Speeches
Statement, House of Representatives
27 October 2020
Mr Speaker, I indeed would have been happy to second the motion, Mr Speaker. I join with the Leader of the Opposition and I believe it is very important that this Parliament today come together and express its thanks and gratitude to the people of Victoria, Mr Speaker, for their extraordinary resilience, and their determination, their patience, the care that they have shown for each other through what has been an exhausting and difficult and overwhelming time for so many.
There have been many things asked of Australians over the course of what has been probably in most people's living memory, one of the most difficult times they have ever experienced and certainly as a nation, our collective experience, it has been many generations since Australians have had to go through a time such as this. But for Victorians, this time has been a time like no other in Australia have really had to endure, Mr Speaker.
And so it is right for our Parliament to congratulate and to thank Victorians for the way that they have conducted themselves over these many, many difficult months and indeed, yesterday, I was pleased to hear of the decision of the Premier and the Victorian government to take this next important step forward.
Mr Speaker, I said at the outset of the Victorian lockdown that Australia will not win unless Victoria wins and we are now starting to see Victoria win again, Mr Speaker, and I welcome that. This is a good thing for Australia, it is a good thing for all Australians and we all welcome it, I'm sure, from every corner of this country.
Mr Speaker, when the first wave of the coronavirus pandemic hit this country, we brought together all State Premiers and Chief Ministers to what was an innovation in the National Cabinet that has now met on 30 occasions, Mr Speaker. Unprecedented in our Federation history for Premiers and Chief Ministers to come together with the Prime Minister and work in the way that we have. And there have been critics of the National Cabinet, Mr Speaker, and there have been disagreements amongst the National Cabinet from time to time. But I can assure Australians, as I do, Mr Speaker, I don't know why there are any interjections, Mr Speaker, this is a bipartisan motion.
Mr Speaker, in that National Cabinet as we work together, as we work together Mr Speaker, to deal with that first wave and the many challenges that presented, it was indeed the Victorian Premier, the New South Wales Premier, all of the Premiers and Chief Ministers who supported that national effort and what we sought to do, Mr Speaker, in that first wave, was to build our national resilience, to build up our health response, to ensure the respirators were in place, that the testing and tracing kits were in place, to ensure the COVID-safe practices could be established.
Mr Speaker, the interjections continue. But Mr Speaker, I will endure over them because Mr Speaker, it is important that Australians know that this Parliament has come together on this issue today and I would urge those opposite, Mr Speaker, to cease the interjections because we are at one on this and this is the truth. This is the truth, Mr Speaker, of Australia’s success, that well outside of this place, Australians have supported each other, each and every day, through this pandemic, Mr Speaker. Outside of this place, Mr Speaker, governments have worked together, each and every day, each and every day. And the National Cabinet has been an important part of that process.
So as we built up that national resilience as a country, as a people, as governments, all across the country, we looked forward to that time in July where we had agreed as a National Cabinet that we would be open again in July and we looked forward to that day and we were moving well towards that day, Mr Speaker. In seven states and territories, that progress continued but sadly in July, we saw the case numbers begin to rise in Victoria and we saw the failure of the quarantine which is understood and well-known and has been documented. We saw the issues of contact tracing and we saw Victoria descend into what was a cataclysmic second wave of this virus and it was the right decision of the Victorian Premier and the Victorian government to impose the lockdown measures, which I welcomed at the time and urged all encouragement to Victorians to endure those measures, Mr Speaker, because they had come necessary. That lockdown had become necessary. As borders between New South Wales and Victoria had become necessary, Mr Speaker.
But I say this, borders and lockdowns are not demonstration or evidence of success. They are not evidence of success, they are evidence of outbreaks that have got out of control. They are evidence of things that have not gone as they should and so now Mr Speaker as I welcome the reopening of Victoria and the endurance and the sacrifice of Victorians and the way they were able to work through this issue Mr Speaker I welcome that. I think it's tremendous and I think it's great that Tasmania's opening back up again. I think it's fantastic, Mr Speaker, that South Australia's opened up again. And I am encouraged by the words of the former Queensland Premier Peter Beattie who believes things should open up again Mr Speaker, I'm encouraged by that.
People in this place know that I have always wanted Australia to work their way through this crisis and not get stuck in a rut Mr Speaker, and that's what we must do. So I welcome the fact that Victoria is opening but as Victorians went through this crisis and I can assure you of this, this Government stood by them. Mr Speaker, this Government stood by them. 28 Commonwealth GP-led respiratory clinics assessed over 175,200 people in Victoria. 1,400 interviews assigned to Commonwealth teams on contact tracing, 27.8 million masks from the National medical stockpile, some $1.3 billion in funding for specific COVID safe health costs in Victoria, testing for aged care workers, interstate truck drivers and train drivers, support through communications, tailored mental health programs, 15 mental health clinics Mr Speaker, $200 million every day of support to see Victorians through this crisis.
Mr Speaker, our Government has stood by Victorians every single day of the lockdown that became necessary as a result of the outbreak that got out of control. And as we look to the future and we look to the new three step process that has been agreed by National Cabinet and I thank, in particular, the Premier of Victoria who was one of the first to sign up to open it by Christmas when we agreed this in September.
Mr Speaker, as we look to the future, we cannot look to a future of lockdowns as a way of managing this virus. What we must do is ensure we have the testing and the tracing and the isolation and the quarantine options and all of these things which National Cabinet and my cabinet are working to deliver for Australians because we are going to open safely and we are going to safely remain open under the policies of our Government, Mr Speaker, working hand in glove with the state and territory Premiers and Chief Ministers around this country.
So, Mr Speaker, I join with the Leader of the Opposition in commending Victorians, I thank the many public health workers in Victoria, I thank the tram drivers, Mr Speaker, I thank all of those who have worked whether in aged care, childcare, distribution centres, schools, hospitals, wherever they have been, they have been champions of this country in their time of crisis, Mr Speaker, and I thank them for every single sacrifice because the cost of the lockdown has been significant. It has been a heavy blow. There are so many Victorians who will carry the scars of this lockdown, Mr Speaker, for years to come. That is the advice we have received from Christine Morgan, my National Suicide Prevention Adviser, and the Deputy Chief Medical Officer Mr Speaker, Ruth Vine, who is focused on mental health. There will be scars that will be carried by Victorians and I assure those Victorians that just as we have stood by you throughout this terrible lockdown we will stand by you through the recovery, we will continue to support you in the economic needs that you have and get you back into the jobs, to open your businesses again and to rebuild your lives.
Mr Speaker, this Christmas I want Australians to come around the table and talk about 2021 with positivity, with hope, with aspiration, looking forward to what they are going to do, the schools their kids are going to go to, the training courses they are going to do, the jobs they are going to get into, the health that they will be able to enjoy because in this country we have one of, if not the best records of managing the health and economic impacts of this pandemic of any country in the world. God bless Australia.
Press Conference - Canberra, ACT
23 October 2020
PRIME MINISTER: Well, good afternoon everyone. Today in Sydney the friends and family, colleagues have gathered to farewell Susan Ryan. We thank her for her amazing service to this country. In remembrance of her today, because of National Cabinet, I was represented there today by the Deputy Prime Minister and I thank him for representing the Government and for all those who’ve gathered, a remarkable and wonderful Australian, and we thank her greatly for her service to our country.
Also, just moments ago, 161 Australians touched down from London, in Darwin as part of a series of flights that the government has been organising to support other changes in cap arrangements, which is steadily and surely ensuring that more and more Australians are getting home. And I'll come back to that in reporting on the outcomes of National Cabinet. And, of course, the acting Chief Medical Officer Paul Kelly will report on the usual matters.
At National Cabinet today. We agreed in principle, given that we had a number of jurisdictions today who are in caretaker arrangements, that constrains a bit of what they can do at each meeting, even here in the ACT. While the outcome there was fairly clear they are still not finalised in those arrangements so technically in the ACT, they were still in caretaker. But we agreed in principle, again, - with the exception of Western Australia and their reservations were outlined on a previous occasion - with the reopening framework for Australia by Christmas. And this is the plan and it sets it out. It'd be very familiar, I think, to many, the reopening plan to get Australia open by Christmas of this year. Importantly, this plan not only details the opening of various activities within our economy and within our community and society. An important part of this plan is that it includes the necessary actions and that are needed on a public health response to support that plan. And the work that Alan Finkel has been doing, in particular, the work that has been done on hotel quarantine and improvements in all of those areas are vital and essential to the achievement of that goal by the end of this year. Premiers and Chief Ministers reiterated their support for that goal today. And we have made further progress and that will come back again to National Cabinet when it next meets on the 13th of November. And indeed, where things can be progressed before that, they will be. But over that time, we will also have further actions coming from the Finkel work that has been done around tracing mechanisms around the country. As I’d indicated after our last meeting.
We also agreed the recommendations of the hotel quarantine review that was undertaken by Jane Halton. And that report will be released after this media conference. It was also agreed to develop a risk stratification approach, as it is known, to international arrivals and their quarantining arrangements. Now, one of the great challenges, as we discussed today, particularly early on in the pandemic, was there were many things that had to be done extremely quickly to respond. And what we want to be, is in a position as we go forward and when we're in a position to make decisions down the track, not today, but down the track when it comes to other types of international arrivals that may be able to come to Australia again when we're in a position where we can reopen some of those arrangements, particularly in relation to things like international students and migration, these types of things, then we want to be sure that we've worked the options well, we’ve trialled and tested them so we can give Australians great confidence that we're in, when we're in a position to do that we have worked through those. So whether that's quarantining in home, on farm, in camp, at a mining camp, on campus or any of these options - we'll be looking at, and working together with states and territories to both identify and trial some of these options. So when we're in a position to make further decisions on arrivals to Australia, then they will be well worked through and we can have a great degree of confidence about their implementation when that occurs.
We agreed to increase caps again for a number of jurisdictions, which will further assist Australians coming back from overseas, an additional 140 next month in Western Australia, another 150 in Queensland. But we've also got continued support out of South Australia at the ACT and we have the arrangement in Northern Territory that I announced last week. Tasmania stands ready to assist. I want to be very clear, but as they don't yet have an international airport and those systems in place, if we need to stand that up in order to achieve what we've set out, then we will certainly do that. They are our further standby option. I want to thank Premier Gutwein for his working together with us to achieve that and it would be on very similar arrangements to what we've done in the Northern Territory. But of course, we're continuing with our work together Premier Gutwein and I, as part of the Hobart City deal to stand up the international airport in Hobart, and we will be having further discussions on that in the weeks ahead.
All jurisdictions, though, have offered their support, particularly to provide flexibility around caps to enable us to get the most vulnerable of Australians home. Now, I can confirm when we made our commitment on the 18th of September. There were registered, some 26,200 Australians. 4,100 of those were vulnerable. So far, 1,278 of that vulnerable cohort have come home. That doesn't include those who've just arrived in Darwin and 4,591 have otherwise returned out of that cohort of 26,200. So we continue to make good progress towards returning Australians home. And we want to do that as effectively and quickly, as safely as possible. And we'll continue to work with all state and territory jurisdictions to facilitate that wherever we can. And I thank them for their cooperation to date.
We adopted the very important report of the Conran review. Now, you recall some months ago up in the committee room upstairs, I made the announcement of the National Cabinet and the new framework for federal-state relations. Well, at that time, as you would have recalled, there was a large number of various committees and forums and ministerial groups which had built up over time under the old COAG process. And we asked former Cabinet Secretary Peter Conran, who'd attended his first AG’s State Ministerial meeting back in 1982. And his first COAG meeting as an official in 1992. So he knows a bit about how all of these systems work. And he's made recommendations which we will release in his report, which were adopted, all 33 recommendations of that report today, which basically streamline how we work together as a federation. Importantly, in that, we'll be elevating one particular area of work, the National Federation Reform Council, that will meet at the end of this year on the 11th of December. That will be its first meeting in its new format. And that meeting will establish a Veteran's wellbeing taskforce. Now, the purpose of the National Federation Reform Council is really to deal with those whole of government broader societal challenges. There are already task forces that deal with indigenous affairs, indigenous Australians, one that deals with women's safety. And we agreed today on my recommendation that we should be also establishing ones for veterans wellbeing so we can look at how government right across federal, state, local is dealing with the challenges that veterans face in our community. And I think that's a very good step, which had the unanimous and enthusiastic support of all Premiers and Chief Ministers. So we will release that report today, which basically streamlines further the federal state relations process and ensures that the National Cabinet imperative, which is leaders making decisions, leaders providing direction into the system about what we want to see achieved in so many areas gets the focus, not the accretion of bureaucratic agendas, which slows everything down. And I think all the Premiers and Chief Ministers for the support of these very important changes. And in that mode, we also established the National Cabinet Reform Committee on Health, which was one of the small number of subgroups of National Cabinet that we had agreed to appoint some months ago. That National Committee will be focussing on the COVID health response, but it'll also be focused on the reforms needed to improve mental health and suicide prevention. The work that has been done by the Productivity Commission, the work been done by the National Suicide Prevention Adviser to me, and as well as things like the Mental Health Royal Commission in Victoria. So that will provide a strong group to be able to take those issues forward, as well as working together on a national response to the Aged Care Royal Commission. So aged care, mental health, suicide prevention and the COVID health response will be the focus of that group's work and that will report into the National Cabinet.
And with that, I'll ask the acting Chief Medical Officer Paul Kelly to provide his report.
PROFESSOR PAUL KELLY, ACTING CHIEF MEDICAL OFFICER: Thanks, PM. So just a few numbers first. So as of today, 27,476 cases in Australia, an extra 10 so far today. There's a couple of states that haven't quite reported yet, but that's where we are at the moment at midday. No new deaths so far reported today, 905 therefore, total since the beginning. We've got only just over 200 active cases in Australia now, only 19 in hospital and nobody, nobody in intensive care. We haven't had a new aged care resident diagnosed with COVID-19 since the 28 of September. So the second week in a row on the common operating picture that we have where we have had no new cases of aged care residents.
So we're doing remarkably well. In the last seven days, only 109 new cases, of those, almost 80 per cent are actually overseas acquired. So that's back to that first wave. You may remember early on in the pandemic where most of our cases are coming from overseas, very few local cases. In fact, the 14-day rolling average now in Victoria is continuing to decrease. It's now 5.8 cases per day and 3.1 cases per day in New South Wales. And that's stable and no other locally acquired cases elsewhere in the country.
So we're doing extraordinarily well, continuing to do testing where that's required, and particularly in those geographic areas where cases have been found or wastewater or sewerage testing has shown that there may be cases. And so, again, an appeal to the Australian population. When you're asked to get a test, please get a test. This is the way we'll know where we have problems. So we're doing remarkably well. We are part of a global pandemic, yet the international situation is completely different. So when you consider what has happened in the last week in the UK, over 100,000 cases in the UK alone, 2.4 million new cases worldwide and 36,000 deaths in the last week. There are literally millions of people, active cases of COVID right now in the world. In many parts of Europe, the intensive care units are full. The hospitals are overflowing and lockdowns are being introduced or planned in many countries. In fact, other than the Western Pacific region of which we're part of in terms of the World Health Organisation regions everywhere else is doing it tough. And I think that's something we should remind ourselves of how well Australia has done to now and also how important the issues that the Prime Minister's mentioned about that risk stratification approach to overseas arrivals that we really take into account where those issues are in the rest of the world.
I think I'll leave it there PM.
PRIME MINISTER: Thank you. Well, let’s just deal with National Cabinet first, and I'm sure there're other issues you'd like to go to.
Brett, yep?
JOURNALIST: PM just on repatriation, you mentioned there's still about 2,800 vulnerable travellers overseas. Are there extra steps being taken to get them home? And on a particular case in Lao. There's around 40 vulnerable Australians who've been unable to get home. They've attempted to hire their own plane they were given approval to land that plane in Cairns. They bought tickets and late yesterday they were told that that had been cancelled. Can you update us on that charter flight, please?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, that is something you'd need to raise with the Queensland government, because I understand that's the issue that ultimately prevented that flight from coming to Australia. I understand it was supposed to land in Cairns. And so you would have to raise those matters, it had other clearances already in place. So you'd have to raise that matter with the Queensland government. But you're right, there are still remaining, a number of Australians, quite a number, who still want to come back home. And this is the first of some 8 charter flights, which I mentioned last week that have been arranged and they'll be taking place and where there's a need to further supplement the commercial flights that are available to Australia to get people back to Australia. Well the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade is working with its officers around the world to facilitate that.
So it's good to see 161 Australians coming home. Welcome home. Is my message to you as you come into Darwin and as you go off to Howard Springs, where you'll get great care and I'm sure your families will be looking forward to you coming back to your home cities when you're able to do that in a few weeks time.
Phil?
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, given that the plan to open by Christmas and things getting under control in Victoria. And we're coming to a period now where we're not going to have any election, state or federal, for a while. Was there any indication out of the National Cabinet today about more willing or better preparedness to adopt a national hotspot definition rather than resort to border closures again, in the future, should there be more outbreaks?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, the focus of the discussion, I think, was moving more towards the public health capability to ensure that you wouldn't need those sorts of closures in the future. I mean, where Victoria has been able to get to now, and I'm sure Paul will agree. We're very pleased that those numbers are now where they are. And obviously that provides the opportunity to open up again. And I'm sure all Victorians, and particularly those in Melbourne, would like to see that occur. And I understand the Premier will make some further announcements this weekend. That’s a matter for him to do, as he regularly does each weekend. And so we're obviously keen to see that opening up, whether it be in the hospitality sector or other parts of the economy. The shut down in Melbourne that has had obviously a terrible impact on Victorians, on their mental health, on their economy. The Premier knows that. And so we continue to encourage him and his government to move forward with reopening there. But what will prevent a further set of measures having to be put in place in Australia, is this the strength of the public health system to respond to any outbreaks. And that's why the work of Dr Finkel is so important because that stress testing and match fitness of the tracing regime, I mean, it will be a good problem to have we hope, that our contact tracers will have no sort of live experience in the weeks and months ahead. But the work that we're doing with those tracing regimes is to ensure that they remain match fit, that they do the desktop exercises, they do the stress testing. And so if things were to occur, if there is an outbreak somewhere, through whatever risk that may present, then we can have confidence that we can move quickly, as indeed New South Wales has done on so many occasions, to ensure that that outbreak can be contained. So I look forward to the continuing opening up of the country. Western Australia, we understand there are some special circumstances there. I've made that very clear in Western Australia. The nature of their economy and how it works and the Premier continues to maintain his position on that. That's a matter for him. But around the rest of the country, they have their timetables and we look forward to that opening and the commitment by Christmas of this year. Certainly seven out of the eight states and territories will be open and that'll be a great day for Australia. You never know, there might be eight.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, on the repatriation issue, officials from your Department said the other day that there were discussions going on with Melbourne about reaccepting international flights and that that would be a game changer. You mentioned just now that you might, we might see something happening with Tasmania in coming weeks. How close is Melbourne to reaccepting?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, what I said about Tasmania is they are a reserve option because there is not an international flight capacity reception arrangements in Tasmania. But I just wanted to be clear that there was no lack of willingness on the Tasmanians part to be part of that process. They're very, very willing and I spoke separately to Premier Gutwein earlier today. Yes, I have had these discussions with Premier Dan Andrews and we are hoping that they'll be able to make a move on being able to receive international arrivals. That day isn't here yet, but I know that it's a priority for the Premier because he wants to see Victorians come home. These are Victorians who are overseas. Many of those who are seeking to come back from around the world are from Victoria and the ability to come and quarantine in their home city I think would be very welcome to them. So we look forward. I think that will give a great boost. If we can get Victoria opened up again in the weeks ahead, preferably, or hopefully not longer than that, then that will really, really give us a bit more pace in getting people back before Christmas. Of those 26,000, as I said before, we want to get them home by Christmas and that's what we're working to achieve.
JOURNALIST: Would you take a question on another subject?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, that's a matter for your colleagues.
JOURNALIST: Will Australia move from a system of compulsory hotel quarantine to allowing quarantine in other settings? What will be the benchmark for that shift? And how many of the Australians stranded overseas are you committing to bring home by Christmas?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, I just answered the last question. It's our goal to get those 26,000 Australians home that were registered by Christmas. Now, whether we achieve that or not is going to be dependent on many factors. It's going to be dependent on the flights. It's going to be dependent on the continued cooperation of the states and territories. It's disappointing to hear about the arrangement that has occurred up there in Cairns. But as I said, I'll leave that to the Queensland government. We've had good cooperation from the Queensland government on these other caps. So that's what we're doing there. In terms of other forms of quarantine, that's the very questions you're asking are the same questions we're asking. And that's why we've set up the group today to go and do that work, identify what these other quarantine options are and how they can be used for different areas. I mean, we're already doing that when it comes to seasonal workers who are coming under the seasonal workers programme. That's happening right now. That's been happening at Howard Springs. We're already doing it in Queensland, which I think is a very innovative on-farm quarantine arrangement when it comes to some of these seasonal workers as well. That's a good initiative. I know there's a lot of interest from universities to look at on-campus quarantine. I know that with large corporates, there's a strong interest in the National Coordination Commission under Nev Power’s chairmanship has been looking at how corporates themselves can set up their own quarantine facilities under strict guidelines and standards, obviously overseen and accredited by state health authorities. But the more of these options we can identify, the more of the other capacity it frees up and the more we can move back to sort of more normal arrangements. But we’re in… there is no undue haste here. There are risks here. And so what we agreed today is before we make any of those decisions, we want to know what the options are. We want to know whether they work. And we want to know whether they're safe. So, you know, you don't want to build that aeroplane in the sky. You want to build it before it takes off. And that's exactly what we're doing.
JOURNALIST: Just on mental health today…
PRIME MINISTER: I'm still dealing with National Cabinet, so if you could just..
JOURNALIST: Qantas has brought home 161 Australians today. At their annual general meeting today they've flagged that they want to be able to do COVIDSafe travel to Japan, places in South-East Asia and had some very strong words about the border closures in Western Australia and Queensland, blaming them for $100 million losses. Do you share those views on the borders and how far off would travel bubbles be with Japan and South-East Asian nations?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, I couldn't put a timetable on international and the airlines understand that. They know that. We've already moved on New Zealand and that's gone well, I'm pleased with how that is proceeding. There were no issues raised about that today. So that's good. And I think we'll just keep moving ahead with those arrangements. I think the quarantine issues that we've just, that's the first thing you've got to resolve. How would people quarantine if they're coming and in what arrangements and what are the commercial arrangements for that as well? So that's the work we'll do now. I think what's important is what we're signalling to the community and whether it's airlines or others and all those who work in airlines who depend on it for their jobs is where we're already moving forward to try and solve these problems so we can be proactive about this. Early on in the pandemic, of course, there were many challenges and we had to be very responsive and reactive at those times. But now, once we've got Australia, once again, after this Victorian wave to get the cases again under control, we can be planning for that next step. And that's exactly what National Cabinet was doing today. I mean, you all remember the early meetings of National Cabinet. It was, you know, a phone book of announcements on almost every second or third night. Now, we're well past that. We know a lot more about the pandemic and how it works and the economic issues and we've learnt a great deal and our officials have too. So it enables us to plan for this. So on issues of borders, the states and territories have already, with the exception of Western Australia, already indicated what they're doing there and that's welcome. The states will make their own decisions on those and I've never disrespected that. But I've also made it very clear that borders don't come without costs. They're there to do a job as the premiers have outlined and they can only ever be justified on health advice, on no other grounds. But they do come at a cost. They do cost jobs. They do impact businesses. And that cost has to be weighed up with the benefits and Premiers have to explain that trade-off.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, the Productivity Commission review into mental health has not yet been released. Why has it not yet been released and when can we expect to see this come out?
PRIME MINISTER: Before the end of the year.
JOURNALIST: Victorian officials have speculated potentially looking at using ankle bracelets for returning travellers so they could isolate at home. How comfortable would you be with that being part of the framework going forward?
PRIME MINISTER: Look, I'm just going to let those experts who are going to work on these options do their job. It's not for me to do a running commentary on every thought that someone has about this or speculates in the press. Let them just do their job, let them do their work, let them work out what will be most effective and can best facilitate us getting back to us to a COVID normal in the future with these arrangements. But I expect them to be innovative. I expect them to think about new ways of doing things and they'll bring that back to the National Cabinet, the AHPPC, Paul, which you lead, will be heavily involved in this process to ensure that the health elements of this are not compromised in any way, shape or form. That is a strong view of the National Cabinet that that input is necessary. I mean, there's a spectrum. Of course, Western Australia and it has expressed great reservations about it any time having those international arrivals. I understand their position. Other states, New South Wales is already receiving a large number. So, look, there's a spectrum of, I think, of caution when it comes to these things. So let's just get the systems right first, and that will lead to better decisions when they are ultimately taken.
JOURNALIST: Just in relation to Australia Post…
PRIME MINISTER: I'm still on National Cabinet, Sam, so I will come back to you. Yep?
JOURNALIST: Professor Kelly, obviously good news today about the aged care cases. But a month ago, the Aged Care Royal Commission handed down a report about COVID in aged care and I quote, ‘Measures implemented by the Australian Government on advice from the AHPPC were in some respects insufficient to ensure preparedness of the aged care sector.’ It also said that there were no aged care specialists on the Committee. Was this something that was discussed today? What have you done in response to better that Committee and what are we doing to protect our elderly now?
PROFESSOR PAUL KELLY, ACTING CHIEF MEDICAL OFFICER: So there's a Royal Commission, as we know, and the counsel assisting has been reporting on his views in the last couple of days. There was, as you say, that interim specific list of recommendations. I believe there were six about COVID. And the Government is taking those on board. The first recommendation was to report by the 1st of December. So we will report.
JOURNALIST: [Inaudible]
PROFESSOR PAUL KELLY, ACTING CHIEF MEDICAL OFFICER: We've got an advisory committee that's been set up under the auspices of the AHPPC in relation very specifically to aged care, which has a range of aged care specialists, practitioners, geriatricians and so forth. They're meeting three times a week. So they are really very active and giving us information and advice.
JOURNALIST: And that was discussed today at the meeting?
PRIME MINISTER: Aged care was discussed today and, as I noted, the National Reform Committee of Cabinet, the subcommittees of health, they will be taking on those issues and reporting back up to the National Cabinet and that's where the carriage of that will be from a state-federal basis. But all the recommendations that were provided by the Royal Commission have been adopted and are being implemented by the Government.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister?
PRIME MINISTER: Yes, I think we've moved on from National Cabinet? Unless… yes.
JOURNALIST: Thanks, Prime Minister. Yesterday, you said he was shocked and appalled by the gifting of four Cartier watches to Aussie Post executives. Are you equally appalled that the head of the corporate watchdog, no less, should have pocketed $118,000 when he shouldn't have?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, that is a matter which the Treasurer has already issued a statement on today. He may have actually already conducted a press conference. I'm not aware, I haven't been able to check that since I've come out today. And he is standing aside, the Chair, and the recommendations of the ANAO are being followed.
JOURNALIST: Chirstine Holgate, the Collingwood football captain, president, I should say, Eddie McGuire said today that what he's watching is a pile-on, a beat up, an attack on one of the most impressive women that he's ever met by dullards. Are you, as he suggested, engaging in the politics of envy? And if $3,000 Cartier watches are so unacceptable, why are the bonuses that have been paid to these executives that are worth hundreds of thousands of dollars more Ok?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, we are the shareholder on behalf of the taxpayers and not only the matter that you referred to, but the other matters that came forward in evidence yesterday, is sufficient to demand this investigation that we've put in place. And that investigation is not just into the management and the executive into all the matters you've raised, but into the conduct of the board as well. And I didn't pull any punches on that either. So, no, I don't agree with the assessment that Eddie has made. Eddie and I agree on some things. We don't agree on others. But no, I don't agree with his assessment on that. I don't think what we learnt yesterday would have passed any test with the Australian public when it comes to a company that is owned by the Government. Companies that are owned by the Government, they I believe, and through their board and their management executives, will be held to that standard. And I think I applied that very firmly yesterday. Mark?
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, in regards to the protection of taxpayers interests you just referred to there and Andrew's question, the statement that the Treasurer and ASIC have released makes plain that ASIC gave tacit approval for this arrangement, basically a blank cheque from the corporate regulator. And then we had this instance yesterday with Australia Post. There's a lot of community interests about the level of remuneration and bonuses that are paid in that organisation. Is it time to have a broad…
PRIME MINISTER: Australia Post?
JOURNALIST: Australia Post. But is it in those instances being current? Is it time to have a full investigation on audit of remuneration and tax arrangements and bonus arrangements for all these government appointees to see whether there's some sort of systemic issue and that taxpayers are being ripped off?
PRIME MINISTER: I think it will be important to receive the recommendations of the reports and enquiries that have been initiated and it may well be that that comes forward. Let's wait and see. I'm very open to those recommendations. Let's see. Let's see. But I think there wouldn't be a board member of a government agency or a CEO of a government agency that didn't get my message yesterday. I think they got it with a rocket. And so my advice to them, is to get it.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, on that, would you say that there's a culture problem in the public sector under your watch? And do you think it's fair and reasonable that Christine Holgate will continue to be paid while the Government conducts its four week investigation? We estimate that would be more than $100,000.
PRIME MINISTER: Well, the answer to the first question is no. On your second question, that is a matter upon which the Government has to take legal advice and that is what the Government has done.
JOURNALIST: Just one follow up repatriation. You said that Hobart is ready and willing to assist if that becomes necessary. If not now, when there are thousands of Australians who want to get home now?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, the issue with Hobart is that we can replicate those arrangements, whether in the Northern Territory, we could replicate them in Cairns. We can put them in South Australia, where there are existing Border Force and other international receiving arrangements then we will use those ports. And as I said, we have eight charters running now. One has just returned. And as more, if they become necessary, we have some coming out of India, we've got some coming from South Africa, we will use the ports where the facilities are there because that will be the most rapid way. But the most effective way we're getting through getting Australians home is by increasing these caps. And so I welcome the decision from the Queensland and Western Australian governments. As we keep increasing the caps, when we get Victoria on line as well, then I think that will only aid us as we continue along the path we are on, to get Australian open by Christmas and to get Australians home by Christmas. Thank you all very much.
Virtual Multicultural Community Roundtable
23 October 2020
Prime Minister, Assistant Minister for Customs, Community Safety and Multicultural Affairs
Minister Tudge: We’ve got community leaders from right across our great nation and some very familiar faces there as well. I think I’ve come across nearly every single one of you this year. It’s particularly great obviously to have our Prime Minister here on this particular conference, as well as Assistant Minister Jason Wood. I can see Sev Ozdowski right in front of me here as well, who is the chairman of our Australian Multicultural Council, so a particular welcome to him and all the other community leaders across our country.
I’ll only speak for two or three minutes and then hand it over to the Prime Minister, but I just wanted to say a few things up front. Once again, to just say a very big thank you for all of the leadership which you have shown during these tough times throughout the COVID period this year. A particular call out to those Victorian leaders who I think have really had to go beyond the call of duty in the last few months, and that continues on. Thank you for working so closely with us, for helping get that information out there, including some of the translated materials. And ensuring that community members within your community understand not only what some of the restrictions are but equally what the programs that have been put in place that people can access - whether they be small business, whether they be mental health support or other support that people are able to access. A very big thank you in relation to that.
Today’s session is really part of our ongoing engagement with you. As you are probably aware, we have really ramped up our engagement with the multicultural leaders this year during the pandemic. I’ve led a lot of those, but equally through our regional directors and our community liaison officers we’ve had over 8,000 engagements with different community leaders and different communities this year, which is a fivefold increase in what it was last year. This engagement and particularly these forums are a terrific way for us to be able to hear directly from you and understand some of the things, which are on your mind as well as an opportunity for us to impart some of the policy changes which we have made.
I can tell you that some of the feedback we’ve had from these forums has directly led to the policy changes which we have made. In particular, I reflect on a few things which I have put in place following the forums that I’ve held. Such as putting religious leaders, for example, on the exemption list at the border so that they can come in more readily, because they’ve been so important during the pandemic. Such as addressing some of the visa application charge issues which we can discuss further. Also in terms of really getting going on this anti-racism campaign, which many of you have raised directly with me as well, which I think has been quite effective in terms of how we’ve done that. Thank you for that engagement and that will be ongoing – with the Prime Minister today obviously being the most important one.
I’ll just finish by mentioning three important policy changes in my portfolio which are directly relevant, I think, to multicultural leaders and through you to your communities. And then I think the PM is going to touch, obviously more broadly on the Budget and our economic recovery and the like.
First up, I just want to mention the partner visa changes. Specifically, that we have almost doubled the number of partner permanent residency visas available for this financial year – up to 73,000 (77,000 family visas). That’s a really important move and it means some of those backlogs that we have had, we’ll be able to address this year. And that provides stability and certainty for those partners of Australians or permanent residents. That’s the first one.
The second one I want to briefly mention, and no doubt this will come up in the Q&A as well, is the changes we’ve made to our English language programs. We have removed almost every restriction on migrants being able to access free English language classes. So that means from now anybody at any stage, no matter how long you have been in the country can get as many free English language classes as they need to get themselves up to a functional level of English. That’s a really significant change and hopefully through you, you’ll encourage those people whose English might not be up to speed to take advantage of some of those free English language classes -even if they’ve been in the country for ten years. Related to that is, we’ve put an expectation upon the partner visa applicants that they’ll at least make a reasonable effort to take advantage of those free English language classes. No hard and fast test, but a reasonable effort we want to see. And I don’t think that’s an unreasonable policy.
Finally, just briefly, and this gets raised with me frequently and the PM may say more about this in relation to our borders and our ongoing migration program. Obviously we closed the borders in March and we’ve been slowly re-opening them again since. But it means our migration program overall will be completely diminished this year and next, before we expect it to ramp back up to close to normal in year three or four. That, I know, is tough for some of your community members who either may not be able to travel to see their loved ones or their loved ones may not be able to come here. We acknowledge that, we’re working on that, there’s further developments almost every day. I just want to sort of, I suppose, reassure you that we are very conscious of this and that we will get back to normal at some stage I think and be back to this great immigrant country that we are so well known for around the world.
So let me just finish on that point and now introduce the Prime Minister – the main guest today – to say a few words. Then I think we’re going to have some questions and answers for the rest of the session. Over to you PM.
Prime Minister: Well, thank you Alan, and to Woody as well as he's affectionately known amongst his colleagues and I'm sure that many, if not all of you as well. Can I start particularly by just acknowledging the Ngunnawal people here where I am in Canberra. It’s a different [inaudible] where you may be, but where I am is in Ngunnawal today, and I acknowledge their elders past, present and future. And any veterans with us, Defence Force personnel as well, reservists and so on, thank you for the amazing work you do for our country.
Alan, can I thank you and Woody as well. And particularly you, Alan, you've taken on a very big load this year. I know many of you also would know David Coleman and he was doing a fantastic job before circumstances meant that he had to stand aside for personal reasons this year. And Alan, you've taken on an enormous load in this area, but I've always known it's been an area you've had great passion for, and you've really acquitted yourself so well on the relationships and the application you've had in this very important portfolio, which, you know is very dear to my heart as a former portfolio I once held for quite a period of time, both in opposition and government. So I want to thank you for the sacrifices you've made to be able to basically do two very big jobs this year, and I'm sure that those on the call will have noticed the passion with which you engage in that. And for Woody, that's always the case. He’s passion with a capital P, particularly when it comes to this topic and whether it's in his own community or elsewhere. Since taking on this role, Woody, you've just been fantastic. So thank you very much for the work that you've done.
I want to echo Alan's thanks to all of you for your leadership in all of the various communities you represent across Australia. To you Sev as well, a real veteran of this space and I see many other veterans who I've known for many years on this call, and thank all of you for your leadership. As we go through what has been one of the toughest, if not the most toughest year that most Australians have gone through in living memory. That has particularly been the case, I think, for the many different communities you represent across Australia.
This year has required a leadership that has been needed across our communities to give people hope, to give people direction, to give people confidence in a time where there's a lot of uncertainty and there are a lot of unanswered questions. In times like that, people, they do look to their leaders and they've been looking to you for that guidance and that direction. And so I want to thank you for how you've been able to do that, and I want to thank you for the way that you've been connecting, not just with us as a federal government and our ministers, but I also want to thank you for the way you've connected with your state and territory leaders. I just might ask our technical guys here. I'm not getting the vision here on the screen.
Today, after this, I'll be meeting with the National Cabinet. And it is a regular topic of our conversation about how we’re engaging, particularly in a communications sense, with the many different communities across Australia. And particularly when it comes to public health, mental health support and economic engagement and participation, workplace safety, using public transport, all of the most obvious and basic things about our everyday life in a COVID-19 pandemic. These relationships we've probably had to call on and draw on more than ever before. I’ve got to tell you, it's been an enormous success. It really has. I'm incredibly proud of the way that Australia's multiple communities have actually worked together in a very focused way, in a very practical way. It goes back to earlier this year when we were really only coming to terms with what this pandemic was, in late January, and we closed the borders in the first of February. And we had many returning Australians from all around the world at that time, particularly out of China initially. That was not a time when we were running hotel quarantine. We were running home quarantine, in isolation. The discipline shown, particularly in our Chinese-Australian community in those first few weeks was amazing. It was exemplary, and actually set the tone, I think, for the broader Australian response that has followed in these many months since then.
So I'm only full of appreciation for the leadership of communities that has enabled us as a country to do better, both on the economics and on the health than almost any other country in the world. So pat yourselves on the back because you've played a huge role in that. As Alan said, in Victoria, that strain and that challenge has been just so much greater in these recent months and the stresses and strains are there, have been very difficult to cope with, but you've been sustaining your communities and I want to thank you for that. And hopefully we'll be making further progress there soon and some form of normal life can resume. On that front, I think it will be important as we go forward that the messaging continues. And messaging is just not one way. Messaging is also us receiving messages from communities and understanding what the difficulties are or constraints might be in putting public health practices in place or getting economic participation or COVID-safe practices and everything, as I say, from public transport, to what happens on the shop floor, or in the community hall or whatever.
The other thing I'm sure we're all looking forward to is, the COVID-19 experience this year means that on so many occasions the community or activities that would normally take place with great enjoyment and great community bonding, sadly, have not been able to take place. And that would have just been so incredibly hard. The combination of religious/cultural/community events, and they merge each into the other and they’re so much part of the heart of community life. It's sad that we haven't been able to have those this year. I believe that would have left a big hole, a big vacuum, I think, in communities all around the country. They usually bring to knit people together and to give people reassurance and fellowship. That would have been hard.
That said, the COVID-19 year, the very platform we're meeting on today has probably seen a greater engagement amongst leadership and with government than perhaps we've seen before, and that is a good thing. I hope Alan and the many leaders that are on the call today, Woody, that this will be something - and Alice I also want to thank you for your work in this and Home Affairs as well. I hope this is something we can continue, because we all have very busy lives, pre or during or post-COVID. But let's not, as it says, forsake the meeting together like we are in this forum, because I think that is a positive development out of COVID that I think better connects leadership of communities.
I've always been, as you know, a keen advocate and supporter of Australia's immigration program, and there are many reasons for that. It defines us, who we are as a country. We are the most successful immigration country in the world. That's not debatable. It's a fact and daylight second. We show the rest of the world how to do this. Doesn’t say it’s perfect, but no one comes close to us when it comes to how we live together as a society here in Australia. The fact that we get so frustrated sometimes by our failures, I think only underscores how high our expectations are of Australia as a multicultural society. And that's a good thing. Let that ever be the case, that we won't settle for second best or third best on these things. We want to continue to be the best in the world when it comes to how we engage. I think what underpins that is an appreciation of what the migration program, firstly, contributes to the country, and that is undisputable. It's one of the key pillars of our societal strength, but also of our economic success as a country and that must continue. COVID has really hit that hard. Borders, while about 60-odd, 65-odd thousand Australians have left over the course of COVID and travelled overseas, three times that have actually come back and come to Australia over that period of time for various reasons. I mean, it hasn't been a completely closed border, it's been a highly managed border, but that is obviously a fraction of what we normally experience. We need to get back. We need to get back to Australia being open and people being able to come. But it obviously has to be done safely and at a time when our systems can support it, and pre-vaccine and post-vaccine that will be made that bit easier.
But the other part of it, I think is it's just not about population. It's about participation and connection, and that's where I think our efforts must continue. Now on participation, I just want to talk briefly about economic participation. Australia's economy is recovering. It's not will recover, it already is recovering and it is recognised as recovering. Victoria will catch up to that. And I think you will catch up very quickly once we can get Victoria open, and I think Victoria will move. One of the things we've done as a government is try and preserve the fabric of our economy over the course of the COVID-19 recession, to keep businesses together, to keep training in place, to keep skills current, to keep trade connections in place, to preserve supply chains, to do all of this. That's been done through JobKeeper, and JobSeeker, and training initiatives and cash flow support. All of this has been about investments to keep the fabric of our economy woven and not ripped apart. And so we avoid the potential scarring of our economy that could lead to a generation of disadvantage, of non-participation, of economic exclusion. Some of the groups that are most susceptible to that are obviously young people, and that's why our budget is focused on young people. Women, which is why our budget is focused so much in that area as well. But also the many different ethnic communities of the country, some of which can be more disadvantaged than others. We need to work harder on continuing to engage that participation.
As we know, businesses, ethnic businesses are the most entrepreneurial in the country. The rate of entrepreneurialism amongst the many migrant communities in Australia is higher than it is for the otherwise national average. And so supporting business has very much been a multicultural policy in Australia, because so much of the multicultural community's economic progress and wellbeing is subject to the success of the small and medium sized business environment. I see the two is as uniquely connected in the way we're responding to the crisis.
That's why this year's budget is focused on the job hiring initiatives, the investment allowances, loss carry backs - all of this designed not just to preserve the fabric of our businesses and our economy, but to see it recover, to take back what was lost. Then in the third component of our budget, it is to build our success for the future. Now, whether that be in our advanced manufacturing sector and technology and research, or in our services sector, the continued expansion of our social services in a private and not-for-profit perspective, whether that be in aged care or community services, all of which so many communities are directly involved in. Building for the future with the skills and capabilities and investments that are needed to underpin our economy will see Australia emerge from this crisis, I would say, amongst a handful of countries - just a couple, literally, just a couple - which will see Australia come out on the top of the pack.
Now, one other initiative - I’ll close on this, Alan, and then we can take some questions. We initiated a little while ago, I call it Project Money Ball. It has a more formal name and the officials and others can refer to it by that if they wish. What it involves is, we’ve set up a team and I’ve appointed a special envoy on my behalf - his name is Peter Verwer. He’s leading a team, under Alan’s direction as Minister, that is going around the world and basically, targeting companies, leading academics, researchers, scientists and others from around the world and saying come to Australia; come and establish your businesses here.
The COVID experience, I think, has demonstrated to many around the world and whether there are, you know, real challenges in places like Hong Kong and so on. And we’re saying come to Australia, establish your business here. One of the reasons we could that is because of the rich multicultural history and presence that Australia has today.
That is an exciting project and I’m sure, no doubt, Alan, that we’ll be reaching out the community leaders to assist. You know, if we have a company that’s decided to rebase itself from Singapore to Australia, or from Thailand to Australia, or from the UK or from the United States, wherever they happen to be, or from Lebanon - it doesn’t matter where. They will be able to come into Australia and form part of a community that is present and can be supportive and can drive that participation.
So look, I could go on about this, as some of you know, at length. I already have and for that, I apologise. But it is an area, as I’m sure many of you know me well know it’s a great area of passion for me, this. It is part of, I think, Australia’s greatest boast and as Prime Minister, I want to ensure that it remains one of our greatest boasts as a country; that we are the most successful multicultural and immigration nation on the planet. Alan.
Minister Tudge: Thank you very much, PM and very well said. In fact, one of the great illustrations of that last point which you’ve just said, is the phenomenal work which so many of the communities did during the bushfires and indeed during COVID, in terms of raising money, cooking meals, the Buddhist monks providing massages for the weary firefighters and the like. I think that was such a great example of our multicultural country at work and we’ll sure be very proud of that.
Now, Alice, I think you’re going to moderate the questions and look after the technology to let people in and out. I’ll hand it over to you and I presume some of the questions will come to me, but most will come to the PM.
Department of Home Affairs Host: Thank you very much, Minister. Yes, the first question for today is for the Prime Minister. It comes from Dr Yadu Singh who we can see on screen. Dr Singh.
Prime Minister: We don’t have the audio from Dr Singh.
Question: Can you hear me now?
Department of Home Affairs Host: Yes, Dr Singh. Please go ahead.
Question: Good morning, Prime Minister. Thank you very much for your great leadership. You really, really have been a great Prime Minister. My question to you is: what is the latest about the COVID-19 vaccine for Australians and when are we, Australians, likely to get it? Prime Minister. Thank you.
Prime Minister: Well thank you, Dr Singh. And again, thank you for your leadership in the Indian community across Australia. Last week, I was up in the University of Queensland and was able to meet with the researchers that are leading the development of the vaccine there - the molecular clamp vaccine. I asked them a very important question which was the first time I’ve actually got an answer to this question that actually satisfied me. I asked the lead researcher: why is it that the world has never been successful in finding a vaccine for a coronavirus? Now, my assumption had been that there was some unique scientific challenge here that made this totally inscrutable and that’s not the case, thankfully. What has occurred in the past is that coronaviruses have peaked and passed long before the urgency of a need for a vaccine. So it never sort of sustained long enough to sustain the investment and focus for a vaccine to be developed in those areas. So there isn’t necessarily a greater scientific challenge to finding this vaccine. The former chief medical officer and now Secretary of Health, Brendan Murphy, sort of explained it to me like this: just the sheer volume of investments and the research that is going into finding this vaccine, you play the percentages and you've got to be optimistic because of just what's involved here.
What I also learned up at UQ was: they are coming at it from different angles. I mean, the work that the Oxford University is doing and the way they're tackling it, I think with what's called a protein spike or something; and then you've got the molecular clamp, which is another type of process; and then you have a sort of a mirrored virus, which I think is what the Chinese are doing; and then you've got a genetic approach, I think it is, that the Americans are doing, which is at a whole another level.
The science that is going into this is quite amazing. And so that gives me a lot of confidence that one will be found. It could be that final stage trials on the AstraZeneca Oxford vaccine could be successful by the end of the year. Could be. I think ours will be a bit after that from what we're seeing at the moment. But these things do have a habit of accelerating if the results prove positive.
Now, the challenge then is not just how, if someone cracks it, [inaudible] the rest of the world's leaders to commit that if any country finds it, they share it. And I've had a lot of good responses to that.
The next point is that you've got to manufacture it. You've got to distribute it. That's why we've entered into a domestic sovereign manufacturing arrangement with CSL here in Australia, which will enable us, through a $1.7 billion investment, to get the doses of both an AstraZeneca and a UQ vaccine available to every single Australian.
Now, that production timetable, you know, if you’ve got successful trials towards the end of this year, early next year, then you're probably talking about now next year by the time you've ramped up production and distribution and immunisation moving through the community. So it's not just finding the vaccine, it’s manufacturing it and then disseminating it and applying it. And so, there's a good, I think, from start to finish around about a year potentially in that. If it happens sooner than that, then great.
The other point I wanted to make about the vaccine is, we've made a commitment to support all our Pacific island communities as well with the same level of support. I think we may be able to also assist South East Asian countries in a more targeted way as well.
Another thing that I'm pushing very hard for on an international level and getting good support from this, including out of India, is we can't allow the developing world to have some sort of second-best vaccine or become guinea pigs when it comes to a vaccine. I find that morally reprehensible personally.
A vaccine that you get in Australia should be a vaccine you get in Africa or Papua New Guinea or Malaysia or Indonesia, Vietnam, China, wherever. There shouldn't be one vaccine for the developing world, which is of, you know, lower testing standards and lower medical veracity for the sake of just reaching volume. I think we have to commit to ensuring that all the world's population get access to the same quality of vaccine. And that's something that we will be pushing very hard through the multilateral forum.
Department of Home Affairs Host: Thank you very much, Prime Minister. Minister Tudge, the next question is for you and comes from Dr Philip Ahn, who I think we have joining us by phone.
Question: Hello. Can you hear me?
Department of Home Affairs Host: Yes. We can. Thank you very much, Dr Ahn.
Question: My question to the Minister Alan Tudge is regarding the partner visa and then the two criteria - I'm going to ask you the definition of your criteria and the process of testing the English language. Do you know that the group of the partner visa applicant, they are coming over in many cases with a partner already established in Australia to start a family and establish home? This set an unprecedented stress for the new applicants if the criteria for passing is unknown or beyond their capabilities. [Inaudible]… within a relatively short time limit of two years. Therefore, we would appreciate have the discussion on this criteria.
Minister Tudge: Yeah, thanks Phillip for that question. And it's important to- I suppose, let me just explain briefly who it applies to, and what the standard is that we're seeking.
First up, if you're coming in, say, on skilled visa, your partner comes in as a secondary applicant, and there's no English language tests associated with that, or with any of the other secondary applicants attached to the other visas. What we're, here we're talking when an Australian citizen or a permanent resident in Australia falls in love with foreigner, and that foreigner then subsequently applies for a partner permanent residency visa. And what will happen is, that person will come into the country, as they do, and they'll typically be here for two to three years on a provisional visa before they're eligible for their permanent residency visa.
In that time, Philip, we are asking people to make a reasonable effort to learn English, if you don't already have a functional level of English. Now, by what we mean by reasonable effort to learn English, we'll define those over the weeks ahead. But, broadly speaking, it might be for a person who is an ordinary person, ordinary, capable person, it might be doing 500 hours of the freely available English language classes in Australia. That would be considered a reasonable effort, but of course, there'll be exemptions for that if you've got a disability or the like. Now, of course, if you've already got a functional level of English, you don't have to worry about that. What we're trying to achieve for everybody to have a basic level of English so that we can converse with one another, maintain our social cohesion, but equally importantly, Philip, is so that they've got the best chance of getting a job and fully participate [audio error]… have English, the chances of you getting work are very, very small. In fact, only 13 per cent of people in Australia today with no English are in a job, only 13 per cent. And that's because it's, the labour market is very different to what it was - I remember in the 50s and 60s when people did come in with no English and went straight into work. Because today, the occupational health and safety rules mean you need to have at least a basic level of English to be able to participate, and of course you can't participate in all aspects of Australian life fully without a reasonable command of English. So, that's the intent of the policy. There's no hard and fast test at all, and I want to make that clear. There's no hard and fast test at all. There is simply a request and a requirement that those partner applicants make a reasonable effort to learn English in those two or three years that they are already in Australia, before they get their final permanent residency.
Department of Home Affairs Host: Thank you very much, Minister. Prime Minister, the next question is for you and comes from Belle Lim, from the Council of International Students Australia. Please go ahead Ms Lim.
Question: Thank you. Thank you Prime Minister, Minister Tudge, and Minister Wood for your time today. My question is that as the largest service industry, service export industry that has been severely impacted, what is the Morrison Government's strategy to ensure the recovery of Australia's international education sector? And may I just say that as student leaders, CISA would like to offer our help in this.
Prime Minister: Well, thank you very much, I appreciate your question, Belle. My plan is to get the students back, and to get them back for next year, and to work with the states and territories, the universities sector to achieve that as best as we possibly can for next year. As Alan knows, we're working on that quite hard at the moment. We've got two pilots running now in the Northern Territory and South Australia, I know New South Wales is also very keen to move ahead in this area. We have to, sort of, balance community confidence with that plan but at the same time, it is not beyond our wit at all to do this safely. It may just take longer for people to get back to Australia and to be in a position to start their study again next year, but I think we've got the time to achieve that as much as we possibly can.
When it hit us at the start of this year, it obviously had a terrible impact, because, I mean, to be fair, at the start of the pandemic, the level of knowledge about how the virus worked and how the quarantine arrangements and how they functioned, and all of that, it was very early days and it was very unsafe to just bring everybody back and go ahead on that basis. That could have had diabolical outcomes, the like of which we've seen, particularly over in Europe and other parts of the world. But we've got enough time, I think, to plan and to do as much of this by the start of next year as possible. And so, we're certainly doing that, and we're looking forward to working with yourselves, but particularly the universities. And we will have to look at innovative ways about how quarantine can be done. It may well be the case that students may get to come early and be backpackers for a while, before they go back to university, and perhaps spend a bit more time in Australia and see a lot more of Australia.
We've got a lot of fruit to pick, I know that much, and that's another problem we've got, actually. And Alan and I are working on that problem right now as well, and sometimes you can solve two problems with the same solution. And so, we are thinking laterally about this, and so we would like to work with you on that to see how we can get people back, perhaps sooner, and then you can do it on a more orderly basis, make best use of the quarantine facilities that we have. I mentioned before, the tremendous discipline and application that existed especially in the Chinese-Australian community with the returning Australian residents early on. So for many of our students who'd be coming back from parts of the world they already have a very good appreciation of the health issues here and I really don't think they will be careless about this. And so, and I think universities equally understand the economic importance of it.
Look, the short answer is the plan is to get people back, and as soon as we can and to do it in a safe way and in an orderly way. And that may involve people being here for longer, it may require us, as Alan knows, looking innovatively, flexibly at some of the conditions around those visas for students who are returning to Australia early, and to enable them to maybe do a bit more while they're here before their studies start again. So, COVID-19 requires us all to be innovative, and that includes officials at the Department of Home Affairs in terms of how we structure visas and how we, and how we work the conditions of those.
Department of Home Affairs Host: Thank you very much, Prime Minister. The next question is for Minister Wood and comes from Dr Rateb Jneid, who I think I can see online, from the Australian Federation of Islamic Councils. Please go ahead, Dr Jneid.
