achievements are possible through sheer determination and hard work. From your humble origins you became a lawyer practising in India’s highest court and now you hold your country’s highest office. Your achievements resonate with Australians because we too believe with hard work and reward for effort, you can accomplish anything, regardless of your circumstances.

Your Excellency, as we discussed this morning, Australia is a great multicultural story. We are a people of great diversity, of acceptance, a people that believe in securing our opportunities - making our opportunities and seizing them. We are a people who seek to understand, we are a people who seek to respect all others. This is how we live. We believe if you have a go, you’ll get a go. That’s the fair go in Australia. And no part of our community exemplifies that more than the Indian-Australian community, whether that’s here in Parramatta in the centre of Sydney or elsewhere around the country.

When I was at Diwali out here a couple of weeks ago, I told the story that Australia’s multiculturalism, Australia’s great success story as the best and most successful immigration country on earth, was like a good garam masala. It brings together all the great spices. The cloves, the black cardomom, the green cardamom, coriander seeds, all of this, comes together – the cumin, don’t forget that. It all comes together. Have any of it on its own, it doesn’t taste as good. You blend it together, and that’s what Australia’s like.

[Applause]

So we come here today Mr President, Your Excellency, here in Parramatta, a very fitting place to honour a man who brought such light to our world. Mahatma Gandhi, spiritual leader and the father of India’s independence, showed the world that the power of weapons and violence are no match for the strength of peace, non-violence and tolerance. Australia also, our instincts are always towards peace. He believed in the preciousness of human dignity and stood in the face of all that might denigrate him, especially violence. When India lost the architect of her freedom in 1948, Australia mourned also, not just because the world had lost a great and wise man, but because Gandhi’s ideals were our ideals, as Australians. He sought lasting peace over momentous violence and that’s an idea that transcends creed, culture and oceans.

As the news of his death spread across Australia, the reaction was swift and heartfelt. Hindu seamen prayed and played the sitar and tabla. In St Paul’s Cathedral in Melbourne, the Anglican congregation offered this prayer:

"Hear the cry of India, bereft of that leader whose frail person so often stood in the gap, whose life was devoted, even unto death, to his country's cause."

At the MCG, India’s Test cricket team observed a minute’s silence before play began, along with the Australian team led by Donald Bradman. And in our nation’s capital, flags were flown at half-mast. Prime Minister Ben Chifley sent a solemn message of condolence to the first Prime Minister of independent India, Prime Minister Nehru saying Gandhi would “be remembered in Australia as a man who worked for the good of humanity and the ways of peace.” And indeed he was and is.

Australian Prime Ministers from Menzies to Turnbull have laid wreaths at Gandhi’s memorial in Rajghat and paid their respects. But we can honour him right here now in Parramatta too, when we stop to reflect at this beautiful statue. As the world marks the occasion of the 150th anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi’s birth, he truly lives on. For his message is not a whisper from the past, but a teaching embedded in the hearts of millions around the world.

And so I want to thank you once again, Your Excellency, for visiting Australia and for sharing this moment with the many Indian-Australians of the Indian diaspora and Australians all, we gather here today. Today, the bonds of friendship between Australia and India draw closer and tighter still and we thank you for coming and sharing this important moment for our community today.

Thank you.

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https://pmtranscripts.pmc.gov.au/release/transcript-41989

Address to the 2018 Ethnic Business Awards

22 November 2018

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PRIME MINISTER:  Thank you very much Joseph and to Angela as well, to Major General Michael Jeffery and Mrs Jeffery. To my Parliamentary colleagues Christopher Pyne, the Minister for Defence, David Coleman, the Minister for Immigration, Multicultural Affairs and Citizenship. I know that gig pretty well and so does the fellow down here, Phillip Ruddock who I acknowledge as well, and so does Tony Burke who is representing I’m sure the Leader of the Opposition, representing him here tonight and to Anthony Albanese who has been a friend of these awards as well for many years.

It’s great to be here for Jenny and I, to be here again together this evening. We have been a friend of these awards and of course Joseph and Angela for many, many years and I have addressed this gathering before in different roles. But I’ve got to tell you to be able to address you tonight as Prime Minister is very special because there are - I’ve just noticed that Zed Seselja is here tonight, it’s good to see you here as well Zed - there are many great things about being Australian and to have the great privilege to lead Australia and to be able to say you are the Prime Minister of the greatest and most successful immigration country on earth I think is very special. Because that is who we are. This country is an immigration success story without parallel anywhere in the world and we should be enormously proud of what we have all achieved over generations and generations. The Australia we all love and share is an immigrant country.

I am the son of an immigrant many times removed. My forebears came under the compulsory immigration plan of the British back in the 1780s. But you know their story wasn’t that different - well apart from serving a sentence for the first ten or so years. But they went out to Richmond and Windsor and they married in Sydney, they started a business, it was an agricultural business, they stared a farm and built a life for themselves out of what was extraordinary adversity and each generation after that sought to build on that and make their way and build this country. The story is no different if you turned up ten generations ago or you turned up ten days ago. It’s the same story and we have been telling that story as a country for a long time, unless you are an Indigenous Australian, who we acknowledge tonight and elders past and present and into the future. We have all come from somewhere else at some point and that’s what actually bonds so much of us together because that is our story.

Over the last twenty years, our population has grown by some six million people. About as many as was there when our Federation was formed. Half of that growth, more than that in fact, has been the result of immigration. So it is integral to our Australian success story as a people, as a prosperous people as a positive outward looking people, it’s who we are. It is integral to our economy, it’s integral to our identity and it is who we are.

And it did not happen by accident. This is very important. This idea that Australia would be an outward looking immigrant society was not born in the post-war period. Henry Parkes, the Father of Federation, said this in the 1800s; he said that he hoped Australia would become a nation that would gather “all the fruits of the culture of the world,” and that those who adopt our land would serve it “with a patriot’s love”.

I think if Sir Henry Parkes could have projected forward tonight and seen the fruits of the culture of the world celebrated here tonight, he would be feeling pretty happy with the vision that he saw all these years ago in this very city. Because it is our experience and I have been reflecting a lot on it in the last few days, the last couple of weeks. I have thought about it as I reflected on the life of Sisto Malaspina. Sisto told people he could vividly recall the day he arrived in Australia 54 years ago in October 1964. After almost a month at sea, his two older brothers were waiting for him at Station Pier in Port Melbourne. There was a warm reunion and then Sisto slid into the car for the drive to his brothers’ house in Essendon. The first Australian he met was a man named Jim. It wasn’t Bruce, it was Jim and after welcoming Sisto to Australia, Jim got straight to business. He said, “Now, young man, you are in Essendon. You are in Australia. You must follow and barrack for Essendon.”Is there a more Melbournian way to welcome to Australia than that? That was the start of Sisto’s love for Australia – and the Essendon Football Club.

Sisto’s story of moving to Australia was like so many others. He was the baby in his family – in Italian, of course, Sisto means sixth-born. With his brothers and sisters, he grew up in a small town in Northern Italy, where his parents owned a restaurant. As soon as he turned 18, he followed in his brothers’ footsteps. He packed his bags, farewelled his family and friends - a story familiar to many people in this room - and migrated to Australia. Sisto’s first job was here in a factory recycling tyres. But within a decade, he had taken the reins of Pellegrini’s Espresso Bar, an Italian café on Bourke Street. Inch by inch, day by day, year by year, he turned it into one of Australia’s and Melbourne’s greatest institutions.

He was known for saying: “Here we give you more than food. This is your home away from home.” And it is more than a café, it’s more than a business. It’s a more than a Melbourne community icon, it is one with a global community reputation. Its’ proprietor, Sisto Malaspina, became a living legend - until one moment. Sisto was unique. But the richness and generosity of his heart that he brought to Australia surpassed that. It was so typical of the hundreds of thousands who have made their way to our land over many years.

People who have created businesses, worked hard, raised families and looked after each other, came to make a contribution not take one. And in that moment Sisto was taken from us by the hand of something that has no place in this country. What triumphed was not the hand of evil, but the love and the passion and the heart of a great Australia - that conquers these things every time.

That’s why Australia and what Australia is about, conquers every time. What you have done, what you have worked for, what you have achieved is the best of Australia. It conquers all those things that would seek to undermine this country.

That’s what we celebrate tonight; we celebrate these stories, caring, compassionate, generous stories, hardworking stories, vibrant personalities, vision. Migrants, arriving here like Joseph, with a suitcase full of dreams. Pursuing those dreams enriching Australia’s society, the Australian economy, Australian lives, the heart and soul of our nation. What I talk about is, “a fair go for those who have a go”. That’s what fairness in Australia means and that is no better demonstrated than the migrant communities of Australia and the ethnic communities of Australia.

So today, we are the most successful immigration country on earth, thanks to Sisto Malaspina and all of those who have walked in his shoes or will walk in his shoes in the future. Tonight marks 30 years of the Ethnic Business Awards and it’s so wonderful to see the evolution of the awards over that period of time Joseph and your life’s passion in your post business career, shared by Angela.

It’s also wonderful to see these Awards over many years have now embraced our First Australians, our Indigenous Australians and celebrated their tremendous success stories as we create the connection between Indigenous Australians and the rest of us who came. We have the connections and values and aspirations and I think that’s also what this night celebrates. There is a spirit of entrepreneurship sweeping across so many Indigenous communities and it is fantastic to know that is being recognised tonight. I honour it and want it to be part of that force and that change and that passion that continues to encourage you on. In doing so, I also want to encourage and thank Joseph and Angela for founding these awards and all those who have worked with Joseph and Angela over these years to make them the success they clearly are.

We of course as a Government are committed to seeing businesses succeed. People who take risks and succeed, people who put it all on the line for our great nation to succeed, to employ young Australians. Nothing better than seeing a young Australian getting a job. It changes their world, changes their life, changes their future and so that is what we celebrate tonight.

I congratulate all of the nominees for all the work you have put in. I hope you will enjoy celebrating the night and celebrating all the nominees tonight. Some will win and some will come back and win next time. We have seen that before haven’t we Joseph? Because you stick at it and you succeed and we have seen it and so I hope you do have a very pleasant evening.

I want to close tonight by turning back to Sisto once more. If coffee has a spiritual home, well, Italy might just pip Australia .In Italy, they follow a bible when it comes to drinking coffee. Italians usually don’t drink cappuccinos after midday and it is unthinkable to have one after dinner. But guess what? Sisto disagreed with such hard and fast rules. He’d say: “People should drink their coffees how they like it, the way they like it, when they like it.” It might sound like a small thing, but that respect for others and tolerance and acceptance of difference is the foundation of modern Australia. I wonder if you will just join with me for a brief moment let’s just remember Sisto.

[Pause]

So congratulations on everything you do. My hope is that our wonderful shared story of harmony, of success of prosperity as a diverse but united people will continue well, well, well into the future. Thank you and enjoy your coffee.

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https://pmtranscripts.pmc.gov.au/release/transcript-41992

Address to the Business Council of Australia

21 November 2018

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PRIME MINISTER: Well thanks Grant. No pressure then, eh? I hope you make a great presentation Josh after your next Budget. Expectations are high mate, but at least you’ll get to be the first Treasurer in some time to announce a surplus Budget. That’ll be a very important day for Australia, a very important day for Australia.

Thank you very much Grant, thank you very much members of the Business Council, all of those who have come together here tonight. I think Grant summed it up pretty well actually. It’s about the economy, it’s about growth. You know, in 2007 and Stephen Harper will know - let me about Stephen Harper for a second. Stephen Harper is part of a pantheon of great centre-right leaders in global politics. Margaret Thatcher, Ronald Reagan, John Howard, Shinzo Abe, John Key, Stephen Harper. It’s a pretty good list and he sits comfortably in that list of great leaders who have informed, I think, the prosperity of the world for a very long period of time.

I was at APEC on the weekend and we were reflecting on the fact that since the early 1990’s a billion people have come out of poverty, in the world. They didn’t get there by higher taxes, by the way. They didn’t get there by increased Government regulation. They didn’t get there by bigger sized Government, they didn’t get there by any of those things. They got there because businesses invested and employed people, trade was liberalised and people were lifted out of poverty like at no point in human history.

The world has never been more prosperous than it is today.

The world has never been more connected than it is today.

The world has never had more opportunities than it has today and all of that is true for Australia as well. So in following on in the footsteps in the pantheon of great centre-right leaders, of which Stephen joins us here tonight, our Government sits in exactly the same space.

When I first ran for Parliament in 2007, our economy was performing strongly. John Howard and Peter Costello had lead a highly successful government. We talked about the strength of the economy and how much had been achieved, as I have just been doing, globally. And we forgot to mention something; that is the economy is not an end in its own right. A strong economy is not something like a strong Budget, that you put in the trophy case and you look at it admirably and pat yourself on the back and go; “Isn’t that marvellous. We’ve got such a strong economy. Look at all those wonderful charts, all those lines heading in the right direction.” None of that means anything.

A strong economy is important because it pays for hospitals.  It pays for schools. It pays for affordable medicines. It pays for a strong defence force. It protects Australia’s sovereignty, it pays for stronger borders, it pays for childcare. It pays for the disability support pension. It pays for the aged pension. It pays for the National Disability Insurance Scheme.

A strong economy delivers higher living standards for Australians all around this country. That’s why we believe in policies that drive a stronger economy.

As much as I enjoyed my time with Governor Lowe every month, sitting and poring over the charts - he knows as we would talk endlessly about the strength of the economy at that level - he and I both knew something that was more important than the charts we were looking at; that is what a stronger economy was enabling us as a nation to do. You’ve only got to look around the world where you see countries that have had the same opportunities as us, the same natural resource endowments, same patterns of people. Poor governments and poor policies have left them destitute. It’s a terrible shame, it’s shocking, it’s heartbreaking.

When Australia eclipsed that record of 27 years of economic growth, I remember giving the presentation to the National Accounts and I didn’t mention it at all. Made no reference to it. One of the journalists said to me; “You made no mention of the fact that this has been the longest running period of growth in Australia’s and indeed global recorded economic history.” I said; “No, because not all Australians have felt it yet.” And until they feel it and until they benefit from it, I won’t rest and our Government won’t rest.

The stronger economy has to reach every Australian and it’s not going to get there by going slow on growth. It’s not going to get there by doing things that will hold growth back, that will hold businesses back, that’ll hold investment back, that’ll hold the passion and entrepreneurialism of Australians back.

You don’t get a fairer society by making it a poorer society.

You don’t make some people do better by pulling others down.

As Grant said; more for all. That’s the objective, that’s why we believe in a stronger economy. It’s not an economic argument, it’s an argument about people. The economy supports our society and our people. That’s why we believe in a stronger economy.

There are two ways people think you can pay for Medicare, but only one of them works. You can pay for Medicare either by running a stronger economy - which is what we’re doing, that’s why we can guarantee Medicare, I can look every mum, every dad, every child, every pensioner, in the eye and tell them that you can trust me on Medicare and you can trust Josh, you can trust Mathias, because we know how to run a stronger economy.

Now our opponents think you can do this by putting taxes up. It doesn’t work. It’s a big wet blanket on the economy. It retards growth, it holds the economy back. The revenues don’t go in the same direction and you can’t make that promise. It’s a false promise.

So I tell you this tonight because I want you to understand why I want a stronger economy. I can tell you what we’ve been doing - and I will in a second - as to what we’re doing to create a stronger economy. But I want Australians to know, between now and the next election; why do we want a stronger economy and why should they want a stronger economy? Because you know, after a generation of Australians have known nothing but economic growth, perhaps it’s time to remind them.

I remember when I left university. I walked into a decade of difficulty. I walked into a recession. It didn’t matter whether you had a university education or a trade or whatever it was. A million people out of work.

I never want to see that happen in this country ever again.

Sometimes I hear the policy wonks go on and they say; “Oh, you know what this country needs is a good recession. That’ll teach them.” What a dangerous idea is that? How can you love your fellow Australians if you want to lump a recession on them, for goodness sake. Never on my watch, I don’t want to see my kids live through a recession. I did, my grandparents, worse. I want prosperity for this country and my family and my kids and my community, from one end of the country to another. And I know you do to.

So it’s so important at this next election, all of us in this room who understand the value and the importance of a strong economy to our nation’s future, that we carry that message. We have to value it. The Economist article made the point. Maybe it’s time - as the world has marvelled at what we’ve achieved - that we take a refresher course as to why a stronger economy is important. We should, and over the next while, between now and the next election, that’s what you’ll be hearing from us. Why a stronger economy guarantees the essential services, the essentials of life, a job, a house, a pay-cheque, investments for the future, medical care, schools, pensions. They’re the essentials Australians rely on and that’s why we will continue to fight for policies and implement policies that are designed to do that.

So what have they been, you say? From the day we were elected, we got about it; lower taxes. We’re a Government that has delivered lower taxes. Lower taxes for small and medium-sized businesses, lower taxes for households and families. Under our legislated personal income tax plan, Australians will not pay - 94 per cent of them - will not pay a marginal tax rate higher than 32.5 cents in the dollar. Law, legislated, done. That means, for most working Australians over the next decade, they will not experience bracket creep. The more they earn, the better they’ll do, the more they get to keep. More is not taken away from them as they do better. You don’t have to pull them down the better they do. You let them get on with it and keep more of what they earn.

We’ve put a speed limit on taxes, 23.9 per cent. That’s important. You know if you want to control expenditure in this country - I’ve learnt something very important - don’t give people any money, particularly the ministers who are here tonight. They like to spend money and Josh and I and Mathias know all about that.

If you say to your Government; “You’ve got a blank cheque on how much tax is going to come in”, guess what they’ll do? They’ll spend it.

If you control how much you’re prepared to tax the economy, then you can keep expenditure under control as well.

Our Government has the lowest rate of growth in public expenditure of any government in this country in the last 50 years and more. We’ve got a cap on how much we’re prepared to allow the economy to bear, on tax. Because we know that if you tax this thing too much, it will slow growth and we’ve put that discipline in ourselves.

Now you know, we undertook every effort to see broader-based reform of how much tax businesses paid in this country and we fought the fight for over two years. We took it to the last election, we got a mandate for it and we were able to achieve it, 25 per cent for businesses up to $25 million. Now we’re happy to achieve that. We’re happy to achieve that. But what you do know is our disposition will always be to ensure that people get to keep more of what they earn. Because that is what provides the incentive in an economy. That is what provides the drive in an economy. That’s what creates and fulfils the aspiration that has driven our economy for hundreds of years.

