Speeches
Address, Welcome to Country Ceremony
2 July 2019
PRIME MINISTER: Our Parliament meets on Ngunnawal land.
Here, 65,000 thousand years of Aboriginal culture meets mere centuries of Westminster tradition, which the Leader of the Opposition and I represent, being here together and I acknowledge Anthony as I do all of my Parliamentary colleagues, the Deputy Prime Minister who joins us here today.
We gather in respect – acknowledging the Ngunnawal elders, the ancient ceremony of fire and smoke that will commence shortly has become part of the tradition of this building, and thankfully so.
It was just over a decade ago that the first ever smoking ceremony accompanied the opening of Parliament, and I thank the Speaker and the President of the Senate for their continuing support of this as it shall always be in this place.
We couldn’t imagine this day without this ceremony. And nor should we.
It is appropriate that at the entrance of our parliament, just beyond the Great Verandah is the beautiful mosaic on the forecourt.
Michael Nelson Jagamara’s Possum and Wallaby Dreaming.
Brush tail possums.
Red kangaroos.
Rock Wallabies and more – Jagamara's Dreaming ancestors all gathering for an important ceremony.
Stirring in its subtlety.
As the artist said himself, the 90,000 hand-guillotined granite pieces present, and represent a place ‘where all people come and meet together, just like we do in our ceremonies to discuss and work things out together’.
And that captures the work, the job of this place: to ‘work things out together’.
In my maiden speech to Parliament, I said that ‘a strong country is at peace with its past’. This is a work in progress.
Being at peace with our past, being at one with our past.
While we reflect on how far we have to go, consider though how far we’ve come.
This year, my Government appointed Ken Wyatt as the first ever Aboriginal person to hold the position of Minister for Indigenous Australians - and as a member of Cabinet and I welcome him here this morning.
And I’m pleased, as I know the Leader of the Opposition is, that he is joined in the Parliament by the Member for Barton, Linda Burney, and Senators Patrick Dodson; Malarndirri McCarthy and Jacqui Lambie. But together, between Linda and Ken, I think Anthony and I are both very optimistic about the partnership that can be forged.
Indigenous important voices that I’m confident will be joined by many, many more in the years to come.
It was a different story at the official opening of what we now call the Old Parliament House back in 1927.
Not a single First Australian was invited to celebrate.
However that didn’t stop two men.
Jimmy Clements – better known as King Billy – and John Noble.
They left their home at Brungle Mission near Gundagai and began a long walk to Canberra.
They trudged over the mountains.
Until they arrived in the nation’s capital.
The 80 year old King Billy stood firm in front of the new Parliament and protested ‘his sovereign rights to the Federal Territory’.
The police ordered him to move on – fearing his shabby clothes and the dogs at his bare feet would offend the sensibilities of the Duke and Duchess of York who were in attendance.
An incredible thing happened.
The crowd, Australians, took King Billy’s side.
They called on him to stand his ground. He did.
A clergyman declared that he ‘had a better right than any man present’ to be there, and that was true.
King Billy won that fight.
And the next day, he was among those citizens officially presented to the Duke and Duchess.
His long walk to Canberra paid off.
Almost eight decades later, footballing great Michael Long would also begin a long walk to Canberra – and would famously meet with the then Prime Minister John Howard to discuss issues facing Indigenous communities.
As Michael’s wife Leslie put it so well ‘when one person starts walking, someone will walk next to them…and they’ll say ‘I believe in that too - I’ll walk with you.’
So here we are. Walking together.
All Australians, Indigenous or not, walking together side by side.
Towards reconciliation.
Towards equal opportunities.
Towards Closing the Gap once and for all.
Walking in the same way a determined, steely eyed, 80 year old Wiradjuri man walked to Canberra almost a century ago.
We have a long way to go. We know. But we will walk that journey together.
Address, Last Post Ceremony
1 July 2019
PRIME MINISTER: I extend a warm welcome to everyone who has joined us here this evening. In particular, can I acknowledge the traditional owners, the Ngunnawal people, their elders past, present and emerging.
Can I also acknowledge any servicemen and women who are here with us today, indeed any veterans, and simply say on behalf of a grateful nation - thank you for your service.
In this place, our national War Memorial, the 102,000 men and women who have given their lives in the service of our country, call us to live and believe in the future of our nation.
Our inheritance is the result of their sacrifice, and our freedom is the result of their selflessness.
At this Last Post today, Members and Senators from the new Parliament, together with the public, gather to remember.
In this hallowed place there is no Liberal, National, Labor, Green or party affiliation.
The only word that matters is one that unites us all: Australian.
The only cause that we share today is Australia.
We gather and we draw strength from the men and women whose names adorn the cloisters above.
We are a country of memory, and it is right that every day this memorial reminds us of the stories of those who have gone before us.
Today we’ll hear the story of Private Lloyd Sylvester Sibraa of the 1st Independent Company.
One of over a thousand Australians that would perish aboard the Japanese prison ship Montevideo Maru.
Today marks 77 years to the day since this worst maritime loss in our nation’s history.
A thousand Australians lost, among the 40,000 who would give their lives during the Second World War.
Thousands of Australian prisoners of war were held on ships like the Montevideo Maru.
The ‘hell-ships’ as they were known.
Sickness and disease aboard these vessels were rife.
People locked in holds with little food, water or sanitation.
A thousand prisoners could be crammed into spaces meant for mere hundreds.
All the while at constant risk of being attacked by submarines – for these vessels looked no different than any other Japanese commercial vessel.
Eighteen hundred Australians would perish aboard these ‘hell-ships’.
Yet these names fell out of memory.
The Montevideo Maru.
The Harugiku Maru.
The Rakuyo Maru.
And the Tamahoko Maru. A ‘hell-ship’ that was sunk and whose survivors were transported to Nagasaki.
Last week marked 75 years since the Tamohoko Maru was sunk – with 190 Australian Prisoners of War lost.
None of those Australians lost on the hell-ships had burial places – and so this Memorial is where they will be forever remembered.
This is where families have honoured the memory of their own: touching the wall, kissing it, or leaving a poppy.
And we remember those who remained and who were forever changed.
Behind every name that surrounds us is a family, an Australian family, proud of their loved one’s service, but never quite the same.
There were mothers like Mary Keid.
When collectors came to the door and ask for donations to help build a local war memorial, she replied ‘Sorry, not me. I already gave four sons’.
She would raise her grandson Les.
Les died aboard Montevideo Maru.
And widows like Katherine Russell. Her seven sons signed up in the Second World War.
Two of them, Andrew and Charles, were on the Tamahoko Maru.
Charles drowned when it sunk.
Andrew was rescued after 11 hours in the water and delivered to a PoW camp in Nagasaki, where he died from its cruelties months later.
Their younger sister Dorothy would keep their photos by her bedside till the end of her days.
We also remember Mark and Jesse Turner who lost three sons Sid, Dudley and Daryl on the Montevideo Maru.
Sid and Dudley Turner were especially protective of their younger brother Daryl.
He was just 17.
They enlisted together and they were all selected for the 1st Independent Company.
They kept their promise, to stay together and watch over young Daryl.
Until they all perished together.
Their father Mark Turner withdrew from society.
And their mother Jesse would wear her government-issued silver badge with three stars – one for every son killed – until the day she passed away.
These are the casualties of war we don’t see.
These stories are not just relics of the past.
They live with us, as they should, today.
As long as there is Australia – and that will be forever – our people will never forget the sacrifice of those who served in our name to establish it.
And as long as we are a free nation, the men and women of our Parliament will come here to draw strength, as we do this evening, from those who served.
Lest we forget.
Remarks, Governor-General Reception
1 July 2019
PRIME MINISTER: Can I start by thanking you, Tina, for your very warm welcome to country. Can I acknowledge also the Ngunnawal people, elders past, present, and those who are emerging.
Can I also acknowledge any servicemen and women who are here with us today and any veterans who are also here with us today and simply say to you, “Thank you for your service.”
To the members of the Diplomatic Corps who join us, your Excellencies, Parliamentary colleagues, and particularly His Excellency David Hurley and Mrs Hurley.
When Sir Paul Hasluck became Governor-General fifty years ago, he noticed that the school children who came to visit Government House and wrote him letters asked him a very consistent question, and they would say, “What does the Governor-General do?”
It's something that we know as Parliamentarians that school children ask similar questions when we meet them here in the building.
And it's an important question. There's an important answer.
Because the answer is central to the stability of our system of democratic government. The Office of Governor-General has provided the stability in spite of politics for more than a century.
But the role goes beyond constitutional, as His Excellency indicated today in his own remarks.
Years later, Sir Zelman Cowen answered that question when he said. “The Governor-General interprets the nation to itself.”
And His Excellency I think has started in such excellent fashion today in putting that very much at the forefront of his term.
The Governor-General finds the good in this country and shines a light on it.
In a global age of fragmentation and tribalism, we have in our system a constitutional office beyond politics that enables us all to come together.
The joy of this role is who you meet every single day.
Farmers getting on with their lives, providing for their families and their communities despite crippling drought.
Veterans recovering from their wounds that are seen and unseen.
Teachers who work back late to give kids the best possible start in life.
Those who care for our local environment and their communities, planting trees, picking up rubbish, keeping faith with our stewardship of the land.
Researchers making the breakthroughs that not only we need as Australians, but the world needs.
Brave heroes who will tell you they are not heroes.
Selfless community workers who can't see their selflessness.
And to all those people enduring the moments and tragedy and triumph, they embody all of us.
Our Governor-General - not just on tarmacs, or daises such as this, or platforms, but in classrooms, hospital wards and on drought-stricken farms.
More than any role in public life, the job of Governor-General is to bring Australians together, to remind us all of our social fabric, to uplift the discouraged and to give hope.
To do that, you need to be a person of extraordinary character and in our retiring Governor-General and Lady Cosgrove, we had two such people. And with His Excellency today and also with Mrs Hurley, we have been able to find two such people.
Real character that can only be found from a lifetime of service.
In this Governor-General, we have such a person. A Distinguished Cross holder. Your Excellency, you have served, so like so many.
You led with distinction as an officer in the Australian Army, especially in Somalia, where your command of a battalion group in a foreign conflict was a first for the army since Vietnam.
All up, more than four decades of such service, culminating in your appointment as Chief of the Defence Force.
Later, as Governor of New South Wales, and I'm particularly pleased that we're joined today by the Premier of New South Wales, Gladys Berejiklian, and also the Premier of South Australia, Steven Marshall is also here, and I acknowledge you also Steven.
In that role you were determined to get out of the city and meet people in small towns and regions right across the state.
Long after your duty was done, you stayed, you listened, you broke bread, and you connected with people - and Mrs Hurley, usually for much longer after that.
Because real connection with people matter to you, because people matter to you both.
You regularly jumped in the boxing ring with young Indigenous people in Redfern.
And at first they simply knew you as Dave. After your cover was blown, you were bestowed with a slightly more formal title - Gov.
You have shown yourself to be generous, approachable, humble, humane, and as someone who looks people straight in the eye, not up and down.
All of those qualities, together with Mrs Hurley, you bring together to this role.
In Mrs Hurley, we have an unstoppable dynamo in whose presence even the most reserved of guests will find themselves - and I'm sure my Cabinet colleagues will know this joy soon - taking part in ‘You Are My Sunshine.’
She's a lady of genuine compassion. The last time you lived in this city, Mrs Hurley volunteered at the Canberra Hospice.
I know Mrs Hurley will take that, her Christian kindness and compassion, around Australia over the next five years, as will His Excellency.
General Hurley, you are our nation's 27th Governor-General because you have lived out your old motto from the First Battalion Royal Australian Regiment - ‘Duty First’.
Members and Senators will return here tomorrow to commence our formal Parliamentary duties for this term, and for many it will be the first time that they will have walked into that Chamber in that new role and I welcome them particularly also here today.
We look forward to you opening the 46th Parliament during your first full day on the job, and I thank you again on behalf of Jenny and I for accepting that invitation that was extended to you, and I know I'll be able to continually say, "Thank you for your service."
Joint Remarks with the Prime Minister of Japan
27 June 2019
Osaka, Japan
PRIME MINISTER ABE: Welcome to ScoMo on your first visit to Japan as Prime Minister. I'd like to offer my congratulations on your historic victory in the general election.
I'm looking forward to working with you, hand in hand with ScoMo. I strongly empathise with the speech on diplomacy that you delivered yesterday. We have a special strategic partnership with Australia. We must promote that forcefully so that we can cooperate for the realisation of a free and open Indo-Pacific.
Once again, I'd like to welcome the visit of Prime Minister Morrison to Japan.
PRIME MINISTER: [Inaudible] …relations as well. It’s a great thrill and pleasure to be here with you again, and on this occasion my first visit to Japan as Prime Minister, but not my first visit to Japan.
I want to thank you again for when you visited Australia and we were able to meet, and particularly to meet in Darwin. It was a very important opportunity for us all to reflect, and I can tell you that visit along with your wife, Mrs Abe, this had a profound impact on Australians and we remember it extremely fondly. Now, at the beginning of the Reiwa Era, with such significant events occurring, not just the G20 here today and over the next few days, but also with the Rugby World Cup upon Japan soon, as well as the Olympics next year, this will be a very exciting period of time in Japan.
Of course, as we move towards the end of this year and your own term as Prime Minister - reaching the longest ever for any Japanese Prime Minister - is a real testament to your both endurance and leadership and what you’ve been able to achieve in leading Japan, but not just Japan. I meant what I said in Sydney yesterday - your statesmanship in the region holds you in very high regard, well beyond the office. And I wish you well for the next few days and we're here to thank you for the support you gave in Australia some years ago at the G20 in Brisbane and we're here to return that support and assist in any way we can. And I particularly want to thank you Prime Minister for your support in relation to the combating terrorism on the internet. That initiative, and your support in allowing that agenda to come through into the meeting, and we look forward to what we might be able to achieve in that area, as well of course with the Osaka Track on the digital agenda.
Joint Remarks with the President of the United States of America
27 June 2019
Osaka, Japan
PRESIDENT TRUMP: Hello everybody. I hope you all had a nice flight - those that came with me.
[Laughter]
It’s very nice to have dinner. And, really, I want to congratulate the Prime Minister on a tremendous victory. He had a fantastic victory, as you know. He didn’t surprise me, but he surprised a lot of other people. See, I knew him, so I said, “He’s going to do very well.” And he did. He did. They called it an upset, but I don’t call it an upset. You probably didn’t. Your wife didn’t call it an upset.
[Laughter]
But I want to congratulate you very much. It’s a fantastic thing you did.
PRIME MINISTER: Well, thank you, Mr. President, and thanks for hosting us here tonight. It’s going to be an important few days. But there’s no better or stronger or deeper relationship than the United States and Australia. As you said, we’ve been together for a very long time - 100 years - as our ambassadors have been involved in that program in the United States of fighting together but working together. And the achievements speak for themselves.
PRESIDENT TRUMP: That’s exactly right.
JOURNALIST: Mr. President, are you coming to Melbourne for the President’s Cup Golf?
PRESIDENT TRUMP: I’ll tell you what - I’d like to.
[Laughter]
PRIME MINISTER: There’s a warm invitation. It’s standing.
PRESIDENT TRUMP: It might not be easy, but I’d like to. That’s a big deal. That’s going to be great. That’s going to be great.
JOURNALIST: Mr. President, you talk about ‘America first’ a lot. Do you recognise that, for many of your allies, sometimes it’s seen as ‘America alone’ because it has adverse impacts on countries like Japan and Australia - like on trade, for example?
PRESIDENT TRUMP: Yeah, well, I think I can say very easily that we’ve been very good to our allies. We work with our allies. We take care of our allies. Generally speaking, I’ve inherited massive trade deficits with our allies. And we even help our allies militarily. So we do look at ourselves, and we look at ourselves, I think, more positively than ever before. But we also look at our allies. And I think Australia is a good example. We’ve worked together very closely - just recently, on a big trade situation. We had a little bit of a trade deal going, and it worked out very well for both of us. And I think especially when it comes to those great allies, and Australia would be right there. We’re very proud of it. It’s one of our oldest and one of our best. We were just talking about the battles that we fought together. These are big-name battles, and they were tough battles, and we won every one of them.
So, it’s great to be with you.
PRIME MINISTER: Thank you very much.
Asialink Bloomberg Address
”Where we live”
26 June 2019
Sydney, NSW
PRIME MINISTER: Thank you to Asialink and Bloomberg for the opportunity to address you here today prior to my attending the G20 Leaders’ Summit in Osaka this weekend.
Today I want to talk about our plan to foster an open, inclusive and prosperous Indo-Pacific, consistent with our national interests.
I would like to set out the principles, consistent with our national values, that will guide my Government’s engagement with the Indo-Pacific region.
The Indo-Pacific is where we live.
It is where we have our greatest influence and can make the most meaningful impact and contribution.
It is the region that will continue to shape our prosperity, security and destiny.
It is the region where, together with our allies, and especially the United States, our people made great sacrifices when our peace was threatened.
It is the region that has accounted for two-thirds of global growth over the last decade.
It is home to more than half the world’s population.
It is the destination for more than three-quarters of our two-way trade.
It embraces our Pacific family with whom we have special relationships and duties, our close neighbours, our major trading partners, our alliance partners and the world’s fastest growing economies.
Where else would Australia want to be?
During the early years of European settlement, our geography seemed a burden. Today, I think we now appreciate that it has proved to be a great blessing.
While comfortably understated in our approach, we do not underestimate our influence, especially if we choose to focus and target our contributions where we can have the greatest impact.
Our economy has grown faster than any other advanced economy over the last 28 years.
Australia is alone among advanced economies in enjoying uninterrupted growth over this period.
We are one of only ten countries globally with a AAA credit rating from all key agencies.
We host 10,000 foreign-owned businesses, and $3.7 trillion in foreign investment.
We rank third as a destination for foreign students, and seventh as a tourist destination.
We play a critical role in underpinning the resource, energy and food security of East Asia.
We are the fourth largest pension market. Our funds management sector is the sixth largest in the world.
We are a standard bearer for democracy and the rule of law.
We are a staunch and active ally of the United States, deepening our security cooperation to help secure our region.
Our post war trading relationship with Japan, marked by our Commerce agreement secured in 1957, saw Japan become our largest trading partner until just under over a decade ago. The relationship is now broader and deeper than ever before, This weekend Prime Minister Abe will preside over the G20 as a great friend of Australia and one of the region’s most highly respected statesmen.
We share a comprehensive strategic partnership and free trade agreement with the People’s Republic of China, with a broad and deep relationship underpinned by people-to-people ties; evidenced by the fact we are home to 1.2 million ethnic Chinese and are host to 1.4 million Chinese visitors and 205,000 Chinese students each year.
The growth in India’s economic and strategic heft is increasingly felt beyond the Indian Ocean, creating new opportunities for Australia based on our shared values and outlook. India is also now the single largest source of permanent migrants to Australia.
Our special relationship with ASEAN since its inception has plugged us into a critical network of independent and dynamic developing economies working together to create their own norms and rules for intra-regional growth, critical to the interests of all Indo-Pacific members.