Question: Firstly, on behalf of the Federation of Islamic Council, I would like to thank you Prime Minister and thank Ministers Alan Tudge and Jason Wood for taking the time to talk to us. Australia is enriched by its diversity [inaudible]…powerful message to hear significant ministers to sit with us on Friday morning. It would be great it would be have more time, maybe in the near future we can. The question is, will the department be funding programs that will help combat xenophobia and Islamophobia?
Assistant Minister Wood: Thanks very much Doctor. Good morning, friends and it's absolutely fantastic to be with you here this morning. Thanks Alan Tudge. First of all, can I say, it comes down to leadership, and you haven't got a better leader when it comes to the understanding of multicultural issues and respect and having a zero tolerance approach when it comes to our Prime Minister, Scott Morrison. And we've all seen this first hand, he went out in my electorate, and he was demonstrating which I thought was a big call for the Indians how to make a curry. And this is something which shows how fantastic and great our country is when you've got a Prime Minister who can go out there and demonstrate and respect the cultures of other countries.
And I know [inaudible] challenge, Prime Minister, at this weekend they'll be looking to you for another curry. Can I say, too, it also comes to the multicultural- [inaudible].
Prime Minister: Happy to get some tips later.
Assistant Minister Wood: [Inaudible] very much. Well, in actual fact, this is fantastic, because my Indian community was actually asking for the recipe, which is really nice. And can I say from the multicultural community, when it comes to sport and the great work you do and I look at this when it comes to the Indians the Sri Lankans for cricket and also when it comes to Aussie rules football. And can I say, Bachar Houli and he's playing for the Tigers tomorrow night, as a Richmond supporter, I'm so excited. The leadership role he has played has been absolutely incredible and has had a very strong government support. When it comes to specific programs, we have the Muster Grants, the understanding social tolerance and respect programs and Alan Tudge was right behind the Racism Is Not Acceptable campaign. Very much targeted at COVID era and to ensure we don't have actually racism in there. This budget again, $62 million social cohesion a major focus, community liaison officers. And can I say it's so important to get all our multicultural communities together and in actual fact 50 per cent of Australians were either born overseas or one of their parents works like my wife Judy, and we have a little one who on the weekend, Jasmine, who learns Mandarin. On the tougher side, can I say and we, our thoughts are still with what happened, that awful atrocity in Christchurch in New Zealand. And can I say ASIO and the AFP are very focused on any extremism right wing extremists and they will focus on that. Something I'm really excited about and that the PM, after that awful attack under the safer community funding grants made the grants very focused on supporting multicultural communities. In particular for religious organisations and in actual fact, nearly one-third of that funding was to Muslim communities. So, and the great news is, with this latest strand of the Budget, Safer Communities, again, we have $35 million and something I'm really excited about half that money will be for early intervention programs, to make sure young people don't go down the wrong paths whether it be in gangs or extremism. So, we're 100 per cent behind our multicultural communities in calling out racism.
Department of Home Affairs Host: Thank you very much, Minister, And I think we have time for one final question today. And it's a question for you, Prime Minister, from Susan Gin from the Chinese Association of Victoria. Please go ahead Ms Gin.
Question: Thank you, Alice. Prime Minister, the Federal Government's response to the pandemic has been both swift and impactful for many of us in our migrant communities, whom, as you have mentioned, are predominantly in small businesses. And please accept our sincere thanks to you and to Minister Tudge and Minister Wood for your leadership. My question centres on two measures announced in the recent budget, and one is to do with a range of tax incentives and income tax relief, and the other is the intention by the Government to reduce red tape and regulations to make it easier to do business. We applaud both of these measures. I'll have to mention that for small businesses, due to the absence of an economy of scale, heavy compliance requirements do place a very real burden on our scarce resources and often on a very daily basis. So may I ask our Prime Minister to further elaborate on these measures and other support measures which are especially aimed at helping a small and medium businesses, who most of us in the migrant community happen to be to help us to recover and invest? Thank you.
Prime Minister: Well, thank you for the question Susan, I can see Samir there on the call. G'day, Samir. Samir's a dear friend and many years ago when we were working together, I forget what portfolio I was in back then Samir, it doesn't really matter. And I remember sitting down at the LMA in south western Sydney and we were talking about the issues and you talked to me about roads. You talked to me about police resources, you talked to me about urban amenity, you talked to me about education. [Audio error] remember that conversation and the reason I make reference to that, Susan, because you've just asked me about tax. I think one of the one of the great misconceptions in this country when it comes to dealing with multicultural policy is that it is restricted to issues of identity and things of that nature. But actually it's just about achieving the same participation and quality of life and opportunity as any other Australian. That's ultimately the goal in my view and I learnt that lesson early from Samir in his advocacy for his community. I've learnt it from Hass, I've learnt it from Benjamin. I've learnt it from so many of the people I can just see people on the screen and [inaudible] and so on. That's been my great learning in this area. That if we focus on the things that actually enable communities to succeed and individuals to succeed, then multiculturalism and social cohesion is the by-product of that. So long as we identify things that might get in the way for particular communities or disadvantage them in terms of their participation. And Alan's comments today about English language I think is a good example of that. That can be an impediment to people's economic participation and social participation and even more significantly, their safety in whether it be the workplace or even in their own home.
So always keeping the focus I think on the broader things that matter to everyone regardless of their background I think is really important Susan. So, I thank you for raising that question. One thing I've always known about wherever someone has come from to this country there is an optimism and a sense of making a contribution and getting ahead that is indefatigable. And so I've always believed good tax policy is good multicultural policy, and that Australians being able to keep more of what they earn to be able to invest in their business to see them grow and see them succeed and how that is then ploughed back into the very organisations that are represented on this group today from those businesses makes the community stronger. So lower taxes through the particularly the one that I'm most proud of in this budget is the loss carry-back initiative. Now that initiative says to businesses who through no fault of their own this year will experience losses and particularly in the hospitality sector, the aviation sector, the entertainment sector. These are the areas that have been hardest hit and they would have what I'll call COVID losses and their losses would normally they would have to wait some years before they could offset that against their profits when and indeed if they recover a few years down the track. Now that will be of absolutely no use to them at that point. What they need is they need to offset those losses right now and in the budget we've said that you can offset those COVID losses against the tax you paid over the last couple of years. So what would I hope, in many cases have been the likelihood of a stronger profit performance coming into this. And so, you can utilise the strength you had coming into this crisis to help you get out of it. I think this is one of the most innovative parts of this budget. It's not one that I can usually explain in about five seconds on the news or in a radio interview or something like that. But I got to tell you I think it's one of the most important things we've done in our COVID response. Yes we've brought forward the tax cuts the individual tax cuts they were already part of our plan they were already legislated. And we believed it was important to bring forward tax incentives Susan, that would encourage people to do something now with what they might have done in two years. And the same with the immediate expensing and the great virtue of the immediate expensing, which means you can write off anything of a capital nature in your business and there's no cap on the value and for small and medium sized businesses because this goes up to $5 billion in turnover. So that's going to - obviously, I think it's about 98 per cent of businesses it's going to cover doesn't include the banks the big banks. But, whether that's investing in a very large piece of plant or machinery in your factory, in the high technology business or advanced manufacturing business or buying a Hilux or a new blast freezer or whatever you need to have for your business to move forward it's designed to bring forward that investment to get us through what is a gap what is a valley in what would occur with investment. And that's been backed in with the Commonwealth and states' investments too on infrastructure and various other things.
So this budget has quite a deliberate economic plan and the plan is assuming one thing that Australians are resilient and will back themselves to get out of this. And so the tax measures we've put in are designed to do that and I think that's a good bet. I think it's a very good bet and because people have worked hard for their businesses and none greater than those who have come to the country from somewhere else. Those challenges are greater than those Australians who were born here. And for that and I think often of Gladys Liu, who you know well I'm sure and when Gladys tells her story about her professional story and what she had to do. Now that is a story that others that sit around my cabinet table, Alan, or sit around our party room. There are some who have some that have some hard difficult stories in life. But, Gladys showed a determination, and I think that's very characteristic of the migrant experience in Australia. So I really do hope that the tax measures we put in this budget to bring forward the investment measures the loss carry-backs. Yep, I hope people love the partner visas increase, I hope they like the English language extension lift and I hope they particularly like the commitment we're making to anti-racism strategies and social - I hope that's all great. But, the one that I hope that is talked around when we can get people back to restaurants and Box Hill or wherever it happens to be is that I was able to use the COVID losses to offset against those profits and my business is still going and I'm putting on another five people next year. That's the conversation I want to hear amongst migrant entrepreneurial communities in Australia. And I sincerely hope the budget has given them a massive shot in the arm to know that we're backing them. They've backed Australia in the choices they've made and we're backing them.
Department of Home Affairs Host: Thank you very much, Prime Minister.
Prime Minister: I was about to say Mr Speaker, I've completed my answer.
Department of Home Affairs Host: Thank you very much, Prime Minister and we'd like you to invite you to make any brief closing remarks, after which we'll ask Minister Tudge as the host of today's meeting to close the meeting.
Prime Minister: Well, look, I think I'll just go straight to Tudgie, but I do want to thank you all again just for being on this call. Look I hope we can do this again, Alan. Can we, I'll leave that to you and Woody to sort that out. And I've missed so many of you that I haven't been able to see personally and it's been nice to see your faces and I hope you're all terribly well and as we go into the holiday seasons, I wish you and your families all the best. But I just really just want to say thank you for the leadership you've shown. Alan.
Minister Tudge: Yeah. Well, thanks PM and just let me say my thanks as well to everybody for participating today. I know we didn't get to all of the questions, but we will follow up on the ones that you've submitted. Thanks PM for joining us today as well and we will make sure that we've got further ones of these coming up. We do have other senior cabinet leaders lined up for the weeks ahead for multicultural leaders to be able to communicate with as well. But, it's so important that we maintain our engagements with all Australian leaders, including the ones here on this conference and I particularly want to request that you continue with that engagement as well with our regional directors. Their teams have been bolstered in this budget. We're putting on more people who have got language skills as well so that if we've got any gaps we'll be able to address some of those gaps there also. So, please maintain that engagement to feed that up to us.
Finally, for all those AFL supporters, I hope your team wins…
Assistant Minister Wood: Go Tigers.
Minister Tudge:…on the weekend and I know Woody is a keen Richmond supporter. No doubt there are some other Richmond supporters on the line as well. I'm going for the Cats for what it's worth. So good luck, everybody, for your code this weekend. Thank you once again.
Statement - House of Representatives, ACT
22 October 2020
Prime Minister: Thank you Mr Speaker.
I move that the House commemorate the anniversary of the National Apology to the survivors and victims of institutional child sexual abuse.
Mr Speaker, two years ago today, this Parliament — on behalf of all Australians — apologised unreservedly to the victims and survivors of institutional child sexual abuse.
It’s a day that I’ll never forget.
I’m sure it is a day that all the members of this chamber will never forget, and the then Leader of the Opposition also, who joined with me in that important apology will never forget.
And nor should we.
The Parliament was full of Australians from all walks of life.
Some of those, in this place also as members, who know only too personally of these matters.
All here to reclaim a part of their life - or to honour a loved one who could not be with us.
Through an action as gentle and as powerful as an apology, we confronted generations of suffering.
Their stories, strength, courage and presence allowed us to confront some terrible truths: that for generations our country chose silence over truth, the powerful over the vulnerable, and the reputations of institutions over the safety of children.
On that day, we apologised for the pain. For the suffering. The trauma inflicted upon victims and survivors.
We apologised to their children and parents.
To their siblings and families.
To those who have shared their experiences, and for those whose pain is still too searing to share.
And sadly, may forever be.
As I said on that day: “As a nation, we confront our failure to listen, to believe and to provide justice.”
Our apology didn't, and can’t undo our shared failures.
Nor did it return lost childhoods, or bring back those no longer with us.
But I earnestly hope it provided some small measure, some moment of solace to all those who suffered, and continue to.
And affirmed a national determination to never let those times be repeated.
Mr Speaker, prior to the apology I along with many others, met with members of the Survivor’s Reference Group who said “an apology without actions is just a piece of paper”. And that is right.
Today I will honour that sentiment and once again, report further on our actions.
The foundation of our response are the findings of the Royal Commission.
Of the Royal Commission’s 409 recommendations, 206 are directed wholly or partially at the Australian Government.
84 were about redress, and led to the establishment of the National Redress Scheme — now in its third year.
Of the other 122 recommendations, 45 have been fully implemented. And 76 are continuing to be in progress.
And only one is still to be implemented.
The Government continues to work with states and territories on another 56 endorsed joint recommendations, and we are playing a role in more than 50 additional recommendations that are primarily directed at the states and the territories.
Our first Annual Progress Report was tabled in December 2018, the second last December, and the third will be done by year’s end.
The National Office for Child Safety has, once again, invited a range of non-government institutions to provide a report — on their actions to keep children safe.
69 institutions have been invited this year — an increase on the 53 in 2019, and 11 in 2018.
The National Redress Scheme is now in its third year.
It continues to support victims and survivors with the support they need.
I can report that the latest figures show 8,297 applications have been received.
Of those, 4,670 decisions have been made.
This includes 3,826 payments, with an average redress payment of around $82,000.
This is a rapid increase on the 600 payments that I reported last year.
I said then this wasn’t good enough. It wasn’t. And we still have more work to do.
This was why Minister Ruston announced a further investment of $11.7 million in the Scheme.
We are now in the process of reviewing the Scheme, with an additional $104.6 million to be invested over the next four years.
This will ensure that the Scheme can meet victims’ and survivors’ needs.
It will ensure the Redress Support Services continue.
And it will allow us to finalise the on-boarding process for the 158 institutions that have committed to join the Scheme, to be completed by the end of the year.
The Royal Commission, the Apology - and these yearly reports are about accountability.
Bringing the truth into the light.
So I am reporting that on 1 July this year, 6 institutions were named as having failed to declare their intention to join the scheme.
Since then, 2 of these have joined.
We still have, reprehensibly, 4 institutions who have been named publicly and who have blatantly refused to join the Redress Scheme.
They are:
Jehovah’s Witnesses
Kenja Communication
Lakes Entrance Pony Club Inc
Fairbridge (Restored) Limited.
It is not acceptable.
We are currently finalising the further sanctions, I know that are supported by the Opposition, the Commonwealth will place on institutions who continue to refuse to join the Scheme. Including withdrawal of their charitable status for these offending organisations.
Mr Speaker, one of these areas that the Royal Commission recommended the federal, state and territory governments work together on, was on a National Strategy to Prevent Child Sexual Abuse.
Unfortunately, progress to finalise the Strategy has been significantly impacted by the pandemic.
I know this is deeply disappointing for everyone involved. Including the Government.
But let me reassure the House: the Government will deliver this Strategy, and we now expect it to be finalised in 2021.
Mr Speaker, the pandemic has seen the National Office for Child Safety redirect its efforts over the past several months.
It has focused on supporting organisations, sharing resources with states and territories, and progressing policy work within the Commonwealth.
Efforts continue on implementing the Commonwealth Child Safe Framework.
This Framework sets minimum standards for child-safe culture and practices within Australian Government entities.
New resources are also being developed to help children and young people understand that they can speak up when they feel unsafe — and how.
This work is being spearheaded by the Commissioner for Children and Young People in Western Australia — with funding from the National Office — and will be available in December.
Other resources are also in the works, including supporting Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander organisations and communities to implement the National Principles for Child Safe Organisations.
And in a way that is culturally safe and relevant.
I am also pleased to announce that additional investment is being made to expand the Australian Child Maltreatment Study.
This is the first national study of its kind, and it looks into the prevalence and health impacts of all forms of child maltreatment in Australia.
The results will be released from September 2023, and will help guide Australia’s child safety policy priorities in the years that follow and well into the future. It’ll be a key tool.
Mr Speaker, last year I quoted a survivor who said, “Let our voice echo”.
My response was: May it ever be so.
My Government’s commitment to this — to ensuring the voices of victims and survivors are remembered and heard— will be enshrined in permanent form with a National Memorial.
The Memorial will be built here in our nation’s capital.
The Budget allocated funding for the Memorial, and it is expected to be completed in 2022.
Mr Speaker, our actions are not only about the past - but protecting Australian children now and into the future.
The safety of our children is all of our first priority.
That’s why in the past year, we have strengthened our laws to reflect this.
We’ve introduced a range of new offences.
We’ve increased maximum penalties.
We’ve introduced mandatory minimum sentences for the most serious and repeat offences.
We’ve also made it easier for agencies to investigate and prosecute child sexual abuse, and created offences for Commonwealth officers who fail to protect children under their care, supervision or authority.
As well, we’ve put more resources into responding to reports of child sexual abuse, and are working closely with our international partners to make sure the digital industry plays its part protecting children online.
I acknowledge the work of Australia's eSafety Commissioner Julie Inman Grant and her efforts in schools and universities working with young people, with those institutions - helping keep our young people safe.
I can report we’re on track to launch the National Centre for the national Prevention of Child Sexual Abuse next year.
The Centre will put a national lens on improving outcomes for victims and survivors — reducing stigma, raising awareness and understanding, and of course preventing child sexual abuse.
Mr Speaker, I said two years ago “We can never promise a world where there are no abusers. But we can promise a country where we commit to hear and believe our children.”
That is what we reaffirm today. Together.
This is our shared and constant responsibility. Together.
A responsibility I know, in this place, we are all determined to meet.
Speech, The Australian E-Commerce Virtual Summit
21 October 2020
Well, thank you very much, Jackson. And to Chris Dore at The Australian and Christine Holgate, who you've just been hearing from, from Australia Post. Thank you for the opportunity to be here.
Let me begin, of course, by firstly acknowledging the traditional owners of the lands on which we meet, wherever we are in Australia joining this summit today. Here in Canberra of course, that's the Ngunnawal people and I pay my respect to their elders, past, present and especially emerging.
I also want to acknowledge, as is my practice, any veterans or any men and women serving in our defence forces who are joining us today and say once again on behalf of a grateful nation, thank you. Thank you for your service to our country.
And thank you, of course, to our hosts for the invitation again to speak today.
It seems very appropriate that the Australian and Australia Post are bringing together this summit today.
Both organisations have had to navigate and are still indeed navigating as you've just heard, the changes that the digital revolution is bringing, not just for weeks or months during this pandemic, but continually year after year.
This year, everything accelerated that rapidly.
This year has been a thunderclap to so much of what we assumed to be normal.
While some parts of the economy, by virtue of the pandemic restrictions, were frozen in place, others had to accelerate at warp speed.
But all of us have had to adapt and to find a place of resilience and resolve.
In the first three weeks of this pandemic, a quarter of Australian businesses changed the way they deliver. Almost a quarter changed what they deliver. Diversifying into new products and services. And almost a third of them expanded their online presence.
One study found that during COVID, nearly 9 in 10 Australian firms took on new technology to support business continuity. As businesses went online, customers followed.
A study by McKinsey found that we vaulted 5 years forward in consumer and business digital adoption in around 8 weeks.
Now we've all heard the amazing figures from Australia Post, 26 million more parcels between March and May, delivering an average of 2 million parcels every single day.
In April, 5.2 million Australian households bought something online. I was one of them, more than once.
More than 200,000 of those were shopping online for the first time.
In August online sales reached over $3 billion dollars, an 81 per cent increase on August of last year.
We've seen that acceleration in other areas of digital life, in areas like telehealth and remote working.
In the first few weeks of lockdown, over 40 per cent of small and medium businesses bought or installed the software for remote working. Another 22 per cent, said they were headed in that direction.
Now that's almost two thirds of Australian SME’s with new capability and flexibility. New technology at their fingertips.
This year, the imperative of what we faced drove this adaption and adoption.
Aircraft manufacturers started making ventilator's, gin distilleries started making hand sanitiser, and local cafes moved online and got people ordering home delivered dinners. Kept Josh fed all the way up until the Budget I can assure you.
Our challenge is to keep the foot on the digital accelerator.
As we emerge on the other side of this pandemic, whilst we can marvel at the innovation and the digital acceleration. The bigger picture is that our economy has taken a massive hit.
So we have two stories happening simultaneously now here in Australia, an economy that is experiencing the worst set of economic circumstances since the Great Depression, devastating and ferocious adaptation that businesses have engaged in to keep these circumstances at bay, and their effects.
Today, I want to talk about these twin interconnected stories.
From the earliest days of this pandemic, the government's focus has been on getting through to the other side, that bridge to the other side.
And the centrepiece of that has, of course, being JobKeeper, the biggest financial lifeline to Australians in our history, a $101 billion dollar economic lifeline that has supported three and a half million jobs. Just think about that for a second.
The cash flow boost to small business helped more than 800,000 small to medium sized businesses stay afloat.
And because of our financial strength that we developed over many years, acknowledged in particular yesterday by Standard and Poor's who said our balance sheet was strong, we have been able to provide over $500 billion dollars in combined economic and health support, which is more than a quarter of the size of our economy, our GDP.
Our efforts, we know from Treasury, saved 700,000 jobs going, the doors of countless small and medium sized businesses are still open today, or will be able to reopen because of the support the Australian government provided and continues to provide.
As I've said for many years, in good times and in bad times, our economy is not an end in itself, our economy is always about people.
Our support now is about a journey back, a journey back to jobs for Australians.
And our Budget does that by bringing forward decisions on investment, on jobs and on tax cuts, and by laying the groundwork for recovery with affordable and reliable energy, with lower emissions, cooperatively reforming workplace relations to get more people into work, increasing and bringing forward infrastructure investment- small and large, driving deregulation cutting the red tape, making it easier for Australian businesses to do business- more important than ever in these circumstances.
And arguably, most importantly, investing in the skills of Australians so businesses can get the skills from Australia's that they need for their businesses to succeed and Australians of any age can get the skills that will put them in jobs and keep them in jobs well into the future, helping our businesses make the leap to a post pandemic world.
The digital economy is central to these tasks, to creating the jobs that Australians need. The speed of change in the digital economy means that our training system needs to be fast and responsive.
The pace of technological change means people are more likely to need to regularly reskill.
These are the facts.
A recent study suggested that by 2040, Australian workers will on average need to increase time spent learning new skills, all of us, by a third- 33 per cent over their lifetime, learning never stops.
That's why we are undertaking ambitious skills reforms to ensure our vocational education and training system is responsive, forward looking, dynamic, trusted.
We are piloting a digital skills organisation to ensure digital training needs meets the skill needs of employers. Employers and employees, that's what training's about. Not trainers, not providers. It's about the people who use it and the people who need it.
And we are investing $1 billion dollars in the JobTrainer fund together with our partners in the states and territories to deliver up to 340,000 free or low fee training places in areas of skills needs such as information technology and cyber security this financial year, right now.
It's not only individuals who have to prepare for such change. Every Australian business also must grasp what is before us.
Last year I was seeing studies that showed Australian small businesses were spending less than 1 per cent of their revenue on technology.
When I was Treasurer, it used to really frustrate me, I’ve got to say, it used to trouble me that small and medium sized businesses, particularly small, were not yet taking up digital technology as fast as they could. And this was holding them back. That was the frustration.
So I asked Mark Bouris, well-known to so many, to look into this. And he said to me when he came back, having reviewed this for a period of time, and he's very frank in usual way, he said mate, small businesses aren't looking to the government for ideas.
Fair enough. Fair enough, Mark. I’m pretty sure you're right about that.
We can't make that easier, but we can make it safer and easier to get paid by doing the things we can do digitally online to make payments, to connect with customers and deal with government we can do that.
And with the JobMaker digital business plan in this year's Budget, some $800 million dollars. We're basically upgrading the circuit boards of our economy.
That's the bit we can do. We’ve gotta do our part and we're doing that.
This is about using the gains we've just made this year as a springboard to become a leading digital economy by 2030.
I said that after the last election. That's where I want to see Australia go, because there's jobs there, there's incomes there, there's wages there, there's investments there, there's opportunity there.
An economy where our leading industry sectors, mining, agriculture, manufacturing, services, as well as small businesses all around the country, are at the global frontier of technological adaptation, enable them to scale up and grow.
That doesn't need to be- mean that Australia has to be one big Silicon Valley. No, we’ve just got to be the best at adopting. Taking it on board. Making it work for us. And we're really good at that.
Where workers across the country, including in regional areas, have the digital skills and capabilities they need to take advantage of new and changing job opportunities and where we have a trusted, secure and safe online world for Australians, particularly our kids also, to keep them safe from the dark forces we know are out there.
But also our businesses and the essential services upon which we all depend each and every day.
So our plan brings all that together. Investments actually beyond the Budget of some $4.5 billion in the NBN, $1.67 billion in cyber security.
As I said before, some $800 million in investments in 5G digital skills capability, regtech, fintech, open banking and a massive innovation in Australia, the consumer data right. Right out there in front of the rest of the world when it comes to how data is understood in this country and in the world as having real value.
They all sound pretty high-tech, I know as you'd expect, but at the heart they're all about one thing - making it easier and safer to do business. That’s just simple.
A part of the plan is making sure that our regulatory system is up to date. It doesn't create barriers. They've lost all meaning in the digital age.
Much of our regulation, you know, was written back in the time of Casio calculators.
It needs to be operative in our digital world. It's about making it faster and easier also to deal with government online. We're doing our bit.
The digital identity system already helps business do that, and we're continuing to improve and expand that system to make access to government services more secure and more convenient.
We've been working for a while and making it easier to register a business, taking 32 - that's right - separate registers and consolidating them into one.
In the digital business plan, we're mandating e-invoicing for government agencies by July 22 and looking at options to mandate the invoicing for business as well.
Doing it digitally reduces the cost of an invoice by around two thirds. Why wouldn't you want to do that? It's common sense.
And if we have the systems and procedures in place to pay on time and pay more quickly, everybody wins.
Our new payments platform in Australia is the most advanced of its kind anywhere in the world.
Real time payments.
And that helps us, along with so many other areas, supporting fintech to get a foothold in international markets and encourage foreign investment and job creation here in Australia.
I've always been very passionate about fintech for a long time, especially when I was Treasurer.
I launched Australia's FinTech positioning paper back in 2016, brought some of the most bright, forward thinking fintech thinkers and entrepreneurs together to guide how we were setting up our fintech industry here in Australia.
There's no politics in that. Most Australians wouldn't be that familiar with what happens in the fintech space.
But I saw very quickly, I knew how important it was going to be, for how our economy operated and the people who work in that sector I've always just found incredibly exciting and inspiring.
Even four years ago, it seemed all a bit futuristic as they'd share their ideas about what was possible and in a very brief time, that's translated, and it's reached every corner and cranny of our economy.
And it's not just the Bitcoin or block chain. It's GoFundMe. It's Kickstarter. It's AfterPay, Apple Pay, Google Pay, its phone banking apps. These are now becoming very familiar.
We carry them in our pockets, our keys, our phones, and fundamentally they just make business easier, they also make life easier.
And we can expect more and more innovation in our fintech sector and we can expect Australian fintech entrepreneurs and innovators to be in the leaders of the pack around the world.
We can expect fintech to open doors to more markets and opportunities here and across the world.
Our digital business plan is just the start of our journey to becoming a leading digital economy by 2030, and it's already happened.
The task force and my department continue to lead the work across government and with industry to build on this substantial investment.
The digital world is not bound by geography or tyrannised by distance. All the old things that often held Australia back, all flipped on their head now.
All our business practises and supports and the regulations were set up in the analogue world, as I said, not the digital world and this year has reminded us of this.
And also remind us how far we still need to go.
We need to get our rules and our systems to catch up to what our technology now allows us to do.
That's the task for government.
We've got to get this moving and we are.
We're leading work with other countries and seeing in that light by other countries to make it easier to do business across borders with free flows of data and an open, accessible and in a secure online environment for those things to take place.
In the World Trade Organisation, Australia is chairing leading negotiations on the trade-related aspects of electronic commerce.
That involves 85 nations that account for more than 90 per cent of global trade. There we are driving the bus.
At the regional level, the landmark Trans-Pacific Partnership contains the region's first set of digital rules to support the free flow of data and facilitate digital trade.
That includes prohibitions on customs duties, on digital products such as software or music, and promoting paperless trading through electronic customs forms and authentication.
And we are working with individual, like-minded nations in our region to raise the level of ambition in this area.
The world-class Australia-Singapore Digital Economy Agreement is a digital bridge that features modern, upgraded rules to free up data flows and increase compatibility for online trade.
It eliminates unnecessary restrictions on where data has to be stored, at the same time protecting personal data and consumer rights.
It makes government information easier to access and government rules easier to follow.
It covers everything from AI to ID, e-invoicing to e-certification, data protection to protecting kids from online harm.
It's a massive step forward.
It's the benchmark now.
And there are many more steps still ahead of us in this space.
And I thank Prime Minister Lee and the Singaporean government, who've been such a wonderful partner to strike this agreement and we're working to strike more digital economy agreements with other partners in our region.
Australia has also been a strong contributor to the OECD’s Going Digital Project, which is assisting countries to adopt digital policies for stronger economic growth.
Good for them, it's good for us. We all win.
And Australia's candidate for the position of Secretary-General of the OECD, Mathias Cormann, would continue to boost this important work and drive implementation of OECD recommendations to support the recovery from COVID-19.
Open, liberal, market-based economies trading with each other. That's how the world comes out of this.
Not by shrinking, not by hiding, not by withdrawing, but extending out in new and safe ways, charting new territory.
This is what we're doing. It's very exciting. And Australia is in the vanguard.
All of this digital transformation, it's not an Everest we have to climb. We're not just doing it because it's there.
We're not trying, as I said, to create the next Silicon Valley here in Australia. That's not it.
We're doing it because we're a practical people and we get it.
It's a massive productivity boost to our economy.
The biggest game changer, arguably, the world has ever seen.
It saves huge amounts of time, money, energy, resources and space.
You don't have to be a tech-head.
You don't have to be someone who was totally absorbed in the technology of this to understand its implications.
You know it works.
You know it's going to change our lives.
It comes with risks, sure. And we're protecting against those.
But we know it creates untold opportunities to innovate and find new markets.
Customers, progress and prosperity.
It is a massive priority of my Government.
It puts our businesses, large and small, on the frontier of the digital world.
COVID-19 has pushed that frontier further forward.
Let's push past it.
Let's keep going.
Being competitive, adaptive, becoming more productive and innovative.
That's our path to a post-COVID recovery.
A recovery, jobs, investment and a better future.
Thank you very much for your attention. I look forward to working with all of you as we create this new, exciting future for Australia.
These have been very dark times, but amongst this darkness, there have been some real shards of light that have been coming through.
Most significantly, the resilience and determination and innovation of the Australian people.
The only assumption I made in this Budget is about the Australian people and what they can achieve and what they can do and I back that assumption every day.
Thanks very much.
Press Conference - Sydney, NSW
16 October 2020
Prime Minister: Good afternoon everyone it’s good to be back here in Sydney, also been tremendous to be up, right across Queensland, moving from the Gold Coast all the way up to Cairns, and to return to Sydney today for some very important matters. Unfortunate of course, that we were unable to have the National Cabinet meeting today that will be held next Friday. There was a mechanical difficulty with the BBJ which prevented my return to Sydney yesterday and so National Cabinet has been rescheduled for next Friday.
But importantly today, the National Security Committee of Cabinet has met today which I was able to return for and there we were able to finalise arrangements for our agreement with the Northern Territory Government, I will be meeting with the Chief Minister this afternoon to work through these and many other issues, as an important bilateral discussion with the Chief Minister for the use of the Howard Springs facility, which, under the agreement as referred to as the Northern Territory Centre for National Resilience. This agreement will extend out, on this arrangement until the end of March with both the opportunity to extend that agreement and expand that agreement should additional capacity become available at that facility. That would give us roughly, over that period of time, given the two week quarantine period plus the cleansing of the facility in between groups coming through of around about 5,000 people over that period of time. This arrangement is intended to supplement the more significant arrangements that we have in continually lifting the caps at our major ports of entry into Australia which is now, as a result of the changes we put in place at the last National Cabinet, at just over 5,500 weekly slots, sorry, weekly capacity of people coming into each of those areas and going into hotel quarantine. Which means we're getting more and more and more Australians home every week. Now we're also being able to supplement that with this additional facility, which initially will be used to take in groups as a result of supported flights coming out of three locations. Firstly, out of the United Kingdom but there are also flights being arranged out of India and out of South Africa. Not all of those will necessarily go to Howard Springs but those flights, which are being done by Qantas, particularly the UK flight, they are, the seats on those flights are being sold by Qantas. But Qantas has the priority list of vulnerable passengers who are in the UK that get the first opportunity at those seats on those flights and our High Commission there is contacting all of those individuals and giving them the opportunity through Qantas, to be on those flights so they can return.
But the good news is, of the around about just over 4,000 Australians who were identified and DFAT identified as vulnerable on 18th of September, just over a quarter of those have now been able to return to Australia and we're making very good progress on ensuring that more and more Australians are getting home. And as those places continue to open up at our major points of entry, when we can get in particular Melbourne back online, that will make a big difference and we look forward to that happening as soon as that can. I've obviously raised that with the Premier some weeks ago but there remain challenges there at this point in time, but we look forward to being able to pick that up again.
Now, at Howard Springs, at that centre, those who come through will obviously in the same way that others are paying for their quarantine arrangements, that will be the case there at Howard Springs and that's at $2,500 for an individual and $5,000 for a family. Today we also, as a NSC, a National Security Committee of Cabinet, further discussed how we may be able to progress in a number of other areas, that is travel from safe countries into Australia. We're many many months still off this. But the medical expert panel is already considering various options about that, how that can be achieved using a traffic light system for the various countries. It does involve looking at the many other quarantine options that could be made available from home isolation to corporates who are returning various workers from various parts of the world and being able to put in place their own corporate arrangements for quarantine that would meet standards that would need to be in place, that would be at least equivalent to what is done in the publicly-run facilities or supported, I should say, through the hotel quarantine arrangements for returning Australian citizens. And so that means that we can work to try and get back to a new kind of normal for Australia, as much as getting Australians home is our top priority when it comes to utilising these quarantine arrangements, our other priority is to get Australia back to a safe level of engaging with the rest of the world and in priority areas. That of course is in areas like students and business visitors to Australia, and the like. And potentially other visitors.
Now, today, we have already welcomed our first Kiwis back to Australia for a holiday. That's fantastic. Some 230, I understand, were on the flight this morning that has arrived, and I think is just going through customs now as we speak, and there are others who will be coming. And we welcome those Kiwis, Kia Ora to those Kiwis who've joined us today, I hope you enjoy your holiday in New South Wales or the Northern Territory or the ACT and tell your friends and we’re looking forward to seeing more of you, we’ve got a few Australians in New Zealand at the moment for the Bledisloe on the weekend. There'll be a few Kiwis heading this way for the Bledisloe return matches here in Australia in a few more weeks’ time.
So we're making progress in all of those areas. It's important that we look ahead. Yes, we need to deal with the here and now when it comes to COVID-safe travel and behaviour and quarantine, and returning Australians. But with or without a vaccine, we need to be in a different place next year to where we are this year. And we need to be planning for that now, and we are, just as we've been planning around these Howard Springs arrangements now for some period of time. Howard Springs has actually been used in recent months, particularly to enable people on their way through the Northern Territory to ensure they complied with other border arrangements in other states and territories, in particular in Queensland. It's been used for inbound, those arrivals into the Northern Territory. It has also been used for seasonal workers that have been coming through for important areas in our horticultural industry in the north. And so now, as we move into this next phase, we'll be able to use this facility to support the far greater capacity, which has always been our first priority, of
opening up those ports of entry.
So it's excellent to be in a position that we've got our first visitors, our first international visitors, coming to Australia. That's a real turning point from where we were just over six months ago. And here we are, already, before the end of the year, getting at least to some new point of normal when it comes to COVID-safe travel. But it has to be done safely. And in putting these arrangements in place where we have AUSMAT experts who will be in place at Howard Springs to ensure those arrangements are done well, there will also be a regular external audit of infection control practices at Howard Springs and that will be advising directly through to the Chief Medical Officer.
Now before I move to a couple of other items, and to your questions, I also want to announce today that Nick Warner AO PSM will be retiring when he concludes his current term as the first-ever Director-General of the Office of National Intelligence. He'll be stepping down and retiring in December. I've known Nick for many years, as many of those who have worked at a senior level across government, have for a very long time. He has served in this role as my principal intelligence adviser and the head of the national intelligence community since December of 2017. Nick has an extremely long and distinguished career serving Australia's interests and defending and protecting Australia's interests. He's a great Australian, who has done an outstanding job, spanning some four decades in areas from national security and foreign policy and so many other areas. And so, we thank you, Nick, on behalf of a grateful nation for keeping Australia safe and keeping Australians safe. You've done a superb job. And obviously we look forward to continuing to work with you over the balance of your term, and we wish you all the best in your retirement, but I have no doubt that Nick will still be in a position to be supporting us in any number of other arrangements on a less formal basis going forward into the future. His expertise, his experience, his knowledge of these areas is, I would say, without peer and we have indeed been well-served by him in his time, both in this role as the Director-General of the Office of National Intelligence but also as Director-General of the Australian Secret Intelligence Service. Prior to that he held a range of senior positions, including Secretary of the Department of Defence and a senior international advisor to Prime Minister John Howard. He has served many Prime Ministers and he's served them extremely well. And without fear or favour, I can assure you, as I'm sure my predecessors will also attest. Overseas, he served as the High Commissioner to Papua New Guinea, a special coordinator of the regional Assistance Mission to the Solomon Islands, RAMSI which was a tremendous success. And so I have no doubt he will continue to serve Australia well, but perhaps not at quite the frenetic pace he's done so, for four decades.
I also want to welcome, the announcement by Naval Group that they have commenced, put out expressions of interest for 23 major items of equipment for the new Attack-class submarines. This work has been assessed by Naval Group as being worth up to $900 million across the 12 submarine fleet. Manufacturing such as essential pieces of equipment in Australia will support Australian jobs while building confidence in the Australian defence manufacturing industry and we're working with Naval Group to maximise opportunities for Australians, and Australian industry, including through this announcement today. Naval Group has committed to maximising Australian industry involvement with at least 60 per cent Australian industry capability.
So a lot on the agenda today. That was the key focus today. I look forward to the National Cabinet meeting being held next week. There were no pressing matters that National Cabinet, that we were anticipating significant announcements or decisions on today. It was a meeting that was continuing to review a number of proposals and get status reports on that, and provide them with further direction. And we will deal with those formally next Friday. I note also what has been a pleasing set of numbers out of Victoria when it comes to case numbers today. I agree with the Premier, this is important news, but especially for Victorians. You know, Victorians have kept up their side of the bargain. Victorians and, in particular, Melbournians, have done their bit to see this second wave that occurred in Victoria be brought under control, to arrest it. And that has come with great sacrifice. Some 70,000 jobs have been lost in Victoria over the last two months. The impact on the mental health and anxiety of Melbournians, and Victorians more broadly, has been significant. We've worked together with the Victorian government to provide the support through additional mental health support and services, and to work closely with them with the deployment of the ADF and so many others to assist Victoria as they've gone through this difficult period. But at some time you've got to step off the shore and you’ve got to start moving forward again. We've been in contact, of course I spoke to the Premier the other day, we're working with him as he prepares his next stage. They are all matters and decisions for the Victorian Premier but I know Victorians are really hoping that on the weekend they can see some significant relief to the significant impositions that have been there, that have been put in place by the Victorian government to get this second wave under control. We cannot be complacent about this. We see what is happening in Europe at the moment, devastating results there, further restrictions coming in, curfews in major European cities. And Melbourne has been going through that. And we don't want to see Melbourne or Victoria go back into that situation again. But the Premier has made it clear that they have improved their tracing capability and it's time to ensure that we can now move forward and give Victorians and Melbournians the opportunity to build back, to recover what has been so terribly lost over these recent, very difficult months and I'm looking forward to those announcements on the weekend, and I'm sure Victorians are. They'll be, along with the rest of the country, urging the Premier to move as far as he possibly can go, because Victorians have earned it. They've done the right thing. They've kept their side of the bargain and now it's time, I think, for them to be able to move further forward. We look forward to those announcements on the weekend.
Happy to take some questions.
Journalist: Prime Minister, did you attend a Liberal Party function last night?
Prime Minister: No.
Journalist: Why wasn't there another plane sent for you?
Prime Minister: There was. It arrived this morning and we got on it and flew back this morning.
Journalist: Could it have come earlier?
Prime Minister: Not to get us back in Sydney at a reasonable time, no.
Journalist: There wasn't a security facility in Townsville…
Prime Minister: Not for the purpose of this meeting. The National Cabinet is not just me on the end of the phone. There's the Secretary of the Prime Minister and Cabinet's Department, there is the Chief Medical Officer, who was flying up to Sydney for that event. We can't help mechanical failures of planes. They happen from time to time. When that happens we reschedule arrangements. It’s as simple as that.
Journalist: Prime Minister, you mentioned Nick Warner's retirement,
Prime Minister: Yeah.
Journalist: Given the reports that came out in the ASIO report this week, the thwarted attempts to influence Australian intelligence, what is the current threat to Australia from foreign agents?
Prime Minister: Well we have strong protections in place to deal with those things at all times. I think the report just reflects how successful our intelligence agencies have been. But I'm not about to go into a commentary about their capabilities or how they do their work. All I know is they're very effective at doing it. And Nick Warner has been an architect of our capacity for a very long time.
Journalist: Senator Abetz in estimates this week was asking Chinese-Australians to denounce the communist party. Do we need to make a pledge like this for foreign-born Australians?
Prime Minister: There is only one pledge that any Australian citizen should take and that's the pledge they take when they become an Australian citizen.
Journalist: What do you make of Senator Abetz then asking Chinese-Australians to do that [Inaudible]?
Prime Minister: I just said the normal practices should be observed.
Journalist: Prime Minister, you prioritised vulnerable people, what classifies a stranded Australian as vulnerable? Is it their age, their health condition, and who assesses that?
Prime Minister: The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade assess that, based on their consular experience. And so those, they make, and it’s a whole range of issues, I mean people can be medically in a situation where they’re vulnerable, there may be family circumstance, there may be issues of economic need, it’s a broad cross section of issues that could place someone in a vulnerable position. Their ongoing accommodation arrangements where they may be. There is a range of different issues that DFAT uses to make those bespoke assessments on each and every case. And the numbers do move around based on changing people's circumstances as well. And so, but we are prioritising those who they've identified, our consular officials have identified as being the most vulnerable and they have the priority allotment for those flights.
Journalist: If someone cannot pay for their flight or their accommodation, how can a stranded Australian in need take advantage of this?
Prime Minister: We awarded to the Department of Finance, Foreign Affairs and Trade some months ago $65 million to support the work of DFAT for those who might be in a difficult situation. There are a range of arrangements they put in place. Zero interest loans which can be paid back over a longer period of time. There's emergency cash assistance in some occasions can be provided. That's all done at the discretion of the Australian consular officials. Australia's consular corps are extraordinary. I mean, this year, more than any, they've been doing an amazing job. Over the course of the last, over the COVID period, there have been 29,100 Australian citizens who have been assisted by DFAT to get them home. Over 29,000. That's what they've been able to achieve. And that work continues. They do it each and every day. And you know, that included getting Australians out of Beirut after it was blasted. They did that while the windows were shattered in their own offices, working with the most basic of communications facilities and they got those Australians home. So I think our consular corps in our Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, they're brave, they are smart, they work incredibly hard, they're amazingly compassionate and they deal with people at their most vulnerable when they're away from home. And I think they're amazing. I think they do a tremendous job.
Sorry, up the back?
Journalist: Just how damaging is the scandal involving the New South Wales Premier to your Coalition's re-election chances?
Prime Minister: I've already made my remarks about the Premier, I’ve worked with the Premier for many years, many, many years. And there’s an inquiry going on and that’s appropriate. But Gladys Berejiklian is the Premier that New South Wales needs in these difficult times. She has been an extraordinary leader, particularly setting, I think the right bar, the gold standard, as I've called it, when it comes to contact tracing and testing arrangements here, and outbreak containment. Keeping New South Wales open while keeping New South Wales safe. It has been an extraordinary effort. And like all the Premiers, Chief Ministers, myself, as we've gone through COVID it has been a very uncertain time. We've had to make adjustments along the way, learn what we've needed to learn and make the changes to our programs. And no-one has done that, I think, better than Premier Berejiklian and she has very strong support, obviously, from the Deputy Premier and the many members of her team. The Deputy Leader of the Liberal Party, Dominic Perrottet, they are a team just focused on keeping New South Wales safe when it comes to COVID-19 but also keeping New South Wales open.
Journalist: Should WA's borders come down now given that the Chief Health Officer has said travel bubbles between states should be fine?
Prime Minister: That's a matter for the Western Australian Government. Again, I've had no quibble with the Western Australian Government about the decisions they've made. They should be made on health advice. Where there are borders, domestically, in this country they should only be there for as long as they need to be and they should come off as soon as the medical advice permits that. And that's the only reason why those borders should be in place. And the Western Australian Premier has always said that those borders have been there for those reasons. And I'll leave it to others to make judgements about what has been said by the Health Minister and the Chief Health Officer in WA. They also need to be done on a consistent basis and there can't be double-standards about it, and there needs to be common-sense applied to ensure that the wheels of commerce continue and that - borders, of course, can provide some further protection, they are no substitute, though, for a world-class contact tracing system. They are no substitute for a world-class testing regime. They're no substitute for ensuring COVID-safe behaviours and practices. Sometimes people can get a bit more confident when the borders are up and ignore some of those practices, and that actually puts everybody at great risk. You may forget the virus but, I can tell you, the virus won't forget you. We need to continue to manage our COVID response on that basis. There's no vaccine at this point. I was enormously encouraged when I went to the University of Queensland last week during the course of this week, I should say, and to see the remarkable progress they're making. But that's not in place yet. We have a long way to go. We've got to continue to build back. We've cushioned the economic blow of COVID-19. Our health results are among the best in the world. Our economic results in cushioning that blow are amongst the best in the world. But now we have to recover those jobs. And we’re seeing that happening everywhere else except for Victoria. And we want to see those Victorian jobs come back and that's why we're looking forward to some positive news this weekend. But then it’s about building back for the future which is what our Budget was all about, it’s been incredibly well received. I was so pleased to see how well it was received up in Queensland over the course of this week, visiting so many businesses seeing their optimism. I made one assumption in this Budget and that was in the strength and resilience of Australians and I think that’s a very safe assumption.
Thank you very much.
Press Conference - Canberra, ACT
9 October 2020
PRIME MINISTER: Good afternoon everyone, I’m particularly pleased to be here today and joined by the Minister for Finance and the Leader of the Government in the Senate on this significant day for you Mathias, and, of course, Hayley and the family.
But as we both know, today is an even more important day for Australians all over the country. Earlier today, in the Senate, the Government was successful in having the tax relief, the bring-forward of personal income tax cuts to ensure that working Australians all across the country can keep more of what they earn some 11 million of them. Also as part of that bill, we were successful in being able to pass what are critical tax changes for businesses to be able to invest in their future, creating jobs right across the country to ensure that we can come out of this COVID-19 recession. In addition to that, there is the important changes to our tax laws, which will mean that businesses, through no fault of their own, who are performing well as they came into this COVID-19 recession, making profits, paying taxes, and they've been hit with what I'd call COVID losses. We won't make them wait for years and years before they get back into profitability, if they can achieve that. They can offset those losses, those COVID losses, against the taxes they paid out of their profits before they came into this COVID crisis. Which means they can get back on their feet quicker. Which means they can keep more people employed. Which means they can invest in their business. Which means, importantly they can create more jobs.
In addition, $2 billion worth of special incentives on research and development, which will drive forward particularly our manufacturing industries, as part also of our manufacturing plan. And important changes that says that you're a small business, and medium-sized businesses, up to $50 million in turnover, where you can access important concessions that cut red tape and enable you to get about your business. All of this means more jobs.
This was all in the Budget speech on Tuesday night from the Treasurer, and it's law on Friday. This is real change. This is a real Budget that is going to have a real impact on Australians as we come out of this COVID-19 recession. This is the Budget that Australians needed. This is the plan that Australians have needed. And this is the plan that has been legislated, made law in our Parliament, in three days. In just three days. That's how serious we are about our plan. That's how serious we are about making this real for Australians. We know they need that support now. This is a plan to boost business, to boost jobs, to boost investment, to boost research and development and technology, to drive jobs in our economy.
And I want to thank the Finance Minister, and in this particular case, as Leader of the Government in the Senate, to ensure we were able to take this through the Parliament this week, to ensure that Australians can go into this weekend, turn up to work on Monday, even those working over the weekend, I'm sure, knowing that our plan for the economic recovery from the COVID-19 recession is moving. It's happening. It's law. It's real.
Mathias.
SENATOR THE HON. MATHIAS CORMANN, MINISTER FOR FINANCE AND LEADER OF THE GOVERNMENT IN THE SENATE: Thank you very much, Prime Minister.
Yes, so today the Parliament passed the foundation of our plan to get Australia out of this COVID recession. Within three days, we were able to persuade the Parliament, including the Senate, to back in our plan to maximise the strength of our recovery, to get Australians back into work as quickly as possible.
What we have legislated today is income tax relief for hardworking Australians. Putting more money into workers' pockets, but also stimulating the economy by boosting aggregate demand. That will help to maximise the strength of the recovery sooner. What we also legislated today is a whole range of initiatives to give business the incentive and the encouragement to invest in their future growth and success, because in the end, what our Budget is all about, it is about facilitating a private sector-led recovery, a private sector-led recovery where viable, profitable, growing businesses start hiring more Australians again.
I thank my colleagues in the Senate for working with the Government as constructively as they have to pass this very, very important part of our plan to get Australia out of this COVID recession.
PRIME MINISTER: Questions?
JOURNALIST: What does Minister Cormann's departure mean for MYEFO in December? Will there be one? Is there a need for one?
PRIME MINISTER: That's the regular schedule and that's what we intend to do. We will keep on with the job. As Mathias kindly said in his remarks today, when he steps down later this month, he will be leaving a Government that is stable, that is united, that has a clear plan for recovery from the COVID-19 recession, and that is getting on with the job. Mathias has made an extraordinary contribution, not just to this Budget, but the six that preceded it. We have worked now together on six of those Budgets in total, including this one. They've all been confronted with different challenges, and different situations and of all of them, I'm sure Mathias would agree, this has been the most challenging, where we find ourselves now. But this Budget, through the hard work that has been done by all who have contributed to it, has ensured that we can put this plan in place very quickly, just as we moved so quickly in putting the JobKeeper and JobSeeker arrangements in place as the COVID-19 pandemic hit this country. And so we go forward with strength. We come from a position of strength, of which Mathias has been a key part, and we'll get on with the job of delivering our plan.
JOURNALIST: The RBA today has warned that Australia's historically low population growth rate will hike the...
PRIME MINISTER: Sorry, I missed the second part of that.
JOURNALIST: Sorry, the RBA has warned today that Australia's historically low population growth rate will heighten the risk of falls in property values in the future. And Treasury has said that your stimulatory housing measures are bringing forward demand for future years. What will the Government do to fill that approaching cliff?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, the population impacts of the COVID-19 recession are obvious and I don’t think they’re of any surprise to anyone. But whether it's programs like HomeBuilder and others, what we’re doing is there has always be an excess of demand over the supply of housing in this country. Always has been. And that's what has fundamentally driven house price values all around the country and that is still true today. There is still a surplus of demand over supply and that's why our HomeBuilder program, and to give you an idea of its impact, what we've done in the housing sector is we've been unlocking and bringing forward the decisions that home builders want to make. And that will see some 20,000 homes built at a cost of around $500 million. If I hark back to the GFC and, Mathias will remember this, the then Government had a scheme to build just under 20,000 homes, and it cost $5 billion. So, I think I can leave it to you to work out which is the better way to get homes built when it comes to the taxpayer and generate the construction activity in the residential building sector, to get things moving in that area. See, this is what our plan is all about. Our plan, as Mathias just said, is about enabling investment in the private sector. We don't see government as the solution forever. We see government's role in the middle of this COVID-19 recession to assist the private sector get back on its feet, to bridge this gap during the course of this COVID-19 recession. But back the fact that our long-term prosperity, and the jobs that depend on it, will come from those businesses going forward again. And that's why what has passed today is so important. So important. It's important because businesses can go now and say, we can purchase that equipment, we can go and purchase that new header, we can go and purchase that new blast freezer, we can go and purchase that new fridge, we can go and purchase that new fleet of vehicles, or those trucks or those utes, or the testing equipment and medical laboratories, or whatever it happens to be. What we've said today in the Parliament, through the law, is we're backing you to invest and employ people. And they can go out there with that confidence. Not off a speech, off the law. This is real. And the Parliament just made it real.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, the WA State Government posted a surplus of $1.2 billion yesterday. Is that a good thing? Obviously some people were critical, given it's a pandemic. Minister, if you'd like to pitch in as well?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, I'm going to quote the Minister for Finance, because as he pointed out in the Senate today, and I wish the Western Australian Government well, and I wished them well some years ago, when we put the GST reforms in place. I note that $1.5 billion, wasn't it, Mathias...
SENATOR THE HON. MATHIAS CORMANN, MINISTER FOR FINANCE AND LEADER OF THE GOVERNMENT IN THE SENATE: The top up payment.