So lower taxes, investing in critical infrastructure. I was at the Bradfield Oration the other night. You think back to the big projects, the Harbour Bridge and things like that. Well today’s big projects are there. Western Sydney Airport, Tullamarine Rail, the Inland Rail, the North-South connector, Snowy 2.0. We’re a Government that is investing and driving big infrastructure projects. Just announced, in the large water infrastructure fund, the $200 million pipeline up in Townsville. Major infrastructure projects which are connecting communities, connecting markets to farms, to factories, connecting workers to their places of employment, increasing the efficiencies of our urban areas, increasing the productivity. An infrastructure plan; roads, railways, airports, ports, energy infrastructure, the works. All of that is designed to create an investment climate in this country which drives more investment.

We’re expanding our markets, as Birmo knows, the Minister for Trade. From day one, we started doing that. I’ll never forget the first Cabinet meeting, we sat down and Robby came and he set out the trade agreements we were going after. And there was the usual discussion, trade is not always that popular, from a political point of view. There are still some who hold that view, there are still some who will resist trade, as our opponents have every step of the way. But we’ve fought for it and we’ve achieved it and you know today, as Australian households are $8,500 better off every year, every year, because of the trade liberalisation that has occurred over the last generation, in real terms.

Trade has delivered increased prosperity and an increase in the living standards of Australians. That’s why we went after the China Free Trade Agreement. That’s why we went after the Japan Free Trade Agreement. That’s why we went after the Korean Free Trade Agreement. That’s why we went after the TPP-11. That’s why we’ve just concluded discussions on the Hong Kong Free Trade Agreement.

If you stand still long enough, our Trade Minister will seek to do a deal with you on the spot, because we believe in trade.

[Laughter]

Yeah, down on Table 6, you’re in a lot of trouble. We believe in trade, we’ve always traded in this country. We’ve always looked beyond our shores for our prosperity and we’ve always realised it. Our Government believes in that. Trade has been a cornerstone of our economic success.

We’ve got a broad-based industry strategy which doesn’t dis, doesn’t dis out traditional industries. I like mining, I think mining is good. I think mining has produced enormous prosperity for this country. And one of the most disturbing things I heard recently, was when I was in Western Australia and I was sitting down with the mining industry and they told me that young people don’t want to become mining engineers anymore because they don’t think it’s a future for them, because apparently mining is a negative industry for Australia. I don’t believe that. I think mining is a good industry for Australia. I will say it here in Sydney, I’ll say it in Townsville, I’ll say it up in Gladstone, I’ll say it up in Western Australia, I’ll say it all over the country. You’ll hear the same message from me about the economy, wherever I am in the country. I won’t tailor my message to the audience as many of you probably know, particular after that post-Budget speech. I won’t, because I believe it’s good for the country.

Agriculture is good for the country and we’re going to continue to ensure we do the right things through trade and our environmental policies which ensure we develop agriculture in this country. But we’re also looking forward and supporting the development of new industries that has enabled our economy to transition.

Our Defence industry spend has been one of the key instruments by which we have been able to enable our economy to transition. As we’ve seen the motor vehicle industry recede we’ve seen a defence industry supply chain built up around this country and it doesn’t matter where you go. You have Penguin Composites down there in northern Tasmania, making the bonnets of armoured vehicles. They used to make kayaks. Or if you’re out with the switch-makers out in Queanbeyan or you’re up in north Queensland around the docks or over in Western Australia over in Henderson. Our Defence industry investments have provided a platform for the transformation of our industries and kept people in jobs.

Equally in this year’s Budget, I outlined our support for the medical industry, whether it’s in clinical trials or new medical instrument technology, these are important areas of development. Our services industries and human services, in aged care, aged care training, our education sectors, our tourism and hospitality sectors, all of these going forward - where are jobs? They’re largely in those human services sectors. But I can tell you that in manufacturing they’re doing well too. 86,000 jobs, 86,000 in the past year have been created in the manufacturing sector. That is, the number of jobs in manufacturing is the highest level since 2010 and in 17/18, growth value add in the manufacturing sector grew by 3 per cent, the fastest increase in a decade. So don’t let anybody tell you that manufacturing is dead in this country, it’s not, it’s just changing. It’s running and it’s driving prosperity for this country. So in all of these sectors and the financial sector, in fintech as we continue to become a world-leader in what is occurring in that sector. We’ve got a great story to tell.

A cooperative workplace is what we want. How on earth do you run a strong economy when you’re setting your employees against employers and you want to run an adversarial system? I mean what sort of an idea is that? How do you pretend to lead a country that you want to divide, in it’s very workplace? The Labor Party’s policies will take our industrial relations system to a throwback to the 1970s.

I mean industrial advocates will have to get around in flares and long hair to match the policy time zone -

[Laughter]

Of where Labor wants to take industrial relations in this country. You’d all remember it back then; the fruit rotting on the wharves. The mining suppliers that couldn’t be relied on with our major markets, our mining industry was held back and the resources sector. You all remember the strikes, teachers going out. That’s not the vision for Australia our Party wants for the economy. We believe in cooperative workplaces. You know, when I go around particularly small and medium-sized businesses, I see the cooperation and collaboration and the model for the way our modern workplace should be like. People understand that the success of the enterprise is their own success as well, that’s how we see the future of industrial relations in this country, not a future of conflict. Not a future of division, not a future of entrenched divisions. We need to fight to ensure that doesn’t become the reality.

And a balanced Budget as always, the Budget will be back in balance next year, after more than five years of very hard slog to get it back there. Now, that is not just something to put on the shelf, that is something that will enable us to continue to invest in the services, in the future growth of our economy and the standard of living for Australians all around the country. That’s our plan. We’ve been delivering on our plan, we’ve been rolling it out for five years and we’ve been getting results. Growth with a three in front of it, that’s what I want to see. Unemployment at five per cent, that’s what we have delivered. The strongest growth in youth employment of over 100,000 in 2017/18, the strongest growth in youth employment in Australia’s recorded economic history. How good is that?

You know, if you’ve got a young person in a job by the time they’re 24 – I know this from being the Social Services Minister, Paul Fletcher is here, he knows about this – if you do that, then that’s what I call in rugby league a 12 point turnaround. You stop the opposition story – that is the opposition of unemployment and putting someone on welfare – and you score at the other end, which is putting someone in a job. Because if they’re in a job by that time, they do not get conditioned to living a life on welfare. You want to know why our Budget is turning around? Yes, there’s been improvement Grant you’re absolutely right, in corporate revenues and increased profitability. It’s welcome, we welcome it, it’s fantastic. But it’s also because people have been going from welfare recipients, to taxpayers.

That’s how you turn a Budget around.

That’s how you turn an economy around.

That’s what has been happening in our economy.

So, we’ve seen employment growth. We’ve seen record employment growth. We’ve seen our manufacturing sector doing well as I’ve mentioned. We’ve seen our export sector continue to drive forward. Services exports up 8.8 per cent and we’ll continue to see that happen so long as we keep the focus on growth.

One area I wanted to touch on before I leave you tonight is, you know, the economy is a positive ecosystem, businesses large and small are connected together. Peter Strong is here tonight from the Council of Small Business organisation, as is Michaelia Cash. They both understand that if big business does well, small business does well, if small business does well, big business does well. This is an important connection, we’re all part of the same supply chain. It’s important that works really, really well. That’s why we’ve done the thing that I’ve said.

Increased investment in small business through the Instant asset write off. The small business turnover threshold raised from $2 million to $10 million. Reducing the reporting burden of small and medium-sized business by doubling the ASIC financial reporting threshold. The establishment and getting access to capital through two initiatives, working with our financial institutions to create the Australian Business Growth Fund modelled on the UK experience and a $2 billion investment we’re putting into the securitization market for small business loans, which will enable greater competition in our banking and finical system and get more money that will drive the growth of small and medium-sized businesses into the future. Employee share schemes, which are freeing up and giving more opportunity for employees in small and medium-sized businesses to understand how they can benefit by the growth of the enterprise they’re part of. Angel investing tax incentives which is enable start ups to get off the ground and of course, the capital limited partnerships for early stage venture arrangements which are equally drawing capital into that sector, some $270 million of increased investment coming in. All of that is great. It’s part of our commitment to small and family businesses.

But you know another thing that really makes small businesses light up, is when they get paid. When they get they paid and when they get paid on time. You know, if you don’t pay them on time, it slows the whole show down. You know, in the economy the money has got to move. If you slow it movement down, everything slows down, everybody pays for that. In our economy particularly with the digital economy, as they know at MYOB, these things can move a lot faster than they used to. And they need to, it’s an important productivity driver to ensure that small business is not used as a bank, you know what I mean? If you’re not paying on time, you’re borrowing money from them. If you’re not paying on time to each other, you’re borrowing money from someone else. If we all – government, large business, small business – if we’re all paying on time and we all pay more quickly and we put in place the systems and the procedures to do that, the entire economy does better. 

Technology is speeding it up, payment times are improving. Bills though are still paid 11 days late according to the latest data from Dunn & Bradstreet. While we’re seeing signs of improvement - late payment times are reducing 25 per cent in 17/18, that’s welcome – there are still late payments. This might seem a rather micro part of our economy, but I’ve got to tell you it’s incredibly important. Cash flow for businesses is incredibly important and speeding up the payment times is an important, practical way of how we can improve the performance and productivity of our economy.

Trade between small and medium and large businesses totals about $550 billion a year. Healthy cash flow is critical to these businesses. This issue is being consistently raised with us of course, by small and medium businesses, particularly with Michaelia as she’s travelled around the country. For many months people are working already and completed payment terms are being pushed out to 60, 90 and 120 days in some cases. Even loans are being offered to cover extended payment terms. So; “I’ll loan you some money, while I don’t pay you.”

Now, that is not a positive policy in progressive, forward-moving economy.

Michaelia has taken up this important issue and has tasked the Small Business and Family Enterprise Ombudsman Kate Carnell to once again look at it through the 2017 inquiry into payment times and practices. There has been over 1000 responses to that in just the past few days, to give you an idea of how hot this issue is.

This time last year, in the Government’s response into the Ombudsman’s inquiry, we made it clear that we would be carefully monitoring our progress and we’ve been improving. But I want to pay tribute to the BCA for their Australian Supply Payment Code. That has been an important step in changing the payment culture of businesses particularly large businesses in Australia. However it is true – and I was taking note of all of logos up there Grant – there are 139 members of the BCA who have signed up to the voluntary code. Congratulations and well done to you. It currently has 80 signatories though, of those 139 members and so there many more that need to sign up. So, we acknowledge the work you do and we encourage those who haven’t signed on, to sign on.

In our case, we pay our bills on time and are committed to reducing those times further. Our Pay On Time survey showed that Commonwealth agencies paid 97 per cent of their invoices under $1 million within 30 days. The results also show that we’re on track towards our commitment to pay our invoices within 20 days, by 1 July 2019. Over 70 per cent of all invoices under $1 million were paid in 20 days, over 10 percentage points on the year before. And although Commonwealth agencies are performing well, there is room for improvement - until we’re at 100 per cent, I won’t be happy, Mathias won’t be happy, we won’t be happy - because we want businesses to get paid so they can get on with running their businesses. We’re making good progress, working now with our New Zealand counterparts and stakeholders on e-invoicing. We see this as a clear advantage and once implemented, we aim to reduce our payment times for small businesses using this method, just down to five days, just five days.

All levels of Government should set the standard. Now, while all states have clear commitments to pay invoices within 30 days, we think they should do better too. The one state leading the way - which Mike Baird will be pleased to know - is New South Wales. In August they announced they were cutting their payment times for small business down to 20 days by the end of this year. And that was just the start of further commitments to take these payment times down to five days by the end of 2019. Well done to the NSW State Government and we’re challenging all states and territories, this is where I like to see competitive federalism actually help to ensure that that becomes the standard. That’s why I’ll be putting payment terms for state governments and territory governments and the Commonwealth Government on the COAG agenda when we meet in Adelaide in just under a month’s time. I’ll be challenging all the states and territories to match up to the lead that New South Wales has been showing and that we’re also showing in reducing our payment terms to 20.

We’re committed to levelling the playing field and with more transparency for small business and we’ll also, I announce tonight, be developing an annual reporting framework requiring large businesses over $100 million in turnover to publish their payment information. I want people to know who to do business with and people should do business with people who pay on time. They should know who they are and they should be able to make those judgements and I’d like to see that as a positive incentive for businesses to pay more readily. It will cover 3,000 of the largest businesses in Australia, including foreign companies and government entities. Small business will have more transparency, allowing them to do business with better payers. Large businesses will get the benefit of their suppliers and their customers knowing that they play fair and they pay on time.

We are committed to using every available lever to support businesses by pursuing these processes across the supply chain and so we’ll also deliver a new government procurement connected policy, which will require those large businesses seeking to tender to have satisfactory payment times in line with the Government’s pay on time policy of 20 days. So if you want to do government work, you’ve got to pay your suppliers and you’ve got to pay your contractors on time within 20 days. They’re the standards we’ll be requiring of those who want to work with the Government.

We will do more to help small business compete for government contracts also, in addition to the Government’s existing 10 per cent procurement commitment to SME’s. The Government will set a new 35 per cent target for SME participation in contracts up to $20 million. A stronger small and medium sized business sector is good for the members of the BCA in this room. It means you’ve got dynamic, innovative, agile, responsive members of your supply chain.

I always remember talking to Alan Joyce and he talks about thousands upon thousands upon thousands of small and medium sized businesses that makes QANTAS the best airline in the world. It’s not just the people that work for QANTAS - and I love them because I have more QANTAS employees in my electorate than any other electorate in the country, love QANTAS, love QANTAS.

[Laughter]

But QANTAS is made great not just by the people who work directly for them, but for all those people and all those business who drive their supply chain for a great airline. All the large businesses are the same. You are great because of the people you work with, the people who work for you. You know that and I think it will be a major boon for our economy if we just set those standards and meet them. Work with all those businesses, give them the headroom, give them the space they need. Give them that cash-flow advantage. Give them that sense of confidence, that shot in the arm to see the money go into the account when they go and check it, and they check it pretty often as you know. I think that will make our economy stronger.

It may seem like a small thing to maybe those who are listening tonight in some way, shape or form. But it’s going to make a big difference and the reason I have decided to raise that with you tonight is because it takes these things to make a stronger economy. It takes a Government that actually understands that access to finance, that reducing regulation, that reducing taxes, that increasing payment arrangements to be supporting cash flow of businesses across the supply chain. We get it, that that’s what makes a stronger economy. And why do we want to do that? Because if I’ve got a stronger economy, if we’ve all got a stronger economy, then we all have the essential services that make us the greatest country on earth. That’s what the next election is going to be about. I’m not going to give you the other side of the partisan speech which will talk about our opponents. There will be plenty of time for me to do that.

I simply ask you one thing tonight; stand up for a stronger economy. Stand up for a stronger economy. What we’re doing is to make our economy stronger. A stronger economy is good for your bottom line, it’s good for the dividends, it’s good for the profits, it’s good for employees, it’s good for communities. There’s a choice at this next election; a stronger economy, or higher taxes. I know which one I’m backing, and I look forward to your support.

Thank you very much.

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https://pmtranscripts.pmc.gov.au/release/transcript-41986

Address, 2018 Project Sydney Bradfield Oration

19 November 2018

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PRIME MINISTER: Thank you for inviting me to speak with you this evening. It is a great honour to be delivering the 2018 Bradfield Oration, marking the legacy of one of the great visionaries of our city of Sydney in John Bradfield.

From a young age I have always been fascinated by the energy and flow of cities. Each one unique – like living organisms, with their own rhythms, patterns and personalities.

Each a living history of the choices people, businesses and families have made and what they have been trying to create for their future and the generations to follow.

Choices about work, about proximity to family, and to opportunity. Choices shaped by access to housing and services like schools, health care and shopping precincts. And conditioned in turn by a search for belonging and a sense of place.

From Lachlan Macquarie to Sir Henry Parkes and now Gladys Berejiklian, they have worked to respond to and anticipate these demands as well as dream and plan out the future they hope to create.

We are continuing to tell our stories as a people through our cities. And along the way we have been informed, guided and blessed by the Greenways and Bradfields, whose great genius has been to lift our aspiration by redefining what we know to be possible.

It would also be a mistake to think of them as just engineers and architects. They were true planners.

You don’t build a bridge with that many lanes in 1932 because you enjoyed the engineering challenge. You did it because you were planning for the future and you got it. You had a vision for Sydney being a great city and you planned and built for it.

Today’s Greenways and Bradfields are not only developing Western Sydney Airport and the Aerotroplis, they are also the scientists from the CSIRO at the new Urban Living Lab in Darwin, Australia’s tropical capital, established as part of our new Darwin City Deal with $4.8 million in new funding to get it up and running.

For the first time we will be bringing together experts in the area of managing tropical cities. Everything from waste management to how urban vegetation can be better planned to more effectively cool these urban environments.

This is also a significant services export opportunity for Australia.

With more than billions of people living in urban environments in tropical regions of the world – including some of the world’s largest cities – I am excited about how we can link our expertise and learning to these significant commercial opportunities.

To this end, we have just launched an initiative to link up with ASEAN’s Smart Cities Agenda. It will draw on Australia’s world class expertise in green infrastructure, water governance, renewable energy, innovative technologies and data analytics.

For a while, I tossed up becoming a Town Planner. Eventually, I found myself studying Economic Geography at UNSW.

I was one of only about eight students – studying everything from crop rotation to Walter Christaller’s “central place theory”.

I can see now that I’ve really piqued your interest! For the one person who may be interested, we can talk later.

But my studies and later experiences reinforced some important lessons about cities.

In short, cities are a solution to a human problem. How do you support a growing population?

Cities are not about buildings, bridges, roads, railways, hospitals and airports. They are about the people who use them. They are about the people who live in the cities.

Cities are a response to population growth and are the product of a developing economy.

Bradfield understood this. His focus was not on building infrastructure as public monuments, but addressing positively and aspirationally the challenges of a growing population.

