Speeches
Statement On Indulgence - Australian Parliament House ACT
15 March 2021
Prime Minister: Mr Speaker, I move that this House acknowledge the passing on the 26th of February 2021 of Papua New Guinea Grand chief Sir Michael Somare and place on record its gratitude of his long-standing and respected relationship with Australia and tender its profound sympathy to his family in their bereavement.
Mr Speaker, I welcome the High Commissioner here with us today.
Sir Michael Somare was a towering figure in the history of Papua New Guinea.
A driving force in the development of Papua New Guinea’s national constitution.
The nation’s first Prime Minister.
The longest serving Prime Minister, holding office for a total of 17 years over four separate terms.
And Papua New Guinea’s longest-serving Member of Parliament, faithfully representing his East Sepik constituency for a remarkable 49 years.
To his fellow countrymen and women, Sir Michael was known simply as “the Grand Chief”.
It was a title that reflected his immense standing and the deep respect in which he was held.
To Australia, Sir Michael was a longstanding and respected friend, indeed family.
Papua New Guinea, our closest neighbour, is family to us.
The ties are deep, forged at Kokoda, Port Moresby, and Milne Bay and remembered at Lae, Rabaul and, of course, Bomana.
And the many kiaps, those young Australians who patrolled and worked with local village communities, walking across their vast and rugged interior.
Because it was once a territory of Australia, indeed as we defended it in the Second World War.
As Prime Minister of Papua New Guinea, Sir Michael worked with Australian Prime Ministers Whitlam, Fraser, Hawke, Howard, Rudd and Gillard.
But his connection to the leadership of our country goes as far back as the Gorton Government.
As a young man, Michael Somare championed an independent Papua New Guinea.
And he did so working with Australia. Working together.
It is to the credit of so many Australian and Papua New Guinea leaders in the late 1960s and early 1970s that they came to a shared recognition that sovereignty must rest with the people of Papua New Guinea.
It was right that many years later, Sir Michael along with Sir John Gorton and Gough Whitlam came together received honorary doctorates for their work in delivering independence.
Because on the day when Papua New Guinea became independent, the Australian flag was respectfully lowered. It was not torn down.
One of those who witnessed that significant moment was a future Governor-General of Australia, Michael Jeffery.
In 1975, he was a young soldier in East Sepik.
Later he said, “I well remember the Australian flag being lowered in Wewak for the last time and the beautiful Papua New Guinea flag being raised in its stead.”
He recalled the positive spirit that surrounded independence.
That was, in large part, a credit to Michael Somare.
He was not a man who tore down.
He understood that free nations are built on democratic institutions and on what he called ‘sana’: a word from his own language signifying peace, consensus and inclusion.
Indeed, those were the hallmarks of his public life and are his legacy.
Thanks to his vision, and his commitment to sana, Papua New Guinea’s path to independence was a smooth one.
The foundations of this new nation were laid in peace.
Sir Michael remained a staunch defender of his country’s independence, proudly, but always appreciated Australia’s unstinting commitment to his homeland and Papua New Guinea’s success.
He carried the Olympic torch when it passed through Papua New Guinea on its way to Sydney in 2000.
We can only hope it will pass through Papua New Guinea again if Brisbane 2032 is successful.
He was also, like so many Papua New Guineans, a rugby league fan. And, unlike so many Papua New Guineans when it came to the State of Origin, he was a devoted fan of the Blues. Something I’m sure the Leader of the Opposition and I on at least that matter can concur.
He was a great man of faith, he was a great man of conviction and commitment, and he will be deeply missed by his many friends in Australia.
Highh Commissioner Kali, could you please extend to the Government and people of Papua New Guinea, to your Prime Minister my dear friend James Marape, the sincere condolences of the Government and people of Australia as represented in this people’s House.
Thank you for joining us today and thank you to the members of the diplomatic corps who are also with us today, a sign of Sir Michael’s standing in the world.
During this time, we are thinking also of Lady Veronica, their children and grandchildren, and the entire Somare family.
May they, in this time of grief, know the peace of God.
And may the Grand Chief Rest in Peace as a good and faithful servant.
Opening Remarks, Virtual Quad Leaders' Meeting
13 March 2021
PRIME MINISTER SCOTT MORRISON: Thank you very much. Well, thank you, President Biden for this wonderful initiative in bringing us together. My fellow prime ministers, it’s great to see you. Namaste, good morning, konnichiwa, and from Australia, g’day.
As we begin a new day here in Australia it’s not yet dawn, but we join together as Quad leaders of nations to welcome what I think will be will be a new dawn in the Indo-Pacific through our gathering. History teaches us that when nations engage together in a partnership of strategic trust, of common hope and shared values, much can be achieved.