PRIME MINISTER: The top-up payment as a result of the GST reforms that the Finance Minister and I worked together on as Treasurer means that the Western Australian Budget is in surplus. And so you're welcome, Mark.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, just on Labor's childcare reforms, do you agree that it will help low and middle-income families and boost female workplace participation?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, look, there are many questions that the Leader of the Opposition still has to answer for us to understand exactly what he's put forward. He hasn't released the detailed costings of his policies, he hasn't told us what the changes are to the activity test and how that impacts on things. What I do know is that someone who is in the top 10 per cent of income earning in this country are the big beneficiaries of that plan. When we announced our childcare changes, it was focused on those low and middle-income earners. That's where all the money was spent. That's where the majority of the $9 billion goes under our plan, is to support those on low and middle-income earners. And when we put our plan in place, that's why I wasn't surprised that workforce participation increased to record levels, that women's participation in the workforce rose to record levels, that the arrangements we put in place to ensure that rebates were based on a price cap meant that we could start bringing the costs of child care down. And, indeed, the Australian Bureau of Statistics has confirmed that since our package went into place that those costs actually did come down. So, there are many unanswered questions about what the Leader of the Opposition said the other night. You know, for the most part, we'll file it under fiction. What this is is law. Our plan is law. Our plan is in place. But Mathias?
SENATOR THE HON. MATHIAS CORMANN, MINISTER FOR FINANCE AND LEADER OF THE GOVERNMENT IN THE SENATE: I might just reinforce a very important point here. After six years of Liberal-National Government, and our economic reforms and implementation of our plans to strengthen the economy and create more jobs, workforce participation by women in Australia was at its highest on record. The gender pay gap was at its lowest ever on record, under our Government, as a result of the policies of our Government. So, we do not need an unfunded policy prescription. We need to go back to what got us into that good position before, as we work our way out of this COVID recession.
PRIME MINISTER: John?
JOURNALIST: Thanks, PM. On the business-led recovery, businesses generally welcome that, and also the 100 per cent temporary expensing. But it is a temporary measure, about a hundred of the largest companies are going to miss out on it, they say. And also when that measure ends, as you'd understand, because they won't get the depreciation they would have otherwise got, those smaller companies, their effective tax rate is going to go up in the medium term. Does this underline the need for a broader, more fundamental, permanent tax reform at some point, once these temporary measures move? Would you be open to that?
PRIME MINISTER: This plan that we've been working to, frankly, since the start of this pandemic, has had three phases. The first is to cushion the blow and that's what we've achieved. Had we not acted with JobKeeper and JobSeeker, 700,000 more people would have been out of work. And over that period of the last six months, we've seen 760,000 jobs that had been reduced to either zero hours, or had gone, come back and that has ensured that we've been able to get the economy to where it is today. The second part of the plan is to get things brought forward as part of our recovery plan from the COVID-19 recession. And the measures we've announced particularly, which the Finance Minister has been able to steward through the Senate, has meant that we can bring forward decisions to invest, bring forward decisions to hire, bring forward decisions by 11 million Australians to spend, by bringing forward Stage 2 of those tax cuts, focused on low and middle-income earners. Bringing forward so businesses can go ahead. But the third stage is to build for the future. And the research and development tax concessions that have been legislated today are important for that. That manufacturing plan, backed up by that research and development tax concession, and the many other elements of that plan which we set out in precise detail in the speech I gave to the Press Club last week. The energy plan that ensures that manufacturers can get access to gas feedstock. If you can't get the gas, you can't make things here. You’ve got to get the gas to make things in this country. And so if you're not for gas and getting the gas, then you're not for jobs. And our plan sets that out very clearly. So, there are three stages. And we've always been a Government, as Mathias knows, and he has been a champion of this, about getting taxes low. Lower taxes has always been part of our economic plan, and we will never lose our passion for lower taxes. Mathias?
JOURNALIST: Ich habe eine Frage. Can you clarify exactly when people will see these tax cuts flow through into their own pay pockets?
SENATOR THE HON. MATHIAS CORMANN, MINISTER FOR FINANCE AND LEADER OF THE GOVERNMENT IN THE SENATE: As has been explained by the Treasurer on a number of occasions now, now that this has been legislated, the Tax Office, within a few weeks now, it is an administrative process for them, will adjust the withholding tax schedules. In relation to the Low and Middle Income Tax Offset, there will be a lump sum payment at the end of the financial year, because you know that their tax cut has already been baked into their withholding tax right as we speak. We have given them a double-up, effectively of the value of their tax relief at the lower income level. Then in terms of the tax withheld up until this point, that will also be reconciled as part of the tax return at the end of the financial year.
JOURNALIST: What about debt and deficit? You're introducing like a lot of the measures are temporary in support for business, but the tax cuts are permanent. The Treasurer said you won't really start the task of budget repair until you get unemployment under 6 per cent. Is there any way of maybe starting that sooner I mean Is it a task perhaps in 12 months' time, when the immediate crisis is over, that you can start sooner on that?
PRIME MINISTER: Our first priority is jobs. Because the first priority of Australians is jobs. You can't pay down a deficit if Australians aren't in work. Now as Mathias made very clear in his outstanding speech today in the Senate, he saved his best till last. He pointed out the work of budget repair we did over many, many years, and that was a function of some $250 billion or thereabouts, Mathias, of specific things we did to get the budget spending under control. But the biggest contributor to getting the Budget back into balance in that 18-19 year was the fact that 1.5 million jobs were created from when we were first elected until that time. What that means is, we changed people who were on welfare into people who are in jobs and paying taxes. And businesses, there were more of them paying more taxes, making more profits. That's how you fundamentally balance a budget. You balance it by ensuring that you have an economy that is growing, that is putting people in work, where they are less reliant on government, and more able to walk their own course. And for those who regrettably can't do that, Mathias spoke about this well today, you can see, I listened very carefully today, Minister. That social safety net needs to be strong. And that's why this Budget also guarantees the essential services that Australians rely on. More money for hospitals, more money for schools, more money for disability, more money for aged care. I did note that the Leader of the Opposition criticises the level of debt and the level of deficit but then proceeded to add to both of it last night, with no indication of what else in the Budget he would change. But we're used to that from Labor. They'll have a bob each way on everything. As I said, they'll go for a place and a win in a two-horse race on every occasion. That's called each way. And you can't balance a budget like that. And that's what I have been partnering with Mathias Cormann now for many years to achieve. And that's why we will grow the economy, get people back into jobs, that's the first priority. We've demonstrated our ability to balance a budget before. That's what the ratings agencies have actually recognised in the statements they made after the Budget and they know we have that capability, because we've demonstrated. And we will demonstrate it again. How do I know we're going to put people back in jobs again? Because we've done it before. 1.5 million jobs from the time we were first elected. How do I know that a Coalition Government will balance the Budget again? Because we've done it before. And we will apply the same discipline and the same passion to getting people into work as we did before. But I'm going to leave the last word to Mathias.
SENATOR THE HON. MATHIAS CORMANN, MINISTER FOR FINANCE AND LEADER OF THE GOVERNMENT IN THE SENATE: It has been fun. See you at Estimates!
Press Conference - Canberra, ACT
8 October 2020
Prime Minister: Well good morning everyone. As you have heard me say on many occasions now and the Treasurer and the Finance Minister and the Deputy Prime Minister - this is the most significant global recession the world has seen since the Great Depression. This year we will see, we expect, the world economy to shrink, to contract, by 4.5 per cent. By comparison, during the global financial crisis, it shrunk by 0.1%. So this is a global economic crisis caused by the COVID-19 pandemic that really is on a scale that the vast majority of us have never seen in our living memory. But what makes it different, I think, from the Great Depression is that this global economic crisis is happening in a truly globally, interconnected, real-time economy. We have not seen this scale of disruption occur in our global economy in a way that the effects can be so quickly transmitted. There is not a corner of the world today that has not been touched by this COVID-19 pandemic or the economic tragedies that have followed it.
Australia has always been a country that has looked not just amongst its own, but beyond, for our economic opportunities. We have always been an outward-looking country, a nation that has backed itself to make its way in the world, to lead, to set example, to get ahead, to trade, to welcome people from all around the world - we are the most successful multicultural immigrant nation in the world and I wouldn't say arguably, I would say definitively. That's who we are. We know we don't get rich selling stuff to ourselves. We know that the opportunities and the growth, the jobs that are necessary, not just today, but into the future, depend on a resurgent global economy. There are many things we can do here as we did on Tuesday night as part of our Budget for the recovery from the COVID-19 recession. And to build our economy for the future. Things that address matters here in our domestic economy and to get that firing up again.
But Australia will always be limited by the growth and the performance of the global economy. And that's why we're interested in those issues, that's why we're engaged in those issues. And the OECD is the gathering and a gathering, I would say, that is more important than I think it's ever been during its time, because it brings together the liberal democracies and market-based economies of advanced countries all around the world and our view is - and I know in my many, many discussions with the leaders of those countries that form the OECD - that we want a global economy in the future that will grow on the basis of those market-based principles. That will see the incentivisation of investment, that will see market-based economies and the trade that follows from that and the economic advancement that follows from that and the jobs and the betterment of peoples all around the world will depend, we believe, on the success of those market-based principles once again just as that has delivered since the Second World War, the most prosperous age in world history. But that is now under threat and those same market-based principles are the same ones that will again recover the global economy.
It is the pandemic that has caused this recession. It's not some global failure of capitalism or market-based principles. Quite the contrary. The world economy got shut down because of a health pandemic and we're going to grow our way back out of it and the way that is going to happen globally is through the return and the nourishment of those market-based principles that are so evident in the liberal democracies of the world today. The OECD has played an incredibly important role on so many issues in which Australia has been a key participant. The base erosion in profit-shifting, the taxation of multinationals, all of these important international principles that govern and help drive our global economy. The OECD plays a specially important role in supporting the work of the G20 of which Australia has been a very active member. And so we believe that as the Secretary-Generalship of the OECD is coming up after many, many years, and I pay tribute to work of Angel Gurria who has led that organisation for many years, I’ve met him on numerous occasions and he's done a fantastic job and we have worked well with him and I thanked him personally for the great job that he has done.
We believe the OECD needs the sort of leadership that we think Australia and an Australian can provide. And so I am announcing our intention to nominate Minister Cormann, Mathias Cormann, for the position of Secretary-General of the [OECD]. Mathias's 7-year experience as our longest-serving Finance Minister, Belgian-born, French-German and Flemish to boot, I think ideally equips him for the challenging role of the Secretary-General of the OECD. His belief fundamentally in these market principles and the way they can drive a global recovery I think are essential for the job. But beyond that, I'd make this point: The OECD brings together most of the European economies, but it also brings together the economies of North America and the Asia-Pacific as a truly global organisation and a voice from the Asia-Pacific which will increasingly be the centre of the global economy, a voice that understands this region as well through our traditional relationships with both Europe and North America, we think, is just what the OECD needs.
Australians have an ability to work with everyone, to get on with everyone, to find the way through, to be practical, to bring people together and to support the many global organisations with which the OECD would work, particularly the G20. And so that's why I'm very proud, after Mathias had indicated he was intending to retire at the end of this year, I approached him about whether he'd be interested in us putting him forward as our nominee for the OECD Secretary-Generalship. And I was very pleased that he agreed because I can think of no finer candidate that Australia can put forward - with his experience, with his skills, he has accompanied me and former Prime Ministers as we have attended the G20 meetings, he has participated in all these high-level meetings in the past and is well-known, not only in North America in the Asia-Pacific, but particularly well-known in the big economies, in Germany and France and the United Kingdom, but also in the economies of Netherlands and, of course, his home of his birth. And he is well respected and he is well-known. I have had numerous conversations over these past many months discussing Mathias's candidacy and it has been well received, but, of course, it will be the usual process. We will do our very best and it's important that Mathias is in a position to be able to be there for that process in November and so at the end of this month, on 30 October, Mathias will formally retire from the Senate and from his position as Minister for Finance and then we will move immediately to formally nominate him for that role. I have already advised the leaders of the OECD nations of our intention to make that nomination and, as I said, it's been well received.
Of course, Mathias's departure at that time necessitates us making a number of other important decisions and Senator Simon Birmingham will become the Leader of the Government in the Senate after Mathias retires at the end of this month and I congratulate Simon, on that appointment. He will also be sworn in as Minister for Finance from the time of Minister Cormann's retirement. He will continue in that role as well as his current role as there are many issues that continue in the trade agenda, not the least being the EU and the UK Free Trade Agreement which he will continue to lead, and as I have already flagged, at the end of this year, I'll be making further announcements about any further changes to the ministry line-up at that time after Parliament has risen at the end of this year. Simon's promotion also necessitates the appointment of a new Deputy Leader of the Government in the Senate and that will be Senator Michaelia Cash and I congratulate Senator Cash on that appointment. I have worked with both Simon and Mikaela over many years and I'm pleased to be able to appoint them to these very important roles within the Government. That will ensure the strong continuity of what the Government is doing, the implementation of our Budget, of course, Minister Cormann will continue on in that role as you couldn't drag him away from it to appear in those final two weeks of Senate estimates which may be even more closely watched than usual and perhaps even more than his appearance on Mad As Hell last night on the ABC which I'm sure some of us saw.
So, look, congratulations to you, Michaelia and to you Simon, but particularly Mathias. Today is not so much about those appointments as I know my colleagues know. It is about Australia, as I flagged last year, last October, when I spoke to the Lowy Institute, that we would take a position, we would take an interest in the areas where we thought we could add the most value and we believe this is an area where we can add that value and I know Mathias Cormann is just the person to ensure that we will add that value should we be able to get the support of the requisite members of the OECD to do that job.
Mathias?
Senator the Hon. Mathias Cormann, Minister for Finance: Thank you very much Prime Minister.
It is a great honour to be nominated as Australia’s candidate for the position of Secretary-General of the OECD.
I thank the Prime Minister for showing such faith in me.
The OECD is without any doubt one of the most consequential international economic policy and governance bodies in the world today.
Through its work over the past six decades it makes a difference to the daily lives of billions of people all around the world.
The OECD helps to improve living standards, build social cohesion, strengthen environmental performance, not just in its own member economies, but through its work in countries all around the world more broadly.
It does so by sharing information, developing policy best practice and agreeing standards and norms to help facilitate the operation of a free market and by sharing norms and standards which help to promote growth and productivity.
As we confront the economic impact of the global COVID recession, this is going to be a particularly important time in the history of the OECD.
The importance of practical co-operation has never been greater, whether when dealing with the pandemic, the challenge of climate change, education and skills needs, the promise and challenges of the digital economy and narrowing differences on taxation policy.
These are big challenges.
I have accepted this nomination because I believe I can make a real difference.
I believe I bring a combination of the right skills and experience and, perhaps a rare perspective to an organisation made up of 38 nations from Europe, the Americas, the Asia-Pacific and the Middle East.
I have shared my life in equal measure between Europe and the Asia Pacific.
The first half in Europe, growing up in the German-speaking part of Belgium and graduating with a law degree after studies in French, Flemish and English.
So I hope you will indulge me if I make some other remarks.
Pour nos amis francophones à travers l’OCDE.
En ces temps difficiles, l’OCDE est plus importante que jamais.
Pour maximiser la force de la récupération éxonomique et des emplois;
Pour renforcer la résilience économique et pour reparvenir à une croissance durable du niveau de vie.
Ce serait un grand honneur de diriger l’OCDE au nom de ces members et de soutenir ces efforts visant à générer une croissance durable du niveau de vie.
Für unsere deutschsprachigen Freunde.
Die Arbeit der OECD ist in diesen Zeiten wichtiger denn je.
Um unsere gemeinsame wirtschaftliche Widerstandsfähigkeit zu stärken und um Wachstum für uns alle wieder zu erreichen.
Es wäre mir eine große Ehre, die OECD im Namen ihrer Mitglieder zu leiten und ihre Bemühungen zu unterstützen ein nachhaltiges Wachstums des Lebensstandards zu erreichen.
Prime Minister, may I again thank you for the faith that you have shown in me by nominating me on behalf of Australia for this position.
May I also close in congratulating my friends and colleagues, Senator Birmingham and Senator Cash on their nominations to become the Leader and the Deputy Leader of the Government in the Senate.
I have thoroughly enjoyed my job as Leader of the Government in the Senate. I have thoroughly enjoyed working with the Prime Minister to help put Australia on the strongest possible foundation and trajectory for the future.
I can honestly say that I have given this my everything. I have put my heart and soul into this job, I will continue to put my heart and soul into this job until the end of October.
I look forward to participating in that great democratic exercise, which is Senate Estimates, for the final two weeks of October and after that I will give you this commitment, I will do everything I can do to help successfully secure the position for which Australia has been kind enough to nominate me here today.
Prime Minister: Well, thank you, Mathias. Now, we won't go to further comments today. We are pressed for time with Parliament sitting. We can take a few questions. You can ask them in English, French or German. I will let Mathias take the French or German ones.
Phil?
Journalist: There's a growing field of candidates for this job. The Estonians, the Canadians, I think Americans and Swedes. You've asked Anthony Albanese, as I understand it, for bipartisan support to give Senator Cormann maximum chance. There are some people in Labor who are still bitter about Kevin Rudd not being approved by the Coalition Government for the United Nations job in 2016. What is your message to those people in Labor? Why is this different?
Prime Minister: We consider every candidate on their merits. And I know Mathias has gained the respect of members all around this place. I think that will be demonstrated today as, whether it's today or at a later time, Mathias will make a final statement in the Senate Chamber. And I think what we'll hear today are earned tributes to Mathias' role and the way that he's conducted himself, not just as a fine Minister, our longest-serving Finance Minister, but also the way he's conducted himself as a member of this Parliament, and in particular the Senate, which he's led on behalf of the Government, and he's earned the respect of his colleagues. So, it really is a matter for the Labor Party to - I'm not going to make any statements on their behalf. I had a discussion with the Leader of the Opposition earlier today, and I know that Mathias has also had a discussion with the Leader of the Opposition in the Senate. So, I will leave their response to them.
Journalist: Senator Cormann, can I just ask you a quick Budget question…
Prime Minister: Why don't we just stay with the OECD? Yep, Chris?
Journalist: Is it your view that leadership of these international organisations, not just the OECD, but the UN, is more important now because there is a real contest of ideas between liberal democracy and market-based economy, and a more authoritarian view of the world?
Prime Minister: Well, I set this out in my speech to Lowy a year ago. And my argument there is that, yes, there are a lot of contestable views. And in our global economy today, things are far more interconnected than they used to be. And I think these issues have profound importance for the wellbeing of people all around the world. And so these are important organisations through which we will have our participation. What I said a year ago is that we had to focus that effort. And liberal market-based democracies had to focus their efforts too in that process. And through the course of this pandemic, that has been a keen topic of conversation. Whether it's with the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom or the chancellor of Germany, the President of the United States, the Prime Minister of Canada, the Prime Minister of Japan, the President of Korea, all nations I've had extensive discussions about these issues, and, of course, the President of France. The way we do things, as liberal market-based democracies and economies, I think holds the answer to the problems the world faces today. And I have great confidence about that, because I know the generational prosperity that has been delivered by that process over a very long time. So, it is time to turn up and to make those cases respectfully as part of global organisations.
Yes, I might go to Lanai because he’s also the Senator for Western Australia, and I think that gives some priority to the West Australian.
Journalist: Senator Cormann, how confident are you that you will be able to convince the other countries that Australia is the best country to lead the OECD? And how will you transition from moving from Perth to Paris?
Senator the Hon. Mathias Cormann, Minister for Finance: I am a veteran of selection contests. Rule number one is to never take anything for granted. I look forward to working as part of a strong team, Team Australia, to put our best foot forward, to put our case, both in terms of our proposed agenda as well as in terms of my own personal credentials. Then it will be a matter for the decision-makers to make a judgement on who they think is best equipped to lead the OECD moving forward. In terms of the latter part of the question, the other thing I have learned as a veteran of selection contests is never to get ahead of myself. So, I am not going to think about these sorts of things. If we are successful in securing a consensus across the OECD membership, I am sure that there will be enough time to consider these matters.
Journalist: Congratulations on your nomination. A hearty congratulations, making Mad as Hell last night, you must have really made it. When it comes-
Senator the Hon. Mathias Cormann, Minister for Finance: There might be another job now for Darius. He will be relieved.
Journalist: Perhaps. When it comes to the candidacy, though, how do you lobby for yourself? Will you have to travel to Europe? I mean, because it's a very Euro-heavy organisation, the OECD. And, secondly, on the subject of climate change, you have had a - it has been a prickly subject for you over the years - carbon pricing and the like. Where will you stand on that when it comes to talking about climate change to some of those European nations?
Senator the Hon. Mathias Cormann, Minister for Finance: Thank you very much for those questions, Andrew. Firstly, clearly in this coronavirus-impacted times, it is going to be logistically somewhat more difficult to get around all of the 38 members of the OECD, including Costa Rica, which has recently started the process of joining. I will make my way to Europe in November. That is the intention, which is why the Prime Minister has indicated the transitional arrangements he has, to free me up to give that my everything. I am going to try and engage, and our colleagues across the Australian Government will try and engage, with as many of our friends across the OECD as possible, to make our argument and to put our case. In the end, it will be up to them to make a decision. In relation to climate change, the discussion in Australia has not been, as far as we are concerned, about whether or not we are committed to effective action on climate change - we are. The debate in Australia has always been about what the best method was to most effectively and most appropriately, from an economic point of view, achieve the best possible emissions reductions in an economically sensible fashion. If you look at our track record in Australia, we have not just met, but exceeded, our emissions reductions targets agreed to in Kyoto. We are on track to meet and exceed our emissions reduction targets agreed to in Paris. We are committed to the Paris Agreement. Nous sommes attachés à l’accord de Paris. We are committed to the Paris Agreement and we are committed to meeting our emissions reduction targets. I know there is always a lot of commentary, which with great respect, is not always as well informed as it should be. Australia's performance when it comes to investment in renewable energy, for example, is outstanding. It is better than that of many of the European countries who are perceived to be the leaders in this field. Just to give you one example, the investment in Australian renewable energy on a per capita basis is three times as high as the investment in renewable energy in Germany. Even in aggregate terms, our investment in renewable energy in Australia is higher than that in Germany, for example. So, the way I am going to approach this is in a typical Australian way, and that is to explain, on a factual basis, what we are committed to do, and what we are doing to meet those commitments. I think you will find that both our track record and our commitments about what we are committed to do into the future compare very favourably with the performance of other nations around the world.
Prime Minister: I’m looking forward to the candidacy as a way, as Mathias has just said, to actually take that process forward, to be actually able to put the case as to what Australia has been doing. 'Cause there has been a lot of misinformation about Australia's record here. And this is a wonderful opportunity that I've already taken the opportunity of in the discussions that I've had with leaders already.
Journalist: Senator Cormann, you've been a key figure in every iteration of this Government. And a key contributor to the economic strategy of the Government through the Abbott-Turnbull and now Morrison period. Is this the Budget you would have liked to have gone out on?
Senator the Hon. Mathias Cormann, Minister for Finance: Well, it is the Budget that Australia needs right now, given that we have been hit by the COVID recession. I take a great amount of personal pride and I know that all of my colleagues, rightly, take a great amount of personal pride, that the work that we have done during our first six years in Government, to strengthen our economy, to create more jobs, to repair the Budget, has put Australia in one of the strongest positions of any country around the world, as we entered into this crisis. Australia was in a position to put all of the necessary resources in place, supporting our health system, supporting the economy, supporting business, supporting jobs, supporting Australians who lost their job through no fault of their own. As a result of the work that we did over our first six years. Of course, in the context of the sort of global recession, a 4.5 per cent contraction in the size of the global economy, and the implications that had for individual Australians, of course the Government had to step up and do what we did. It is important now that we invest in securing the strongest possible economic and jobs recovery moving forward. It was very important to me, after I first spoke to the Prime Minister about my intention to retire later this year, it was very, very important to me to ensure that, before I left, I would contribute to the best of my ability to help shape the plan designed to help maximise the strength of the economic and jobs recovery for Australia moving forward. It was important to me, as part of an orderly transition, and I feel satisfied that the Budget that we delivered on Tuesday is a very credible, very strong plan to get Australia out of this COVID recession and to get Australians back into work.
Journalist: Prime Minister, there's growing concern from unions, crossbenchers and Labor about the JobMaker hiring credit, that it will be open to exploitation by employers. Are you willing to strengthen the eligibility test so that they couldn't reduce the current hours of an existing older employer, or removing them altogether, and replacing them with several other younger employees?
Prime Minister: Well, that is exactly what the hiring credit is designed to do, to ensure that it is not abused. And we have a very strong track record of enforcing the integrity of our measures. Youth unemployment rate is more than double what the national unemployment rate is. One of my great passions, whether as Prime Minister, Treasurer, Social Services Minister, Immigration, Member for Cook, that I have always had in this place is youth unemployment sets people up for a life of welfare dependency, one of the most significant achievements of our Government, of which Mathias and I have laboured strong and hard for, for many years - this is our 6 Budget together - has been to ensure that the welfare dependency of Australians was reduced to 30-year lows under the Budgets we have been a part of. An Australian starting out their working life on welfare is a sentence of disengagement. From Australian life. And I don't want to see any young people start out their working life on welfare. I want them in a job. I know their parents want them in a job. I know their grandparents want them in a job. But this is a Budget for all Australians. And we will ensure the integrity of our measures. This is a Budget for all Australians. This is about a Budget of bringing all Australians together in the national interest, to get us through. And there will be voices that will try and set young people against older people, women against men, jobs in one sector versus jobs in another sector - they are the voices of division that will undermine the future economic prosperity of all Australians. My job in this Budget, in this Government, from the first day of this COVID pandemic, has been to bring Australians together. Bringing together the National Cabinet. Bringing together unions together with employers. Bringing together all Australians to focus on our shared goal. So, you will hear the voices of disruption, of division. People who have come to this place to fight, not to build. That's not why I'm here. That's not why my team is here. That's not what this Budget is about. This Budget is about all Australians going forward in the national interest. Thanks very much.
Multicultural Press Conference
7 October 2020
PRIME MINISTER: Well, thank you very much. And thank you all for joining us today. I'm glad we could do this today. Specifically focussing in on the many communities that make up modern Australia. Australia is the most successful multicultural nation anywhere on Earth. We are the most successful immigration nation anywhere on Earth. Immigration has been one of the key pillars of Australia's social and economic success over a very long period of time. The composition of our migration changes over the course of our history. But it is it will always be part of our future and it is a very important part of our past. And so I want to thank you for joining us today to focus particularly on the budget we released last night. Australia has been able to absorb and cushion the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic from both the health and economic perspective better than most of the countries around the world today. Our health performance, our health performance, combined together with our economic performance, puts us in a handful of countries that have achieved the same level.
JOURNALIST: Rosa, PM is on mute.
PRIME MINISTER: This is on mute as it? Can anyone hear what I'm saying? Have we got an audio issue. I'm just checking the audio. If people could nod if they are receiving the audio.
Press star six. That's to mute. Are we receiving the audio now?
JOURNALIST: Yes, we are.
PRIME MINISTER: Excellent. I might start again then, if that's okay. Well, look, thank you everyone for joining us. What I was just saying was that Australia, as you will appreciate, is the most successful multicultural nation on Earth. We are the most successful immigrant nation on earth. Hundreds and hundreds of different nationalities, cultural and language groups have been brought together into Australia to make us the strong nation we are today. Immigration has been a key pillar of our economic success and social success in the past and will continue to be and is a major part of our future. We lead the world in social cohesion. We lead the world in successful immigration programmes. The COVID-19 crisis has obviously had a very significant impact on how our programme runs, and it is also impacting our connectedness with the rest of the world. With the travel restrictions and other international border restrictions that are in place not just in Australia but all around the world. But what I will say about what Australia has been able to achieve in our response to the COVID-19 pandemic is there is that we are amongst a handful of countries that have had similar success in cushioning the blow, both from the COVID-19 pandemic in the COVID-19 recession that has gone around the world. The world economy is participating forecast of contract by four and a half per cent this year. During the global financial crisis just over a decade ago the global economy contracted by nought point one per cent. So the scale of the economic challenge that we're facing around the world today is 45 times greater than the global financial crisis. Now, you will know this with the way that this has impacted here in Australia, but you will know it even more so in many of the host countries that the language groups and ethnic groups that you're representing through your various publications around the world this pandemic has had a devastating impact. And in many countries that impact is worsening, not improving as the case numbers grow and that collapses in on their economies. Now, Australia is not immune to these things. Australia is not immune to the economic or the health consequences of the pandemic. But together with South Korea, with Taiwan as another economy, with Norway and Finland, Australia stands with that group of nations as the best performing on both health and economic terms throughout this pandemic. And we intend to keep it that way by getting the right balance. There are countries that may have had fewer fatalities per million population than Australia, but that has come as a heavy economic cost. New Zealand, for example, has had a 12 point two per cent fall in their economy in the June quarter. Australia was seven per cent in Sweden, for example. They have had not only a more open response to the COVID-19 pandemic, but they have had 5,000 additional deaths through their economy and through their nation, which would have been absolutely devastating. And still, Australia's economic performance has been better. Now, I make those points not to be critical of other nations. We are all dealing with this in the way that sovereign governments do, and they make the decisions that we make and the balance the various interests that need to be balanced. But I make the point that Australia is together with just a handful of nations coming through this crisis better than most around the world today. Now, in this budget we are doing three things to address the economic challenges that we face that are on an historic scale. We are cushioning the blow with measures such as the JobKeeper and JobSeeker and cashflow supports and other support payments to get Australians through the worst of this crisis. And those measures continue in this budget. Secondly, we have an economic recovery plan to take back what has been lost. Already we've seen 760,000 jobs come back, 760,000 just in the last few month and that is jobs that were lost or jobs that were reduced to zero hours. And so we're pleased with that progress. But there is still a long way to go. And in this budget we bring forward some important plans. We bring forward Stage two of our tax plan that will put a thousand dollars additional this year in the pockets of those up to earning up to about ninety thousand dollars a year. It brings forward tax cuts that sees those who are paying 19 cents in the dollar to be able to keep their tax rate at that level go from thirty seven to forty five thousand. And to keep only paying thirty two and a half thousand for ninety thousand up to one hundred twenty thousand dollars. This was part of our income tax plan that we outlined some time ago. And we've brought those proposals forward. We're also bringing forward through our investment incentives, investment decisions that will be made by business through our investment allowance, which allows businesses up to with a turnover of five billion dollars a year to immediately expense their capital investment. On top of that we're allowing cover losses to be offset against past profits against past tax paid. And so at the end of the year is tax returns are completed businesses can be confident of being able to take back the tax that they paid in previous years, and that can help keep people in work now, hire new people and to support their investment, which is obviously accelerated in terms of the benefits through the incentives on the investment allowance. But it's also done through bringing forward decisions to hire people through the JobMaker hiring credit. Another incentive, another initiative designed to get particularly young people back to work. The third stage of the budget's plan is for the longer term, for the medium term to longer term. And in recent weeks and months, we've been outlining that plan, whether it's our plan on energy, lower affordable, lower emissions energy, investing in the technology, some one point nine billion dollars through the CFC and the Arena Finance Corporation. These organisations investing in energy technologies for the future. Our manufacturing plan one and a half billion dollars, prioritising key areas like food and beverage, manufacturing, aerospace and the defence industries, mining sectors and so on, key areas that are going to drive our economy forward. And in addition we have job training initiatives on training incentives, universities, deregulation and work that we've done on digital transformation. Industrial relations reforms are also being progressed through our process, led by the Attorney-General. I make those points to make it clear that whether it's our infrastructure investment or other important medium term reforms, this is what is going to see, pardon me. The Australian economy continue to recover and grow into the future. Why have I spent so much time telling you about those top line issues in the budget? The reason is, is because it benefits all Australians, regardless of what your background is, what regardless of what community, what regardless of what corner of the country you live in. These measures are designed to support everyone right across the country. And I believe that they will be particularly supportive of our ethnic communities who have always demonstrated a level of entrepreneurialism, a level of commitment and a work ethic that will see them best able I think, to take advantage of these opportunities. Australia's immigrant story is not just about more people creating more demand. It's about bringing our entrepreneurial spirit to Australia and an entrepreneurial spirit that will see these incentives to employ people to invest and to grow their businesses at a time when others might choose to stand back. And so this is very much a budget, I think, for multicultural Australia because it recognises the enterprise of multicultural Australia. Our multicultural communities and citizens are more likely to start a business. They're more likely to own a business. They're more likely to employ other Australians. And we've seen that across so many different communities. On the social side in this budget there is important things we're doing to maintain the social cohesion as we keep our country together. Then our country will be more prosperous and they're important things we need to do. We need to ensure that language media is available so all Australians, regardless of their background, can understand what is occurring in their country as patriots. They'll be keen to understand the policies of the government. They'll be keen to understand the programmes that are available. And we're investing in more ensuring that Australians of so many different backgrounds can understand what's available to them and how they can move their own life circumstances forward. But in addition to that, it's also about giving them the tools. The changes were made to the Australian the Adult Migrant English programme, the AMEP, removing the constraint on hours, removing the constraints on time, being able to learn English in Australia is a vital tool for social and economic inclusion. Doesn't matter what country you go to, if you're unable to engage in the first language of that country and in Australia that is English, then you will have your opportunities limited in this country, not by the government or not by anyone else, but by language challenges. And we want to try and remove those barriers. That's not to deny the other languages that are spoken. We encourage it, it's part of our multicultural society. But English is a necessity for all Australians who are looking to engage and participate. It's also very important for people's safety and particularly for women in our community. We want women in particular through our AMEP. program to ensure that they can learn English and they can be aware of what their opportunities are and what their rights are and what their protections are in this country. And so the changes we've made to AMEP are very important. The last area I wanted to draw attention to was the changes we were making to the partner migration program for this year. Now you will know that the COVID-19 recession means that restrictions are in place on how people can move. That will have an obvious impact on who can come to the country in the short term. Now, the borders will eventually be lifted when we're in a position to do that and Australia won't hesitate when it's safe to be able to do that. But for the foreseeable future that will be a big challenge. I don't think that comes as any great news. But what we have decided do, given there will be vacancies in the program that will ordinarily go to other visa classes, we're creating another 30,000 places in the partner program this year. That will be an important opportunity to get through I think what has been a frustrating backlog for many Australians who are seeking to have their partners and to be able to come and get visas and ultimately become Australians. So we see this as an opportunity to ensure that more Australians become Australians, both through the visa program and then ultimately through citizenship. So with that, I think I might leave it there and happy to take questions.
ROSA STATHIS: Thank you PM. The first question this morning is from Eunjin Suasna Park from Korean Today, please go ahead Susana.
EUNJIN SUSANA PARK: Good morning PM. Thanks for the time this morning. I'm just wondering, you know, that it's quite the kind of uncertainty but do you have in mind any in what time do you think the government could open the border to these safe countries? And what are the definitions of the safe countries?
PRIME MINISTER: It's a good question, and it's one that is vexing the minds of leaders all around the world and I made an announcement, well the Deputy Prime Minister did last week that our first step into this area will be with New Zealand and New Zealanders will be able to come across the Tasman and enter New South Wales and the Northern Territory and I suspect South Australia will soon follow. And that means Australians will be able to return from New Zealand as well. And that will be our first step. Now, New Zealand's COVID record is a very, very strong on the health side of things, and that will be our first step in that direction. But I have had discussions with President Moon and and former Prime Minister Abe about how Australia might be able to move forward together with other countries. I mean, other countries where this is possible. Countries like Singapore, where it could be done as we move into next year. And seek to try and normalise as best we can, student entries into Australia for the start of next year's university year, we're still working on that. But the reality is we must be very careful. I mean, Australia is an open country. We've always looked outside ourselves, not just for our economic opportunities, but for our social connection with the rest of the world and through our many migrant communities and ethnic communities in Australia maintaining that link we know, is incredibly important and the migration programme that supports our economy that I said before. So, look, I won't say we'll be rushing here, we'll be proceeding carefully. The impacts of further waves of COVID coming through our country would be devastating. We've seen what that has meant in Melbourne. We don't want to see that happen again and so we will be cautious, but we are open to those opportunities and I am working with other leaders around the world to see what can be achieved. Technology will be a key factor in this, testing technologies in particular moving to alternative types of quarantine arrangements, trialling those and making sure that we can have confidence about them, and ensuring we get even more enhanced tracing capabilities in Australia to deal with any potential outbreaks which may come from a relaxation of those arrangements but I don't anticipate them happening anytime soon, but New Zealand step will be the first one and then we'll we'll go from there.
ROSA STATHIS: Thank you. The next question is from SBS Hindi program, Mosiqi Acharya please go ahead.
MOSIQI ACHARYA: Thank you Prime Minister for joining us today, my question is what was the thought behind introducing the English language requirement for partner visas?
PRIME MINISTER: Which, as I said in my opening remarks, English is the vital tool for social and economic inclusion in Australia. Now, I used to be an Immigration Minister and I used to be a Social Services Minister and I am very aware that the lack of English language skills, particularly amongst partners, has put many of those partners at risk in Australia, at risk of domestic violence, at risk of being abused in the workplace and having their rights overtaken. And English language is absolutely critical to help people when they come to Australia to take the greatest opportunity of what life in Australia can mean and English is the passport for that to occur in Australia. And we feel very strongly about this as a Government. English unifies the country and it enables us all to connect both economically and socially and so that's why we believe that's an important step that needs to be taken. I don't want to see people who come to Australia be vulnerable and if your English language skills are not strong or even non-existent, then you will be more vulnerable in Australia. From a negative point of view and from a positive point of view, you, you won't be able to maximise life in Australia for you and your family. And so that's why we're encouraging that process.
MOSIQI ACHARYA: Have you got a minimum requirement set out?
PRIME MINISTER: Well it isn't what you'd expect for economic migration. It's a much more basic level of English language competency and we think this is important to just enable people to engage, to access government services for example, to engage with those who are seeking to assist, to access and get the best possible medical treatment to understand what teachers are saying at school, at parent teacher conferences or to understand their rights work and all of these types of things. It's a basic English language requirement, but we think a very necessary skill and ability that people will need to get the best out of life in Australia and to be protected.
ROSA STATHIS: The next question is from Cecil Huang, 1688 Group.
CECIL HUANG: Hi, Prime Minister. Thank you for the opportunity. The Budget has a strong focus on youth with the JobMaker program which benefits people in the age of 35, which is fantastic. But would it make it harder for older people to find jobs?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, the good news is, is that several budgets ago when I was Treasurer, I introduced a programme called the Job Restart Program and that provides incentives for older workers to be able to go into the workforce and for employers to have subsidies to support their employment so that's an ongoing program. That was several years ago when we were actually aware of the challenges faced by older Australians getting into work. So that program continues. But what we do know from the COVID-19 recession is that the biggest impact on people's employment has occurred with younger people and has occurred with women. And so in this budget, you see the incentives for those under the age of 35 to be able to have that access to the hiring credit through their employers. In addition to that, we are also supporting women through the Women's Economic Security Statement. And that statement encourages women to be able to access entrepreneurial opportunities, skills training particularly in the STEM subjects and areas where there will be great opportunities going into the future. I mean, the jobs in this budget aren’t just hard hat jobs. They are tech jobs there, they're high, high wage earning skill jobs. There are so many different jobs, particularly in the advanced manufacturing sector. The Industry Minister herself was an accomplished engineer before she came into Parliament. And so the opportunities for women through the Enterprising Girls program and so many other women support and enterprise initiatives I think will support women as well as young people. 60 per cent of the jobs that have come back since the pit of the recession have been for women. And so there has been a need to ensure we get women and young people back into jobs. Our experience in this country, and I'm sure to be true in other places, that if young people lose a job or don't get into a job and they remain in that situation until their early 20s by about 24 to 25, then their likelihood of remaining on welfare well beyond that and potentially over their lifetime is greatly increased and that would be a great tragedy if young Australians were to live a life dependent on welfare. So we want to get them back into work as quickly as we can.
ROSA STATHIS: The next question is from Anwar Harb, Annahar.
ANWAR HARB: [Inaudible]...we also know that you are very capable of overcoming all the damage it has caused. Your achievements are superb. Could you give us an idea about the long term effect of this virus on the Australian economy?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, thank you, Anwar my good friend. It's good to see you. Good to see you looking well as well. Thank you. Anwar, the COVID-19 virus most lasting impact on Australia I anticipate will come through the impact on the global economy, how the global economy ultimately recovers. We'll put a lag on and limit on everything that Australia can achieve. And what we are doing is to get our economy moving again and open up our economy again safely and try and restore as much as what has been lost and as I said, set us up for the future. This recession caused by this pandemic will be very different to other recessions. In previous times countries move into recession over a much longer period. And they also come out of it over a much longer period because it is the result of structural issues or policy decisions that have occurred in those countries. And as a result you expect a different profile of the recovery particularly for jobs. Now, with this recession, it has been caused by the necessity to close our economies down for a period of time. And so the greatest thing we have to overcome first is to be able to open up again. And once we can do that, I think we've been somewhat successful in preserving the fabric and structure of our economy. So it hasn't scarred to the extent that it may have occurred otherwise. And so businesses will be able to re-establish. Now, regrettably and sadly, there are some businesses that will not reopen, but the dynamism in our economy, hopefully we'll see opportunities present in other parts of the economy for those businesses and those individuals to find new opportunities. The flip side of that though Anwar, is that the global economy. Let's say, for example, when we came out of the early 90s recession, while there was still very difficult times globally, nothing like what we're seeing here in around the world today. And the global sector, just like during the GFC, with the Chinese economy being so strong, the single most important thing that actually took Australia through the GFC was actually the Chinese economy. Now, that's not happening to the same degree as it did on that occasion. While China remains in growth and that's welcome the level of growth, it will not be what we saw from China during the GFC. And so Australia will have to come back at some very strong global headwinds. I think even once we're able to get our economy back into a growth phase and that will that will limit it. But importantly, Anwar, there won't be the corrosion of our business infrastructure. There won't be the corrosion of skills. There won't be the scarring that can occur in the labour market. And so I think the way we've been able to manage this has meant that our economy can come through in a stronger position to restore and to grow again. But we will be limited by how well the rest of the world does and how we open up to it again, both in a trade in goods and services again, and tourism and education and all of these other service areas which are very important to our economy. Our challenge will be to see those grow again in international context. So there are there are pluses and minuses compared to previous recessions. Our business infrastructure, I think, will be stronger and more resilient as a result of what we've done over the last six months. But we will still face some very stiff headwinds for some time to come because the rest of the world is not faring as well as Australia.
ROSA STATHIS: The next question is from Shivendra Singh, Punjab Times.
SHIVENDRA SINGH: Yes, hi. Although you were announced 18 billion in funding higher education institutions, to support universities and higher education providers, It doesn't seem like it's enough to offset the 40 billion brought in by international students each year. So when do you forsee the return of international students to Australia, perhaps through a quarantine arrangement?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, that's something we're working on right now. There are two pilots, the state governments and territory governments are running in the Northern Territory and South Australia now. I think that will give us a good guide as to what can be achieved between now and the start of next year's university year. And I think there are a lot of practical options that can be put in place between now and then that would hopefully see us take the opportunities that we can. We'll be careful about it. We obviously want to see that element of our our economy returned to growth. And I think much of that is possible. Universities have taken decisions about international students now for some time, and there's always been business risk attached to that and the government doesn't self insure the university sector for the business decisions that they make. But what we have done in this budget, for example, is to ensure that where that that revenue most supported research activities, we put an extra billion dollars into research in universities in this budget are to ensure that core research and other important research continues as almost 450 million dollars were put into the CSIRO as well to mitigate the impact of corporate revenues that go into the CSIRO to ensure that that research capacity continues. This is necessary because it feeds into things like our advanced manufacturing and modern manufacturing initiatives. And we want to see that that graduate intake and the undergraduate intake, which can feed these dynamic sectors of our economy, continue into the future. Now, that will be from Australians who are born resident here, but it will also come from those who have studied in Australia and with the additional work rights that apply after the completion of their degrees. That will continue to be an important part of how our economy works and we access the skills that we need. So it will take some time, I think, to get back to some form of COVID normal with international students. And we are not going to put the recovery at risk by being acting with an undue haste in those areas and not protecting against the potential health impacts that could come. We would have to make sure that those arrangements are effective, but there is no lack of willingness on the Government's part to see that that occurs. That also has to be balanced up with the fact that we need to get existing Australian residents into jobs and that means that when students come, they obviously have work rights that are attached to while they're studying and that needs to be weighed up with high levels of unemployment that we're seeing at the moment. And we need to see those Australian residents getting back and jobs as well. But I'm optimistic, but cautious.
SHIVENDRA SINGH: Thank you.
PRIME MINISTER: Rosa?
ROSA STATHIS: Hi Rajni, sorry, Rajni Luthra Indian Link.
RAJNI LUTHRA: Mr. Morrison, you've sort of touched upon the issue that I wanted to ask, but only partially. It has been said of the budget last night that it is the most important since the Second World War. One of the growth factors for Australia post the Second World War was the strong migration to this country. Yet the net numbers of migration are negative and it will take them time to get back to the pre COVID numbers of 240,000. Should they have been stronger measures in this budget to build up the migration numbers?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, there are. As I said, there's 30,000 places that will be put into the partner program. But with the borders shut to international travel, there is a limited scope for what the Government can do when it comes to those migration intakes and that's not a permanent scenario. That is a temporary scenario. And once we can get more flexible and effective quarantine arrangements in place then we'll see what opportunities open up for us. Of course, we know that the reduced migration intake will have an impact on the Australian economy. It does factor into, for example, new home building starts and things like that, that's why we've provided additional stimulus into the home building sector. So we do want to see ultimately a return to the controlled migration and effective migration that we've had. And as you know, there's 160,000 cap on intakes through the permanent program and we have no plans to change that. We made that commitment at the last election. And over this term and we'll keep to that. But obviously, in the course of this year and arguably next year, we're unlikely to see anything like that. But there are areas of opportunity, like in international students area, like in the Pacific worker and seasonal worker programs, potentially in backpacker areas and things like that. But it requires effective border management and quarantine management to make that a reality. So we'll keep investing in that technology and those processes to try and open those opportunities up as soon as we can.
RAJNI LUTHRA: Thank you.
ROSA STATHIS: Thanks PM. The next question is from Rajesh Sharma, Indus Age. Go ahead Rajesh.
RAJESH SHARMA: Uncertainties in the stock market, self-funded retirees are facing significant [inaudible] reduction in their retirement income over a prolonged period. How does this affect [inaudible]? How can you reassure the self-funded Australians and their life after retirement is secure?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, we have a pension in this country is, as you know, and their eligibility requirements for that fee for self-funded retirees incomes for and they can get access to the pension. They can get access to the pension loan scheme, which was a new initiative that we introduced in last year before, sorry the year before’s budget, which gave people access to that scheme, which previously was only available to pensioners, which provides a in in many people's views and more secure access to using people's own assets to supplement their incomes. Now, in addition to that, the most effective thing we can do to support those who live off their investments and who have provided for their own retirement is to ensure that their economy that they're investing in is stronger and for the businesses that they've put their savings into to be able to be more profitable and more successful. And so whether it's the, the ability to write off COVID losses this year against previous incomes or the investment allowances which are significant over these next two years, these things will support better returns from their portfolios. And growing our economy will be a key part of supporting them in their retirement. The pension is there is a safety net in Australia and that will be there for those who need it. But for those who don't qualify for the pension because their income is greater than that, we will continue to do all we can to ensure that their incomes are stronger in the future because of the economy that they're investing in. We've also changed the deeming rates and updated those to reflect current conditions. We've changed the minimum drawdown requirements for those who are concerned about eroding their capital base during a time of recession like this as well. So we've sought to give greater flexibility to those who are self-funded retirees and then just work to strengthen the economy to ensure that they're able to achieve the returns that they would hope to.
ROSA STATHIS: The next question is from Suzan Horani, Radio 2Moro. Go ahead, Suzan.
SUZAN HORANI: [inaudible] and commercial foreign language media in Australia, does ACMA have a road map for how our radio service and others like us will be granted access to digital radio spectrum? We are stuck between regulations and legislations. We are ready to employ. We'll be really happy to train more young people but ACMA needs to move with the times with this example.
PRIME MINISTER: Well, I might take that one on notice and ask Rosa to connect you up with the Minister for Communications on those issues, which I suspect you've already had some engagement with when it comes to that spectrum issue. Now, there are quite a number of reforms going on in the media space at the moment. It's a very difficult time for media, not just with the COVID-19 recession, but also the significant impacts that are being felt in the media industry when it comes to the activities of large internet based platforms and social media platforms and the like, which have been eroding the advertising base for media, small and large now for some period of time. The Minister for Communications, Paul Fletcher is very aware of that, and he's leading some important reforms in that area now, and that relates to spectrum and various other matters so I might leave that for you to follow up with Paul.
SUZAN HORANI: Thank you. Prime Minister.
ROSA STAHIS: P.M we've come to time now. Thank you very much.
PRIME MINISTER: Well, thank you all very much. And I appreciate you spending the time with me today and I look forward to us to be able to do this on other occasions.
PRIME MINISTER: Well, thank you very much. And thank you all for joining us today. I'm glad we could do this today. Specifically focussing in on the many communities that make up modern Australia. Australia is the most successful multicultural nation anywhere on Earth. We are the most successful immigration nation anywhere on Earth. Immigration has been one of the key pillars of Australia's social and economic success over a very long period of time. The composition of our migration changes over the course of our history. But it is it will always be part of our future and it is a very important part of our past. And so I want to thank you for joining us today to focus particularly on the budget we released last night. Australia has been able to absorb and cushion the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic from both the health and economic perspective better than most of the countries around the world today. Our health performance, our health performance, combined together with our economic performance, puts us in a handful of countries that have achieved the same level.
JOURNALIST: Rosa, PM is on mute.
PRIME MINISTER: This is on mute as it? Can anyone hear what I'm saying? Have we got an audio issue. I'm just checking the audio. If people could nod if they are receiving the audio.
Press star six. That's to mute. Are we receiving the audio now?
JOURNALIST: Yes, we are.
PRIME MINISTER: Excellent. I might start again then, if that's okay. Well, look, thank you everyone for joining us. What I was just saying was that Australia, as you will appreciate, is the most successful multicultural nation on Earth. We are the most successful immigrant nation on earth. Hundreds and hundreds of different nationalities, cultural and language groups have been brought together into Australia to make us the strong nation we are today. Immigration has been a key pillar of our economic success and social success in the past and will continue to be and is a major part of our future. We lead the world in social cohesion. We lead the world in successful immigration programmes. The COVID-19 crisis has obviously had a very significant impact on how our programme runs, and it is also impacting our connectedness with the rest of the world. With the travel restrictions and other international border restrictions that are in place not just in Australia but all around the world. But what I will say about what Australia has been able to achieve in our response to the COVID-19 pandemic is there is that we are amongst a handful of countries that have had similar success in cushioning the blow, both from the COVID-19 pandemic in the COVID-19 recession that has gone around the world. The world economy is participating forecast of contract by four and a half per cent this year. During the global financial crisis just over a decade ago the global economy contracted by nought point one per cent. So the scale of the economic challenge that we're facing around the world today is 45 times greater than the global financial crisis. Now, you will know this with the way that this has impacted here in Australia, but you will know it even more so in many of the host countries that the language groups and ethnic groups that you're representing through your various publications around the world this pandemic has had a devastating impact. And in many countries that impact is worsening, not improving as the case numbers grow and that collapses in on their economies. Now, Australia is not immune to these things. Australia is not immune to the economic or the health consequences of the pandemic. But together with South Korea, with Taiwan as another economy, with Norway and Finland, Australia stands with that group of nations as the best performing on both health and economic terms throughout this pandemic. And we intend to keep it that way by getting the right balance. There are countries that may have had fewer fatalities per million population than Australia, but that has come as a heavy economic cost. New Zealand, for example, has had a 12 point two per cent fall in their economy in the June quarter. Australia was seven per cent in Sweden, for example. They have had not only a more open response to the COVID-19 pandemic, but they have had 5,000 additional deaths through their economy and through their nation, which would have been absolutely devastating. And still, Australia's economic performance has been better. Now, I make those points not to be critical of other nations. We are all dealing with this in the way that sovereign governments do, and they make the decisions that we make and the balance the various interests that need to be balanced. But I make the point that Australia is together with just a handful of nations coming through this crisis better than most around the world today. Now, in this budget we are doing three things to address the economic challenges that we face that are on an historic scale. We are cushioning the blow with measures such as the JobKeeper and JobSeeker and cashflow supports and other support payments to get Australians through the worst of this crisis. And those measures continue in this budget. Secondly, we have an economic recovery plan to take back what has been lost. Already we've seen 760,000 jobs come back, 760,000 just in the last few month and that is jobs that were lost or jobs that were reduced to zero hours. And so we're pleased with that progress. But there is still a long way to go. And in this budget we bring forward some important plans. We bring forward Stage two of our tax plan that will put a thousand dollars additional this year in the pockets of those up to earning up to about ninety thousand dollars a year. It brings forward tax cuts that sees those who are paying 19 cents in the dollar to be able to keep their tax rate at that level go from thirty seven to forty five thousand. And to keep only paying thirty two and a half thousand for ninety thousand up to one hundred twenty thousand dollars. This was part of our income tax plan that we outlined some time ago. And we've brought those proposals forward. We're also bringing forward through our investment incentives, investment decisions that will be made by business through our investment allowance, which allows businesses up to with a turnover of five billion dollars a year to immediately expense their capital investment. On top of that we're allowing cover losses to be offset against past profits against past tax paid. And so at the end of the year is tax returns are completed businesses can be confident of being able to take back the tax that they paid in previous years, and that can help keep people in work now, hire new people and to support their investment, which is obviously accelerated in terms of the benefits through the incentives on the investment allowance. But it's also done through bringing forward decisions to hire people through the JobMaker hiring credit. Another incentive, another initiative designed to get particularly young people back to work. The third stage of the budget's plan is for the longer term, for the medium term to longer term. And in recent weeks and months, we've been outlining that plan, whether it's our plan on energy, lower affordable, lower emissions energy, investing in the technology, some one point nine billion dollars through the CFC and the Arena Finance Corporation. These organisations investing in energy technologies for the future. Our manufacturing plan one and a half billion dollars, prioritising key areas like food and beverage, manufacturing, aerospace and the defence industries, mining sectors and so on, key areas that are going to drive our economy forward. And in addition we have job training initiatives on training incentives, universities, deregulation and work that we've done on digital transformation. Industrial relations reforms are also being progressed through our process, led by the Attorney-General. I make those points to make it clear that whether it's our infrastructure investment or other important medium term reforms, this is what is going to see, pardon me. The Australian economy continue to recover and grow into the future. Why have I spent so much time telling you about those top line issues in the budget? The reason is, is because it benefits all Australians, regardless of what your background is, what regardless of what community, what regardless of what corner of the country you live in. These measures are designed to support everyone right across the country. And I believe that they will be particularly supportive of our ethnic communities who have always demonstrated a level of entrepreneurialism, a level of commitment and a work ethic that will see them best able I think, to take advantage of these opportunities. Australia's immigrant story is not just about more people creating more demand. It's about bringing our entrepreneurial spirit to Australia and an entrepreneurial spirit that will see these incentives to employ people to invest and to grow their businesses at a time when others might choose to stand back. And so this is very much a budget, I think, for multicultural Australia because it recognises the enterprise of multicultural Australia. Our multicultural communities and citizens are more likely to start a business. They're more likely to own a business. They're more likely to employ other Australians. And we've seen that across so many different communities. On the social side in this budget there is important things we're doing to maintain the social cohesion as we keep our country together. Then our country will be more prosperous and they're important things we need to do. We need to ensure that language media is available so all Australians, regardless of their background, can understand what is occurring in their country as patriots. They'll be keen to understand the policies of the government. They'll be keen to understand the programmes that are available. And we're investing in more ensuring that Australians of so many different backgrounds can understand what's available to them and how they can move their own life circumstances forward. But in addition to that, it's also about giving them the tools. The changes were made to the Australian the Adult Migrant English programme, the AMEP, removing the constraint on hours, removing the constraints on time, being able to learn English in Australia is a vital tool for social and economic inclusion. Doesn't matter what country you go to, if you're unable to engage in the first language of that country and in Australia that is English, then you will have your opportunities limited in this country, not by the government or not by anyone else, but by language challenges. And we want to try and remove those barriers. That's not to deny the other languages that are spoken. We encourage it, it's part of our multicultural society. But English is a necessity for all Australians who are looking to engage and participate. It's also very important for people's safety and particularly for women in our community. We want women in particular through our AMEP. program to ensure that they can learn English and they can be aware of what their opportunities are and what their rights are and what their protections are in this country. And so the changes we've made to AMEP are very important. The last area I wanted to draw attention to was the changes we were making to the partner migration program for this year. Now you will know that the COVID-19 recession means that restrictions are in place on how people can move. That will have an obvious impact on who can come to the country in the short term. Now, the borders will eventually be lifted when we're in a position to do that and Australia won't hesitate when it's safe to be able to do that. But for the foreseeable future that will be a big challenge. I don't think that comes as any great news. But what we have decided do, given there will be vacancies in the program that will ordinarily go to other visa classes, we're creating another 30,000 places in the partner program this year. That will be an important opportunity to get through I think what has been a frustrating backlog for many Australians who are seeking to have their partners and to be able to come and get visas and ultimately become Australians. So we see this as an opportunity to ensure that more Australians become Australians, both through the visa program and then ultimately through citizenship. So with that, I think I might leave it there and happy to take questions.