When you understand that Cities are actually about people rather than concrete it changes your perspective.

Firstly, this is why each and every city has its own unique character.

You don’t then try and transform Sydney’s built form into Singapore’s, any more than you try and make Brisbane Perth or Townsville Newcastle.

Just like us as people, we should let our cities be themselves, a product of the people who live in them, their geography and climate.

A city and the society it supports finds its own course, like a river finds its way to sea, negotiating the geological features along the way.

The city becomes the product of its experience and evolution, of how it responds to challenges and pressures – for better or worse.

As we acknowledge our our cities are about people, the decisions we make must be made with – not against – the grain of peoples’ choices – and in line with their aspirations. It means that our approach to decision-making or planning must have an eye and ear to community sentiment, cohesion and ambition. About what they want for their city.

So what has all of this got to do with my role as Prime Minister and that of Commonwealth Government?

First of all, my role you’ll be thankful is not to play town planner, be first architect, Lord Mayor or indeed Premier.

That’s not my job.

I will leave those tasks to the Bradfields and the Greenways of our current generation.

My levers are confined to the ensuring we step up to the big nation building projects and challenges, drive our economy forward to fuel the essential services and infrastructure Australians rely on and seek to manage population growth by adopting well targeted, responsible, and sustainable immigration policies.

Now on the big projects, like Bradfield, we are stepping up.

And like Bradfield we understand that infrastructure creates value far beyond the construction and land acquisition cost of the asset being built.

With a record $75 billion infrastructure pipeline, we are playing our part.

We are strengthening the road spine of the Eastern Seaboard with major investments in the Bruce Highway and the Pacific Highway.

As Treasurer, I announced a further $3.3 billion in this year’s Budget for additional upgrades along the Bruce Highway, increasing the Government’s commitment to $10 billion between Brisbane and Cairns.

This will improve safety, capacity and flood immunity – with major work targeting poor safety stretches along this vital 1,700 kilometre stretch of road.

Continuation of our $6.6 billion investment in the duplication of the Pacific Highway, from Hexham to Queensland including $971 million for the Coffs Harbour Bypass in this year’s Budget.

Our investment in the Pacific Highway has already halved road fatalities and cut two hours from travel times – a big benefit in cutting freight costs and for locals – and in summertime, holiday-makers as well.

This project has supported 14,400 direct and indirect jobs.

We are making further big road investments in South Australia, Tasmania and Victoria, including our standing offer of $3 billion for the East West Link.

I can help get this project moving next Monday morning, I just need a state Premier who wants to build this vital infrastructure, and only Matt Guy is offering.

We are making major investments in rail as well.

$9.3 billion in equity financing and grant funding for the Melbourne to Brisbane Inland Rail project – better connecting regional Australia to domestic and international markets

Preparatory work is underway and construction is due to commence soon. The project will support 16,000 jobs during construction.

In Western Australia, we are providing $2.3 billion to the METRONET – which is the largest Commonwealth commitment to the Perth rail network ever.

And in Victoria we are investing up to $5 billion on the Melbourne Airport Rail Link. A project people have talked about for fifty years – its Australia’s second busiest airport with 35 million passengers a year.

And that’s not the only project with a fifty year wait over.

You have heard every year at this lecture about the potential of a Western Sydney Airport.

Well this year, I have better news: the bulldozers are on the site – and earthworks to level the site are underway.

No longer are we saying we will build it – we are building it.  Right now.

And we are backing in our $5.3 billion in equity financing for the airport with the Commonwealth’s contribution of $2.9 billion to the $3.6 billion Western Sydney Infrastructure Plan – because our Government said in 2014 we’d have the roads ready before the airport.

Through the Western Sydney City Deal we have also got the planning underway to have rail to the airport when it opens in 2026.

In the North of Australia we are investing in its potential with $5 billion Northern Australia Infrastructure Facility to kickstart a range of work – and $2.2 billion to upgrade roads in the north across Queensland, the NT and WA..

Earlier today, the Deputy Prime Minister Michael McCormack announced we will increase our funding of new water infrastructure projects across Australia by an additional $500 million.

This will lift spending on water infrastructure to more than $3 billion.

These investments will ensure we can fast track important water infrastructure projects that will deliver new, reliable and affordable sources of water to stimulate investment in irrigated agriculture, create jobs and underpin regional economic growth.

An infrastructure programme like this needs a strong economy to support it and that’s why growing our economy has been the core focus of our Government.

Without economic growth you cannot pay for the hospitals, schools, pensions, affordable medicines, defence forces, police forces, Medicare.

Poorer societies are never fairer societies. Getting an equal share of less is not my plan, nor do I think it represents fairness.

Fairness and prosperity go hand in hand. There are a billion people in the world today since 1990 who are no longer in poverty who can attest to that fact.

Our economic plan is getting results, with strong growth, lower unemployment record jobs growth, and a AAA rated budget coming back into surplus next year. We will keep on with our plan of:

Reduce taxes, so Australians households and small and medium sized businesses can keep more of what they earn

Reduce electricity prices by ensuring we increase the amount of reliable energy in the system and ensure the large electricity companies give their customers a better deal

Investing in the infrastructure that grows our economy and the services like health and education that enable our people to be successful in the economy they face today and in the future

Expanding our markets with record trade deals that have opened up new opportunities for our businesses large and small

A broad-based industry strategy that recognises traditional strengths such as resources and agriculture, but also looks to develop areas of growth in services, the defence industry, medical technology and manufacturing.

A bold new agenda for small business growth, including improved access to small business finance and cutting red tape.

A proven framework of fiscal responsibility – ensuring the Government lives within its  means.

Population growth has played a key role in our economic success. But I also know Australians in our biggest cities are concerned about population.

They are saying: enough, enough, enough.

The roads are clogged, the buses and trains are full. The schools are taking no more enrolments. I hear what you are saying. I hear you loud and clear.

That’s why we need to improve how we manage population growth in this country.

We have become, especially in Sydney and Melbourne a victim of our success.

Our population growth has three sources, natural growth occurring from the life decisions of Australian families, permanent overseas migration, and temporary migration made up of students, temporary workers and so on.

Over the current decade, around 42 per cent of the growth has occurred naturally and migration has accounted for about 58 per cent.

Over the two decades to 2016, our national population grew by 6 million and migration made up 54 per cent of that increase.

Population growth has provided our country with benefits that we often take for granted.

It has added a dynamism to our economy and society that you don’t find in most other advanced economies.

It is a key reason why we have been able to sustain strong growth in our economy and national incomes that are the envy of the developed world, contributing almost a fifth of the growth in Australia’s GDP per person over the past 30 years.

Population growth, along with productivity, will become even more important for sustaining strong growth in national living standards over the next 30 years as the ageing of the population weighs on workforce participation.

The median age of a migrant to Australia is between 26 years of age.

This compares to our national average age of 37.

Mostly, new migrants are working and as such, contributing to the welfare of the nation, rather than drawing from government.

Without migration, Australia’s workforce would be shrinking by 2020. With migration, the Productivity Commission estimates that labour force participation will be around 10 per cent higher in 2060.

And contrary to what is sometimes claimed, the Productivity Commission has found that migration confers no negative outcome to employment for those who are Australian born. In fact, it increases opportunity for Australians.

It is worth remembering that because skilled migration supports the economy, Australia does compete with other countries in bringing those additional skills to our shores.

We must also recognise the economic benefits of temporary migration.

This year, we have almost 600,000 foreign students studying in Australia. From the cafes of Glebe and the bars of Parramatta, to the computer stores of Canberra and the laundromats of Coffs Harbour, these students are supporting jobs.

Far too often, planners have treated population as one amorphous blob.

But that doesn’t work for Australia. We’re too big and diverse.

Talking about average population growth is like talking about our average rainfall. It fails to recognise the different experiences and outlooks of different cities or regions.

Over the past decade, our population has had an annual growth rate of more than 1.6 per cent. I stress well below our economic growth rate of over three per cent, which means per person we have been doing better as well.

According to the World Bank, Australia’s population is growing faster than most OECD countries including the United States – and faster than the projections of past Inter-Generational Reports.

And within that growth there are variances with Sydney, Melbourne, Hobart and Canberra experiencing population growth during 2016-17 above their respective average growth rates for the previous 20 years.

While migration has accounted for 54 per cent of Australia’s population increase in the two decades to 2016, 75 per cent of migrants are going to Sydney, Melbourne and South East Queensland.

Here in Sydney migrants accounted for around 70% of population growth last year.

This has created its own pressure points – and pressure points in population always manifest themselves in housing and infrastructure.

Now I should add, this focus on migration in capital cities is not a new phenomenon, but there has been a tick-up. In 2016, 83 per cent of the overseas-born population were in capital cities, compared to 81 per cent in 1996. For, the Australian born population it was 61 per cent in 2016, having ticked up from 60 per cent in 1996.

It mirrors an age-old truth – and that is, since the dawn of time, people have moved to where they believe they can they see the best economic and social opportunities for them and their families.

In our big cities, interstate migration is also an important component of population change.

We saw that very clearly with the mining boom as Australians moved to areas that were thriving. That is a natural part of a national economy and government has no control, nor any desire for control, over that aspect of population.

Indeed, this movement of people is an important way of capitalising on the economic opportunities available to us.

I believe that we need a new discussion with the state and territories and local governments about how we manage and plan for our changing population.

Of course, the Commonwealth will always have national responsibilities in terms of determining migrant intakes, security, our international obligations and the economy, but that does mean we should not engage with the States and Territories in a discussion about local population growth.

It should be a discussion grounded in data, economics and community sentiment.

A responsible population discussion cannot be arbitrarily about one number, the cap on annual permanent migration. It is certainly relevant, but you have to look at what sits behinds those numbers

For a start more than half the people who become permanent migrants are already here on temporary visas.

To contemplate our permanent visa settings, would also require up stream changes to how many people are coming in on temporary visas as well. The implications of this need to be understood, in lauding by state and territory governments.

My approach will be to move away from top-down discussions about population to set our migration intake caps. I anticipate that this will lead to a reduction in our current migration settings.

This is to be expected since our current permanent intake is almost 30,000 a year below our current cap. So we will look to make an adjustment as we go forward in to next year and this should not be surprising.

But we must do our homework first and make sure this is implemented in a way that does not disadvantage those states that are looking for greater growth and that we have the mechanisms in place to direct new migrants to the areas where there are the jobs, services and opportunities. That’s why the planning partnership with the states is so important.

Managing population change is a shared responsibility, involving all levels of government.

It is the states who build hospitals, approve housing developments, plan roads and know how many kids will be going into their schools in the future. The states and territories know better than any what the population carrying capacity is for their existing and planned infrastructure and services. So I plan to ask them, before we set our annual caps.

The old model of a single, national number determined by Canberra is no longer fit for purpose.

While the benefits of population growth are widespread – in terms of economic growth and a more skilled and enriched society – the pressure points are inevitably local and varied.

It’s about getting the balance right and understanding there is variation between our cities and regions.

For example, Tasmania has a different history and approach to population than Sydney and Melbourne.

Under Will Hodgman the state has worked to turn its fortunes around – and the Federal Government has worked with them.

And do you know the best thing when you look at Tassie’s interstate migration figures – it’s that the turnaround is happening with young people.

Tasmania wants a bigger population. They want growth. They don’t want to lag, they want to lead.

Many of the smaller cities – and the regions – want more people. South Australia, the Northern Territory, Western Australia, communities in North Queensland like Rockhampton have all said the same.

In Sydney, we face a different issue.

A booming economy – with 4.4 per cent unemployment – and over 300 cranes up over this skyline – this city has become a magnet for Australians wanting a better life.

We know the story in Sydney: congestion – on roads and public transport, pressure on services like schools, and until recently, ever increasing house prices.

And this is in a state with a good government that is investing $87 billion in new transport, schools and hospitals in the next four years.

In 2016-17, Sydney’s population increased by 107,000. In other words, Sydney grew by almost 2,000 people a week, every week. A suburb a week.

Of that overseas migration claimed the lion’s share – with 90,100 people.

But the Sydney story on population is not just a migration story. It’s also a quality of life story.

In 2016-17, a net 18,500 people left Sydney for other parts of Australia.

While some of that is older Sydney-siders cashing in on their capital gains and retiring to other parts of the state, those figures also reflect concerns about densities, congestion and other questions that relate to quality of life.

So we need a more targeted and tailored approach to conversations about population.

To this end, I am writing to the Premiers and Chief Ministers inviting them to contribute to a national strategy and framework on population, and putting this on the table for COAG at our next meeting on 12 December in Adelaide.

I want the states to bring forward their population plans targeted to their states. This process can also involve local government. This will feed in to the setting of our migrations caps and policies for next year, ensuring that migrations is finally tied to infrastructure and services carrying capacity.

Further details of this process will be discussed directly with Premiers and Chief Ministers.

In conclusion I want to congratulate the Daily Telegraph for being a voice for Sydney.

In 2014, there was a lot of nervousness about our decision to build the Western Sydney Airport. There was fifty years of resistance.

But the government felt that the time had come – and to the credit of the Telegraph you did too.

This is a paper that is not just proudly Sydney – but persuasively puts the case for a Sydney with more roads, better services, and a stronger economy and safer communities.

We don’t agree every day – but you are a clear, persuasive voice in this city and country and I thank you for your support of this Oration and our Emerald city.

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https://pmtranscripts.pmc.gov.au/release/transcript-41980

Signing Ceremony Remarks

18 November 2018

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Thank you very much, it’s a great privilege to be here.  Prime Minister O’Neill, I commend you strongly on leading this initiative and for inviting us to join and be part of what will be a great achievement for PNG. It’s time to power up PNG right across the country.

This underpins our commitment to be here, having always been here and we will always be here to support the people of PNG and to see their economic development. The hosting of this APEC conference here is further testament to the incredible journey and the progress that PNG has been on, particularly over the last generation. Access to electricity is a challenge given Papua New Guinea’s geography and Australian and Papua New Guinea engineers have worked hand-in-hand to establish much of the existing grid. Here we will be together again, working together again to establish together the new grid of the future. I have sat in remote villages in Papua New Guinea where there is no power in schools, in homes and have some understanding of what that has been like as a challenge for Papua New Guineans. This opportunity, to bring the light, to bring the electricity, to bring the connectedness, to connect them to the digital economy of the future will usher in a new era of prosperity for Papua New Guineans which I know will also be very important for Deputy Prime Minister Abel who is here with us today. I commend you on this wonderful partnership, the Australian infrastructure financing facility and other initiatives that we will be bringing to the table for this and I’m looking particularly forward to working with Japan, the United States and New Zealand in bringing this project to fruition. 

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https://pmtranscripts.pmc.gov.au/release/transcript-41973

Address, APEC CEO Summit 2018

17 November 2018

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Well thank you very much for that very warm welcome. It’s great to be here in Port Moresby and I want to thank you all very much for the invitation to speak here today.

I also want to recognise the commitment of all of those who have given of their time and their efforts to be here and form part of the APEC Business Advisory Council. ABAC plays a very key role in ensuring that these APEC meetings get on with business, literally getting on with business as I am sure you are doing here today as you’re engaging with each other.

It is great to be here in Port Moresby. Papua New Guinea is not just Australia's closest neighbour geographically, we are family - wantok - and it’s right -

[Applause]

Thank you. But that’s true also if we were talking about Fiji or throughout Polynesia, we’re whanau. We see ourselves as part of a family in the Pacific. So it’s right that we gather together here in Port Moresby because we honour and recognised that he “P” in APEC; the Pacific and particularly the Pacific Island economies, as I said, that we refer to as our Pacific family.

I have already made it clear as Prime Minister that Australia is stepping up. We will step up as part of our ‘step-up’ initiative in Pacific. We are taking and will take our engagement in the Pacific to a new level. I was reminded recently of another new Australian Prime Minister addressing his first APEC ministerial meeting. It was 1996 and it was then Prime Minister John Howard. He said there were three preconditions for growth in our region. The first was responsible domestic economic management. The second was market access for exports and the third was tackling infrastructure constraints. As we gather today I believe those guiding principles for economic prosperity are as relevant today as when John first mentioned them all those years ago.

You know, no country gets rich selling things to itself. That’s why APEC encourages trade and by taking practical steps on the things that matter to business - faster customs procedures, facilitating supply chain connectivity, promoting sustainable development, facilitating the digital economy and digital connectedness. APEC must remain a very practical forum. It cannot be about talk, it has to be engaged in very practical measures with a focus on facilitating business and a business environments that set the right conditions for business. While most of you in this room understand full well the benefits of trade - if you didn’t you would not be here - we are living in an age though when leaders and business need to proactively prosecute the case for open markets and a market-led economy. We are witnessing a rising tide of trade protectionism around the world in our constituencies, along with financial market volatility in some emerging markets. Fortunately for all of us, the strong relationships between APEC economies and the strong relationship we share with the business community, gives us the right foundation to tackle global challenges together.

The test for us now, for all of us, is to stand up for the economic values we believe in. To show how they work, to demonstrate it. How they lift living standards and have lifted hundreds of millions of people out of poverty, as those key, core economic values have led to policies and achieved those goals. As they have done. To show people, all of our people in our APEC economies and nations around the world, what happens when you are open and when you work in partnership; that you create jobs, build prosperity and you create a more stable, secure and more peaceful region.

When it comes to trade, Australia's actions match our words. We have among the lowest tariffs in the world and we have a consistent record for negotiating free-trade agreements with partners. Stay still long enough and our Trade Minister will do a deal with you.

[Laughter]

We all need to look beyond our own market if we are to boost our prosperity and Australia has always looked outward to achieve our prosperity. In Australia, trade liberalisation has benefited our people, just as immigration has, just as foreign investment has. You know, one in five jobs in Australia exist because of our trade activities and recent research has shown that the average Australian family now earns $8,500 more a year than they would have, if we have not lowered barriers to our trade for the last three decades. That’s a generational shift. More than 50,000 Australian businesses are exporters, which contributes nearly $390 billion to our economy.

Australia is not alone in this success. More than 1 billion people have been lifted out of extreme poverty since 1991, in large part because of the jobs and access to more affordable consumer goods that free trade has enabled. It works and you should do what works and you should keep doing what works. That is what Australia is going to do. Nowhere have we have we seen that more, than in our own Asia-Pacific region. No single country would have been able to create this prosperity alone. Success has relied on all of us together, making a commitment to lower barriers, to support openness to play by the rules we set and ensure those rules remain in place.