When the world emerged from the Great War and our last global pandemic a century ago, it soon found a great depression and another global conflict, and it unleashed a poverty and a devastation that was unthinkable. As we emerge from this global pandemic, and the global recession, let us together create a different future. It is the Indo-Pacific that will now shape the destiny of our world in the 21st Century.
As four leaders of great liberal democracies in the Indo-Pacific, let our partnership be the enabler of peace, stability and prosperity and to do so inclusively with the many nations of our region. To share in their vision as expressed through ASEAN for an open, inclusive and resilient Indo-Pacific. To respect and support their sovereignty, independence and security by upholding our values and supporting international law and to address the many challenges we face, from COVID to climate change.
Know friends, that Australia, while looking to our friends in all of these tasks, we never leave it to our friends. We’ll do our share of the heavy lifting to lighten the burden for us all.
I’m delighted to now hand over to my good friend Yoshi, Prime Minister Suga.
Keynote Address, AFR Business Summit - Sydney, NSW
9 March 2021
PRIME MINISTER: Well, thank you all for the opportunity to come and be with you here today. Can I also acknowledge the Gadigal people, the Eora Nation, the elders past and present and future. Can I also acknowledge any veterans here in the room today or members of our defence forces and say thank you for your service. Can I acknowledge my colleague Michaelia Cash, a minister wearing quite a few hats at the moment and she’s doing an outstanding job, and I appreciate her being here with me today. And to a former Parliamentary colleague, even for a brief time, Peter Costello. But he’s better known for being our longest serving Treasurer and, of course, Chairman of the Nine Group and the Future Fund, and it’s good to see Peter, as always.
A year ago I spoke at this very summit and said ‘whatever you thought 2020 was going to be about, think again.’
I said we ‘confronted a new, complex, hydra-headed and rapidly-evolving challenge. COVID-19”.
On that day, a year ago, there were 113,210 cases of COVID-19 globally, across 108 countries, and more than 3,975 lives had been lost.
Already at that time, even a year ago, that number of lives lost exceeded SARS and MERS put together.
Today, there are more than 375,000 additional cases and 20,000 additional deaths occurring every single day around the world.
Now, in recognising we were not immune a year ago, I said that we were taking decisive and timely action to get ahead of this.
The National Incident Response Plan had been activated in mid-January, including standing up the National Incident Response Centre in Canberra. The Chief Medical Officer at the time, Professor Brendan Murphy, was convening daily meetings of the National medical expert panel, the AHPPC.
The National Security Committee of Cabinet was meeting regularly, under my direction, to direct our national response to the pandemic.
The National Coordination Mechanism, within the Department of Home Affairs, had been established to address economic and supply chain issues, particularly in critical medical equipment and supplies. And this would later be joined by the National COVID Coordination Commission to ensure greater private sector involvement led by Nev Power.
We had officially called the pandemic two weeks before the World Health Organisation in Australia and we were one of the first countries to move to close our borders to mainland China.
And by the close of the very week I stood here a year ago, we had announced the first of our three major economic responses and we had formed the National Cabinet.
We were getting ahead of this.
But to stay ahead, I warned, ‘we had to work together and continue to take decisive and timely action’.
‘Our goal’, I said, ‘was to protect the health, the wellbeing and livelihoods of Australians through this global crisis, and to ensure that when the recovery comes, and it will, we are well positioned to bounce back strongly on the other side’. That was the mission.
That is what we did and that is what we continue to do.
It has been a tough 12 months. In fact, it’s been the toughest our country has seen since the Great Depression and the Second World War.
But here we are, leading the world out of the global pandemic and the global recession it caused.
Our health system withstood the pandemic storm.
Our federation and our policy-making institutions adapted to bring about unprecedented cooperation.
Business, the research and scientific and medical community and expertise from all sections of society, finance and so many, came together to support this common purpose in a national effort.
And above all, Australians, in millions of acts of patience, of caring, kindness and responsibility, stood up, looked after each other, did their bit, and succeeded in pulling Australia through.
Australia’s remarkable performance in saving lives - the third lowest mortality rate from the pandemic among G20 nations - is the first point of conversation when I speak with foreign leaders, I’m proud to say.
But we’ve been equally successful in protecting livelihoods, better than almost every other advanced economy in the world today.
The actions of Government have been critical to Australia’s success.
At this summit a year ago, I set out the principles that would guide our Government’s economic response to COVID-19.
Our response would be proportionate, timely, scaleable and targeted.
I said it would be aligned with other policy arms, in particular monetary policy and we had fantastic collaboration with the Reserve Bank.
It would use existing delivery mechanisms, to avoid implementation failures of the past.
It would be temporary and have a clear fiscal exit strategy, and wherever possible it would favour responses that boosted productivity.
They were the principles.
A year on, we have remained faithful to those principles and that strategy.