ROSA STATHIS: Thank you PM. The first question this morning is from Eunjin Suasna Park from Korean Today, please go ahead Susana.
EUNJIN SUSANA PARK: Good morning PM. Thanks for the time this morning. I'm just wondering, you know, that it's quite the kind of uncertainty but do you have in mind any in what time do you think the government could open the border to these safe countries? And what are the definitions of the safe countries?
PRIME MINISTER: It's a good question, and it's one that is vexing the minds of leaders all around the world and I made an announcement, well the Deputy Prime Minister did last week that our first step into this area will be with New Zealand and New Zealanders will be able to come across the Tasman and enter New South Wales and the Northern Territory and I suspect South Australia will soon follow. And that means Australians will be able to return from New Zealand as well. And that will be our first step. Now, New Zealand's COVID record is a very, very strong on the health side of things, and that will be our first step in that direction. But I have had discussions with President Moon and and former Prime Minister Abe about how Australia might be able to move forward together with other countries. I mean, other countries where this is possible. Countries like Singapore, where it could be done as we move into next year. And seek to try and normalise as best we can, student entries into Australia for the start of next year's university year, we're still working on that. But the reality is we must be very careful. I mean, Australia is an open country. We've always looked outside ourselves, not just for our economic opportunities, but for our social connection with the rest of the world and through our many migrant communities and ethnic communities in Australia maintaining that link we know, is incredibly important and the migration programme that supports our economy that I said before. So, look, I won't say we'll be rushing here, we'll be proceeding carefully. The impacts of further waves of COVID coming through our country would be devastating. We've seen what that has meant in Melbourne. We don't want to see that happen again and so we will be cautious, but we are open to those opportunities and I am working with other leaders around the world to see what can be achieved. Technology will be a key factor in this, testing technologies in particular moving to alternative types of quarantine arrangements, trialling those and making sure that we can have confidence about them, and ensuring we get even more enhanced tracing capabilities in Australia to deal with any potential outbreaks which may come from a relaxation of those arrangements but I don't anticipate them happening anytime soon, but New Zealand step will be the first one and then we'll we'll go from there.
ROSA STATHIS: Thank you. The next question is from SBS Hindi program, Mosiqi Acharya please go ahead.
MOSIQI ACHARYA: Thank you Prime Minister for joining us today, my question is what was the thought behind introducing the English language requirement for partner visas?
PRIME MINISTER: Which, as I said in my opening remarks, English is the vital tool for social and economic inclusion in Australia. Now, I used to be an Immigration Minister and I used to be a Social Services Minister and I am very aware that the lack of English language skills, particularly amongst partners, has put many of those partners at risk in Australia, at risk of domestic violence, at risk of being abused in the workplace and having their rights overtaken. And English language is absolutely critical to help people when they come to Australia to take the greatest opportunity of what life in Australia can mean and English is the passport for that to occur in Australia. And we feel very strongly about this as a Government. English unifies the country and it enables us all to connect both economically and socially and so that's why we believe that's an important step that needs to be taken. I don't want to see people who come to Australia be vulnerable and if your English language skills are not strong or even non-existent, then you will be more vulnerable in Australia. From a negative point of view and from a positive point of view, you, you won't be able to maximise life in Australia for you and your family. And so that's why we're encouraging that process.
MOSIQI ACHARYA: Have you got a minimum requirement set out?
PRIME MINISTER: Well it isn't what you'd expect for economic migration. It's a much more basic level of English language competency and we think this is important to just enable people to engage, to access government services for example, to engage with those who are seeking to assist, to access and get the best possible medical treatment to understand what teachers are saying at school, at parent teacher conferences or to understand their rights work and all of these types of things. It's a basic English language requirement, but we think a very necessary skill and ability that people will need to get the best out of life in Australia and to be protected.
ROSA STATHIS: The next question is from Cecil Huang, 1688 Group.
CECIL HUANG: Hi, Prime Minister. Thank you for the opportunity. The Budget has a strong focus on youth with the JobMaker program which benefits people in the age of 35, which is fantastic. But would it make it harder for older people to find jobs?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, the good news is, is that several budgets ago when I was Treasurer, I introduced a programme called the Job Restart Program and that provides incentives for older workers to be able to go into the workforce and for employers to have subsidies to support their employment so that's an ongoing program. That was several years ago when we were actually aware of the challenges faced by older Australians getting into work. So that program continues. But what we do know from the COVID-19 recession is that the biggest impact on people's employment has occurred with younger people and has occurred with women. And so in this budget, you see the incentives for those under the age of 35 to be able to have that access to the hiring credit through their employers. In addition to that, we are also supporting women through the Women's Economic Security Statement. And that statement encourages women to be able to access entrepreneurial opportunities, skills training particularly in the STEM subjects and areas where there will be great opportunities going into the future. I mean, the jobs in this budget aren’t just hard hat jobs. They are tech jobs there, they're high, high wage earning skill jobs. There are so many different jobs, particularly in the advanced manufacturing sector. The Industry Minister herself was an accomplished engineer before she came into Parliament. And so the opportunities for women through the Enterprising Girls program and so many other women support and enterprise initiatives I think will support women as well as young people. 60 per cent of the jobs that have come back since the pit of the recession have been for women. And so there has been a need to ensure we get women and young people back into jobs. Our experience in this country, and I'm sure to be true in other places, that if young people lose a job or don't get into a job and they remain in that situation until their early 20s by about 24 to 25, then their likelihood of remaining on welfare well beyond that and potentially over their lifetime is greatly increased and that would be a great tragedy if young Australians were to live a life dependent on welfare. So we want to get them back into work as quickly as we can.
ROSA STATHIS: The next question is from Anwar Harb, Annahar.
ANWAR HARB: [Inaudible]...we also know that you are very capable of overcoming all the damage it has caused. Your achievements are superb. Could you give us an idea about the long term effect of this virus on the Australian economy?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, thank you, Anwar my good friend. It's good to see you. Good to see you looking well as well. Thank you. Anwar, the COVID-19 virus most lasting impact on Australia I anticipate will come through the impact on the global economy, how the global economy ultimately recovers. We'll put a lag on and limit on everything that Australia can achieve. And what we are doing is to get our economy moving again and open up our economy again safely and try and restore as much as what has been lost and as I said, set us up for the future. This recession caused by this pandemic will be very different to other recessions. In previous times countries move into recession over a much longer period. And they also come out of it over a much longer period because it is the result of structural issues or policy decisions that have occurred in those countries. And as a result you expect a different profile of the recovery particularly for jobs. Now, with this recession, it has been caused by the necessity to close our economies down for a period of time. And so the greatest thing we have to overcome first is to be able to open up again. And once we can do that, I think we've been somewhat successful in preserving the fabric and structure of our economy. So it hasn't scarred to the extent that it may have occurred otherwise. And so businesses will be able to re-establish. Now, regrettably and sadly, there are some businesses that will not reopen, but the dynamism in our economy, hopefully we'll see opportunities present in other parts of the economy for those businesses and those individuals to find new opportunities. The flip side of that though Anwar, is that the global economy. Let's say, for example, when we came out of the early 90s recession, while there was still very difficult times globally, nothing like what we're seeing here in around the world today. And the global sector, just like during the GFC, with the Chinese economy being so strong, the single most important thing that actually took Australia through the GFC was actually the Chinese economy. Now, that's not happening to the same degree as it did on that occasion. While China remains in growth and that's welcome the level of growth, it will not be what we saw from China during the GFC. And so Australia will have to come back at some very strong global headwinds. I think even once we're able to get our economy back into a growth phase and that will that will limit it. But importantly, Anwar, there won't be the corrosion of our business infrastructure. There won't be the corrosion of skills. There won't be the scarring that can occur in the labour market. And so I think the way we've been able to manage this has meant that our economy can come through in a stronger position to restore and to grow again. But we will be limited by how well the rest of the world does and how we open up to it again, both in a trade in goods and services again, and tourism and education and all of these other service areas which are very important to our economy. Our challenge will be to see those grow again in international context. So there are there are pluses and minuses compared to previous recessions. Our business infrastructure, I think, will be stronger and more resilient as a result of what we've done over the last six months. But we will still face some very stiff headwinds for some time to come because the rest of the world is not faring as well as Australia.
ROSA STATHIS: The next question is from Shivendra Singh, Punjab Times.
SHIVENDRA SINGH: Yes, hi. Although you were announced 18 billion in funding higher education institutions, to support universities and higher education providers, It doesn't seem like it's enough to offset the 40 billion brought in by international students each year. So when do you forsee the return of international students to Australia, perhaps through a quarantine arrangement?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, that's something we're working on right now. There are two pilots, the state governments and territory governments are running in the Northern Territory and South Australia now. I think that will give us a good guide as to what can be achieved between now and the start of next year's university year. And I think there are a lot of practical options that can be put in place between now and then that would hopefully see us take the opportunities that we can. We'll be careful about it. We obviously want to see that element of our our economy returned to growth. And I think much of that is possible. Universities have taken decisions about international students now for some time, and there's always been business risk attached to that and the government doesn't self insure the university sector for the business decisions that they make. But what we have done in this budget, for example, is to ensure that where that that revenue most supported research activities, we put an extra billion dollars into research in universities in this budget are to ensure that core research and other important research continues as almost 450 million dollars were put into the CSIRO as well to mitigate the impact of corporate revenues that go into the CSIRO to ensure that that research capacity continues. This is necessary because it feeds into things like our advanced manufacturing and modern manufacturing initiatives. And we want to see that that graduate intake and the undergraduate intake, which can feed these dynamic sectors of our economy, continue into the future. Now, that will be from Australians who are born resident here, but it will also come from those who have studied in Australia and with the additional work rights that apply after the completion of their degrees. That will continue to be an important part of how our economy works and we access the skills that we need. So it will take some time, I think, to get back to some form of COVID normal with international students. And we are not going to put the recovery at risk by being acting with an undue haste in those areas and not protecting against the potential health impacts that could come. We would have to make sure that those arrangements are effective, but there is no lack of willingness on the Government's part to see that that occurs. That also has to be balanced up with the fact that we need to get existing Australian residents into jobs and that means that when students come, they obviously have work rights that are attached to while they're studying and that needs to be weighed up with high levels of unemployment that we're seeing at the moment. And we need to see those Australian residents getting back and jobs as well. But I'm optimistic, but cautious.
SHIVENDRA SINGH: Thank you.
PRIME MINISTER: Rosa?
ROSA STATHIS: Hi Rajni, sorry, Rajni Luthra Indian Link.
RAJNI LUTHRA: Mr. Morrison, you've sort of touched upon the issue that I wanted to ask, but only partially. It has been said of the budget last night that it is the most important since the Second World War. One of the growth factors for Australia post the Second World War was the strong migration to this country. Yet the net numbers of migration are negative and it will take them time to get back to the pre COVID numbers of 240,000. Should they have been stronger measures in this budget to build up the migration numbers?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, there are. As I said, there's 30,000 places that will be put into the partner program. But with the borders shut to international travel, there is a limited scope for what the Government can do when it comes to those migration intakes and that's not a permanent scenario. That is a temporary scenario. And once we can get more flexible and effective quarantine arrangements in place then we'll see what opportunities open up for us. Of course, we know that the reduced migration intake will have an impact on the Australian economy. It does factor into, for example, new home building starts and things like that, that's why we've provided additional stimulus into the home building sector. So we do want to see ultimately a return to the controlled migration and effective migration that we've had. And as you know, there's 160,000 cap on intakes through the permanent program and we have no plans to change that. We made that commitment at the last election. And over this term and we'll keep to that. But obviously, in the course of this year and arguably next year, we're unlikely to see anything like that. But there are areas of opportunity, like in international students area, like in the Pacific worker and seasonal worker programs, potentially in backpacker areas and things like that. But it requires effective border management and quarantine management to make that a reality. So we'll keep investing in that technology and those processes to try and open those opportunities up as soon as we can.
RAJNI LUTHRA: Thank you.
ROSA STATHIS: Thanks PM. The next question is from Rajesh Sharma, Indus Age. Go ahead Rajesh.
RAJESH SHARMA: Uncertainties in the stock market, self-funded retirees are facing significant [inaudible] reduction in their retirement income over a prolonged period. How does this affect [inaudible]? How can you reassure the self-funded Australians and their life after retirement is secure?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, we have a pension in this country is, as you know, and their eligibility requirements for that fee for self-funded retirees incomes for and they can get access to the pension. They can get access to the pension loan scheme, which was a new initiative that we introduced in last year before, sorry the year before’s budget, which gave people access to that scheme, which previously was only available to pensioners, which provides a in in many people's views and more secure access to using people's own assets to supplement their incomes. Now, in addition to that, the most effective thing we can do to support those who live off their investments and who have provided for their own retirement is to ensure that their economy that they're investing in is stronger and for the businesses that they've put their savings into to be able to be more profitable and more successful. And so whether it's the, the ability to write off COVID losses this year against previous incomes or the investment allowances which are significant over these next two years, these things will support better returns from their portfolios. And growing our economy will be a key part of supporting them in their retirement. The pension is there is a safety net in Australia and that will be there for those who need it. But for those who don't qualify for the pension because their income is greater than that, we will continue to do all we can to ensure that their incomes are stronger in the future because of the economy that they're investing in. We've also changed the deeming rates and updated those to reflect current conditions. We've changed the minimum drawdown requirements for those who are concerned about eroding their capital base during a time of recession like this as well. So we've sought to give greater flexibility to those who are self-funded retirees and then just work to strengthen the economy to ensure that they're able to achieve the returns that they would hope to.
ROSA STATHIS: The next question is from Suzan Horani, Radio 2Moro. Go ahead, Suzan.
SUZAN HORANI: [inaudible] and commercial foreign language media in Australia, does ACMA have a road map for how our radio service and others like us will be granted access to digital radio spectrum? We are stuck between regulations and legislations. We are ready to employ. We'll be really happy to train more young people but ACMA needs to move with the times with this example.
PRIME MINISTER: Well, I might take that one on notice and ask Rosa to connect you up with the Minister for Communications on those issues, which I suspect you've already had some engagement with when it comes to that spectrum issue. Now, there are quite a number of reforms going on in the media space at the moment. It's a very difficult time for media, not just with the COVID-19 recession, but also the significant impacts that are being felt in the media industry when it comes to the activities of large internet based platforms and social media platforms and the like, which have been eroding the advertising base for media, small and large now for some period of time. The Minister for Communications, Paul Fletcher is very aware of that, and he's leading some important reforms in that area now, and that relates to spectrum and various other matters so I might leave that for you to follow up with Paul.
SUZAN HORANI: Thank you. Prime Minister.
ROSA STAHIS: P.M we've come to time now. Thank you very much.
PRIME MINISTER: Well, thank you all very much. And I appreciate you spending the time with me today and I look forward to us to be able to do this on other occasions.
Press Conference - Canberra, ACT
29 September 2020
Prime Minister: Good morning, everyone. I'm joined by the Treasurer, before what will be one of the most - if not the most - important Budget since the Second World War. But before we go to the announcements we're making today, today is Police Remembrance Day. There are 798 names on the police memorial. In particular, this year, we remember four officers were Victoria who lost their lives while on duty. Leading Senior Constable Lynette Taylor, Senior Constable Kevin King, Constable Glen Humphris and Constable Joshua Prestney. I think all Australians would be thinking of them today in the context of Police Remembrance Day as our thoughts move toward that issue. Our police, each and every day, face things the rest of us don't. They see things they can't unsee and they carry that with them. They hear stories they can't unhear. And this affects them, not just those who we've lost in the line of duty, but those police officers who carry the burdens of their service through each and every day of their lives. They are an amazing family, the police family, and today we honour them. We respect them. To all of those who have lost colleagues, families who have lost fathers and mothers, sisters and brothers, we remember them too, as they think about those who have been lost. And we think about those, in particular, who continue to struggle each day with the cost of their service. So I want to thank them all for that, for their service to their community, first and foremost, to their service to their states and to the service to their nation.
Today also we pass a milestone that no-one would want to have ever seen passed and that is a million lives lost to COVID-19 around the world. And it is a reminder that we are living in the midst of a global pandemic. This is a pandemic that has been visited upon Australia from outside our shores and is one that has impacted on us greatly. In Australia, 882 lives have been lost to COVID-19, 670 of those in aged care. This is a heavy blow when it comes to the health impacts of the pandemic and it has been a daily challenge to ensure that we remain, as best as we can, ahead of the challenges of this pandemic, and in Australia we have fared better than almost any other country in the world. That is particularly the case when you combine the challenge we have with the COVID recession that has stemmed from the pandemic and our task has always been to manage both the health impacts of the pandemic and the economic impacts of the pandemic. And Australia sits amongst a handful of countries that have been able to limit the economic blow as well as limiting the health blow to our country and that is a great credit to all Australians in what they've been able to achieve and the way that they've demonstrated resilience and, in particular, the people of Victoria and especially the people of Melbourne, who have most significantly undergone the heavy burden of those restrictions in recent months and together they have flattened that curve for Australia once again. I said Australia will not win until Victoria wins and I believe Victoria is now beginning to win and that's good news for all Australians and we thank Victorians for their great sacrifice over these many months to ensure that Australia can move forward together.
This Budget will be, as I said, one of the most important, if not the most important, since the Second World War because we find ourselves in unprecedented times when it comes to the effect of a global pandemic on a modern, globally interconnected economy. The Budget will confirm once again the strong plan we have for recovery, for economic recovery, from the COVID-19 recession and to build our economy for the future, to continue to cushion the blow, to continue to recover what has been lost, the jobs, the livelihoods, the hours, the incomes, the customers, the clients. But also to take new ground, to emerge stronger, to build our economy for the future. That's what this Budget is about. In these unprecedented times, we have cushioned the blow. The economy burden, Treasury advises us, could have seen 700,000 additional Australians without a job on measured employment in this country, were it not for the blow-cushioning measures that our government undertook - JobKeeper, JobSeeker, cashflow support and the many other measures. And we are recovering what has been lost, although there is still much ground to take. Some 760,000 jobs that were either lost or reduced to zero hours have already come back into our economy and that is great tribute to the resilience of our economy and the Australians who make it work every day. And we are building for the future through the JobMaker plan that I began outlining many months ago. Affordable and reliable energy, particularly for heavy industries and households. Lower emissions into the future. Skills development through the JobTrainer program and the supporting of apprentices in this country. $1.5 billion alone from the Commonwealth, also backed up by the support of the states in the $1 billion JobTrainer fund. Fixing problems in our industrial relations system so we can employ more people. That's what it's about. Unions coming together with employers to find ways that they can work together better to employ more Australians and we grow into a recovery. Record investments in infrastructure through our three grids - a transport grid, a water grid and an energy grid . Making it easier to do business, cutting red tape, streamlining approvals, particularly for major projects, and the reforms to the EPBC Act that we flagged.
But we need to go further than that and in the Budget we will, particularly in this area of making it easier for people and businesses to do business in this country and that means supporting businesses to thrive in the digital world. And making it easier and safer to deal with government when it comes to the digital economy. This saves time and it saves money and that is good for our economy and it's an important part of the change program we need to see Australia's economy build for the future. So today we outline our JobMaker digital plan to support growth in our economy and to support jobs in our economy, firstly by significant investment, some of which had been noted last week on the NBN and earlier on cybersecurity, together $1.67 billion on cybersecurity and a $4.5 billion further investment in the NBN. In addition to that, accelerating the uptake of 5G technologies across businesses, we’ve invested a further just under $800 million in a range of programs. Infrastructure and a security that can underpin business's engagement in the digital world. Secondly, skills and capability in digital. Digital skills, tools and training support across businesses, drawing on the JobTrainer fund but also in new programs to build business skills to take up the technologies that are there. Australia has arguably the most advanced real-time payments system in the world. That is the digital infrastructure through our new payments platform that enables people to get paid instantaneously. Not seven days, not two days, within seconds. But for that to happen, we need our businesses to be online. We need them to be digital businesses and in recent months we have seen through COVID a rapid acceleration, produced by necessity, of businesses really engaging and upgrading their digital capabilities. What we're announcing today will build on that, will strengthen that and it will accelerate it. And thirdly, it's about gutting the red tape. The red tape of dealing with government and going digital greatly unburdens both individuals, households and businesses in how they deal with government. But we've both got to be on the same page, both government and house-holders and businesses.
So the announcements we're making today on accelerating our work in the fintech sector, the consumer data right, upgrading regtech which is basically automated regulation compliance, the end of phone books full of forms, where things can be done online and digitally, remembering your previous answers so you don't have to go through and fill out the forms later. Business registers being upgraded, a digital identity that enables people to have a seamless interface with government and e-invoicing, in particular, making that a key part of ensuring that we pay businesses quicker and on time and seeing that uptake by businesses more broadly which means, at the end of the day, small businesses getting paid on time and ahead of time and injecting much-needed cashflow into our economy. So these are the announcements we're making today as part of our digital plan. It sits together with the many others I've outlined in recent months and the Treasurer's outlined over recent weeks as well. These will all be added to in next week's Budget and later this week I'll make further comments on our plans in the manufacturing sector for advanced manufacturing. But it's all about three things - it's about cushioning the blow, it's about recovering what was lost, and it's about building for the future.
Treasurer.
The Hon. Josh Frydenberg MP, Treasurer: Thank you very much, Prime Minister. Firstly, can I join you in acknowledging the service of Australian men and women who wear the police uniform. Every day, they put their lives on the lines so that our lives can be safer, and those four distinguished police officers who lost their lives in Melbourne included members of a local police station in my electorate and I joined members of the community to go and lay a wreath in their honour. So a very big thank you to every Australian man and woman who serves in our police force.
As we all know, COVID-19 has changed the world. COVID-19 has changed Australia and COVID-19 has changed the way businesses do business. 9 out of every 10 Australian businesses have used technology to adapt. Indeed, it has been said that we have made five years' worth of gains in advancing the use of technology in this country and around the world in just a matter of eight weeks. Zoom meetings have replaced air travel, telehealth consultations have replaced GP visits and e-commerce, which was already gaining pace, has moved to the next level. Now, the Morrison Government made a number of temporary changes to our regulation through COVID to ensure that businesses could continue to do business and people could continue to stay in jobs, despite the virus. Today we're making an announcement that a number of those changes have become permanent, as well as going further in other areas.
The distribution electronically of documents will now be much easier to undertake for businesses. We're enabling the execution of documents to now be undertaken digitally and we are also enabling AGMs to be held virtually. For example, last year, Telstra printed and posted 650,000 notice of meetings at a cost of around $1 million. No longer will that be required. We're also moving to e-invoicing by Commonwealth agencies. This is when the supplier and also the buyers' systems are automatically connected and it reduces the cost of an invoice by around two-thirds. And this is really good for small businesses who will be able to be paid a lot quicker. So if you are a fruit and veg supplier to an army barrack, if you are an IT consultant to a government department, by moving to e-invoicing, we will be able to ensure that you get paid a lot faster. 90 per cent of small businesses today still use paper-based invoices and if you take the Commonwealth, together with the states, governments are responsible for around 10 per cent of all business invoices. And this was an issue that I raised with the state treasurers as recently as last week and it is hoped that the Commonwealth, by taking the lead to e-invoicing, will lead to states - and I know New South Wales already has measures under way - other states following the Commonwealth's lead in this respect.
The other initiative worth mentioning is around the consumer data right. Prime Minister, when were Treasurer, you were promoting and pursuing the electronic exchange of consumer information in a secure and trusted way in order for consumers to get more choice and to get a cheaper product. And we have already implemented the consumer data right through open banking, as it applies to credit cards today, but we're also extending it to mortgages and personal loans by the end of this year. What this means is if you have a $250,000 mortgage on your home and you're a trusted customer of a bank, long-standing customer, you may be paying $1,000 too much for the variable interest on your loan compared to the best market offer that is otherwise available. And we're extending the consumer data right also to the energy sector and why is this important? Because, again, if you are on an established paying system in one state, you may be paying $400 more for a medium set of energy supplies than you otherwise could get if you got the best median market offer, if you got the best market offer available.
Finally, we should all see digital transformation as an opportunity, not as a threat. We want existing Australian businesses to transform by using the digital opportunities available to them. We want new businesses in Australia to be born digital and, in doing so, we will help Australian consumers and Australian businesses alike.
Journalist: Prime Minister, in relation to the hotel inquiry that’s been going on in Melbourne, obviously on March 27, you stood in this courtyard and announced that program. You gave the states a very short period of time to get it up and running. The consequences of that short period of time have been discussed during the hearings. That put a great deal of pressure on the state public servants. So I have a couple of questions. Do you take any responsibility for the consequences of those time pressures? Should they have been allowed more time? Do you accept the suggestion of counsel assisting the inquiry that while the offer of the ADF was made that it doesn't necessarily need to have been taken up and no findings should be found against the Victorian Government as a result of that? And given there are no concerns that some of those people may have been held unlawfully, should National Cabinet consider some sort of hybrid model where you basically have a triage system, check out whether people should be kept in hotel quarantine and let them go to their own homes?
Prime Minister: First of all, I remember the National Cabinet meeting very well. It was actually the states and territories that were most urgent in moving forward and they made the recommendation to move so quickly to establish hotel quarantine and we supported that. That was a, quite a lengthy discussion and the states were very keen to move forward and get this in place so that was a genuine decision taken by National Cabinet and at the initiation of the states and territories to actually move as quickly as they did. I welcomed the fact that they were so keen to move so quickly and to get those quarantine arrangements in place. In all other states and territories, I think the experience has been quite different to Victoria, and that is a great shame in Victoria. But, you know, that is what has occurred and that's all plain for people to see. In relation to the second question, well, the offer was made for the ADF to be available. It was taken up by most states, not by some, and that was a decision for the states and territories, so how best that was to be done was a matter for those states and territories to determine and so I will leave it to the inquiry to make their own recommendations.
Thirdly, in relation to issues of home quarantine - which is largely I think what you're referring to - if we recall back in sort of February and March of this year, that's how it was working, we were having home quarantine and I've got to say particularly amongst the Chinese Australian community, where the risk was greatest, where people were returning from mainland China and even Wuhan at one point, that home quarantine was followed incredibly assiduously by our Chinese-Australian community and that, as I've said on many occasions proved absolutely vital in Australia's success in managing the impact of that first wave. Now, I think home quarantine can play a role in the future and it's something that is being considered by the AHPPC and particularly as we sort of move beyond the phase we're in now and we do look to see, to have others, our borders open up at some point to safe locations whether it be New Zealand or parts of the Pacific or places like South Korea or Japan or countries that have had, I think, a much, high rate of success, then there are opportunities to look at those alternative methods, a triaging if you like. And many countries do this. I mean Denmark operates on a traffic light system which goes along those sorts of lines. In Greece, they have an algorithm which triages people based on where they've come from and where they've been and that quantifies the risk. Because at the end of the day, the answer to your question is really about how you're going to manage risk and how you're going to identify it and then apply the right solution to the risk that presents and I think as time goes on, we will need a more flexible approach that gives us more options for managing this, so I think that is something that is under active consideration, when it comes in, well that will obviously be determined principally by the health advice that can provide a green light to those sorts of options again but I'm hopeful it's something we can move to.
Journalist: A question about what's going on on the waterfront at the moment with the go-slow action in response to seeking a pay rise and some other conditions, the... Sorry, the Industrial Relations Minister yesterday floated the prospect of some sort of intervention. How serious is the Federal Government on that? And what would you be looking at?
Prime Minister: Well, I'm very serious. There are 40 ships, and I'm told there's some 90,000 containers out there. That includes medical supplies. I mean we cannot have the militant end of the union movement effectively engaging in a campaign of extortion against the Australian people in the middle of a COVID-19 recession. I mean this is just extraordinary, appalling behaviour. And they as much as admitted it on morning television this morning, with what they claim are ambit claims. That is just straight-out extortion. It is reprehensible. Now, as I made some remarks on Saturday when I was in Adelaide, I thanked the union movement, I thank the ACTU. I thank Sally McManus for the way that she has brought the union movement to sit down as part of this, I think, good-faith process that the Attorney is leading and I find what's happening with the MUA in Port Botany so at odds with that good-faith spirit. I would think that the union movement would want to distance itself from that behaviour as much as certainly the government does in condemning it. This is certainly - whether it's ever a time for extortionate demands, I would never say there's never such a time but certainly not when Australians are doing it so tough. I mean it is just absolutely galling. Now, the specific measures the government may undertake, well, I'll keep that to the counsel of the Attorney at this point, but I want to assure Australians that we don't take this lightly. It's not on, and we will take what steps are necessary to ensure that this can be brought, I think, to a more meaningful and swift conclusion.
Journalist: Prime Minister yesterday at the hotel quarantine inquiry, counsel assisting said that three departmental secretaries had failed to brief their ministers about major developments relating to the program, giving serious questions to whether the Westminster system had, of ultimate ministerial accountability, had been unsettled. Do you have confidence in the Victorian bureaucracy's response to the pandemic?
Prime Minister: That's really a question to the Premier. I mean I'm responsible for many things but I'm not responsible for the State Government of Victoria. That's a matter for the Premier and he's initiated an inquiry into this, given the seriousness of the matter and that report has not yet been brought down. I note that there's been counsel assisting who have made comments but the final report will come down and I'm sure the Premier will address that in due course.
Michelle?
Journalist: A theme through a number of your recent announcements has been deregulation and the need to free up things from controls. I'm wondering whether you are really confident that this, in the end, won't be counter-productive in some cases. I'm thinking particularly of your announcement on credit the other day, which it does seem could lead to some people in the end being worse off, undertaking obligations that they really can't afford.
Treasurer: We had no less authority than the Governor of the Reserve Bank, Michelle, talk about how the responsible lending laws had led to a risk aversion when it came to lending and -
Journalist: I'm talking about the banks, though, not the consumers.
Treasurer: This is all about the consumer. This is all about increasing access to credit for the consumer, be it for a credit card, be it for a home loan and I note that industries such as the motor vehicle industry, the housing industry and others have strongly welcomed this proposal from the government. We already have APRA as the prudential regulator with a lending standard, which will continue as it applies to the banks. And it requires the banks to verify the income of the customer and their ability to pay. But what has happened over the last decade is that these regulations, which started as principle based have become overly prescriptive, costly and complex. It's leading to delays in loans being made available. It's leading to loans not being available as they otherwise should, as the risk aversion on the part of the banks cuts in. So what we're seeking to do here is to boost Australia's economic recovery by reducing unnecessary red tape, by encouraging and facilitating lending as appropriate but, of course, with the necessary consumer protections in place.
Journalist: Prime Minister - thank you, Prime Minister - childcare for…
Prime Minister: You've had your hand up for 20 minutes. I thought I'd give you a break.
Journalist: Freezes on childcare fees were lifted in every state but Victoria yesterday. Given what we know about how families are doing it tough, what's your message to centres? And is it correct that the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet is looking at policy options for childcare?
Prime Minister: Well, a couple of points. For everywhere other than Victoria, the situation is quite different, and the Treasurer may want to comment on this particularly, what we are seeing around the country is Australia's economy recover. Now, there's still a long way to go but when you look at the most recent job numbers that we've seen nationally and on the measured employment alone, more than 400,000 jobs have come back, more than 400,000. Now, it was even more than that around the country when you take out the impact in Victoria, which saw the number of jobs go down. So we are seeing many of the other- all the other states and territories get themselves back into a much stronger position. We always said that our supports would be temporary, that they would be targeted and that they would be proportionate and we can't stay stuck in the same gear when it comes to our response to the COVID-19 recession. We've got to keep moving forward. We need to keep leaning into the next step to see our economy strengthen and not have it held back by keeping support measures in place for too long. So what we want to see is the economies continue to restore and as the economies continue to restore, then households' budgets will be further strengthened, the job prospects will be further strengthened. Businesses and incomes will be further strengthened and that will enable Australians from all around the country to get back to as close to a COVID-normal position as is possible. So where there have been measures in the past, there does come a time for them to move on. Where there are particularly difficult situations, like the situation in Victoria, then we've shown the flexibility and I think the common sense to make exceptions and arrangements in those cases. But in other cases where we're moving ahead and in Western Australia, for example, the Premier will tell you, I'm sure proudly, that Western Australia, which is looking at even having a Budget surplus this year, the idea of maintaining many of those sorts of support in that environment, I think, would be quite counter-intuitive. So it is important we keep moving on and not stay stuck in the same gear when it comes to economic recovery.
But Josh?
The Hon. Josh Frydenberg MP, Treasurer: Thank you, Prime Minister. The Australian economy is operating at two speeds. There's Victoria and then there's the rest. Outside of Victoria, the jobs have come back, as the Prime Minister said. 458,000 jobs in the last three months, 60 per cent of which went to women and 40 per cent of which went to young people. And in the most recent job numbers, we saw 42,000 jobs being lost in Victoria, whereas jobs were created in the other states. We saw the unemployment rate fall from 7.5 per cent to 6.8 per cent, the single biggest drop from more than 30 years. This is why it's so important to get the virus under control and then restrictions can be eased and that's why the Prime Minister, myself, the Health Minister, have been calling for the easing of restrictions in Victoria, in a COVID-safe way, so people can get back to work. Because, as Treasury as estimated, some 60 per cent of the people who will be on JobKeeper in both the December and March quarters will come from Victoria.
Journalist: Prime Minister, in 1949, the Labor Prime Minister Ben Chifley sent the troops into the coal mines to break a strike. Given that Australia is in a national emergency, would you consider something similar on the docks?
Prime Minister: Well, I'm not going to pre-empt any of those sorts of things. We're still at a stage where I think that sort of thing would hopefully be unnecessary and that it would never come to something like that. My simple message today is to get it sorted and stop the extortion and to think
of your fellow Australians and get back to work.
Journalist: On the waterfront, the MUA said that they offered to get medicine off the ships but were rebuffed by Patricks. What more could they have done? And why should they give up the right to take industrial action when politicians are still getting pay rises?
Prime Minister: Well, they're not.
Journalist: Politicians aren’t still getting pay rises.
Prime Minister: No, they're not.
Journalist: Not in federal or state government?
Journalist: Not in federal government, no. So, we’re not.
Journalist: Why shouldn't they be able to take lawful industrial action, though?
Prime Minister: We're in the middle of a COVID recession and there are supplies on ships that need to come ashore. It's extortion and I won't put up with it.
Journalist: Prime Minister, you talked about the need to build and you’ve talked previously about the importance of infrastructure into the future. Do you agree that with the Western Sydney Airport, do you agree with your Deputy Prime Minister that $30 million was a bargain for that piece of land?
Prime Minister: Look, I agree with the Auditor's report. And these events are not things I'm happy about. There are clear lessons that need to be learned within the Department and they will be. And there is a review going on presently within the Department and I understand why Australians would feel very disappointed in that. I'm also disappointed in it and I don't think it's something that I would ever like to see repeated and I know the Minister at the time feels equally disappointed about that. I agree with the Deputy Prime Minister that the Western Sydney Airport is going to be one of, if not the biggest game-changer we've seen in infrastructure in the Sydney basin in a very, very, very long time. I agree wholeheartedly with him on that. It's an absolute jobs machine, the Western Sydney Lady Nancy Bird Walton International Airport and the logistics hub and technology hub that will continue to be built around that with the rail supports. This is a megalithic project for Western Sydney and for Sydney more broadly and the country. So the Deputy Prime Minister and I are completely on the same page when it comes to that. But when it comes to the processes that led to that decision, I'm not happy about it. The officials understand that. This happened some years ago, as you'd appreciate. Now that it's come to light and it’s been brought to our attention, we'll be ensuring it doesn’t happen again.
Journalist: Back on the waterfront, Prime Minister, if Patrick were to form a rival workforce, would you support such a move?
Prime Minister: I'm not getting into hypotheticals about how this is going to be resolved. I think I've made the point fairly clearly and I'm imploring that there be a lawful resolution to this situation, because I cannot have Australians who need what's on those ships being held on those ships, 40 of them out there. You can go down to Port Botany or down to Kurnell and have a look out there and you can see them lining up and every single one of them lining up is being held back from Australians getting what they need in the middle of a recession. So whatever differences that people have on the waterfront about this, I would ask them to put it aside, think of the national interest and get back to work.
Journalist: Prime Minister, you've made two observations today - that jobs are coming back in the economy in some places but people are still doing it tough. A lot of those families who are doing it tough are on the edge and with JobKeeper and JobSeeker now tapering off, a few hundred dollars could be the difference between meeting the mortgage or meeting a rent repayment and literally living rough for a lot of these families. So there's been speculation about maybe a supplement for pensioners in this Budget coming up. Will you give something for those families who are on the edge of being thrown out of their homes, looking at a very bleak Christmas, in this Budget, in some form of supplement payment or support?
Prime Minister: The Budget will be next week so I’m not going to make further announcements about what we're putting in the Budget for next week and the Treasurer will do that at that time. Let me give you a scenario here. Someone who is receiving JobKeeper at a rate of now $1,200 per fortnight may also be eligible for a part payment for JobSeeker of $276 per fortnight, which includes the coronavirus supplement, bringing their total taxpayer-funded income back to $1,476 per fortnight. Now, my point is that JobKeeper and JobSeeker work together to provide essential income supports and it was the same analysis we did when we looked at the less than 20 hours and the more than 20 hours. If people are working less than 20 hours, and they’re on $750, which I remind people is paid to the business and the business then pays the employee. Now, that business is not restricted to paying that employee $1,200. In fact, what we are seeing when I talk about 760,000 jobs coming back in, that's not just the more than 400,000 that have come back in terms of measured employment, that is about 300,000 or thereabouts of jobs that were reduced to zero hours. So those people would have been on JobKeeper. Now, those JobKeeper recipients are now getting more hours, so their actual incomes will be being supplemented by their employer, not just the taxpayer. That's a good change. And so yes, JobKeeper is transitioning, as is JobSeeker, but equally there are more jobs coming back into the economy and more hours coming back into the economy so people's incomes, increasingly, will be supported by their jobs, not just by the taxpayer, particularly when it comes to JobKeeper as a payment. And JobSeeker is there to support and buttress what is otherwise happening with their income supports and so the two will work together and you will see people being able to get further income support where they're in the sorts of situations that you're talking about.
Journalist: Prime Minister, 11 days ago, you flagged that you wanted to see a national network of contact tracing systems right across the country. How long do you expect that to take to be set up? And can I ask both you of you, given what you said in your statement on Sunday and where Victoria's cases are at now, with an average of eight a day over seven days, do you have faith in Victoria's contact-tracing system so that restrictions could be eased now or in the next couple of weeks?
Prime Minister: Well, a couple of points. Dr Finkel is leading that taskforce that I announced after the last meeting of National Cabinet. That's already under way. He's in Canberra now and leading a team drawing from a whole range of different disciplines to start - it already has started - the work of pulling together that digital overlay that can connect the contact-tracing systems between the states and territories. One of the reasons that's so important is because it enables your contact tracing resources in other states and territories to swarm onto particular problems. That was one of the challenges we had when Victoria hit their second wave. While there were plenty willing and able to assist the systems, and the system in Victoria at the time when it first hit is very different from what it is now. In large part, there were paper-based systems in Victoria at that time. That has radically transformed since that time and I would say - and I commend the Premier on this - that it is now going beyond that with the modernisation they're applying to bring the system up to what I would call the New South Wales gold standard and now they're looking at further improvements beyond that system. Now, they've come a long way in a very short period of time and the key to being able to open up your economy, as New South Wales has demonstrated, day after day, week after week, month after month, has been about the capacity of your contact tracing system and your testing regime. Those two combined with outbreak management, maintaining COVID-safe behaviours, that's how you keep your economy open. That's how you live with the virus, not have the virus tell you how to live. And so it is very important that that work continue and it builds. Now, you make the point where is it now? Well, I made the point on the weekend with the Treasurer and the Minister for Health that Victoria now is at a similar state when it comes to the number of cases that New South Wales has been at over recent months and New South Wales has a very different level of restrictions. Now, they are matters at the end of the day that are for the decision of the Victorian Government and, of course, the Victorian Government and the Premier does take responsibility for the decisions they make about restrictions and the path that they're on. Obviously, as a Federal Government, we have sought to work with them to highlight areas where we think we could move more quickly but we do that behind the scenes, working in good faith with the Victorian government. Do not take an absence of commentary from this platform as an absence of engagement between officials or otherwise. And that's a good thing. That's how it should work. I don't intend to have those discussions in a public setting. We want to support the Victorian government to move forward as safely and quickly as they possibly can. Ultimately, the calls that are made, I respect are made by the Victorian Premier and the Victorian government and, of course, the implications of that also rest with that government.
The Hon. Josh Frydenberg MP, Treasurer: As the Treasurer, I'm very focused on businesses reopening and people getting back to work. But as a Victorian parent, I'm also very focused on my children and other people's children getting back to school. I note that that timetable has been accelerated for some of the year levels but I cannot see why all students can't get back to school in Victoria now. Not just for their educational development, because so many of those students have lost nearly a year of study, not just for their educational development in the classroom, but for their wellbeing. I've read letters from well-regarded doctors and GPs, open letters to the Premier of Victoria, and they speak of the mental health state of young people in Victoria as a result of the lockdown. And the number of cases they are seeing through their doors skyrocketing, providing antidepressants to kids as young as 12 and 13 as a result of this lockdown. So I say to the Premier, follow the medical advice but please get Victorian children back to school at all levels.
Journalist: The Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission published data showing it had barely got to a quarter of aged care homes in April and June for non-site visits, so done remotely. How can Australians have confidence that the regulator has effectively been toothless throughout the pandemic? Will the Government consider beefing up its powers, not just with resources, but empowering it to go into aged care homes more often and do more site examinations in and also the Aged Care Royal Commission is due to hand its COVID report to you tomorrow, will you commit to making that public as soon as possible?
Prime Minister: Well, we'll wait for the Royal Commission to come down. It's a Royal Commission. It will make its report. It will make its report. We've invested around $1.5 billion in boosting our support for aged care. In aged care, this has been the area where Australians have been most vulnerable. That's the case all around the world. So it's not surprising that what you've seen is as the case numbers steadily increased in Victoria, with the second wave that has flowed because of the community outbreak, which was obvious to all, those numbers also rose in aged care. Now, as the number of cases in the community have fallen in Victoria, so have the numbers of cases in Victorian aged care. There has always been a direct link between what has been happening in the community with what has been happening in aged care facilities and predominantly, the aged care facilities within Melbourne are not publicly run facilities. They're privately run, or not-for-profit-run facilities. So obviously, where the community outbreak has been greatest, that's where it is going to affect those centres and that's why we've seen predominantly what we have seen. There will be many lessons to be taken out of what has occurred during the COVID period. Many lessons have already been taken in how we would respond in other states and territories and they've been discussed candidly at National Cabinet and the Aged Care Response Centre, which continues to operate successfully in Victoria as a crisis response. That has been formalised to a level that would enable it to be stood up very quickly in other states and territories. I note there's been a call that it should already be stood up in other states and territories. Those states and territories are adamant that they do not want such a centre stood-up in other states and territories, that this needs to be done in partnership. They believe the arrangements that exist in other states and territories are satisfactory for the current threat and risk that presents. But, should that change, then both the Commonwealth and the State where a situation may arise can move immediately to put those things in place.
Rosie, and then I’ll go to,
Journalist: Farmers are crying out for thousands of workers to pick Australia’s fruit and vegetable, particularly with harvest around the corner and Christmas, what will you do to encourage more Australians into the regions, when will you announce that package because we haven’t seen it yet? Are you open to expanding the seasonal and Pacific workforce programmes as well?
Prime Minister: The answer is yes and soon.
Yes?
Journalist: The Public Service Commission has decreed that all 250,000 public servants should return to work, if it’s safe to do so. Obviously you agree with that,
Prime Minister: I do, as Minister for Public Service in particular.
Journalist: I assume you might have a message for corporate Australia about whether or not they should see their staff return to the usual workplace? And can I just ask, in your deliberations on the Budget coming up, did you have a concern that some extra boost for aggregate demand might actually not work? That it might take a bit for effort to flow into the economy?
Prime Minister: You might want to unpack that last bit, I mean of course we’re only going to consider things that we think is going to work.
Journalist: Well just in terms of spending, it might actually not get your bang for buck because people might have to save it or indeed they might not be able to spend it because of businesses being restricted.
Prime Minister: Obviously with every measure we’ve undertaken, and particularly since the COVID crisis hit, it has always been one of our assessments - temporary, targeted, proportionate. Targeted means, it’s going to go somewhere where it works and has the best effect. That has been one of our principles the entire time. When we went into this crisis, we thought it was really important to set out what the principles would be and indeed I did that at the AFR Summit back in March, where we were very clear about what the rules were for framing the economic measures that we would introduce and we have held fast to all of those, and we will continue to hold fast to all of those, so I think that probably answers your question. Of course, of course we would consider the effectiveness, that is the point with every single measure and aggregate demand measures are important in this recovery phase. Very important in this recovery phase. As the tide has gone out on so much other investment or activity, then it is an essential response in these unprecedented times that we would have a Budget like the one you’re going to see next week. How do we respond and claw back from that position and that Budget? By growing our economy. That’s how you do it. You don’t do it by putting up taxes, you don’t do it by risking essential services that Australians rely on, you do it by growing your economy. And that’s why today’s announcement along with the so many others we’ve made, whether it’s on insolvency reform, or credit reform, or whether it has been on the JobTrainer fund, or affordable, reliable energy with lower emissions, all of this is designed to grow your economy. Now when you grow your economy, you can build your revenues again. And that’s how Australia comes back from the Budget that we will have to announce next week, and the measures that we are putting in place are designed to achieve those ends. I mean today, we’ve announced reforms that are effectively upgrading the circuit board of our economy with this Digital Plan. That’s what it’s about today, making the arteries if you like, of our economy to borrow on another analogy, to be able to be cleared and able to ensure a much more healthier economy for Ausrtalians.
Now on your other point, and I’ll address your other two points, on the issue of the public service, of course I support that measure, and it is important whether it’s here in the ACT or in Sydney, or in Brisbane or Perth or anywhere else, where the health advice enables it, obviously VIctoria is still in a different position right now, for public servants to be back in their offices, buying their lunch at the local cafe, and doing all of those things which support particularly those CBD economies. And it’s a matter that I’ll continue to pursue, I think very positively with the other state, with the state Premiers and Chief Ministers who I know will also, I'm sure, wanting to be seeing their own CBD’s revitalised. And when I say CBD, I’m not just talking about the Sydney CBD in NSW, I’m talking about Parramatta, I’m talking about Liverpool, I’m talking about Sutherland, I’m talking about all of these places, and Hurstville, and the many other similar suburban CBD’s that are around the country, Box Hill and the like. So it’s important that I think we get people back into their offices in a safe way, I think people have learned an enormous amount over the last 6 months about how to do that in a COVIDSafe way, and it’s time to get our CBD’s humming again. And I think the Commonwealth Public Service taking the lead in that regard is a good thing and we’ll seek the encouragement of other state public services and I know the NSW Premier, sorry Treasurer Dominic Perrotet has made similar comments. In relation to business, I would encourage them to do the same thing. For example, if your head office is in Melbourne, that doesn't mean that your office in Perth should be operating on the same COVIDSafe plan to the one in Melbourne. And I know that's a point that the Western Australian Premier has made on a number of occasions. We also have large multinational companies that are running their COVIDSafe arrangements based on what’s happening in Paris or New York or in London. And those rules are probably very appropriate in all of those places. But they don’t make much sense in Adelaide. So I think it is important that we always have customised home-grown COVIDSafe plans here in Australia, targeted to the locality because that is the best way to get our economy opening up again because an economy opening up again safely means jobs, it means livelihoods, it means incomes, and it means that we will recover and we will grow.
Thanks very much.
Press Conference - Sydney, NSW
18 September 2020
PRIME MINISTER: Good afternoon, everyone. Today was a very practical day for the National Cabinet. The National Cabinet has been meeting now for around about six months. And its purpose on many days is to resolve disagreements, work through difficult problems, find solutions, find a way forward and today was another example of us doing just that. As the COVID pandemic continues to roll on around the world, we're encouraged by what we're seeing out of Victoria now. We're encouraged about the relaxation of the restrictions that we've seen in Victoria in regional areas. We are hopeful that the road map that has been outlined by the Victorian Premier continues to be achieved and we hope it continues to be accelerated in response to the case numbers that we're seeing there and that was refreshing news. It's good news that ACT is being opened up to Queensland. There is a lot of progress that is being made and we continue to resolve to make that progress each and every time that we come together. It's about working together to just solve problems and keep moving forward.
Australia is the envy, in many respects, of so many other countries around the world in how we are managing both the health consequences of the COVID pandemic and the economic consequences of the COVID pandemic. This was brought home again this week by the employment figures that came out yesterday. I mean, these are employment numbers that have seen more than half now, more than half of the jobs lost come back. That's good news. And as Victoria continues to improve, as we saw job losses in Victoria, we will see that situation only go forward further. We saw, not that long ago, that in the June quarter, that we had a fall in the size of our economy in that June quarter by some 7 per cent. But we've learnt just this week that just across the ditch in New Zealand, in that same quarter, they saw a fall of over 12 per cent. Australia is managing both the economic and the health impacts of this COVID pandemic better than almost any other part of the world in developed economies. Countries like, of course, Korea, South Korea, have also been doing extremely well. Economies like Taiwan also doing very, very well. But when it comes to the league table of how countries are managing both, that is something that I think Australians can take some confidence from and some encouragement from, and the National Cabinet has been a key vehicle through which we have been able to achieve that. We haven't always agreed. There's been the odd, there’s been the odd exchange of words from time to time. But I want to reassure Australians that when we get in that room, we solve things. We make the compromises that are needed from time to time to get to a yes and to get to going forward and that's what's happened again today.
Let me run you through some of the arrangements that we addressed today, the issues, I should say, we addressed today and some of the agreements that were taken. We did note and you would have seen from the common operating picture, that the testing levels across Australia, the testing rates, we noted that they need to be improved. And so, to that end, I welcome the fact that we're advised that Western Australia is actually moving to sewage testing, which is an important other testing method to give us an understanding of the presence and the spread of the virus. This has also been done now in the ACT for some time and other jurisdictions. I can also note that not only has Victoria, Tasmania and Western Australia taken up the COVID pandemic leave disaster payment, that is also now to be taken up by New South Wales, and those arrangements will be put in place over the next little while. And that ensures that, when someone has a positive COVID test, they can get access to those payments. And I believe Queensland will follow shortly. There is just a couple of issues that have been finalised between the Queensland Government and the Commonwealth Government, and we have positive discussions with the Queensland Premier about that today, and I look forward to that being in place very, very soon.