In Australia, for every big business that benefits from free trade, there are dozens of small and medium-sized businesses who benefit as well. You don’t have to pick and choose. I believe APEC needs to find new ways of making it easier for  SMEs to embrace export opportunities, because small and medium businesses are the engine room of so many of our national economies. They have the capacity to really drive job-creation and the prosperity gains throughout our region.

So my message to you today is that Australia's commitment to free trade remains strong and always will. Of course we recognise that there are many challenges. But the solution is not throwing up protectionist barriers. Tit-for-tat protectionism and threats of trade war are in no-one’s interests economically and undermine the authority of the global and regional trading rules that benefit us all and importantly, the people, the families who live in our economies and are supported by our economies.

So our efforts must be about persuading and convincing our peoples again, about the domestic benefits of what we are doing here. I know there are legitimate questions around trade arrangements. But the solution to perceived unfair trade practices is more likely to be found around the negotiating table, than it is in building a tariff wall. Australia will continue to advocate for trade disputes to be resolved by negotiation and within WTO rules. But we know the WTO is not perfect. We will work with like-minded countries around the world to ensure that it is improved and to understand the issues that they are raising, independently listening and seeking to understand. We want to strengthen and improve the WTO and we will continue to pursue liberalisation wherever we can.

That is what we must do and that is what I will be discussing with APEC leaders and colleagues here at every opportunity. We do so because Australia practices what we preach. We recently ratified the TPP-11 agreement which sets 21st Century rules, modern rules, for trade and investment between 11 of the 21 APEC economies and create free trade partnerships where previously there were none.

The door to the TPP remains open. More can join and we welcome and look forward to those opportunities in the future. It set the standard for what an agreement should look like into the future, by being modern. With six countries now on board - and more - the benefits will kick in from the 30th of December this year. The TPP-11 shows that Australia is a nation committed to economic integration and to opening up new opportunities for businesses across the region. It shows that Australia will act and we will deliver on free-trade and that we have partners who are willing to do the same. Still, more nations, APEC members and others in the region are working towards the conclusion of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership which we committed at the East Asia Summit and the RCEP summit, to ensure that this is concluded at the end of next year. As well, I believe the PACER Plus free trade agreement will open opportunities even further across the Pacific. PACER Plus has been negotiated between Australia and New Zealand and 12 other members of the Pacific Islands Forum, including six who are not members of the WTO. When in force, PACER Plus will foster trade and economic integration by aligning align regulatory regimes and allowing a smoother flow of goods, capital and people within regions. This is a region in the Pacific, full of opportunity where innovation and new business opportunities are being embraced. Whether it’s the already successful tourism industry, coffee from the PNG highlands or Bougainville’s award-winning chocolate, there is growing market for the output of the Pacific Islands. Australia, New Zealand and the UK are already buying Fiji-made sports uniforms and Fiji water has become ubiquitous across the world. Total two-way trade between Australia and Pacific Island countries is now worth more than $11.5 billion. The Pacific’s commitment to free trade and growth is another chapter in the extraordinary story of our region's economic transformation.

Across APEC, Australia wants to see more done to tackle non-tariff barriers to trade and structural reform, but no single economy can make this happen on its own. It does require reciprocity. As nations look for new trade opportunities they must also provide them. Trade is a two-way process by definition. There are plenty of opportunities before us, like developing digital infrastructure and creating the right regulatory environment that protects privacy, while enabling data to move across borders. Business tells us that we need rules that ensure the free flow of data and facilitate online trade, but at the same time protects consumers and recognises cyber risks. Australia is focused on creating that environment, which is why our Productivity Commission, working with New Zealand, is examining priority areas for removing barriers to growing the digital economy. But when we think about the reforms needed, particularly the potential for digital technology, we need to look out across our entire region and that includes the island states of the Pacific. Digital technology offers transformational opportunities for Pacific Island economies. It is why PNG's theme for APEC, “Harnessing Inclusive Opportunities, Embracing the Digital Future,” is so apt. The World Bank estimates digital transformation will grow GDP by more than $5 billion US and create 300,000 new jobs in the Pacific by 2040. That’s why Australia is supporting the construction of high-speed telecommunications cables from Australia to PNG and the Solomon Islands. Fiji has already shown us the commercial opportunities of high-speed telecommunication cables, leading the way in the Pacific with successful call centres and a business process outsourcing sector.

Together with partners we are looking at other projects in the very near future in this region. There is so much opportunity in the Pacific for citizens, businesses and governments and your attendance here is demonstration and affirmation of that.

This leads us to the third pillar of growth; infrastructure. The Asian Development Bank estimates the Pacific region needs $3.1 billion US in infrastructure investment, each year until 2030, a tall task. To contribute to that, last week Australia, the United States and Japan signed a memorandum of understanding to support trilateral cooperation in the Indo Pacific region and I had the opportunity to further the discuss those issues with Prime Minister Abe in Darwin yesterday. The MOU formalises the trilateral partnership for infrastructure investment in the Indo Pacific which was announced in July. Under the MOU, the three countries will work together to finance infrastructure projects and mobilise private sector investment to drive future economic growth, job-creation and poverty reduction. We will work closely with partners to identify projects for the trilateral partnership to support. So, together with the United States and Japan, we are working closely together, closely together, to drive this agenda.

As well, the Australian Government is setting up a $2 billion Australian Infrastructure Financing Facility for the Pacific, which will significantly boost our support for concessional infrastructure development. I am looking forward to giving EFIC, Australia’s export financing agency an extra billion dollars in callable capital and a new, more flexible infrastructure financing power to support at commercial rates, investments in the region which also have a broad national benefit for Australia. These new financing options have the potential to boost partnerships between the public and the private sectors, to create more projects like the Tina River hydropower project in the Solomon Islands, which when it opens, will be a great example of public-private infrastructure investment, bringing together the World Bank with public and private sector investors from Korea and Abu Dhabi. We are open to working with all partners in the region, all partners in the region. We want to see infrastructure investment though, that is transparent, that is non- discriminatory, that is open, that upholds robust standards to deliver long-term benefits that meets genuine needs and avoids unsustainable debt burdens. It must be in the interests of the country in which you are seeking to invest, to ensure we can deliver those projects that can benefit their economy which in turn benefits our entire regional economy.

We want a rules-based system that respect the sovereignty and the independence of every single country and a commitment then to regional security that is always the precondition for prosperity. But all of us in here in the room know there is more to do and always is. So the challenge is to strengthen our domestic economic foundations - which I can happily report is the case in Australia - to improve our market access for exports - because you never get rich selling things to yourself - and to finance and build vital infrastructure. That is as vital today as it has ever been.

Australia is committed to this proven path because we believe in it. Our external affairs policies are not just the sum of our deals. They are an expression of our values and our beliefs, whether they are economic or otherwise. And so we do this, motivated by our convictions, by our beliefs and our values, with a deep commitment to a strong, stable and secure Indo Pacific region.

That is why Australia is a trusted partner and a long-term partner; because our commitment is based on beliefs and values that have long been recognised in this region. It is the guiding principle for our foreign and trade policy.

No one country, no one economy can prosper without engaging with others. That is the lesson of the past half-century that has delivered so much to the people who live in our region. It is the lesson governments and the private sector must continue to use to guide us in the years ahead and to make the case, to make the case that this is the right way to go forward. To make that case in our communities, in our constituencies, in our boardrooms, whatever table we’re sitting around, the kitchen table or anything else, we need to make the case that trade is the right way forward to lift people out of poverty, to provide stability and peace in our region and to lift living standards.

Thank you very much for your attention.

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https://pmtranscripts.pmc.gov.au/release/transcript-41968

Joint Press Statement with His Excellency Shinzo Abe, Prime Minister of Japan

16 November 2018

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PRIME MINISTER: Well to Prime Minister Abe and your delegation, can I thank you very much for coming to Australia and in particular coming here to Darwin, for what has been a very deeply symbolic and significant meeting and also visit - the first by a Japanese Prime Minister to Darwin.

Can I thank you very much for the grace and the humility and the sincerity with which you have come to us today. I know it has been well received by the Australian people. We thank you both personally for the way you have done this, but equally we thank you on behalf of our country, to yours. We acknowledge our history and we commemorate our sacrifice and loss today, but importantly, we have further strengthened our great relationship as good friends and great partners; a special, strategic relationship based not only on our deep shared values and interests, but our deeply held beliefs.

As modern economies, Japan and Australia, we stand for openness and free trade. We stand for democracy and we stand firm against protectionism. Our continued success depends on being open to trade and investment. We understand that this is critical to the prosperity of our peoples and of the region in which we live. That's why Australia and Japan have been the driving forces behind the Trans Pacific Partnership, the TPP-11 trade agreement and I particular want to thank you Prime Minister Abe, for your strong leadership together with the former Prime Minister Mr Turnbull and the former Prime Minister of New Zealand Mr Key, who enabled us to initiate the TPP-11 proceeding and achieving it’s great result.

Can I also say that I appreciate the strong trade and investment relationship that is underpinned by the Australia-Japan Economic Partnership Agreement, the most liberalising trade agreement Japan has ever negotiated and implemented. Japanese investment in Australian resources and energy projects have helped create entire communities, have supported tens of thousands of employees, inspired new technology and generated billions of dollars per our two economies.

Japan is Australia's largest export market and the world's largest importer of liquefied natural gas and Australia supplies almost one third of Japan's total LNG imports. INPEX’s Icthys LNG project is Japan's largest ever investment in Australia and it is an outstanding example of the scale of our cooperation and of our ambition.

We are working together also throughout our region to support better infrastructure and greater connectivity between independent sovereign states throughout our region, throughout the Indo Pacific. On 12 November, Australia, the United States and Japan signed an MoU to support trilateral cooperation in the Indo Pacific region. This will greatly assist - as we discussed today - furthering our investment and infrastructure support within the south west Pacific, including the recent step-up programme that I announced just last week.

Australia and Japan remain committed to maintaining pressure also, I stress, to achieve the complete, verifiable and irreversible denuclearisation of North Korea. A stable and secure regional maritime order is central to both Australia and Japan's visions for the region and is underpinned by respect for international law. To that end, I particularly welcome the visit to Darwin by the Japanese coastguard patrol vessel Echigo. I look forward to increased cooperation with Japan to support regional maritime safety and security.

Australia and Japan also stand united on the importance of resolving disputes in the South China Sea peacefully and in accordance with international law. We are strongly opposed to any actions that could increase tensions within the region.

We also welcome expansion of collaboration to create new opportunities in areas such as healthcare, artificial intelligence and smart cities under a bilateral innovation framework. Australia and Japan are now collaborating on new energy sources to complement our already strong energy partnership, through our hydrogen energy supply chain pilot. I also note that Australia hopes to deliver that power to Japan's ambitions for the Tokyo 2020 Olympics and to develop a hydrogen export industry that could support as many as 16,000 jobs in Australia by 2040.

Finally, this year marks the 30th anniversary of Questacon, Japan's 1988 bicentennial gift to Australia and a great symbol of our friendship. I’m pleased to announce Australia has gifted three Questacon exhibitions to Japanese museums that participated in Questacon’s Science Circus of Japan this year. I hope this gift inspires future generations of scientists.

So I thank you Prime Minister and I warmly welcome you here and Mrs Abe.

I look forward to your comments.

HIS EXCELLENCY SHINZO ABE, PRIME MINISTER OF JAPAN – TRANSLATION: It is a great pleasure for me to be visiting Darwin for the first time as the Prime Minister of Japan. I am most happy that Prime Minister Morrison and I were able to have our first meeting here. Darwin was once a place where the former Japanese forces conducted their first air bombing against Australia, leading to much sacrifice. Prior to the meeting, Prime Minister Morrison and I laid a wreath at the War Memorial. I extended my condolences in honour of all the fallen soldiers and renewed my vow towards peace.

Thanks to the devoted efforts of many, Japan and Australia have achieved reconciliation and have become special strategic partners, driving regional peace and prosperity. Darwin is the next step and connects the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is a crucial place for the stability and prosperity of the whole of the Indo Pacific. It is at this very place where Prime Minister Morrison and I confirmed our commitment to further deepen this special strategic partnership between Japan and Australia in pursuit of our common vision of a free and open Indo Pacific.

In the area of security we agreed to deepen our security and defence cooperation. The Self-Defence Force and the Australian Defence Force are engaged in joint exercises and disaster relief operations in Darwin and other places in our two countries. During our meeting, we had discussions on the agreement to further facilitate such activities and welcomed the tremendous progress made to date in the negotiations and agree to aim for conclusion early next year.

Today, a patrol vessel of the Japan Coast Guard is calling on the port here for the first time. Maritime safety authorities exchanged statements of cooperation and likewise, Japan and Australia will promote cooperation to strengthen the rule of law at sea.

We discussed regional situations including North Korea, South East Asia and the Pacific Island nations. On South East Asia and the Pacific Island nations, we agree to promote concrete projects for cooperation in maritime security capacity-building related assistance and a strengthening of connectivity. On North Korea, we agreed on the importance of the realisation of complete, verifiable, irreversible dismantling of all weapons of mass destruction and ballistic missiles of all ranges as explicitly indicated in the UNSC resolutions and the complete implementation of the UN Security Council resolutions. I expressed my appreciation to the Prime Minister for sending Australian aircraft and vessels in response to ship to ship transfers. We confirmed that Japan and Australia will continue to cooperate in this area. Prime Minister Morrison also provided his support toward the early resolution of the abduction issue.

In the economic area, production has begun under one of the largest FDI projects in history by a Japanese company, the Icthys LNG project. We welcome the launch of operations in this project which can be described as a symbol of the deep interdependency between Japan and Australia and are ready to show more cooperation in the energy area. We agree to cooperate in such areas as brown coal to hydrogen, Quasi-Zenith Satellite, agriculture and fisheries as well as quality infrastructure in third countries to spur economic cooperation in even more diverse fields.

We welcome Australia's completion of its domestic procedures for TPP-11 and entry into force by the end of the year. We confirmed to collaborate to maintain and strengthen a free, open and rules-based multilateral trading system through the early conclusion of the RCEP and other initiatives.

Lastly I would like to thank the people of the Northern Territory for welcoming us with heart-warming hospitality.

Thank you.

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https://pmtranscripts.pmc.gov.au/release/transcript-41964

Address, Northern Territory Chamber of Commerce

16 November 2018

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PRIME MINISTER: I’d like to recognise that we are here on the lands of the First Australians from this district – the Larrakia people – and we acknowledge their elders past and present.

It’s terrific to be here with so many friends.

To Chamber President Greg Ireland, VP Stuart Kenny and CEO Greg Bicknell, thank for the invitation to address the NT Chamber of Commerce today.

It’s great to be in Darwin, a tropical city with its own unique rhythm and feel.

I’m especially pleased to be doing a number of things today.

This morning I signed the Darwin City Deal with the Chief Minister and the Lord Mayor.

I know many of you have been waiting keenly for this day, especially Senator Nigel Scullion and Gary Higgins who have been champions of the cause.

This City Deal will unlock investment in Darwin, grow the population, and support greater business activity.

And very soon I will have the pleasure of welcoming the Japanese Prime Minister His Excellency Mr Shinzo Abe to Darwin, along with Mrs Abe.  

This will involve marking with Prime Minister Abe the fruition of the biggest ever investment by Japan in Australia – the Ichthys LNG project here in Darwin, the benefits of which will flow for many years to come.

Benefits that will further complement our economic plan for Australia where this week we again saw clear evidence that this economic plan is working.

We witnessed yet another strong employment number with 32,800 more jobs in the month of October, with full-time jobs in Australia increasing by 42,300.

Since our Government came to office just over 5 years ago, nearly 1.2 million jobs have been created.

At 5 per cent, the unemployment rate is the lowest since April 2012.

When we came to Government, the NT unemployment rate was 5.2 per cent – it’s now down to 4.6 per cent.

Nationally, we’re also seeing a recovery of business investment off the back of increased business confidence.

And pleasingly, we are seeing a pick-up in wages growth across the country.

But we are not complacent.  We recognise that not everyone is feeling the benefits of a strong economy, including here in the Territory.

That’s why we have a plan for an even stronger economy that delivers for all parts of Australia.

So as a country and as a society, we grow together – not grow apart.

That’s my goal for Darwin.  That’s my aspiration for the Territory.

That’s our Government’s plan for Australia.

Our economic plan has several inter-connected threads.

Let me highlight just some of them:

• Lower tax for individuals and small and medium-sized business owners like many of you in this room

• Lower electricity prices so energy customers get a better deal from the big electricity companies

• The largest integrated infrastructure plan in Australia’s history - $75 billion of investment over 10 years

• A broad-based industry strategy that recognises traditional strengths such as resources and agriculture, but also looks to develop areas of growth in services, the defence industry, medical industry and science and technology

• A trade strategy that continues to break down barriers for Australian exports, especially here in the Asian region.  That’s a big part of what I have been doing this week and what I will continue to be doing as I head to APEC in PNG tomorrow.

• A bold new agenda for small business growth, including major announcements this week by the Treasurer on small business finance and cutting red tape.

• All the while within a framework of fiscal responsibility – a Government swinging the Budget back to balance so we live within our means and reduce our debt over time and deliver the essential services Australians rely on.

Let me say a bit more about small and family businesses.

We’re bringing forward small business tax cuts by five years.

Small and medium-sized businesses with a turnover less than $50 million – thousands of them here in the Territory – will pay a tax rate of just 25 per cent in 2021-22 rather than from 2026-27 as planned.

Similar timing changes will apply to the roll-out of the 16 per cent tax discount for unincorporated businesses.

3.3 million small and medium sized businesses across the nation, employing around 7 million Australians, will reap the benefits.

This includes the more than 19,000 businesses in the Territory who employ over 58,000 Territorians.

At the same time, we’ve extended the Government’s $20,000 instant asset write-off through to 30 June 2019.

Some 350,000 small businesses claimed the instant asset write-off in 2016-17.

It’s a great opportunity to reinvest in your business by replacing or upgrading an asset.

But we have much bigger plans to turn small businesses into bigger businesses beginning with small business finance.