And we are the single largest development partner with the island nations of the Pacific.
So together in our region we share a future. We have much to contribute and much to gain.
The Indo-Pacific is a region which has undergone and is undergoing profound change. We have helped shape that change.
Post war social development and economic prosperity led initially by Japan.
Global engagement with the People’s Republic of China and the resultant economic miracle of China’s economic advancement.
The emergence of ASEAN, which has supported the regional stability that allowed its members to prosper.
The burgeoning of intra-regional trade. The build-up of regional security capabilities, with inevitable tensions in some areas.
The economic liberation that has flowed from free trade, new technologies and innovation.
New environmental pressures and threats to our climate, oceans, species and forests that don’t recognise national boundaries.
The confluence, agglomeration and dynamism of these forces now shaping our region has brought us to a new threshold.
Undoubtedly, the most significant change in most recent times has been the shift in the relationship between the United States and China, who exert the greatest influence on our region.
The world’s most important bilateral relationship – the US-China relationship - is strained.
Trade tensions have escalated.
The collateral damage is spreading.
The global trading system is under real pressure.
Global growth projections are being wound back.
The impact of any further deterioration of the relationship will not be limited to these two major powers.
The balance between strategic engagement and strategic competition in the US-China relationship has shifted.
This was inevitable.
China’s conscious decision to pursue prosperity as a strategy for national unity and stability launched one of the world’s greatest economic miracles.
Now China is a significant power, with vast military, global interests and the biggest economy in the world in terms of purchasing power parity.
It is important to acknowledge that this success was made possible by the active and strategic engagement of the United States and the wider global community.
Firstly, through enthusiastic bilateral exchange and then by supporting access to the global rules-based trading system through China’s accession to the WTO in 2001, gave it much better access to the markets of 154 member economies.
This also required reforms from China that supported its rapid economic expansion.
China is now the major trading partner of more than 50 countries.
In 1980, China’s trade with the outside world amounted to less than $40 billion. By 2015, it had increased one hundredfold, to $4 trillion
China is the largest holder of foreign US currency reserves.
China’s economic rise has not been a zero sum game. This has been especially true in Australia’s case, but also for the United States.
This is why Australia has always, and will continue to, welcome China’s economic growth.
However, the ground has now shifted. It is now evident that the US believes that the rule-based trading system - in its current form - is not capable of dealing with China’s economic structure and policy practices.
Many of these concerns are legitimate.
Forced technology transfer is unfair.
Intellectual property theft cannot be justified.
Industrial subsidies are promoting over-production.
China’s rise has now reached a threshold level of economic maturity.
While we acknowledge that large parts of China are still to realise the prosperity of its major economic centres, it is also true that its most economically successful provinces, some of which are larger than many developed nations, including Australia, has reached and sometimes exceeds the economic sophistication of its global competitors. Yet, at the same time, these economies get to compete with concessions, whether they be on trade, environmental obligations or other terms, not available to other developed economies.
Our current trading system seems incapable of acknowledging, let alone resolving, these issues.
The rules-based system is in need of urgent repair if it is to adequately respond to these new challenges, including the rise of large emerging economies, changing patterns of trade and new technologies.
Our prosperity, and that of our Indo-Pacific partners, depends strongly on the maintenance of an open global economy and a rules-based trading system.
It will also depend on a positive, productive and cooperative bilateral relationship between China and the US.
This will require the exercise of special responsibilities by these “Great Powers” to resist a narrow view of their interests.
But this won’t be the first time such leadership has been required or demonstrated.
In 1951 George Kennan wrote, in American Diplomacy:
“If our purposes and undertakings here at home are decent ones, unsullied by arrogance or hostility towards other people or delusions of superiority, then the pursuit of our national interest can never fail to be conducive to a better world.”
The statement was made at a time when the United States was in the process of building a new world order, with institutions and common rules unashamedly seeking to secure prosperity as a bulwark against the madness that saw 60 million people killed and slaughtered, including 45 million civilians, during the Second World War.
According to some, estimates this included up to 20 million Chinese as well as 419,000 Americans and almost 40,000 Australians.
This new world order was the dividend of the peace bravely won, none more so than by the United States, who understood that with its great power came great responsibility.
The principles of this new order reflected the values and aspirations of its architects.
It was also informed by the failures of pre-war institutions and mindsets that saw emerging and recovering economies become frustrated, giving rise to the most evil of nationalist ideologies to take hold.
As I joined other leaders in Portsmouth recently to commemorate D-Day, I was somewhat overwhelmed by the history of the moment.
Sitting beside Chancellor Merkel, I was inspired by just how far we had come. No different to when I joined Prime Minister Abe in Darwin to commemorate the bombing of our northern capital. The post-war world order has achieved something truly extraordinary. The United States deserves great credit for this achievement.
Central to these institutions has been a respect for the individual sovereign state, no matter how large or small, and the ambition that each may be able to engage and participate with the security afforded by a common set of rules that means they can get a fair go, free of coercion.
Like any nation the US is not perfect, but it has form in being able to look beyond its own horizon to see a bigger picture.
The United States has demonstrated an understanding that the responsibilities of great power are exercised in their restraint, freely subjecting itself to higher order rules, their accommodation of other interests and their benevolence.
Such power supports the independence and sovereignty of other nation states and affords protection beyond its own interests, in the knowledge that this is necessary to maintain the peace and stability that ultimately underpins their own prosperity.
The level of global interconnectedness means this has never been more true than today.
As a rising global power, China also now has additional responsibilities.
It is therefore important that US-China trade tensions are resolved in the broader context of their special power responsibilities, in a way that is WTO-consistent and does not undermine the interests of other parties, including Australia.
The accumulation of issues that have led to these tensions must be acknowledged, addressed and resolved at the negotiating table in a way that reinforces our open and inclusive global trading system.
Like all of us, China and the US have a strong interest, and a special responsibility, to modernise and support the system that has delivered unprecedented growth in national wealth and living standards over the last two decades.
We can support these efforts and outcomes by rejecting the fatalism of increased polarisation and resisting the analysis that only sees these issues through a binary prism.
It is in no-one’s interest in the Indo-Pacific to see an inevitably more competitive US-China relationship become adversarial in character.
All nations in our region, not just Australia, are having to adjust to this period of great power competition.
Japan, India, New Zealand, Vietnam, Singapore, Indonesia, Papua New Guinea. All of us are similarly seeking to balance our interests, our history, our geography, our alliances, our partnerships and aspirations in the context of this new dynamic.
Like others who live here, Australia simply seeks the freedom to be ourselves, peacefully pursue our national interests, consistent with our values, appreciating our history and being transparent and honest about our aspirations for the future.
These shared challenges create important common ground, which is where I see Australia continuing to play an important role.
So we won’t be fazed, intimidated or fatalistic.
Of course the international environment is difficult.
Of course there are risks of further deterioration in key relationships and consequent collateral impacts on the global economy and regional stability.
There are also pressures to decouple the Chinese and American economic systems, whether this be in technology, payments systems, financial services or other areas.
But these are not insurmountable obstacles. To think they are not does not amount to some modern form of appeasement. This is a straw man argument.
And what’s the alternative?
These risks not only can but must be mitigated, and this comes more possible when we work together.
We should not just sit back and passively await our fate in the wake of a major power contest.
This underestimates and gives up on the power of human, state and multilateral agency.
There are practical steps that we can pursue.
So we will play our part. We will not be passive bystanders.
Our approach will be based on key principles.
A commitment to open markets with trade relationships based on rules, not coercion.
An approach which builds resilience and sovereignty.
Respect for international law and the resolution of disputes peacefully, without the threat or use of coercive power.
And a commitment to cooperation and burden-sharing within strong and resilient regional architecture.
None of those principles is inconsistent with the natural instinct of sovereign nations to compete.
And It is not inevitable that competition leads to conflict.
We have already demonstrated that like-minded nations can take measures to help shape their own destiny.
We will continue to lead by example, developing our close web of relationships across and within the Indo-Pacific.
In recent years, we have been investing heavily in our major bilateral relationships, to advance our security and prosperity and build regional influence; encouraging regional economic integration and cooperation; and promoting rules and norms to guide peaceful cooperation.
We are stepping up our economic engagement.
Our defence cooperation is stronger than it has ever been.
We are leading collaboration on issues at the frontier of a changing world, like e-commerce, cyber security, infrastructure development, innovation and technology and maritime security.
We are working more closely than ever before with close partners like Japan, India, Indonesia and Vietnam.
Our special, strategic relationship with Japan is based on deep shared values, interests and beliefs. Prime Minister Abe has a vision to strengthen the international order as his leadership of the G20 this week, at the dawn of a new Reiwa era, will demonstrate.
My Government is enhancing our partnership with India, one underpinned by shared values, a plan to bring our economic relationship to a new level, and a common strategic outlook.
We are committed to being a leading security, economic and development partner for Southeast Asia.
Our vision of the Indo-Pacific has ASEAN at its core.
We have continued to push ahead with an ambitious trade agenda that has rallied the region and sustained momentum for trade liberalisation.
Under Tony Abbott’s Prime Ministership we concluded major trade deals with China, Japan and South Korea.
When the United States walked away from the Trans Pacific Partnership, we rightly pressed ahead to success under Malcolm Turnbull’s Prime Ministership. It was the biggest trade deal since the birth of the WTO and a positive affirmation of middle power diplomacy.
There is now strong interest in TPP-11 from nations both inside and outside the Asia Pacific.
This year we hope to conclude the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership, an agreement that includes 16 economies and accounts for about one-third of global GDP.
It would be the first regional free trade agreement to include India and has the 10 nations of ASEAN at its core.
RCEP’s membership includes 10 out of Australia’s top 15 trading partners, account for over 60 per cent of Australia’s two-way trade, and over 70 per cent of Australia’s goods and services exports.
To conclude the agreement when leaders meet in Bangkok in November this year, I would urge leaders to send their Trade Ministers to the meeting next month in Beijing with a clear mandate to deal.
There are other priority initiatives that will add ballast to regional relationships.
Australia strongly supports Indonesian President Widodo’s vision and leadership in developing ASEAN’s ‘Outlook on the Indo-Pacific’.
Our recently-concluded Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement with Indonesia is another major step to secure Australia’s economic future and to strengthen out critical relationship with our largest neighbour.
While continuing to work with other partners in the region we will also deal directly with our great and powerful friends.
Our relationship with the US has never been stronger.
Ours is a resolute and mutually beneficial alliance partnership where neither party has the need to prove anything to each other.
Our alliance with the US is the bedrock of Australia’s security, providing us with irreplaceable hard power capabilities and intelligence.
Australia is a stronger regional power because of the US alliance.
We are committed to working with the US internationally because we agree it has borne too many burdens on its own.
Australia will continue to pull its weight.
And we will work with the US, as well as Japan, Indonesia, China, the EU and others, to reform international institutions, including the WTO, to ensure they’re fit for purpose and serve their members’ interests.
Because we will be more secure and prosperous in a global order based on agreed rules, not one based on the exercise of power alone.
My Government is also committed to further enhancing our relationship with China.
Our relationship with China has many strengths.
Our trading relationship is flourishing, with two-way trade reaching a remarkable $215 billion in 2018, which benefits both countries.
Our cooperation with China through our Comprehensive Strategic Partnership goes well beyond economic issues.
We are working together across fields including health, education, and taxation, where Australia offers world-class expertise.
We’ve also been cooperating successfully to counter drug trafficking through Taskforce Blaze.
There is more we can do. That’s why we established the National Foundation for Australia-China Relations earlier this year.
The Foundation will strengthen areas where we already cooperate, deepen the already rich links across our communities, and help identify new areas for practical cooperation.
I want to acknowledge the presence of the inaugural Chair of the Foundation, Warwick Smith, and thank him for his leadership. While we will be clear-eyed that our political differences will affect aspects of our engagement, we are determined that our relationship not be dominated by areas of disagreement.
The decisions we make in relation to China are based solely on our national interests, just as theirs are towards Australia, and these are sometimes hard calls to make.
But they are designed always to leave large scope for cooperation on common interests and recognise the importance of China’s economic success.
This success is good for China, it is good for Australia.
McKinsey estimates that 2.6 per cent of consumption in the rest of the world is imported from China, compared with 0.8 per cent in 2000.
Chinese imports now account for 2.0 per cent of the gross output of the rest of the world, compared with 0.4 per cent in 2000.
We welcome Chinese investment.
We have welcomed it for decades.
The stock of Chinese investment in Australia in 2018 was more than 8 times larger than a decade ago, and China is our ninth largest investor behind the USA, Japan, UK and the Netherlands.
Australia has the most liberal foreign investment regime in our region. It is not possible for Australians to invest in China in the way Chinese investments are made here. Perhaps this will change, but our policy is not framed in the context of reciprocity, but national interest.
We retain our sovereignty over these investments, especially in relation to strategic and national security considerations, but where such issues are satisfied, we would be only harming our own economic interests if we were to deny our economy access to this capital.
That is why we operate a non-discriminatory approach to investment screening.
And I note that all nations, including China, screen foreign investment.
The infrastructure needs of the region are enormous and Australia welcomes the contribution that the Belt and Road Initiative can make to regional infrastructure investment and to regional development.
We support regional investments with commercial merit that meet genuine market need and international standards, including on transparency and debt sustainability.
Finally, a key pillar of our Indo-Pacific engagement is our Pacific step up.
We have returned the Pacific to where it should be – front and centre of Australia’s strategic outlook, our foreign policy and our personal connections.
This is where we have special responsibilities as part of a Pacific family - our Vuvale, our wantok, our Whanau.
It is a fundamental building block of our engagement with the Indo-Pacific. A South Pacific that is secure strategically, stable economically and sovereign politically.
It’s where Australia can make the biggest difference through our initiatives including the Australian Infrastructure Financing Facility for the Pacific, our labour market programs and undersea cable projects, for example.
A strong, stable region keeps us more secure and enables our economies to grow and our peoples to prosper.
Today I have focused principally on the economic dimensions of our regional relationships and engagement strategy. On another occasion I will address these issues from the perspective of our strategic, security and defence interests, and in turn from the perspective of our environmental and development cooperation.
I have done so, consistent with the priority I have assigned on building our economy to secure the future of Australians at our recent election.
But for today let me close by making the following observations.
There are gathering clouds in the global economy.
The trading relationship between the world’s two most important economies is under serious strain.
But an ever-worsening trajectory in this relationship is not inevitable.
We all have responsibilities to deepen patterns of co-operation, especially in the Indo-Pacific.
Australia is ready to play its part.
We embrace free trade, global engagement and an international system where we agree rules, stick to them and honour our commitments.
That is the surest path to an open, stable and prosperous Indo-Pacific.
WA Chamber of Commerce and Industry Address
24 June 2019
Perth, WA
Prime Minister: Thank you.
I value my engagement with the Chamber of Commerce and Industry WA.
In the big debates – particularly on the GST, but others as well – the Chamber always comes to the table with well researched views and a case worth hearing.
On election night I said the result was a victory not for the Liberal Party, but for the quiet Australians. Australians who quietly go about their lives, working hard each day, running their businesses, caring for their families, volunteering in their local communities.
There is a champion in every Australian. It is our job to support them to realise that champion within.
The election was a message that Australians wanted their Government to respect their aspirations and back them in as they did everything they could to get ahead and make a better life.
Australians rightly see themselves as being in charge of their own lives and their own destinies.
That is why I have now exhorted my team to respect the outcome of the election by governing humbly, understanding that the election result was not about us, but it was about those quiet Australians and their honest and decent aspirations.
Our job is to ensure that our decisions can simply make the lives of Australians that little bit easier.
Australians also said they were are no longer prepared to accept any claim that Governments can solve all your problems just by giving them more of your money or saddling future generations with a mountain of debt.
Australians live within their means and simply expect Governments to do the same and get the job done. The election also confirmed our view that Australians appreciate that the services they rely on depend fundamentally on ensuring we have a strong economy, not higher taxes.
Without a strong economy, all else is in vain. Jobs, funding for schools and hospitals, combatting youth suicide and the NDIS.
And so today, at the start of this new term, I want to speak to you about getting on with the job of building our economy to secure your future.
The Australian economy has shown remarkable resilience over a long period of time.
We are on track to achieve 28 years of uninterrupted economic growth and Australia’s real GDP has grown faster than any G7 economy over that period.
The median age of Australians is around 38 years. These Australians have not known a recession over their entire adult lives.
At 2.9 per cent, jobs growth has been stronger than any of the G7 countries over the past year. The vast majority of the nearly 1,000 jobs a day created over that time have been full-time positions.
Almost three quarters of Australians aged 15 to 64 have a job – a record high. Female workforce participation is also at a record high. So is the workforce participation of those aged 65 and over.
So the great Australian jobs machine continues to whir away. A great strength. But there’s more to do, which is why our pledge to create 1.25 million new jobs over the next five years is central to our economic plan.
The 2019-20 Budget, only days away, will be in surplus. It’s been a long road back, 12 long years, but we’re almost there. Another great foundational strength for our economy. And our AAA credit rating remains in place, one of only ten nations in the world to achieve this outcome from all key agencies.
That said, we do face some challenges and headwinds.
That’s not news. Treasurer Josh Frydenberg and I have been talking about this for some time.
The Treasurer’s reports from his recent trip to the G20 Finance Ministers’ meeting in Japan as well as to London, Berlin and Washington, confirm that international risks have increased over the first half of the year.
Protectionist sentiment and trade conflict, especially between China and the US, is weighing heavily on global confidence and here in Australia as well. The uncertainty regarding Brexit is also not helping, although the impact of this on Australia is quite muted.
The unfolding of all of these events are own goals for the global economy given the broader consensus points that the fundamentals of the global economy are relatively sound.
As a trading nation, this week’s G20 Summit will be an important opportunity for the world’s leading economies to map out the way forward from here.
We are also close to the peak of the global cycle on interest rates ‑ with pressure on European Central Bank and the United States Federal Reserve to lower rates to support their economies.
In the domestic economy, there are challenges too.
We’ve seen the effects of prolonged drought and floods on regional communities – with farm GDP declining by 6.8 per cent over the past year.
A necessary moderation in the housing market has also contributed to softer consumer spending.
Removing Labor’s threat of massive changes to the housing taxation system has erased some of the gloominess from the sector, which combined with interest rate cuts, prudential changes and our forthcoming First Home Loan Deposit Scheme are providing some support to the market.
Credit tightening, post the Banking Royal Commission, has also dimmed economic activity, especially for small business and housing development.
The latest national accounts showed quarterly growth of 0.4 per cent and, while this was a modest increase in growth compared with the previous quarter, it also indicates subdued activity in some parts of the economy – the housing sector, business investment and household consumption.
It’s fair to say that politics has also played a role, with the election weighing on confidence. The bounce back in the business confidence as measured by the NAB Monthly Business Survey following the election, showed the largest monthly increase since the change of government at the 2013 election.
Our job post-election is now very clear – to get Australians off the economic sidelines and on the field again.
The Reserve Bank’s recent cut in the cash rate will put more money in the hands of Australians.