And that strategy is working.
Emergency policies such as JobKeeper and the COVID supplement for JobSeeker provided the bridge that Australians and the economy needed as we looked into what was an abyss.
This was supported by our emergency cashflow payments for small and medium sized businesses and wage supports to retain apprentices.
Economic stimulus payments of $2,000 individually to Australians in the welfare system were injected. The last $250 payment was made during the past week.
There was our targeted support to the aviation industry to keep planes in the air and ensure our exporters could continue to service their international customers in the bellies of those planes.
We provided grants even to zoos to feed their animals.
Our push for the states to adopt emergency commercial tenancy arrangements for small and medium sized businesses, avoided nationwide evictions and unsustainable tenancy debts.
The Treasurer worked closely with the banks, and I want to pay particular credit to Matt Comyn who is with us here today, and I want to thank him for his leadership during this crisis, to ensure repayment relief to both businesses and households. The Treasurer and the financial community, Josh and that team, worked closely together.
And we gave Australians emergency access to their own money, their own resources, their own savings, their superannuation balances, to help see them though the worst of the crisis.
And this doesn’t include the increased federal expenditure on child care, mental health, critical medical supplies, aged care, state hospitals, a 50/50 deal on COVID related expenditure in state public hospitals and the thousands of defence force personnel who are deployed around the country, just to name a few.
All up the Australian Government, as at the last fiscal update, has committed $267 billion to our COVID-19 response, that is 13.5 per cent the size of our economy, of GDP.
On the direct economic support alone it’s 12.6 per cent, some $251 billion, and this rates as one the most significant COVID responses anywhere in the advanced world.
In Australia it has also been a united effort with the states and territories, who have also significantly added to this economic response, with an additional $122 billion or around 6 per cent of GDP.
But, I think even they would say, it is fair to say that the heavy fiscal lifting has been done by the Commonwealth over this past year.
Australian Government funding for the response has more than doubled the combined investment of all the states and territories put together, and some.
And even when considered as a share of revenue, the federal response eclipses those of each and every state and territory and those combined.
So, it has been federal taxpayers that have underwritten Australia’s COVID response, at every level of Government in this country.
Our Government does not take issue with that – none whatsoever. That was our job, that was our role, that was our responsibility to see Australia through. And so we have.
Thankfully, we are now entering the post emergency phase of the COVID-19 response. We can now switch over to medium and longer term economic policy settings that support private sector, business-led growth in our economy.
Because you simply cannot run the Australian economy on taxpayers’ money forever. It’s not sustainable.
So since October last year, as the economy began gearing up, we have been gearing down JobKeeper and the JobSeeker COVID Supplement.
Both measures will now cease as planned at the end of this month. And that is consistent with the principles that I set out a year ago.
For those who are in need of ongoing income support because of unemployment, this will now be delivered through the newly increased Jobseeker safety net payment. This is the first time Jobseeker has been increased, above indexation, since 1987. Not a small thing.
And we make this transition, and as we do so, it is also reassuring to know that the unprecedented support we have provided to the Australian economy during this past year will continue to support activity once these emergency measures come to an end.
Our $251 billion in direct economic support, while largely delivered in 2020, has a very long tail.
As the chart shows, treasury estimates direct support measures will see expected economic activity 5 per cent higher in the current year and 4.5 per cent higher in 2021-22, compared with no support.
We can see our economy’s remarkable comeback in the latest National Accounts.
The Australian economy grew by 3.1 per cent over the December quarter, led by the private sector – outperforming the G7 and the OECD average.
Household consumption was strong – backed by confident Australian consumers whose incomes have been supported through the crisis, also increasing retail spending.
But it also includes ongoing support, such as the over $50 billion in lower personal taxes for 11.6 million Australians announced in the October Budget.
The rise in private business investment was supported by government investment incentives worth over $30 billion. In particular, our supercharged instant asset write-off, the instant expensing, has encouraged firms to start investing again. And I see it on shops floors all over the country where I visit.
An example of this has been the strong rebound in vehicle purchases - every time you see a tradie driving a new ute, it is further proof that the Australian economy is on the comeback.
But it is not just small businesses that are benefitting. Visy Glass in Western Sydney, out at Emu Plains, a couple of weeks ago announced that they were bringing forward $380 million of capital investment because of the Government’s accelerated depreciation policies and our commitment to recycling as one of the priority sectors under our $1.5 billion advanced manufacturing strategy.
This forms part of a $2 billion commitment by Visy to Australia over the next ten years. That’s a great vote of confidence and a real shot in the arm for the Australian economy.
Residential building approvals and dwelling investment also grew strongly – supported by our Government’s HomeBuilder program which has seen almost 90,000 applications and driven private housing approvals to record levels.
This has all meant more jobs.