In my time as Treasurer, I became very concerned about the ability of small business to secure access to competitive finance – relative to large businesses.

If small business can’t access finance at reasonable terms they can’t grow.

Our Government has listened, recognised this problem and now we have acted.

This week the Treasurer announced a $2 billion Securitisation Fund to help businesses better access the loans they need to grow.

The fund will help to provide an additional source of funding for smaller banks and non-bank lenders who, in turn, will be able to lend to small businesses at more competitive terms.

It will be administered by the Australian Office of Financial Management – providing a long overdue boost to liquidity and competition in the small business lending market.

The Government is also working with financial institutions (including APRA and the major banks) on establishing an Australian Business Growth Fund that would provide longer term equity funding to small businesses.

This would be modelled on similar funds that have been operating in the UK and Canada where this issue of access to small business finance has been highlighted as well.

We’re reducing red tape and the regulatory burden on small business.  All up, the Government has cut $6 billion in Commonwealth red tape, which is reducing the regulatory burden on small businesses.

We’ve streamlined GST reporting for small businesses by simplifying the BAS.  When fully implemented, this is estimated to save each small business, on average, $590 per year.

Today we have announced we’re going to reduce the reporting burden for small and medium businesses by doubling ASIC financial reporting thresholds that have become outdated.

Around 2,200 companies will no longer be required to comply with financial reporting and audit requirements. This is estimated to reduce regulatory costs by $81.3 million annually.

Complementing plans for business, our City Deal will unlock investment in Darwin, grow the population, and support greater business activity.

Darwin will get a new Education and Civic Precinct in Cavenagh Street.

Its centrepiece will be a new city campus for Charles Darwin University, attracting more students here – 1,100 more.

Those students are going to flow into the centre of the city to study, live and work.

And there’ll be hundreds of university staff in that consumer mix too.

International students spend around $500 a week on living expenses, while hosting visits from their friends and family too. That’s going to be a new source of strength to the local economy.

Analysis by Deloitte Access Economics has found that the new city campus could increase economic output in the Darwin region by more than $250 million over the next fifteen years.

The City Deal will revitalise the look and feel of Darwin.

More green space.  More landscaping.

It will attract new visitors, residents, students and businesses, improving the experience for all and help ensure more stay for the long-term.

It provides business the confidence it needs for the future.

With an agreed 10-year plan, between all levels of government, to grow and transform Darwin, we’re sending a strong signal to today’s business community and tomorrow’s investors.

There’s much more to the City Deal and I encourage you to examine the detail.

Now of course, the NT is bigger and broader than Darwin.

My Government is taking steps to adapt the successful City Deals model for regional development.

Just last weekend, I wrote to the Chief Minister to formally invite him to partner in a Regional Deal for the Barkly Region.

Discussions were well underway in the lead-up to that invitation – the Deputy Prime Minister Michael McCormack, and the Minister for Indigenous Affairs Nigel Scullion, had met with the Barkly Regional Council and leaders of the Barkly Aboriginal community.

We have begun a formal process. That’s an important step.

Ultimately, the community will determine the specifics of this deal.

Of course, our City Deals build on a larger pipeline of infrastructure investment in the Territory.

Since 2013-14, the Government has committed $1.5 billion to fund infrastructure projects in the Territory.

I mentioned briefly at the outset as part of the Government’s economic plan our defence industry strategy.

The NT is vitally important to the Australian Defence Force and the Government is continuing to invest strongly in capability, personnel and facilities in the Territory.

More than 5,000 serve in our defence forces in and around Darwin.

Under the umbrella of the Defence White Paper, we are investing $200 billion investment in defence capability and around $8 billion in Defence infrastructure projects over the next decade.

Under our Local Industry Capability Plan we’ll be working to ensure local Territory businesses and tradies get their share of work on important defence projects.

I know many of the Chamber’s members are in tourism.

Of course, Kakadu is one of the icons of Australian tourism.

I want Kakadu tourism to keep delivering for the Territory.

I want to see people from all around the world continuing to enjoy the beautiful gorge and waterfalls of our largest national park.

Our Government is working with the Territory Government on how best to manage and continue investing in Kakadu so we continue to tap into its amazing tourism potential.

We’re also working with the Territory Government and Traditional Owners to ensure the future of Jabiru is settled as soon as possible, to provide some certainty there.

Jabiru is already a major service centre for Kakadu and the surrounding region, and although the mine is closing, there’s certainly a lot of potential for a future built on tourism.

Our Government’s commitment to the Territory can be seen too in the changes we have made to GST distribution.

We know the mining boom created real volatility in the GST distribution.

So we’ve legislated a fairer and more sustainable GST deal for everyone. It’s now law.

I promised that back in July as Treasurer and it’s now delivered.

In addition to the already paid extra $260 million, under our new legislated changes, the NT is forecast to be $258 million better off over the next eight years.

That includes $69 million in top-up payments over the first three years.

We’re also changing the formula to address this issue in the longer term.

It’ll be the biggest change to the GST since it was introduced and this is why we took our time to get it right.

Our GST plan is about ensuring your fair share, so that the services you rely on – schools, hospitals and law enforcement, as well as infrastructure and other important projects – are delivered.

This is crucial to the ongoing strength of the Northern Territory and its economy.

In April 2018, the Commonwealth announced it would invest $550 million over five years in housing for NT remote communities.

The NT Government has agreed to match this funding as part of a new National Partnership Agreement.

Our negotiations are focussing on addressing overcrowding, providing transparency about how money is spent, a decision-making role for land councils and ensuring works are delivered by local Indigenous Territorians and businesses.

We expect to finalise the agreement before the end of the year.

And all of this is being done without increasing your taxes.

On what you earn, on your investment, on your business, your retirement savings, housing – 16,000 Territorians negatively gear rental property.

So Ladies and Gentlemen, I come back to where I started.

All of these investments in the future can only be made if you have a plan for a strong economy.

I strongly believe that the next election will be fought over those defining issues of who can manage the economy best and who can keep Australians safe and protect our sovereignty.

We do recognise that not everyone is feeling the benefits of a strong economy, including here in the Territory.

The nature of the Territories economy means you are often called on to buckle down through periods of uncertainty.

It can be a grind, especially if you are running a small business.

We get that.  That’s why everything we do as a government is geared towards strengthening our economy and ensuring all Australians can share in the benefits of a strong economy.

I want to thank the NT Chamber of Commerce for the invitation today and for everything you do to advocate on behalf of a resilient and forward-looking business sector in the Territory.

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https://pmtranscripts.pmc.gov.au/release/transcript-41960

Address, Remembrance Day National Ceremony

11 November 2018

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Silence. At last, silence. A silence from that day to this that beckons a prayer for a dawn of peace, and a lasting peace. 

On this day a century ago, as citizens across the Allied nations celebrated the end of war, Australia’s official war correspondent, Charles Bean, chose to mark the Armistice solemnly.

Returning to Fromelles in northern France where two years earlier Australian soldiers had fought their first major action on the Western Front, Bean walked in silence over the trampled battlefield.

“We found the old No-Man’s-Land simply full of our dead,” he wrote.

“The skulls and bones and torn uniforms were lying about everywhere.”

On that day, perhaps Bean reflected on the unfulfilled dreams of the almost 2,000 Australians who had fallen at Fromelles in a single day, or the suffering of the more than 3,000 who had been wounded.

Perhaps he thought of the tens of thousands of our war dead lying on the steep hills of Gallipoli, or on the blood-soaked fields of Flanders, and  the searing deserts of the East.

Perhaps he dwelt on the grief of families who would never again embrace loved ones, or on the loss to communities across the nation of a generation that had made victory possible.

As we commemorate the centenary of the Armistice and cast our minds back over the years, we know too well the deep scars of war and long to prevent them from touching an Australian soul.

Our human predisposition, our Australian predisposition, is for peace.

It is to be in accord with family, friends, neighbours, community. To love, to live.

That’s why war is always a failure of our humanity.

Yet we know there are times when even the most peaceful of men and women are called upon to defend the beliefs they live by, and there have been too many such times over the course of the past century.

This is not to say that our reflections on those conflicts must be unquestioning.

But the sacrifice demands that we reflect, ponder, and learn from every conflict because that’s what free societies like Australia do — to learn from the past so that we can better navigate the changing currents of our own times, for our own children and for the next generations.

Over this past century, I believe the tenor of our conflicts has tended towards upholding the highest ideals of humankind – to preserve freedom, to safeguard democracy, to stand against tyranny.

And we have done so at a great cost.

It is easy from the vantage point of a century to lose sight of the sacrifices made in our name.

Much harder to cross the span of generations and put ourselves in the boots of someone landing at ANZAC Cove, or charging into Beersheba, or struggling against the rattle of death on Flanders Fields.

Those who fought in the Great War had the same and normal flaws and frailties of any other Australian of any other generation.

Yet their selflessness at the darkest of times has set them apart for eternity in our nation’s consciousness.

Andrew Gillison, a chaplain, heard cries coming from No Man’s Land while in a trench at Gallipoli.

Despite having been warned about the snipers, he tried to crawl out to rescue the wounded soldier, calling.

He did know what the risk was, but he did know what it was to do the right thing, and he lost his life for it.

Alice Chisholm, a mother of five, sailed to Egypt to be near her son who had been wounded.

She stayed to set up food canteens and shelters for Allied troops serving in the Middle East, and after the war she supported our diggers by establishing a Returned Soldiers’ Club in Goulburn.

William Rawlings, a horse trainer from near Warrnambool, risked his life to clear a path for his fellow infantrymen during an attack at Morlancourt on the Western Front.

He was one of a thousand Indigenous Australians who volunteered when their country did not properly recognise them or their people, and he would die just a few months before the Armistice. They saw our country not just for what was then but what they dreamed it would become.

We often say that men and women like this were fearless; but I actually don’t believe that.

Because bravery is not the absence of fear. It is the choice to commit to a purpose greater than your fear. That is the moment when fear is conquered.

They feared greatly but acted nonetheless, and it is this that embodies our highest aspirations as a nation and as people – to live for others even when to do so is unimaginably hard and the cost extreme.

Tragically, the hardships continued even for those who rode out the storms of war.

Many suffered the physical marks of battle; yet more, the deep emotional scars of memory.

Thousands of our servicemen and women would die from injury as well as despair within a decade of coming home.

Their struggles were as much an act of patriotism and love of our country as their enlisted service, and that is true to this day for those who wrestle daily with these memories.

Despite hopes that it would usher in a lasting peace, the Great War was sadly not the war to end all wars.

By the time this memorial here to the Great War as was originally proposed was opened, another war was upon us.

The Australian original ANZACs who left our shores for Gallipoli have been followed by those who fought in the jungles of Kokoda, and struggled in the mud of Long Tan, and battled in the dust of Uruzgan, and risked their lives in the skies over Germany and in the waters of the Mediterranean and the Pacific.

To all who have served our nation in wars, in conflicts and peacekeeping operations, to those of you who serve to this day here or all around the world, we owe you a debt of gratitude as a nation and as individual Australians.

Through it all, we can’t avert our gaze from citizen-soldiers of the First World War though, who defined so much of who we are as a people today.

They believed in country over self.

They believed in each other, when all seemed lost.

They respected the chain of command, but it was their character that drove their actions, as it is today.

They laughed, they smoked, they told stories, they wept, they were as earthy as the land in which they were born from.

And though it was hard to see during the fog of war and even harder to appreciate the scale of their sacrifice, they nevertheless changed the world, together.

As Charles Bean did one hundred years ago, today we solemnly commemorate the Armistice.

In silence, a silence that beckons and prays for peace, we honour the 102,000 Australians who have lost their lives in war for us.

For our tomorrows, they gave their today.

In silence, we commit ourselves to standing by those who have returned home.

In silence, we honour the great leadership of General Monash.

And in silence at the hour when war subsided, we resolve to sustain the peace today and beyond.

So that when the bugle calls, we will in the words of our great Australian poet:

“Stand four-square to the tempest, 

whatever the battering hail,

No foe shall gather our harvest,

Or sit on our stockyard rail”.

Lest we forget.

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https://pmtranscripts.pmc.gov.au/release/transcript-41941

Press Conference - Sydney, NSW

10 November 2018

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PRIME MINISTER: Thanks you for coming today. Yesterday a lone, violent, extremist Islamic terrorist, Hassan Khalif Shire Ali, sought to instil fear in our nation.       

Like those who came before him, this terrorist failed, as will all others who share his twisted hatred of our nation.                       

He was met with unflinching resolve.

The bravery of Police.

The willingness of bystanders to stand up – and to tend to each other.

The professionalism of our emergency services – who didn’t just tend the victim, but even the terrorist as well. Reminding everyone what a decent, fair and humane people we are.

And the quiet efforts of thousands of Melbournians to assist authorities as events unfolded over the course of yesterday afternoon, and through the evening and throughout today. And for Melbournians who got about their lives today.

To all of these Australians I say thank you on behalf of our nation.

As a nation, we grieve today for a life tragically and violently taken.

A fellow Australian who was felled in our streets by another Australian who violated the trust and opportunity gifted to him by a generous nation.

We send our love and prayers to the family who has suffered a great loss, and to those who are recovering from their injuries and to all those who have suffered today and are experiencing anxiety as a result of these events.

You are strong and you are loved by your Australian family.

As always, we overcome these events because we are resolute. Because of what we believe. Because we are stronger together.

And we don’t know any differently.

Instead of fear, we draw strength from each other and the deep quiet bonds between all of us.

That said, I know Australians are seeking assurances today.

While there can never be guarantees against acts of this nature, be encouraged that since when the national threat level was first raised, back on the 12 September 2014, 90 people have been charged as a result of 40 counter-terrorism related operations around Australia;

There have been 14 successful major counter-terrorism disruption operations in response to potential attack planning in Australia;

We have passed 12 tranches of counter-terrorism legislation on a bipartisan basis through the Parliament; and we have also invested to support Australia’s efforts through our various law enforcement and intelligence agencies combating terrorism and working with partners abroad and here at home.

Know this Australians,  that all your agencies, at all levels of Government continue everywhere, working together, well resourced, with clear leadership, 24/7 to do everything they can to keep you safe so you can get confidently about your daily lives. State, local, federal. In this country there is tremendous cooperation between all of these agencies and that has been on display, in particular, in less than the past 24 hours, as they have responded to these events and sought to provide that assurance of protection.

I particularly want to thank the Victorian Police for providing the assurances to Melbournians today and for moving quickly to restore access to the city to allow Melbournians to get about their lives.

Since early yesterday evening I have been in continuous contact, along with the Minister for Home Affairs, Peter Dutton, with our police and intelligence agencies who have updated me on events as well as our preparedness for any other incidents.

The National Terrorism Threat Level remains at Probable.

All agencies of government are working closely together.

I have also spoken, on several occasions, with the Premier of Victoria and the Victorian Leader of the Opposition, given the election that is underway there.

I have also spoken with Mr Shorten, the Leader of the Opposition, last night, he has been offered, by me, briefings from our agencies later today, according to the arrangements that suit the opposition.

Later today, I will also be travelling to Canberra, where I will be taking further briefings from Commissioner Colvin in Canberra. And from this point further briefings and response will be handled by the Minister for Home Affairs, along with those other agency leaders.

In closing I’ve got to address the real issue here, I’ve got to call it out - radical, violent, extremist Islam that opposes our very way of life.

I am the first to protect religious freedom in this country, but it also means I must be the first to call out religious extremism. Religious extremism takes many forms around the world, and no religion is immune from it. That is the lesson of history, and sadly modern history as well.

But here in Australia we would be kidding ourselves if we did not call out the fact that the greatest threat of religious extremism, in this country, is the radical and dangerous ideology of extremist Islam.

I applaud, and I know many of them personally, working in my own city here, as some of you may know, the brave and passionate Australians in the Muslim community who know that their children and their communities are at risk from these evil thieves who will come in and pray on their community, on their vulnerable people, on their children. Like all Australians they want the best for their kids and their communities.

I commend these Australians for the leadership and courage that I know they have had to show to protect their community and their fellow Australians, often at great risk to themselves, and their families.

But there is a special responsibility on religious leaders to protect their religious communities and to ensure that these dangerous teachings and ideologies do not take root here. They must be proactive, they must be alert and they must call this out, in their communities and more broadly for what it is.

And we must all work respectfully together, Government, community and religious leaders to ensure that we continue to prevail in the face of this evil.

As Australians today we feel sadness, but we also feel pride and great resolve this day.

Sadness for the life taken, and for those who have been injured – but proud of the response of our community of Australians, police and emergency services and those who came to assist and to comfort and resolve to stand against those who seek to divide us, who seek to come and subvert all the things we hold dear in in this country to the threat of radical, extremist Islam.

JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, you have a strong message to those religious leaders. Will you be reaching out to them?

PRIME MINISTER: Of course.

JOURNALIST: In what way?

PRIME MINISTER: I’ll be meeting with them, I’ll be talking with them. I was talking with friends in the community today, in fact. I have a long established relationship, particularly with that community here in Sydney and this is something we have to work on together. And these are things that the Muslim community have raised with me over many years in different roles that I have had. You know, I have sat in the living room of a family whose four sons went and fought for ISIS, for Daesh. And they all died. I have seen the look of complete loss in the eyes of a mother and a father - the father has since passed away - who just were bewildered by what were these who came and corrupted their kids.

JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, last year the Government released a new strategy on protecting people in crowded places. Do you think that had any impact in this scenario and was there anything that could have been done to further mitigate the attack?

PRIME MINISTER: Well a lot has been done in this space as you know and that work was drawn together across agencies at a state and federal level. As you have already heard from the AFP and you’ve already heard from the agencies at a state level, all of these things are constantly reviewed in relation to these incidents and I think you can expect to see that happen. We have to be honest with ourselves here. We can take these precautions, and we do, and we do it here in Australia, I believe, better than anywhere else in the world. And one of the reasons we do do it so much better is the level of cooperation that exists between community, between state and federal government, local governments, and you’ve seen that on display over the last 24 hours and you will continue to see it on display. And so where there are things can be improved, of course they will. There were six attacks of this nature prior to this one. But there have been more that have been thwarted. And the ones that have been thwarted, it was the product of that resolve, the resourcing and the leadership and cooperation. And that’s what Australians can take some confidence out of today, despite the fact we have gone through this tragic and unforgivable incident.