But as Governor Philip Lowe has stated, we must also drive economic growth in the longer term.
The key goal of these policies is job creation. For our Government, it’s always been about jobs.
Our economy has displayed an enormous capacity to absorb record levels of employment growth. The more jobs that are created, the more Australians keep entering the workforce, increasing participation rates also to record levels, forcing economists to now postulate that full employment is now an unemployment rate closer to 4.5% than 5%.
This means that to see larger increases in incomes from wages growth we need to see even more jobs created to reduce unemployment to these levels.
The only way to create more jobs is to increase the levels of investment in our economy. Job creating investments that unlock productivity gains and enable Australians to earn more.
This relies on businesses having the confidence, capability and incentives to back themselves.
Today I want to focus on three elements of our plan to achieve this.
First, how we will get things moving by lowering taxes, sharpening the incentives to work and invest and get infrastructure projects underway.
Secondly, provoking the ‘animal spirits’ in our economy by removing regulatory and bureaucratic barriers to businesses investing and creating more jobs.
And thirdly, boosting the economy’s long-term growth potential by unlocking greater economic dynamism and productivity by lifting our skills capabilities and driving uptake of new digital technologies to promote innovation and competition in our financial system.
Firstly, tax relief.
Australians must keep more of what they earn. In fact at the last election, they demanded it. Next week in parliament we will submit our tax plan to the parliament, just as we presented it to the people.
Labor’s high taxing agenda has now been rejected at two successive elections. Labor’s primary vote at the election last month was their lowest in a hundred years, even lower than when they lost Government in 2013, 1996 and 1975.
Labor’s internal conniptions about supporting the Government’s plan to simply let Australians keep more of what they earn exposes Labor’s deep mistrust of Australians to do what’s best for them with their own money. Labor always think they know best. Australians disagree.
The fact Labor are having to be dragged kicking and screaming, putting up one excuse and ruse after another, shows they simply don’t understand that when you find yourself in a hole, you should stop digging
Our proposed tax relief doesn’t just have a strong political mandate. It has a compelling policy rationale. The first stage of our tax changes will support economic growth by putting money in people’s pockets that they can use to boost consumption. Worth at least two 25 basis point rate cuts.
This will include immediate tax relief to low- and middle-income earners after they lodge their 2018‑19 tax returns.
For middle-income earners, this works out to be over $1,000 dollars for singles, and it’s double that for dual income families.
More than 10 million taxpayers will benefit. Right here in WA, around 1.25 million taxpayers will benefit from our plan.
This first stage is part of our longer-term plan to simplify our tax system and sharpen the incentives to work and invest for the future.
While stage 1 of our tax plan will fast-track and boost tax relief for low and middle income families and support the economy, stages 2 and 3 are more fundamental long term changes to our personal tax system.
We are simplifying the system, more closely aligning the middle tax bracket with corporate tax rates and improving work incentives by tackling the ‘silent thief’ of bracket creep.
As the PEFO statement confirmed prior to the election, the measures are fully incorporated into the medium term projections, which also maintain all spending projections on current profiles.
It still baffles me why Labor can readily sign up to spending schemes that run for decades but cannot do the same to let Australians keep more of their own money.
Under our changes, from 2024-25, 94 per cent of Australians will pay a maximum marginal tax rate of no more than 30 cents in the dollar, compared to only 16 per cent if stages 2 and 3 are not delivered.
Or to put it another way, almost 80 per cent of hard working Australians will keep more of what they earn following stages 2 and 3 of our tax plan.
They will receive greater reward for their efforts, providing an incentive to put in the effort to get a raise or secure a promotion.
Getting these incentives right in the workplace is vital to raising our productivity.
We are also backing small business by reducing their taxes so that they have more money to invest back into their business to support their growth aspirations.
In our April Budget, we increased the instant-asset write-off threshold to $30,000 until 30 June 2020 and expanded access to medium-sized businesses so that around 22,000 additional businesses employing around 1.7 million workers will now be eligible.
This is in addition to fast-tracking the company tax cut for small and medium-sized companies with an annual turnover of less than $50 million.
While lower tax is a centre-piece of our plan for a stronger economy, contrary to most commentary, it is by no means the whole story.
To get things moving, the Deputy PM, Michael McCormack will be ensuring the Government leads by example with a single minded focus on implementing our $100 billion infrastructure investment programme.
This programme increases Commonwealth support for transport infrastructure by about a third by funding nationally significant transport projects across all states and territories, unlocking productivity by decongesting our cities, creating jobs and supporting future population growth to make our cities more liveable.
The immediate focus is for Minister Tudge to work with the St. e congestion busting urban infrastructure projects that can be readily actioned to spur growth, support local jobs and get things moving.
The same will be done by the Deputy PM for regional communities through our building better regions and water infrastructure schemes..
Here in WA we’ve committed more than $13.6 billion since we came to office and we’re getting on with new projects – including further upgrades to the Tonkin Highway, and improvements for the Oats Street, Welshpool Road and Mint Street Level Crossing Removals as part of METRONET.
Since our re-election, I have already met with Premiers in NSW and Victoria to take stock, get a common view on project timetables, priorities and to do lists. While here in WA, I will be meeting with Premier McGowan to do the same.
The last thing we want is project delays leading to more congestion and greater costs.
That’s why infrastructure delivery will be an important item on the COAG agenda for August.
The same process is being followed for our historical investments in defence capability. With more than $200 billion being invested, with generational job creating projects here in WA, as well as South Australia and Queensland.
Ensuring these investments remain on schedule and that we realise the uplift in skills and technological capabilities for our defence industries, will be the strong focus of our new WA Defence Industry Minister, Melissa Price.
To provoke the much needed ‘animal spirits’ in our economy we must also remove regulatory and bureaucratic barriers to businesses investing and creating more jobs.
Congestion is not just on our roads and in our cities.
We also need to bust regulatory congestion, removing obstacles to business investment.
When we came to power in 2013, our Government launched its ‘Cutting Red Tape’ Initiative.
Working across every government department in Canberra, we set ourselves the goal of reducing the burden of regulation on the economy by $1 billion each and every year.
And we succeeded. Between September 2013 and December 2016, this initiative yielded red tape savings of $5.8 billion.
Removing what governments identify as excessive or outdated regulation is one thing. Whether we are really focusing on the barriers that matter to business in getting investments and projects off the ground is another.
Take the WA mining industry for example. In 1966, the late Sir Arvi Parbo took the Kambalda nickel mine near Kalgoorlie from discovery to operation in 18 months.
By contrast, the Roy Hill iron ore mine took around 10 years to complete around 4,000 approvals. Delays to the project meant delays to over 5,000 construction jobs and 2,000 ongoing jobs.
This in a region where iron ore mining has been taking place for decades and is relatively low risk.
There is a clear need to improve approvals timeframes and reduce regulatory costs, but in many cases regulators are making things worse.
Look at the WA Environment Protection Authority and the uncertainty it has created over new emissions requirements for the resources sector. Business will also make valid criticisms of many Commonwealth agencies and departments.
That’s why I’ve asked my colleague Ben Morton – as Assistant Minister to the Prime Minister – to work with me, the Treasurer and other Ministers, to tackle the full suite of barriers to investment in key industries and activities.
This will be a renewed focus on regulatory reform but from a different angle.
Rather than setting targets for departments or government agencies, we’ll be asking the wider question from the perspective of a business looking, say, to open a mine, commercialise a new biomedical innovation, or even start a home-based, family business.
By focusing on regulation from the viewpoint of business, we will identify the regulations and bureaucratic processes that impose the largest costs on key sectors of the economy and the biggest hurdles to letting those investments flow.
What are the barriers, blockages and bottlenecks? How do we get things moving?
I urge the business people in this room and around Australia to engage with this process.
Step one is to get a picture of the regulatory anatomies that apply to key sectoral investments. Step two is to identify the blockages. Step three is to remove them, like cholesterol in the arteries.
While reducing taxes has had a major impact in the United States, it was actually the Trump Administration’s commitment to cutting red tape and transforming the regulatory mind set of the bureaucracy that delivered their first wave of improvement in their economy. You can be assured I have begun this term by making it clear to our public service chiefs that I am expecting a new mindset when it comes to getting investments off the drawing board.
One particular area where it’s essential to get regulation right is to protect investment from the impact of militant unions, that would have been given free reign under a Labor Government if elected six weeks ago.
Events since then with the CFMMEU in full R18 rated technicolour have only underlined the wisdom of the Australian people in rejecting going down that path.
Labor does not run the unions in Australia, the unions - through their money from member’s indentured fees and union super funds, their numbers in their factions and their armies on the ground at elections, run modern Labor.
It is a very far cry from the balanced relationship of the Hawke-Crean-Kelty alliance of the past.
Our Government is committed to enforcing the rule of law on Australian work sites. All Australian businesses have the right to expect that they can go about their work without being subject to bullying and disruption.
When we’re back in Parliament next week, another of our priorities is to introduce laws to give greater powers to deal with registered organisations and officials who regularly break the law, prohibit officials who are not fit and proper persons from holding office, and stop the rorting of worker entitlement funds. All measures Labor resisted during our last parliamentary term.
Like you, our Government believes in cooperative workplaces.
In his new capacity as Minister for Industrial Relations, I am asking Christian Porter to take a fresh look at how the system is operating and where there may be impediments to shared gains for employers and employees.
Any changes in this area must be evidence-based, protect the rights and entitlements of workers and have clear gains for the economy and for working Australians.
We would expect business organisations such as yours to build the evidence for change and help bring the community along with you too.
Just as our economy is growing and changing, our skills system needs to grow and change with it.
Demand for skills is shifting from manufacturing to the services sector and emerging industries like advanced manufacturing, ICT and cyber-security.
Our vocational education system needs an upgrade to ensure it remains world-class, modern and flexible.
That’s what business has told us – you’re not getting enough people walking through your doors with the skills you need.
The Joyce Review we commissioned prior to the election confirms this and will now guide the changes we will seek to make during this term of parliament as a key component of our economic plan.
The Review acknowledges the good work undertaken in the sector so far, but says VET needs to adapt so it can support important and emerging industries and become a first choice for students who want to pursue technical careers.
We believe that learning through a vocational education is just as valuable as a university degree, so we want to transform the way we deliver skills, support employers and fund training
We’re addressing the findings of the Joyce Review by setting up a National Skills Commission and a new National Careers Institute to give people the information they need to decide their future careers and the best pathways to get them into a job.
We’re simplifying and targeting increases in apprenticeship incentives.
And we’re creating up to 80,000 additional apprentices over five years in priority skill shortage areas through a new apprenticeship incentive.
The Review’s recommendations are wide ranging and responsibilities for the sector are shared.
Vocational education sector is one of my key priorities and I intend to make it a primary focus of discussion with states and territories at COAG.
This work will also be led two Western Australians, Michaelia Cash in Cabinet and Steve Irons as Assistant Minister, a trade qualified electrician and small businessman.
Digital disruption, especially in financial services is changing the way people, businesses and governments interact.
Consultancy firm McKinsey argues that “digitisation could contribute between $140 billion and $250 billion to Australia’s GDP by 2025, based on currently available technology alone.”
I have appointed Senator Jane Hume as Assistant Minister to support the Treasurer to drive the changes we are making in this area.
Our upcoming legislation to introduce Open Banking, through a new Consumer Data Right, will give customers more control over their own data and empower them to compare and switch between products and services, and encourage competition between service providers.
The Consumer Data Right will enable customers to get assistance and tailored support by empowering them to own and share their information as they choose, driving further innovation and competition.
While we are starting with banks, we intend to expand this choice to multiple sectors, for things like phone and internet providers or your energy bill. It will lead to better prices and more innovative products and services.
The New Payments Platform (NPP) makes payments faster and simpler for consumers and businesses and will pave the way for further innovation in the payments system. The challenge is now to encourage economy wide uptake.
The potential gains that are available to businesses, particularly small and family businesses, through the NPP and its ability to reduce payment times are immense.
We will also continue with the establishment of a mandatory comprehensive credit reporting system that will increase competition.
With greater information, new entrants and small lenders, including innovative FinTech firms, will be encouraged to compete for small business and retail customers. The mutuals sector, including customer owned banks and cooperatives, will also be able to compete better with our legislation lifting restrictions on their ability to raise capital being passed just before parliament rose.
More broadly, our Government will continue to advocate strongly for a rules-based and open global trading environment that supports digital trade, builds trust and confidence in the online environment, and reduces barriers. Right now we are seeking to conclude a new benchmark agreement on digital trade with Singapore by the end of the year that I discussed with Prime Minister Lee just a few weeks ago.
We also kick-started negotiations on e-commerce rules in the WTO.
At the upcoming G20 Summit, I’ll continue to advocate for initiatives like these which clear the way for us to do business with the world, while ensuring trust in the online environment, including consumer privacy.
There are of course many other components to our plan to build our economy into the future that we don’t have time to delve into this morning.
Expanding our export markets and lifting the share of our two way trade covered by trade agreements to more than 90% by 2022.
Keeping Government spending and taxes under control, keeping the budget in surplus and eliminating net debt within the decade
Keep supporting greater investment in innovation and new technology.
Reducing energy costs through market reforms and in continuing to foster increased investment in both renewable and reliable energy infrastructure.
Supporting our drought and flood impacted agricultural sectors and deliver on the national water grid.
We will return to these on other occasions. For now, we will just keep getting on with the job that millions of Australians have entrusted us with to support them to realise their goals and aspirations.
Remarks, NDIS Roundtable
13 June 2019
Penrith, NSW
Can I just start by thanking everyone for joining us here today. It’s great to be here with you, Melissa, so early on after the last election and congratulations to you on your election here in Lindsay. And it’s great to have Stuart Robert, a good mate over many, many years, who has taken on the job in Cabinet of the NDIS, as well as government service delivery more broadly.
And the opportunity today was really - once all these cameras go away - for us to get a lot of listening happening on our part, hearing firsthand about your experiences with the NDIS and where you see some of the good work being done, but also the challenges we’ve got.
The NDIS over the last few years, we’ve gone from 30,000 people involved to 270,000. We’ve got over 80,000 people who are now accessing the services and disability support for the first time ever. This has been quite a steep curve that the organisation has been on. I think it is one of the most important social reforms that our country has seen in at least a generation. It is an enormously big task, and obviously in implementing it, it’s going to have its challenges, and it’s going to have its frustrations. But I think it’s important to keep our eyes focused on the goal, and that is to see the full scheme implementation and full coverage extending to around half a million Australians, and for that to be done in a timely way, in a quality way and an effective way.
Because the NDIS, it’s not compensation, it’s not welfare. It’s not any of these things. It’s a support that enables people to realise their potential, in the same way any other Australian can. And that’s very much how I see it, and so I will try to understand what some of the frustrations and blockages are, particularly for Stuart and Melissa, so we can understand how to remove some of those and make sure it’s everything that we want it to be, and that we have a clear understanding what the expectations of the scheme are.
It isn’t the answer to every single problem, but it certainly is the answer to many, and we want to get a good understanding of how we can take it from where it is now, with 270,000 clients, to around about half a million clients over the next five years. And that’s a very worthy goal, I think it’s very achievable, but it’s got to be done in a way that’s actually hitting the mark. Because people rely on this scheme, as they should, and I think it can really transform people’s lives and lead to a higher quality of participation and involvement and engagement, which is what everyone is looking for.
So I want to thank you very much for coming together today. We’re going to run through a bit of a programme, a discussion, but there will be a lot less talking from me and Stuart and Melissa and a lot more listening and we’re looking forward to that. So thank you all very much.
Stand Tall Event - Sydney
12 June 2019
Sydney, NSW
PRIME MINISTER: How good is Gladys? Isn’t she great?
[Applause]
It's wonderful to be with you all today, and it's wonderful to see many of you. Are there any guys from the Shire here today?
[Applause]
Is there anyone from the Hills district, anyone from the Hills?
[Applause]
How about out in south western Sydney, down near Campbelltown way?
[Applause]
Are there any Sharks fans in the house?
[Applause]
I thought that’d get a mixed reaction, the Endeavour High School kids down here in Kirrawee I think there has been plenty.
The reason I wanted to come here today, and the reason I know Gladys wanted to come here today, and the reason Stand Tall - a bit croaky - and the reason Stand Tall is so important and the reason everyone else has come here today, to have a chat to you - and people get to chat to you today as adults - because they're going to talk about serious stuff. But the reason all of us have come here today is because you matter.
I want you to tap the person on either side of you and say, ‘You matter’. It’s really important because everyone believes you do matter. Ad you know sometimes, sometimes guys, sometimes you can feel that’s not true. Sometimes you can think, ‘I don’t matter, and the problems that I have are just too big, and no one cares, and no one thinks I matter’. And you can feel really small, and your problems can feel really big.
But what Stand Tall is all about is making sure that you know you matter. And in life, lots of things can be taken away from you. Lots of things. You can lose things, you can lose friends, you can lose money, you can... all sorts of things can happen. Sometimes you can lose your health.
But the one thing that can never be taken away from you - and this is really important to understand this - is your value. Your value as an individual human being, as a man, as a woman, as a son, a daughter, a brother, a sister. You matter very, very much.
Now, in coming here today, I thought I would ask a few organisations about some important lessons they would want me to share. And I must admit they’re the same things that I've also reflected on.
You know, in life you never come up against things where you where you don’t succeed. When you’re going to fail. It happens. In fact, if you don't have a go at something where you might fail, you'll never achieve anything at all.
You can play it safe always, but unless you’re prepared to have a go at the things where you might fail, and risk failing, then you'll never really fully understand how amazing you are - you wouldn't have any idea about how amazing you are.
I remember many years ago, I took a group of young people together with a good mate of mine from the other side of politics, Jason Clare, and we took some young people from the Shire and from Lakemba. And it was after the terrible riots that we'd seen down in our part of Sydney down in Cronulla, many years ago. And we thought the best thing to do was to get all of our young people together and try and help them understand how amazing they were and how wonderful Australia was and how that connected them together, despite their very different big differences. Whether it was their religion, or their background, or where they lived or how they grew up.
And so we went and walked the Kokoda Track together. And it took us six and a half days. And I can tell you, it was really, really hard. But over the course of that Track, what everyone understood was just how much more they could do. And how much more helpful they could be to each other. And the funny thing was that at the start of the Track, people were saying, ‘Well, how fit I am, how much can walk harder than the others’, and all the rest of it.
But by the end of the track, people weren't thinking about themselves. They were thinking about how much they can help their fellow walkers and their trekkers. And I remember one night in particular, we were coming down to a little village hall called Efogi, where they had seen terrible battles during the war. And it was pouring with rain, it was late at night, it was very dangerous trying to get down this… the side of this mountain, getting down to this little village.
And some of the trekkers were really, really struggling, and some of the stronger walkers had got down in earlier. And rather than just put their packs down and get in their tent and get a good rest for the next day, they dropped their pack. They walked back across the river, and they went back up the mountain, and they helped everyone else down.
And so when I saw this in these young people, helping each other, what I understood was, they were working out just how much was inside them. And all they had to do was focus less on themselves and more on others, and they really were able to work it out.