The unemployment rate has fallen down from 7.5 per cent in July last year, that’s the measured rate, down to 6.4 per cent in January. That’s 814,000 jobs I’d say recreated since May of 2020.
Even more striking, as I was noting at the time, was the fall in the effective rate of unemployment, that takes into account exits from the labour force and hours that had been reduced to zero.
Now the effective rate of unemployment peaked at around 15 per cent in April last year and it is also now at 6.4 per cent.
By January around 94 per cent of the 1.3 million people who lost their job or were stood down on zero hours in April were now back at work as of January.
As a result our labour force participation rate has already recovered to record highs.
Job ads are now well above pre-pandemic levels, up more than two and a half times from the bottom of the downturn. There are more than 20,000 more job ads per month now than there were pre-pandemic.
Business and consumer confidence has rebounded.
This confidence is critical to further unlocking business and household balance sheets in the months ahead.
In the June National Accounts we saw the household savings rate increase to a record 22 per cent. Australians were understandably taking shelter from the storm. By December this had fallen to 12 per cent, which is still above the peak reached during the GFC.
So just as was the case at the beginning of this crisis, confidence remains key. This is how we can encourage Australians, by boosting that confidence to open their storehouses once again and drive the next phase of our economic comeback, through increased consumption and investment.
So what are the next steps? While there has been significant progress, we know the job is far from done yet.
The impact of the COVID economic shocks will continue to persist for specific sectors beyond the end of JobKeeper. We understand this.
That is certainly true of the international aviation, tourism and travel sectors that will remain severely impacted as long as international borders remain effectively closed, and certainly if arbitrary state border closures continue.
So while it is necessary to draw JobKeeper and the JobSeeker COVID Supplement to a close, we do understand that ongoing targeted measures will be necessary to maintain our aviation and travel sectors, while assisting those regions that are heavily reliant on international tourists by boosting domestic tourism demand in those areas.
We will be saying more about that in coming days.
We also recognise that, while the labour market is strengthening, there are still Australians out there looking for work and who need to upskill.
We have never forgotten those Australians. Never once.
At the outset of the pandemic, Minister Cash and I, we made keeping apprentices in their jobs one of our first priorities. In addition to Jobkeeper, used by so many companies to keep their apprentices in work, our Supporting Apprentices and Trainees Programme has successfully kept over 122,000 apprentices on the tools.
These apprentices would have been the first to go. Such a loss would have been devastating for our economy, as years of training would have been lost and, I suspect, never recovered. By holding onto those apprentices, we have kept them on their career path and we have maintained the emerging skills pool that was building, that will be much needed for our economy in the future.
This was backed in by our JobTrainer programme, creating a $1 billion fund, shared with the states and territories agreed in record time through National Cabinet, to create 320,000 new training places. So, when you combine that with the 30,000 extra university places we put in place this year, this meant school leavers entering a post-recession economy, they had options and a future to look forward to.
But just holding onto existing apprentices, we didn’t think was enough.
Through wage subsidy programs like Boosting Apprenticeship Commencements, our Government is helping employers retain and take on new apprentices and trainees as the economy recovers.
In less than five months, we have already reached the target of 100,000 under this program.
40 per cent of those new apprentices and trainees have gone to small businesses, with the largest take up in the construction, food and beverage, administrative, and repair and maintenance sectors. Around one-fifth of the new apprentices were over the age of 35.
Today, I am pleased to announce that the Government is removing the cap on eligible places and extending the duration of this program support under this program to 12 months from the date the apprentice commences with their employer.
The timeline for eligibility is out to end September this year, and that aligns with the JobMaker Hiring credit initiative announced in the budget.
Now, this will ensure an apprenticeship place is there for any Australian and every business who wants one as our economy recovers.
It is also important to acknowledge that our continued economic recovery is inextricably linked to our ongoing success in combating the virus.
Our $6.5 billion vaccination programme, now underway, marks the start of a new phase of Australia’s comeback from COVID-19.
Now, rather than rushing headlong into this, as many countries were frankly forced to do because of their circumstances, we have worked carefully to put our portfolio of vaccines together, to secure our supplies and prepare our vaccination programme for rollout.
This week we will have vaccinated, we estimate, some 100,000 Australians from our first priority group of frontline health care workers, aged care and disability residents and staff and those working in our quarantine system.
This week Australia is also on track to have received one million doses of COVID-19 vaccines, secured notwithstanding tight international supply chains that we’re facing, particularly out of Europe.
We’re still getting the job done, we’re still getting the vaccines in. I particularly want to commend the work that DFAT and the Department of Health has been doing. Minister Payne, but of course, Frances Adamson is here today from DFAT.
Most importantly, Australia is one of the small number of countries to have sovereign domestic vaccine manufacturing capability. CSL will be ready to supply one million doses every week from late March as we move to the next phase of our vaccination rollout.