JOURNALIST: You’ve only been in the job for a few months and you’re already talking about terror. Are you surprised by that or do you think, you know, as Australians terror is something that we need to become increasingly concerned about?

PRIME MINISTER: Well, the threat level is listed as "probable" and that has been the case for some time. The advice from agencies is that is where it remains. This is something that is in the mind, I think, of every leader in the country, whether you’re a Premier or a Prime Minister. These are the responsibilities that fall to the job. What I have been incredibly impressed with has been the very prompt, the very efficient and very professional way in which the agencies have been able to determine so many things so quickly, to learn about this radical Islamic terrorist and be further pursuing their inquiries and I'm sure those investigations will reveal more in the days ahead.

JOURNALIST: Have you been in touch with the families of those affected or do you intend to?

PRIME MINISTER: Out of respect for those families, as you know, the names particularly of the deceased have not been released yet. So once I think we have got past those issues then I will looking forward to having such a conversation to extend my deepest sympathies.

JOURNALIST: PM, we know he was on a federal ASIO watch list but what about the state list, was he on the state list?

PRIME MINISTER: Well as the Victorian Premier said last night, he was known to both state and federal authorities.

JOURNALIST: Authorities can prepare for, you know, big events and bolster security in that respect but how do you think we prevent these lone wolf attacks?

PRIME MINISTER: That's a very good question. This is why I commend the bravery and the cooperation of members of the Muslim community and the relationships that we must continue to foster and bridge and build. Now, I have no issue with calling out what I have done today in relation to radical Islamic terrorism. But that is a call, I think, to all the community, both within the Muslim community and without to ensure we work together. Because it's the cooperation, it's the integration, that is so important, I think, to reduce the risk of these types of things and to increase the awareness of the likelihood of them happening with any particular individuals. There are a large number of people on watch lists. There is a large number of people who have been prevented from leaving the country as this individual was. And so it does require a constant vigilance but a community of co-operation both within particular religious communities where people I don’t believe want to see this corruption happening. I've had the discussions and I’ve seen the distress and I’ve seen the concern and how that does motivate people to be very proactive in working with all the authorities to deal with this problem. But there can never be any absolute guarantees.

JOURNALIST: What was your reaction… can we ask questions about other things now?

PRIME MINISTER: I’m going to deal with this matter today. This is the matter I’m focusing on today and I don't intend to raise other issues today.
JOURNALIST: I’ve got another question about that. Should the law be changed to boot out non-citizens on a terror watch list? We do it with bikies with links to organised crime, should we also expand the legislation to those involved in terrorist activities? What do you think about that?
PRIME MINISTER: Well we have a range of pieces of legislation before the Parliament, dealing with these things and we will continue to review all of those activities in relation to this event and how we think that applies to those issues going forward.

JOURNALIST: And how many are on the ASIO terror watch list, do you know?

PRIME MINISTER: I said last night, there are around 400.

JOURNALIST: Just lastly, what do you have to say to Australians who are frightened by this attack?

PRIME MINISTER: Get about your lives. Be Australians. We will never be intimidated by those who seek to take away the very thing we value more than anything, and that is to live our lives in the way we choose to. That's what they’re attacking. That's what they've fallen victim to, a dangerous ideology that says this is not how you live your life in harmony with one another, in freedom, in liberty, with expression, where all faiths are respected and can live together happily. A prosperous, optimistic community that has always looked out to the rest of the world and embraced it. That's who we are. Just keep being yourselves. Keep being Australians and be proud of who you are, because I know you are and that is what will ensure we will always defeat this insidious evil that comes at us every single time. Thank you very much.

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https://pmtranscripts.pmc.gov.au/release/transcript-41942

Speech, Lifeline Luncheon

9 November 2018

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Well thank you very much John. Can I also acknowledge the traditional owners of the land and any Elders past and present. But can I particularly acknowledge Philip, and if you’ve got one pf those, fill it out, give Philip some hope and his family some hope.

It’s very important we’re all here today, we’re here as guests of others, we’re here in our own right, bringing tables. It’s a generous community that I grew up in here in Sydney. It’s great to see so many of you here being generous here today.

But when you hear these stories, there’s only one thing we can respond in doing and that is fill this out. And I’ll make sure we’re going to keep filling them out from the Commonwealth Government’s point of view as well and I want to talk a bit more about that today.

[Applause]

It’s good to be here with John and John I worked together some time ago. And he used to speak, and he’ll remember this, about being ‘strong and compassionate’ and I’ve thought a lot about that as the years have passed.

It does sort of reflect the tension in public life. The need for strength, but also the need to be compassionate. And in the opportunity to work together with Lifeline I think we can do both.

And that’s certainly what John has been able to do and I want to thank him for his great service. Not only in chairing Lifeline but I think in being an advocate and being someone who demystifies and destigmatizes the issues of mental health in Australia. And so congratulations John.

[Applause]

Thanks you for your service John. And Lucy is great, Lucy does a great job as we know…

[Applause]

She does a terrific job as Chair of Australia’s Mental Health Commission and we really thank you for the work you do there.

And I was thinking of Lifeline only recently. We were announcing some funding for some support down at a spot we’re all pretty familiar with, down there near the Watson’s Bay Hotel, over near the cliff. And we were making some announcements there about how we were doing improvements to lighting and those sort of things that has been part of the programme of that area to make that less of a hot spot.

And what it reminded me of was, it was a lonely place. And people are in lonely places and they can be in dark places.

But what we have an opportunity to do through organisations like Lifeline is that we can bring light to them and it’s not just light down at the gap.

These places can be offices, they can be classrooms, they can be kitchens, they can be bedrooms, they can be shop floors, and they can even be hotel ballrooms here today.

What might seem full of light to all the rest us can be dark, it can be lonely, it can feel windswept, it can feel isolated and disconnected. And what we’re trying to do is bring light to that. An acknowledgment to those situations people find themselves in.

And Julian Leeser who is here today and other colleagues who are here today and I welcome them as well as they’ve already been acknowledged today. Julian and I were talking about the issue of suicide.

Julian is one of the great champions of suicide prevention in our national Parliament. Just like Jason and Paul and others who are here. And it doesn’t matter which side of politics you are on. When Julian speaks about these issues, people stop and they listen, and so they should.

Because as you know Julian lost his father to suicide – and we were talking about trying to see the signs of depression, the sadness and distress in others and being alert to it.

Because often we’re not. And one of the stories Julian will tell you about it is how he wished he had been able to interpret more of what those signs are.

And it’s our responsiveness to this that gives us an opportunity to intervene, to step in, R U OK Day is another great initiative that was started by a mate of mine I went to school with and who we lost some years ago. Not to mental illness, actually to another illness.

But this stop and observe each other I think is important, and that’s what we’re all here doing today.

It can be very human to miss these signs. It can be very human to try and mask the signs that you’re in fact feeling. And so picking up on these things is very important.

For people in distress in Australia, Lifeline is one of these disruptors that can actually come in and intervene in these moments.

It can be that little voice to someone in distress that says “call Lifeline” and they see it, as John said, every other day at the end of an article somewhere. It disrupts, it makes a difference.

Or it could just be the number that you see elsewhere.

For tens of thousands of people, countless Australians, it has already been an important disruptor for their own battle with mental illness or of their family or friends.

I particularly want to acknowledge today, as I know John would also, all the counsellors who are making this difference every single day – if you have been or are a Lifeline counsellor I’d like you stand in your seats right now if you’re here because we all owe you a great debt of thanks and I want to acknowledge you in this room today. If there are any counsellors here, we want to say thanks.

[Applause]

We don’t know and we’ll never know who these counsellors have helped. It could have been one of our siblings, or one of your children, it could have been your football or netball coach or that that of your kids’ coach, it could be your kid’s school teacher, it could be your neighbour, it could be your parent or it could even be your local member of Parliament, and it could have even been you at some point in the future.

And yes, Lifeline does so many other things that supplement their mighty phone counselling service – and I also acknowledge that good work too.

But there is one call we should all remember. It took place in fifty-five years ago in 1963.

It was a time when they had rotary dial telephones, timed STD calls and phone boxes on street corners.

And Reverend Alan Walker, took a call at his Beacon Hill home. It was from a man named Roy. He got Reverend Walker’s number out of the phone book, we all remember what they were. Some of us do.

Roy was lonely, distressed and struggling under a weight of debt and they arranged to meet. But before the meeting took place, Roy took his own life.

Now Reverend Walker was a man of deep faith. He understood the admonition that faith without deeds is dead.

And he turned his faith into action. He turned his faith into real deeds.

And along with a small band of volunteers established Lifeline as an expression of his deep faith. Because he knew there were thousands of Roys in the country.

From its inception, Lifeline understood that, at times, we all need a helping hand. And there is nothing wrong in asking for help.

Now my dad was a police officer, so was my uncle – and you didn’t think or inquire about the emotional toll of a difficult job. The same is true for nurses, paramedics, firefighters, ambulance officers, and we thank them for the wonderful job they do.

They were just expected to deal with it. Just like returning veterans. Just like our Vietnam vets, who came back and were not recognised when they came home, one of the most shameful acts in Australia’s history. They were just expected to deal with it, and many just couldn’t.

It was not and will never be the right way to do things.

That’s why when Prince Harry was here, it was so great how he talked so freely in his recent visit about it and acknowledging the challenges and the need for greater awareness of that mental illness.

And when he and I met together privately, we spoke about this, and he was so interested in the work of whether it was Lifeline or whether it was Kookaburra Kids which we talked about passionately or the work of so many wonderful organisations. Whether they be with youth, with Headspace or any of these projects.

On the Sunday I was able to introduce the Prince to John and many others who were involved in all of these projects. And when he was out in Dubbo he said, “How easy is it for you guys to talk about your mental health?” He asked the students out there in Dubbo.

It’s a great question – and the kids all looked at the floor. Like many of us do when this topic still comes up today.

The honest answer for us adults is “it is not as easy as you think” – so we all have to keep working at this.

The good news is asking for help is no longer seen as weakness, but it is seen as a strength.

Offering help is no longer seen as “not my business” but my responsibility as a family member, a friend, an employer and a neighbour.

I said a few months ago, that if you love Australia, which I know we all do passionately, all around the country, it means you love your fellow Australians. That’s what it really means to love Australia.

You can love the beaches, you can love all the great history, you can love whether it’s generations or centuries, you can love all these wonderful things about Australia. But if you really love Australia, you love your fellow Australians.

Mateship, I believe, is the Australian word for love.

“Who is my neighbour?” It’s a question as old as time.

You have answered it at Lifeline with “we are”. We all are, you are, everyone is my neighbour.

And everyone here knows the statistics. One in seven of our children four to seventeen will experience a mental health challenge in any year. For adults, it’s one in five.                                                                

There is good work happening across our country, but there is more work to do.

As a Government, yes it’s true, as John said, we have been very active in this space and I assure you with Lifeline will be more active in this space and John and I will be working through those issues now.

There was a $33 million funding boost to Lifeline – part of $72 million provided to suicide prevention initiatives that I announced in this year’s Budget. And for Lifeline, John said, that was the first significant increase to Lifeline since John Howard was in office.                 

Almost $200 million a year for 24/7 counselling support for veterans and their families. If you’re a veteran today, whether you’ve served one day or you’ve served decades, you get access to free mental health in this country as you should. As you should as an acknowledgement for your service and the fact that we owe a memorial not just to those who have fallen but we owe a service to the living.

110 headspace centres for our young people and extending the e-headspace service, over $50 million which we put into that and I have announced in recent weeks.

$11 million in mental health funding for drought affected areas across our drought stricken New South Wales, Queensland, South Australia and Victoria. I just got a report last night from the difficulties that people are facing up there in Scone at the moment in terms of the drought.

And Lifeline will be there with our farmers and doing what they can along with the mental health counsellors who are there and working with those communities.    

$102 million for mental health in aged care as people in the residential aged care facilities deal with depression and loneliness and isolation was one of the key issues that was raised with me before the last Budget about the need to ensure people in aged care were being treated for the mental illnesses that they were suffering from.

And $125 million in the “Million Minds Mental Health Research Mission” to support one million people through better prevention, diagnosis and treatment.

There is still so much more to do in this area and you’re here doing it today. And our Government, and state governments right across the country, will keep doing what we need to do.

I think this issue has transcended politics and I hope it always will. That there will be a bipartisanship, a multi-partisanship, as we all work together to try and raise awareness and support those who are in the front line like they are here at Lifeline.

But it starts with us all listening to each other, and respecting each other and caring for each other.

To look for the signs. To stand by our mates.

To treat mental health in the same way we treat physical health – free of any stigma.

So I want to thank you all for the work you do. It is a pleasure to be here advancing the good work of Lifeline and a great privilege and I thank you very much for your attention.

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https://pmtranscripts.pmc.gov.au/release/transcript-41944

Address, "Australia and the Pacific: A New Chapter"

8 November 2018

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To our hosts, Commander 3rd Brigade, Brigadier Scott Winter AM, 3rd Brigade’s RSM, Warrant Office Brent Doyle OAM, and Commanding Officer 3rd Combat Engineer Regiment, Lieutenant Colonel Jennifer Harris CSC. To the men and women of 3rd Brigade, thank you for your service. Thank you for your welcome here today, thank you for what you do for our country.

It’s important for me to come here today and make this presentation which I could have done to a lecture theatre down in the southern states or do it in Parliament House or somewhere like that but I thought it was important to come and make this presentation here today to the men and women who I will be asking and our Government will be asking to be part of the fulfilment of the plans that I am setting out today for our government and our nation.

It is great to be here at Lavarack Barracks.

Many Australian Prime Ministers have visited these Barracks and rightly so.

The first though was Harold Holt, who came to open them in 1966.

At the opening he let everyone in on a secret, that was the Army didn’t want the Barracks in Townsville.

They wanted the new barracks to be on the Mornington Peninsula in Victoria.

They wanted it to be close to the existing Defence infrastructure.

Apparently that was a cheaper exercise as well.

But Harold Holt had a very different view. He convinced the Cabinet to actually override the Army’s recommendation.

He said at the opening of these Barracks: “if this continent is to be held secure, if we are to develop its potentialities he said, then we must press on vigorously with northern development”.

And that argument still holds as fresh today, which is why I’m delighted to be back in Townsville -- backing Townsville, backing Lavarack.

And supporting our defence forces and on coming to office a little over five years ago, our Government committed to increasing the Defence budget to 2 per cent of Australia’s GDP within ten years of coming to office.  

We will achieve that in 2020-21, three years ahead of schedule.

That shows you the seriousness of our Government’s commitment to the capability of our defence forces and our serving men and women.

The long-term funding commitment is critical to executing the Government’s plans for Defence, and ensures that defence strategy, capability and resources are fully aligned.

Defence must have confidence in its funding so it can develop and implement long-term plans. Australian defence industry also needs funding certainty to confidently invest in the infrastructure, skills and capability so that it can play its part as a fundamental input to defence capability. They are part of the Defence team.

It's because of these long-term commitments that our Government can invest in programs like LAND 400 Phase 2, which I know is particularly popular up here, which will deliver 211 world-class Combat Reconnaissance Vehicles for the Australian Army.

These world-class vehicles will be manufactured and delivered by up to 1,450 Australian workers, using Australian steel, right here in Queensland.

But the beauty of our commitment to Defence capability is that these benefits actually flow right across the country.  The supply chain for these new vehicles will reach right across the country – with up to 40 companies expected to be involved.

Indeed right here in North Queensland, there are small to medium sized companies who will have the opportunity to secure work on this  $5.2 billion project.

Now of course, our Defence capability plans do not end there – from new frigates and patrol vessels, to the Joint Strike Fighter – all of these platforms draw on small and medium sized enterprises from right across the nation.  

And ladies and gentlemen I am here to day to honour the service of the men and women of these Barracks, your pledge to service our nation in times of war and peace is no idle one. 3rd Brigade has acted on that pledge. In Iraq and Afghanistan and your role in the Philippines is vitally important. This year 3rd Brigade has deployed 800 members in some eight countries. From engineering support to amphibious landing training and command and leadership mentoring. And much of your efforts are in your own neighbourhood.

That’s our defence industry plan in action – creating the world’s best capability while investing in Australian industrial capability and know-how and securing highly-skilled and paid Australian jobs across the nation.

Ladies and Gentlemen, I am here today to honour the service of the men and women of these Barracks. Your pledge to serve our nation, in times of war and peace, is no idle one.

3 Brigade has acted on that pledge – in Iraq and Afghanistan.  And your role in the Philippines is vitally important.

This year 3 Brigade has deployed 800 members in some eight countries.

From engineering support, to amphibious landing training and command and leadership mentoring - and much of your efforts are in our own neighbourhood, in your neighbourhood, the Pacific – a long way from the Mornington Peninsula! As lovely as the Mornington Peninsula is.

You have done tremendous work with two of our biggest military partners in our region, Papua New Guinea and Fiji.

Their forces can now take on bigger responsibilities, working hand in glove with the ADF towards regional stability and security. That would also build on the ADF’s tremendous humanitarian response work in the region.

Australia’s national security and that of the Pacific they are intertwined - as the 2017 Foreign Policy White Paper made clear, when it identified the Pacific as one of Australia’s highest foreign policy priorities.  

My Government, the Government that I have the privilege to lead is returning the Pacific to where it should be – front and centre of Australia’s strategic outlook, our foreign policy, our personal connections, including at the highest levels of government.

This is our patch. This is our part of the world. This is where we have special responsibilities. We always have, we always will. We have their back, and they have ours. We are more than partners by choice. We are connected as members of a Pacific family.

It’s why the first leaders I hosted in Australia as Prime Minister have been from Solomon Islands, Fiji and Papua New Guinea.

It’s time to open, I believe a new chapter in relations with our Pacific family.

One based on respect, equality and openness. A relationship for its own sake, because it’s right. Because it’s who we are.

Last week in Sydney, I set out the foundational beliefs and values that guide our Government’s engagement with the world and to ensure we remain a prosperous, secure and united nation.

In Queensland - our gateway to the Pacific - I want to outline in more detail our ‘step-up’ now in the Pacific and why we are taking our engagement to a new level. And I wanted to do it here in Lavarack because it is with you who are charged, along with all our servicemen and women to put our plan into action.