So a couple of things, a couple of pointers I give you, which has been given to me by some amazing organisations - which include organisations like Stand Tall - but also organisations like Kids Help Line and headspace, and a whole range of these organisations.
The first thing to do is don't be afraid to fail, and change the way you think about failure. If you haven't failed, you’ve learnt nothing. And when things failed, it's a matter of just looking at it as an opportunity to learn from that experience.
You know the first time I ever ran for politics, you had to do a thing called preselection. And that's where I got a whole bunch of party members together and they’ve got to decide who their candidate is going to be in the election. There was about 150 of them. I got eight votes. Eight votes, the first time I ran.
And what we did when that happened, I had to go home and tell Jen, ‘It didn't go terribly well.’ And I had to share with them that we'd put our lives on hold for a long period of time, to try and seek this opportunity, and it just didn’t come. But we learned from that and we didn't give up and we kept going forward.
So the first thing to do is if you encounter failure in your lives - because you will, and if you don’t, it means you're not trying things - then it's important not to see that as the end of the road, but importantly as the start of another road, and one you can walk tall on.
The second point I'd make to you is that what's good for your body, is good for your mind. Who likes to stay healthy? I'll tell you what, if you keep your body healthy, you can keep your mind healthy as well. And it's important that when you keep your mind healthy, you can stay positive on the things that when you're facing challenges in life.
So when it comes to keeping your body healthy, whether it's making sure you get enough sleep, whether you get your physical activity and your exercise, or you ensure that you eat well and you know... it's all right and have fun every now and then. That's all good. But at the same time, if you can keep your body healthy, it means you can keep your mind healthy. Because you’re confronting lots of things.
Now Gladys and I have really stressful jobs. And you guys all face your own stresses and challenges. So one of the things I do is I try and swim most days. You'll find me down at the Caringbah pool, or the North Sydney pool, or anywhere I can find a pool - and yep, I do wear the Speedos, so I don’t let the cameras in. Ever. That's never happened guys, it's never going to happen.
[Laughter]
But it's important that you take the opportunity to get your regular exercise, and look after what you're doing with your body each and every day. If you keep a healthy mind and a healthy body, you will be able to confront the challenges that you face.
And the last point I wanted to make to you is this - you're never on your own. Who's ever felt like they've been on their own before? Just you? I have, heaps of times. If you haven't got your hand up, I think you’re telling the truth.
At all stages, we're going to feel like we're on our own in the middle of facing something at some time. You know, 52 per cent of young people - this is an important statistic - 52 percent of young people who say they have a mental health problem are embarrassed to discuss the problem with anyone, and 49 per cent are afraid of what others would think.
Half the people in this room, if you're suffering from a mental illness, or mental anxiety, or something like that, don't believe you can get help. And you also believe that others will think differently of you if you do.
Of every 30 young people - I heard from batyr yesterday - about seven of them will be dealing with issues of mental health. Only two of them will seek help. And that's a great shame, because there's heaps of help out there if you're having difficulties, and you're really struggling to come to terms with the challenges that you're facing in your own life.
And you might think, ‘Well, those challenges are small compared to what everyone else is dealing with.’ But they're not. Why? Because you matter, and the things that are affecting you matter. And if you're dealing with those anxieties and those challenges, or you don't understand why you feel the way you feel, when you can't get up out of bed, when you can't motivate yourself to do the things that you see like all the other kids can do, or you're having difficulties at home and you can't understand why and you're really frustrated about it. These are all things that you can get help with and you can call Kids Helpline.
And who's got their phones with them at the moment? Anyone got their phones with them at the moment? I want you to jot some numbers down in your notes on your phone. OK? Because I’m going to tell you why in a sec. I got this tip from batyr yesterday. Here it is - Kids Helpline 1800 55 1800. Who’s heard of Kids Helpline? Put your hands up. Kids Helpline - 1800 55 1800. Headspace, who’s heard of headspace? We’ve all heard of headspace? Good - 1800 650 890. Then there’s reachout.com, beyondblue.org.au, and of course there’s the 000 number.
Now, I want you to make me a promise. All of those numbers, if you didn’t hear them now, go and look them up later. Just check it out on your phone while you’re checking Facebook, and Instagram, and all the other things. And make sure if you’re talking to a friend, and that friend is telling you the things that I've just been talking to you about - that they don’t feel right, or they don’t know how to cope in a situation, or they’re finding it really hard to deal with things, whether at homes or other circumstances.
You may not have those answers to them at that point. You may be the best friend - and I'm sure you are - but you won’t always be equipped to deal with those questions that are posed by friends. And batyr - this wonderful organisation Greg Hunt had the opportunity to go and meet with yesterday - that is the time that you put your phone on speaker and you dial one of those numbers. And you and your friends, standing with your friend, standing tall with your friend, can go and have a chat with a trained counsellor to make sure you can deal with the things you need to deal with.
So look, it’s been great to have the opportunity to come and speak to you this morning. Just remember what we just talked about - you matter. Who matters in this room? You matter. And because you matter, tell your friends, because you matter, what’s happening to you matters. And as a result, you need to make sure you deal with failure in a positive way. Because if you don't fail at something, it means you've never tried something. And you need to keep your mind and body well, and you need to know you're never alone, because there is always help there for you - whether it’s through one of the professional services or through each other.
So I hope you have a great day. I want to thank all the other speakers who have come together to be with you today. I want to wish all the guys from Endeavour and Kirrawee all the best, they’ve put on an amazing performance up here a little earlier today, that’s going to rock the place amazingly. So how good will they be? I hope you have a great day. Have a good one. Cheers.
[Applause]
Speech, Singapore
7 June 2019
It’s fantastic to be here in Singapore, along with Marise Payne and Simon Birmingham.
I want to acknowledge our High Commissioner Bruce Gosper and his team.
And a big thank you to AustCham - firstly to Amber Williams for that warm introduction and to Adam and your team.
Not only for hosting us today, but for everything you do to advance the warm and enduring relationship between Australia and Singapore.
Singapore is a place where hard work, enterprise, and entrepreneurial risk-taking are encouraged.
Singapore - the world’s second biggest port - is the ultimate Smart City.
I am here today to underline that my Government’s agenda, both here and across Asia, is about expanding opportunity through connectedness.
And nowhere better exemplifies this commitment than our close partner Singapore.
Singapore is perhaps the best example on the planet of the success and prosperity that flow when a country connects with the rest of the world, opens its markets and embraces free trade.
That’s also been Australia’s path for many years.
So it’s good to be back.
We have close and common interests. And a long history together.
In 1965, when Singapore emerged as an independent nation, Australia was the first country to establish diplomatic ties.
Our then Prime Minister, Sir Robert Menzies, and Singapore’s great statesman, Lee Kwan Yew, forged a friendship and foretold a vision of growth that has been amply fulfilled.
In 2015, on the 50th anniversary of that pact of friendship, our nations committed to a Comprehensive Strategic Partnership: a framework for cooperating across the breadth of our relationship.
Australia values deeply this connection with Singapore.
Our relationship is longstanding and multifaceted.
Our agenda spans trade and investment, regional infrastructure and smart cities, the digital economy, education, arts, and defence and security.
Our cooperation on science and innovation is strong.
We work together on Fintech. We work on economic improvement for women in the region. We work on counter-terrorism and defence strategy.
And we are always working on improving the way Australian businesses find their way into the promise of this thriving marketplace.
I know the strength of today’s turnout is a testament to what you’re already achieving here.
Many of you are already flying Australia’s flag here and elsewhere in Southeast Asia – from Hanoi to Manila to Kuala Lumpur to Jakarta – and we want to support you to do even more.
Companies like Bluescope, a global manufacturer, are thriving here.
Lendlease, a global leader in construction, is redeveloping the Paya Lebar Quarter into a world-class city precinct and business hub.
And it’s not only businesses. James Cook University continues to invest significantly in Singapore, our biggest offshore education hub. CSIRO and the Australian National University recently opened regional offices here.
Austrade’s Landing Pad is also very successful, with many graduate start-ups attracting capital and choosing to base themselves here in Singapore.
On infrastructure, the opportunity for Australia and Singapore to support Southeast Asia’s unfolding urbanisation is growing day by day.
We’re already investing in a number of ways: through our aid program; in partnership with the US and Japan; through a new Infrastructure Governance Facility for the region; and through the ASEAN-Australia Smart and Sustainable Cities initiative.
When we met this morning, Prime Minister Lee and I talked about one thing that will be absolutely pivotal to any country’s success in the years ahead: the digital economy.
While we have ambitious digital trade commitments with Singapore under TPP-11 and the Singapore-Australia FTA, we want to do more together in this area.
Australia seeks digital trade rules and standards that build trust and confidence, and by deepening cooperation with Singapore we can set a benchmark for others in the region to adopt.
So we will deepen our work together to help our businesses and consumers capitalise on the manifold opportunities in the digital economy.
Today we also discussed the practical ways we collaborate, for example working with Singapore and Japan on e-commerce rules in the World Trade Organization.
We also looked at how we can cooperate more on the jobs and businesses of the future, and both countries are enthusiastic about this work.
Australia and Singapore cosponsored the East Asia Summit Leaders’ Statement on Deepening Cooperation in the Security of ICT and the Digital Economy.
Later this year, the High Commission here will host a Digital Economy Forum to better explore that opportunity.
According to this year’s IMD World Competitiveness ranking, Singapore is the world’s most competitive economy.
Ever since the early 80s we have proved again and again that we’re better off open to the world than closed to its possibilities.
Better off engaged in the world than in retreat from its challenges.
These beliefs are not only our outlook on the world, but our plan for success at home.
Australia’s economy is growing, now approaching an unprecedented 28 years of economic growth. But it is growth we never take for granted.
It requires continual effort.
Having successfully secured re-election last month my government is back at work, getting on with the job of implementing our national economic plan.
We have just handed down the first Budget surplus in 12 years.
Our AAA credit rating has been strengthened and we will eliminate net debt within the decade.
More Australians are in work than ever before.
Over 1.3 million new jobs have been created since the September 2013. Our economic plan will see 1.25 million more jobs over the next five years, with one in five of these jobs will be for young Australians.
With jobs growth outstripping all of the G7.
Our plan is for less tax and not more.
We are providing tax relief to Australia’s 3.4 million small, family and medium sized businesses that employ over 7 million Australians.
Ten million Australians are receiving personal income tax relief.
Legislating our personal tax relief plan in full will be the first substantive business of the new Parliament, keeping faith with the will of the Australian people expressed at the election.
Under our we are making record investments in health, education and infrastructure - and in the essential services that Australians rely on.
We are proceeding with the big projects governments have talked about for fifty years and have not done.
Faster rail, inland rail and airport rail links are being funded.
By 2026, when you are deciding to travel or send freight to
Sydney – you will have the choice of not one airport but two.
We are investing in our productive capability – in the transport infrastructure that will lower freight costs, bust congestion, and help Australia grow.
Trade is foundational to this government’s agenda.
Around 1 in 5 Australian jobs are trade-related, and Australian households are $8,500 a year better off because of opening up our trade over the last thirty years.
When our Government was first elected, free trade agreements covered around 26 per cent of our two way trade.
It’s now over 70 per cent.
Agreements with Japan, China, South Korea and the 10 other nations of the Trans-Pacific Partnership.
Of course, we have a long-standing FTA with Singapore which was amended and strengthened in 2017 - providing greater access for education, legal, financial and other professional service providers.
Our export agreements, have provided improved access to markets with 1.75 billion consumers.
Our monthly trade balance is running at record levels, just under $5 billion in surplus in April, with the longest consecutive run of monthly surpluses since 1973 – over 45 years ago.
Our continued success depends on being open to trade and investment. We don’t get rich selling things to ourselves.
Our plan to further expand our trade opportunities will see 10,000 more Australian companies export beyond our shores by 2022, with around 90 per cent of our trade covered by trade deals.
We have skills and resources in abundance that the rest of the world wants. And we are a reliable partner.
The dividend for us of a strong, stable region is more jobs, more opportunities, more years of uninterrupted growth to add to the 27 already on the board.
So as this region transforms and evolves, it makes sense for Australia to deepen our engagement, and not just economically.
Australia is strongly committed to deepening ties with Southeast Asia, exemplified by our convening of the ASEAN-Australia Special Summit last year.
Australia and Singapore are not only natural friends, but strategic partners with shared interests in the stability and prosperity of our Indo-Pacific neighbourhood.
We have a vision of an open, inclusive and prosperous Indo-Pacific.
This includes wanting to see an inclusive architecture for regional trade as Singapore, Australia and other partners work to finalise RCEP and that our existing trade agreements keep pace with technological change, especially the digital economy.
My visit today aims to expand our growing cooperation on shared regional objectives, including by defending the proposition that international rules and norms help trade, underpin our common prosperity and help keep the peace.
The global trading system is under real and sustained pressure. Trade conflict between the US and China is testing the system as never before.
No-one suggests the framework of rules in the WTO is perfect – far from it.
Each year Singapore hosts the Shangri-La Dialogue, which exemplifies what Singapore is about.
Opennness, connections, a regional focus with a global perspective. It shows that in Southeast Asia we need security and peace to maintain our prosperity. At this year’s Shangri-La Dialogue, held last week, there was a remarkable convergence of themes raised by colleagues from the region.
In his insightful speech, Prime Minister Lee said – and I fully concur – ‘We need to reform and strengthen multilateral institutions, not cripple or block them’.
He also said: “The bottom line is that the US and China need to work together, and with other countries too, to bring the global system up to date, and to not upend the system.”
In her first major speech as my new Defence Minister, Senator Linda Reynolds, said here at Shangri-La: “Australia’s Indo–Pacific vision reflects our national character and also our very unique sensibilities. We want a region that is open and inclusive; respectful of sovereignty; where disputes are resolved peacefully; and without force or coercion.”
Minister Reynolds was joined by others from the region who also adopted a counter perspective to the contemporary analysis that interprets decision making in our region though a narrow binary prism.
As independent sovereign nations in the Indo-Pacifc we don’t see our options as binary, and nor do we wish them to become so.
Philippine Defense Secretary Lorenzana said “‘Let us be clear: each and every nation has a shared and unquestionable responsibility in preserving peace and prosperity in the Indo-Pacific region.’
General Ngo Xuan Lich, Vietnam’s Minister of National Defence, said “What matters the most is finding ways to handle competition...to cooperate, close the gulf of differences and settle disputes.”
And Indonesia’s Minister of Defence General (Rtd) Ryamizard Ryacudu, said: “In ASEAN, we continue to seek to enlarge our similarities and commonalities and to decrease and minimise the differences.”
Singapore and Australia understand that if we are to make the most of our region’s dynamism, we must do so together and in concert with other independent sovereign nations of the Indo-Pacific.
We must commit to remain open to each other, with inclusive fora that protect, respect and reinforce our sovereignty and independence.
Now is not the time to be complacent.
I said in Jakarta in my first overseas trip as Prime Minister that, set against rapid social and economic changes, our region is experiencing sharpening strategic competition.
In an era of rapid change and uncertainty, we must know who we are, what we offer and what we’re about.
Retreating into protectionism is – to borrow Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s famous analogy – like throwing away your umbrella in a storm because you’re not getting wet.
I’ve said before that our foreign policy must not be simply transactional. It’s about our character and values. Who we are in the world, and what we believe in.
We believe in the rule of law; in equality of choice and opportunity.
We believe in peace and liberty through the prosperity of private capital, property rights, free and open markets.
We believe in being good neighbours and we are a partner that pulls its weight.
We want to see an open, rules-based Indo-Pacific where the rights of all states are respected.
Our vision of a dynamic Indo-Pacific has ASEAN at its core.
Because a strong, united and resilient ASEAN can play a critical role in fostering peace, security and economic growth.
In the last 20 years, the ASEAN region’s combined GDP has more than doubled and the region is on track to become the equivalent of the fourth largest economy by 2030.
Australia’s two-way trade with ASEAN is worth over $120 billion a year – bigger than our trade with the US or Japan.
We want to see strong and resilient regional architecture, with ASEAN at its heart. We want architecture that’s capable of supporting deeper engagement, more cooperation, more productive relationships between nations.
Cooperation and collaboration are vital in this effort.
As Australia and the members of ASEAN said in the Sydney Declaration a year ago, we are partners with a vital stake in a dynamic region undergoing major changes.
We commit to intensify our shared work to shape a secure and prosperous region for our people.
We live in a region with tremendous promise.
There are 1 million Australians living overseas – many of them young, building relationships, broadening their horizons, developing their skills.
Each in their own way a representative of our country.
You are part of a deep and flourishing business community here in Singapore, absolutely critical to Australia’s strong and expanding presence in the most promising part of the world.
I commend your entrepreneurial spirit, and your very Australian willingness to ‘have a go.’
And again I say thank you to AustCham for your role in bringing this community together, today and every day.
Australia-UK Chamber of Commerce
4 June 2019
London, UK
Thank you for your warm welcome.
Free peoples, quietly going about their lives, going to work, running their businesses, raising their children, saving for their future, seeking to realise their aspirations, while always respecting the peace and freedom of others. That’s what our nations are about. At our recent election, I called them the quiet Australians.
But even more, we are free peoples in two nations bound together by special bonds of history.
Australia’s political inheritance – parliamentary democracy, the rule of law, the separation of powers, the equality of all citizens, the freedom to believe, to speak and to worship as we see fit – these precious gifts all have their roots in this green and pleasant land.
The bonds of history also help explain why I am here this week – as I prepare to join other world leaders tomorrow to mark the 75thanniversary of D-Day – the Allied operation that began the liberation of Western Europe from Nazi tyranny.
At those beaches now etched in time – Utah, Omaha, Juno, Gold and Sword – tens of thousands of young men faced enemy fire and their own fear for the higher cause of freedom.
Allied casualties on 6 June alone are estimated at 10,000 killed, wounded or missing in action. This includes 6,603 Americans, 2,700 British and 943 Canadian cousins.
Terrible as that day was, it was just the beginning. Between D-Day and 21 August, the Allies landed more than two million men in Northern France and suffered 226,386 casualties, with nearly 73,000 killed or missing in action.
It is an honour to represent Australia as we honour all those who stormed the beaches and landed in Normandy on the 6th of June 1944.
At that time, our country’s major military focus was on fighting for freedom in the Pacific.
Yet Aussies were here too – some 3,000 Australians were part of the D-Day invasion force.
Around 500 were serving on Royal Navy warships and about a dozen were attached to the British Army.
More than 2,000 airmen served in the Royal Air Force and the Royal Australian Air Force during the campaign.
We lost 14 brave men, 12 airmen, and 2 sailors on D-Day.
Men who had wives, children, mothers, fathers and siblings.
Hundreds more Australians lost their lives in operations directly related to the invasion of France in the period leading up to D-Day and in the days that followed.
I’ll be remembering their sacrifice tomorrow at Portsmouth, one of the major embarkation points for the assault.
Just as we have an obligation to remember the past, we have a duty to build a better future for our peoples.