We welcomed the extension today of telehealth. This is a major, a major commitment. A $2 billion commitment that will see telehealth services continued for a further six months, out to the end of March of 2021. One of the things we've been able to do with telehealth is we've reached more and more Australians through these health services, and particularly in relation to mental health services. We have learned a great deal during the COVID pandemic about how these services can be delivered even more effectively, and especially in regional and remote areas. And so this is a big lesson out of the COVID-19 pandemic. This will continue, as I said, until the end of March. But, of course, we're working on future plans on telehealth, as to where it goes beyond that time, but for now that ensures that we have a certainty of that support and that people can access those telehealth services out over that period of time. It was also pleasing to note today that the 15 mental health centres that have been open now in Victoria, and they are receiving patients who are coming and getting that help. And that's been another important COVID initiative.
Today we received reports from Dr Alan Finkel and Commodore Hill on the tracing regimes. Following the last meeting, what we were able to arrange with the Victorian Government is the Victorian Government, together with the New South Wales Government, did a comparison of the New South Wales and Victorian tracing regimes. And the good news about that is there were lots of lessons learned and the upgrade that has been taking place with the Victorian tracing regimes, they're to be commended for. And we've seen that working, in particular, just in these last few days as they have been dealing with a particular outbreak. And so what we've seen is a lifting of the bar with the tracing capacity, and we welcome that in Victoria. And what was agreed today is that the work that Dr Finkel and Commodore Hill have done will now be spread across all the other states and territories, and under the Commonwealth lead we'll be taking the lessons out of that New South Wales/Victorian exchange and applying that to each of the states and territories. So, that will provide a reckoner against a benchmark to ensure that we keep our tracing systems up to standard and up to being match-fit over time as well. One of the challenges that you have with running a tracing regime when you have no cases is there's not much to do when you're tracing no cases. But you always need that capability to be there, and you need to be able to switch it on very fast. So, it was also agreed today that the Commonwealth would lead an initiative to connect all the digital systems that the states and territories are using so they can interact with each other. That doesn't mean they need to be all on the same system. Reproducing that effort would take considerable time and unnecessary cost. But we can design and develop a digital overlay across all those systems, which will mean that if there were to be an outbreak in a particular place, what that means is that we would be able to swarm, harness the tracing capabilities of more states and territories, to plug in to the tracing work that is being done in that particular jurisdiction. So, that's a positive development. It comes out of that process of Dr Finkel and Commodore Hill working, looking at the two systems that were being used in New South Wales and Victoria. So, we welcome that as a further initiative.
We noted today reports from Jane Halton, the former secretary of Health and Finance, and the work that she has been doing to examine all the quarantine systems around Australia. And that was a very positive report. She will be now moving to finalise that report and she's providing that feedback directly to each of the states and territories. But her report today was a positive one about the standard of that quarantine arrangements that are now in place right around the country.
We also, of course, addressed the issue of international arrivals today. We want to see Australians be able to get home. Some months ago, in the middle of July, the states requested that the Commonwealth put in a cap, that the Federal Government cap the number of arrivals coming back into Australia. Now, the reason for that was fairly obvious. We had a situation in Victoria which was rapidly escalating. In New South Wales, there was also a lot of pressure on their system as they were dealing with outbreaks and that was causing concern in many other jurisdictions. So, we put those caps on. They have been in place now for several months. But it was time to start lifting those caps and we made announcements about that earlier this week. I want to thank, in particular, the New South Wales Government for their very quick and prompt response to support those liftings of the caps and today we did get support for moving to those additional numbers. But it will be done in a staged way. New South Wales will move to take an additional 500 by Monday week, so that's the 27th of September. Queensland and Western Australia, on that same day, will be taking an additional 200 per week from the 27th of September. By the 4th of October, Queensland will then move to that full 500 extra. So, they'll increase it by 300 again. And by the 11th of October, WA will also go to that 500 extra a week. That will give those states additional time to get the quarantine arrangements in place. All of that will be done on the express guarantee of support, which I've always been happy to provide, which was ADF assistance in that task. So, we'll be focusing much more of our ADF support on that quarantine assistance in those jurisdictions. And this is going to help get more Australians home.
Australians who are trying to get home at the moment are seeking to do that for many reasons, and particularly those more vulnerable, for circumstances completely outside their control. It's not like they had an opportunity to come home early or anything like that. But we've got to remember, these are Australians coming home. These are Western Australians coming home to Western Australia. They are Queenslanders coming home to Queensland. Now, New South Wales has been carrying the majority share and will continue to do that. They will go to 3,000 a week from Monday week. About, I understand, 40 per cent of those who are coming through New South Wales are going on to other states and territories. So, New South Wales is welcoming home those from other states and territories, and they are quite happy to do so. And I thank the New South Wales Government, and I know all the other states and territories appreciate the role that they have played. So, Queensland and Western Australia will be also increasing the number that they'll be taking and I welcome their support for that today. Now, the smaller states and territories, they have also agreed to work with the Commonwealth to assist us when it comes to bringing in commercial charter flights. The reason we need to focus on Sydney and Queensland and Western Australia is because that's where the commercial flights go. If additional commercial flights were to go to Darwin or go to Adelaide, that would be fine, and those states and territories have expressed their willingness to take additional. But that's not where the flights go. But all of the other states and territories, including the ACT and Tasmania, even, where there is not yet an international airport, but we can put those arrangements in place quickly to deal with a commercial charter or an emergency evacuation.
Now, in particular, Howard Springs. Howard Springs is a facility that we will be able to use to deal with those type of evacuation charters, if they become necessary. Now, at present, we don't have any of those currently planned. But I should note that, since the pandemic started back in March, in its most significant form, we have assisted some I think it's 27,000 Australians to get back over that period of time. So, the Commonwealth has been out there, trying to help Australians get home. We understand that, for the reasons of putting the strain on quarantine capacity, we had to limit the number of places that could come in on flights over the last couple of months. But with the improvements and with the success that we've had as a country in recent months, we can start opening that up again and we can start helping Australians get home again. And so I thank all the states and territories for their assistance in that agreement today.
Now, another important agreement today is that there will be mandatory data collection on domestic flights to assist states and territories when it comes to contact tracing when people are moving between states and territories. From the 1st of October, part of the mandatory manifest information will be name, email address, a mobile contact number, and a state of residence. There's still some work to be done there. That will be arranged with the major airlines, with the Department of Infrastructure, and those arrangements are being put in place now. Now, that is just simply to help our state and territory agencies in the contact tracing that they may be required to do, when it comes to tracking when people are moving from state to state, and that information will, of course, be treated sensitively by the states and territories in the same way that public health information is always treated.
Another way we'll be able to help more Australians get home is we're working to ensure that New Zealanders can come to Australia, and Australians can return to Australia from New Zealand without the need to go through quarantine if they're not coming from an area where there is an outbreak of COVID-19. For example, the whole of the South Island is an area where there is no COVID. And so if we can get to the situation soon where those coming home from New Zealand are able to enter Australia without going into a 14-day quarantine in a hotel, or in the worst-case scenario, only having to do that in their home, then what that does is that frees up places in our hotel quarantine system. And so we see that as another way of enabling more and more Australians to come home. I think they account for about 15 per cent, or thereabouts, of those who are going through quarantine, are those coming back from New Zealand. So you can see that's a sizeable component that will assist us to do that.
The boarding school advice provided by the medical expert panel was adopted and I thank the states for the work they're putting in to enable kids to come home in the school holidays, particularly those coming out of boarding schools and going back to remote areas, where they will be able to spend time with their family. This year has been tough enough on our kids at school without putting them through a situation where they wouldn't be able to go home and spend the school holidays with their families. And so we welcome the work that's been done there. This is about getting them home safely, having the right conditions in place.
The final thing is that the National Cabinet agreed a tasking for the Rural and Regional Committee. That's one of the six subcommittees of National Cabinet. After our last meeting, we tasked the Energy Subcommittee, and so they will be working on the growth of jobs in rural and regional areas, and things that can be done to achieve that with the states and territories working to together.
So, it has been another busy meeting of the National Cabinet. We next meet on the 16th of October. The next meeting would normally have been held just before the Budget, so that's not something that the Commonwealth will be able to do at that time. We'll be very focused on the Budget at that time and so we agreed that we'd meet again on the 16th of October. And by that time, much of the work which I've mentioned today will be coming to fruition as well and that will be welcome.
Happy to take questions.
JOURNALIST: How did you go with discussing the definition of a "hot spot" in Australia?
PRIME MINISTER: There was no further recommendation from the AHPPC on that today.
JOURNALIST: What did Jane Halton brief on and was she able to give any indication of whether there were actual issues with other states quarantine systems?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, she will be going into that detail with them specifically, with each state and territory. But the overall report was good. And particularly in places like New South Wales it was very good where they're doing it at an industrial scale. And so they got a very big tick today. But the other states and territories, I mean, obviously there's none going on at the moment in Victoria, but a lot of lessons learned there, obviously. But Jane's report, I thought, was very positive today. I think Premiers would be very encouraged by and Chief Ministers by the work that's been done. But to scale that up in those areas, particularly in WA and Queensland in the weeks ahead, well, with the ADF's support, the medical support that is provided by the states as well, then it will meet the test.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, that cap of 6,000, is that likely to be increased again?
PRIME MINISTER: Yes, I believe it will, and we spoke about that today. So, let's get to this next level, and then ultimately we'd like to see those caps lifted, as they were back in early July. That would be my goal and we'll work towards that goal and get there as soon as we can. But between now and the next meeting we will have increased the number of people who are able to come home every week by 2,000 a week and I think that's a good step forward. And to do so, I've got to stress, in a safe way. In a safe way. And for those states and territories where they have been many, many months now without a case, I understand the sensitivity in those states. But it's also important that they let their neighbours come home and many of their neighbours are coming home in situations which can be very distressing. So we want to facilitate and enable people to come home as soon as they can.
JOURNALIST: Just in terms of facilitating people coming home, airlines will struggle to fly empty planes one way in order to get people home to Australia. Are you going to look at relaxing the exemptions for people to leave Australia so that airlines can be commercially viable to fly out in order to fly Australians home?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, the first point that was being made to us by the airlines was to lift the caps so they can keep these flights going. So what we have announced and what we have agreed today, I think, will address that in the short-term, I think in the medium term, out over the next couple of months, I think if we can get to a point where we don’t have these caps at all that would help that. When you don't have the caps coming in, then that makes it easier for people to be able to move and if it's on essential business and travel and things like that. But there are thousands of these exemptions that are given every single week for people to go and travel in those circumstances, whether it is to attend a sick family member or an important event or business purposes, things of that nature. So we're continuing to provide those exemptions and I look forward to when we can have even less restrictions on those things. But we don't want to create a problem with the pipeline of people trying to get back in, so we need to address that problem first and that's what we're addressing today.
JOURNALIST: You said you wanted the international arrivals cap lifted by next Friday, why the delay?
PRIME MINISTER: No, I didn't say that. I said we would be increasing the cap.
JOURNALIST: Sorry, increased by next Friday. Why the delay in increasing it to that?
PRIME MINISTER: Working with the states and territories, you work together. There are some disagreements about that and there were issues raised in terms of the step up. So we've been able to resolve those today. So we'll get there. We will get there about a couple of weeks after I would have liked to have got there, but we're still going to get there. That’s the point.
JOURNALIST: What caused that delay?
PRIME MINISTER: The issues raised were about the ability of the Western Australian Government and less so the Queensland Government, because they're moving a week before Queensland, to get their quarantine up to that capability that quickly. So they've asked for that additional time. They'll move to 200 additional extra by Monday next week. So it’s not like there won’t be an increase in the cap, there will be, they've agreed to that, and that will happen in that next week timetable. Then it will scale-up first to 500 first in Queensland and then 500 in WA. New South Wales will move to that first and they'll do that within the next week.
JOURNALIST: Do you still believe that all states except for WA will have their borders open come Christmas?
PRIME MINISTER: Yeah, I do. I think we're making tremendous progress. I mean, Queensland has opened up to the ACT today. That's great. It's good news. South Australia has opened up to the ACT and I'm sure New South Wales won't be far behind. I mean, the Premier was able to report today, I think it was one case today in New South Wales. So that's great news. We're making great progress. We're making tremendously good progress and from time to time we'll disagree on this and that but when we get into the room, we sort it out.
JOURNALIST: What do you think about Queensland's decision to open up to the ACT but not New South Wales? Do you think it's fair and consistent?
PRIME MINISTER: I think it's a matter for the Queensland Government to explain.
JOURNALIST: What’s your relationship been like with the Queensland Premier today?
PRIME MINISTER: Fine.
JOURNALIST: The New South Wales Treasurer described the arrangement as a ‘Berlin Wall-esque’ arrangement.
Sorry?
JOURNALIST: The New South Wales Treasurer described the allowance for the ACT as a ‘Berlin Wall’ situation. Are you concerned about it fraying of relationships between the two states?
PRIME MINISTER: There's always a lot of rivalry between New South Wales and Queensland. I don't think anything's going to change that. Dom has got much more dramatic rhetoric than mine. He clearly has the gift of more dramatic rhetoric.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, exactly how many Australians are stranded right now overseas that want to come home?
PRIME MINISTER: We've got over 20,000 right now but we have…
JOURNALIST: Do you have a more specific number?
PRIME MINISTER: Yes, it is about 24,000. We have got about just over 4,000, and this number has been coming down, how we would categorise through DFAT as being more vulnerable. Recently, several weeks ago, we provided additional funding to DFAT to assist these most vulnerable cases. That has meant in cases assisting them with air travel. It has also meant assisting them with accommodation or other needs that they might have. There was very wide discretion given to our consular posts to do that. We're talking in the tens of millions that we've provided that support. We had to do that because of the caps that were put in place at the request of the states, which was a very reasonable request, but that meant we had to act to get more support into our consular offices to provide assistance to those in need, and we've done that. Our consular teams around the world are amazing. Let's not forget that after the Beirut blast, we got hundreds of people out of Beirut and we got them home. And that was done outside the caps. I rang the Premier here in New South Wales and Gladys didn't hesitate. She said, ‘Of course, of course.’ And we got them home, and we got them home to many states. So our consular officials are doing an extraordinary job around the world and our many Members of Parliament too, I know, are fielding these calls and these requests, and they are heartbreaking in so many cases and we're seeking to resolve them as quickly as we can. But the most important thing we can do is continue to get more people able to be on flights and coming back into Australia. So today by working with the states and territories we will achieve that and more Australians will be coming home as a result.
JOURNALIST: Sorry, just according to the new cap increases, how long do you expect it will take to get everyone back home?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, it's a question of who's looking to come home. There are and that changes, I've got to say, from time to time. Some, I mean, for example, there are quite a lot of Australians living in Bali at the moment. When you ask how many of them want to come home, it's actually only a few hundred. But there is, I think, around 7,000 Australians who are in Bali currently. So that doesn't mean they're all looking to come home. And so for those, what we're trying to do is for those who are seeking to come home, and particularly those who very much need to come home, we are prioritising them both in the financial support and other assistance we're doing through our consular offices and by opening up these flights we'll get them home sooner, and to make sure they aren't bumped off flights because of issues that only business class seats are available, things like that. That's what our consular offices are resolving. But I would hope that those who are looking to come home, that we'd be able to do that within months and I would hope that we can get as many people home, if not all of them by Christmas.
JOURNALIST: Should states who are forcing Victorians and other returning interstate travellers into hotel quarantine, should they look at alternatives like having those people isolate at home to free up space for more returning Australians?
PRIME MINISTER: Yes, we had that discussion today, particularly when you're talking about people coming from low-risk places. The ACT, for example, does home isolation on 14 days. We have Members of Parliament who are doing that exact thing in the ACT and there are medical officers who visit and take tests, and there are also police visits as well to make sure that they're there, and that has proved to be quite a successful model in the ACT. And the ability to apply those sorts of arrangements to people coming from particular areas where there's very, very, very low risk, well, they're options that the states can look to do and I would only encourage them to look at doing that because that eases the pressure on their other quarantine arrangements, which should be prioritised for those coming in from more high-risk areas. That's just common-sense and I'm sure the states will continue to try to exercise that common sense.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, has the Federal Government considered contributing to the states to allow that hotel quarantine system to be set up faster and allow that capacity to increase faster?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, that's why we have so many ADF personnel involved. We have, I think, over 110 in Western Australia right now. There are 340, just over that, in Queensland doing that right now. Let's not forget, the people who pay for the quarantine are the returning travellers. They're the ones paying the hotel bills. Originally, that was being done by the states at their agreement, and on their initiative, and good on them for doing so. But the hotel bill for quarantine is being paid by the returning traveller. So they're the ones writing out the cheque and that could be 2.5 grand on a good day, up in the Northern Territory. Much more in the other capital cities. But then there are other costs that are attached to that. There's the work that the police do here in New South Wales. Other privately contracted security agencies which states and territories use and it's important that they have the right training and the right tasking, particularly around PPE and other protocols. And the review done by Jane Halton had some good news along those lines. But also, it's through the ADF support. In fact, the ABF support. The ADF, as I've said, we have got hundreds and hundreds. You will see in the statement released just after this just how many ADF personnel we have doing that task all around the country. The Commonwealth can be accused of many things but in this COVID-19 pandemic, not stumping up when it comes to costs, I mean, JobKeeper alone is over $100 billion. If you add up every single thing that the states are doing in their COVID response, you won't even get to the cost of JobKeeper.
JOURNALIST: Hotel quarantine is quite expensive. Would the Federal Government consider chipping in to help some of these Australians returning home?
PRIME MINISTER: I just said, we were providing that in-kind support from the ADF. That is all that has been sought from us by the states, I should stress. They haven't asked for that. No one asked for that today. That didn't come from the Queensland Government or the WA Government today. They weren't asking for money. They were asking for ADF support and the answer to that was yes, they will receive that support, because I want to enable as many Australians to get home as soon as possible and I want to do that safely and I want to do that in as constructive a way as we can and once again today at the National Cabinet, we were able to deal with our disagreements, come to decisions, come to conclusions, solve another set of problems and no doubt there'll be a lot more for us to solve when we get together in the middle of October. Thanks all very much.
National Energy Address - Tomago, NSW
15 September 2020
PRIME MINISTER: Well thank you very much Bob, and to you Greg and all of your team here, many of whom are with us in the room today thank you very much for joining us here today.
Can I acknowledge the traditional owners, the Awabakal and the Worimi peoples, can I also acknowledge any veterans or defence force personnel who are with us here today and thank you for your service on behalf of all Australians.
Can I also thank you for your very warm welcome, a few weeks ago some boys from the Shire came up here, they didn’t get as great a welcome from the KNights, didn’t turn out too well for us but we made up for it last weekend, didn’t we. And it’s wonderful to be up here with you all. It’s nice to be out of Canberra and Sydney I’ve got to say. We’ve spent a fair bit of time there over the last many months and I think for others who’ve made the trip up today it’s good, it’s good to see what’s happening in our regions. And today is an important, a very important part of that today.
Can I also acknowledge of course Angus Taylor, who is with me here today. What we are speaking of today really is the extraordinary work that Angus has done in this portfolio as energy and emissions reduction. He brings an enormous amount of intellect and experience to these tasks and they are incredibly important areas of responsibility for the federal government and I want to thank you Angus for the tremendous work you’ve done working with stakeholders, working with those all across the sector. This is a massive part of the economic recovery.
And of course to Hollie and to David, thank you for joining us here today and for all the work you do in this wonderful part of the country and making sure that it’s always very much foremost in our minds.
To keep and get as many Australians in jobs has always been my job.
In this pandemic, for that to happen, I need as many businesses as is safely possible to be open.
That is why our national COVIDSafe health plan brought together with the states and territories is so important.
Our quarantine, our testing, our tracing, our outbreak containment - all shut the virus down, before it can take hold, when they’re working to standard.
Our COVIDSafe vaccine plan, investing some $1.7 billion to develop and produce a vaccine, right here, sovereignly in Australia, for every single Australian.
COVIDSafe behaviours - with our friends, at home, at school, at work, out and about - that denies the virus the opportunity to move amongst us.
This plan, our health plan is critical to our economic plan. And during this pandemic by Australia pursuing both, we continue to do better than almost every other developed country in the world, when it comes to protecting lives and livelihoods. But as long as we are closed, we cannot claim success as a country.
If we are shut, we are not living alongside the virus, the virus is actually keeping us from living.
So as we emerge from this second wave in Victoria, and I had some, a good message from the Victorian Premier this morning, let’s now seize the opportunity ahead of us, to safely and successfully reopen this country, reconnect this country, and stay open.
But getting Australia open again is just the start of what we must achieve.
Because only when businesses can see their way to expanding what they do, and how many more people they can employ, when they can see that, that’s why they will invest, that’s why they will take a risk. That’s why they’ll have a go.
And that is what our JobMaker plan for Australia’s economic recovery is actually all about, ensuring that businesses have the confidence, in this very uncertain world, to have a go, and to get a go.
Our plan began with the essential economic lifelines that have been keeping Australians in jobs and Australian businesses in business wherever possible - JobKeeper, JobSeeker, cash flow support payments for business.
JobKeeper alone, more than $100 billion, a record and unprecedented investment. But again the plan is not just about getting through. That is not, I think how Australians think about the future.
We don’t just want to get through.
What we want to see is, we need businesses to have the confidence to grow and to employ more people.
And that’s why our JobMaker plan is already:
boosting our investment in skills and training and apprenticeships, to help Australians get the skills that businesses need for them to be in those jobs. And that will be taking place right here.
working with employers and unions to fix our industrial relations arrangements and laws to make it easier for businesses to employ more people.
making it easier to do business by fast-tracking major project approvals, 15 large projects already on that slate working with states and territories to get them moving, and getting rid of the red tape that prevents it. On practical issues most recently, the Treasurer is agreeing to reform and streamline and harmonise occupational licensing.
bringing forward almost $10 billion of spending on new infrastructure projects, and that includes water infrastructure projects dams, pipelines, ports, railways.
In a few weeks the Treasurer will go into greater detail on all of this, and I promise you and more when he hands down our JobMaker Budget on the 6th of October.
But today, I want to focus on a further pillar in this JobMaker Plan that I flagged some months ago - our JobMaker plan for affordable, reliable and secure energy.
Now lower cost and more reliable energy helps businesses to grow and employ more people. And in areas like the Hunter, the business of generating energy is for so many your livelihood, where critical energy-intensive jobs are located.
Affordable and more reliable energy also supports of course household budgets, and that enables Australians to keep more of what they earn. Whatever their source of income is.
Our JobMaker plan for affordable, reliable and more secure energy has three key objectives:
Maintain that downward pressure - down, down -on electricity prices - while simultaneously developing the backbone of a reliable, lower emissions National Electricity Market for the next decade and beyond.
Get more gas, more often and more reliably - by resetting our east coast gas market, unlocking additional gas to drive recovery; paving the way, ultimately, for a world-leading Australian Gas Hub to support high-wage jobs, including and especially in manufacturing.
Reinforce Australia’s sovereign fuel security - recognising that government must play an active, strategic role to ensure Australians have unbroken access to the essentials of our way of life and Angus had more to say about that yesterday.
Now I want to discuss each of these in turn and particularly in relation to gas I want to acknowledge particularly the work of the National Covid Commission, Andrew Liveris and the team who have also been working to support the government in the work that we’ve been doing.
Now in terms of electricity, in recent years, we have taken strong action to get those electricity prices down. It’s all been about getting consumers a better deal.
Wholesale electricity prices have now fallen for 12 consecutive months.
National average household expenditure on electricity have already fallen by 4.7 per cent since its peak in December 2018.
We’ve turned the corner on electricity prices.
Nationally, average annual residential bills are expected to decrease by 7.1 per cent (or $97) between 2018/19 and 2021/22.
Our Default Market Offer rules are protecting consumers from defaulting to a worse deal.
Our big stick laws are evening up the playing field with the big energy companies.
We’ve banned late payment fees and implemented strong protections during COVID, with great support from the energy companies so impacted families and businesses can’t be disconnected without consent. And all of those issues are managed sensitively.
But to help drive economic recovery, we must lock in the settings for even lower prices.
To achieve this, you must deal with generation and transmission.
In Australia, you cannot talk about electricity generation and ignore coal.
For decades, coal-fired generation has been a source of competitive strength for our economy. Reliable, low cost energy. This is still true.
Analysis by the energy market operator shows coal generation is still expected to comprise almost a quarter of the National Electricity Market in 2040.
Coal will continue to play an important role in our economy for decades to come. With new technologies such as carbon capture and storage continuing to improve, it will have an even longer life, not just here in Australia, but in our export markets as well. Right here, and in regions like right here, that means jobs.
My Government understands this. The fact that we understand it is important. So many of your livelihoods depend on it. And not everyone shares this view. Not everyone shares our views on this.
My Government also understands that our energy market is evolving at pace - driven by changes in technology, economics and consumer preferences. Consumers are having a big say about where they want their energy to come from. Our technology roadmap is there to chart a path well beyond today’s needs.
Australia has seen an unprecedented influx of renewable generation. This is not something we have sought to hold back, rather we have encouraged it. And it is also benefiting jobs here in the Hunter and in regions like it. It is not a choice between the two.
More than $30 billion was invested in renewables between 2017 and mid 2020. In 2019 we saw investment at more than three times the per capita rate of countries like Germany, China, or France.
Across 2019 and 2020, Australia will add more than 12.6 GW of renewable capacity - over four times that of our largest power station. Nearly one in four households have rooftop solar systems.
Cheaper renewables not only help us meet our commitment to achieve our emissions reduction targets by 2030 which we remain committed to. Can’t tell you if everyone else does, but we remain committed to that. And we will meet it in a canter. But they also hold the promise of further declines in energy costs. But only if the foundations for grid stability are in place.
To back up intermittent renewables, we need firming capacity. Firming keeps the lights on when the sun isn’t shining and the wind isn’t blowing. It’s a very practical proposition.
Every megawatt of dispatchable generation - coal, gas, pumped hydro batteries - can firm around 2 megawatts of renewables.
And we need to bring forward new dispatchable generation capacity as a priority, to compliment what is happening in the renewables sector. In the decade to 2010, around 9.6 GW of dispatchable capacity came online. In the decade since, only around 1.6 GW of new dispatchable capacity has been connected - none of it here in New South Wales.
As the experience with Hazelwood in Victoria demonstrated, the risks in terms of costs and reliability from the exit of large, ageing coal-fired power stations are real.
Against this backdrop, our Energy Minister Angus Taylor last year established a taskforce to assess the potential impacts of Liddell’s closure, working with the state government, working with the sector as well. It found that wholesale prices could jump by 30 per cent, or $20 per megawatt hour, if the station’s capacity was not replaced before it shuts down.
We estimate that some 1,000 MW of new dispatchable generation is needed to keep prices down. And we intend to do something about it.
Now while the private sector has announced projects which could fill this gap, it has committed to very few. COVID has challenged investment metrics, but the physical realities of ageing generators mean we can’t just hope for the best.
To ensure affordable, reliable power, we need the market to deliver 1,000 MW of new dispatchable capacity by the summer of 2023-24, with final investment decisions by the end of April 2021.
Now that’s less than eight months - and we’re counting. Each day.
So, this is the plan. If the energy companies choose to step up and make these investments to create that capacity, great, we will step back. If not, my Government will step up and we will fill the gap.
And to this end, Snowy Hydro is already developing options to build a gas generator in the Hunter Valley should the market not deliver.
The Commonwealth Government would prefer not to step in. That is not our Plan A. But nor will we shy away from taking action to protect consumers and support jobs, including here in this region and so many like it.
So I think there is some certainty there about what the investment environment looks like and what the capacity is. And I am sure we will get there one way or the other.
Alongside critical firming capacity, we need better integration of renewables into the electricity grid.
This makes renewables work. Renewables are getting cheaper, that’s great news. Because we are about affordable power - taking pressure off households, and taking pressure of job-creating businesses.
Grid-scale solar costs fell more than 50 per cent between 2015 and 2020, and are projected to fall by a 54 per cent by 2050.
Falling technology costs will help put downward pressure on prices and emissions over the decades to come. They have also brought grid scale wind and solar generation to economic parity with traditional sources of generation.
Renewables like solar and wind don’t need subsidies. What they need integration.
And without adequate planning and integration, rapid deployment of renewables can lead to delayed connection, curtailed output and congested transmission.
Our energy plan understands this, and includes measures to strengthen our transmission network to better move power to where it’s needed.
Having a renewable future isn’t just about building a windmill. You’ve got to connect it up and you’ve got to ensure it’s backed in by the reliable power that firms it when the wind isn’t blowing. That’s not ideology, that’s just common-sense.
Today I announce that the Commonwealth will work with state governments to accelerate three critical projects. And we’ll have more to say about these later - the Marinus Link, Project Energy Connect and VNI West Interconnectors.
Together with our support for HumeLink and the QNI Interconnector, this means we are accelerating all priority transmission projects identified in the AEMO Integrated System Plan.
Creating over 5,000 jobs, while reducing prices and keeping the grid reliable.
We must also though, modernise the way the electricity market operates to take account of technological change and to put more power into the hands of consumers. Now 21st Century electricity market needs 21st Century rules. A package of market reforms will come forward next year as part of the biggest shake-up of the National Electricity Market since it was created in 1998.
New rules will take account of the increasingly distributed nature of generation and better recognise the critical stabilising role played by dispatchable generation.
The immediate focus will be on security measures, better integrating different generation technologies and a reliability framework. Longer term reforms will focus on rules for a two-sided market, revised investment programs and a framework for the exit of ageing thermal generators.
These reforms, to be developed and agreed through National Cabinet’s new Energy Reform Committee, which tasked this work at our last meeting in fact just over a week ago. An important reminder of the work the National Cabinet is doing, is not just managing our CovidSafe plan, it’s actually working on the JobMaker plan and we see this as an important part of the JobMaker Plan and that’s when the National Cabinet was made a permanent feature of how our federation works. We established a series of sub-groups to work on those job-creating areas, regional was a large one which Michael McCormack is leading, and energy was another, which Angus Campbell, no he’s running the defence forces. Angus Taylor is leading that project.
And they will have three guiding principles:
Prioritise the long-term interests of consumers, ensuring they can access the right services at the right price.
Create competitive and transparent markets to unlock efficient and timely private investment.
Ensure a resilient energy system through a balanced mix of technologies. A balanced mix of technologies.
The Government will also take forward practical initiatives to put power back into the hands of customers. Our Consumer Data Right, which we started with banks, will enable customers to access detailed consumption data from their energy retailer and use this data to find the plan which best meets their needs. Expanded energy rating tools will also help Australians reduce their exposure to electricity bill shocks.
So in summary, the tasks for the road ahead on the electricity system are clear: bring on firm generation capacity, better integrate renewables, overhaul the rules to create a modern and efficient market and put more power into the hands of consumers.
Now Let me turn now to the gas market and I appreciate your patience this morning. Cheaper, more abundant gas is the second pillar of our energy plan for COVID recovery. We’ve got to get the gas.
Gas is already a major contributor to our economy. Based on the development of our enormous gas resources offshore, Western Australia and in Queensland, Australia is now a world-leading exporter of LNG, rivalling Qatar as the world’s biggest.
The $200 billion invested in LNG projects over the past decade was a key driver of our economic performance coming out of the Global Financial Crisis.
We want to continue to be an export powerhouse, but it can’t be at the expense of Australian customers getting a fair deal.
An estimated 225,000 Australians work in manufacturing firms that rely heavily on gas as a feedstock or fuel source, according to APPEA - in sectors such as fertilisers, chemicals, metals, bricks, cement and parts of food processing and beverage manufacturing. When Andrew Liveris sat down with me at Kirribilli some time ago, and working with him through the COVID Commission, said you want to change manufacturing in this country, you’ve got to deal with gas. You’ve got to deal with gas. And Angus has taken up that challenge along with Keith Pitt and this is what we’re talking about today.
For many firms, the most pressing challenge they face is the failure of the east coast gas market to meet competitiveness benchmarks, and that puts Australian jobs at risk.
While spot prices have fallen under COVID, Australian industry is paying well above export parity prices for contracts. The ACCC says the gap is higher than at any time since the competition watchdog started its gas inquiry in 2017.
Chair Rod Sims has identified 18 cargoes of gas sent offshore this year at prices well below those being offered to Australian industrial customers. And despite our resources, AEMO is forecasting potential gas shortages in the east coast market by 2024.
Now that’s not on. This is not acceptable.
Nor is it sustainable when competitive gas should be helping to fire, gas fire our COVID recovery.
Gas is not only central to our industry plan, it’s also central to our energy plan. As I said at the Press Club earlier this year, there is no credible energy transition plan for an economy like Australia that does not involve the greater use of gas.
Alan Finkel, the Chief Scientist, put it this way: “Gas is effectively the perfect complement to solar and wind.” Absolutely true. We need to reset the east coast gas market - and we will. The Government will lean in with measures aimed at ensuring domestic users aren’t at a competitive disadvantage relative to their overseas competitors.
This is not about pitting LNG exports against domestic users. They both should be able to, and they must co-exist.
Our long-term goal is a transparent and competitive Australian Gas Hub on the east coast, with a family resemblance to the ‘Henry Hub’ system in the United States.
The Henry Hub is the international gold standard for gas trading markets, highly regarded for its transparency, its liquidity, and its certainty.
There are many factors that contribute to its success - abundant sources of gas supply, a highly competitive and well regulated network of pipelines and storage infrastructure, and a significant volume of trade in futures contracts which provides greater price certainty for buyers and sellers.
Now we should adapt the best parts of this system and to make it work for Australian circumstances.
This will require us to take action in three areas: firstly, gotta get the gas. We must unlock new sources of supply, we must get additional gas to market as efficiently as possible, and we must empower domestic gas customers.
We need to accelerate development of new basins like the Beetaloo in the Northern Territory and Narrabri in New South Wales. As well as open up more development in existing basins in Queensland where substantial reserves remain untouched.
All levels of government have a role to play here in creating a supportive environment for investment and competition.
The Commonwealth can play a more active role investing in the early planning work required to accelerate exploration and development in priority basins, which we will do through the development of 5 Strategic Basin Plans.
Funding pre-competitive economic, engineering and scientific studies like we are doing in the Beetaloo, and removing roadblocks to development, these are examples of how government action can help “crowd-in” private sector investment.
Just as we’ve done with NSW, we want to work closely with the state and territory governments to set targets for new gas supply as part of bilateral energy deals.
State governments can also do more to facilitate development, for example through ‘use it or lose it’ requirements on gas licences that encourage producers to bring gas to market as quickly as possible. Not sit on it.
We also need to ensure Australian users get their fair share of these new gas developments.
Work is underway on options for a prospective gas reservation scheme, which will be done in consultation with industry and the states and territories. We will support gas exports, but we must avoid past pitfalls.
As we produce more gas for domestic use, we need the right infrastructure of course to connect up the east coast gas grid at the lowest cost possible.
That means efficiently connecting major sources of gas supply with ‘customer hubs’ where there is significant demand.
We will unify the market around a common set of priorities for gas pipelines and other critical infrastructure through a National Gas Infrastructure Plan, just like we have with the Integrated System Plan for electricity.
So under our government: a gas grid, an electricity grid, and a water grid.
And while we want the private sector to invest in this infrastructure, we are prepared to go further if we need to.
The Commonwealth stands ready to step-in to support pipeline development if necessary, as we are doing now with other nationally-significant infrastructure like electricity interconnectors, water infrastructure and of course major highways.
Finally, we need a competitive market that allows for fair bargaining between gas buyers and sellers. A market that empowers gas customers and ensures they have the power to negotiate, not just accept, the terms offered to them. Not good for jobs.
Transparent pricing and greater pricing certainty is needed so end-users can contract the volumes they need for the future, and so upstream producers can invest with confidence that there will be demand for their gas. It’s a two way street.
Government can create the conditions for an open and transparent trading hub, and act as an honest broker to match supply and demand.
Now we know many of our manufacturers can’t wait for years for the market to reset and for the new gas supply to come online.
So we will also move immediately to extend the heads of agreement with the East Coast LNG exporters and ensure they meet their end of the bargain to provide competitively priced gas to the domestic market.
There are many other elements to our gas plan, including work on netback pricing and pipeline regulatory reform, all of which will be done closely with industry.
And again I want to thank Angus as the Minister, and Keith Pitt, the Minister for Resources, Water and Northern Australia, for their tremendous work on the plan that I’ve been outlining to you today.
Now the third area, was ensuring Australia’s Fuel Security, and Angus has already spoken at more length about that yesterday.
But the COVID crisis has highlighted the importance of robust supply chains for the essentials of daily life. And that includes liquid fuel.
Without fuel, you cannot restock supermarkets, you can’t drive to the doctor, you can’t get home to the family.
Australia’s fuel supply chains have proven resilient over recent decades - this is something we should be proud of, including through major market and supply disruptions.
But as refineries have closed under competitive pressure, Australia has become more reliant on imported petroleum products.
This is a reality Australia needs to be prepared for a more unpredictable, less favourable global environment, both strategically and economically.
When it comes to fuel security, we must safeguard against low-probability, high-impact events which could disrupt our supply chains. We must be prudent and develop additional buffers to bolster our resilience.
That is why the Government will secure a domestic fuel reserve by regulating a minimum level of industry stockholdings of petrol, jet fuel and diesel.
This means more supplies of critical fuel on-shore to help safeguard supply chains.
Under our plan, industry will maintain petrol and jet fuel stocks at least at long-term historic average levels of 24 days of consumption cover. Industry will be obliged to increase national stocks of diesel beyond the recent average of 20 days to 28 days, an increase of around 5 million barrels. This is in line with the findings of the Government’s Liquid Fuel Security Review.
Now these obligations flow through to the second part of our fuel security plan - which is about driving a major expansion of national fuel storage capacity.
This will see the construction and operation of an additional 780 million litres of liquid fuel storage in Australia. This will strengthen our fuel security, supporting investment and jobs in cities and towns right across the country.
We will minimise costs while ensuring this new storage maximises resilience. We will work with industry to design legislative changes and a market-based mechanism to give effect to the stockholding obligation.
Guaranteeing Australia’s sovereign oil refining capability is the third component of our fuel security plan.
Over the last decade, three fuel refineries have ceased operating and permanently converted to import terminals. One in my own beloved Shire, in Kurnell.
These were economic decisions, driven by increased regional competition and the relative price of imported crude and fuel. But this leaves us with less ability to process crude oil here in Australia, and increases our reliance on international imports.
Australia must have a refining capability into the future. This capability provides security, it keeps downward pressure on prices and it does enable downstream industries.
And in the national interest, and to secure the long-term future of the sector, the Government has begun discussions with the remaining refineries and relevant state governments about the design of a production payment to recognise the critical fuel security role these facilities play.
These steps complement the Government’s decisive action earlier this year to take advantage of low oil prices and secure 1.5 million barrels of crude oil, stored in the United States Strategic Petroleum Reserve.
So, in conclusion, over the course of our government, we have always worked to a plan.
Reducing taxes, prior to COVID bringing that Budget back into balance which has enabled us to respond in the way that we have in these recent terrible months and unflinchingly so because we could do it with confidence, we’ve signed more export agreements than we ever imagined opening Australia up to the world, creating new options and new opportunities, we’ve invested in infrastructure, we’ve reduced the burdens of regulation and we have so much more to do there.
And this is all been done to grow an economy, to guarantee the essential services that Australians rely on. That’s the only way you pay for pensions, you pay for hospitals, you pay for schools, you pay for disability care and aged care and we have some huge challenges in those areas in the years ahead.
Only a strong economy where people are at work and making a contribution, through under our regime, lower taxes actually pays for hospitals and schools. Just whacking people’s taxes up and hoping for the best is not a plan, that’s a gouge.
Our plan is to grow the economy, again. So we can meet all of those challenges into the future. It’s that economy employing people, people being in work that pays for that because the end result is investment, it’s jobs, it’s exports.
And, above and beyond that, it is a confidence that Australians have in their future, to see over these difficult and dark times at the moment, to see past them. Because when businesses can do that, they will invest. They will have a go. And our plan will ensure, I believe, that they will get a go. That confidence that Australia will be that fair and competitive place to do business.
So, we're accelerating our efforts to ensure we move forward in this area on every front.
We will rebuild our economy. We will do it on the basis of a health plan that keeps Australians safe. We won't be taking risks with people's health to rebuild our economy. We've said from the outset the two go together. And we will build that economy with more jobs, underpinned by our JobMaker plan, for affordable, reliable and secure energy we've discussed today.
And a country with greater control over its economic destiny. That's what sovereignty is all about and that's our plan.
Thank you so much for your attention.
Press Conference - Canberra, ACT
7 September 2020
PRIME MINISTER: Good morning, everyone. We’re about to be joined also by the Minister for Health, who was under different travel restrictions in order to be here today which, as usual, were approved by the relevant authorities here. I'm also joined by Professor Murphy, who you all know well. He's here today not just in his capacity as the Secretary of the Department of Health, but he is also here as the Chair of the expert panel that has been advising the Australian government on vaccines, which is the principal reason for me being here this morning.
Australia needs some hope today. Particularly in Victoria, they need some hope today. And so that is what we're here to deliver today. Today, we take another significant step to protect the health of Australians against the coronavirus pandemic. A $1.7 billion agreement for the supply and production of more than 80 million vaccine doses. This builds on the announcements that the Health Minister and I made several weeks ago. Even more important about this agreement, though, is not just that it puts Australia right up front in getting access to these important medicines, it's a sovereign vaccine plan. Because this vaccine plan, and the agreements that are supporting it, which I want to particularly thank Minister Andrews for doing, working together with the Minister for Health, is giving us the capacity to not just produce the vaccine here in Australia, and that is the AstraZeneca vaccine through CSL, but also to develop and produce the University of Queensland vaccine. So to both develop and produce that vaccine here in Australia and produce the AstraZeneca vaccine in Australia. So that is giving us a sovereign capacity to get Australians what they will need should both of those vaccines prove successful as they go through their trials. Now, of course, the AstraZeneca vaccine is in a more advanced stage. The University of Queensland still has some work to go, but we're backing it in. I'll allow the Minister of Health to go through the details of those arrangements.
So a home-grown sovereign plan for vaccines is the hope I bring to Australians today. The decision was endorsed by Cabinet last week not long after I left you here last Friday. And it follows recommendations by the medical expert panel, which I indicated is led by Professor Murphy. We don't expect this will be the last decision we make in this area, but these are the two best prospects, and we have acted on the advice that they have brought forward and Professor Murphy can speak to that process.
Having a sovereign vaccine strategy is an important part of our plan for how we live with COVID-19. Ultimately, a vaccine provides that opportunity. But even under the timing of what we have for the development of these vaccines, it'll be some time yet before we can be living in a potential vaccine environment in Australia. Hopefully that is next year. Hopefully that is in the early part of next year. Well, it certainly can under this arrangement be from the start of next year, with what we've been able to put in place should the trials and other arrangements be successful. But it's not the only thing we need to do. Lockdowns and borders are not signs of success in dealing with COVID-19. They're not signs of success. And so it's important that we put ourselves in a position where they do not feature in how Australia is dealing with COVID-19 on a sustainable basis. And as I reminded you on Friday, at the outset of the COVID-19 pandemic, what we set about was boosting our hospital capacity. The Minister for Health and then-chief medical officer were integrally involved as I said in getting the respirators, getting the ICU capacity to ensure that should the virus reach those high levels of community transmission, then our hospital system would not be overrun, and that we would not have those devastating scenes we saw in hospitals overseas with people gasping for their last breath and not being able to have a respirator. We have been able to protect Australia from those outcomes by ensuring that we move quickly to build that capability and provide that health protection across Australia. And that enabled us to move forward with the 3-step plan which would have had - should we have been able to fully implement it, seen Australia open again in July of this year. Now, that wasn't achieved for the reasons we all know. But now, we are returning to those objectives. And I welcome the fact that we are doing all that we can to see that Australia is open by the end of this year.
To ensure, though, that we achieve that, it's not just about the rules for how you run cafes and restaurants. They're important. They're part of the plan. But the most important thing is, is ensuring that we build an integrated tracing capability right across the country that enables a country to remain open despite the threat of outbreaks. That is the difference between being open and closed. A capable, integrated tracing capability. And, as I've noted, New South Wales is the gold standard. That is where we have to get everybody to to ensure that Australia can be open. And the plan that we will work on with the states and territories is to get ourselves to that standard so Australia can be open.
Now, Victoria's announcement yesterday by the Premier, as I said, it was crushing news. Of course it was. The announcement that Victorians would continue to live under curfew and be under these restrictions for many months, if not just weeks in the most harsh of those restrictions, of course is crushing news. And I know Victorians, as, and Greg has just joined us today directly from Victoria, the feeling out there today is hard. They're frustrated. The mental health of Victorians will be sorely tested. The plan that was outlined yesterday, I hope, is a worst-case scenario. I see it as a starting point in terms of how this issue will be managed in the weeks and months ahead in Victoria. We will continue to carefully review this plan. We're yet still to receive the detailed modelling. We've seen the high-level modelling and the other assumptions that have gone into the plan. But what I can't help but be struck by is that, under the thresholds that have been set in that plan, Sydney would be under curfew now. Sydney doesn't need to be under curfew now. They have a tracing capability that can deal with outbreaks. That's why I say it's important that we work on building that tracing capability in Victoria to get it at a level that enables it to move in a more confident way than I think the plan that was announced yesterday set out. It was a very detailed plan. And it is based on a set of scientific modelling. And that is what I know will be interrogated. Not just by the Commonwealth government, but many others in the scientific community will look at that, and the decisions that have been drawn from that modelling have very profound effects for people living in Victoria. And so it's right, and I'm sure the Victorian government would welcome that interrogation of that. We will be providing constructive feedback on that plan. We will be sitting down with industry. We will be sitting down with business through our National Coordinating Mechanism which is run out of the Department of Home Affairs, and we'll listen carefully, and we'll faithfully convey all of that feedback.
As I said, I hope it's a starting point. I hope we can move more quickly than that. Obviously the legal authority for all of these matters, of course, rests with the Victorian government. It's not for the Commonwealth government, we do not have that authority to step in and tell the Victorian government they have to follow another plan. That is not how Australia's federation works. And so it is incumbent upon us to work constructively with the Victorian government to raise these issues as we will with them in the days and, I imagine, the weeks ahead, and remain always responsive to the most recent information. And so building that tracing capability is incredibly important.
The other thing that I'd be looking forward to seeing soon is the announcement by the Victorian government about what the economic support plan they will be delivering to Victoria to mitigate the economic consequences of the plan that they've outlined. It is right that the Victorian government make the first response to set out what the economic supports are they will put in place to deal with the measures that they have put in place. The Commonwealth government is already providing significant assistance to Victorians through the many programs we've had in place now for many months. And particularly the extension of JobKeeper and JobSeeker, Victoria will draw down on that more than any other state or territory. Victorians are being supported more by the federal government than any other state and territory is drawing on that support, and we will continue to do that. So what is required, over and above the support that the Commonwealth government is providing to Victorians, we first want to see what the Victorian government will be doing to address that. And then we'll consider, the Treasurer and I, and the senior members of the Expenditure Review Committee, what further measures may be required.
But let me finish on this, Australia is in the leading pack of countries in the world today for how we are protecting Australians' health and protecting their livelihoods. That is the clear objective assessment of countries all around the world, and I refer particularly to the Deloitte analysis that was released over the last few days, which shows clearly that Australia sits in the right part of that chart with countries like South Korea, economies like Taiwan and others, who are managing this best in the world today. And we can take some encouragement from that. And we can take some hope from that. And the other thing that Australians can take hope from today is that their government - their Australian government, their federal government - is providing hope through a sovereign vaccine plan which will keep Australia right up the front.
Greg.
THE HON. GREG HUNT MP, MINISTER FOR HEALTH: Thanks very much, Prime Minister, Professor Murphy. Today is about real hope for Victorians and all Australians. It's about ensuring that there is a free, sovereign, voluntary vaccine program for every Australian. And this, ultimately, means saving lives, protecting lives, and allowing Australians to return to the lives and the lifestyles that they've known and they've loved, and which has been the hallmark of our country and our society and our community.
In particular, to turn to the vaccine arrangements in a world with almost 27 million cases, in a world where over 881,000 people, tragically, have lost their lives on the official count, with no doubt numerous more that have never been recorded or counted, we've been able to secure for Australia 84.8 million vaccine doses through two agreements. 33.8 million vaccine doses through the AstraZeneca Oxford vaccine, and 51 million doses through the University of Queensland molecular clamp in conjunction with CSL. Of those, 81 million units will be produced in Australia through our sovereign vaccine program. With regards to the Oxford AstraZeneca vaccine, this is a virus vector vaccine, 3.8 million units will be imported in the first quarter of next year, potentially as early as January and February and made available. 30 million units will be produced in Australia by CSL as we foreshadowed some weeks ago under a manufacturing agreement.
The early-phase results from my discussions with Professor Sarah Gilbert, who heads the Oxford program, show strong antibody responses, strong T-cell responses, outstanding safety outcomes. They're currently underway with their Phase 3 program which will ultimately see, in the Phase 3 clinical trial, up to 50,000 people enrolled across a variety of different nations. This is one of the world's most prospective vaccines, and one of the world's most advanced vaccines. And we've been very fortunate because of our sovereign manufacturing capability to have early access and to have broad access here in Australia.
In relation to the University of Queensland molecular clamp which is being developed in partnership with CSL, and for which Australia has already funded $5 million, this is a recombinant protein vaccine. 51 million units will be made here in Australia and provided to the Australian people. It's likely that both vaccines will require what's called a double shot, or an initial vaccination and a booster approximately a month later. Phase 1 trials are underway. A further group of people in the Phase 1 trials, over 55s are being enrolled as of today, on the advice of Professor Paul Young, who's heading this program. Again, I spoke with him over the weekend. A Phase 3 trial is expected with 40,000 patients and participants, and TGA approval would be fundamental for both vaccines.
But both are leading vaccines globally, and we are fortunate to have, as a nation, secured them and be able to produce them here in Australia. The best advice that we have - and it's not determined yet - is that there is likely to be multiyear protection. Nobody can say whether it will be lifetime. I asked both professors who head the programs as to whether they regarded it as an annual vaccination shot that would be required, and they said, we can't say finally, but our best belief is that it's likely to be multiyear protection. So, yesterday was a difficult day for Victorians and for every Australian who cares about the situation in Victoria. Today is a day of real hope for Victorians, real hope for Australians, and a pathway out to an Australia that sees us recover the very best of what we are and who we are.
PRIME MINISTER: Thank you. If I can ask Professor Murphy if he just wants to speak to the processes involved. Minister Andrews would of course have been here today, but she's caught in isolation in Queensland.
PROFESSOR BRENDAN MURPHY, SECRETARY OF THE DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH: I will be very brief thanks, PM.
So the PM and Minister have alluded to the scientific and technical advisory group that I chair, which is working together with an extraordinary team in the Department of Health on our vaccine strategy, which is a diversified strategy. We have to look at a range of potential vaccines, a range of different types of vaccines, how well advanced they are, critically, as the Minister and Prime Minister have said, how well they are able to be made in Australia, because that gives us an extremely important lead time. So we are engaging widely with a range of the potential vaccine candidates at the moment. There are detailed discussions, but these two are very exciting. The AstraZeneca Oxford vaccine is clearly the most advanced in terms of its scientific evidence, and it is looking pretty good. We're still waiting for the Phase 3 trials, but this gives us very quick access to an onshore production, and the UQ CSL vaccine is also- it's a different type of vaccine, it's one of the most exciting protein sub-unit vaccines. It's earlier, it’s in its pathway but, again, because of its unique partnership with CSL, we're able to get this produced onshore should it be successful in Phase 3 trials very early on. But it doesn't stop there. We're also part of the COVAX multicountry vaccine buying club. That's been announced previously. And we're also specifically looking at a range of other potential candidates. Government has committed an enormous amount of energy and resources to this, and we'll be able to keep you up to date with future developments in the future.
JOURNALIST: You've got more than 1 million Melburnians, Victorians, who rely on JobKeeper now. They will still be locked up in their homes when you start cutting the payments at the end of September. Obviously JobSeeker - that applies to as well. I know your perception is that you're extending it, but how can you justify slashing the JobKeeper payment from $1,500 to $1,200 for people that are still banned from the state government from actually going to work?
PRIME MINISTER: Well Sam, it’s not my perception. It’s a fact. We are extending the JobKeeper payment, we are extending that out to the end of March, we are extending the JobSeeker payment out to the end of December, and as I’ve indicated we will also, I think, lean heavily forward into what we would do post-December. And you're right, there are a million Victorians who've been supported by those payments up until now, and they will continue to be, just like there are those who've received some $6.4 billion in cashflow to Victorian businesses. Some 130 million payments to support 21,847 apprentices, and some 13,352 employers. The Commonwealth government has been stepping up each and every day over this COVID-19 pandemic not just to support Victorians, but all Australians. JobKeeper is a national program. JobKeeper is a program that is as important in Cairns as it is in Cronulla or, indeed, in anywhere else in Melbourne, or Western Australia. Different states will draw on that in heavier amounts as Victoria is now. And they will be drawing heavily on this over the balance of this year and, I would think, into next year. What I'm simply saying today, Sam, is that the situation we have in Victoria is very specific to Victoria, and I'm seeking to see what the Victorian government will be doing in taking actions to mitigate the economic impact of the decisions the Victorian government has made regarding the restrictions and the plan that they have set out. Once I see what the Victorian government is proposing to do - and I'm not talking about infrastructure here - I mean, of course they'll do that. I expect Victoria and many other states will announce further programs in these areas as, indeed, the Commonwealth will to support their economies. But when it comes to specific economic support - income support or other forms of support that they consider is appropriate to deal with the consequences of the decisions the Victorian government is taking, I'll be looking to see what they'll be doing first before the Commonwealth considers any responses that we'll be making.