The scientific evidence from Israel and the UK on vaccine efficacy is very, very encouraging, especially the ability of vaccines to prevent serious and severe illness and transmission. This is good news. In other words, with sufficient vaccination of the population, we can start treating COVID like a bad flu.
And if we can continue to manage new strains of the virus, this changing risk profile will allow for controls to be further relaxed, as we recently discussed at National Cabinet.
But to the future – in July last year, I addressed the National Press Club about our JobMaker plan, setting out our longer term agenda to rebuild the Australian economy post COVID.
Today I want to briefly highlight what I consider to be key priorities of this plan once again.
Our workforce, what I call D&D - data and digital - and ensuring reliable, affordable and lower emissions energy.
Firstly, workforce.
Building the scale, capacity and skills of our workforce, I believe, is the single greatest economic challenge our country faces.
It is why we established JobTrainer and are working closely with the states and territories to develop a new and reformed National Skills Agreement.
We need a VET system, a training system, that’s more responsive to the private sector and its needs for the future. We need a better, more granular understanding of where the jobs of the future will be, and the skills needed to do those jobs.
It is why we established the National Skills Commission under Adam Boyton’s leadership, which is doing fantastic work.
As well as dealing with immediate needs, the Commission is also undertaking detailed long-term analysis of the skills our country needs in the future to inform the significant investment we’re making in our programmes and policies.
For example, Australia will require almost one million direct care workers by 2050 to meet the growing demand for aged care. That’s aged care alone.
This is almost triple the existing aged care workforce and is in addition to the rising demand for care workers in the health and disability sectors.
Now, part of its initial response to the Aged Care Royal Commission, we recently announced that it will be investing $92 million to train an additional 18,000 skilled personal care workers by mid-2023.
But more will be needed to establish a strong longer term pipeline of skilled and professional care workers for our country.
That’s why I have tasked the National Skills Commissioner to undertake a broader, in-depth study into the factors affecting the supply and demand for care workers both in the near-term and out to 2050.
Now that’s just one sector. The Commissioner will finish his report in September this year to inform the Government’s care workforce strategy, but getting a handle on the skills we need is critical to economic policies for the future.
Training and skilling our workforce though is one thing, but the scale of our workforce and getting access to that workforce is proving to be completely another.
The retreat of backpacker, student and seasonal labour from temporary visa holders during COVID has exposed large gaps in our workforce, particularly in the agriculture, tourism and hospitality sectors, and especially in regional Australia.
These workers are also an important workforce source for the care sector, including aged care and nursing, where demand for workers is acute.
Seasonal and Pacific work visa holders alone provide a standing workforce of around 12,000 people a year ready and willing to work. These workers are complemented by tens of thousands of backpackers who would normally be working in regional Australia.
ABARES estimates that the impact of COVID has resulted a workforce shortfall of around 22,000 workers in horticulture alone.
Now, despite targeted measures to incentivise Australian JobSeeker recipients to relocate to where the jobs are – $6,000 to move there and take those jobs – unemployed Australians are simply and regrettably not filling these jobs.
Right now there are 54,000 jobs going in regional Australia.
Michael McCormack, the DPM, will tell you that, if you give him half a second on any day of the week and he’s right. 54,000 jobs are out there right now in regional Australia that they can’t fill.
And every day we hear the stories of employers, especially in regional areas, unable to fill positions. It’s got way past anecdotal.
The knock on effect of critical skills shortages also forces up prices for consumers, increasing the cost of living for Australians in our cities. That’s how it impacts Australians at home right now.
If we can’t get the workers in our regional areas, then the price of your groceries goes up. And so it’s in all of our interests to address this very important issue.
Our responses are twofold.
Firstly, to strengthen the mutual obligation requirements for job seekers receiving the JobSeeker payment. Now, we recently took this action to announce several weeks ago by the Minister - Minister Cash - in tandem with the recent increase in the Jobseeker payment. And that’s a fair exchange. If there is a job available, and you are able to do that job, then it is reasonable for taxpayers to expect that you will take it up, rather than continue to receive benefits. And if you don’t, then payment should be withdrawn. But that won’t be enough to fix this problem. This problem goes pre-pandemic.
We must also re-look at the role the temporary visa holders play in meeting our economy’s workforce requirements, where Australians do not fill these jobs. Of course we want Australians to fill these jobs, of course that is our first priority. But we also need to understand that by looking at this area we need to see that rather than taking Australian’s jobs, we need to instead appreciate how filling critical workforce shortages with temporary visa holders can actually create jobs elsewhere in the economy and, in particular, sustain growth and services in our regional economies, and that Australians get a net benefit. It’s a value add to the equation.