That’s also why I’m here this week.
To discuss with leaders the many challenges we face in a new age of anxiety and uncertainty.
Shared challenges such as counter-terrorism, cyber security and nuclear non-proliferation.
Challenges in an interconnected world such as preventing violent extremist exploitation of the internet.
Challenges to the world trading system and the liberal order that has underpinned global commerce – and your businesses – over many decades.
SUPPORTING THE GLOBAL TRADING SYSTEM
We must do everything we can to avoid a zero-sum mindset developing, especially when it comes to global trade and commerce. And we must guard against the lurch towards a narrow, transactional approach to international relations – where our relationships and the ambitions for the world we share, become nothing more than the sum of our deals.
Our international relations are also the product of context, our shared experiences, our people to people connections, and above all, the lessons of history, something we have all gathered together to commemorate this week, and are reminded that these lessons come at a great price.
Nowhere is this more important than in supporting the key multilateral institutions that have underpinned global growth and development for the better part of 70 years.
Just as we remember D-Day 75 years ago, we should also recall the burst of institution building that began the following month with the Bretton Woods conference in New Hampshire in July 1944.
There Britain played a critical role – albeit not always in agreement with the United States – in helping forge the nascent architecture of the post-war liberal economic order.
These institutions - the World Bank, the IMF and the original General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) - combined together to build a post-war prosperity unprecedented in human history.
They culminated in many ways with the birth of the World Trade Organisation almost 25 years ago, at the end of the Uruguay Round of trade negotiations.
Yet today, the global trading system is under real and sustained pressure. Trade conflict between the US and China is testing the system as never before, and is putting the prosperity and living standards of billions of people at risk.
No-one suggests the framework of rules in the WTO is perfect – far from it.
As Singapore’s Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said last Friday at the Shangri-la Dialogue, the WTO was designed for an agricultural and manufacturing-based world economy, but the world has moved on to services and now increasingly digital and intellectual property, which need much more complicated rules.
Yet as Prime Minister Lee also said – and I fully concur – ‘We need to reform and strengthen multilateral institutions, not cripple or block them’.
Reform efforts are gathering momentum, particularly after G20 Leaders sent a strong message of support for WTO reform in Buenos Aires last year.
WTO members now need to agree on concrete reforms to demonstrate progress.
Australia is at the forefront of reform efforts. Updating the WTO rulebook is a priority. We are developing new rules on e-commerce to cut red tape on services, and pushing for an outcome on fisheries subsidies.
Our key concern is saving the dispute settlement system that provides the accountability the system needs to function.
The WTO remains the best foundation we have for securing continued prosperity in a fast-changing world; as the Brexit debate in this country demonstrates only too well.
So we must remain committed to this task – to allow commercial society to flourish – to allow the people in this room; the entrepreneurs, the employers, the risk takers; to make the investment decisions so vital to future prosperity.
It is critical, therefore, that like-minded countries, including Australia and the United Kingdom, lend their support to WTO reform – to mend, not end, the rules-based trading system.
International rules are also important to ensure the digital economy and the IT platforms we have established remain our servant and not our master, nor become weaponised in the hands of terrorists and criminals.
This is another key area where countries can work together – in fact, need to work together – to ensure we modernise and harmonise our laws and regulations so that the online and digital world, the new economy, meets the same standards that we expect of the behaviour in the physical world.
An urgent focus here is keeping violent extremist and terrorist content off the internet, following the horrific terrorist attacks in Christchurch, and those it inspired.
There are things countries can do. Australia has already passed legislation to deal with abhorrent online material. But there is more that can only be done through international cooperation, including with industry. The Christchurch Call set the standard, but we need more countries to participate and more action by industry.
The global community needs to make it clear to business that it is their responsibility to take down the content, and preferably, prevent it going up in the first place. The platforms are not just ‘posties’ - they are responsible for what they deliver. There are practical reforms industry can do and standards by which the global community can hold them to account.
This is why I am pushing this at the G20 and appreciate the support we have been receiving on this initiative, especially from Prime Minister Abe in his role as G20 President.
The G20 proved its effectiveness on cracking down on multinational tax avoidance through base erosion and profit shifting. The G20 has the right make-up, including the countries that host the platforms and those that consume its content and now has the opportunity to respond at Osaka.
THE CASE FOR AUSTRALIA
Australia’s economic interest has always been tied to continuing our success as a modern trading nation.
As a country, we have never got rich selling things to ourselves. Our external focus has been key to Australia now being in our 28th year of uninterrupted economic growth.
Australia’s real GDP has grown faster than any G7 economy over that period.
Real GDP per capita has risen around 60 per cent since the early 1990s. This compares with an average rise of 44 per cent in the United States, Japan, Germany, Canada and the UK.
And we’ve seen strong income growth across the income distribution.
Half the Australians voting at our recent election had never experienced a recession during their working life.
Trade has always been central to our plan.
One in five Australian jobs relies on trade.
The average Australian family now earns $8,500 more a year than they would have, if we had not lowered barriers to our trade for the last three decades.
Our Government adopted trade as a core component of our economic plan from the day we were first elected back in September 2013.
Over the past five and a half years we have worked hard to further embed Australia into the major economic engines of our region through transformational trade agreements with Japan, Korea, China, and the 10 other nations of the Trans-Pacific Partnership.
Since the Coalition was first elected, the coverage of our free trade agreements has increased from around 26 per cent of our total two-way trade to over 70 per cent.
New export deals have given Australian exporters improved access to an extra 1.75 billion consumers in the world’s largest, fastest growing economies.
Our most recent major agreement was signed with Indonesia earlier this year.
But there is more to do.
An uncertain global economic outlook means Australia’s economic fortunes will depend even more on the quality of our economic management.
This was a key issue at our recent election.
The result of that election means our government will now continue with our ambitious, pro-growth approach, supporting individuals, families and businesses looking to get ahead and prosper.
Our plan is simple and straightforward.
Keep our budget strong Lower taxes Back small and family businesses
Ensure reliable, sustainable and affordable energy
Build the infrastructure Australia needs
Drive all our industries forward, not just the new ones
Ensure all generations have the work skills they need
Encourage and protect workplaces so employers and employees can work and earn more together
Keep big business accountable, and
Secure even more overseas markets for our exporters.
And we implement that plan working from a strong base of achievement.
In Australia, we have just handed down the first Budget surplus in 12 years. We have also retained and affirmed our AAA credit rating from all major agencies, one of only 10 countries in the world to do so.
Having stabilised our net debt, peaking at just 19 per cent of GDP in 2018-19, we will eliminate our net debt within the decade.
More than 1.3 million new jobs have been created since September 2013, especially for younger Australians and women.
Female workforce participation is at record levels. The gender pay gap is at record lows as is working age welfare dependence.
There are more Australians in work than ever before – with jobs growth outstripping all of the G7.
230,000 new small and family businesses have been created.
We are making record investments in health, education, infrastructure, renewable energy, airports, airport rail links, fast rail, to name a few areas. So Australians have the essential services they rely on.
And we’re doing all this without raising taxes.
Indeed, when parliament returns in July our first item of business is to legislate the full tax plan we took to the last election, a plan that cuts taxes for all working Australians and backs in their aspiration.
Our economic plan will see 1.25 million more Australians get a job over the next five years. One in five of these jobs will be for young Australians.
It will see another 250,000 small and family businesses open their doors during the next five years.
It will give an additional 80,000 Australians a career by gaining an apprenticeship.
It will see 10,000 more Australian companies export beyond our shores by 2022 supported by export deals, that by then will cover around 90 per cent of our trade.
AUSTRALIA-UK ECONOMIC RELATIONSHIP
Finally, let me say a few words about our bilateral economic relationship.
The UK is our 8th largest bilateral trading partner with two-way trade approaching $30 billion. And our third largest services trading partner.
The UK is also our second largest source of overall foreign investment – estimated at $575 billion at the end of 2018.
British businesses invest in Australia because they know it’s a stable, growing, well-regulated economy with plenty of opportunity still to come.
Australia is a great place to do business.
The Scottish craft beer company ‘Brewdog’ knows this.
Opening a brewery in Queensland sounds a bit like taking coal to Newcastle.
But Brewdog is doing just that – translating the success it’s had with breweries and bars here in the UK, across Europe, and in the US, by having a go in Australia.
They’re almost ready to open a new 50 hectolitre – that’s 5,000 litres – brewery, canning facility, taproom and restaurant on a greenfields site on the Brisbane river.
It’s a $30 million investment that will create more than 150 jobs in the first few years and around 100 more in the long term.
It’s a big vote of confidence in doing business in Australia. And perhaps a fair exchange for the amount of wine Australia exports to the UK every year – as our biggest international wine market.
Our defence industry relationship is another area of growing opportunity for both countries.
We’re investing in shared platforms and capabilities, which means we can work together seamlessly on global security challenges.
We decided a year ago to partner with BAE Systems to build nine Hunter-class frigates for our Navy.
They’ll be built in South Australia using great British design and know how – with Australian skills and Australian steel.
Let me also stress that the approach of Brexit hasn’t taken the shine off Australia’s confidence in the UK.
The UK remains our second largest foreign investment destination.
And we believe starting FTA negotiations post-Brexit would be an important next step in the relationship. We already have a working group in place looking at the parameters of a free trade negotiation once Brexit happens.
We want to launch negotiations on an FTA with the UK as soon as possible post-Brexit, recognising that the shape and nature of Brexit will affect the timing and nature of future negotiations.
But whatever transpires, Australia will be an active partner, loyal friend and determined advocate of a post-Brexit Britain.
We share the ambition of the UK Government to build a stronger global partnership – in trade and investment, in protecting our security interests, and in supporting global rules and institutions that create the foundations for stability and, thus, for your businesses to thrive.
Our remembrance for those who sacrificed all for the cause of our peace and freedom seventy five years ago is best cherished by ensuring we continue to enable the honest aspirations of our peoples to be realised today - their prosperity, their safety, their happy and quiet enjoyment of life.
Remarks, Joint Party Room
28 May 2019
Parliament House, Canberra
Well, welcome back everyone!
[Applause]
Welcome back, thank you all. Thank you all very much. Thank you colleagues. It's wonderful to be back here and you know who we have to thank for this; that is the Australian people.
[Applause]
They are the reason. They are the reason that we have the opportunity and the great privilege to serve them each and every day. It was our focus each and every day, that was solely on them. This was a victory, as I said on election night, not for the Liberal Party, not for the National Party, not for myself or Michael or Josh or Bridget; it was a victory for those Australians who just go out there and work hard every day and make this country the amazing country it is. So thank you to Australians once again.
[Applause]
I’ll have a bit to say in a minute, but I've got some welcomes. I've got some welcomes to give to our Joint Party Room here today, people who are joining us and who were chosen by those quiet Australians all around the country, to come be part of this Parliament.
[Applause]
Can I start by welcoming Bridget Archer the Member for Bass, Gavin Pearce the Member for Braddon, Phil Thompson the Member for Herbert, Melissa McIntosh the Member for Lindsay, Terry Young the Member for Longman, Dave Sharma the Member for Wentworth, good on you Dave. We very much hope ‘Sarah Richards, the Member for Macquarie’. We also welcome Angie Bell, the Member for Moncrieff, Julian Simmonds, the Member for Ryan from the great state of Queensland. Fiona Martin the Member for Reid. Gladys Liu from Chisolm, how good is Gladys Liu? Katie Allen, the Member for Higgins, congratulations Katie. Celia Hammond the Member for Curtin, Vince Connelly the Member for Stirling. Pat Conoghan the Member for Cowper. Anne Webster, the Member for Mallee, good on you Anne. Joining us, joining us in this Party Room formally from the 1st of July will be Sam McMahon, Senator for the Northern Territory, Claire Chandler, Senator for Tasmania. From New South Wales, Holly Hughes Andrew Bragg and Perin Davey. Matt O’Sullivan, Senator for Western Australia, Paul Scarr and Susan McDonald from Queensland, Gerard Rennick also. Alex Antic, Senator for South Australia and David Van, Senator for Victoria. Let’s give them a big welcome. James Stevens, the Member for Sturt there, there are just so many James, so many.
[Applause]
Thank you all colleagues. Well as I said, this was a victory for the Australian people. It is our job to govern humbly for this nation. To have them very much at the centre of our thoughts, each and every day. Because as a Government, as we know, when we focus on the Australian people, then that makes our Government stronger. It brings our Government together. It always must and that's where our focus must be. As I said just before the election; we must burn for the Australian people, every single day that we have this privilege of serving them in this Party Room and as a Government. That requires us to not only have that spirit of humility in the way we go about our business and respect for the Australian people and the great institutions of this Parliament, but it's about ensuring that we get and do the obvious things that need to be done. That we do the little things well, as well as doing the big things well. That we focus on fixing the problems that need to be fixed. That we focus on ensuring that we’re delivering on those commitments that we have made and those commitments were outlined in that fantastic Budget delivered by Josh Frydenberg.
[Applause]
Back in the black, back in the black. Delivering on those commitments and ensuring they roll out. It must ensure that we focus on the strength of our economy.
Now this was a key issue at this election and I think we were able very much to be able to convey that without a strong economy then all else is in vain. You can't tackle climate change without a strong economy. You can't ensure record hospital funding without a strong economy. You can't combat youth suicide like we're going to, without a strong economy. You can't fund the NDIS as we do without a strong economy. The strong economy is what we must continue our focus on delivering; the jobs and jobs and jobs of Australians. By focusing on that, we provide the opportunity to deliver on all of the essential services that Australians rely on and to keep Australians safe and secure.
It's also about ensuring that as we go forward over this next term that we think very much about those Australians and their aspirations. This was this was a victory for Australians who just want to work hard and get ahead. This was a victory for those who put in that effort. They study hard when they're at school, or when they're in training, doing their vocational ed or apprenticeship, or at university, or wherever they are. They work hard in starting their small businesses, they work hard on the land, they work hard wherever they are, planning for the future and delivering for the future. By keeping our focus on them as we engage the issues and challenges which our nation faces - which are significant, whether it's in the economy or national security or in the environment or elsewhere - if we keep our focus on them we will always stay true to the values that we hold dear as Liberals and Nationals in this Party Room.
There are a number of thanks I want to make and I want to start with the first one to Deputy Prime Minister Michael McCormack.
[Applause]
As Liberals and Nationals we govern together. We govern together in a partnership which extends back 75 years and it has never been stronger than it is today. That will continue to be the bedrock of our Government as we go forward. I want to thank you Michael and all our Nationals colleagues for the amazing work they did - particularly up there in North Queensland, but not just in North Queensland. It was great work on the New South Wales Mid North Coast as well and particularly seeing Pat here coming in and some great new people coming into the Nats ranks. It's tremendous to see you here.
I want to thank of course my Deputy Josh Frydenberg who has done a tremendous job.
[Applause]
I want to thank Mathias Cormann for his leadership of our Senate team. He's done a tremendous job and his work up there in CCHQ.
[Applause]
I also want to thank the tremendous work that has been done by our party organizations, in the Liberal Party's case led by Nick Greiner and Andrew Hirst, a tremendous job in running the CCHQ. Working well together with Ben Hindmarsh and Larry Anthony. I want to thank our party organisations and all of our volunteers and supporters all around the country, who believed very much in what this election was about and believe very much in the ability for us to be here today and to ensure that we can secure Australia's future so Australians can simply plan for theirs with greater confidence, which is really what we're all about.
So the task before us is very clear. There are those who have sat in this Party Room and have been for many years - like Ian Macdonald, who will be standing down at the end of June, and Wacka Williams and Barry O'Sullivan, and Jim is still in the count so we'll see how that goes. But I want to thank all of those members who've served in this Party Room and I want to thank Tony Abbott for his service to our Party and to our nation, who is no longer sitting in this Party Room for the first time in a very long time. As well as to Sarah Henderson and Chris Crewther who are no longer here and we thank them for their tremendous service to our country and to Luke Hartsuyker as well, who retired and the many others who retired at the last election.
But here we are; a fresh team. A team that is hungry, a team that is committed, a team that is united in the in the way we were able to fight on this campaign, to do one very simple thing; that is to ensure Australians will be at the centre of our gaze. We will govern with humility, we will govern with compassion. We will govern with strength and we will govern for all Australians.
Thank you very much.
Speech Sydney
18 May 2019
Sydney, NSW
Thank you, friends! Thank you, friends! Can I just start by saying that as you know, a little while ago, Mr Shorten contacted me and I thank him, I thank him very much for the spirit in which he made that call and I thank him very much for his kind remarks to me and to Jenny and to our family. I would like to wish him and Chloe and his family all the best and God's blessing.
I have always believed in miracles! I'm standing with the three biggest miracles in my life here tonight - and tonight we've been delivered another one.
How good is Australia? And how good are Australians?
This is, this is the best country in the world in which to live. It is those Australians that we have been working for, for the last five and a half years since we came to Government, under Tony Abbott's leadership back in 2013. It has been those Australians who have worked hard every day, they have their dreams, they have their aspirations; to get a job, to get an apprenticeship, to start a business, to meet someone amazing. To start a family, to buy a home, to work hard and provide the best you can for your kids. To save your retirement and to ensure that when you're in your retirement, that you can enjoy it because you've worked hard for it.
These are the quiet Australians who have won a great victory tonight.
Thank you. Because it's always been about them. It's always been for those of you watching this at home tonight, for me and for my Government, for all of my team; it's all about you.
Tonight is not about me and it's not about even the Liberal Party. Tonight is about every single Australian who depends on their Government to put them first.
So friends, that is exactly what we’re going to do. Our Government will come together after this night and we will get back to work, just as Gladys Berejiklian got back to work here in New South Wales, just a few months ago. That is our task and that my undertaking to Australians from one end of the country to the other; I said that I was going to burn for you - and I am, every single day.
So let me talk about some of our other miracles tonight. Melissa McIntosh out there in Lindsay. Phil Thompson up there in Townsville, in Herbert. Bridget Archer down there in Bass. The big unit Gav Pearce, down there in Braddon. Terry Young up there in Longman in Brisbane, Sarah Richards, we're bringing back Macquarie!
But in saying that, can I also say thank you to some great service and I hope will continue to be service, at least in a number of these cases. Can I start off by saying thank you to Tony Abbott for your service to this country. To Sarah Henderson and Chris Crewther and Warren Mundine who are still in there and we've still got votes to count - and they're not stepping back - can I thank them very much for the hard campaign that they have fought.
To all of those in the seats that we held going into this campaign, who had to work hard to ensure that as a result of their incredible efforts, they were able to be returned tonight, can I particularly thank Jason Wood, Michael Sukkar, David Coleman down in Banks, Lucy Wicks up there in Robertson.
Pretty much, the whole state of Queensland! How good is Queensland? I never thought I'd hear that in this room in New South Wales, this close to Origin I can tell you. Particularly to Bert Van Manen, Peter Dutton, to Trevor Evans, Luke Howard, Michelle Landry, good old Ken O'Dowd, Warren Entsch up there, right up the top. All of our Queensland members, I want to thank you.