Phil.
JOURNALIST: You said in your opening remarks about the contact tracing in Victoria, and perhaps Dr Murphy might- what are the deficiencies as you see them, and what can the Commonwealth do? What are you intending to do to try and bring them up to what you say is the gold standard?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, I think - and Brendan may want to add to this, and so may Greg. Look, I'm only going off what's in front of me. And what I'm seeing in front of me is a plan which says that Sydney would be in curfew now if it was going on the same plan as Victoria. Now, New South Wales has a stronger capability when it comes to tracing. And we want to provide support - as we already have - to the Victorian government through the ADF support that was put in to assist the Victorian government build their systems and their information systems, which I think has greatly improved the situation in Victoria. I think one of the questions that has been raised in relation to the Victorian plan is what assumption is being made about the efficacy of contact-tracing with the measures they've set out. To what extent would those restrictions be otherwise lessened if a higher capacity and functionality of contact tracing were present? So it really is not so much a question to me. We will do whatever - if they need extra Services Australia support, we've already had ADF support in there, but I think if there is extra support that is needed to lift whether it's in Victoria or, indeed, in Queensland or Western Australia or Tasmania - if this is what is preventing the easing of restrictions, then I think it is about matching the level of capacity against what is happening in New South Wales. And I should stress, it's just not about how many people you've got on the phone. Information systems are critical to this. The way work is structured and organised is critical to this. And it's, I said, an integrated tracing capability. In New South Wales, their special emergency operations centre is an integrated operation which involves Health, it's actually led by the police in New South Wales. It certainly has Health central to its operations, but there are many parts of government when you're dealing with a crisis of this nature, which needs to be brought together. Indeed, the call I have every morning involves everyone from Home Affairs to Health, to the ADF, to Treasury to a whole range of different parts of government which you have to bring together. Health is vital, and the way I think New South Wales has integrated the health response with all of these others is proving to be very successful. So that is an exhortation. That is the standard. And if we can assist any state approach that and achieve that New South Wales standard, then I think many of the restrictions that we're seeing around the country wouldn't be necessary.
Sorry Greg, did you want to add to that?
THE HON. GREG HUNT MP, MINISTER FOR HEALTH: I will add, briefly. And I think probably the best thing to do is actually refer to some of the comments from the nation's leading epidemiologists in the last 24 hours. Professor Tony Blakely, from the University of Melbourne, one of the authors of the modelling, subsequently said, "If we do our contact tracing better than we did three months ago, the contact tracers may be able to hold the case count without it going up again as badly as our model suggests." Professor Peter Collignon from the Australian National University here in Canberra: "A lot hinges on very good contact tracing. And so far, Victoria has not been able to do that as well as other states.” and he goes on to say, “I think actually a more nuanced approach like New South Wales is doing where very good contact tracing is more likely to be sustainable over the long-term." Similarly, the comments of Jodie McVernon, one of the leading modellers in the country, from the Doherty Institute, noted that she was, that there's very little detail of the modelling that was presented, "I do think it's disappointing that there's not more nuance provided around the plan." So, amongst the modellers, what they're saying is that contact tracing can make a real difference, and so we've helped. There has been progress. And I think it's very important that we acknowledge that progress - real progress through the ADF, Professor Alan Finkel, and the Victorian authorities. But there's more to go. And that progress can make the difference on the time frames, the freedoms, the ability of Victorians to go back to work, and the mental health challenges which have been put to every Victorian MP with profound and deeply concerning emotions from so many Victorians in the last 24 hours. That's why contact tracing matters.
JOURNALIST: Are you saying this because you're worried that different parts of the Victorian government agencies and departments are not actually integrated and not talking to each other? And do you think that we're now at a point where we've actually got to have integrated contact tracing across state borders? Are the states talking to each other on this?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, one of the welcome elements about the support to Victoria has been that there has been interstate assistance with contact tracing. And building a broader reserve capability at a Commonwealth level harnessing the capacity of other states. So you also want your contact-tracing capability to remain match-fit. When you don't have many cases, well there's not a lot to trace. And that would be the case in Western Australia at the moment, and many other states and territories. But if there were to be an outbreak in one of those states, you'd want to be confident of two things - that your testing regime was strong enough, and I note that the testing levels in Western Australia are - well, on the last common operating picture report, were the lowest in the country. They've come up a bit from the report two weeks prior to that, and I welcome that. But also that the tracing capability will be able to move quickly. My observation is more a positive one about what I know is occurring in New South Wales. I know that that integration is hard-wired into their structure and their system. I have no doubt, of course, the Premier - as I would - would be talking to every element of their government every single day and all the time. But I think there is a lot to learn from what's happening in New South Wales, because they have, frankly, had the largest risks to deal with, and they have demonstrated the best capacity to deal with them and keep their state open at the same time. They are the direction I'm strongly urging the country to go in. Because Australia being shut is not success. Australia being open is success. And you're only going to achieve that, in our view, ultimately and over time, if you have a strong, integrated tracing capability and, ultimately, you set Australia up with the sovereign capability to deliver a vaccine.
Chris?
JOURNALIST: You seem to have a very good idea of how the New South Wales contact-tracing system works, and I ask you and everybody else here - do you have a clear idea of how the Victorian contact-tracing system works, right down to how many people there might be on the phones on any given day so that you can see the differences between the two? Do you have a clear idea of what's going on in Victoria?
PRIME MINISTER: I mean, Brendan might want to comment on this as well. When Commodore Hill became part of the ADF support to Victoria, there was an enormous amount of work done to build up their information systems. So you can have a lot of people who are ready to be on the phones but, if the workflow is not managed and the data systems don’t support that, well, you can have a lot of resource that’s sitting there idle. And so I think the Victorian government has done a lot of work over the last four weeks - of necessity, clearly as well - to ensure that those systems have been significantly improved. And of course they have. And so it isn't just about how many people for instance, just not about the resource that's thrown at it. It's how it's tasked and how it's integrated with its information systems, and then how that sits as part of the broader emergency management function of the government. Now, that's why I hold the New South Wales system out as a standard, and I have seen real improvements in the Victorian situation. But equally, this isn't just a message for states other than New South Wales to the south, and whether it be in Victoria or Tasmania - it's wherever you've got restrictions. Because the way to get rid of restrictions on your economy and on people's lives and their livelihoods - and to do that in a way that protects their health - is to have the protection of an integrated and very effective tracing regime.
Brendan?
PROFESSOR BRENDAN MURPHY, SECRETARY OF THE DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH: Yeah so just briefly - New South Wales is the exemplar. They've had a proud history of many, many years of advanced investment in public health. They've had good systems. They've had embedded public health units in all their local health districts. They've had very good outbreak response teams. They've got a large group of people. It's not just about tracing. It's about the outbreak response. It's about the epidemiologist expertise. It's about that clinical leadership. And I would agree with the PM that Victoria has invested hugely over the last few months with large numbers of people, very welcome to taking in advice and expertise. And I think they are in a stronger position - a much, much stronger position now. And I hope that they can feel confident with the strength of their position to take a somewhat less conservative approach to their restrictions.
JOURNALIST: ...How can you assert Australia is ahead of the pack, given some 18 countries already have about 51 deals? The US first signed in March, the UK, May. Aren't we just playing catch-up on it?
PRIME MINISTER: Greg?
THE HON. GREG HUNT MP, MINISTER FOR HEALTH: No. And the reason is what we've always known is we have the sovereign manufacturing capability. If a country doesn't have full manufacturing capability, then it has to make decisions early on before there is evidence. We're in the fortunate position - because we have the manufacturing capability - to have been able to examine around the world to have what I think is the finest medical expert panel in the world for vaccines assess and then to provide their advice, and then for us to be able to choose the most prospective and the most available. And so that's the strength that Australia has, because of our investment in CSL and their investment in their manufacturing capability. And that's what's put us in the fortunate position of being able to choose the best-in-class, but to get it at the earliest possible time.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, business groups in Victoria have condemned the roadmap, saying it's a roadmap to ruin, it’s lacking clarity, it’s lacking hope for them. What more do you want to see from the Victorian government for businesses and for clarity around the roadmap? And what kind of impact are these restrictions going to have on the national economy?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, there's no doubt that the further restrictions that are in Victoria will have a requirement as we go into budget about a month away from now, just under that, to - or thereabouts - Treasury will obviously have to take that into account as they finalise their projections once again. As they had to do for the recent economic statement. So I think that is fairly obvious. It's certainly not going to have a positive impact. It's going to have a negative impact. It's actually going to impact on employment and on incomes, on revenues, and all of these things. Of course that is going to be the case. And Treasury will make those assessments, as will others, informing their view about how things go forward. The first step is - 'cause we received this plan yesterday - we will be now in a position to sit down with industry and businesses, particularly obviously in Victoria, but let's not forget that there are domino impacts because of the role that Victoria plays in our national economy through supply chains about how that can flow on into other states and territories. So, sure, the impact zone of what has been announced yesterday in Victoria is very much obviously - and terribly sadly, in Melbourne and Victoria more broadly. But there will be ripple effects of this announcement yesterday that will impact other parts of the country. So we will sit down with those industry partners and businesses and get a clear understanding of the issues that they see as most urgent. I've had meetings to that effect this morning with our team, and they've been tasked along those lines, and they'll be doing that over the course of this week, and they'll continue to do it. See, things constantly change, and we need to continue to provide that feedback to ensure that they can get their plans as close as to where we hope they can be. So we'll provide that constructive feedback, and we'll listen carefully to what business has been outlining.
Mark?
JOURNALIST: I think the Health Minister said that both these vaccines will require two doses? Then, why have we contracted 51 million from UQ, which would seem to be two doses, and only 33 million from the University of Oxford- Oxford University? And can you also explain, the contract seems to say taxpayers will pay for a capital improvement at CSL to give them the manufacturing capability to do this. How much of the contract is for those capital works?
THE HON. GREG HUNT MP, MINISTER FOR HEALTH: Sure. So all up, what we've done is look at a portfolio of vaccinations, and these may not be the last, as Professor Murphy said. By contracting just over 85 million doses, if you think of it as 42.5 million members of the population are covered, and so we've worked on the basis of what we think is the best available and the best balance for Australia. In particular, we've also contributed funds towards CSL doing the start-up capability. We're investing $300 million into research capabilities and the development capabilities of CSL through the University of Queensland process.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, officials told the Senate inquiry…
PRIME MINISTER: I think we're going to stay with the health of Victorians today.
JOURNALIST: Do you believe that Victoria's roadmap in its current form will mean Australia is in recession for longer? And have you, or will you, appeal directly to Dan Andrews to open up sooner?
PRIME MINISTER: We'll be providing the constructive feedback to the Victorian government once we've had the opportunity to fully look at the assumptions that sit behind this plan. One of those key assumptions, which not only are we asking about, is the assumptions that have been made about the efficacy of contact tracing. And whether improvements in contact tracing would enable that plan to be bettered and to see Victorians having their livelihoods and their lives restored sooner. I have no doubt that everybody would want to see us get back to as normal as you possibly can in a COVID world in Victoria as soon as we can. I have no doubt that's what Premier Andrews wants to achieve. I understand that we also want to avoid a relapse on the entry out in Victoria. That's understood too, let me be clear about that. That is very important. But this plan has some very severe impacts. Very severe impacts. And we also have to manage the ability to take people with these plans, and we cannot create a burden that is too great to bear, because that would see all the plans fail, if that were the case. And so this is calling on the Victorian public in a way that has never, I think, been done before, certainly for something like this. And also, I don't restrict that comment to those who live in Melbourne. To those right across regional Victoria as well. And the one-size-fits-all that the plan suggests right across regional Victoria is obviously an issue that's already been raised. And this only highlights the point I was making last week about the hot spot strategy. The hot spot strategy does not treat south-eastern regional Victoria the same as north-western regional Victoria. It doesn't. It actually treats the virus where it is and doesn't spread it through an assumption across all parts of Victoria. If you want to get the borders down between Victoria and New South Wales, if things are going really well up in the north-west corner of Victoria, well, we agreed last Friday that Victoria, New South Wales and South Australia would be working together straight away to see how that can get down. Now, it's important that the hot spot strategy is part of that because it enables different parts of the state to be treated appropriately and not carry a burden that may only exist in another part of the country.
Andrew, and then I'll come here.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, thanks. I want to direct my question to Brendan Murphy. One of the trigger points for the lifting of restrictions is that there's 14 days of, I think, zero community transmission. Is that consistent with an elimination strategy or a suppression strategy, as James Merlino was saying this morning?
PROFESSOR BRENDAN MURPHY, SECRETARY OF THE DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH: I think Victoria's pretty clear that they are not pursuing an elimination strategy. The current strategy that AHPPC has endorsed is no community transmission and I think that is what they're aiming for. This does seem a very conservative approach. Some of the triggers seem, you know, 5 cases rather than 10, no cases rather than a few. There's no rule book for this virus but I think some of us feel that, if there were more confidence in the public health response capability, you could take some slightly more generous triggers. But I don't think they are genuinely pursuing an elimination strategy. They're still pursuing aggressive suppression.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, as it stands now, do you believe that Victoria's contact-tracing system can prevent a relapse? Maybe for Minister Hunt and Professor Murphy as well. Given that the Premier said yesterday at five cases a day, that's where Victoria thinks it can contain the virus, but the Premier also said he believes his contact-tracing system is better than New South Wales?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, New South Wales can cope with much higher levels and have. So, look, that's, I think, just a matter of record. I think those things speak for themselves. That's why I have highlighted the issue of how can we work together to boost the efficacy of contact tracing and integrate it into the overall response to the pandemic? Clearly, what New South Wales is doing is working better than other places because they have the biggest threats to their system and have had the best results in response to those threats. So that clearly indicates that that is the standard which we should be seeking to move towards. I mean, New South Wales is happy to drop borders because they're confident in their ability to contain the virus. Now, obviously where there are hot spots as we've seen in Melbourne, well, those borders become necessary in those acute circumstances. But no-one wants to get rid of those quicker than the New South Wales Premier, I can assure you, because she understands that with those comes further restrictions which impedes the economy and causes real disruption to people's lives and their livelihoods, and she wants to see that go. And I have no doubt the Victorian Premier and the South Australian Premier want the same thing. That's why they agreed to work together on this. So I think the plan and what it assumes and what is being achieved in New South Wales and the fact that New South Wales and Sydney is not in curfew and Victoria would plan to be, even if they were to achieve the same outcomes that New South Wales has right now, then I think that is just night following day in terms of the analysis and the assessment that you make.
Now, I missed - there was another question that was asked about in terms of the length of the economic impact. I just note again that Treasury will make its estimates about what the impact of this is, and those numbers will be and those forecasts and projections will be released in the Budget.
Now, very patient over here from the West.
JOURNALIST: We've seen a campaign from Facebook and Google against the Government's news bargaining code. Facebook most recently is threatening to remove articles from legitimate news sites from its feed. What do you make of this, particularly given the rise in misinformation relating to the pandemic we've seen on Facebook?
PRIME MINISTER: I've been supporting, obviously, the work that has been done by the ACCC to come up with the mandatory code. I have had engagement with very senior-level executives. I spoke to the CEO of Google just last week and continue to invite them to participate in that process. I remember Amazon said to me once, "Well, we're not going to pay this tax when it comes to the low value threshold.” And they threatened to pull Amazon, and they did, and they were back three months later. So, look, I think people from these companies understand that when I say something, I mean it, and that I intend to follow through with it. Therefore I would encourage them, very strongly, to work constructively and cooperatively with the process that is underway. And I'm quite certain we'll come to a sensible outcome on this and it won’t need coercion, wherever it comes from, it’s not something I respond very well to.
I can’t hear, you’re all yelling at once. So we’ll come over here to SBS. SBS thank you.
JOURNALIST: Thank you, Prime Minister. Just to Minister Hunt, we’ve seen some religious leaders express apprehension at the prospect of a vaccine. Given it won’t be mandatory, would this be complemented with some kind of national campaign, particularly focusing on some sort of multicultural areas that would perhaps be more prone to these views against a vaccine?
THE HON. GREG HUNT MP, MINISTER FOR HEALTH: Two things - firstly, we will certainly be encouraging Australians through an education campaign to take up the offer and the opportunity of vaccination and that will be widespread and it will cover both English language ad non-English speaking backgrounds. Secondly, in relation to religious concerns, I deeply and we profoundly respect those. Importantly, within the two vaccines today and this perhaps goes to an earlier question, the University of Oxford vaccine, to be honest, does come from I believe it was a 1970s foetal line cell culture which has been maintained over the course of more than four decades. But it is the basis for a series of current vaccines used both in Australia and around the world. But that is over four decades ago and there is some theology which is beyond my role to address but I know there are differing views within the theological community and they are moving on that. But I am also meeting with some of the church leaders this week. But also the University of Queensland molecular clamp does not have that basis, it doesn't have that origin, and so any concerns at all which have been raised are completely dealt with from the very basis of the University of Queensland molecular clamp and that also deals with some of the other issues.
JOURNALIST: You have spoken about the effect the restrictions in Victoria are going to continue having on the nation's economy. You have previously indicated there was going to be further announcements in aged care in the upcoming Budget. Would you consider raising the Medicare levy even by 1 percent to improve the sector?
PRIME MINISTER: The Budget is in October and I don't engage in speculation on these measures. The Aged Care Royal Commission will bring out their recommendations next year. I understand they have made some comments around this issue today. I will await their recommendations but the Australian Government, particularly in the middle of a pandemic, particularly when we are seeking to rebuild our economy, whether it is in what is the quite ravaged area of Victoria at the moment or in other parts of the country which have been able to remain largely COVID free, the one way you build your economy back is you don't hit it with higher taxes. And that is not our plan, it has never been our plan. Our plan to grow our economy has always been about getting people's backs, not getting on them. Thank you very much.
Press Conference - Canberra, ACT
4 September 2020
PRIME MINISTER: Good afternoon. Australia is something we can never take for granted. And I'm not talking about Uluru or the Great Barrier Reef or the Opera House or the great wilderness across our country, I'm talking about us. I'm talking about our Federation. I'm talking about who we are as a nation. And in every generation, we must continue to define who we are, how we make Australia work, what we hope to achieve, how we protect it, how we make it stronger. And our Federation, some almost 120 years later, remains a happy work in progress. Sometimes it doesn't feel that happy, but I tell you, the goal is one that I think all Australians would share and that's what brings a smile to our face when we think of Australia. Not just the place, as wonderful it is, but how we make Australia work. And that is the task of all of those who come and meet in this place, in our Federal Parliament, but it is also the job of all of those who come together in our state parliaments, those who form governments and seek to work together in the ways that our Federation intended.
This year, the year of the COVID pandemic and the COVID recession, has tested us like we haven't been tested in many generations. And, you know, at times it has felt like Australia could break apart. But it's at those same times I have been encouraged by that all of us have understood just how important Australia is. At the times when sometimes our frustrations have been greatest, and the tensions have been at their peak, that has been exactly the same time when we have been reminded of just how important it is that we continue this great work of our Federation and how it has delivered for Australians for over a century. The National Cabinet began from a realisation that, if we each went and tried to go our own way, that in the face of something at the time we could barely imagine, that we wouldn't prevail, and that we would fall short. And so our Federation instincts kicked in. I remember the day vividly. There was no disagreement, there was no debate about it. We all looked at each other and said, "We've got to do this. And we've got to come together." Now, from time to time, those Federation instincts have grown a little faint, but I can tell you today, once again, as I find each and every time I bring this National Cabinet together, they find it again, and we find the way to work through. And this, I hope, is very reassuring to Australians that, despite the challenges - and it is hard, the Federation is hard, always has been. Anyone who's ever sat in my office has always known that, and we've all tried to find better ways to make it work and so we remain committed to that. And as we reflected today, on what has been achieved since that day in March, and as we reflected on the devastating news of the national accounts this week and we saw and reflected on the health outcomes that we've been able to achieve over these many months, I can only nominate to you quite honestly Taiwan and South Korea who could claim to have had a better combined outcome on the economy and on health than Australia. There may be others and I'm sure some will nominate. But what I can tell you is that the approach we've taken as a National Cabinet to focus on the health of the nation, and its economic wellbeing, and to see these as twin tasks, has meant that Australia has done extraordinarily well. That's not to say there has not been pain or suffering or hurt or disappointment or frustration. We've had all of that, and more, and there's more to come. But I'd rather be in Australia than anywhere else. And that's the same view of all of my colleagues who sit around that National Cabinet table, indeed, my own Federal Cabinet table. And we want to make sure that that continues to be the case and that's what we've done again today.
So, today we made a number of agreements. The first one, I think, was to acknowledge that how the National Cabinet worked also needed to evolve. One of the reasons COAG and its predecessors never worked was there was the unrealistic and, frankly, not very practical expectation that it could only ever operate on complete, 100 percent consensus. That sets the Federation up to fail. Australia is too diverse a place. The challenges are too disparate to think that, on every single issue, every state and territory is going to come to exactly the same point. That is not a realistic expectation. And as we've gone through the COVID pandemic, whereas back in March, as we looked forward, we all had a similar risk outlook as to what might happen, so we moved quickly to put in place the PPE capabilities and stockpiles, and to get the respirators, and build up our ICU capacity, and get the testing equipment in and have those arrangements put in place so we could build our defences, now, almost six months later, all the states and territories sit in a different position and they're coming from a different point of risk. And so it is not surprising that they all have different outlooks about what their challenges are right now, and what they might be in the months ahead. So, we've decided that this notion of 100 percent, absolute consensus on any issue is not a way that the National Cabinet can indeed work. And so what we will do is we will set out areas where we can come together, and get as many states and territories as possible to come around that agreement. Not everyone has to get on the bus for the bus to leave the station. But it is important the bus leaves the station, and we all agree on that. We all agree on that. Even when, on occasions, some might not want to get on, they know we need to keep moving forward and that is supported, and that's what we agreed to do today. And I think that is a change in the way our Federation works.
So, we agreed today seven out of eight states and territories, we agreed that before you know what you're going to do, you've got to agree about where you want to get to. And we agreed today with the objective that was set out in the May plan to be at the end of that step three process, which we will seek to ensure is even better defined. We said before we wanted to get there in July and the virus prevented us from achieving that. Seven out of eight states and territories want us to get back to that position in December of this year and I thank them for that commitment. And that, having that ambition is not enough, and that aspiration that we will now fashion a revised plan just like I outlined the last one to get us there, over these months that are ahead. And the componentry of that plan, there's things that need to go into it not its final form but the key areas of actions that need to take place. They will be brought up through both the AHPPC, the medical expert panel on the health measures that are necessary, and what's called the National Coordinating Mechanism, which is on the economic side of the things that need to be achieved. What's different about this plan from the last one is it just isn't about how many people you can have in a cafe, as important as that is. It's about how the testing regimes have to work, the availability of passenger manifests for people moving around the country, the sort of surveillance testing arrangements which can be, frankly, through the testing of sewerage or, more broadly, the specific testing arrangements and the sort of ratios you need to hit to ensure that you can have a confidence about the level of outbreak, if it were to occur in any place. In all of these areas, there's a necessity to put the protections in place so, as we open up, that we can be confident and states can look at each other and be more confident about how people can move between the various jurisdictions. It means that we need to have a good understanding and an open data room between states and territories to know what the incidence of outbreaks are or case numbers are, and the source of those things, so states can make decisions in confidence as part of a plan.
We agreed that moving to the hotspot model as a concept is what must be in that plan. This precise definition of that hotspot, well, the national definition which the Acting Chief Medical Officer, Professor Kelly, has provided, is a good starting point. But it's not the final point and there will be further discussion on how that can be more specifically defined and this will take some time to get that right. But the idea of ultimately moving beyond a situation where you have hard borders, but you move to a situation where you can have a workable hotspot concept, then that is something we are going to give it our best possible go to define and to make work. States, of course, will reserve ultimately the decisions they take, but all of those who have committed to this path have agreed that we should work hard to get that in its best possible form. The protections, the response capabilities, all of which forms the plan.
State bilateral and multilateral arrangements will also form part of this plan and I think that reflects the very different issues that you have, particularly when you're seeking to transition out of border arrangements we currently have. As you know, the New South Wales and Victorian Premiers are very keen to get their border down as soon as it's safe to do so. And so bilateral arrangements, which would become a trilateral arrangement and I welcome the participation of South Australia in joining in that same way to ensure that those issues around the Victorian border, with their neighbouring states in New South Wales and South Australia, South Australia will join that process with New South Wales and Victoria, which the Commonwealth is also a part of. But whatever that bilateral or multilateral arrangement might be to deal with specific issues in different parts of the country, that forms part of the plan. Tasmania, I note, in particular already has a goal of having its border down in December as well and I welcome their commitment to that, as I do all the states and territories who have committed to this today. Now, Western Australia has set out some very specific circumstances in their state as to why they won't be joining that aspiration at this time. That said, they wish us well, and they will participate in that process, where they've got things they believe that they can offer and I believe there are many things they can offer in that process. So, they are not standing completely separate for that process. They will continue to work with us. But, for them, they have got their path set, and we respect that. Western Australia has a very different border and a very different economy than most of the other states and territories where these decisions have been made. There are not large border towns. In fact, to the best of my knowledge, there are virtually none along the Western Australian border. Their economy is of a much greater scale than the South Australian and the Tasmanian economies. So, they will watch carefully, they will look on, and the thing about our new way of working in National Cabinet is the door always remains open and they are always able to join us at a subsequent time. But this, I believe, will give us a more sustainable way forward. Because it's not just about now until December. In the absence of a vaccine, we may have to live this way for years, and we need it to be as sustainable and workable for as long as possible. And so I need to encourage everyone that we need to look just beyond not just the now. No one is asking anyone to take anyone's borders down now. No one's asking that. It's about when we get to the next stage and what the next stage looks like, and then how that works not just for the next few months, but potentially years, but let's hope that that's not necessary.
The second thing that was agreed was the agricultural code has been adopted by five out of the eight states and territories. Those who didn't join were Queensland, Western Australia and Tasmania, but they will look on, again, to see how that process works, and particularly South Australia, New South Wales and Victoria will begin immediately. And I think the Premier of Victoria may have indicated this in his press conference. They will begin immediately to put that prescriptive code in place to facilitate greater engagement of agricultural workers and other important workers in the agricultural sector, so as to not dislocate what is occurring in the ag sector between those three states and territories. Again, I thank them for their support.
On international arrivals, it was agreed that we needed to further boost the capacity for inbound arrivals into Australia, particularly for those Australians seeking to come home. We noted that New South Wales has been doing all the heavy lifting on this, and they really are at their capacity for the time being. And so, as I discussed with Cabinet during the course of this week, the Transport Minister will be working with others to see if we can get flights that currently all seek to come to Sydney, to see if we're in a position to try and get them to go into other ports, whether that be in Perth, in Adelaide, in Darwin, the ACT, or elsewhere, even Tasmania. Premier Gutwein was keen to be part of this, if that's possible. We want to get more Australians home and we need to do that safely as well, and not compromise the quarantine arrangements we have here as well. About almost 4,000 Australians are coming home every week, but we know there are many more who are trying to get home, and further support has been provided to DFAT to assist those Australians, particularly in hardship, overseas.
As part of that approach, I spoke to Prime Minister Ardern this morning, and what we, I advised her was that Australia will be looking to apply the same hotspot approach to New Zealand. So, that means, when we're in a position to do so, and when the Acting Chief Medical Officer has come to a set of arrangements with New Zealand, then we would be able to have New Zealanders come to Australia. That doesn't mean Australians can go to New Zealand. That's a matter for Prime Minister Ardern. But if there's no COVID in Christchurch, and there's no COVID in Queensland, then there's no reason both of them can't come to Sydney. And that will mean, I think, an important boost for our tourist economy, whether it's in New South Wales or anywhere else. And so Prime Minister Ardern was very happy to have further discussions on that, but ultimately that's a decision for our border and people coming in to Australia. But we would just need to ensure that the arrangements in place of identifying hotspots and things of that nature were well understood and were practical.
The treasurers, through the Treasurers' Subcommittee of National Cabinet, recommended today some great work that Treasurer Frydenberg and his counterparts had been working on. We have now reduced 82 existing agreements between all the states and territories to five core agreements. I never thought I would ever say that. There's still a lot of work to do, then, on consolidating the content of those agreements, but that was adopted by National Cabinet. We also agreed to the tasking of the National Cabinet Subcommittee on Energy. That will task them with some short and medium term priorities, and that does include the resetting of the gas market. We received, importantly, a briefing today from the Bureau of Meteorology, a briefing that I've received, along with other senior Cabinet ministers, regarding the upcoming summer season. And we agreed that the Emergency Management Australia would immediately be tasked to convene with the states and territories to ensure there was a seamless operational arrangement between states and territories that was COVID-safe. That would mean, given the prospect of bushfires, whether in particular in northern Australia and south west Western Australia, or indeed cyclones and floods in other places, that the movement of emergency services workers, bushfire firefighters, and Defence Force personnel could be done as quickly as possible. We obviously don't want firefighters doing two weeks in hotel quarantine when there's a fire burning in south western Australia. We need these arrangements to work first time, and so Emergency Management Australia has been tasked with that.
And we also noted again our benchmark report that has provided on the social impacts of what is occurring with COVID-19. The very real stressors that are on mental health, and we affirmed again our support to putting in place all the mental health supports we can, and domestic violence supports, to ensure that those issues are addressed as best as we all can, working together. I'm sorry, that was a very long introduction. It was a long meeting. As I said, it was a day again when National Cabinet understood just how important Australia was, and we found our way through, again, and I thank them for their cooperation and their commitment to what we're seeking to do.
Professor Kelly.
PROFESSOR PAUL KELLY, ACTING CHIEF MEDICAL OFFICER: Thank you, PM. So, today, as the PM has said, we had a lot of discussion about COVID-19 here in Australia, and so just the outlook at the moment. The numbers of cases, 26,000, just over 26,000 cases now. 737 deaths, sadly. Putting that in a global context, we've reached a milestone overnight of 26 million cases. So, one thousandth of that is here in Australia. So, we have our issues. We've had our outbreak particularly in Victoria over the past few weeks, but, again, very good news in comparing last week with this week on a 7 day average, we've halved the number of cases in Victoria. That's been that sort of trend for the past few weeks. And so good news there. Also, the numbers of cases are contracting into Melbourne and into the hotspots that were originally identified there several weeks ago. Today we have less than a hundred new cases in Australia, and six out of eight jurisdictions have no cases at all. So, Victoria and New South Wales are there. Queensland on alert, as we've seen in the last few weeks in terms of cases, but no new cases today. That's all very good news. 67,000 tests yesterday. So, that's continuing. But that's something to think about what the PM has mentioned, about the different experiences we're having right now in Australia in relation to this pandemic. So, in some states, they haven't had cases for many weeks, and in some states the testing rates have dropped, partly because of that, and partly because of not having a flu season this year. But, still, we need to remain vigilant, even in places where there are no cases and have been no cases for some time. We've seen the New Zealand experience in relation to that. So, even after a hundred days, you can get cases. Similarly in Thailand overnight that was also reported, first cases for several months.
So, we need to remain vigilant. It's the reason why we have this proposed hotspots definition. And there are three potential uses for that. There is an in principle agreement that we will have a hotspot discussion in seven out of eight jurisdictions. That's been agreed. More than that and I can report from the Australian Health Protection Committee yesterday eight out of eight jurisdictions agreed that hotspots are to be used by the Commonwealth in relation to what we may offer in support to various states that are experiencing hotspots. That was agreed by all of the Chief Health Officers and myself. But, of course, hotspots also guide what happens locally in states, and that's absolutely their prerogative to work with that. And, indeed, what happens in terms of border restrictions, and as the PM's mentioned, that's a commitment that we've had to go forward and to look in more detail in that. The transparency of data across borders is absolutely crucial to that, as well as the clarity of what is being done and why, as well as, of course, the public health readiness if there was an outbreak to occur, particularly in places where there hasn't been a case for some time. We have to be absolutely ready and be committed to do that if it occurs.
So, I'll leave it there, PM.
PRIME MINISTER: Thank you. Mark?
JOURNALIST: An observation and a question, it seems today you’re accepting that the ‘we’re all in this together’ consensus that National Cabinet was established to achieve, is now not achievable, so you're changing the rules and lowering the expectations. That's an observation you might like to comment on. Secondly, you've stated a desire for all Australians to be able to travel across borders to be together as families at Christmas. Are you saying today that won't happen?
PRIME MINISTER: What I'm saying today is that 7 out of 8 states and territories has agreed with that ambition for Christmas. And whether that's achieved in Western Australia or not, well, that will be up to Western Australia. But what National Cabinet is, is practical. And we're not going to make the mistakes that previous Federation arrangements enabled to be made. And I'm not going to hold Australia back when one or two jurisdictions, at this point in time because of their own circumstances, don't wish to go along with the path that the country is seeking to go in. I think that's just common sense, Mark. I think that's just practical. I think that's what people would expect of me. That's what you try and do every day. It doesn't matter whether you're running a business or you are running a community organisation or you're a parent, you try and get all the kids in the car. And you try and do everybody at the same place at the same time. Particularly if they're teenagers, that gets a lot harder and they'll do their own thing every now and again. Now I know you were going to make the obvious comparisons, and I would encourage you not to, and to resist that temptation, Mark. What I'm saying is, is that we all seek, in each and every day, to try and get as many people going in the same direction as possible. And what we have achieved, I think, today is a common sense set of rules as to how we can take the Federation forward. I consider, you know, all of my partners as Premiers and Chief Ministers in the National Cabinet, we've come together all as the adults in the room on this, Mark. So, I can make that one really clear, to ensure that we're going forward and doing the best thing we believe is in the interests of the country.
Lanai?
JOURNALIST: You've conceded that, or you’ve accepted that WA is not on the bus right now, or not getting on the bus right now. When would you like them to get on the bus?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, that's a matter for them.
JOURNALIST: Do you accept that the border could be in place for years?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, only the Premier of Western Australia could answer that question.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, on the definition of a hotspot, could we get some clarity on that? Like what's been proposed? Are we talking about LGAs with 10 or 50 cases? It seems pretty nutty that we have a, basically a virtual COAG with the same parochialism, and it can't land on a definition of a hotspot?
PRIME MINISTER: I think that's a very cynical view, Andrew. What we agreed today is that, we first needed to agree where we wanted to get to, and that was to get to a sustainable set of arrangements where Australians could move around, using a hotspot model by Christmas. That's what we agreed today. And what we also have today is a commonwealth defined hotspot, which is the starting point for having one more broadly agreed by those states and territories, which are going to go down that path. And, you know, not everything is gonna turn up every time on the same day at the same time. What we're on is the path to get to that agreed position. We've set out, for the first time, a Commonwealth defined position. And for those who agree to go down the path of having a hotspot, well, we'll now work on the precise details with them now. Well, the hotspot decision of the commonwealth has been released. And so you can read that at your leisure.
JOURNALIST: That was the first part of my question. The second part, if in a few months' time, we're in the same situation we have been in the last few weeks, where we're hitting roadblocks with states and so forth. Is it an option for the Federal Government to start using its financial levers to ensure compliance, or, with the border openings and things?
PRIME MINISTER: No, that's not my approach. The idea that because a Premier or a Chief Minister might have a different view to me about how we should go forward is not a reason for me to punish through withholding funds to states and territories for essential services. I'm not about that. I'm not going to do that. I'm going to work together with people. And I think some have made those suggestions. I don't think they're practical suggestions. We will continue to guarantee the essential services that Australians rely on in every state and territory, and I will seek to bring states and territories together as best as I can to ensure we're all heading in the same direction. Many of you who stand in the courtyard now have been covering this place for a very long time. The idea that there are differences of view between states and territories will not come as an earth-shattering conclusion to you. I mean, that has been the mainstay of how states and the Commonwealth have been seeking to work together for 120 years almost. I think today we have arrived at an even more practical way of dealing with our differences. And to acknowledge that they occur. A system that doesn't think, or is designed around a principle that everyone will agree every time on everything, just, frankly, doesn't, doesn't, doesn't pass the pub test.
Brett?
JOURNALIST: You speak about not taking Australia for granted. What do you say to Australians who want to come home to Australia but can't? And can you elaborate a little bit more on what was agreed today in terms of international borders? We're seeing some quite distressing cases of Australians not being able to get home, they're becoming increasingly anxious about that closure.
PRIME MINISTER: We're doing everything we can, Brett, to help people get home as quickly as we can. We obviously have restrictions based on the requests made to us by the state about how many people can come in and be in quarantine at any one time. New South Wales have had to do the heavy lifting on that. What I got agreement out from those other states and territories today was that they would be open, and work with us to take further flights in those places if we can get the planes to fly there. I mean these are commercial flights, they're not flights run by the Australian Government. They're commercial flights, which aren't, I'd be surprised if they were running at anything near other than a massive loss on every single flight. And so to get them to go to places that would enable us to take, get more Australians back into the country, I think it would be very useful. The idea that New Zealanders would not have to go into quarantine because they're coming from COVID-free areas would also free up paces, places I should say, in quarantine. Equally, if states aren't requiring Australians coming from areas where there is no COVID cases, like the ACT, and that they don't have to go into hotel quarantine in places, well, that obviously frees up more capacity as well. And so I think the agreements we've made today to go down a hotspot path is a concept I think that will also free up some of that movement. As I said, we've given additional resources and support to DFAT to assist people in hardship. And our consular officers are doing everything they can to support people in those arrangements. But ultimately it means we need to have more arrivals coming back into Australia, and for that to happen, then we have to have confidence that the quarantine arrangements will be able to withstand that. Otherwise we open the country up to a different kind of risk.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, Prime Minister, Prime Minister, to Professor Kelly first if I may. You have 30 years' experience as an epidemiologist, what, in your medical opinion, is the reason for a farmer in New South Wales not being able to go over the border into Queensland, where there's no COVID, and harvest a crop? And if I may, PM, if Premiers are telling you that they don't agree with the man to your right and all the experience that the committee he heads brings, will you demand that the Premiers present their own medical advice and show Australians that they are being led by the health advice and not by politics?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, I might start. The Agricultural Workers' Code would enable us to overcome the problem you've outlined. And that's why I was pleased today that New South Wales, Victoria, South Australia, the ACT, and the Northern Territory all agreed to that code. And, in particular, on that Victorian border with both South Australia and New South Wales, that will enable, I hope, to get over many of the problems just like the ones you've mentioned. Now, it was put to Queensland today that they should be part of that conversation, and they've said, "Not yet. No, we won't be doing that." Now, what I've always said about states that have made their own decisions about borders is that they obviously need to be transparent in my view, about the basis for those decisions. We have provided a clinically based, scientifically based, definition of what a "hotspot" is in Australia. And where states are moving to make different decisions on different criteria, I think it's only reasonable not just to me, I'm just another Australian it's important, I think, more broadly that people understand why they would be taking a different assessment and what medical advice that was based on. I’ve said that consistently for months.
Rosie?
JOURNALIST: There are businesses that are growing increasingly concerned about Victoria's road map that will be announced on Sunday. Is it too confusing for Victoria to go its own way with its traffic light system at this stage? Wouldn't it be better that they use the national plan that's already been set out, or the new one that you're going to agree to? And just on the New Zealand travel bubble, are you suggesting that that would likely, or could be in place by Christmas, if we've got Australians travelling around the country based on hotspots, we can also have New Zealanders coming in not from hotspots?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, first of all, I mean, Premier Andrews will outline his plan, I understand, on Sunday. That will be his plan, Victorian Government's plan. That is about reopening an economy from Stage 4 lockdown into its next phase. What we're talking about, and what we've talked about today, isn't about Stage 4 going forward. That is about how Australians can move around the country, how hotspots are defined, how information is shared. So, they're two different tasks. So, it's not like he has a very prescriptive plan from the commonwealth about how he opens up Victoria. We have engaged with him and the National Coordinating Mechanism has provided a lot of information and support, and potential ways that can be done. That is true. We have engaged with him on all of those. And I'll have further discussions with the Premier. But, ultimately, what the Premier does in Victoria will be a matter for him, and he will define how that works. Now, they have been engaging industry far more than I think happened on the way in, for the way out. I welcome that. I know there's been a lot of feedback, and issues raised with that system. I'm aware of elements of it, but I’m not aware, I haven't seen the full package myself. I'm sure that is still being worked on by the Victorian Government. But I do like it that they are talking to industry about how this can happen. I think in these situations it's always best, if it's as simple as possible, that it is a negative list based approach. What I mean by that is it's always talked about a black list and a white list, but what that means is that you have a number of things you can't do rather than specifying the things you can, and leaving the rest in a rather ambiguous state. That was a principle that we used in the early phases of the pandemic, when we said what you couldn't do, and therefore if that wasn't one of those things, then you could do everything else. We've always found that to be a more simple and clear approach, and avoids any ambiguity. The Premier is going to have to make decisions with his health advisers about the level of cases. I mean, the number of cases is still too high. And one of the things I know the Premier is keen to avoid and I believe Victorians, I think, would have some sympathy with this. Is they don't want to have gone through all of this terrible restriction that they've gone through, these many weeks and more weeks to come, only to seek to re-emerge and relapse. They would want to be confident that the way out was sustainable and built up the strength and the capabilities so they would never have to go back to this. And I know that's an issue that the Premier is considering very carefully. And they're the issues that the Premier will be working through, and I wish him well with doing that. And he and I, I'm sure, will speak further about that between now and then. Now, in terms of New Zealand, yes, that is very possible. But I wouldn't describe it as the "bubble". I wouldn't say necessarily it will be a two-way bubble. That will be up to the New Zealanders. But if we can get to a position where we understand how the hotspots can be identified in New Zealand, then that would mean, hopefully, between now and then we may well be in a position for New Zealanders to come to Australia and experience Australia, which will be great for our tourism industry, and we'd welcome that, and it would also take a lot of pressure off rooms in quarantine, which means more Australians can get home.
David?
JOURNALIST: Two days ago, where Annastacia Palaszczuk was complaining, basically, that some of her travel industry people were losing JobKeeper. She's the one with the border control that's depriving those travel industry people of customers. We're seeing that around the country. Should states that impose these restrictions on their own economy carry more of the burden of the economic help to their own people because of the costs of their decisions on state borders?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, JobKeeper is a national program, and it's transitioning. And it's extended and expanded out until the end of March. And JobKeeper has been a lifesaver for businesses, particularly tourism and hospitality businesses, not just in Queensland but many other places. But the best way for tourism businesses to revive is to have more tourists. It's pretty simple. That's what I know they want. And we need to do that in the best and safest way we can. And so I think many of the things we agreed today provide a plan to achieve that.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, there are hundreds of Defence personnel posted around the country at the moment, away from their families. Many can't go home because they can't avoid quarantine on the way back. Now, should the states be looking at giving them exemptions?
PRIME MINISTER: Wherever you put a border up, and this is why I've been quite honest about this. It may be unintended, but the reality is you get some very cruel and get some very hard outcomes for people's lives. My primary concern, particularly at the moment, is to be ensuring that we can get people to medical treatment. And Australians should be able to access a hospital in whatever state it's in. Because they're Australian hospitals. And it's important that we facilitate that. And I want to thank, particularly, the New South Wales and South Australian Governments, and I want to particularly thank the Health Minister in New South Wales, Brad Hazzard. I've dealt with Brad on a number of these cases now, getting people in to surgery, getting people in to hospitals. Blasting through some of the bureaucracy that can occur, that inevitably arises because there are border arrangements in place. This is why I agree with the New South Wales Premier that the sooner you can get this down the better. And that must be the goal. So, whether it's Defence Force personnel looking to go home, whether it's kids at boarding school at the moment in COVID-free areas, wanting to go home to a COVID-free area for the holidays, and not have to spend two weeks in a hotel in a capital city and be away from their parents I find that heartbreaking too. So, these are the practical issues that need to be resolved. Now, I welcome the fact that the Queensland Government has set up this new unit, which I understand is operational from today, good a number of specialists there, particularly in the medical area that will be looking at particular cases to ensure that people can get from A to B to get their treatment. I welcome that. There's been a lot of discussion about this. There's been just some absolutely awful cases and so that as a first response I welcome that. But as long as you've got these borders like this particularly in the eastern states where there is a lot of movement for these purposes you are going to get these outcomes. That's why what seven out of the eight states and territories have agreed today is so important, to avoid that. That's the only way you will ultimately get to avoid it.
JOURNALIST: In the UK at the moment about Tony Abbott’s role, Nicola Sturgeon said he is a misogynist, do you share those views and what do you make of that debate?
PRIME MINISTER: I wish the former Prime Minister well. And as I’ve said before, he’s a good hire he knows a lot about trade and he did a lot of great work for Australia on trade when it came to the China free trade agreement and Japan and Korea. He set Australia up very well and the fact that we now have a current account surplus that we’ve had trade surpluses now for record periods of time I think speaks very well to his trade credentials so I wish Tony well.
Rosie?
JOURNALIST: When do you hope the Commonwealth's definition of a hotspot will be in place. And are you suggesting that Queensland has agreed to adopt the Commonwealth’s hotspot, so what seven of eight states…
PRIME MINISTER: Have agreed that the concept of using a hotspot approach to manage movement of people around the country is something we should pursue as part of our plan to realise the goal we set out in July to now be achieved in December. The national the Commonwealth definition of a hotspot is the starting point for defining that, and the Acting Chief Medical Officer will work with the states and territories now to get greater precision to that and when that is done well that’s when it can be announced but that definition is available for people to see, and its clinical basis.
Rosie?
JOURNALIST: I just wanted to check then, so Queensland will continue to use its definition of 28 days of no community transmission before it opens up to those states?
PRIME MINISTER: Queensland will use, sorry?
JOURNALIST: So what do you think of that definition, is it reasonable?
PRIME MINISTER: Well the Commonwealth definition is the one that I clearly believe, is backed by the clinical and scientific work that’s been done by the Acting Chief Medical Officer. That’s the view of the Commonwealth. The definition that we have provided is obviously the one that I think is appropriate. What states do is a matter for them ultimately but what we have agreed to do today is to actually move to a hotspot model. So we don’t have a hotspot model working necessarily in Queensland at the moment. We’ve got a very hard border which is operating in Queensland at the moment and so what we have agreed to do is to move towards and adopt a hotspot model with as far as possible a common definition and the Commonwealth definition provides the starting point for how that is defined.
JOURNALIST: Just a question on tax and then I think Clare’s going to follow up on farmers and Queensland. There’s obviously a discussion at the moment about bringing forward the stage 2 tax cuts but of course under the stage 3 tax cuts, high income earners such as yourself will get an $11,000 a year tax cut while low income people will get $255 dollars a year. Now as part of those discussions to bring forward the stage 2 tax cuts, do you think you should give up some of that tax cut and if not why should someone such as yourself get $11,000 in tax cuts while low income and part-time workers get $255 a year under those changes?
PRIME MINISTER: Well Sam you made a range of speculative... no I understand what the current legislative program is and that is the legislative programme, and any changes we might make to that will be announced in the Budget, and that’s in October.
Clare?
JOURNALIST: Professor Kelly, in your medical opinion, is it safe for a farmer in NSW to go over the border and work in Queensland? Is it ok?
PROFESSOR PAUL KELLY, ACTING CHIEF MEDICAL OFFICER: So as, several questions have come to this already and the Prime Minister has answered them really. We’ve got a start of a hotspot definition we’ve,
JOURNALIST: In your medical opinion though?
PROFESSOR PAUL KELLY, ACTING CHIEF MEDICAL OFFICER: So that is what we are working on so we can get that absolute clarity about these sort of particular matters. At this point, Queensland has made their decision about how they look at risk in terms of people coming across the border and that is their decision to make and we’ll continue to work on that.
PRIME MINISTER: Before you shout over the top of him, you might let him finish his answer. Professor Kelly?
PROFESSOR PAUL KELLY, ACTING CHIEF MEDICAL OFFICER: Thank you, Prime Minister. So we look forward to the day where there can be transparency about these things and a risk-based approach to what should happen. And part of that is the hotspot definition but part of that is also an understanding across borders that we can be absolutely sure of the information that is held on one side of the border and can be shared with the other. That is absolutely crucial.
JOURNALIST: This was a year started with bushfires, a deadly pandemic and now you’re being briefed on La Niña. What is the Australian plan for dealing with those weather events and how much more can Australians take?
PRIME MINISTER: This is why Emergency Management Australian is pulling all the states and territories together. They have quite detailed plans, as do the states and territories and the La Niña event will see a much greater rainfall over the summer period and that will put a lot of stress, particularly with as the soil moisture increases, then that obviously creates the risk of flooding across south eastern Australia and in north eastern Australia. The risk of cyclones also. But we also learned today was that the bushfire risk in south west Western Australia and in northern Australia is also related to these events. Now, for things like cyclones and floods, most of that response, if not all is largely contained within those states and territories and they are well equipped to deal with those issues and they have the resources and they are the first responders both for dealing with those events and the immediate recovery and aftermath of those events. We have the DRFA arrangements for emergency support and so on and that will be rolled out as it always is. But they are making their own plans and already have those in place to ensure that they can respond to those quite specific events. Now, one of the challenges going into this season is ensuring they have COVID-safe emergency response measures and that’s why, particularly with a situation like bushfires in Western Australia, if we have to move people from one part of the country to another, ADF personnel or others then we need to have quite streamlined arrangements and that’s what the EMA is doing right now to make sure that is the case but these disasters, whether they are bushfires or whether they are floods or whether they are cyclones or indeed pandemics for that matter, they present challenges to us every year and I believe we have the best people to respond to those challenges. They’re very well aware of what’s coming up this year and the plans and preparations are already in place. Thanks, everyone.
Daily Telegraph Bush Summit - Cooma, NSW
28 August 2020
PRIME MINISTER: Well, thank you very much Ben. It’s tremendous to be here once again. And to the Daily Telegraph. Can I commend you are again on the initiative that you've taken. We've always known you're for Sydney. And what I think you've demonstrated here with this tremendous initiative is that you're not just for Sydney, you’re for the bush as well. And this is an important gathering together as we come together today. It's great to have Michael McCormack the Deputy Prime Minister here with us. A very good friend. And thank you, Michael, for the tremendous leadership you've shown to regional Australia and the passion for it. And that was on display this week, particularly in the parliament and with the many issues and challenges that we're facing. Can I acknowledge the Indigenous owners and I acknowledge the Indigenous people of our country and particularly the country around here the Ngarigo people and I acknowledge the their elders past and present and importantly for the future. Can I also acknowledge any veterans that are here with us here today and serving members of our defence forces and say thank you for your service.
Can I acknowledge the many other ministers and the Leader of the Opposition and others who'll be joining you over the course of these discussions. Can I particularly acknowledge Shane Stone who is here with me, who heads up the Drought and Flood Relief Agency. I've asked Shane to do many difficult jobs in my time, he's asked me to do a few hard jobs on occasion, too. And so we travelled here together and Shane I want to thank you and all of your team and we'll be talking a bit more about that today and your presentation from one end of the country. And it's tremendous to have you here with me here today. Shane Fitzsimmons will be here of course, a good friend and has done a tremendous. job, particularly the bushfires and now moving into new roles. Can I acknowledge the new member for Eden-Monaro. Can I also, I see there's also a former Eden-Monaro member here as well, it’s great to see you here as well.
So many people coming together today and if I was to go through the long list, Ben, I suspect there won't be much more time for questions or the presentation, but it's a tribute to you as to how many people you've been able to draw together here today. And I thank you very much for doing that.
It's a pleasure to be back of course, for the second Daily Telegraph Bush Summit and last year, we had a lot to deal with and that hasn't changed. Drought, floods, fire. And of course, there has been more and the drought that was strangling the life out of so many communities across Australia. And while it has abated, that's true in some respects, as Shane reminds me constantly when you go to the sub soil, when you get beneath the surface, we know that that's still a very real challenge that is being faced in rural and regional communities all around the country. As Michael also reminds me, and while you do see a bit of green, a bit of green, not a green Michael, but a bit of green about the place as you move around. And those of us like me who grew up in the suburbs, you can look at the surface and think it's all okay. It's just, it's good to know that we have the right advice that is helping us understand that these challenges continue. Here in Cooma you also missed much of the rains in March and April but last month and this month well, you've got a lot more. And that's good to see. It was great to see as we came along and driving along here, that things were better, but it's clearly got a long way to go.
This year, Australia, like the rest of the world, is enduring the most significant downturn in our lifetime. That's the challenge now. The COVID-19 pandemic has touched everyone anywhere in the world in some way, shape or form. And I'd like to take this opportunity to thank particularly regional Australians, as the Deputy Prime Minister was doing this, who have felt a heavy burden during this pandemic in a different way than people in Melbourne have been impacted, particularly at the moment. But a very heavy burden nonetheless. I know that state borders are putting enormous stress and strain on Australians, especially those in regional and border communities, including by limiting access to essential health care, keeping people from their work, restricting farmers’ accesses to their property and their markets. I've had hundreds of letters and emails from cross-border communities over the recent weeks and months, as have my colleagues. And they've shared those with me. And today we learnt of the just unthinkable and heartbreaking case where a young family had to take their daughter, I think it was, to Sydney and sadly passed away.