I assure you this issue will not go away when the pandemic ends. It’s a thorny issue for us to deal with and we must.
We must become a world leader in D&D. In just the first 8 weeks of the pandemic, consumer and business digital adoption vaulted five years forward.
Post COVID, we need to keep our foot on that digital accelerator.
Now, this requires Governments to adopt a different mindset to regulation.
Modernising regulation, whether around competition, consumer protection, finance, safety or security – these things shouldn’t be seen as a hand brake on innovation. Through smart regulatory design, working with the sector, the challenge is to open up new economic opportunities in the private sphere, while ensuring the benefits of the digital era deliver broader public goods is our aim.
Now, our Government successfully took on this challenge, most recently, through the news media bargaining code with the Big Tech platforms. Plenty of people said ‘you can’t get that done’. Well, we have.
But it’s not only the regulatory frameworks we need to consider.
Data needs processing, just as oil needs refining.
Data will power much of the transformative technology of the future – artificial intelligence, machine learning, automation and predictive analytics.
Data doesn’t need huge refineries, but it does need smart people and businesses and digital infrastructure.
And that’s why our digital infrastructure program, but also most importantly, our skills agenda is so important.
It’s also why we have progressed so many other initiatives - the regulatory sandbox for FinTech, the Singapore Digital Economy Agreement, the world’s leading Consumer Data Right, the rollout successfully of the NBN, support for 5G, e-invoicing, digital identity, single-touch payroll, the 2020 Cyber Security Strategy and the eSafety Commissioner. We haven’t been still on this issue.
The next instalment of our plan, the Government’s digital strategy, is now being worked on by the new Minister for the Digital Economy, Jane Hume. And we’re looking forward to receiving that later in the year.
Now thirdly and finally – affordable, reliable and lower emissions energy.
The world’s response to climate change is simultaneously reshaping the global economy, global politics and the global energy system.
As Daniel Yergin wrote in his recent book, The New Map, which I highly recommend to you, he said our response to climate change will “bring continuing changes in how energy is produced, transported and consumed; in strategies and investment; in technologies and infrastructure; and in relations between countries.” Very true.
We are preparing. Australia is preparing. The Australian Government is preparing for this new geo-politics of energy and climate change. It’s gone into another gear. We must address the threats and we must realise the opportunities for Australia.
We are committed to doing so in a way that preserves the jobs and livelihoods of communities right across the country, especially in regional Australia, while ensuring Australia is part of the new energy economy. We want both and we can get both. And by backing technology to drive that change, not taxes.
This includes our commitment to investment in energy infrastructure, some $35 billion invested in renewable energy from 2017 to 2020.
Our investment in Snowy 2.0 and supporting development of all major priority electricity interconnectors identified by the Australian Energy Market Operator.
Our gas fired recovery plan, and I acknowledge Andrew Liveris for his part in driving that strategy for the Government, ensures that Australia’s record investments in solar and wind have the firming support needed to drive reliability of energy supply, while also critically supporting the feedstock needs of our manufacturing industries to advise to drive our advanced manufacturing strategy.
Renewable energy, hydrogen production, critical minerals – they’re all part of our agenda and likely to generate significant investment and jobs for regional and remote Australia. A good example is the Asian Renewable Energy Hub in the Pilbara, supporting 3,000 jobs when fully operational – and some 20,000 direct and indirect jobs during the construction phase.
Our Technology Roadmap aims to leverage some $70 billion in investment in low emissions technologies over the next decade.
Now, as Bill Gates set out in his new book, Greg Hunt recently joked with me that after I had my vaccination that I was talking about Bill Gates all the time, but anyway, I just read his book. You’ll get it in a second. He sets it out – it’s about driving the nexus between innovation supply and demand. That’s his key point. And that’s what we’re seeking to do.
And we will play our part, not just in Australia, but we’ll do it as part of a global effort.
Australia’s former Chief Scientist, Dr Alan Finkel, has been commissioned to lead this work, reporting to Minister Angus Taylor.
And we have set ourselves an ambitious timetable to establish new energy technology partnerships this year with major partners, including the United Kingdom, the United States and Japan. And I acknowledge the ambassador today.
Affordable and reliable energy will continue to be an important focus of my Government as we transition to a low emissions economy and we move towards net zero as soon as possible, and preferably by 2050.
So, ladies and gentlemen, with each passing month, Australia’s comeback and economic recovery from COVID-19 is building and we are leading the world.
We are making our own Australian way through this challenge and I remain confident that we will emerge stronger, safer and more firmly together on the other side. And at the same time, we’re preparing for a world and an economy beyond the pandemic.
Our success though will depend, as always, on the strength, resilience and on the ingenuity and decency of the Australian people.
And on that score I am nothing but filled with confidence for the future.