We have some great new members coming in as well, Dr Katie Allen she’s down there in Higgins, Dr Fiona Martin is here with us in Reid, Professor Celia Hammond over there in the west coming in Curtin, Pat Conaghan up there in Cowper and Angie Bell up there on the Gold Coast.
I want to thank all of my candidates, all of my members, all of you who have worked so hard to get them where we’ve been able to come to tonight on behalf of all of those Australians that we work for and we serve, and we do it humbly and we do it in great appreciation.
I particularly want to thank a number of people who have been instrumental in tonight's result. I want to start, I want to start by thanking Gladys Berejiklian, Steven Marshall, the Premier of South South Australia and Will Hodgman, the Premier of Tasmania. They have led by example in their great victories and they've shown us the way at the federal level. They have worked so hard for us all around the country and to Gladys, particularly here in my home state - thank you so much.
And campaigning without drawing a breath, the great John Howard and Jeanette Howard.
I of course want to thank all of my leadership team who have served so well and so loyally. To Michael McCormack and all of our team at the Nationals - to the Big Mac as I like to call him - Michael McCormack and to Bridget McKenzie, thank you all of those in Nationals, thank so much for the great job you’ve done in supporting us. We’re a tremendous Coalition and we will be as we reform our Government after tonight.
I also want to thank Josh Frydenberg, my Deputy and to Amy and the kids. Josh is a great mate and he has been a tremendous Treasurer, a great Deputy Leader as well down there in Melbourne, Josh, we've held the whole team together. We thank you and I thank you very much. It was a pretty good Budget too, back in surplus, next year!
Of course to Mathias Cormann, who has been our Minister-in-residence up in Queensland and to Simon Birmingham, who has been our campaign spokesperson. But another person I particularly want to thank tonight is Greg Hunt. Greg Hunt is an outstanding Health Minister and he stood up there in Flinders and it's great to have you back mate. There's a lot of people to thank, but Andrew Hirst, our Federal Director, Hirsty and of course to Nick Greiner who is a great son of New South Wales, our Federal President, together with Andrew Burnes our Federal Treasurer. I thank him very much and all the state directors around the country, they have run an outstanding campaign. They have set a new mark, a new model, a new way for us to campaign as a Liberal and National team and this has really set an entirely new benchmark. Hirsty, I want to thank you for your leadership at our CHQ.
To my own team, my own staff, can I thank ‘the Kunk’, John Kunkel, my Chief of Staff. Can I thank Yaron Finkelstein, my PPS. Andrew Carswell leading the media team and can I also send a long thank you over the Nullarbor over to Benny Morton, who has been with me every step of the way and to all of my colleagues.
It remains only to thank those who have been so, so close to me all of my life, Marion and John Morrison are here tonight, my parents and my brother, Alan and his wife Susie. My mother-in-law Beth is here. They're just over here on my left. Garry and Michele, you all got to know Garry, amazing fellow. It’s great to have you all here and Jenny’s family, especially Rob. And my brother Alan, who I mentioned, I mentioned Alan. We shared a room together in university, you've probably heard me tell that story about 20 times.
But to the dearest of my family who are with me here tonight, to my beautiful miracle girls, Abbey and Lily, thank you. To the woman I fell in love with in my teens - and it's never let up - now Australia has fallen in love with her; Jenny Morrison!
So friends, we've got a lot of work to do. We've got a lot of work to do and we're going to get back to work. We're going to get back to work for the Australians that we know go to work every day, who face those struggles and trials, every day.
They're looking for a fair go and they're having a go and they're going to get a go from our Government.
Every single day, they are who we'll have right in front of us as we put in place and continue the policies which we know will keep our economy strong, to guarantee the essentials that Australians rely on. That will keep Australians safe and secure and most importantly, most importantly, that will keep Australians together.
We are an amazing country of amazing people. God bless Australia!
Speech, Launceston Chamber of Commerce
10 April 2019
Launceston, Tasmania
Well thank you very much Tim and thank you all for coming here today. Can I start by acknowledging the traditional owners and elders past, present and emerging. Can I also take the opportunity to acknowledge any servicemen and women who are here in the room today and any veterans - Gavin is here - I want to thank you for your service. What you do for our nation is something that we’ll be forever in your debt for. Can I acknowledge my very good friend who is here with us today Greg Hunt, our Health Minister, an absolutely fine Health Minister and Greg and I have been working together for many, many years. It’s a partnership I enjoy thoroughly, because we both share a passion for the topic I'm going to be talking about today; that is if you produce a strong economy, you manage your Budget well, then you can invest in changing the lives of Australians by guaranteeing funding for the essential services they rely on. We've been in that partnership for years now, formerly as a Treasurer and as Health Minister and now as Prime Minister, ensuring that we're driving the economy forward to enable Greg to be doing the extraordinary job he's been doing, guaranteeing these vital health services all around the country. To our new parliamentary colleagues, Senator Wendy Askew it's great to be here with you today and last night as well and to Bridget Archer our Liberal candidate right here in Bass, we were together yesterday and last night down at Sporties. Johnsy if you’re watching mate, you smashed me in pool last night, I had no chance against you. It was wonderful to be sharing a bit of the time up last night at the Launceston Aquatic Center where I saw the South Esk swimming club and all of the young kids, members in squad training - they were awarded the Best National Swimming Club in the country in 2015, right here at Launie. That's tremendous.
So it's been good to spend a bit of time here Bridget, in this wonderful electorate of Bass and to Gavin Pearce who is here, our candidate for Braddon and Jess Whelan who was also here today, our candidate for Lyons and Tanya Denison and Clare Chandler our Senate candidates here in Tasmania. Part of a great Senate team which is being led here in Tasmania. To Albert Van Zetten, the Mayor of Launceston and of course Tim Holder thank you for having us here today and for your comments about the positivity that is here in the north of Tasmania, the positivity that is here in Launceston.
I've been coming here for a long time and I can't recall a time frankly, when there has been such an air of expectation about what's happening here in Launceston. It's a credit to the local business community with whom I'm pleased to be sharing the morning today. The air of expectation, the investment, seeing the vision - and I agree Tim, the regional deal here in Launceston and in northern Tasmania has provided I think, a real catalyst, it has actually demonstrated that when we all work together local, state, federal government, the business community, well, stuff happens. And stuff is happening here in Launceston, stuff is happening here in northern Tasmania.
The partnership between the Hodgman Government and my Government is actually forging the way ahead and businesses can see that. They're backing it in through their own investments.
Unemployment has fallen from 8.2 to 6.5 per cent here in Tasmania. In the last year of the Labor government, 1,000 people left Tasmania. In the most recent figures 6,000 people came here. That's why I call Tasmania the turnaround state. What the Hodgman Government has done, working together with our Government federally has been to chart out, I think, the right path, which everyone is getting on and they all know is heading in the right direction, to where we all want to go.
Jobs for our kids. Education and health services for our families and our communities. Support for those with disabilities. Support for those who are in aged care facilities. Taking the dividend of a strong economy and investing it back into stronger communities. A visitation record of 1.3 million visitors here to Tasmania, an all-time record.
You know many years ago when I was involved in the tourism industry, that was the total number of international visitors that came to Australia, to Australia. Now that's how many we have come to Tasmania. It’s a credit to Tasmania, but I think it's a recognition of the strong growth that we've seen in our tourist industries. Here in northern Tasmania, whether it's the tourist industry or whether it's the forestry industry, whether it's the civil construction industry, whether it's the medical instruments or medical technology industries, whether it's the new, bright, shiny industries or it's the traditional ones which we know carry the load in terms of keeping people in work and supporting people's incomes, we are supporting all industries across Australia to go forward.
The NBN is now 99 percent complete here in Tasmania. When we came to government it was barely off the drawing board, now it’s 99 percent complete.
Forty seven mobile blackspot stations, $2.7 billion invested already in roads across Tasmania. Of course the Midland Highway $400 million, the Tasmanian Roads Package again another $400 million. The Bridgewater Bridge replacement, all big projects for Tasmania that benefit the entire Tasmanian economy, as the tentacles of these big civil construction investments reach out into the supply chain across Tasmania and create that activity that generates jobs.
On our Defence industry plan, I can never go past Penguin Composites which I've visited and which Gavin will know all about there - up in Penguin, one of my favourite places - a business that started out making kayaks, out of just the sheer passion of the owner and there's some pretty good kayaking around that way – and is now making the bonnets of armored vehicles for our Defence forces. That's been done in Penguin here in northern Tasmania. So at the cutting-edge of chemical technologies, through to the traditional industries that have always been the mainstay of northern Tasmania, it's an exciting story. There's $313 million for roads over the next decade in Tasmania that we've announced in the Budget. $130 million to the Hobart to Sorrell Corridor, $80 million for the Birralee Main Road, Murchison Highway, Old Surrey Road and Massey green Drive and Strahan Road. This is right across Tasmania, as I say, reaching out and supporting the economy all around the state.
And of course Battery the Nation. Now pardon the pun, but this does light me up, 100 per cent. I know it lights Will up as well, every time Will and I get together and we talk about Battery the Nation, we can just see its potential and we're just so anxious to get to the next stage. So the Tassie Government is investing in the Battery of the Nation side of the project, we're working on the Marinus Link side of the project with $56 million already committed to get through the planning stages and hook the Australian mainland up to the great opportunities that are here through the hydro vision that was born here in Tasmania, so many decades ago.
It's a tremendous Tasmanian story, the hydro projects here in Tasmania and to know now, that the foresight of those who were there generations ago, will now be able to be solving significantly the energy challenges of the Australian nation going forward. All born out of their vision and Battery of the Nation is a project with similar vision that Will has been leading and we are absolute joined-at-the hip partners to. 3,800 direct and indirect jobs alone, in terms of how we're proceeding with the Marinus Link project and yesterday I announced with Gavin, the $17 million Tasmanian Skills package, which is ensuring that Tasmania can be upgrading the skills of those who are already working in the sector or others coming in, to be able to fulfil this vision. As you say we've got the challenges of getting the workers into these big projects. I mean as we've been rolling out our infrastructure program now over many years, we are now - it's a good problem to have I suppose - that such is the level of investment that we're making in public infrastructure all around the country, that we're beginning to hit our head on the ceiling in terms of the capacity and the time that we have to actually get these projects done.
But I can tell you, when $80 billion dollars was taken out of the Australian economy on the other side of the mining investment boom, well, we stepped right up. We stepped right in and that is why we're now in our 28th year of consecutive economic growth. Because we had a plan. We had a plan to deal with it, a plan to deal with it nationally and also a plan to deal with it locally.
The City Deal in Launceston $260 million to UTAS to relocate its main campus. $19.4 million to rejuvenate the historic CBD here and $95 million for the health of the Tamar Estuary. Investing in services that Tasmanians can rely on, $6.5 billion more for Tasmanian schools over the next decade, a per-student funding increase of 60.6 per cent to 2029.
Let no one tell you, let no one to lie to you, that our Government has not been investing in the essential services that Tasmanians rely on. We have, they’re the facts, they are the figures.
A strong economy, we believe, is built on the efforts and hard work of Australians. It is built on the hard work and investment and entrepreneurship of small and family businesses. Which is by and large the Tasmanian economy, overwhelming so, more so than probably any part of the country when you think about it, as a state. That's why we've done what we have, on reducing taxes, extending the instant asset write-off. Investing in things like the Defence industry and other major programmes and infrastructure and so on, to continue to drive the economy forward.
But you know, the economy is not a certificate you put on your wall and say; “Oh, how clever are we as a nation, we're in 28 years of growth”. That's wonderful, but what does it mean? Why do we do it? And why do I talk about the economy so often as I move around the country?
Because this is the best country in the world to live, but our future depends on ensuring that we keep our economy strong. Why? That’s what pays for hospitals, that’s what pays for Medicare. That's what pays for affordable medicines. That's what pays for the City Deal. That's what pays the way and guarantees the funding, not higher taxes.
Higher taxes just slow the economy down.
Over the last six months or so I've taken up, to keep myself somewhat fit, swimming laps. Now if anyone said to me; “You know, you’d go a lot faster if you put a weight belt on,” what do you think I’d say to them? It's hard enough. But that's what $200 billion of higher taxes will do to our economy. It will slow us down. It'll slow you down.
Whether it's the policies which say, to pay someone else more, you've got to sack someone else to do it - which is the policy of the Labor Party. I don't think any Australian wants to get paid more in this country, as a result of their workmate having to get sacked. I don't think that's a fair policy. I don't think that's an Australian policy. I think that is a scorched earth policy, not seeing the vision of the growth of the Australian economy. That we can run one as has been run here in northern Tasmania, which lifts everybody up. Where everybody can do better and that's why our tax policies are designed to ensure everybody can keep more of what they earn. That we don't try and penalize some, push some down, in order to pretend to be raising others up.
Our values, our beliefs are all about seeing the entire economy go forward. That's why it's great to be here. It's great to be here and seeing the optimism and the positivity here in northern Tasmania. It's exciting, it's energizing and that's what we want to see continue.
We can't turn back now. It has taken us 12 years to get the economy back to where it was when John Howard and Peter Costello left office and Labor took over. It has taken us 12 years.
You vote Labor once, you pay for it for a decade.
It's taken us more than 10 years to get employment as a share of the working age population in this country back and above the levels that were achieved back in 2007. It's taken us over 10 years to achieve that.
We are on the right track and I can tell you, here in northern Tasmania you’re on the right track. So we want to keep that going. Why? Because I want to invest in health services around this country. I want to improve the lives of Tasmanians, Australians all, as they seek and get access to the services that a modern, sophisticated, generous society can provide. Already, funding for Tasmanian public hospitals is up from $425 million a year, to $525 million. There are record bulk-billing rates in Tasmania and here in Bass alone, since we came to office, bulk-billing rates are up here, the number of people receiving bulk-billing services has increased by 4.8 per cent, almost 5 per cent. 73 per cent bulk-billed services here in the electorate of Bass. 404,654 bulk-billed services here in Bass. That 76,748 more than when we came to office. Not surprising, we’ve increased the funding for Medicare by 27 per cent since we came to Government. I remember at the last election - particularly here in Tasmania - the Labor Party lied to the people of Tasmania. They said we're going to sell Medicare. It was a preposterous lie.
We strengthened it. Under our Government, because of a strong economy and strong Budget management, with a Budget that goes back into surplus next year for the first time in 12 years - that's how you strengthen Medicare.
You don't raise taxes. You invest in it and you run a strong economy.
Today, I'm pleased to announce that we're investing $91.9 million to strengthen the health system here in Tasmania. That includes $20 million for hospital services and infrastructure, cutting the elective surgery waiting lists. An extra 6,000 surgeries and endoscopies to be provided here in Tasmania. $34.7 million for elective surgery and TazReach primary care support to reduce the time Tasmanian patients wait for elective surgery and support Tasmanians in rural and regional locations, particularly with outreach specialist services, through the TazReach program. Upgrades to the birthing suite at Launceston Hospital – yes, population growth by more homegrown Tasmanians and more Tasmanians coming home - and more Australians from the mainland deciding to make Tasmania their home.
I met a young couple last night over at Sporties and they were telling me they’re working in the civil construction industry here in Launceston. They moved here from Melbourne. So Tasmanians are coming home. Tasmanians are staying and more Australians are choosing to become Tasmanians. I think that's exciting.
A second linear accelerator machine at Burnie for breast cancer patients which will save them $1500 for MRIs and PET scans. $4.4 million for cancer infrastructure, more MRI units with Medicare-subsidized scans for cancer, stroke and heart conditions. Greg and I will talk more about this today when we make these announcements again. Two extra diagnostic mammography units, one in Hobart and one here in Launceston. No more waiting to know whether it's benign, or cancerous.
We've all sat through I suspect, either with a friend or a family member or God forbid even yourself and you've been waiting, and you've been waiting, and it's soul destroying. This investment will remove that wait, that's the practical side of this. Yes it's money and yes it's machines, but what are we investing in? Removing that anxiety and heartache that comes from not getting access to those services as quickly as you need. $24 million dollars for mental health here in Tasmania and that includes an adult mental health center here in Launceston. A centre to treat eating disorders - I know of no parent for whom eating disorders is not one of their worst nightmares, it scares the hell out of me as a parent, scares the absolute hell out of me. We all have to keep investing in the health of our children and the mental health and well-being of our children from the earliest of ages and that's why as proud that in this Budget $461 million - Greg and I are on our mission an absolute mission to tackle youth suicide and youth mental health challenges in this country - $461 million, the biggest package we've ever seen to combat youth suicide. There's no community in this country that is not affected by this. Whether it's up in Grafton with Dr Pat McGorry when not long after Greg became Health Minister there had been a youth suicide cluster. Just that phrase. Everyone in the community was at a loss and Greg and Dr McGorry - who I know well and Greg knows well - went up there and we put a Headspace in. And there has not been, to our knowledge, a further case since that occurred.
So - 30 new Headspace centres are going in around the country, as a result of $461 million we're investing in youth mental health. It’s going to make a big difference. This is going to save young people's lives, young people's lives.
$7 million for drug and alcohol support, funding for a 10 bed facility in Burnie and an eight bed residential accommodation service in Circular Head. $12.4 million for Preventative Health Research at the University of Tasmania. $92 million investing in the health care - and you know who made it happen? You did, you did.
This is why I love small and family businesses; you love what you do. You wouldn't do it if you didn't want to. You'd go work for someone else. You know, you take a wage but when you run a small business you know, you don't take a wage. You get paid last and you pay your employees first and what's left over, is what's there for you and your family. So you do it because you love it. There are so many small family businesses that are tremendously successful and we celebrate them, as we should. But when I talk to small family businesses and I ask them about their businesses and what they love about it, they often talk to me about the weddings that being to for their staff. Or the christenings, or the way they talk about that young apprentice they took on and what they're doing now, running their own show as a carpenter or something like that.
It's the role that the business, particularly in regional communities, has in enriching the life of their fellow Australians.
Your success is the country's success.
The Government is a shareholder in your business, I don’t know if you think about it like that. The better you do, the better we do. That's why we want you to succeed. That's why we've cut small and family business taxes. That's why we're cutting taxes for all Australians, because we want Australians to keep more of what they earn. Because the better they do, the better we all do. And when that happens I can come here and say; “$92 million dollars for health services here in Tasmania”. You've made this happen, we are the Government, we're channeling it we're setting the right priorities. We're getting the direction right and creating the atmosphere for you succeed and the environment for you to succeed. But the reason we can do this, is because of the strong economy you’re building and that we are building together.
That's what is at stake at this next election.
You will not build a stronger economy with higher taxes.
You will not build a stronger economy, where the harder you work, the more you get punished with tax.
You will not build a stronger economy if you try to tie up businesses with reckless emissions targets, things that drive up the price of everything.
You won't get a stronger economy from that and that means you won't get stronger health services.
Our health plan works across four key areas; access to these medical services - and I've talked about bulk-billing and regional access in the plan today - medicines and treatments, our Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme, the physical and mental health of our country. Affordable medicines is one of our greatest achievements I think, as a Government, with over 2,000 affordable medicines listed on the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme which take courses of treatment – so $9 billion for example, on 130 specific cancer drugs - courses that cost hundreds of thousands and I have met the sufferers who have paid that to get access to these medicines - who now can access it for $40.50 or $6.50 for a concession holder. I think there's no greater statement of the strength of our community, our society, our nation and our economy, when we can say we can do that.