Australia has an abiding interest in the Southwest Pacific that is secure strategically, stable economically and sovereign politically.

This is not just our region, or our neighbourhood. This is our home.

It’s where Australia can make the biggest difference in world affairs.

A strong, stable region keeps us more secure and enables our economies to grow and for our peoples to prosper.

While we have natural advantages in terms of history, proximity and shared values, Australia cannot take its influence in the Southwest Pacific for granted. And sadly I think too often we have.

Notwithstanding we build from strong foundations our Government has refocused more of our aid contribution to the region.  We remain the largest aid donor to the Pacific. We maintain high standards of governance while aligning our assistance with the practical priorities of Pacific Island countries.

The Pacific Labour Scheme is a genuine win-win partnership.

It helps strengthen our economies.

It will give Australian farmers and businesses from aged care providers to tourism operators critical staff to run at full capacity, and gives Pacific workers the chance to earn higher incomes, gain skills and secure opportunities for their own families at home.

The Seasonal Worker Programme gives our fruit growers and crop farmers the workers they need at their busiest times of the year.

Since 2012, the Seasonal Worker Programme has provided an extra $144 million in income for families and villages in the Pacific and Timor-Leste. That’s life-changing for them, absolutely life changing and a massive help for our farmers as well.

Pacific labour mobility is one of the most important solutions for tackling workforce shortages, right now and into the future.

Australia is committed to building on those labour mobility opportunities for Pacific countries and ensuring that Pacific countries take priority.

Pacific labour to Australia is growing and we want to see this growth continue - so we are prioritising the expansion of Pacific labour mobility to help fill critical workforce shortages, where no Australian is available. And it is always our first priority to ensure that Australians are doing these jobs.

We will work closely with industry and Pacific governments to ensure the quality of both the Pacific Labour Scheme and its integrity and the Seasonal Worker Programme.  

There are some 1,500 Pacific island students studying at Australian universities on scholarships, gaining the knowledge and skills needed to create opportunities in their home countries.

They’re matched by nearly two-and-a-half-thousand young Australians who have studied in the Pacific since 2014 as part of the New Colombo Plan that was pioneered and initiated by the former Foreign Minister, Julie Bishop and I commend her for that initiative.

As well, thousands of young Pacific islanders have received vocational education through the Australia Pacific Training Coalition, giving them Australian-standard qualifications.

We’re working with PNG and the Solomon Islands to install a high-speed undersea internet cable so their people can take advantage of the digital era and the digital economy.

We’re moving towards ratifying the PACER-Plus regional trade agreement to open up new markets and opportunities for ourselves and our Pacific neighbours and partners.

It’s a very solid base, but of course, economic development relies on security and stability.

Under the “Boe” Pacific Regional Security Declaration, we and our Pacific partners have committed to work more closely to keep our countries safe, secure and more prosperous.

The Pacific Fusion Centre, announced at the Pacific Islands Forum, will build on existing security architecture, including the Pacific Transnational Crime Coordination Centre in Apia, and Forum Fisheries Agency Regional Fisheries Surveillance Centre in Honiara.  

We are also working to deliver national security and law enforcement training in the Pacific at the executive middle management level through an Australia Pacific Security College.

Under our Pacific Maritime Security Programme we are delivering bigger and more capable patrol boats and aerial surveillance, and sharing more information to tackle drug trafficking, people smuggling and illegal fishing in the Pacific which is robbing Pacific Islanders of their livelihoods.

With Fiji, it’s turning the Blackrock Peacekeeping Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief Camp into a regional hub for police and peacekeeping training and pre-deployment preparation.

With Solomon Islands, it’s a bilateral security agreement, building on the hard work of RAMSI.

With Vanuatu, it’s a boost to law enforcement assistance as we negotiate a new bilateral security agreement.

And last week, I signed an agreement with PNG Prime Minister Peter O’Neill to elevate our relationship with an annual leaders’ dialogue.

We’re cooperating to develop the PNG Defence Force’s Lombrum Naval Base which I’ve visited on many occasions on Manus Island to increase the inter-operability between our defence forces and our ability to tackle challenges like transnational crime.

It will mean more Australian ships can visit PNG. And after APEC in Port Moresby where I will be shortly, our police will continue the close relationship and cooperation they’ve built in the lead-up to that important meeting.

So the strategic architecture of our Pacific ‘step-up’ is taking shape, it’s in place. It is part of a larger vision of Australia as a force for good in the Pacific, working with others to ensure our region is secure, stable and sovereign.

We seek cooperation with others -- New Zealand, the United States, Japan, China, France and the UK all active in the region to ensure our engagement supports common goals.

Let me turn now to some of the other steps that I am announcing we are taking today, practical measures that we believe will make a difference.

The ADF already plays a pivotal role across a wide canvas, from traditional military engagement with counterparts, to humanitarian and disaster relief, to Operation Render Safe, where we assist in safely disposing of World War Two explosive remnants.

As part of our commitment to the Pacific, the ADF will play an even greater role, working with our partners on training, on capacity building, on exercises, on building interoperability to respond together to the security challenges we face.

To help achieve this, we will establish an enduring rotational ADF Pacific Mobile Training Team, which will be based in Australia, and will travel in the Pacific when invited to undertake training and engagement with other forces.

This will see ADF members like yourselves working more with regional partners in areas such as humanitarian and disaster response, peacekeeping, infantry skills, engineering and logistics and planning.  

The Government will also put in place arrangements to ensure that Australia has a dedicated vessel to deliver our support to our partners in the Pacific. Its duties will include humanitarian assistance and response.

The Royal Australian Navy will also undertake more deployments to the Pacific so that they can conduct maritime training exercises with our neighbours. This will enable them to take advantage of the new Guardian Class Patrol Boats we are gifting to them, to support regional security.

We are also strengthening our links with Pacific police forces.

A new Pacific facility at the Australian Institute of Police Management will help train the next generation of police leadership in the Pacific.

Australian and Pacific police have a long history of working closely together and the new Institute will bring together police leaders from across the Pacific for professional, leadership and executive development opportunities.

We will deepen our already strong people-to-people links with Pacific security forces.

We will establish annual meetings of defence and police and border security chiefs and deepen our collaborative efforts.  

We will establish a security alumni network to maintain connections and deepen relationships with the many emerging and senior police, and the civilian and military leaders who have participated in the Defence Cooperation Program over decades. Harvesting their experience learning from the experience, passing on the legacy of their experience.

We’re also expanding our diplomatic footprint.  Our diplomatic network is already larger than any other country in the Pacific as it should be and we are going to expand it.

Today I announce that we intend to open diplomatic missions in Palau, the Marshall Islands, French Polynesia, Niue and the Cook Islands.

This will mean Australia is represented in every member country of the Pacific Islands Forum.  

Of course, it’s not just about the number of diplomatic posts; it’s about the people we send there.  And those working on the Pacific at home.

The Foreign Minister and I have made it clear that we want our best and brightest, our young and experienced diplomats alike, working in and on the Pacific.

We must also deepen our commitment to economic engagement in a way that addresses the specific challenges of the Pacific.

The Pacific region is estimated to need US$3.1 billion in investment per year to 2030. So today I’m pleased to announce two major new initiatives that will help address the infrastructure needs of the Pacific region.

The first is the creation of an Australian Infrastructure Financing Facility for the Pacific (AIFFP).

This $2 billion infrastructure initiative will significantly boost Australia’s support for infrastructure development in Pacific countries and Timor Leste.

It will use grant funding combined with long term loans to support high priority infrastructure development.

This will also enable these projects to leverage broader support. It will invest in essential infrastructure such as telecommunications, energy, transport, water and will stretch our aid dollars even further.

The second major announcement I’m making today is the Government will ask Parliament to give Efic, Australia’s export financing agency, an extra $1 billion in callable capital and a new more flexible infrastructure financing power to support investments in the region which have broad national benefit for Australia. It’s in our interest that’s why we need to do it.

These new measures will enhance Efic’s ability to support Australian SMEs to be active in their region.  Working with the support and aid that we are putting into the region. Private capital, entrepreneurialism, open markets are crucial to our mutual prosperity. These are our beliefs, these are values, they are shared with the Pacific and we stand with those who share our beliefs and values.

It’s my genuine ambition for this work on infrastructure to be a bipartisan endeavour, as indeed should our wider engagement be in the Pacific.

This is something I hope we can achieve together, in our national interest and that of our neighbours.

Not long ago the former Foreign Minister, Julie Bishop, led her annual bipartisan delegation to the Pacific.

These visits built on the cross-party visits to the Pacific initiated by Alexander and I want to see more such delegations of politicians and journalists deepening ties with our neighbours.

Our personal ties extend deeply into rituals, pastimes and shared obsessions like sport. You all know that when you would have been up in the region, PNG in particular and other places.

Following the success of this year’s Prime Ministers Men’s and Women’s XIII games against their PNG counterparts which was a topic of discussion when I got in touch with Peter O’Neill recently when we played the Kumuls and the Orchids – a new sports programme will strengthen sporting pathways between the Pacific and Australia.

I’ve been speaking to Free-TV Australia and the commercial TV networks about how we get more of our Australian content into the region. Our pacific family switching on to the same stories, news, drama and sports we are watching at home. What better way of staying connected than through the people, the lifestyle and the every-day experiences we are lucky enough to enjoy.

That’s why I am pleased to announce that the Government will be working with our commercial media operators to ensure our friends in the Pacific have access to more quality Australian content on television  and other platforms.

This will include things like lifestyle programs, news, current affairs, children’s content, drama and sports potentially.

This is an initial step towards providing more Australian content that is highly valued by the Pacific community.

Just the other day, Prime Minister O’Neill reminded me that they have a holiday for Melbourne Cup Day as well.

And that it’s very hard to find anyone at work in Moresby the day after a State of Origin game.

These are small reminders of just how much we have in common and the heritage we share, the lives we share, the values we share.

You might ask how we’re going to pay for all of this. The answer is simple. We are doing it from within budget.

We have undertaken a rigorous prioritisation of our foreign policy and aid and defence and police strategies and plans to make the Pacific a priority.

Government is all about making choices, it’s about setting priorities, it’s about focussing on the things that you believe are most important and that’s what we have done as a Government. Not by running up a big bill but by making choices to make a priority of the Pacific, whether it’s in our aid program or elsewhere.

Nothing proves the strength of our people partnership more than the massive welcome the Duke and Duchess of Sussex received in Tonga and Fiji the other week just like they did in Dubbo and Sydney and Fraser Island.

But our connections go so far beyond our shared Commonwealth membership.

We support a fantastic Australian volunteers program, one that translates into thousands of stories of people changing lives.

I recently heard about a young bloke called Michael Nunan. Michael was a volunteer to Solomon Islands and spent two years as a pharmacist there.

He discovered that poor communication meant local health clinics couldn’t do simple things like let him know what supplies and medicines were that they needed, or whether they needed training.

So, with some support from DFAT’s Innovation Exchange, he developed an online tool that’s now being used in six countries to provide timely and reliable data about health clinics and medicine stocks.

His tool, that he called it “Tupaia” now Tupaia was on Captain Cook’s legendary voyages as they particularly went around New Zealand and when they first came to Australia, in a little part I know pretty well in Kurnell in Sydney. He named it after Tupaia because it’s all about communication, Tupaia was a translator or intended to be as he had served with the Polynesian peoples. And this has made a huge difference this translation tool, this communications tool to healthcare in small villages

Over the next five years, another 5000 people like Michael will volunteer in 26 different countries, and the difference they make will be life changing and it will be immeasurable.

Let me tell you about the community in Mundubbera in Queensland.  After Cyclone Gita hit Tonga earlier this year, the local community stepped up to send help.

It was a sign of the same community spirit that prompted Tongan seasonal workers to be among the first to help evacuate people and property when the Burnett River flooded in 2013 and a third of the town was underwater.

The local deputy mayor has recently visited Tonga to donate relief supplies. What goes around is coming around. We’ve got their back, they’ve got ours.

These stories are happening right across Australia and in the Pacific. It’s about who we are and what we do.  

It’s what I meant when I talk about family. Whanau as they call it in Polynesian and Maori. They are the real ties that bind us.  On sports fields and in churches, in schools and universities and between our defence and our police forces.

So in conclusion let me say this for all these great stories of human connection, our relationships with our Pacific friends need to be nurtured and valued.

And if our standing and influence in the Pacific is to grow, our commitment must be genuine, authentic and enduring.

The world is changing, it’s true and we need to ensure that our Pacific partnerships get stronger with time, that we never take them for granted, that we are a reliable and steady member of the family.

I want to see a new level of respect, familiarity and appreciation between us.  Where our shared interests sit alongside shared values.

That’s not to say we will always agree.  But that’s not the true test of friendship or family. Tell me a family that always agrees.

The real test is showing respect, love, commitment, and knowing that together we can make our region and all of our communities even stronger.

Let me say my final words to 3 Brigade.

I want to thank you for two things, well three you’ve been standing for a little while, thank you.

But on two things, you are known throughout the ADF and government for the way you look after each other when wounded.

Please keep doing what you are doing.  “Mates helping mates”. That’s what it means to be Australian. And one of our core values of the Defence Forces and Australian Army.

Second, for most of Australia, summer-time is the time to kickback – cicadas, cricket, the beach – long days, relaxing nights, good times. Times to remember, times that matter.

But it’s wet season up here again, and you are always ready for the people of North Queensland in particular. You were the backbone of the clean-up after Cyclone Debbie.  I want to thank you for the sacrifices you make and always being at the ready to help your fellow Australians and to go where ever your need is required, where your service is required.

It’s been an honour to be amongst you once again here today. It is one of the great privileges of being a Prime Minister to be able to thank Australian Service Men and Women whether it’s here at 3rd Brigade or anywhere else around this country or anywhere around the world for their tremendous service. We deeply respect it, we deeply thank you for it and we thank your families and friends for the sacrifices they make to enable you to serve and do the job that you love. It’s an honour to be with you here today you are part of a noble tradition -- here at the Barracks, in the Pacific and beyond.

Thank you for your service.

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https://pmtranscripts.pmc.gov.au/release/transcript-41938

Keynote Address, Asia Briefing Live - "The Beliefs that Guide Us"

1 November 2018

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Thank you Doug Ferguson, Chairman of the Asia Society Australia, and to the CEO Philipp Ivanov for the invitation to be here today.

I also want to acknowledge your event partner Bloomberg for this very timely Asia briefing in advance of Summit Season.  And, of course, my friend and colleague, the Foreign Minister Marise Payne.

Since its foundation more than 20 years ago, the Asia Society Australia has provided a unique forum for bringing together those with a keen interest in Australia’s engagement with Asia.

Today, as I head into my first annual Summit season as Prime Minister, I would like to share with you some perspectives on my approach to Australia’s engagement with our region and more broadly.

Our foreign policy defines what we believe about the world and our place in it.

It must speak of our character, our values.  What we stand for. What we believe in and, if need be, what we’ll defend. This is what guides our national interest.

I fear foreign policy these days is too often being assessed through a narrow transactional lens.

Taking an overly transactional approach to foreign policy and how we define our national interests sells us short.

If we allow such an approach to compromise our beliefs, we let ourselves down, and we stop speaking with an Australian voice.

We are more than the sum of our deals. We are better than that.

So what are the beliefs that guide our interests?

We believe that the path to peace and liberty demands the pursuit of prosperity through private capital, rights to own property, entrepreneurialism and free and open markets. That is what lifts people out of poverty.

We believe that acceptance should not be determined by race or religion. Rather, we accept people by their words and judge them by their actions.

We believe in freedom of speech, thought, association and religion.

We believe in peaceful liberal democracy; the rule of law; separation of powers; racial and gender equality where every citizen has choice and opportunity to follow their own paths and dreams.

A fair go for those who have a go - that is what fairness means in Australia.

We believe in the limits of government – because free peoples are the best foundation to show mutual respect to all.

We believe in standing by our mates, side by side with nations that believe the same things we do.

From the United Kingdom and the democracies of Europe to the United States and Canada. From the state of Israel to the city state of Singapore. From Japan and South Korea in North Asia to New Zealand, across the ditch.

We believe in being good neighbours – regardless of whether there are differences in how we see the world and run our respective societies.

We also believe this should be a two way street. We respect their sovereignty and their right to run their own show.

We simply ask for no more than the same in return. That our views and beliefs -- the decisions we make, the questions we ask and how we go about answering those questions and making those decisions -- is also respected.

When we do this, we can come together and engage on our common interests for the mutual benefit of our peoples, regardless of any other differences.

What we advocate for our region and the world are the same things that drive us at home.

I’ve been very clear about my domestic priorities— keeping our economy strong, keeping Australians safe, and keeping us together.

Prosperity, security and unity.

Our international agenda is built on these strong domestic foundations and were reflected in the key themes of the Foreign Policy White Paper released last year.

The tide of history is moving to our doorstep.

But we can’t pretend this tide of change happens seamlessly or smoothly.

As economic power shifts, it’s unsurprising that nations will seek to play a bigger strategic role in our region.

China, in particular, is exercising unprecedented influence in the Indo-Pacific.

At the same time, many of our partners globally -- from our most important partner and ally the United States, to others in Europe and elsewhere -- are debating the value of free trade and worry about the costs and risks of their global commitments. 

We cannot wish away these debates and challenges. 

Their political impacts are profound.

Australia is committed to ensuring the peaceful evolution of our own region in these times. It will take the right combination of both pragmatism and principle, always playing to our strengths.

Australia’s economy is growing, our country is confident, our budget position is getting stronger and stronger.

Our continued success depends on being open to trade and investment. We don’t get rich selling things to ourselves. 

Just as we need capital and other inputs to build our economy, we need open markets and transparent rules.

Trade accounts for 1 in 5 Australian jobs, and employs over 2.2 million people.  

We have skills and resources in abundance that the rest of the world wants. And we are a reliable partner.

Open markets for services give Australian consumers increased choice and provides businesses with access to a wider range of skills and expertise.

It’s estimated that annual incomes for the average Australian family are now $8,500 higher thanks to thirty years of trade liberalisation.

Also, Asia’s unprecedented growth over the past three decades has, as the Asia Society knows, transformed not just Asia, but the world at large.