Remarks, International Women's Day
8 March 2021
Prime Minister: Thank you very much, and I also acknowledge the Indigenous owners of the land on which we meet as well as acknowledging any veterans and members of the Defence Force.
Can I particularly acknowledge Marise Payne, Minister for Women. Minister for quite a few other things at the moment too. But I think to borrow Margaret Thatcher's line that if I have to turn to anybody at times where there are additional jobs to be done, I am very happy to turn to Marise. Marise is one of the foundation stones of our Government, she really is. Having served as the first female Minister for Defence, the second female Minister for Foreign Affairs and now, for a short time, both of those portfolios together, as well as being Minister for Women, a member of our leadership team. And you have to remind me, Marise, because I think the day has passed or is just about to pass, the longest serving woman in the Senate.
So Marise in our Party, there are many amazing women in our Party who have broken ground in politics and some of you here this morning, you have followed the trail that has been left by those who have gone before you and there is none more significant than Marise. That is absolutely true and I say that as a longtime member of the New South Wales division of the Liberal Party and that is also true at the national level. And it is great to serve with you here in the many things that we’re doing at the moment.
And to you, Fiona, you’ve got off to an amazing start in your first term. You’ve gained the respect of your colleagues, you’ve gained the respect not only because I think beyond that, across the Parliament, across the Chamber, but most importantly in your community here. That’s obviously why I’m here and we see that constantly. I’m looking forward to the next election campaign here in Reid because it will be a further endorsement, I think, of the work you've been doing on the ground. Many of us know when we enter politics that when you come in as a local member, your first job and always your first job is to make sure you maintain the trust in your local community. And Fiona, you have started on exactly the right foot. I encourage you to keep going that way and I thank you all for the encouragement that you have given to Fiona in her first term.
So they say all politics is local, and that's true, but what's more relevant is all community is local. Community is local. And I want to thank you all for coming together today, because Fiona has told me a little bit about the sort of gathering that's here with us today. Women from all walks of life in the local community, serving their local community, making their families strong and making their community strong. Because, you know, in the Liberal Party, that's how we believe societies, strong societies, are built. From the ground up. If we are not strong in a room like this, in communities like this, whether they be in the inner western suburbs of Sydney or down my way in the Shire or out there in Armidale or up in the Northern Territory. If communities aren’t strong, then the nation can’t be strong. And so to come here today on International Women's Day and to honour leadership amongst women, I think it's quite appropriate that we're doing this in a community setting. Because I see that as the building blocks of how we build the type of community and the type of society we want to have.
Now, over the course of the last year, we have learnt just how important community is. Things that perhaps we thought were important before COVID-19 hit, may be not so much. I think what we've learnt is we've come out and through COVID-19 is family and community. That is the essence of a strong society and that is the essence of a happy and fulfilled life. We've learnt even while having to keep our distance, we've learnt the importance of connection. And people have reached out for that connection, oftentimes through many of the services I’m sure are run and supported by you all here today. It's been done proactively, whether it's been online or whether it's been assisting the elderly neighbour in our street or just ensuring that we're all OK. And this is incredibly important.
And so I hope coming out of COVID-19 that this is not just something that we acknowledge in passing, but something we take as a legacy from this period of time in our country. Because I know it will make us stronger. I know it will make us incredibly strong. And it is true to say that as we’ve come through COVID-19, the burden of that has fallen predominantly on women in this country. Whether economic, whether in the many professions and areas of work that have been called on most, particularly in our health sector, it has been women who are working in predominantly in professional care roles, let alone in voluntary care, incredibly holding families together, holding communities together, and it has particularly been women who have carried the day for the strength of our society in our community.
And so I was happy and very pleased to come here today because this is predominantly where I believe that effort has been put in at a local community level. To ensure that this community has been stronger and has been able to come through and indeed the nation has been able to come through stronger. I have said many times that Australia has had and leads the world in our response to COVID, both in terms of the pandemic and the recession that accompanied it. And we are leading the world on the way out. And of course, the Government has done many, many things that has supported that. Whether it's in JobKeeper or cash flow boost for small businesses, the number of women running their own small businesses through that access. Cash flow supports or even when it came to JobSeeker and the change to the arrangements that enabled sole traders to be able to access these supports. Our view was that if we could hold the infrastructure together, if we could hold this community together, if we could put the supports in place that would help people get from that side to that side, then we knew their resilience would carry. And then after that, as those supports were no longer needed and we graduated from that period, then that confidence and that resilience would then kick up a gear and we’d be able to go onto the next phase of our growth.
And so, 90 percent of the jobs that were lost during the COVID-19 recession have been regained. More than half of those jobs have been women, just over 800,000 jobs have come back over the course of where job losses were and over 400,000 were women. We've seen the gender pay gap under our Government fall to its lowest level ever, ever, 17.3 percent down to 13.3 percent or roughly thereabouts. That is the biggest fall we’ve seen and it continues to fall, and I hope it will continue to fall, and I think the generational changes that are happening in our workplace will see that achieved.