Our Government has continued to invest and list all of the medicines recommended and that didn't happen under the previous government. Why? Because they ran out of money.
If you can't manage your Budget you can't manage the health system, as Greg so often says. You can have all the virtue and good intentions you like, but if the wallet is empty you can't pay for anything.
That's why economic management and budget management is so critical. You get that. You’re business people and that's how we run the Budget; like you would. Making sure you get your costs under control. Making sure your revenue streams are sustainable. You can't have sustainable revenue streams as a Government, if you're taxing the economy out of existence. That's why we’ve kept taxes under control as much as we’ve kept expenditure under control.
In hospitals will increase the investment, in research and capability the work of the Medical Research Future Fund is changing the landscape for health care and treatment in this country. It’s something that has been another great achievement $20 billion dollars in that fund $500 million over 10 years for the Australian Genomic mission. $164 million in the Budget for clinical trials for rare cancers, rare disease and unmet needs. $80 million where I was with Greg at the Peter MacCallum Centre of Excellence on cellular immunotherapy. When I was there with Greg, I met a couple from Tassie, getting treatment right there in that facility. It's a facility for all Australians. $100 million dollars for the comprehensive Children's Cancer Centre in Sydney and a ten year medical research plan which backs Australia's 23,000 medical researchers, creating jobs and ensuring we can quickly take life-saving discoveries from the laboratory to the hospital,, to your family to save their lives, to improve the quality of their lives, to change their lives.
It is all about a strong economy at the end of the day.
That’s not a message from an economist, it's a message from patients who need health care. The best script I can write as Prime Minister to secure the health care of Australians, is a budget surplus. The best script that I can write as Prime Minister to guarantee life-saving medicines are available and affordable, is to continue to back you and small and family businesses all around the country, so our economy continues to support these incredibly important services that all Australians rely on.
So when the Labor Party or commentators say; “this election is about health”, sure, sure, yeah it is, but only a stronger economy is going to deliver that.
That's really what is at the heart of what I'm trying to say today. We have the plans to continue to invest in the health care of Tasmanians, in the north of Tasmania and right across the country, in remote Indigenous communities, to our biggest cities. The way we will do that is not through higher taxes as Josh said in the Budget fairly regularly. Yeah he did, because our plan is to grow the economy without increasing taxes, because we know by increasing taxes you slow the economy down and that puts everything else at risk.
So here in northern Tasmania we're positive, we're excited. It's not just of the Battery of the Nation that will charge up the rest of the country coming out of Tasmania, it's the entrepreneurial spirit and go-getting nature of Tasmanians, which they're really starting to see. The rest of Australia is starting to notice it, whether it's in the performance of the housing market or performance of the economy, the great leadership that Will has been providing right here in Tasmania and we're a great partnership.
We've come so far. You've come so far. Now is not the time to turn back. Now is the time to keep on with that plan that will continue to deliver the economy that you rely on, your community relies on, the country relies on.
I want to thank all of you for your hard work, investment and effort that is driving our country forward.
Thank you very much.
Condolence - Les Carlyon
2 April 2019
Mr Morrison: (Cook—Prime Minister) (14:35): Mr Speaker, I rise on indulgence—indeed, in response to your own suggestion—to acknowledge the passing of Les Carlyon. Les Carlyon was a master of words. He helped Australians understand ourselves and our national story. On Gallipoli, the Great War, on the track and on the events of the day, he knew what to say. There seemed to be nothing—no person, no street scene, no world event, no horror, no joy—that he couldn't capture. Of the great horse trainer Bart Cummings, Les wrote that his eyebrows 'were a creeper in search of a trellis'. Perhaps he could have said that about one other holder of the office I now hold—and I am sure he wouldn't mind the reference! On political correctness, he said that it was 'to look at the world through a keyhole not a big bay window'.
He had words when words would fail most of us. This was never truer than when he turned his mind to chronicling some of the most turbulent and tragic events in Australia's history—the story of our First World War experiences at Gallipoli and on the Western Front. These were indeed epic works. Without them, today's Australians could never fully understand the horrors and lessons of the Great War and the sacrifice of 60,000 Australians made real for a whole new generation of Australians and generations to come. In those tomes, he never lost sight of the people who were at the centre of them. In The Great War he contemplated those hundreds of thousands of young men and said, 'We never really saw them.' So Les helped us to see them—and to know them as well.
Les died last month after a long illness, which apparently wasn't his preferred way to go. He used to say that he'd like to go by falling off a horse. He didn't get that wish. But he may have gotten the next best thing: he had his send-off at Flemington, a place that Les loved.
On behalf of this parliament, I offer our sympathy to Denise, Les's beloved wife as well as editor and researcher of his great works—a wonderful partnership in Australia's interest. And our sympathies go to his children, Richard, Patrick and Kate, and the wider Carlyon family. His pen may be down, his voice may now be silenced in this world, but his words will always stay with us. Australia has lost a fine son.
Condolence - John Herron
2 April 2019
Mr Morrison: (Cook—Prime Minister) (14:25): I move:
That the House record its deep regret at the death, on 25 February 2019, of the Honourable Dr John Joseph Herron AO, a former Minister and Senator for the State of Queensland from 1990 to 2002, place on record its appreciation of his long and meritorious public service, and tender its profound sympathy to his family in their bereavement.
Dr John Herron was a surgeon, a parliamentarian and a true humanitarian. John Herron was a man of faith and a man of great compassion. The Bible speaks of those who repair the ruins, and those restorers are called 'the repairers of the breach'. Repairing the breaches—that's what he did in this place, that's what he did throughout his life, and that's what he especially did in Rwanda.
John Herron's kindness was legendary around this place. It was to John Herron, the doctor-turned-senator, that so many MPs and senators turned in the most difficult moments of their lives. He supported Labor MP Con Sciacca through the devastating loss of his 19-year-old son to cancer, and they went on to work together to support other families facing similar tragedies. When Cheryl Kernot lost her house in an arson attack in 1991, it was John Herron who reached out. Of course, John had understood what to say and do because he had watched his own house burn to the ground in 1967, leaving his family with literally just the clothes on their backs. He didn't let this place change his very essence. He was always a doctor, a father, a Catholic, a Queenslander—always trying to be authentic all the time in his life. It's why he was trusted by all in this place.
John Herron's greatest achievements, though, I don't believe were in this building, though those achievements are many and deserving of honour; they were on another continent, in Africa, in Rwanda. It was during 1994, while driving, that Senator Herron heard on the radio that Care Australia was looking for doctors to volunteer in Rwanda, a nation ravaged by one of the worst genocides in modern history—a million dead in a genocide against the Tutsi people. Rather than, as he put it, sitting around in opposition in the Senate doing nothing, he made the life-changing decision to spend the next two months in Rwanda. He saw the unimaginable, the unspeakable. He saw man's inhumanity to others. He saw murder. He saw genocide. He saw hell itself as best it can be replicated in this world. He spoke of seeing the bodies of thousands of people machine-gunned in a sports field and trucks gathering the bodies. There was cholera and dysentery. There were thousands of orphans, children as young as three, numbed by what they had seen. He experienced abject terror when child soldiers aimed their AK-47s at him.
John Herron came back to Australia a changed man, traumatised indeed by what he had witnessed. He would go on to become a fierce advocate for the establishment of the International Criminal Court. But he also suffered what he then called a nervous breakdown, crying at night and weeping for no reason. Indeed, it was PTSD. The doctor who had given so much to others paid a high price himself for his compassion.
John Herron was in many ways an accidental politician. He considered himself apolitical. As he put it: 'I never took any interest in anything outside. I didn't read the newspaper—no politics, nothing.' But, after asking a question of a Labor politician at a meeting and feeling like he got fobbed off, John Herron joined the Liberal Party. He served the party and, in time, the nation with great distinction. He was President of the Liberal Party in Queensland twice. He was a senator for Queensland for 12 years. As Minister for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Affairs in the Howard government, he focused on and championed improving the health outcomes for Indigenous Australians.
John's service to Australia did not end when he retired from the Senate in 2002. He served as Australia's Ambassador to Ireland and the Holy See and continued to champion medical causes throughout Australia. One cause he was particularly passionate about was Down syndrome. He was instrumental in establishing Down Syndrome Queensland after his first child, Maryann, was born with that condition. John Herron touched the lives of people across at least two continents. His dedication to serving others, his love for his family and his country, and his enduring compassion for people everywhere serve as an inspiration to us all.
I extend my deepest sympathy to his wife, Jan, and their nine surviving children, as well as their extended family. To John Herron, we simply say: thank you for your service.
Condolence - Christchurch attacks
2 April 2019
Mr Morrison: (Cook—Prime Minister) (14:01): I move:
That this House:
(1) expresses its condemnation of the terrorist attack on the Al Noor and Linwood Mosques by an Australian citizen in Christchurch on 15 March 2019 that claimed 50 innocent lives as they came to prayer, and our grief for and solidarity with the people of New Zealand who have suffered this terrible and appalling assault on the quiet peace of their nation;
(2) expresses our solidarity with the Muslim community of Christchurch, New Zealand and our own nation at this time of affliction;
(3) honours the courage and presence of first responders, and all who came to help in whatever way they could;
(4) abhors racism and religious intolerance, acknowledges and celebrates the diversity and harmony of our Australian people and our respect for people from all faiths, cultures, ethnicities and nationalities that has made Australia one of the world's most successful immigration nations and multicultural societies; and
(5) reaffirms our commitment as Australians to peace over violence, innocence over evil, understanding over extremism, liberty over fear and love over hate.
New Zealand is family and I welcome the deputy high commissioner, who is here with us today. They are 'fanau', as the Maori say. New Zealanders are more like us than anywhere else in the world. The atrocity in Christchurch was an attack on our family. Unimaginably, it was an attack undertaken by an Australian. We feel shock, we feel grief, we are stunned and shamed that he came from among us and grew up among us. He may be an Australian by birth and by law but his actions and beliefs betray all that is and forever will be Australian, and we denounce it absolutely. Our thoughts and our prayers, our love and support are only with those he attacked. Our Queen, who we share with our Kiwi cousins, once said this of New Zealanders: it is a country characterised by 'a sense of fairness and justice, a willingness to be outward looking and a natural compassion for others'—so true.
Australia has responded in kind. In recent weeks we have seen tens of thousands of acts of kindness. There have been prayers not just in mosques but in churches, synagogues and temples all around our country and in the quiet homes, I'm sure, of Australians. The silver fern shone on our opera house, expressing our solidarity across the ditch. Our flags were lowered, including above us here in this very chamber. Schoolchildren did drawings and wrote letters sharing their sadness. Our Muslim community here reached out, many travelling to New Zealand to assist their brethren and their sisters. At a government-to-government level we have provided every assistance you would expect us to and beyond.
New Zealand, of course, has first-class police, medical staff and first responders, but the scale of what they faced was unimaginable. It would have overwhelmed any city, particularly a city the size of Christchurch, in Australia. Australia has provided that support, and I want to thank all of those agencies at state and federal levels who were so quick to respond—our police, forensic specialists, victim support officers and intelligence analysts—where it was needed. Even now I understand counsellors from the New South Wales ambulance service are there to help the first responders.
Throughout all of this we have stood together. Last Friday, led by the Governor-General, the Leader of the Opposition and I attended the memorial service in Christchurch, joined by Lady Cosgrove, Chloe and Jenny. We were all touched by the service, by the people we met and their resolute determination to answer hate with love. One survivor who I met, Mr Farid Ahmed, who spoke at the service, said probably one of the most beautiful things I've ever heard someone say under such horrendous circumstances. He didn't speak of revenge, hurt or loss, even though it was his own wife who had been killed by the terrorist whilst she sought to assist him. Instead, he spoke in the great tradition of the Abrahamic faiths of forgiveness and he said he forgives—very powerful words. That's what conquers evil. That's what conquers hate. That beautiful service affirmed what we knew: that understanding will conquer division, that tolerance will always conquer fear and that love will always triumph overall. That powerful ethos reflected what I had seen in Australia when I met with Muslim leaders, including the mufti, the day after the Christchurch atrocity. Naturally there is deep and profound grief, but with grief there must also come reflection and answers. We owe that to all of those afflicted. The terrorist did live amongst us for just 45 days over the past three years. It is quite apparent that he acquired this vile radicalisation as he toured the world on a pilgrimage of hate and intolerance that met in the most tragic events for those victims.
What else must be done to keep people safe? Of course we have asked those questions and have been answering them. How do we stop social media being weaponised by terrorists? We have been responding to that question as well. We must again, as we do right now, reaffirm what we as Australians believe and the society we stand for.
This House knows, and I believe would share—I would hope—our commitment to religious freedom. It starts with the right to worship and to meet safely without fear. It means not looking over your shoulder or hiding who you are as you sit down to pray. It means to live without ridicule, to live without mocking for your beliefs and to live without violence or discrimination. Each day this House meets, it opens with a prayer. Long may that continue. Let our prayers now be for understanding, for restoration and for resolve to defy the hate and to focus on what we share, to understand, appreciate and respect the difference between us all and to perhaps agree more but to always disagree better.
At the heart of all extremism—religious, secular or political—is the inability to tolerate difference, a hatred of difference, and a hatred about the choices of others. We must strive to see the 'us' in our national life and to celebrate it, an Australian 'us' of different faiths, of different ethnicities, of different ages, genders and sexualities, an Australian 'us' that rejects the hate, the blame and contempt that grip too much of modern debate. So we pause today, and we remember and we reflect, and we resolve to renew the bonds between us. Eight centuries ago, the Muslim poet and scholar Rumi said:
We may know who we are or we may not. We may be Muslims, Jews or Christians but until our hearts become the mould for every heart we … see only our differences.
May this be a time when our hearts do mould together and where we remind ourselves of our similarities, for this is the best way we honour the 50 souls no longer with us.
Australia-Israel Chamber of Commerce Speech
18 March 2019
Southbank, VIC
PRIME MINISTER: Wurundjeri Peoples of the Kulin Nation.
It’s an honour to be here again at the Australia-Israel Chamber of Commerce.
Last August as Treasurer I spoke about our ‘fair go economy’. I had planned to build on that theme today.
But the acts of terrorism last Friday have caused me to pause, to reflect, and to take the opportunity today to have a different conversation.
The Jewish people know what it’s like to be the victim of hate-speech, to be politically objectified.
They know the evil of race based ideology – the banality of terrorism and that the real enemy is always hatred and intolerance.
It is every citizens responsibility to break cycles of hate whenever and wherever we may see them.
I know the people in this room, and across Australia, have been horrified, devastated and ashamed about what happened in Christchurch, the attack on innocence in a place of worship - a terrorist atrocity committed by an Australian.
New Zealand is family, or whanau as Maori say.
Like family, we occasionally squabble, often tease, but always when threatened or attacked, we’ve got each other’s back.
And like family, the Kiwis are the people most like us in the world.
Even our flags speak of two nations similar but different, with intertwined histories, and futures that will always be shared.
We don’t say it enough: We are proud of our New Zealand cousins. We love them.
Many years ago, our Queen, Her Majesty, said this about the Kiwi character.
New Zealand is characterised by “a sense of fairness and justice; a willingness to be outward-looking; and a natural compassion for others”.
So true.
A country of good people with a good heart.
Here, at home, we express our solidarity.
The Silver Fern shone on our Opera House.
The New Zealand flag flew above our Government House.
Across our country, our own Southern Cross dipped in respect, above our Parliament, atop our harbour bridge.
The Australian Muslim community has offered counsellors and is providing support to the New Zealand Muslim community – along with, I’m sure support from Muslims from countries around the world.
In Christian churches and Jewish synagogues there have been prayers for our Muslim brothers and sisters, bound by our Abrahamic faiths.
And thousands of Australians, of other faiths or no faith have reached across ‘the ditch’ with love, support and prayers.
Naturally, at a government level we are providing New Zealand with every assistance they require and standing up every necessary capability here in Australia to keep our own people safe.
New Zealand has world class police, medical and forensic staff and any assistance we are providing reflects simply the scale of these atrocities.
Rightly, this is a time for grief and it is a time for reflection.
In time, we will have a better idea of how this all happened.
How did this terrorist stay in the shadows, hiding among us in plain sight?
Where and how did his vile radicalisation take place? During the last three years the terrorist spent just 45 days in Australia, travelling extensively overseas.
What laws need to change, what additional actions and precautions need to be taken?
Answers to those questions will come with time, and must.
Such questions are practical and necessary and can be posed and considered without the need for defensiveness or blame.
About a month ago, I spoke at the National Press Club about keeping Australians safe. I spoke about what we are doing in terms of keeping Australians secure: more resources for police and intelligence services; more powers; the 12 tranches of anti-terrorism legislation; our strong border protection policies and our efforts tackling illegal narcotics like ICE; and funding extensive anti-domestic violence programs.
As part of our efforts keeping Australian safe, we have a Safer Communities fund that has provided since 2016 $70 million in local community safety grants for schools, pre-schools, community organisations and local councils.
For some months now we have been working to expand this programme.
Today, I am announcing an acceleration and extension of that program, to provide $55 million in community safety grants - and for priority to be given to religious schools, places of religious worship and religious assembly.
The grants from $50,000 to $1.5 million will provide for safety enhancements such as CCTV cameras, lighting, fencing, bollards, alarms, security systems and public address systems.
When I say I believe in religious freedom - and I am one of its staunchest defenders in Parliament - I know it starts with the right to worship and meet safely without fear. This must be the first freedom we secure, to practice their faith in safety, others should follow.
Religious freedom is not just an inalienable right as free citizens. It is important to the very cohesion of our society. It is for many Australians impossible to separate their faith from their culture.
Now this announcement, along with everything else we have announced over recent years is ‘the how’ of keeping people safe – and we’ll keep investing and working on ‘the how’, because the greatest responsibility of any government is to keep Australians safe.
But today, I want to engage in a broader reflection – about how we see difference in our world, and how we manage it.
I said here in Melbourne last Tuesday, you can’t have a strong economy unless you are secure – and you can’t be truly secure if your social fabric is not strong.
The bonds between us all matter.
The rainforests in North Queensland are older than the Amazon.
Every part of this ecosystem reinforces itself.
It doesn’t grow apart, it grows together.
And so it is with countries and their peoples.
But these ties that bind us are under new pressures and are at risk of breaking.
This is not just happening in Australia – it’s happening in many countries around the world.
If we allow a culture of ‘us and them’, of tribalism, to take hold; if we surrender an individual to be defined not by their own unique worth and contribution but by the tribe they are assigned to, if we yield to the compulsion to pick sides rather than happy coexistence, we will lose what makes diversity work in Australia.
As debate becomes more fierce, the retreat to tribalism is increasingly taking over, and for some, extremism takes hold.