There are now one billion fewer people living in extreme poverty than there were in 1990 and much of that is due to growth in our region.

That prosperity has been built on a web of institutions and rules that has supported economic openness and curbed beggar-thy-neighbour trade barriers.

The World Trade Organization has long been at the heart of this system.  Its rules limit arbitrary trade restrictions and the use of unilateral trade measures so we can trade with confidence.

Now no system is perfect and we acknowledge that frustrations have been growing with the WTO’s rule-making, transparency and disputes functions. 

Many members have legitimate concerns about the impact of policies such as industrial subsidies, which lead to overproduction. 

Australia has been calling out similar practices for decades in relation to agriculture. 

Equally, there are valid concerns about the protection of intellectual property and the rules governing the involvement of government entities in markets. 

In responding our best tool is the negotiating table – not increased tariffs.

We will support efforts to improve and strengthen the WTO, recognising some of the legitimate frustrations of the United States and other countries. 

We will also persist with a pragmatic trade agenda pursuing trade liberalisation wherever possible.   

Nothing demonstrates that more clearly than the TPP 11 which Australia ratified just yesterday.

With six countries now on board, the Agreement will kick-in this year and Australia will get immediate tariff cuts from 30 December.

This agreement will give our businesses and farmers greater access to half a billion more customers.

Across the board, we are pursuing trade opportunities wherever we can. 

Looking forward, we have a significant FTA agenda, including our Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement with Indonesia, and advancing negotiations on the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership with ASEAN and other key regional economies, with the EU and, post-Brexit, with the UK.

This agenda is built on a record of achievement, including the three free trade agreements our government signed with China, Japan and Korea that continue to deliver huge gains for our companies.

We are also looking to the long term. In particular, we want to enhance our partnership with India.

The foundations are already strong – we share values, a commitment to democratic institutions, enormous goodwill and strong relationships between our people. And we share a common strategic outlook.

The time is right to step up our efforts.

We welcome the India Economic Strategy to 2035 authored by the former High Commissioner to India and head of DFAT, Peter Varghese.

It’s the first step towards a long-term investment that cements India in the front rank of Australia’s partnerships. I will have more to say about this when the President of India visits Australia in a few weeks’ time.

Economic security alone is not enough. Prosperity requires security.

Security is a common endeavour with a common dividend.

At forthcoming meetings, I will be advancing our work with others to tackle terrorism and violent extremism, cyber-crime, people smuggling and nuclear proliferation.

I will discuss how, even as the prospect of peace on the Korean peninsula appears to be improving, we need to maintain maximum pressure on the DPRK to ensure the complete, verifiable and irreversible denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula.

I will reiterate Australia’s enduring interest in ensuring that freedom of navigation and overflight are respected by all states, large and small.

In all of these matters, the United States remains vital to the sort of region we want to see.

The alliance with the United States is a choice we make about how best to pursue our security interests.

And US economic engagement is as essential to regional stability and prosperity as its security capabilities and network of alliances.

Australia also has a vitally important relationship with China.

Trade, tourism and educational exchanges are at record highs. 

Australia values and honours these tens of thousands of daily interactions between our peoples.

We are committed to deepening our Comprehensive Strategic Partnership with China, and I look forward to discussing how we do that with China’s leaders later this month.

Of course, China is not alone in being a force of change in our world.

But China is the country that is most changing the balance of power, sometimes in ways that challenge important US interests. 

Inevitably, in the period ahead, we will be navigating a higher degree of US-China strategic competition.

A strong America — centrally engaged in the affairs of our region — is critical to Australia’s national interests.

Australia does not seek a free ride when it comes to regional security and prosperity.

We support the strongest possible US political, security and economic engagement in the Indo-Pacific in tangible ways, including by lifting our defence spending.

At the same time, it is important that US-China relations do not become defined by confrontation.

There must remain room for dialogue and cooperation.

The period ahead will, at times, be testing but I am confident of our ability to navigate it. And once again our values and beliefs will guide us.

Australia has always sought to be a citizen that plays its part in the world.

This has been particularly true in the Middle East.

From the Great War a century ago to Iraq and Afghanistan more recently. We have turned up, we have played our part, we have done our share and we have paid the price through great sacrifices.

We have done this because we believe it is right. Being true to our values and principles is always be in our interest.

Our support for Israel and our passionate desire for the success of a two state solution in the Middle East is based on these same beliefs and our desire for a lasting peace, and will continue to drive policy in this area.

Closer to home, Australia will continue to deepen cooperation with Japan, Indonesia, India and the Republic of Korea to help forge a balance in our region that supports openness and ensures the rights of all states are protected.

I look forward to warmly welcoming Japanese Prime Minister Abe to Australia soon.

The strength of our relationships with these democracies will advance our interests however the regional order evolves in the future.

It was no accident that my first international visit as Prime Minister was to Jakarta. It has become an Australian Prime Ministerial tradition.

Australia has a vital partnership with Indonesia. Indonesia is one of democracy’s greatest success stories in recent times, in my own lifetime.

It is a relationship compelled by geography, but nurtured by mutual respect, both in understanding of our differences and appreciating common goals, interests and values.

I look forward to meeting President Widodo again soon to extend our achievements in the relationship to date.

ASEAN has played a critical role in supporting regional stability and prosperity, and is at the centre of regional architecture.

Australia’s vision of the Indo-Pacific has ASEAN at its heart.

ASEAN’s success is fundamental to the interests of all the main players in the Indo-Pacific, including Australia.

Australia’s commitment to ASEAN was made clear at the Special Summit in March this year and through the Sydney Declaration which set out an ambitious agenda to deepen our cooperation.

I will be advancing that agenda at an informal summit with ASEAN leaders soon, in areas such as counter-terrorism, infrastructure and maritime cooperation.

And I will be discussing opportunities to work more closely together on transnational crime, to scale up oc-operation on cyber issues and to strengthen our defence engagement.

Just as important as the stability, prosperity and openness of Southeast Asia, is our engagement with our neighbours and family in the Pacific.

As family, we deal with each other openly and honestly, and above all with respect.

But like all families we sometimes take each other for granted.

The Government I lead is committed to the Pacific as one of my highest foreign policy priorities, because this is where we live.

This is a relationship that I want to see rise to a new level of respect, partnership, familiarity and appreciation.

I want us to do better.  I want to set right how we engage with our Pacific family - our Vuvale, our Whanau. I will not be taking our Pacific family for granted.

My first meetings with foreign leaders in Australia were with the Prime Ministers of Solomon Islands and Fiji and this afternoon I’ll meet Papua New Guinea’s Prime Minister O’Neill.

I’m also looking forward to meeting my Pacific counterparts after APEC in Port Moresby. APEC will be a great opportunity for our closest neighbour to tell its story to the world.

We’ll work more closely than ever with the Pacific islands on those issues of greatest concern to them - including climate solutions and disaster resilience, and we will keep the international commitments we have made in these areas.

We are building labour mobility opportunities for Pacific countries to Australia, and ensuring Pacific countries will always take precedence.

We’re providing Australia Award scholarships to the Pacific - 1,474 last year alone.

We’re majority funding undersea cables to Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands, including a domestic network in the Solomons - which will deliver faster, cheaper and more reliable communications.

And we want to continue working with others - traditional partners like New Zealand and the United States, as well as newer ones such as China - to ensure our engagement strengthens the common goal of enhancing sustainable economic development and the wellbeing of our Pacific friends.

I want to strengthen our engagement with the Pacific for the Pacific’s sake. Because this is our home.

We will build on the ‘Boe” Pacific Regional Security Declaration to drive greater security co-operation, build greater economic linkages and strengthen the integration of our economies.

We are also working together to increase safety and security -- delivering bigger and more capable patrol boats and aerial surveillance, and sharing more information, to help the Pacific stop drug trafficking, people smuggling and illegal fishing.

And the new Australia Pacific Security College will train the next generation of security officials.

We have negotiated a Bilateral Security Agreement with Solomon Islands and we are working with Fiji to develop the Blackrock regional peacekeeping and disaster training hub.

As well, we will take take steps with Vanuatu to further strengthen our partnership, including on security.

And later this afternoon, my friend and partner, Prime Minister Peter O’Neill of Papua New Guinea and I will formally commit to a joint initiative to develop the Lombrum base on Manus.

We will also confirm a new long-term police partnership.

And commit to new annual leaders meetings, recognising the importance of each country to the other.

Like all families we are strongest when we listen to each other, stand with each other and show respect.

At a time of change, uncertainty and strategic competition, Australia will need to act with even greater purpose and conviction.

We also need to think about how our national power can be applied to protect and advance our interests.

This begins with our substantial investments in building a more capable, agile and potent Australian Defence Force.

Over the past five years, our government has been strengthening the Australian Defence Force.

Our Defence White Paper is fully funded and outlines how we will invest $200 billion in Australia’s Defence capability over the next 10 years.

Since our election in 2013 our Government committed to and has set about restoring our defence spending to 2% of GDP.  We will achieve this three years ahead of time, in 2020-21.

It hasn’t been easy.

While reluctant to strike a partisan note in this presentation it must be observed that while the Labor Opposition now say they support these goals, when they had the responsibility, defence spending as a share of our economy fell to the lowest level since prior to the Second World War, with not one naval ship commissioned during their term of administration

We are now undertaking the largest regeneration of the Royal Australian Navy since the Second World War, including the doubling of our future submarine fleet, a new fleet of nine frigates and a new fleet of 12 offshore patrol vessels to ensure our borders remain secure.

The F-35 Joint Strike Fighter program will give the Air Force unprecedented air capability to combat future threats.

And the Army is being backed in with new Armoured Reconnaissance Vehicles and new weapons as well as new body armour and night fighting equipment.

All of this is being done because the best way to keep Australians safe is to give the best capability to the men and women of our ADF.

Our influence internationally is built on our strength at home.

On our democracy and open society that binds us together.

On our belief in freedom and the fair go.

And it’s built on a strong economy that enables us to fulfil our promise to the Australian people.

I go to “summit season” - to the East Asia Summit in Singapore, to APEC in Papua New Guinea and to the G20 in Argentina - clear-eyed about what we believe, what we stand for and ready to advance Australia’s case.

While we live on an island — the best one on earth — we can’t afford to have an island mentality.

We embrace free trade, global engagement, and an international system where we agree to rules, stick to them and honour our commitments.

We embrace an open, stable and prosperous Indo-Pacific region.

Because shrinking into ourselves will never work.

If we want to keep our economy strong, if we want to keep Australians safe and if we want to stay united as a community we must engage with the world.

And seize the opportunities presented with both hands based on the beliefs and values that have always underpinned our success.

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https://pmtranscripts.pmc.gov.au/release/transcript-41913

Address, Australian War Memorial Masterplan Redevelopment

1 November 2018

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Thank you very much Mel. It’s great to have you here at this very moving event and I thank Tina for the welcome to country. Can I acknowledge the Ngunnawal people and the land on which we meet, elders past and present. There are many other distinguished guests here today but the most distinguished of all guests who are here today are our service men and women. They are our veterans and we remember those veterans and those service men and women who are not here with us today, who have left us. Who have left us on the field of battle or have left us since. The families and friends, the mates, with whom they lived their lives and shared their stories, that is who we remember today.

The Australian War Memorial, the soul of the nation. That is what is housed within its stone and brass walls. It is sacred to us all. It transcends politics, it transcends all of us. As you have heard, people are very passionate about the memorial. Its past and, importantly, its future. As in the future we look to ensure that the stories of an entire new generation of service are told and remembered for future generations. Because, sadly, there will be future generations of service as well. That means the War Memorial can never be a static institution. Even before the foundation stone was laid, the Memorial was already evolving because the Australian story of service and sacrifice has always been evolving. On Armistice Day 1941, the Memorial opened here in Canberra 23 years after the Armistice was signed and another unthinkable war raged. The Memorial had been a long time coming - collecting, designing, waiting. On Anzac Day twelve years earlier, an inauguration stone had been unveiled on a bare paddock, an attempt by the Memorial's then first director, John Treloar, to keep it at the front of people's minds.

But on that day in 1941, finally thousands of people gathered before the new stone-faced building. It stood out, as it does today, not for its size but its simplicity, its restraint, its humility. It was not a tribute to war or a nation's power or strength. It was a simple, humble memorial to the fallen and a home for their memory. A touch point for a nation still coming to terms with the scope and scale and horror of the Great War. But at the same time a nation already thrust into what they called ‘the new war’ at that time, whose greatest tests and horrors were still ahead. It honoured sacrifice and courage. It celebrated endurance and mateship. It recorded great dealings. The Memorial stood as intended directly opposite Australia's home of democracy, a constant reminder to us elected representatives of the cost of our freedoms.

The symbolism was not lost on the then Prime Minister John Curtin who had been in the job just 35 days. Speaking to those assembled he said, “The Parliament of a free people deliberating day by day cannot be inspired and strengthened by the ever present opportunity to contemplate the story that has gone before.” Four weeks later John Curtain would draw on that inspiration and strength as the Japanese launched attacks on Pearl Harbour, soon followed by assaults on Malaya, Singapore and the Philippines. And all those gathered there on the 11th of November 1941 would draw further strength and inspiration inside the Memorial's bronze gates. Inside they learnt the story of the Great War. Charles Bean, the official war historian, was a driving force behind the memorial and understood that many Australians struggle to fully grasp the war. They knew its cost, they were reminded daily by missing husbands, sons and brothers. Dads, mums, the more than 60,000 men who had served and died. But unlike many Europeans whose homeland had in ravaged, who had seen the pain and heard the suffering and could mourn at the graves of their beloved, Australians who had served were a world away. Parents would mourn sons, children would mourn lost fathers but where were they to mourn? They needed help to grief and they needed to know the nation would never forget and so that was what Memorial offered. A place to grief, a place of memory and a place of honour.

It became a pilgrimage to many Australian families. In the first year more than 52,000 people visited. In those days it took quite a bit of time, days, to travel to Canberra. They looked at paintings and drawings, about 1,600 in all. They were transported by the artworks like George Lambert’s Anzac, the landing 1915 and Will Longstaff’s Menin Gate at midnight. They were moved by the 12 dioramas depicting famous battles. They were confronted with two German fighter planes in the aeroplane hall. And in the library they went in search - 15,000 books, 100,000 photographs, 60 miles of war films and millions of other documents. The Memorial performed its role well. Its purpose and role would change with time. It could not, as had been planned for decades, be just a monument to the Great War. It would have to change and expand to accommodate our nation's evolving history in war and, as regrettable as that is, how people learn from our history. It began almost immediately after the Second World War. The Memorial’s collection almost doubled. Packing cases full of records and relics blocked the corridors and extension plans were drawn up.

By the 1960s many veterans were asking the Memorial to tell the complete story of Australia's war history. So new displays were created and major building extensions began. Extensions that were obsolete within seven years as visitors numbers grew even further. So more plans were made, more space was needed and so it went on. We’ve now reached another point where change is needed. There are more than 102,000 names on the Memorial's roll of honour. The names of Australians, men and women, who were called into action to defend their nation, who left their homes and jobs and families behind. Australians who were loved and remain loved, Australians we have lost. It almost goes without saying that in the years to come, my prayers and those of a nation are that there will be no additions to that roll. That the Memorial, if we could just freeze it, and it was in the past, but I fear those prayers will one day again turn to prayers for consolation and comfort as we seek to reconcile our service with future sacrifices. History may seem to be against us on this, but we will do our best because the first responsibility of governments is to keep our people safe.

Today, there are many stories that need telling, recent stories, like the conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq, the peacekeeping missions that we've heard the wonderful stories and terrible stories of today. And there's a need to tell them, the sacrifice of a new generation in ways to the almost 1.1 million people who visit the memorial each year, to share the complete story, the complete story, in a way that resonates for today's Australians. And that's why we're here. The Memorial has been exploring, with support from our Government, with options for redevelopment. And Brendan I know is going to talk a lot more about those in a few moments. But what I will say is that these plans are imaginative and they are creative and appropriate for the Memorial's purpose and place in Australia, housing the soul of our nation. That's why our Government is supportive of these plans. We want future generations to be able to honour those who have served across all generations of service. And those service men and women who serve today.

So today I am pleased to announce the Government is backing these plans, providing $498 million over the next nine years to see these plans fulfilled.

[Applause]

Thank you. The funding will allow the Memorial to implement these plans and not be limited in its ambition. There will be paintings and dioramas, there will be planes - more planes, in fact. But what has made the Memorial so compelling and so meaningful over the years will remain. But it will also, as it always has, adjust to new times so it can continue delivering as a place of commemoration and understanding as the soul of the nation.

Before I conclude, and I ask for your indulgence, I want to say plainly though, that more than memorials of stone, the best memorial is how we serve and support our veterans and their families who are with us each and every day. Before we could permit as a Government the significant financial commitment that we are making today, because Kerry and Brendan have been bringing this proposal to us now for several years, and we have supported them through the early stages. Before we could make this commitment today, our Government's priority has been increasing our investment in the support we provide to our veterans community. To honestly turn around and address areas of underperformance for our veterans, and live up to our part of the bargain to support our veterans. You'll be aware of the investment and the indexing of defence pensions, you'll be aware of the counselling support 24/7 for veterans and their families, almost $200 million invested every year. $100 million invested every year in covering mental health and conditions, meaning that any member or former member of the ADF who was served just one day is eligible for mental health treatment uncapped and needs driven. And a massive investment in the 100-year-old DVA, throwing out a paper based system, and punting 18 clunky old computer systems, the result being the average processing time for claims has now fallen from 120 days to just 33. This year, the government is providing, with bipartisan support of course, over $11 billion in benefits, services and support to our 288,000 veterans and their families.

But there will always be more to do. I want to assure all veterans, all veterans, that not one dollar, not one cent, of what we're investing in this important memorial today is coming at the expense of support for our veterans here and now and into the future. That remains our priority task. I commend the War Memorial, Brendan, Kerry, and the whole team, on what they have put forward here. It is part of honouring and maintaining the wonderful culture of respect we have in this country for our servicemen and women. Born over generations, over the century. We must continue that, we must continue to honour the fallen and we must continue to serve the living. Lest we forget.

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https://pmtranscripts.pmc.gov.au/release/transcript-41912