This is heartbreaking stuff. And I can understand people's frustration and indeed anger. This is one of a few other stories that have been raised. Andrea is a teacher from Serviceton in Victoria. I hope I've pronounced that correctly. 1.8km from the border, teachers in border-town South Australia. She was not deemed an essential worker. So a class is without their teacher. Les wrote to me about his 89-year-old dad who lives by himself. He and his wife Linda, visit every fortnight to care for him. And now they can't, and that worries them no end, understandably. Mark has a house and a cattle property on two sides, both sides of the Queensland, New South Wales border. He can't tend to the animals. He says this is harder than the drought when he had to truck water everywhere. I've got hundreds of stories like that and I have no doubt you have more. Real lives all a long way from capital cities. Some restrictions, they've been so difficult to navigate decision making hasn't always been clear nor timely, and that must be improved. And there has been an absence in some cases of due process rights of people as these arrangements have been put in place. Now through the National Cabinet, and what's known as the national coordinating mechanism which sits in the Department of Home Affairs, there has been some progress, but I'd like to tell you there's more because much more needs to be done to ensure that these border movements are made easier. But ultimately to ensure that we get the borders open again.
I do thank premiers, particularly in New South Wales and South Australia, who have engaged with the Commonwealth government to try and resolve many of these issues. And there has been resolution of some. And to address particular problems of particular cases, as I've been raising those and my colleagues have been raising those with Premiers. I thank them for that. And we need, though, to focus on getting to a place where we don't have borders and that they are unnecessary. Keeping Australia as open as possible while managing the twin health crises of economics and health.
So the next step is we've got to get these principles established to ease the impact of these restrictions. We've got to get this done. We've got to put aside the disagreements we've had so far about this. And we've got to get arrangements that can be workable, but also to protect people's health. I'm not suggesting for a second that there aren't health issues here to be managed and there aren’t risks on the health side of opening the borders. Of course there are. But there are risks on both sides that have to be weighted and assessed, and balanced. Living with the virus until there is a vaccine requires that balanced assessment. The risk of COVID-19 does not justify anything on its own. Everything always has to be measured in the relative impacts. On borders I've made this point consistently - that while the scale of the victory outbreak meant that border restrictions between New South Wales and Victoria were regrettably necessary, and they were and are and remain, this does not diminish the principle that border restrictions, especially where there are no, or very low cases in regional areas, they cannot and should not be sustained. Australia was not built to have internal borders. In fact, the very point of federation was not to have them. That was the point of Australia. That was plan A for Australia. I'm for plan A. And so was Alfred Deakin, a Victorian father of Federation, who said when he was referring – in fact to external affairs powers which has been topical of late: “The whole scope and spirit of the Constitution, require that say for the purposes of their domestic policies within their own domains the states should be blended and absorbed into one political entity. They may still appear in some respects as a body of allied states, but…to the world without it, they have become and must remain a nation, a commonwealth, one and indivisible.”
Now he puts it better than I do. But that is so true, we must be one and indivisible as a nation. Whether we're from the bush, whether we're from the city, whether we're from Queensland, the territory, Western Australia, we must be Australians first. And must not allow this crisis, this pandemic, to force us to retreat into provincialism. That's not the answer. And that's why I've tasked the Commonwealth chief medical officer to work with the medical expert panel to get a clear, clinical definition of a hot spot. Now, this will be essential for states and territories to establish containment strategies and move away from border restrictions.
Now, that work was tasked out of the last National Cabinet meeting and agreed by the National Cabinet that the medical expert panel should have such a definition. And we will have one. Whether it's the Commonwealth one, or one agreed by the states. But there will be. And that will be necessary, I think, with the transparency of arrangements that are put in place by states and territories. Now, clear and easily understandable hotspot definition has been used in overseas jurisdictions since the beginning of the pandemic. And they can be used in a similar way here in Australian states and territories. I was speaking only to the Danish prime minister this week about how they would do it. And it's instructive.
In many of the border communities, residents are simply trying to move from one COVID-free region to another COVID-free region. And so we need to get borders open based on a common set of fair simple principles taking in to account the advice of health professionals that is conveyed transparently. That doesn't mean there can't be borders. That doesn't mean there can't be border restrictions. And it doesn't mean the border restrictions in circumstances are not necessary. This is not a binary topic. It is one that has to be considered sensibly, reasonably and the balance right.
It is reasonable for Australians, particularly regional Australians, to have access to medical assistance, to get to work and to access their own properties. Where permits are required it is reasonable for Australians to expect that their applications would be dealt with quickly and that there is an appeal process. Borders cost communities and the economies they constrain. They must be proportionate these restrictions to the risk it presents. And like any restriction in a pandemic they must only be there where health evidence transparently supports that position and only for as long and as it is absolutely necessary. Borders are not substitutes as New South Wales, I believe, has demonstrated for the core defenses against the virus.
International quarantine, testing, tracing, COVIDSafe behaviours, the distancing, staying home if you're sick, getting tested and outbreak containment, particularly at that local level. We saw a tremendous result of that in north-western Tasmania early on in the pandemic. Local outbreak containment. Very effective. It protected Tasmania more broadly from what could have been a far more serious situation.
Now, the freight movement code which the DPM has put in place and congratulations for doing that, Michael. He knows there's still bugs and things. We've got to get out of that. Still bit too many bits of paper, but Big Mac will get it sorted. I've no doubt about that. We're seeing improvements in some areas, but there need to be more. And David Littleproud is leading the agriculture ministers, Deputy Leader of the Nationals, and finalising an agricultural workers code as a priority. We agreed that last Friday that will be taken forward and we'll be dealing with that next Friday at the National Cabinet. At the same time we're opening borders there needs to be a principle based approach to easing restrictions, particularly as, say, Melbourne comes up at a level four and back the level three and hopefully in the rest of Victoria, level three back into more eased restrictions. The principles for easing restrictions need to be simple, they need to be transparent. They've got to be driven by data, they've got to be location specific, they've got to be co-designed with industry where appropriate. You got to talk to the businesses and the industries that are involved. They've got to be well communicated. They've got to be based on a demonstrated preparedness, ensuring that the public risk management practices are all in place. We do not want to see a reversion take place when you're trying to come out. And so we have to do that safely. And our job, federal, state and territory governments is to achieve this. And I know there are frustrations, but I can assure you when we all get in the room again, we'll be working to try and sort this out. We are achieving this to save lives and livelihoods. And there are key things we need to do. A health strategy, an economic strategy and ongoing behaviour changes. And that is all but the Australia be part of the plan. We are still in the midst of this battle. And so we need to keep pushing on with our response and particularly on the fight to save jobs and build jobs and rebuild businesses and industries, which I will turn to now.
Regional and agriculture driven COVID recovery. That's what we want to see. And from my first days as prime minister, just over two years ago, when the DPM and I and Bridget McKenzie, I think at the time, and David Littleproud was there from memory as well. And Scotty Buchholz was with us. And we went up and through Longreach and we made it out to Quilpie. And I met the Tully family up there and I'll never forget that. And from there to more recently, being out in fire-affected Wingello north of Goulburn early this year after the fires. What remains with me to this day about all of these and there were certainly other visits up through North Queensland during the floods with Shane. I'm always struck by the positive outlook, despite the circumstances of regional and rural Australians. You're patient. You understand the longer game. You watch out for your neighbours. It's an earthy determination to outlast whatever hand you’re often dealt. That stoicism, that capacity to adapt, that strength that is required when faced with adversity as well as the untold costs and of the hidden and masked pain that you endure. That is an inspiration to all Australians, I think, as we face the challenges of this particular pandemic. And here at this bush summit I believe that that gives us the basis of taking a similar approach to the issues we're all facing.
So I want to talk about a few more things we are doing to invest in that capacity, to build on that plan, that resilience and support for regional Australia, and particularly the agricultural sector. Our Ag2030 plan a $100 billion industry by 2030. The government's backing the industry's bold plan to see agriculture in Australia grow to become a $100 billion sector by 2030. It's ambitious. It's especially given the many challenges we face of drought, floods, fire, COVID-19, facing another cyclone season this year. But we're not shying away from doing what we can to help the industry achieve. Last year at the Bush Summit, I announced there would be a national plan to support agriculture, fisheries and forestry achieve that goal. And while the pandemic is, as I'm sure you would understand, has delayed that formal plan, I can assure you that the Minister David Littleproud is working to ensure we get that plan in place and work towards achieving that goal.
What's guiding that plan is, first, the foundation of trade and growing trade. Trade grows the economy and it creates jobs. We don't get rich selling stuff to ourself. That's what we're about as an outward looking, externally faced trading nation. And when we came to government, preferential access to markets accounted for around 26 per cent for our two-way trade. That's now more than 70 per cent. People looking for more options for trade. All the 70 per cent of that trade is now covered by those agreements. We've recently completed the Indonesian agreement. There's a digital commerce agreement with Singapore. The EU agreement is the one we're working on now. The UK as well, they're the next cabs off the rank. Market access means more trade. It means more money in farming pockets and jobs in regional communities. And that's because the farm sector exports around two thirds of its output. Our trade strategy has meant that the farm sector is withstanding the blow of COVID-19, keeping supply chains open for our high value agricultural and fisheries exports, despite widespread disruption to the global air freight sector. And again, I commend the Deputy Prime Minister. Our International Freight Assistance Mechanism, which is designed with the Minister for Trade, is facilitating a one billion dollar support to exports by supporting nearly 4000 flights from nine Australian locations to 63 international destinations, maintaining thousands of regional jobs and regional food security in the process. What's known as the IFAM initiative has supported shipments of chilled lamb from western Victoria and the Middle East. Tuna shipments from Ulladulla to Japan. Shipments of abalone, lobster, oysters, lettuce and dairy from Tasmania to China, Taiwan and Singapore. And we will continue to defend the interests of our agricultural exports to see disruptions to any trade with Chinese consumers more recently.
We are disappointed about the actions against our barley exports and indeed with our beef processing. There's been a further announcement today, but these are not new, new initiatives. These have been happening for some months. And they don't just happen overnight. They come forward over a number of weeks. Also, the announcement investigation into our wine producers and we'll work with industry on those issues and address the facts of each case. And I'm optimistic that we will resolve those issues, not least because trade with China brings benefits to both countries.
Our high quality beef, lamb, seafood and wine exports to China have grown in recent years for a very simple reason. They're good. Chinese consumers like them and they've got reason to. Same reason we like it. We sell things that they want to buy. We buy things they want to sell. It's a two-way relationship. It's in both our interests for it to be maintained and that's what we'll continue to do. Just as imports from of manufactured goods assist us, particularly when it comes to important agricultural equipment on occasions which boost the productivity of our farmers.
Our AG 2030 plan is also guided by the principle of sustainability and I'm determined to get our farmers the tools to adapt to a changing climate, and build a sustainable agricultural base for the future. An essential part of that is understanding the centrality of soils to agricultural productivity. I mentioned this last year and we all owe a great debt to Major General Michael Jeffery for many things, many, many things as a former government and military leader. But as our first National Soils Advocate he was a champion for the sustainability and integrated management of our soils, water, vegetation and animals over many years. His passion on this is infectious. And this year it's with a heavy heart that I announce that General Jeffery has made a decision to step aside because of his ill health. However, the work continues and that's what always that matters to me. And so I'm pleased to announce that the Honourable Penny Wensley has been appointed Australia's new National Soils Advocate. And she will continue that great work. Penny grew up in Toowoomba and is a former diplomat and of course, a former and esteemed governor of Queensland. And I know she will continue to General Jeffrey's great work to protect, maintain and restore the health of our landscapes, and support sustainability of food security in our farming communities. And I look forward to working with Penny as we progress our national soils strategy which will be delivered as part of the 21-22 Budget. We don't just want better a approach to soils, as you all know we need a better approach to water and achieving that is fundamental to achieve in 2030. Our national water grid is about taking a national approach towards security and better protect Australia's farmers and regional communities against future droughts. That's what the Deputy Prime Minister has set out. Michael McCormack has set out in establishing this national water grid. His initiative. It's an authority in developing a future pipeline of projects so that regional communities and farmers get the water infrastructure they need. And establishing that grid as the Commonwealth water infrastructure delivery agent, it's time now for the states and territories to get cracking on with their part of the job or working with us to deliver that water infrastructure. Now four projects have been delivered and we have committed to 18 others. And it's now time to move on to critical projects from feasibility to construction.
We’ve had a lot of studies and need to build more water infrastructure, not just reports. We've invested in 55 such studies, we're focused on delivering the projects that stack up and delivering the water. It's essential work because our climate is becoming warmer and dryer. A direct consequence of climate change. We're grateful for the rains of recent times, of course. But we know that even in areas where there is a green veneer, that below the grass, as I've said, the soil is still very dry. And of course, we know, there are regions still in profound drought. I want to acknowledge the tremendous work of Major General Stephen Day when he was National Drought Coordinator and as I referred to it today, to Shane Stone, the coordinator general of the National Drought and North Queensland Flood Response and Recovery Agency. Now in that agency they're focused on three things.
First, responding to the immediate need of providing relief. Practical measures that help farmers and communities right now and help them hold on until the drought breaks. Second, to sustain communities so they were still there when the drought was over. And third, which is a longer term work, making our country more drought resilient.
And you can't ever make a country full drought-proof but you can make it more drought resilient. And so we are better prepared for the next drought when it comes. That means deepening our understanding better, integrating our management, soil vegetation, water, it means having and sharing better data and the latest technology. It means connecting industries and communities to make sure they have the information they need to make the decisions that will help them survive and flourish. All of our efforts were backed by substantive commitment of $10m for 26 separate measures to support our drought response. And I acknowledge particularly the work of David Littleproud, Minister for Drought, for his leadership in ensuring we were getting the funds to where it needed to get to. With the drought and indeed, the flood, bushfire recovery and even the pandemic, we have take an approach that listens first, identifies needs and gaps and then fills them. And if we have to make changes then we do. It's why in June we extended the farm household allowance payment for those who had exhausted their entitlements.
And that has helped more than 15,000 farmers and their partners. And we're making the investments in the longer term. The $5bn Future Drought Fund is an important part of the government's drought response, resilience and preparedness plan. That plan means sustainable investment will make, there will be sustainable investment of some $100 million out of that Future Fund available each year for projects that help our farmers and communities become more prepared for and resilience to the impacts of drought. The Future Drought Fund is not about responding to the current drought. It's about being better prepared for the next one. And just last month, the Minister for Agriculture, David Littleproud, announced the first suite of programmes under the fund. Together, they're worth almost $90 million. And they're designed to help with everything from business deals to climate data, research and innovation hubs and community resilience projects.
Now two of these programs open today. That's the $7.45m Drought Resilience Leaders Programme, and the $3.5m Networks to Build Drought Resilience Programme, which is open for applications today.
These projects are about supporting people, develop their leadership skills and put those skills to use in helping farmers and agricultural communities prepare for future droughts. And it's about helping establishing mentoring relationships so that the lessons and skills acquired over decades are passed on to the next generation. And as we respond to the drought, it's been clear to me that the people who know what's really needed are the people who live it every day.
And that's why today we're announcing the establishment of a Regional Recovery Officer Network across the country. A national drought and flood agency that Shane leads has put in place 19 regional recovery officers right across the country. A further four positions are being added to the team immediately. Many of them- a number of them are here with him today. These Regional Recovery Offices are our drought boots on the ground ensuring the governments understand the unique challenges farmers and communities in regions, that they're listening, that they're reporting, that they're working across government and across community to develop solutions and solutions that work.
Now, there are many other issues, Ben, that I wanted to raise today, but time's going to beat us today. And I can post those for people to read on a later occasion because I do want to get to questions. The announcements we've made today go further to our preparedness, to our resilience. But they also go to the immediate need. The comments I made today about addressing the challenges of a pandemic, but they're also intended to address the opportunities on the other side of the pandemic. And whether it's in the bush or whether it's in the cities. Wherever you are in Australia today, we will get through this. We are getting through this better than most and many of the countries in the world today. And there's a reason for that. And it's you. The way Australians respond to crisis. And so much of I think of the character of our nation in a crisis has been formed in the stories and livelihoods of rural and regional Australians. Even those of us from the city will look romantically and sentimentally out to those amazing stories of rural and regional Australia. And many of us these days who live in cities can speak of our own generations in times past, who came from rural and regional Australia like mine but many generations ago. That's where we draw our strength from. And those stories are being lived out today, as they were hundreds of years ago, and indeed in our Indigenous communities over thousands upon thousands of years. That's where we draw our strength from. And that is why we will prevail.
Additional speech extracts
Innovation is also a key element of our Ag2030 plan.
Australian farmers are amongst the most innovative and adaptive in the world.
Agriculture Minister, David Littleproud, has been the driver behind making sure Australian farmers continue to be the best in the world.
That means bridging the gaps in research, development and the adoption of new practices, tools and technologies - and bringing researchers and farmers and agricultural businesses closer together.
That’s why we’re investing $86 million to establish eight Adoption and Innovation Hubs around the country.
Hubs will be established in each of Australia’s key climatic and agricultural zones - and I am pleased that one of the zones will be here in Southern NSW.
Hubs will be coordinated by a lead regional university – a new National Centre for Drought Resilience Adoption and Innovation.
We’ll establish the Hubs, and the new National Centre, though open competitive processes over the coming months.
As well, integral to our Ag-2030 Plan is building the economic capacity of our regions through infrastructure and stronger supply chains.
Deputy Prime Minister Michael McCormack, and I want our regions and producers to be able to access the capital, infrastructure and connectivity they need to compete effectively.
As part of our response to COVID-19, we’re boosting and bringing forward investment in infrastructure to help communities weather the crisis and recover.
We have committed $1.5 billion to shovel-ready, priority transport infrastructure projects identified by states and territories and small, road safety projects across Australia, with many of these projects in our regions. This is an additional $4.2 billion of accelerated projects announced with the states at the end of 2019.
We've also provided a $1.8 billion boost across Australia for road and community projects delivered through local governments.
Since last November, my Government has brought forward or injected additional investment totalling nearly $9.3 billion in infrastructure construction activity.
We’re changing the way freight moves along the eastern seaboard by building the Inland Rail from Melbourne to Brisbane.
This project just doesn’t benefit producers - it benefits consumers - lowering the costs of transportation, and reducing the time it takes for produce to leave the market and reach the dinner table.
Nationals Leader, Michael McCormack is very much a leader in the Fischer and indeed Anderson mould. One of the great sons of Southern NSW was Tim Fischer - and he’d be delighted to know we are boosting railway networks - including making investments in regional railways in Victoria.
And integral to connecting our regional communities is 21st century telecommunications - and that’s why we have committed $380 million to the Mobile Black Spot Program where more than 1,200 new mobile towers have been funded to date, with 861 now on air.
We’re also connecting regional communities health care professionals through Medicare subsidised telehealth services, and via their local general practices, with thousands more doctors and nurses heading to rural practices over the next decade.
So we are putting in place a comprehensive plan: more trade; better water management; a soils plan; drought resilience; and investments in infrastructure and regional supply chains.
All of which are about building the long term capability of our regions and investing in their potential.
The Region
I now want to say a few words about this region.
It’s been a tough year following the Black Summer bushfires.
This region suffered terribly during summer – but there has been tremendous work since then.
I know Andrew Colvin and the National Bushfire Recovery Agency have been working closely with the community to drive recovery.
There’s been relief to the Snowy Monaro Regional Council to rebuild assets, and provide economic support and funding for wildlife rescue.
$65 million is being provided to help the forestry industry recover.
Bushfire recovery grants are also helping local communities and businesses get back on their feet - well over 600 local businesses benefiting from grants.
And looking to the future, this region will benefit enormously from the Snowy 2.0 project.
Snowy 2.0 will create thousands of new jobs, support investment in the local region and take pressure off power prices.
More than 500 people are already at work on Snowy 2.0 and we expect it will create around 4,000 direct jobs over the life of the project.
I am sure I will be here many more times as this project unfolds.
Press Conference - Canberra, ACT
27 August 2020
PRIME MINISTER: Good morning, everyone. Can I start today, before moving to the reason for today's press conference - and I'm joined by the Minister for Foreign Affairs - to thank Australians, whether they be in the hot spot of Melbourne or they be in regional parts of the country where they're dealing with the incredible frustration of border restrictions. Can I thank the small businesses of this country, the large businesses of this country, keeping people in work? This has been a very difficult time, a very frustrating time, a very anxious time. And Australians have just kept their determination up, their positivity, wherever they can. And I want to thank them. Just simply thank them and ask them to continue to demonstrate the goodwill and the good faith they have, despite the frustrations and the limitations and the anxieties that they have to cope with every day. As we gather here in this Parliament, under different circumstances to usual, the circumstances faced by many Australians, particularly in Victoria and in those border regions, is something quite different and I just want Australians to know that we get that. And we know that. And we very much appreciate what you are doing each and every day. I welcome the fact that we've seen again the continuation of lower numbers than we have seen in Victoria. Nowhere near what we'd like them to be and, of course, the fatalities we continue to see are devastating and particularly for the families directly involved and, of course, we know that we will continue to see that for some time yet as the impacts of the community transmission, as it's worked its way through the Victorian community, will continue to have those impacts. But that said, Victoria has turned the corner and we will continue to invest our efforts in assisting them to ensure that we can continue to get this outbreak under control and return life in Melbourne and across Victoria to as normal as you can in a COVID-safe world, as soon as we can and working with the state and territories to ensure that other restrictions, wherever they can be removed, be removed as soon as possible. The restrictions should be in only for as long as they are absolutely needed and they should only be placed in where they are absolutely needed, based on that medical advice.
But to the announcement that we're making today, and the Minister for Foreign Affairs has already had the opportunity to make comment on this earlier today in media appearances this morning. But protecting and promoting Australia's national interest is the primary job of the Federal Government. It is what Australians elect federal governments to do. And this has always been our primary focus for our Government. We need to ensure that Australia, not just at a federal level, but across all of our governments, speak with one voice, act in accordance with one plan, consistent with the national interest, as set out in Australia's foreign policy, as determined by the Federal Government. And the new Australian Foreign Relations Bill does just that. Drawing on the powers available to us in the constitution, it enshrines those powers and provides very clear directions to do a number of important things. To establish the power to cancel and prohibit arrangements, memoranda, partnerships, that are not consistent with Australia's foreign relations, that damage our foreign relations. It compels notification across all of those areas to ensure that we are aware when agreements, memoranda and other partnerships have been formed, to provide a transparency around all of those arrangements, which is important to assist the Federal Government to pursue our foreign policy, which is about protecting Australia's national interests and promoting those national interests, and to ensure ultimately a greater awareness of the federal foreign policy settings that we are seeking the alignment of and the support of and the cooperation with, of governments and government-related entities right across Australia. More than 130 agreements, from 30 countries - and that's just states and territories that we know of and that are in the public domain - so the combination of the notification process which, in some cases, could lead to the cancelling of those arrangements, or their prohibition as governments or local governments or, indeed, universities, in those circumstances that apply to them. In those circumstances, it may lead to that, but it also may assist us that, where there are partnerships with other governments at subnational level or otherwise, that can assist Australia in promoting our foreign affairs and national interests, as we pursue those around the word, be it in trade, or people-to-people relationships. Having knowledge of those arrangements can greatly assist us, with our posts overseas and the work we are doing. So this is an important day for sovereignty in Australia. It's an important day for ensuring that Australia's national interest is protected, is promoted. That is our responsibility and that is our pledge to the Australian people to follow through on that pledge.
Now, I want to turn to one other matter before moving to the Foreign Minister and that is this week we're also introducing landmark legislation that sees Australia take responsibility for our waste and establishes a national industry relationship framework for recycling. The Recycling and Waste Reduction Bill will phase in the end of 645,000 tonnes of processed plastic, paper, glass and tyres that Australia ships overseas every year. The Bill will implement the export ban on waste, plastic, paper, glass and tyres agreed by the then COAG in March of this year, one of its final agreements in that form of COAG. And the ban will commence in phases beginning with waste from the 1st of January next. At the same time, the reforms to the regulation of product stewardship will incentivise companies to take greater environmental responsibility for the products they manufacture and what happens to those products and materials at the end of their life. The Bill complements the recycling modernisation fund and national waste policy action plan, which will create 10,000 new jobs over the next 10 years. That's a 32 percent increase in jobs in the Australian waste and recycling sector and these reforms will drive a billion-dollar transformation of Australia's waste and recycling capacity. It's our waste. It's our responsibility. We've got to deal with it and recycle it and repurpose it and reuse it here to both drive jobs in the recycling sector and improve the quality of our environment. This has been a key issue I've been raising, not just in the Pacific Islands Forum and I only just spoke this morning to the Prime Minister of the Solomon Islands Manasseh Sogavare but it has also been an issue that I've been raising in the East Asian Summit and with our ASEAN friends and colleagues where waste plastics in oceans is destroying communities, it is destroying their livelihoods, it is destroying their health and this was a pledge that I said we would honour and follow through on. I think this is a great day for demonstrating Australia's leadership when it comes to an export ban on these waste products. When I talk to kids in schools, that's what they talk to me about. They talk to me about those plastic bottles and the things in the oceans, whether it's their rivers and oceans and streams, or those floating around in the Pacific or around the seas of South-East Asia. And so I'm very pleased that the Environment Minister will be introducing that Bill today, as I know the Minister for Foreign Affairs is also.
SENATOR THE HON. MARISE PAYNE, MINISTER FOR FOREIGN AFFAIRS: Thank you very much, Prime Minister and you're right, that will be a particularly well received initiative in our region and is one which is a very important step forward.
If I could just make a few further remarks on the Foreign Relations Bill which, as the Prime Minister said I've already spoken about a couple of times this morning. I think, most importantly, this legislation is about ensuring that we are consistent as a nation with respect to how we deal with the world, that we are taking a national perspective in our national interest and we're all working on the world stage as a team. To date, there hasn't been a requirement, and not even a clear understanding, that the states and territories might consult with the Commonwealth when they make arrangements with foreign governments. And those arrangements often cover a wide range of issues, whether it's sister-city relations to trade and economic cooperation. We recognise the contribution these arrangements can and do make to Australia's international engagement. The Commonwealth, and particularly my Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, has a deep and broad expertise to assess whether arrangements with foreign governments are in the national interest. When we don't have a process of consultation, the Commonwealth has no opportunity to review the proposed arrangements, nor to apply that expertise. We risk having an uncoordinated, patchwork approach to contracts or MoUs or relationships and collaborations that could have an adverse effect on our foreign policy. What the legislation will do is to give state and territory governments confidence when entering into arrangements that they are acting in a way that serves Australia's national interests, that it's aligned with our values and consistent with our foreign policy objectives. The legislation, as the Prime Minister has pointed out, will apply to existing and prospective arrangements between a state and territory government and foreign government. We're not looking to impinge on state and territory government’s proper functioning or to micromanage these dealings with the world. But it's appropriate and it’s necessary that the Commonwealth Government manage our foreign relations, protect our national interest, and importantly maintain our values as a nation in doing that. Consistency, consultation and doing the due diligence on undertakings and arrangements is, I think, what the Australian people expect of their national government.
JOURNALIST: If you’re prepared to assert your power over this, would you consider legislating in order to take over state borders, to prevent border closures where they're not necessary? Something that's really harming the national economy. And how many agreements do you see being cancelled as a result of this? Do those agreements include the Victorian Belt and Road Initiative?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, let me deal with the first part of the question. In relation to the border arrangements that have been put in place at a state level, as I said yesterday and I've said many times, Australia wasn't built to have internal borders. Having internal borders in Australia is an extreme response, which can be necessary in extreme circumstances and based on proper medical advice and a very transparent process for doing that. And we saw in relation to the New South Wales-Victorian border. What occurred there was cooperation between the neighbouring states and, indeed, the Commonwealth. The appointment of a border commissioner to try and resolve the many heart-breaking examples that we continue to work through today, and, you know, when borders get put up within a country like Australia, it is very difficult to try and avoid the sort of circumstances we've seen occur. Very, very difficult to do that. But obviously, when it comes to that particular border, and the very extreme situation we've seen in Melbourne, that it was agreed amongst both premiers and myself that that was a necessary action and one that I hope is one that won't have to remain, hopefully, for much longer. And particularly as the situation in regional Victoria confirms itself, hopefully it won't be needed much longer. But I am confident that in the relationship and the way we're working together within the federation between New South Wales, Victoria and the Commonwealth and those matters, I think, can be properly resolved. I've had similar discussions with the Western Australian Premier about how those arrangements can best operate. The constitutional issues around this are not as clear-cut as the constitutional issues when it comes to the Commonwealth's foreign affairs powers. I think they're very clear. So I think we're talking about a different area of grey and, you know, the National Cabinet has achieved many great things over these last six months and I can understand that Australians are frustrated that the border issues through that process are not being addressed as well as we'd hoped. That has not been through any lack of effort, I can assure you, on the Federal Government's part. But it does demonstrate that the constitutional powers that sit around internal borders are vague when it comes to dealing with specific circumstances. It's all about proportionality and when you're looking at a border between Victoria and New South Wales, that's one set of circumstances. In other places, it's different. So I will continue to work to ensure that we have a transparent process and a fair process, that there are appropriate appeal rights that are in place, for people who are affected by these decisions. Because it does affect their lives. I'll have a bit more to say about this tomorrow at the Bush Summit, not far from here in Cooma. But it is important that we continue to remove barriers where they're not necessary, and where there are barriers, we have the most sensible, practical and time-limited arrangements and people know when they can come off so they can get on with their lives. That's always been my very strong view. National Cabinet has never made one decision that supports the unilateral imposition of borders within Australia. There is no resolution of National Cabinet to that end. Where states have made those decisions, they've made them either, as I've said, with the Commonwealth in the case of the Victoria and New South Wales border, or they've made them unilaterally on their own behalf and they are the ones who have to explain how that works and how it is administered.
Now, in relation to the many agreements - as I've said, there's 130, I think, Marise, that we're aware of - I'm not going to prejudice the outcome of any decisions the Minister for Foreign Affairs might make. It's important that, A, the legislation is passed. I wrote to Premiers yesterday. I had already flagged with premiers and chief ministers at the national security briefing they had some weeks ago that we would have more to say in this area and flagged that they would be getting advice along these lines, and provided that to them yesterday. Once the legislation has been through our party room, we'll share that with the states and territories and we’ll work through that. But any individual arrangements, well, it's a pretty clear test - if they're inconsistent with federal foreign affairs policy, they'll go.
We’ll just do one at a time, I think, Andrew. Rosie?
JOURNALIST: On that, have you received any advice, or have you personally formed the view that the Victorian BRI deal is inconsistent with the national interest? And just on the borders, are you suggesting you will introduce a national appeal process so people can actually appeal when they get knocked back from exemptions?
PRIME MINISTER: It's important that, when you act in accordance with powers that are yet to be established, that you do not prejudice decisions and so I'm not going to say anything here and the Foreign Affairs Minister wouldn't be saying anything here that could potentially prejudice any decisions that we might make after properly reviewing any agreements that are currently in place, because if we were to take decisions that were to cancel those, they should be done according to the proper process set up under the legislation so it would be irresponsible of me or the Foreign Affairs Minister, I think, to go into the specifics of any one agreement at this point. There's been plenty of commentary on the ones that you referred to. There's plenty of commentary on that. And matters have been raised on those directly with Premiers where that's been necessary, but we will act in accordance with powers that are established by the Parliament and my job right now, and the Foreign Affairs Minister, is to get the support of this, of these powers through the Parliament and then we'll deal with individual instances. In relation to how any sort of a proper appeal mechanism works, well, in some states they do have them and what I'd be seeking is more of a harmonisation and a consistency in how states apply those. It is not, they're not federal borders. They are state borders, for states to administer, and they need to do so in a way which minimises the pain and the hardship and the inconvenience that is not necessary and that Australians, wherever they live, have the appropriate review mechanisms in place for any administrative decision that can impact on them and their livelihoods and, indeed, their health.
Brett?
JOURNALIST: To the Foreign Minister first of all, this is a pretty big constitutional flex. Are you expecting any pushback from states and territories who are worried about their sovereignty when it comes to making these agreements? And, Prime Minister, there's been some comments in New Zealand about the Christchurch mosque terrorist potentially serving any sentence here in Australia. Are you open to some sort of an arrangement about that sentencing with New Zealand?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, I might deal with that one first, Marise, and pass to you on the other matter. This is not a matter which the Prime Minister Ardern has raised with me. It's normal practice that criminals convicted of these offences serve their sentences in that jurisdiction, and that's my understanding of what the arrangements are and no request has been made to Australia for that to be any different. And I remember these events, as we all do, terribly and, once again, as New Zealanders in particular are brought to remembrance of that, just, unthinkable day, my heart goes out to them and, it brings it all back, even as we stand here, it's bringing it back for me. Jenny and I were incredibly touched by meeting the survivors of that attack, and the incredible grace that they showed afterwards was astounding, and inspiring. And so, to all those affected by that, including the Muslim community here in Australia, for whom it's brought remembrance, still thinking, still thinking of you.
On the other matter, there is only one sovereignty in Australia and it's Australian. I mean we are sovereign Australians. We are all Australians and that's where our sovereignty rests, and that's how I’d respond.
MINISTER PAYNE: I don't have anything to add to that.
JOURNALIST: The legislation includes the formation of a public register for all of the deals to have more transparency. Will you also be making it public every time a deal is vetoed or removed? What's the process for transparency for the details that don’t make that register?
MINISTER PAYNE: We’ll establish the register, the details of those will be covered under the legislation and that will all be public as the legislation comes forward in the next week, but the intention is to make the arrangements transparent.
JOURNALIST: Just on federal borders, earlier this week, the Federal Court ruled that WA's hard border was protecting the public health of the state. Do you now accept that WA's border has protected the state's public health and do you accept that the court decision has vindicated the WA Government's decision on the hard border?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, I haven't disputed the first point that you've made. I didn't dispute it at the time the Premier put it in place and didn't oppose it then. So that's been our position. The Federal Court has found on facts, the High Court will now consider those facts and make a decision on the broader issues, so we'll just have to wait to see what the High Court says on the other matter. As you know, we withdrew from the case at the request of the Premier in full compliance with his request, and we undertook to work with him to find a constitutionally effective way of continuing to protect the health of Western Australians and that's exactly what I've been doing, and I’ve been in engagements with the Premier on that over the past week. And so we continue to work together on that.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, without going to any individual agreements, is it your concern, then, that foreign governments have been seeking to divide Australia by using the states and territories against the Commonwealth?
PRIME MINISTER: Let me answer this way - where any foreign government seeks to undermine the sovereignty of Australia's foreign policy by seeking to do deals with subnational governments, Australia needs to protect itself from that. And importantly, that's why, probably, I'd argue, more than anyone previously, although I know there were briefings provided, but not at this level of detail - I arranged for all premiers and chief ministers to know what I know - about Australia's national security issues and interests. And that was a useful briefing we held some weeks ago and I think what we've announced today is therefore not unsurprising or unexpected on their part and I particularly welcome the comments by the South Australian Premier today. We need to all work together to protect Australia's national interests and I think this bill, these laws, will aid us in doing that.
Phil?
JOURNALIST: A few years ago, you changed…
PRIME MINISTER: Katherine always gets a question.
JOURNALIST: In terms of speaking with one voice…
PRIME MINISTER: I'm not sure about Andrew. Not you.
JOURNALIST: Back to speaking with one voice, a few years ago, you changed the FIRB regime to include state asset sales after the Port of Darwin lease and now you've done this, this measure you're announcing today. Are there any other areas of leakage in terms of foreign interference through the states or the territories that, beyond this measure, that you're looking at?
PRIME MINISTER: You're right to say, Phil, as I think you wrote today, after the Port of Darwin issue which, as you know, was a problem in that that was not a matter which the federal laws enabled to be brought for Federal Government approval, and that's why I had those fixed with the cooperation, full cooperation of the states and territories, which I very much welcomed at the time, to ensure that that was dealt with, so that those circumstances wouldn't be repeated and, of course, you're aware of the very significant announcements the Treasurer has made, here with me, about a month or so ago, which has further addressed issues that particularly were raised by the FIRB board, to ensure that we address those and here we have, again, today, some further announcements. So this is a pretty comprehensive response I think is the best way to answer that, Phil. But obviously if we identify other things that are necessary to protect Australia's national interest, you'll never find me hesitating.
Katherine?
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, traditionally the Liberal Party is the party of state rights. That's your history. How does what you're announcing today in terms of the unilateral termination of state agreements sit with the party's history? And also, if I may, is it the advice - is it the Commonwealth's advice that the external affairs power provides absolute coverage for you to do this, down to the termination of contracts?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, one, these contracts don't deal with private companies and those issues. It involves government-to-government, government entity to government entity type arrangements. In terms of our history of federalism, well I'm a passionate federalist. That's why I moved to establish the National Cabinet. Because I know we get a lot more done together and the responsibilities of the states are very significant, whether it be on health care or on schools or on planning approvals and all of these sorts of things - there are many things that we can't achieve in protecting the lives of Australians and the livelihoods of Australians if we don't work together. And I'm not seeking to change any of the powers here. I'm seeking to ensure that the powers that we have, and we're responsible for, that we deal to, and that is external affairs, that is foreign affairs. That's what the constitution invests in the Federal Government. So I think honouring the constitution sits very much alongside the federalist tradition of certainly our party and I think this is a very important affirmation of that. I mean, I remember - I said this in my maiden speech in the Parliament - you know, states are responsible for some things, federal governments are responsible for others and the best way to get along is for everyone to do their job and to do it as well as possible and not try and do others' jobs and that's what is certainly the way I've sought to approach this pandemic and the many other issues that are there. We all just need to do our jobs and that's certainly what we're doing and, in many cases, those jobs combined, as we've seen around aged care - we have very clear responsibilities in relation to aged care, and the state governments have very clear responsibilities for public health, and in a pandemic, they come together and they overlap, so you have to work together.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, the report that was released this week into the Newmarch House outbreak, earlier this year, revealed that there were mistakes that was made in that house that were repeated, repeatedly, in Victoria, especially at St Basil's, issues with food, issues with staff being furloughed - given that this was months later and you've repeatedly said, and Richard Colbeck has repeatedly said lesson would be learned, given that we are now seeing dozens of people dying in Victorian aged care facilities, why weren't these lessons learned? Why were these mistakes repeated? And who is to be held accountable?
PRIME MINISTER: Well I don't share your analysis completely on that. And I responded to a question on this in the House yesterday, where I set out the key findings and learnings of the Newmarch report, and how they had been specifically applied, including in the case of St Basil's, as well as Kalyna and a whole range of other facilities, and the events that unfolded with the COVID pandemic in Victoria, which had moved to a level we had not yet seen in Australia, and, as we know, have impacted health care facilities in Victoria and many other facilities in Victoria, that all of, whether it's the aged care providers themselves who had been made aware of what was necessary in these circumstances, or the responsibilities of the Federal Government and the actions of the public health agencies, these lessons were certainly sought to be implemented in all of these cases, and the fact that, as I've reminded you all on a number of occasions now, in the UK, 56 per cent of aged care facilities have had resident and staff infections. That figure in Australia is 8 per cent. 8 per cent. And the number of facilities that have been acutely affected in Victoria has been 4, out of over 700 facilities in that state. Now, those 4 circumstances were unacceptable outcomes. And we've been very clear about that. My fear when the COVID pandemic hit in Victoria was that we could have potentially seen far more. Because of the scale of that outbreak. And as horrific as those four cases were, I'm so pleased that it did not extend to so many more and the fact that we've reduced it down from 13 that we were watching very carefully, that didn't all escalate to the levels we saw at Epping Gardens and St Basil's and others. That has come down to 3 again, and has remained at 3, but there are still real issues in those 3 facilities and we're monitoring them closely every single day. So we will continue to apply those lessons. We are dealing with a global pandemic where there's no guarantees. The only guarantee we can give you is of our complete effort in dealing with every situation that presents.
JOURNALIST: On the BRI, what's the nature of the 2017 MoU between the Australian and Chinese governments, and secondly, on the Mengniu decision from Josh Frydenberg, what were the reasons… the Mengniu decision, not to allow the sale to proceed? If national security, I understand. But what were the reasons - or national interest - given that the ACCC, Treasury, and we read the FIRB also said - or cleared the sale?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, the first question in relation to the arrangement with Minister Ciobo in 2017 was about cooperating in third party markets. It did not sign up to or endorse BRI. So that was not an arrangement that endorsed the BRI. It's not, it’s never been our government's policy, under either myself or the previous Prime Minister, that we signed up to or endorsed the BRI. So that was not such an agreement in those terms. In relation to the other matter, well, decisions on foreign investment are matters entirely and solely for the Treasurer, having served as a Treasurer, I understand that. They're done on a national interest basis and he's made that decision in accordance with the national interest as he's seen it, in relation to the advice he has received.
JOURNALIST: … in the June quarter it collapsed - business investment fell in the June quarter as largely forecast. How do you think all these issues and changes with China on trade, on foreign investment, how do you think that chips away at business confidence to re-invest?
PRIME MINISTER: What is important in relations with any country and our trade with China, as we speak, has never been at a higher level in terms of volumes or value. And I think that demonstrates, I think, the resilience of the mutual benefit that exists in the relationship between China and Australia. They make things and sell things that we want and we make things and sell things that they want. We've got a Comprehensive Strategic Partnership that enables that trade to take place and to reach the record levels it has. But what is also important in that relationship is that we're all very clear about what our interests are and that we're consistent about it. And Australia has always been, under our Government, very clear and very consistent about where we stand on important issues regarding our interests and our sovereignty, as have China, and I think that clarity creates certainty.
JOURNALIST: You’ve made five or six announcements or speeches this year which could be seen as attacking China.
PRIME MINISTER: I reject that.
JOURNALIST: You reject it?
PRIME MINISTER: I do.
JOURNALIST: Well, all these laws are about China, are they not?
PRIME MINISTER: No. These laws are about Australia's national sovereign interests.
JOURNALIST: Yet your biggest concern is China, is it not?
PRIME MINISTER: My biggest concern is Australia's national sovereign interest.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, Dan Andrews, it looks like Daniel Andrews will extend his emergency powers for six months, not a year as initially flagged. Is six months still too long? What do you think the ultimate timeframe is?
PRIME MINISTER: Ultimately, it's a call he has to make. And the nature of those laws in Victoria are different to how the laws work in New South Wales, which I understand are sort of open ended arrangements to how their legislation is set up. I think the concern the other day was the shock and the surprise to Victorians who were already in a pretty fragile and sensitive state. And I'm pleased there's been greater clarity that has been put around what the Premier announced. I wasn't the only person asking for that. I certainly communicated that to him as a concern, as I indicated to you yesterday. So I'm sure Victorians are relieved and pleased to know that there's not just not another 12 months of lockdown, but there's not enough six months of lockdown. And that's a matter for the Premier to deal with through his Parliament and what they agreed to provide. We have had our arrangements on a rolling three month review and we deal with that and review it regularly. This is why I was pleased to come to an agreement with the New South Wales Premier that, particularly when it comes on the issue the Foreign Minister and I have been working on, in terms of residents returning to Australia, that the Premier and I are reviewing those caps on a fortnightly basis, based on the most recent information. I think one of the key lessons in the pandemic is you’ve got to take things as they come. You’ve got to deal with the information in front of you, because it changes rapidly. Lock yourself in too far out and you can find circumstances change. Sure, you've got to give as much certainty as you can, and you've got to show the direction, and that’s why the direction I want to clearly set is to reopen Australia again, just like we did back in June, and we were on a great track. And sure, we've had a huge setback in Victoria, but we need to get back on that horse and we’ve got to go forward.
JOURNALIST: How will a National Commissioner prevent veterans from committing suicide and when will you appoint that person?
PRIME MINISTER: We're getting very close on that. The legislation, as you know, is coming through this week. And it has been a difficult task to find someone to take on those responsibilities because it needs to carefully combine the empathy, the sensitivity, the professional skills, to deal with looking at every single occasion where this has occurred and, regrettably, fear will occur in the future. The role of this Commissioner is to ensure that in each of these cases and the legislation that supports it is that in every case, we understand fully what has occurred. And so that can constantly inform the policies and supports that we put in place to support veterans. This has been a consistent area of action for my government. It's an area that I'm pleased to see us getting this in place, but you need to get the right people to implement it so it works effectively and that's what we've been working hard to try to achieve. I wish there was something that could be done that you could give a guarantee it prevents these things happening. I know people like Phil Thompson, the Member for Herbert, would love to see that happen. We all would. And we'll strive to find what it is. But I think this quite unique power, which treats these circumstances, these particular cases, with such personal attention, to understand every case, and why, because there are many factors. There are many factors when it comes to suicide in this country and it's not a simple linear process that has led people to take their own lives. Whether it's a young person, and this morning on the daily call that we have, Ruth Vine and Christine Morgan, each and every day, give me an update on the work they're doing, particularly at the moment to help young people in school and in university and other places of training, who are very anxious about their future. So whether it's young people dealing with that, and I know parents are worried about that. Whether it's our veterans, those who are going under quite significant economic hardship, particularly those suffering through the lockdown in Melbourne. I want to assure Australians that mental health was, from memory, the first thing we announced funding for, when it came to addressing the pandemic and we've continued to act on that all the way through. As important as it is for the pandemic, my mind has not also not left the plight of veterans. As you know, I acknowledge them every opportunity I have. And in acknowledging them, I hope that is a reminder to them that when it comes to their mental health, the supports that they need, that is something this Government considers each and every day. Thank you very much.
Statement On Indulgence - New Zealand
27 August 2020
On indulgence, Mr Speaker.
Justice today was delivered in New Zealand to the terrorist and murderer for his cowardly and horrific crimes and attacks on a Christchurch mosque. The world must never see from, of him, or hear from him ever again.
All Australians were and remain horrified and devastated by his despicable terrorist act. New Zealand is family to us in Australia. Today, we send our love across the ditch. And I had the opportunity to pass on those wishes directly to the New Zealand Prime Minister earlier today.
But out of the horror of this event, I simply want to refer to what emerged as an incredible grace and beauty in the form of Farid Ahmed, who I met with Jenny, at the memorial service in Christchurch at the time, and again when he came to visit me in Sydney in March of this year. Farid lost his wife that day, and his message in response was not one of hate, but one of hope and of love. He is truly one of the most inspirational people I have ever met. Incredibly humbling just to be in his presence.
I pay tribute to the Muslim community of New Zealand and also of Australia who have supported each other in these very difficult times, and today will be a time when it all comes back. And it hurts again. In a way just that bit more than it ordinarily does.
But the way they have done that reflects the goodness of their faith. You have been a light answering a terrible darkness.
God bless you, New Zealand, our whanau this day.
May it be another day of healing for everyone affected by this terrible terrorist atrocity.
Address and Q&A - Youth Futures Summit
24 August 2020
PRIME MINISTER: Well, thank you very much, Sophie. And thanks for everyone who is joining us here on this call today. I'm so glad we've had the opportunity to do this, and I particularly look forward to getting to the questions as soon as we can. But before I go any further, can I just acknowledge the Ngunnawal people, at least that’s where I am today in Canberra, and acknowledge their elders past and present and, of course, the future elders of young indigenous Australians who are coming through the ranks, who just give me so much hope in the way they are, sort of seeking to take forward the many important issues in indigenous communities right across the country. Can I also acknowledge the many young people who are serving in our defence forces and many young people who are already veterans of that service. They’ve made an incredible sacrifice for our country.
Last Saturday, week, I was down at the War Memorial and I was there to mark the 75th anniversary of the end of the Second World War. And it was quite a sobering time for those of us who did not live through that period and I'm assuming that everyone who is on this call, I suspect. To think back what it was like in those times is hard to get your head around. I used to talk to my grandparents about it. My grandfather fought the Second World War and I met three fellows there who had served in the Army and the Navy and the Air Force. All now in their late 90s, they joined up when they were 16, 17 and 18, and they've gone off to fight in that terrible conflict. And I think of the life that they've led since then and their experience and when I've talked to particularly veterans and those, in all conflicts we've been in one of the things I've learnt and I think I hope one of the things that you're learning as you go through a generational challenge like you're facing now is that you're stronger than you think. These experiences test us all. And we find out how strong we are as individuals. We find out how strong our relationships are. We find out how much we depend on each other in these times. And I think this is a time for us to reflect on that and how we can support each other and help each other through what is a very difficult time. Young people are feeling the blow of this economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and the COVID-19 recession that it has caused, more than arguably any other part of our community.
Now, when I came out of university, and it seems like a very long time ago now, and it was because it was almost 30 years ago that Australia experienced its last recession. And I left university, like many of you are now, who are going through university or worrying about what does it mean next year when you get out of school? And that was the case for many of my friends too, back at that time. There was a lot of uncertainty. There were a million people out of work. There were there were hard economic times. Unemployment was high. But then, as now, there was also hope. There was still opportunity and those opportunities were realised. And that will be the case also for young Australians today, because I want to assure you, as difficult as it is at the moment, there is another side to this. There is another side where Australia emerges once again, where we actually do go back to the life that we loved and we’re working so hard to achieve again.
Now, hopefully that occurs with a vaccine, but if a vaccine doesn't come soon, we will find a way to ensure that we can get things as back to normal as we possibly can. And we've all got a role to play in achieving that. It begins with ensuring that we beat this virus as best as we possibly can and we suppress it so we can just continue to go to school, to go to university, to get trained, to get into jobs, to spend time with our friends, to enjoy family, enjoy the wonderful country and move around as we like. And that means we need to continue to be diligent when it comes to our social distancing, when it comes to dealing with, if you're crook don’t go to work, make sure you get tested. Testing, tracing, containing the outbreaks, making sure that we manage all of the important social distancing. Because while young people specifically are often not the ones most impacted in a health sense by Covid-19, we do know that young people also can be one of the most significant spreaders of the virus in terms of social interactions. And that puts the most vulnerable in our community at risk, not just, and I'm not just talking about older Australians, I'm talking about those who are undergoing chemotherapy treatments, and have immune deficiencies, and are coping with those, that could be young children. It's remote indigenous communities. It's those with disabilities. It's right across our community and all of us I know have a responsibility to do the best we possibly can and I now you are to ensure that we can protect all all Australians in our community. That means we can open up our economy again. And I'm so keen to see us do that.
You know, we're turning this corner in Victoria. I know it's really hard for people in Victoria, but you're turning the corner. The sacrifices that you're making, the terrible events of having a curfew in Melbourne, something I thought unimaginable in this country. We've never had one before. Even in the war, we didn't have one. And here we are. A curfew in our, one of our most, large and most significant cities in the country. These are historic times. They are confronting times. They are anxious times. They can be scary times. But at the same time, what I do know is that Australia is doing better than almost every other developed country in the world today, both from a health perspective as well as from an economic perspective. And if we keep on the path of working together and keeping the virus suppressed, even when we have outbreaks like in Victoria getting back on top of it, then we will continue to chart our way out of this.
I know that young people have lost jobs, but I know 150,000 young people have found jobs again in the last few months. And there will be more. The way our economy has been impacted by the shutdowns means that it's actually young people, while being the first to be impacted, will also be the first to find jobs again. But we know we have to do more than that to ensure that young people get opportunities again. And that's why I've put $2 billion dollars into a JobTrainer fund and it’s supporting 180,000 apprentices and it’s creating 340,000 additional training places for people who will be looking for those opportunities as they come out of school or they lose employment. We're putting a lot of effort into skills training in this country and we'll be ensuring that those university places are maintained and kept up to ensure those who will be looking for university options when they leave school. But we can make sure that those places are there as well for you to rely on and so you can study and prepare yourself for your future.
The other point I wanted to make is I know the mental stress and the anxiety that comes with the COVID-19 pandemic and recession. I know that's particularly tough. And I was with Pat McGorry. Many of you might know him, who was the instigator of HeadSpace many years ago with the Howard government and Pat was raising with me the concerns particularly faced by young people in Victoria. So we put more resources into HeadSpace, into Lifeline, into Kid’s Helpline all of these important mental health supports, and the Victorian government has done the same thing, in New South Wales they’ve put an extra $80 million dollars into mental health supports. There is a complete open door in getting further mental health resources, particularly for young people, in to the community. When I was speaking with some young people that Pat introduced me to though, they were university students, and people still in year 12. They also told me that they weren't just worried about themselves. They worried about their families, they were worried about their grandparents, they were worried about their parents going through difficult economic times. And my message to you is simply this, the resources and the help is there. And I'd encourage you to reach out to it. And we will keep putting more resources into these mental health supports as much as is necessary to ensure that that is there to help people. And so reach out to each other, look out for each other, reach out to the support services that are available. They are there for you and they are intentionally designed to help you get through these times of anxiety. I know what it was like 30 years ago, and this is much worse. And I know the anxieties that you will feel. And I know the care and love that you have for your families and your friends and how that also impacts on you.
But you know, Australia's an amazing place, just like those three old diggers that I met last Saturday week down at the War Memorial. They got through it. Australians have come through everything. And you know what? Every time we’ve come out of it, we’ve come out of it stronger. And this is your generation's challenge. This is my generation's challenge, who are in leadership now. It is our challenge together to demonstrate that we are up to the inspiration that our grandparents, my grandparent’s generation went through during that Second World War and the Depression. We are up to this. You’re up to this. I'm counting on you. You're counting on me. And so let's make a deal. Let's let's live up to that promise to each other and help each other. And we will get through this together.
Thank you very much.