Reading only news that we agree with, interacting with people only we agree with, and having less understanding and grace towards others that we do not even know, making the worst possible assumptions about them and their motives, simply because we disagree with them.
This is true of the left and the right. And even more so from those shouting from the fringes to a mainstream of quiet Australians that just want to get on with their lives.
Hate, blame and contempt are the staples of tribalism, it is consuming modern debate, egged on by an appetite for conflict as entertainment, not so different from the primitive appetites of the colosseum days, with a similar corrosive impact on the fabric of our society.
Contempt, is defined by the philosophers as “the unsullied conviction of the worthlessness of another”.
The worthlessness of another!
That is where mindless tribalism takes us.
It ends in the worst of places. Last week it ended the lives of 50 fellow human beings, including children praying in Christchurch.
I agree with the American author, Arthur Brooks who has recently said, “What we need is not to disagree less, but to disagree better.”
Not disagreeing less, but disagreeing better.
When we disagree better: we engage with respect, rather than questioning each other’s integrity and morality.
Tribalists constantly seek to appropriate legitimate policy issues and public concerns as a tool to promote their separatist and exclusive agendas. To contort and misrepresent disagreement in the worst possible terms.
Immigration is a classic example.
A discussion about the level of annual migrant intake is not a debate about the value or otherwise of multiculturalism or the economic contribution of migration. It must not be appropriated as a proxy debate for racial, religious or ethnic sectarianism.
Just because Australians are frustrated about traffic jams and population pressures encroaching on their quality of life, especially in this city, does not mean they are anti-migrant or racist. To the contrary. Australians respect the positive contribution that migration has made to our country.
For the overwhelming majority of Australians concerned about this issue, this is not and never would be their motivation.
But that is how the tribalists seek to confect it, from both sides.
The worst example being the despicable appropriation of concerns about immigration as a justification for a terrorist atrocity. Such views have rightly been denounced. But equally, so to must the imputation that the motivation for supporting moderated immigration levels is racial hatred.
We cannot allow such legitimate policy debates to be hijacked like this.
Managing our population growth is a practical policy challenge that needs answers. Answers I will continue to outline as we approach the next election, from our congestion busting road and rail investments to ensuring we frame our migration programme to meet the needs of our economy, the capacity of our cities and the opportunities and needs in our regions.
We see a similar trend in relation to the debate on border protection policies.
For me this has always been about ensuring the integrity of our borders because I believe this is essential to a successful immigration programme, a view shared by many migrant communities in Australia, and preventing the horrific impact of the people smugglers trade.
I have never sought to question the compassionate motives of those who hold different views about the best way to manage Australia’s borders. I have rarely had this courtesy extended by those who who hold contrary views to my own.
As Australians we need to stand against the militant and lazy group think that distorts our public debate, stand up for our individualism and seek to think better of each other.
Part of disagreeing better, is to appreciate our differences - or to understand, in the words of Rabbi Jonathan Sacks, “the dignity of difference”.
Extremism, or in a different form fundamentalism, is simply an inability to tolerate difference.
It is to feel threatened by others who do not conform to your world view.
And it takes many forms: religious extremism, secular extremism, and political extremism.
Every terrorist attack has at its core a hatred of difference and a hatred about the choices and lives of others.
Prime Minister Ardern grasped the essence of this on Friday – when she said of the New Zealand Muslim community, “they are us”.
This was reflected in my own remarks, an attack one faith is an attack on all. An attack on innocence and peace is an attack on us all who love peace and innocence.
This is a powerful idea. No them but us.
Tribalists always want to separate us, divide us, set one Australian against another.
As Prime Minister I want to continue to bring Australians together, not set them against one another.
I want us to reject the thinking that one person’s gain is another’s loss. This is a doctrine of scarcity that betrays our social and economic prosperity and creates an environment for conflict and division.
I want to remove the demarcation lines between Australians.
I see every Australian as an individual, not part of some tribal group to be traded off against another.
And I believe, not in a tribalism that divides, but in an us that unites.
So let me affirm today what us means:
Indigenous Australians are us.
Immigrant Australians from all nationalities and backgrounds, including Chinese, Lebanese, Greek, Indian, Turkish, Vietnamese, just to name a few, are us.
Muslim Australians are us.
Christian Australians are us.
Jewish Australians are us.
Hindu Australians are us.
Atheist Australians are us.
LGBTIQ Australians are us.
Whoever you vote for - us.
Older Australians are us.
Young Australians are us.
Female Australians are us.
Male Australians are us.
Regional Australians are us.
From the bottom of Tasmania to the tip of Cape York, from Byron to Broome, all 25 million Australians are us.
We belong to each other. We stand with each other. We must love and respect each other more. That’s what we must affirm today to fight the forces that will otherwise weaken our nation.
My friends, in a few weeks time, I will visit the Governor-General and ask for an election to be held.
That election will be hard fought.
In this election I see my challenge as not to convince anyone Australian to join my side, but to convince them that as a result of what we are putting forward, we are on theirs, as individuals, whoever they may be and whatever life’s circumstances they may face.
My case is for an even stronger Australia - prosperous, safe and united.
A strong economy that can deliver the guaranteed funding for the services that Australians rely on, without increasing taxes, that would harm our economy.
We face increased uncertainty in the global economy in the year ahead. This has been true for many years now, and our Government has continued to protect and steward our economy, with records jobs growth, lower taxes, support for small and family businesses, building the infrastructure Australia needs to bust congestion and manage population growth, returning the budget to surplus and maintaining our AAA credit rating.
This strong economic management has enabled us to make more than 2000 life changing medicines affordable by listing on the PBS, deliver record levels of hospitals and schools funding and to achieve the highest level of bulk billing for Medicare in Australia’s history.
Now is not the time for economic experiments, or handing the economic wheel over to those who have been unable to demonstrate an ability to drive. This will make Australia weaker in the decade ahead, and all Australians will pay for it.
As we saw following John Howard, vote Labor once and you pay for it for a decade.
Continued responsible management of our economy will enable us to continue on with our plans to keep Australians safe, with record investments to combat domestic violence, counter terrorism in all its forms, rebuild our defence forces and respond speedily to the natural disasters of flood, drought and fire.
And our fundamental belief that one Australian does not have to fail for another to succeed, of rejecting the politics of conflict and division, we can best continue to bring Australians together, to reinforce the social fabric so important to our economic success and security as a nation.
We will continue to engage in strengthening this social fabric – in finding a bigger place for ‘us’ and a smaller place for the idea of ‘them’.
I will finish with a Maori exhortation to us all in this difficult time, Kia Kaha - stay strong. That is my plan for Australia.
Remarks, Coptic Diocese of Sydney Mass
17 March 2019
Thank you to this wonderful community, which has welcomed Jenny and my two girls our two girls, Abbey and Lily to be here today. A little bit different to the church that we’re used to, just as much noise though -
[Laughter]
At Pentecostal church as there is here in the Coptic Orthodox Church, full of celebration, full of worship, full of family and full of praise. It's truly wonderful to be here with my good friend Bishop Daniel and to also meet the other Bishop Daniel. I don’t know what the collective noun is for a group of Bishop Daniels.
[Laughter]
But whatever it is, it’s great to be here with both of you. I have appreciated the prayers and support of the Coptic community throughout my entire public life and that continues to this day. I’m very grateful for it because those prayers I know, are not just offered up for myself, but for my family as well and for our community. As I know you do also for David Coleman as well and his family, Craig and his family, Tom – who I welcome also, from Sutherland Council – and all of those who are gathered here today.
The purpose of the original invitation was extended to be here today to acknowledge and celebrate 50 years of the Coptic Church here in Australia, when Father Mina came here on Australia Day 50 years ago. I think there's something beautiful about that; greeted a handful of Coptics at the time, full of excitement about what the future would bring for them. And they met - because there was no beautiful Coptic Church like this at that time – so they met in a Salvation Army Hall. And I thought, there is something beautiful about that as well. Because just like where we are today, which was originally built as an Anglican Church and today the iconography and all of the presentation of a beautiful Coptic Church, I think it says a lot about the nature of our multicultural Australia. That whatever foundations we build upon, we built it up to what it is today; which is a tolerant, multicultural, diverse, strong society. Not a godless society, but a society of so many millions of Australians who share a faith and hold a faith.
Faith is a mystery. It’s a mystery to those who hold it and to those who don’t. What do I mean by that? Some think faith and those who hold a faith are about having some set of rules or moral superiority, or they think they’re purer than other people and things like that. But all of us know, those who have a faith, that it's quite the opposite.
A faith is something that you hold to because you understand - I believe - and you acknowledge the humility of the human condition. You understand the fragility of humanity. You understand its weaknesses. You appreciate its beauty, its strengths. But we also understand its susceptibilities and we all have those. Now I have no doubt that who have no such faith can also appreciate these things as well, it's not exclusive. But it is the thing I think, that draws those of faith, to faith. It is a fundamental understanding of our humanity and its fragility. So that draws us as individuals, seeking to understand our own existence, into our relationship in the Christian faith with our God I believe it the same motivation that draws so many others to their faiths.
But the other thing about faith is, it's just not individual understanding of humanity and fragility and weakness, but it is also about community. In Hebrews it says – and the scholars will differ I’m sure, on who the writer of Hebrews was - but I believe this is Paul and so does Bishop Daniel by the way.
[Laughter]
He said; “Forsake not,” in Hebrews, “your meeting together.” And Jesus said; “Where two or three are gathered in my name, I am there with you.”
Faith is also about community and here we are in a community. Because from that community we know we draw strength. This is the wonderful community, it is a strong community, it is a vibrant community. But there’s no community that does not know hardship. There is not a community that does not understand grief. As Bishop Daniels said, it is not uncommon in Egypt for Copts to know the full horror of hate and violence.
It is sad when we hear from Bishop Daniel, that you get used to it. It’s something we could never really get used to, and we hope never to do. But I think that is an honest expression of what is faced by people of religious faith and in particularly the Copts in Egypt. But as we know, I think as we stand here today and we reflect on and remember and pray for and identify with those of another faiths today, those of the Islamic faith, the Cops better than anyone understand I believe, the pain and hurt and the grief that our Muslim brothers and sisters are going through in New Zealand right now and across this nation.
Yesterday I met with the National Imams Council and all I could say to them was to express my profound grief to them, as you have done this morning. As Australians right across this country will be doing; in churches yesterday, in temples, on Friday in prayers in mosques, all understanding our human fragility and how in a moment, innocence can be attacked and lost, by an act of hate.
But you know, when you go back to why Father Mina came here 50 years ago, he came here to preach and to gather together a community of hope. A hope established on this very important point, which is a message to all of those who would choose hate and a life of hate; a life of hate only ends in ruin and suffering. He came here to celebrate, as you and I and all Australians do in the faiths that we pursue, a message of love.
It says; “Do not be troubled by the world, because I have overcome them,” you know that scripture. What is meant by that is that Jesus overcame the hate, with love. That is the message of Abrahamic faiths and I believe many others; a message of love for others.
Now I can assure you and those who would seek to peddle hate and culture hate and ferment hate, in whatever place they are and from whatever motive it comes, that hate will never defeat love, because love is the basis of peace.
[Applause]
That is the victory we declare today over these horrendous and despicable events, in of all places, a place called ‘Christ church’, a place called Christchurch. We stand together, I believe as a world today, in speaking out against that.
So my prayer this morning – I’ll pray again I understand, in a moment – but the one I particularly want to share with you here is the prayers of St. Francis and I’m sure many of you will know it. It is a prayer for a troubled time, which this is.
It says: “Lord, make me an instrument of your peace. Where there is hatred, let me sow love; where there is injury, pardon; where there is doubt, faith; where there is despair, hope; where there is darkness, light; where there is sadness, joy. Oh divine master, grant that I might not so much seek to be consoled, as to console; to be understood, as to understand; to be loved, as to love. For it is in giving that we receive, and it is in the pardoning that we are pardoned. It is in dying, that we are born to eternal life.”
That was the prayer of St Francis. I can't think of any better commendation to all of us as to how to respond and I want to thank the Coptic community for the way you have reached out to our Muslim community. That's what about country is all about - the respect for each other, the care and love for each other and as I said, this community knows better than most, as well as any other the hurt that they would be feeling now and out of that, we profess love.
So I thank you very much. Peace be with you.
[Applause]
Remarks, International Women's Day Women in Resources Breakfast
8 March 2019
Perth, WA
... today on International Women’s Day, a very exciting day. I also acknowledge the Noongar people, the elders past, present and emerging. Can I particularly acknowledge indigenous women today and can I acknowledge their bravery, their courage for the way that they have, over generations, over centuries, been there for their families and for their people. Indigenous women are a very special group of people in this country and earlier this week, I had the opportunity to announce the largest ever package of support in relation to domestic violence against women. And a key part of that was supporting Indigenous women in this country. And particularly here amongst the mining industry, I want to acknowledge the mining industry for the great work that they do right across - not just this state - but right across the country in supporting indigenous Australians, both with employment opportunities. But they're a great partner on these important social programs as well. A terrific partner. So I want to acknowledge the mining industry for that.
It's great to be here also amongst the mining industry on this day for a couple of reasons. First of all is because of the great achievements that I think have been achieved here in the minerals industry when it comes to the advancement of women. Now, I have been doing a bit of advancement of women lately myself. And Linda Reynolds is here as evidence and proof of that, joined by Melissa Price and Michaelia Cash. There are now seven women in my Cabinet, which is the highest number of women ever in a Cabinet in Australia's history. The fact that three of them are from Western Australia - three out of the seven - I think speaks volumes about Western Australia.
[Applause]
And so it's great to have them all in my team. They're doing a tremendous job across a range of very difficult and very important portfolios. The other reason is because I understand - my Government understands, Mathias and I understand, and Steve, and Slade, who's here as well, that... you mentioned I had two girls. That's true. And what Jenny and I want for our girls is for them to have all the choices in life that you would hope that they would have. Mathias I know he feels the same way about his family and all of us do. And for them to have those choices, something has to happen. And that is our economy has to be strong. You look around the world, where women face their biggest challenges and struggles - they're in the developing countries of the world. Prosperity brings with it its opportunities, of course it does, for every person. But it particularly brings the ability and the power to be able to increase the standing and opportunities for women around the world. And that's true here in Australia.
And so I applaud the minerals industry for doing two things. One is contributing to Australia's prosperity. Not just here in Western Australia, but all around the country. The mining industry in Australia makes Australia stronger. That's why I support it. I know there are others who don't. I know there are others at the moment who want to attack the mining industry and talk it down, say that it doesn't have a future. That's just dead wrong. When you attack the mining industry, you are attacking Australia's economic future. Whether that's in North Queensland, whether it's here in Western Australia, whether it's in the Northern Territory, it doesn't matter where you are. If you're not a friend of the mining industry in Australia, you're not a friend of prosperity in Australia. And I'm a friend of prosperity in Australia, because I know what it delivers for Australians and I know what it particularly delivers for women in Australia. A more prosperous country is a stronger society where we can invest $328 million in countering and combating domestic violence in this country, where women can start businesses, grow, take opportunity that they're seeking, take ownership of their economic future. The programs like the Esther Foundation I was at yesterday can see young women reclaim their lives, reclaim the things that have been taken from them, by having the support of a generous society, because they raise their funds from a generous community and they're supported by us as well. So, a more prosperous country is good for Australia and it's particularly good for Australian women. And to have a more prosperous country, you've got to have, in this country, a very strong minerals sector. So, that's the other reason I was very keen to be here today.
One of the other female members of my Cabinet, Kelly O'Dwyer, said at the Press Club last year, our Minister for Women, “Gender equality isn't about pitting girls against boys.” See, we're not about setting Australians against each other, trying to push some down to lift others up. That's not in our values. That is an absolutely Liberal value, that you don't push some people down to lift some people up. And that is true about gender equality too. We want to see women rise. But we don't want to see women rise only on the basis of others doing worse. We want everybody to do better, and we want to see the rise of women in this country be accelerated to ensure that their overall pace is maintained. So Kelly said, "It isn't about pitting girls against boys or women against men. It's not about conflict," she said. "It's about recognising that girls and women deserve an equal stake in our economy and our society." And that's what we're achieving and we still have a long way to go. It's a powerful message that we all need to understand.
CME, in its efforts to highlight the achievements of women, particularly through the Women in Resources Awards, is to be something to be absolutely commended. I'm looking forward to meeting some of the nominees today. The Inspiring Girls Initiative, which connects female students with women working in this industry, I think, is a tremendous initiative, showing them the range of opportunities that they can grab if they want a career in mining and energy. And we want to ensure that they have the opportunity to have careers in this industry and in so many others. A job-creating economy will make our families stronger, it will make our communities stronger.
Last year, we released the landmark Women's Economic Security Statement. It's about backing women to boost their skills and employability, start their own businesses, and importantly give women more options to secure their financial independence when they need it, whether they are starting a career, a family, or in retirement. Increased flexibility for paid parental leave. Supporting entrepreneurship opportunities for women, and the STEM program for girls. And allowing catch-up superannuation contributions if returning to work after a break for family reasons. The Women's Economic Security Statement has been the next instalment of our delivering for women across Australia. The record level of female participation in the workforce, the record low in the gender pay gap in Australia, the record number of women going into jobs - more than half of the 1.2 million jobs, well over half, have gone to women. As our economy has grown, women have been going faster in terms of securing those opportunities, which we always want to see them achieve.
Now, Karen Andrews is one of the other female members of our Cabinet, and to the great thrill, I think, of most in this room, she's also an engineer.
[Laughter]
And they're the women we have in our team. From different backgrounds. Great skills. In business, in law, in the community, in the military, right across our team you will find women who have brought great skills and abilities. And we're selecting more, particularly since last August, and we've had 19 women now who have been selected as candidates. And coming into the Senate, Wendy Askew, from Tasmania, will be joining Mathias and the team when we're back in Parliament. She's formally taken up that position now. I'm pleased to see that happen. Of course, we've got further to go, but the women in our party who are achieving particularly out here in the west have been blazing the trail. And I know so many will follow in the trail that they've created for women in our Party. And my commitment as the leader of this Party is to ensure that continues and for it to gain momentum, for it to get stronger. I think that's the record I've demonstrated since taking over the job last year. I only want to see that continue to grow into the future.
So I wish everybody a very happy International Women’s Day and to remind everyone that the great state of Western Australia is a state that has for so long in our country driven out prosperity and we need to ensure that continues in this state and you cannot do that unless you’re prepared to back the mining and resources industry in this country. If you’re not prepared to do that, you’re not prepared to back prosperity in this country. You’re not in a position to be able to support the services that Australian rely on and women rely on. How have we got the highest ever level of bulk billing in Medicare in Australia’s history? Because we’ve got a strong economy. How have we got 2,000 medicines listed on the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme for ovarian cancer, breast cancer, all of these incredibly life-destroying illnesses? Because we’ve got a strong economy. And so my plan is to focus on ensuring that we have a strong economy in the future, because I believe that will advance women’s interests here in this country and the program we’ve got to accelerate women’s interest in this country will only see a stronger future for my girls, for all of your girls and all the girls who are here. Happy International Women’s Day.