SOPHIE JOHNSTON, YOUTH COMMISSIONER, NATIONAL YOUTH COMMISSION AUSTRALIA: Thank you Mr Prime Minister, we might come in to some questions now, and this is why we run Summits like this to bring together, to hear from start putting those forward plans in and you acknowledge that young people have been in some of [inaudible] but young people were struggling in insecure work even before the crisis. We were experiencing low wage growth, struggling to get into work that was relevant to what we studied. And this has all been really exacerbated by the crisis. We saw that of the total job losses between March and May 44 per cent of them were young people aged 15 to 25, you know for the past 18 months, the National Youth Commission has been going around the country preparing this discussion paper on a youth futures guarantee, you know, a national strategy for young people. My question to you today is, will your government commit to working towards a national strategy that deals- encompasses this broader set of issues that young people are facing today?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, of course we’ll engage with that. I mean, the one of my most important priorities is to get young people into jobs, because I know I've worked in many different portfolios. I've worked as an Immigration Minister, a Social Services Minister, a Treasurer. And I know that if I can't get a young person into a job by their early 20s, mid 20s, then I know they will face even greater challenges over the course of their life and become dependent on welfare, which is not what I want for any Australian, not because it costs money, of course it does, but the greater loss, the greater cost to the country is an Australian that hasn't been able to realise their potential. And that's why I'm so committed to getting young people into work. That's why I'm so committed to working with the Premiers, and we've recently- that JobTrainer agreement we had put an extra billion dollars into training support and an agreement to reform how skills training is delivered in this country, so young people can get trained for jobs that are actually there with skills that businesses actually need. That's how young people get into jobs. But to get young people into jobs, we've got to have businesses that are successful and that are growing and we've got to get things out of the way so businesses can actually take people on and put them in more secure work. Governments can't create more secure work, economies, businesses that employ people, they create secure work. And it's important that we get the changes in place so businesses can employ more young people. One of the programmes I was involved in when I was Treasurer was the Youth PaTH programme to ensure that, particularly young, longer term, disadvantaged young people could get the skills they need to even get to an interview, let alone be successful in that interview, to be able to get themselves in a position where they were getting many of the skills needed to be able to get a job that for whatever reason, through no fault of their own. I'm quite certain the vast majority of cases I mean, I was fortunate. I had wonderful parents. I lost my father earlier this year, but I had wonderful parents that taught me many things. So many young people sadly these days don’t have that and we need to ensure that they get the supports now that make up for that. Where they’ve been let down in those circumstances and so they can succeed in life. So it's a, it's a huge priority for me and COVID, no COVID, it remains a huge priority.
SOPHIE JOHNSTON, YOUTH COMMISSIONER, NATIONAL YOUTH COMMISSION AUSTRALIA: Sorry Mr Prime Minister. I just want to get to the crux of the question there, because it is really about a national strategy. You know, we can talk as much as we want about you know, foreseeing a future where young people are able to get into jobs. But you are the Prime Minister and you have the capacity to put forward a plan to address these issues and I just want to go back to that question, which is, will you look to a national youth strategy? Because we haven't seen something like that since 2010 and we're seeing now that the effects of the system is that it's not working for young people, so will your government look to a national strategy for young people?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, we'll continue to follow a national strategy and where that strategy needs to be continually updated, improved, that's exactly what we’ll do. That's why getting young people in jobs, that is our strategy. That is our plan. And for that, they need the training, they need the skills and they need the jobs that they can go into, that realises their economic opportunities and gives them that start in life. So whether it's the investment in education, record investments in education over the next decade, schools funding is locked in for a decade. That's what we've been able to achieve. The skills training reforms that we're taking through the Premiers. I mean, that's what matters. Getting stuff actually changed and getting stuff done. So the Youth Minister will continue to work on those issues with those in the sector and we’ll listen carefully. A youth strategy has to bring into place the economic side of things, the social dimension of things. I mean, youth suicide prevention, we've made it a national priority for this country and we've still got much more work to do. So there's no shortage of attention on the issues that are impacting young people. And my government will continue to address those in every single budget. As we have.
SOPHIE JOHNSTON, YOUTH COMMISSIONER, NATIONAL YOUTH COMMISSION AUSTRALIA: You mentioned access to university, but the education Minister Dan Tehan recently announced some pretty concerning policies that will increase the barriers to university access. Is this not in conflict with a commitment to making them more accessible?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, I don't agree with what you've put forward. What we're actually doing is creating more places and more opportunities, particularly in regional areas. You know, again, I grew up in Sydney. I grew up not far from the University of New South Wales. I could run home from university it was so close. But if you're living in a regional centre, if you're not in one of those cities where those facilities are more accessible, it's much tougher. And what Dan Tehan is doing, I mean, he comes from regional Victoria. He understands what's going on with young people in regional areas. And he knows that we need to get more places and more support to people living in those communities. So, look, I'd only suggest to you that that's not what Dan is doing as you outlined, Dan's actually doing the opposite. He's trying to get more opportunities and particularly for young people in regional areas who so often have to leave their homes, leave their communities, leave the life that they want to have in regional areas and have to go to other places. We want to give them those opportunities where they are.
SOPHIE JOHNSTON, YOUTH COMMISSIONER, NATIONAL YOUTH COMMISSION AUSTRALIA: I appreciate that you mentioned mental health in your introduction. And this is such a critical issue particularly for young people today. We know are seeing increasing rates of mental illness and suicide, particularly amongst young people and this has really been exacerbated by the health crisis. But we know that it's really critical not to be talking about mental in silos as so many other factors come into play in this space, which is why we sort of talk about this holistic approach around jobs and education and training. And one of the other factors there is the social safety net. And we know that this was increased, the JobSeeker payment, increased at the beginning of the crisis. And that was really, really critical. And I know so many people appreciated that increase. Will the government commit to maintaining that higher level of Social Security beyond the March 2020, 2021? Given that so many reports say that it’s not plausible to live on such a low rate?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, you're right to note that we did double the payment through the COVID supplement, not just for JobSeeker, but for Youth Allowance, other, as well, which many people would be accessing as well. And not just for new people who are coming on it, but those who were already on it. And we've currently got arrangements in place for those supplements to be extended out to the end of December. And I said at the time that it's my expectation that given where things are at, that things would be extended out beyond that. Right now, whether it's JobSeeker or JobKeeper, we're just very focussed on dealing with the economic supports we have to do through the pandemic. And we are waiting until we get to a better position in the pandemic before we make longer term commitments on this. Now we're aware, and have done a lot of work on the adequacy of these payments and how they go forward. But we also have done a lot of work on how they impact on how the jobs market works and how sometimes these things can work against actually getting people into jobs. So right now, you can expect that those those supports to continue to be in place throughout the pandemic, we will look precisely at what we do post December in the not too distant future. And then beyond that, we'll make further decisions. But for now, it's about getting through the pandemic and and what can be done in the pandemic, because we're literally trying to help people in these situations get from day to day.
SOPHIE JOHNSTON, YOUTH COMMISSIONER, NATIONAL YOUTH COMMISSION AUSTRALIA: There are a lot of anxieties though for people, particularly young people we know are really hard hit by economic downturns, and the reason for that is we are usually at the start of our working lives. There's little to no savings in the bank. And for today’s young people we are really in casualised and insecure work, and so regardless of whether we're not in stage one or two or three of the pandemic, we’re always going to need to pay rent and put food on the table. And these expiry dates of the JobKeeper and the JobSeeker payments really do place a lot of uncertainty on young people, and so what we’re really asking is, do young people, can young people have faith that should the pandemic continue beyond March should we, um, we remain in a position where jobs are few and far between? Or underemployment continues to affect young people. Will we be able to rely on the government so that we can continue to live and put food on the table?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, just look at what we've done. I mean, JobKeeper and JobSeeker, JobKeeper is a programme now, with what we're putting in the parliament this week, of more than $100 billion dollars. This is the single largest income support measure any government in this country has ever introduced. And I hope there won't be a need for one of that size again. But you can obviously never rule that out. And so the government moved quickly. And we did also, in fact, we moved on JobSeeker even more quickly. And so where the economic circumstances demanded, we have already demonstrated quickly and decisively and comprehensively to put those supports in place. So my commitment is what we've done. And I think young people can look at what we did and how quickly we did it to know that if people are needing help, they're going to get it.
SOPHIE JOHNSTON, YOUTH COMMISSIONER, NATIONAL YOUTH COMMISSION AUSTRALIA: I just have two final questions before we’ll run out of time, the next question’s about climate change, and as you know, this is a huge issue, not just for young people, but people of you know, all walks of life. And my question is, what role will jobs in the renewable energy space play in regards to employment policies?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, they already are. I mean, Australia has one of the highest rates of, if not one of the highest rates of renewable energy investment anywhere in the world today. We have had record years of investments going into renewable energy technologies. And that's been supported by the Clean Energy Finance Corporation, renewable energy targets, all of these measures that have been successfully put in place and has been getting those outcomes. Now, one of the great outcomes has been that renewable energy now is standing strongly on its own two feet and is attracting investment because it actually delivers a return. And we would expect to continue to see strong investment into those areas, not just because of Australia's natural advantages in this area, but it makes good sense for the investors, not just here in Australia, the big institutional funds, but overseas investors, as well, are seeing those opportunities. So I expect to continue to see a strong investment in renewable energy technologies going into the future. What I'd also add to that, though, is to make renewable energies, particularly as part of the energy grid, more effective, you need greater firming power. That means that when the sun doesn't shine and the wind doesn't blow, the demands of reliable energy, which intermittent renewables can't provide, I mean, that's just a fact, you need the support of things like pumped hydro, we have the biggest investment in the southern hemisphere of pumped hydro in the Snowy Hydro scheme, not far from where I am right now. Billions of dollars going into that investment. And on top of that, what we're seeking to do with gas investments is ensure that those intermittent sources of renewables, the wind and other power, solar power and so on, is firmed by those gas fired arrangements, which makes the renewable technologies usable and viable for the longer term. So you've got to have the two working together. So gas will provide a transition fuel support to our grid as the technology improves. But beyond that, we're investing significant amounts of public money into things like hydrogen and that technology and other forms of technology which will, over time, ensure that we have a full transition occurring in our energy sector. But at the same time, we'll keep generating the jobs. And because without those jobs, as we started, jobs are so essential for young Australians. And whether that's in the renewable energy sector or anywhere else.
SOPHIE JOHNSTON, YOUTH COMMISSIONER, NATIONAL YOUTH COMMISSION AUSTRALIA: Thank you Prime Minister, and I know you have to go in a minute but I just have one final question, it hopefully will take a yes or a no, but in going forward young people, as this conference has shown, really want a seat at the table to be able to contribute to these discussions as we will be affected long into the future about decisions that are made today. Will you commit to genuinely engaging and consulting with young people on decisions moving forward that will affect our lives?
PRIME MINISTER: Always have, always will.
SOPHIE JOHNSTON, YOUTH COMMISSIONER, NATIONAL YOUTH COMMISSION AUSTRALIA: Thanks for your time Mr Prime Minister.
PRIME MINISTER: Thank you, thanks for yours.
Statement On Indulgence - Member for Eden-Monaro
24 August 2020
PRIME MINISTER: Thank you, Mr Speaker. I join with the Leader of the Opposition in welcoming the Member for Eden-Monaro as well and to her family, I welcome you also here to this place today.
Mr Speaker, today, like the rest of our country, our Parliament meets with rules and restrictions and innovations that were unthinkable months ago.
It's important that we meet to assert our hope for the future.
To take further action needed to protect the lives and livelihoods of Australians.
And to affirm that whatever we face as a nation, our parliamentary democracy will function. And demonstrate our shared commitment across this chamber to the welfare of the Australian people.
COVID-19, a highly contagious, relentless virus unlike anything we have seen in roughly a century has taken a terrible toll since we last met here in this place.
Around the world, there have been over 23 million confirmed cases and more than 800,000 confirmed fatalities from COVID-19. But we know the figure is likely far higher than that.
In Australia, there have now been almost 25,000 cases of COVID-19, and very sadly, more than 500 deaths. More than 400 of those in Victoria alone.
This is a heavy toll.
Millions of Victorians are now enduring a winter of isolation, anxiety, and too often, terrible personal loss.
But while they are isolated, Mr Speaker, we gather to say to your fellow Victorians, you are not alone.
We have deployed more than 1,700 Defence Force personnel to assist on the ground in Victoria. A further 1,700 ADF personnel are deployed across our nation as part of Operation COVID Assist.
We have sent hundreds of Commonwealth officials and other public health experts to Victoria. Together they are leading efforts to support aged care facilities, support testing and tracing, help out with control points, doorknocking and assist with planning and logistical tasks.
We have also injected on top of other supports an extra $33 million to the Victorian childcare sector to secure places for families, to protect jobs in the sector and keep these centres viable,
And we have made supporting the mental health of Victorians a priority. Especially young Victorians, who are finishing school, or at university or out of work and are concerned about their future.
And there's a further $50 million package of support that is now under way.
I'm pleased other states and territories have also stepped up too, and I thank the premiers and chief ministers of those states for their prompt assistance, sending nurses, testing, and tracing support, and other help to our friends in Victoria.
Despite our many challenges, especially in Victoria, we can take heart from the unswerving commitment of so many Australians from all walks of life, waging this daily war to suppress and ultimately defeat this virus.
Nurses, doctors, care workers and other front-line health professionals. Cleaners and truck drivers, police officers, farmers, shearers, retail staff.
All keeping our country running.
Public servants, I thank also. Including health officials, border officers and other army of staff, processing benefit payments to give their fellow Australians support and hope.
Every day and all day we make decisions and we take actions necessary to keep Australians safe.
We do so in an environment unprecedented in our lifetimes.
We do not claim infallibility. We do not pretend to perfect information, foresight or results in this pandemic, nor do we deny the high expectations that are rightly set for us as Australians.
But we openly acknowledge the honest truth that on some days, the virus does and will get the better of us and we fall short. Not a unique experience in Australia in these times.
And on those days, we're asked for patience and understanding, and I have been overwhelmed by the encouragement received from a generous Australian people, who quietly understand the challenges and difficulties of these times.
And I'm thankful to all of them, for their messages of support. Indeed, for their prayers, from the youngest to the most senior in our communities.
All who are engaged in this great effort in government are giving it their all.
Whether they be prime ministers, premiers, or ministers, making decisions, or public officials giving the best advice they possibly can in a constantly changing and challenging environment.
Our efforts seek to match those being made by the Australian people, impacted by these twin crises of the pandemic and its recession.
On those days, when our efforts fall short, none are more sorry than I as Prime Minister.
We do not let those days, however, dampen our hope, nor distract nor discourage us from the task that remains at hand. We learn from those days, we lift our heads, and we get back at it the next morning, and each and every day.
That's why our nation, Australia, has done and continues to do better than most of the developed nations in the world today.
The United Kingdom, the United States, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, the Netherlands, Sweden, Canada, Ireland, Israel, all experiencing case and fatality rates well in excess of Australia, and in some cases, more than 30 times per head of population.
And importantly, we maintain a strident hope for the future as recent days of disappointment are once again beginning to turn in our nation's favour.
In seven states and territories, we have continued to be highly successful in suppressing community transmission, especially in New South Wales.
And in Victoria, we have turned the corner once again. The daily sacrifices and efforts of Victorians are making a difference each and every day.
Australia will only succeed when Victoria succeeds as well.
Yet the outbreak in Victoria, its re-emergence in countries like New Zealand, and second waves across Europe, the United States, and Asia, including Japan, have clearly shown this virus is patient and it continues to stalk.
It's an enemy that will continue to probe for weakness. To live alongside this virus, to reopen our economies and bring down our internal borders and return our lives to as normal as possible, we must keep to the staples of successful containment and suppression of the virus.
Strong international border protection and quarantine measures.
Rigorous testing and tracing capabilities.
An ability to respond decisively to localised outbreaks and isolate hot spots appropriately defined, without shutting down our economy.
And consistent hygiene and social distancing behaviours, including wear a mask when required, and if you're sick, stay at home, and get tested.
We must also continue to focus on protecting the most vulnerable, and we are doing so.
Sadly, there have been 335 deaths, 335 deaths in residential and in-home aged care.
Where loved ones have succumbed to the virus in Australia. Once again, we send our sincere sympathies and condolences to the families of all those bereaved in this way.
There are 2,706 residential aged care facilities in Australia. In 92 per cent of these facilities, there's been no infections among residents [and staff]. This compares sharply to many countries around the world, such as the United Kingdom, Italy and Spain. In Victoria, where there has been high levels of community transmission, 126 of the 766 residential aged care facilities have outbreaks among residents and staff.
Of those facilities that have experienced infections across Australia, the impact has been significant in 16 cases. And in 4 cases, the impact has been severe, and completely unacceptable. Again, I offer my apologies to the residents and families of those affected in those facilities. It was not good enough.
Investigations and reviews are under way as is appropriate, including by the Royal Commission into Aged Care that I established. As of this morning, the number of significantly impacted facilities has been reduced to 3. The situation in these facilities remains fragile as I'm advised, as early this morning, but stable.
We will continue on with the task, having so far committed more than $1 billion in aged care supports. We'll continue working to address the many challenging issues in aged care, from waste management, to infection control, staff support, communications with families, the issues are many.
We are learning and applying the lessons of our experiences. We are continually updating our plans, working with our partners, the states, and territory health systems and aged care providers, such as through the Victorian Aged Care Response Centre. We're on the ground, not just in Victoria, but across other states and territories, bolstering preparedness and to put in place even stronger arrangements in the event that our response needs to be scaled up to counter any new threat that presents.
Mr Speaker, we are also facing a concurrent economic crisis as I’ve reminded the house on many occasions as a result of this pandemic. Between February and May, more than 2 million Australians either lost their jobs or saw their hours reduced.
The national measured unemployment rate is now expected to peak at close to 10 per cent in the December quarter of this year. But the effective unemployment rate is expected to reach over 13 per cent.
Our job is to protect jobs.
Wherever we can get as many Australians back into jobs as possible, we will. Wherever we can protect those jobs, we will. And we're making our way back. As the Treasurer has reminded us today, more than half of the 1.3 million Australians who had lost their jobs or been stood down to zero hours have found their way back in to work. This is a great start.
Through our collective health and economic actions we have avoided the scale of economic pain experienced elsewhere around the world, the decline in our economy at the start of the year in the March quarter was smaller than most of the developed world. Subsequent forecasts by the OECD and the IMF have suggested that Australia's economy will be less affected than almost any developed economy in the world.
In the June quarter, we've already seen falls of 10 per cent in the United States and Germany, 14 per cent in France, and more than 20 per cent in the United Kingdom. We'll receive our data for Australia's economic performance next week. Our contraction will be substantial and heart breaking, of course. But we're confident it will be much lower than the countries that I have mentioned.
Alleviating this pain, our government is providing an unprecedented level of economic support to Australians, at more than $300 billion and more than 15.3 per cent of Australia's economy. It is support that is being updated and adapted as circumstances require.
Last month, we announced the extension of the JobKeeper programme until the end of March. The single largest economic measure any Australian government has ever undertaken at a cost of more than $100 billion alone. This week, we will legislate those changes. This will keep more businesses in business and more Australians in jobs.
As well, last month we announced the extension of the JobSeeker coronavirus supplement until the end of 2020. Many other supports and reforms are being rolled out as we both cushion the economic blow from COVID-19 and prepare the ground for economic recovery through the JobMaker plan I announced several months ago. They include the bringing forward of infrastructure investments, a major skills and training package through JobTrainer, together with the states and territories, faster approval processes and further steps to reduce barriers to job creation and investment, and initiatives to lower gas and electricity prices to support, in particular, our manufacturers.
We'll have more to say on those issues as the Treasurer brings down the budget in October, when he'll give further details on our JobMaker plan to take Australia out of the COVID-19 recession.
Mr Speaker, there's still a long road ahead when it comes to this COVID-19 crisis, but the key to a post-COVID world has always been a vaccine. And there is hope. Our arrangements with AstraZeneca are working towards securing a COVID-19 vaccine for 25 million Australians. The vaccine is being developed by the University of Oxford and is currently in an advanced stage of development. If trials prove successful, safe, and effective it could be available next year.
We welcome that development, Mr Speaker. Every single Australian would be able to receive the vaccine for free. And it will be rolled out in accordance with expert medical advice.
We're also in advanced discussions with other vaccine candidates and these include our very own CSL - University of Queensland molecular clamp vaccine amongst others, and we're backing our brightest and best to find a vaccine. In total our government is investing $250 million in vaccine medical research.
Mr Speaker, in conclusion, early this year I said that for many, this would be our toughest year ever. And sadly, this has proven true. But together, we have also proven our strength, and we're staring down this challenge, right across our generations. And together, we will see better days ahead.
So today, let us now claim the hope, Mr Speaker, let's lay hold of that hope and press forward together, stronger and safer and always together.
Press Conference - Canberra, ACT
21 August 2020
Prime Minister: Good afternoon everyone. Today's meeting of the National Cabinet came during a week of what I'd describe of increased hope. This was a week of hope. We were able to speak of the progress being made on vaccines, a week of hope where we've seen the instances of cases in Victoria turn the corner and head in the right direction again. A week where today, in particular, we saw the outcomes in New South Wales, which are demonstrating how we live alongside the virus and that through strong testing, tracing and outbreak containment practises that we get through this. We stay open, we keep people in jobs, and we keep investing in the things that can enable us to go forward. And in all the other states and territories where we continue to see positive news. Hearing today from the Western Australian and Tasmanian Premiers about the positive things they're seeing in their economies, particularly in the building and construction sectors, despite COVID. And so as the Premiers and Chief Ministers and I came together with Professor Kelly, we could reflect on a week where there was increased hope after many weeks which have been incredibly difficult. Most difficult, of course, for those in Melbourne and across Victoria, for those living in border regions who've had to deal with the inconveniences and the difficult challenges of border restrictions, particularly on the eastern coast where there are so many living in proximity and accessing services and employment across those borders.
Of course, there are issues that are still difficult to work through as a National Cabinet but what I can assure you after today's meeting is that the National Cabinet continues to focus on where it can agree. Where there are issues, where it can't reach agreement, well, we move on and keep dealing with the things we need to do where we can reach agreement. Very pleasing to report today that Western Australia has joined the JobTrainer program and that means we now have a billion dollars. 340,000 training places fully funded, secured in the arrangement between all the states and territories and the Commonwealth. And I thank the Western Australian Premier and Western Australian Government for coming on board.
The issues which we address today commenced with the economy. Dr Lowe and Dr Kennedy joined the National Cabinet. Dr Lowe, in particular, but also supported in the remarks by Dr Kennedy and Premiers and Chief Ministers, have asked me to rely quite specifically what they raised today. That is Dr Lowe and Dr Kennedy. The biggest challenge, which is shared by our governments is unemployment. It's jobs. It's about getting Australians back into jobs. It's about keeping Australians in jobs. It's about training Australians to get into jobs that will be there in the future. With unemployment expected to be at a measured rate of over seven percent over the next two years, jobs is the issue. The number one economic issue. And with rates low and expected to be low and financial markets performing well and rates being in the position where we could expect them to be for at least three years, if not more, which is what Dr Lowe told us this morning. It was important for governments to focus on three key areas, three areas that I must say match exactly the economic policy of our Government.
Firstly, income support, JobKeeper, JobSeeker, other payments and support of persons across the country of which is predominantly and overwhelmingly done by the Commonwealth. But state and territory governments are also engaging in that area and we welcome that. Secondly, in the area of infrastructure programs and capital works programs, training and skills programs across energy, transport, housing, schools and hospitals. Thirdly, to ensure there is a greater ease of doing business and investment through areas like taxes and regulation, ensuring there is a dynamism that will be in our economy as it seeks to recover in the years ahead. It was very much an outlook that Dr Lowe and Dr Kennedy spoke of not just for today, but for tomorrow and in the years ahead. And these are three critical areas.
Now, particularly in relation to the second of these points - that is infrastructure and programmes - these were areas that Dr Lowe was addressing specifically and directly to the states. As I've noted before, the level of Commonwealth investment in fiscal intervention in this crisis is well over 15 percent of our economy. As a share of state domestic product of the states, in total around two and a half percent. Now, that ranges across the states and territories. But the Reserve Bank Governor called on the states and territories today to lift their fiscal investment over the next two years in programs of the nature that I've outlined, which didn't lead to permanent increases in public spending to the tune of two per cent of GDP or $40 billion over the next two years. Right now, currently, all of the announced measures of the states and territories are currently sitting in the vicinity of just shy of $48 billion. So the Governor is saying there needs to be an additional $40 billion dollars on top of that by the states and territories over the next two years. But this needs to be done in a coordinated way. Don't expect states and territories to be making announcements tomorrow morning about where that will be done. That will need to be done in a careful and purposeful way, in a way that builds and works off existing programmes to get the maximum efficiency that extends capital programs that are already in place, training programs like JobTrainer itself, which are incredibly important for supporting that adjustment. The debt that will be required to fund that is one that the Reserve Bank Governor said can be absorbed by the states and territories with their existing areas of exposure and I would support that view. State debt to GDP to GSP, I should say, is far less than what it is for the Commonwealth and they are in position to raise those funds. And as you know, the Reserve Bank is active in the markets to ensure that the rights of the borrower are maintained at low levels for many years to come. And so there is an opportunity for them to do that. But the expenditure, of course, needs to be purposeful. It needs to be targeted. It needs to go where it's going to have the best effect. We had a very good discussion about that, about how state governments can be supporting local governments with their works and their measures, particularly as they reach out beyond metropolitan areas into regional communities as well and we welcome that discussion. We spoke of things like water infrastructure and the like.
Currently, as I said, it's around two point four per cent of GDP where the states in total, that's all of them together, currently have their measures. And that ranges from about 1.3 per cent here in the ACT, that is the state product, to 3.7 per cent of gross state product in Tasmania. So it's important that we do this together to make sure what the Commonwealth is doing while we would be doing things in 100 per cent capacity in our own right. Equally, state governments on things like housing and local government expenditure, which are contained completely in their bailiwick. They would do that, but we would seek to synchronise it wherever possible and where there are infrastructure projects and other programs like JobTrainer, then we're doing them with each other and giving good forward plans to give confidence to the economy.
Now, the second area that we spent quite a bit of time on today was aged care and the work that we reported to you last time will be coming back to the National Cabinet and the further work that has been done on preparedness. There was an agreement to how an emergency response operation centre would be established in other jurisdictions, a model on what is being done with the experience in Victoria. It was noted that there are existing arrangements with states and territories currently, which are dealing with the demands as they're currently presenting in the states and territories. And there was no need at this point to move any of those other states and territories to the footing we have in Victoria with the scale of those operations. So that is acknowledged. And I particularly acknowledge the work that has been done in Queensland in that respect and in New South Wales, where we've been working closely with them and those programs are good. But if either the Commonwealth or the state or territory believes that we need to initiate taking that level of co-operation to a whole new level through an aged care response centre then either jurisdiction can initiate that process, and that will be done on a bilateral basis.
Now, to support those plans today, I'm announcing that the Commonwealth will be investing a further $171 million dollars to extend our aged care response package and support the announcement that we have made, that takes our total investment in aged care throughout this pandemic to more than a billion dollars. The government will be providing $9.1 million in particular for funding to support the operation of, the further operations of the Victorian aged care response centre, we’ll be investing an additional $103.4 million in the already announced aged care COVID-19 preparedness measures. That includes workforce measures, activating national emergency call centres, search capabilities, for communications particularly with families, funding and compressed training programmes for new workers, covering quarantine costs for interstate staff deployed and strengthening the capacity to support aged care residents and their families with the grief and trauma associated with the COVID-19 outbreak.
Now these are all things that we've already been doing. We're going to need to be doing them for much longer and further resource and support will be necessary. There's also a further $50.6 million that will be provided to extend funding for the second instalment of the aged care workforce retention payment that is due to be paid in September. And we are also providing an additional $9 million dollars to the Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission to support their ongoing regulation of aged care. And Professor Kelly will talk a bit more about issues regarding assessments being made in aged care facilities. I was pleased to learn this morning, getting my report from Joe Buffone who heads up the Aged Care Response Centre, from today 40 facilities being visited each and every day in Victoria. And then that will progress into other states and territories.
On the borders, we made further progress today. On the borders I welcome the decision by the Queensland Government made as we went into this meeting and overnight, which has eased the restrictions for accessing health services for people who are coming out of hotspots and also expanding the border zones and additional postcode areas. These are matters that have been raised and I think is evidence of the working relationship that is there to deal with the practical issues on the ground of borders being put in place. Equally, New South Wales and Victoria have been able to come to agreements assisted by the Commonwealth, particularly in relation to the movement of agricultural workers. And as issues are being raised, particularly for access to medical services, then they are also being addressed. We also agreed today that in a fortnight's time we'll be coming back from Agricultural Ministers, an agricultural workers code along similar lines to the freight code that we agreed two weeks ago, which just deals with the practical issues of how those in the agricultural workforce are managing their activities across these borders where they are in place. I will continue to interact directly with Premiers, particularly in South Australia, New South Wales and in Queensland on individual cases. And I thank them for their cooperation as we've been working through those individual instances.
We also agreed, the medical expert panel, the AHPPC we are referring to them, again, the issue of identifying what a hot spot is, because when you have restrictions that are being placed on people’s movement in the country based on what is and what is not a hot spot, there needs to be a clear medical and scientific definition of what that is. These decisions cannot be made on an arbitrary basis. I'm not suggesting they are. I'm just saying and it was agreed today that we are going to ask once again, it’s a very difficult topic, for us to get a clear definition of what constitutes a hotspot. And so people who are living in those areas will know when they're in one and when they're not, when they can go and access health services or where that might be a problem and they might have to have other arrangements. We need to get more clarity. The agreement today, the work today was about practically working together to resolve issues, often, if not entirely unintended how the borders are put in place. But the other point I'd make about borders is this, of course it's necessary for where they're put in place but there needs to be a careful balance weighed up about the disruption and the cost and impact of those borders, weighed up against of the health benefits that are achieved by those borders. Now they are decisions for Premiers, they are decisions for state governments, and it's entirely reasonable that they would be speaking to that balance that they are seeking to achieve in the arrangements they're putting in place.
Borders, though, are no substitute for testing, tracing, and outbreak containment. You can get outbreaks in states that have borders. Now, the case in New Zealand at the moment is still at a very modest level. But you can pretty much say they had fairly secure borders when it came to how they were dealing with the virus. Outbreaks can occur in states that have borders. Quarantine arrangements won't always be perfect. They are human processes and they can be subject to vulnerability. The issue is not just if quarantine doesn't hold, but what happens if quarantine doesn't hold. What happens next? How does the tracing capacity kick in? How do you maintain the testing regime? And today we reinforce the need for testing regimes to remain up to the mark. I think New South Wales had 32,000 tests yesterday. Victoria is running at about 20,000 tests. Other states are running at much less. And even where you've had no cases, it's very important that you maintain a very substantial testing regime. Borders are no substitute for not having an adequate testing regime. I'm not suggesting any states and territories don't. I'm just reinforcing that that was agreed to be a key factor.
Now, we also agreed an arrangement regarding seasonal workers that largely deals with those who are already here, but where there is a need to have seasonal workers, particularly under the Pacific Labour Scheme and things of that nature, that was agreed amongst states.
You'll also be pleased to know that there was agreement to the common operating picture, which I undertook to raise last week, last, I think it was last week, states and territories have agreed that that common operating picture will be released on a weekly basis. That will start next Friday and it will be the average seven day running results of the week. Just one-point-in-time figure once a week is a bit meaningless in isolation, it would be much better assisted, we are certainly, by having the average results of the week.
Finally, you would have noted the announcement today by Premier Andrews that we are upgrading the disability sector, a joint response centre, the performance in the disability sector we agree has been one of the better stories in the management and containment of this outbreak. And that's good news and we want to keep it that way. So we are upgrading the activities of that group that has been meeting now together for some time. And we've agreed to share the costs of a further $15 million dollars in workforce support in the disability care sector, whether they’re NDIS participants or not, that is not a matter that we’re haggling over. We know this needs to happen. And I was pleased to reach that agreement with the Premier this week. And I thank him for his work on that issue.
And with that, I’ll hand you over to Professor Kelly.
Professor Paul Kelly, Acting Chief Medical Officer: Thank you PM. So firstly on the numbers. So we continue, I firstly, I agree with the PM that this has been a week of hope, but we do continue in a global pandemic. There were 272,000 new cases recorded across the world yesterday and over 6,000 deaths. So that is the reality. The international situation remains uncertain.
Here in Australia, we're now at 24,407 cases with very sadly, 472 deaths and my condolences to all the families and friends of those people that have died. The very good news and here is the hope, is that we are now down into the one hundreds in terms of new cases today. That is mainly still driven from Victoria and particularly Melbourne, 180 new cases and 9 new deaths. So when I reported today to the National Cabinet about the picture since I last reported to them two weeks ago, there was that definite sense and driven by the data, of an improved situation particularly in Melbourne and other parts of Victoria. So if we look two weeks ago, the weekly average, average daily number for that week was 512. For last week it was 364. And this week is 269. So a very strong and quite rapid response to the stage 4 and stage 3 restrictions and other matters that have been dealt with in Victoria. The other very positive component to that, and this relates specifically to the border discussions that the PM has mentioned, is that there has definitely been a contraction of cases into the greater Melbourne area, Geelong, and Ballarat, and Bendigo being two other parts of regional Victoria. But at the borders, both north and to the west, very few, if any, cases active there now. So that's the good news on the epidemiology.
On aged care, the PM has mentioned, I would just say that that the role of that of that centre in Melbourne that has been set up for the specific cases in Melbourne, we all hope will not have to be replicated. But it was very reassuring to me that the discussions we've had at AHPPC over the last couple of weeks have been taken on board by the Premiers and First Ministers, Chief Ministers. And so we now have a blueprint, if it was needed and it would be obviously in discussion with the individual states and territories if it was needed for that for the response. But a renewed commitment from the Commonwealth as well as states and territories to work very closely together on preparation and prevention right now, not to wait, but right now to redouble our efforts to make sure that the sector is absolutely prepared in case of that.
The hotspots work, we will work on. That's really about the movement restrictions in relation to borders. It is, it is a piece of work we have had an attempt at before. And we'll continue to try to get consensus there in AHPPC about a definition of a hotspot. It really is about movement restrictions from one jurisdiction where there are cases to another where there are less. And that's an important component to be both proportionate and transparent.
The vaccines we've talked about, the PM and I were in Sydney two days ago and talked at length about that. We have our advisory group now. We'll meet again to look at those issues over the coming days, but a great pace of many pieces of parallel work to make sure that Australia is very well placed and prepared if and when a vaccine is available.
I'll leave it there PM.
Prime Minister: Thank you. Yeah, Phil?
Journalist: Just on the states, a couple of things. The $40 billion that Dr. Lowe recommended is that in addition to projects they may have already on the books?
Prime Minister: Yes.
Journalist: And secondly, is AHPPC advice on what constitutes a hotspot, would that be in any way binding? So, for example, once they couldn't declare say the ACT a hotspot, even though there's no cases in the ACT, would the Premiers be bound by that?
Prime Minister: I’d say that as a process of transparency, letting the sunshine in, if there was a clear definition of what a hotspot is, then it would be odd to operate outside of that. And if people were operating outside of that, then that would be very clear.
Journalist: Prime Minister, shouldn’t the Aged Care Minister be sacked for incompetence after his appearance before the Senate this morning? And if not, can you say you have full confidence in his ability to be across his brief?
Prime Minister: I do have confidence. And over the last four months, and particularly in Victoria, in response to one of the worst outbreaks we've seen, where there was some 350 aged care facilities in Melbourne alone, all of which were potentially vulnerable to the worst circumstances that we saw occur in just a handful, terrible as it was in each of those. The actions that the Minister has taken, the more than a billion dollars that I have annotated to you today that he's been directly responsible for ensuring has been committed into this sector, the work that he's done with the operators themselves, the work that he has done with the states and territories, all of this has ensured that what we have seen has not extended far worse than might otherwise have been the case and certainly has occurred in other like countries like the United Kingdom and other places where these results were just absolutely horrific, even beyond the belief of what we've seen. So, look, this is a very demanding environment in which to be working, Mark. I'm sure you'd agree with that. People are working 24/7 on these issues and on occasion and as important as these figures are, 258 people have passed away, I mean, they are tragic stories for every single one of those families. And I know that those issues are not far from the Minister's mind on a minute by minute basis. And but, look, what's necessary is the actions that he has taken. And I'm sure the Minister regrets not being able to call those figures to mind. On occasion, I can't call every figure to mind. But what I can do and what I know he does, is keeps the importance of addressing the needs of every single one of those families each and every day. So I think it's important to play the issue, not the man here in this particular case. And I know Minister Colbeck will get right back about his job.
Journalist: [Inaudible] balance between economic risk,
Prime Minister: I'm just finding it a little hard to hear in this room?
Journalist: On borders, just regarding the balance between economic risk and health benefits. Do you think WA has got that benefit right? And what was WA’s response to this call for such balance to be considered?
Prime Minister: Well, again, I mean, they are questions you have to put to the WA Premier. I have not asked the WA Premier to adjust his border arrangements, but it’s for the WA Premier to talk about that balance and I'm not here to be an adjudicator on that.
Journalist: [Inaudible] Prime Minister, what is the, does the Federal Government believe there is a medical basis for border closures with the exception of Victoria and states where there are, there’s low community transmission?
Prime Minister: Well, again, they are decisions that states make, where they are making borders and where they're doing that acting independently. And it is for them to set out what that medical advice is and what the medical benefits of that are versus the other impacts that are there. We're all accountable for our own decisions. I'm accountable for the decisions that I make. And you're at liberty to ask me about them each and every time I appear here. But for decisions that are made by others and that are in the jurisdiction of others, then I'll let them speak for their own decisions. But I want to make it clear I have not asked the Western Australian Government to change any aspects of their borders. I wish them well with the rather unhelpful proceedings against them in the courts. And as you know, I've made it public my view that those proceedings shouldn't continue. We've got a pandemic to deal with here. And I think those issues are unnecessarily distracting the Western Australian Government and indeed the Commonwealth Government. And I'd be very pleased to see if we can just get back to helping people each and every day and spending less time in court.
Yep, John.
Journalist: Thanks Prime Minister, France today has announced a record 3,800 new virus cases, not deaths, cases. The French Prime Minister Emmanuel Macron, says ‘we can't shut down the country because the collateral damage of lockdown is considerable, zero risk never exists in any society’. My question is, do Australia’s political leaders, including particularly the state Premiers, need to level with the Australian public that it's inevitable that we have to live with some degree of risk with this virus and that the quasi suppression or rather eradication strategies, quasi eradication strategies in states like Queensland and Western Australia is not sustainable over the long run?
Prime Minister: Well the National Cabinet position is a suppression strategy. That's, that's the position of my Government, and that's the position of the National Cabinet. You've characterised individual state’s responses to that in a different way. But it, the suppression strategy accepts the point that you have made and the one that President Macron has made. And if you want a good demonstration of how you do that well, go to New South Wales. I mean, that is a state that has built its testing, tracing and outbreak capability to deal with shocks to the system and keep its economy open. And I think they have set, as I think Professor Murphy said today, the gold standard on how, on how that works. They are the state which frankly, has been under the most pressure of any state and territory in the Commonwealth. And they have, their results today are simply magnificent. In terms of the hope it gives to Australians, that the suppression strategy can be successfully pursued. And I think they demonstrate the way forward as to how these things can be managed. Now, as you know, New South Wales has a border with Victoria at the moment. It was one that was put in place by the, both Premiers and myself some time ago. And we work daily, literally daily, to deal with any disruption, needless disruption, that is occurring because of those borders. But they are not permanent borders. And I'm sure both Premiers, like I, look forward to the time when they can be removed and life can go back to normal. But this is why I say, disruption that occurs from those things has to be fully considered. The real strength of our ability to live alongside COVID is testing, tracing, and outbreak containment. And that's where I think you've seen the New South Wales Government have some great success. But I can tell you, I've known Gladys for a long time. And she's never someone to take anything complacently, and she does not take those results for granted one day. And I know they will continue with their strong application. I'd make another point about the French situation you referred to. And we've seen similar rather alarming results in Germany and in the UK, and that has occurred because people left, went to areas on leave on holiday where the virus was moving again and now they're bringing it back. The Australian Government hasn't done that. We’ve, with some real hardship, I acknowledge, have had restrictions on people leaving and indeed the number of people that can return. But it's, as we've just seen in Europe, I think the wisdom of that approach has been borne out, that that is not one problem that we have at the moment, we have a few others and we'll deal with those. But I think, yes, we have to live alongside the virus. And I think New South Wales has demonstrated a great way to do that.
Andrew?
Journalist: [Inaudible] and your aged care Minister have both said that you couldn't have anticipated an entire workforce in an aged care centre being wiped during an outbreak when in fact, the Department of Health was saying precisely this, 80 to 100 per cent of the workforce may need to be isolated. Did you not get that advice? Or you know, why the difference?
Prime Minister: Well, Andrew, I think it's important to quote me in context and what I was referring to there was the immediate and without notice full removal of a workforce. And that was not a scenario that had been contemplated. That was not a scenario. The immediate, within hours, the entire workforce gone, no one there. And that was the situation that presented in a number of cases. And they were very distressing cases. But I can tell you what they did is they moved heaven and earth to get people there as quickly as possible. And that has meant that in the last several weeks, particularly when I returned to Canberra, that we have seen the number of facilities in what we call our acute category 1 list remain at less than half a dozen. And the fact that one or two cases didn't turn into 20 or 30 or 50 cases, I think is to the great credit of the Victorian Aged Care Response Centre and the arrangements that have been put in place. But I know I know Paul would make a few comments on that if you wanted to Paul?
Professor Kelly: Yes, PM so that was an unprecedented event that happened at one one particular one. And I remember the night very clearly, and and what we needed to do, as the PM has said, to move heaven and earth to get staff in there so when something moves that quickly, all of the planning that can be done and was done has been done from the very beginning of the of the pandemic here in Australia from February and in March, when the when CDNA guidelines were published and have been republished three times, there's been a lot of planning that's gone into these sort of things. But that was an unprecedented event, even at the places where we've looked at very closely in New South Wales outbreaks early on in the first wave of the pandemic. It was a much more gradual approach in terms of staff being affected and residents being affected.
Journalist: $171 million for aged care, is that an admission that you weren't fully prepared for the speed and scale of what's happened in aged care? And you've indicated previously that there could be more money in the October budget for aged care. Is there still room for more to be done in the October budget. Or is this what we're seeing today?
Prime Minister: No no, yes there will be more, in two areas. But no I don't think it is what you suggest. Not at all. I mean, this is a continuation of programs that we're already running and that we now anticipate will be running longer. And so that's providing for that continued support over a longer period. So we’ve gone from $850 million, to over a billion. So I wouldn't say $850 million up until this point has been an under investment, in fact I'd say it's been a very significant investment. And the fact without hesitation, as the Aged Care Minister, Minister Colbeck, has brought that to us, we have been very quick to respond, and myself, the Treasurer, and the Finance Minister. In addition to that, there are two, there are two challenges going forward with aged care that we will be addressing further in the budget. But obviously, ultimately, when the royal commission makes its report next year, and then the budget that follows that. There are other issues that regardless of a pandemic, that we would need to continue to address. And then there are the COVID additional measures that will be further undoubtedly required. If there's one thing I've learnt during this pandemic is it ain’t over until it's over. And it's, it ain’t over yet. And that means we will continue to provide the resource and the support and meet the needs that need to be met. And as they're presented, as the demands are there, then we have not flinched. We have, we have not baulked, not on one occasion. This is an unprecedented level of federal Government support, whether it's in the health sector, the aged care sector, the disability sector, for income support for JobKeeper, employment, wage subsidy support. We've got a billion dollars invested directly in everything from feeding animals in zoos, to ensuring that we're supporting entertainment businesses to be able to put on performances to keep people in work. So the Federal Government is more than meeting, at 15.6 per cent I think of GDP of our obligations.
Journalist: Prime Minister [inaudible] the states and territories to shoulder more of the economic burden of COVID-19 if they keep their state borders shut for longer than necessary? And just a second, quick one. Have you asked the states and territories to consider expanding their capacity for hotel quarantine? We know we’ve got 18,000 Australians trying to get home?
Prime Minister: Let me deal with the first question. Governor Lowe asked for $40 billion from the states and territories today. And that's over and above all their existing commitments and over the next two years. It's important, I stress again, and Governor Lowe made the point that these should not be programmes that have a tail on them that lift the overall level of government spending on an ongoing basis. So they are quite targeted measures that support aggregate demand through the period of the pandemic to address the issues of unemployment as the economy gets back on its feet. When it comes to the impacts of border controls on what's happening, and a very good example is what's happening with flight network subsidies, aviation network subsidies. Now, we've been supporting those now for many, many months. But I have been fairly candid and open with the states and territories that where there is a need for further subsidies to support aviation networks in place, that is as a consequence of state borders, then obviously we would be raising that with the states to to share that load, given the decisions they’ve made and I'm sure weighing up the economic costs of that in making the decisions they have on health issues, that they would be more than prepared to meet the costs of dealing with some of the impacts of those decisions.
On the many Australians, and it's around about the number that you've mentioned, some of those in a much more urgent state. Right now, when you're looking to manage the risk in quarantine, I agree, and that's why I am not lifting the caps currently as they exist on airports at the moment in our major capital city centres. It has been the New South Wales Government, particularly in Sydney at Sydney Airport, that bears the biggest load when it comes to inbound arrivals. I want to stress that 4,000 Australians are still returning every week, every single week, and we've got tens of thousands of people who've been going through quarantine as well from overseas. And that is particularly being done by the New South Wales Government. And right now, as they've been seeking to get on top of that outbreak, it is in our view and of course, the other state governments that are affected, that right now it is not the wise decision to lift those caps. What I have asked for from the Foreign Affairs Minister and the Minister for Home Affairs and the Defence Minister is they bring forward measures to me and the Treasurer to see how we can better support those who are still overseas and we acknowledge that some of them are in some difficult circumstances. Our consular teams are doing a great job to help them in those circumstances and we'll be doing more to help them in those circumstances and to assist them to get home within those caps. But we'll be reviewing those caps every fortnight. So we will review them again in a fortnight from now, and once the Victorian, I think, and we can be even more confident of the New South Wales situation, which is very good, then I'm hoping that we'll be able to make further room there. But right now, on the balance of risk, on the balance of risk, we need to keep those caps where they are.
Journalist: Professor Kelly, you were speaking about what needs to be done right now by the states and praising that in relation to aged care. This week the Australian Medical Association, in its latest submission to the Royal Commission, said that there should be a look at every facility in Australia to see their preparations. Do you support that? Do you think it's necessary? And is it possible?
Professor Paul Kelly, Acting Chief Medical Officer: So there's a couple of elements to that, that question. The first thing is there have been a couple of rounds of audit in relation to that from the regulator, the aged care regulator, during this year and during the pandemic. What we've learnt really in the Melbourne situation is that there are some places, at least, that should be visited and looked through much more carefully. And so... let me just finish. So the PM mentioned earlier about what's happening in Victoria right now. One of the key components of the response centres is to look at an emergency from the full spectrum. So prevention, preparation, the response itself, of course, and recovery. And so whilst they've been dealing with those really difficult situations of the response in in the early weeks, they're now moving very rapidly to having specific staff that are going specifically to every... that they're planning to do every single aged care facility in Melbourne first and then the rest of Victoria, and then moving into New South Wales to do exactly what the AMA is calling for. To go there not only to look at what the preparations are and what the particular facilities say that they're doing, but to actually check.
Journalist: And other states as well eventually?
Professor Paul Kelly, Acting Chief Medical Officer: Yes. So they're starting in those two because that's, at the moment, that's where the active cases mainly are. But they're first starting with those ones that are at the moment doing well, but still within a community transmission event in Melbourne of some great proportion they want to make sure firstly at that point that they are ready. And that's looking at all of the plans, the training of staff, the PPE use, actually watching people use that PPE et cetera. So in great detail, working through all that. And what we've called upon was agreed at National Cabinet today is that all states and territories work with the Commonwealth in this endeavour over the coming weeks, because we hope that this won't happen again anywhere else. But we can't know that for certain. So the AMA is spot on on that approach.
Prime Minister: The answer to the question is yes, we agree.
Professor Paul Kelly, Acting Chief Medical Officer: Yes.
Prime Minister: That’s exactly what we’re doing and I was pleased to hear this morning it's taken a couple of weeks to ramp up particularly with the training of those who are doing that work. But we're, from today, 40 facilities a day they're able to do and there'll be they will be going crackerjack on that.
Yeah, Sam?
Journalist: You say that you have an open mind about delaying or scrapping the increase in the superannuation guarantee. That that's something the Government is considering. Is that something that you think you would need to put to another election? Are you prepared to cop it as a broken promise on the grounds of COVID? And if you were to proceed with that, why would that not be putting your hand in the pockets of workers given that it is, in effect, a legislated pay increase?
Prime Minister: Well, it’s not a decision the Government has taken. I'm aware of the commentary by everybody from the Reserve Bank Governor, who's said that continuing with those arrangements would be bad for employment. And it is the circumstances that has occurred since the election which has made that the case and prior to the election it was certainly my view and I articulated that that those were legislated changes and increases and we had no plans to change any of those and that was certainly our view. COVID-19 has occurred, people's jobs are at risk and I note, whether it's Ross Gittins or any number of others who've spoken on this issue, normally those you wouldn't necessarily put in the same group as being agreeing on everything. They seem to be agreeing a lot on that. But that said, it's something the Government has to carefully consider for the reasons that you've said. But I also note that this doesn't come into effect until July of next year. So I don't think there's any undue haste that is needed here to consider these issues. I mean, I hope, I would certainly hope, and I am an optimist, that by May of next year that we're looking at a very different situation. I hope we are.
Sorry, I’ll go to Paul.
Journalist: Prime Minister and through to Dr Kelly, you said that the total and sudden withdrawal of the aged care workforce is unprecedented, but was it really unforeseeable given we're talking about a highly infectious disease that requires all close contacts of someone to self isolate? Was it unforeseeable?
Professor Paul Kelly, Acting Chief Medical Officer: I think that’s getting into pedantics of words at the moment, but certainly it was unprecedented. Could we have foreseen that? That's a matter of debate. But the issue is that this was an enormous thing that happened within hours, within hours, in a setting where there had been delay as has been well talked about in the public domain about testing results being notified to the Commonwealth, which was a part of the plan and part of the commitment of all residential aged care facilities to do.
Prime Minister: I just want to go back to Sam’s question, because I know Sam likes precision. I will do and the Government will do what is in the best interests of people getting jobs and staying in jobs. That's what this Budget will be about. That's what the next Budget will be about. You've got to look at the situation as you find it. The situation today is different to what it was previously, but that doesn't necessarily mean you go down that path. But we have to deal with the situation as we find it, not as we'd like it to be.
Greg?
Journalist: [Inaudible]
Prime Minister: Well, I can't really add any more than that. I've told you when it comes to the effect, which is July of next year and what I've learnt and in a pandemic, you have to be learning every single day because things change constantly, is that you've got to be careful not to make some decisions too early because circumstances can change dramatically. And you need to be able to make those decisions when you've got the best possible information. And at the moment, how things sit today, where things are in Victoria and what the impact is. We've got the retail figures which show what's happening in Victoria. But in the rest of the states and territory, we're seeing much better results. So I think we have to continue to observe how the situation unfolds and make decisions at the right time in the national interest, which is what we'll do.
Journalist: You mention the retail figures there so it’s a nice segue, at the very beginning of the pandemic, you were driving the commercial tendency code of conduct for negotiations over rent reductions and things like that. That's obviously an onus that’s put on the states to impose those code of conducts. A lot of them are coming up to be expired in the next few weeks. Victoria's already rolled over theirs. Would you like to see the other states extend that rent relief and things like that?
Prime Minister: We considered this a few weeks ago, I can't remember which meeting of the National Cabinet it was, I think about a month ago, actually. And what we agreed is that states and territories now would make decisions based on the circumstances in each of their states or territory. And you go to Western Australia at the moment, It's a very different economic scene to what's happening in Victoria. And so I think with the spread of experience now, those types of arrangements would be not wise to do on a national basis. So it's got to be what's right for what's happening in the economy in that part of Australia. I have every confidence the states will make the right decisions.
Journalist: What have you learned from how New South Wales has attacked this outbreak?
Prime Minister: Keep New South Wales open. Keep Australia open and deal with the fight against the virus each and every day with your key weapons being testing, tracing and outbreak containment. They have backed the weapons that they have built and formed to combat this virus and they've done it each and every day. And they haven't been intimidated when things haven't always gone the way they would like. Where there'd be an outbreak here or a breach here or breach there. That doesn't mean you have to fold your tent and walk away. No, they keep going and they have built the capacity to deal with that and I think that's really important. We spoke this week of a vaccine and let's all pray that's the case. But in the absence of one, we will live with this virus and we will live with it, not behind walls, but we will live with it by having the capacity to deal with outbreaks and to deal with the virus as we live with it each and every day. Now, what National Cabinet sought to do today, particularly in referring, again, this matter of outbreak areas to the AHHPC, was, I think, get some greater transparency and understanding of where there are hotspots and where restrictions would particularly need to be in place. It wasn't a hard decision about the New South Wales Victorian border, although it is hard to implement and there have been hard implications for people who have had to deal with that. But the need to have that isolation of Victoria was self-evident. And that, I think, has been very important in constraining it spreads to other parts of the country. And so all of these measures have roles to play. But I do commend the New South Wales government for keeping New South Wales open, always leaning forward to keep New South Wales open. That's my approach. I want to keep Australia as open as we possibly can. And we've got to keep managing this twin challenge of a health pandemic and a COVID recession. But I can tell you this, we're doing better than most and many of the developed world in this situation. I mean, when you compare what is happening in our economy to the economies of Europe and America, when you compare us on our health situation to what is occurring in the developed economies of the world, I would rather be in Australia than anywhere else in the world because we have this optimistic way of looking to let's keep this place open. Let's continue to strive for the life we want to live in Australia, but doing it in a responsible way that deals with the challenges and keeps that spirit of the fight up each and every day. Thank you all very much.