But as we've come out of the recession, what we're seeing, I think, is a resurgence of that entrepreneurial community-based spirit, and that's what I think will take us into these many opportunities that lie ahead for Australia. And we will be at the forefront of that and we want women to be in the forefront. And that's why the Women’s Economic Security Statement, there are copies here that Marise took through this year’s Budget and championed that. It’s all about ensuring that self-starting women who want to start businesses, who want to make a difference to secure their own economic futures can have the opportunity to do that. And what it basically is, is an exercise of doing is going through and trying to remove as many obstacles that are in the way, and there are many obstacles. That is true. We acknowledge those and the more of those we can remove, the more opportunity there will be.
There are a number of other big challenges that go beyond that which I want to touch on very briefly. Fundamentally, I worry about the nature of respect in our society. Respect of women, absolutely, and I said this when I spoke in Parliament House a few weeks ago. In order to have a society that better respects particularly women, but frankly, all Australians, then we need to have a greater culture of respect in our community. We’ve seen it all too often - respect for elders and the elder abuse we see in the aged care the system and things like that. Respect for people with disabilities. Respect for veterans. Respect for parents. Respect for kids. Respect for one another. You don't have to spend more than about 30 seconds on social media to understand how that medium has corroded and denuded respect in our society and our community. And I see that as a real cancer in our community.
Our Government has taken such a strong stand on this, introducing new laws to prevent cyber bullying, whether it's on the internet or elsewhere, laws to target trolls, laws to take on the big tech giants and tell them that they can’t operate in some sort of, you know, Wild West world where there are no laws, no rules. We genuinely see this where children are abused online. Our Government is leading the world when it comes to taking on these issues, because we understand that one of the key things that is eroding our society is how these new technologies are undermining our society and the biggest victims of all of that are women. The objectifying of women, disrespecting women, that all stems from things like that.
So they are important actions that we're taking as the Government to try and change some of the fundamental things that erode respect in our community. I want all Australians to be respected. Of course I want women to be respected, of course I do, because first and foremost, my fellow Australians, that's what it's about. A genuine respect for one another. And I fear that at the heart of this problem, that is something that we're losing sight of. And how do you change that? Marise and I can’t introduce a law which requires people to respect one another. No government can do that. But communities can. Communities can change that. You can change that.
Today, we're launching a campaign, $18 million, the third in a series of campaigns about protecting women from violence. And it focuses on this issue of appropriate respect that needs to be in place and understanding that from a lack of respect, it can end in violence. It doesn’t always. But it always starts there. That’s always where it starts. And so addressing this issue, I think, is really important. And these things can be very, very, very powerful. I remember watching an ad about alcohol and it was about a father who asked his son to go to and get him a beer. You remember that ad? Now, I saw that many, many years ago. I can assure you I have never, ever asked one of my kids to get me - I should go and get my own beer, one, which I do, on most occasions - but the same thing is true. It starts with just those simple things. And I think this latest campaign that we're watching today really does challenge those notions. ‘You're playing like a girl’ and the dad who has yelled that out from the sidelines gets called out, that’s not OK. It's not OK, it’s not OK. And the challenging of these idea, are really important and that's how you can fundamentally change what is happening, in lounge rooms, around kitchen tables, around cafe tables, at the sporting field. That's where it really matters. That's where attitudes are framed. And that's where everybody is enlisted in achieving the change.
Governments should do what they should do. But, you know, as Liberals, I believe this fundamentally. You can't ever contract away a citizen's responsibility to the government. Government has to do their thing, absolutely, and that's why the next national action plan against violence against women, these are the issues that we're putting in place. The housing initiatives, there is a long list of them, the women's economic security and Marise can quote them chapter and verse because she has designed them all. But, fundamentally, what needs to change in the way we interact needs to take place in communities.
I'm very pleased to be here amongst you today. To empower you to keep empowering your community to achieve these changes. I'll do what I can in our Government, everything I can. I am very committed to this. I'll do what I can in my community, I’ll do what I can in my family and around my kitchen table and all of those sorts of things, as each of us need to do. But it isn't just the Government's problem, it's all of our problem and it starts with, I think, really nurturing this notion of respect in our community. And if we can't respect each other on any number of issues, then how can we expect respect to come for one particular group of people in our society. Respect is something that needs to be a big well that we draw from. And we need to fill this well up for all Australians. And I think if we can achieve that, then I think women in Australia can look forward to a better future. If we fail in that task, I am not as confident. Thank you very much.
Press Conference - Sydney, NSW
5 March 2021
PRIME MINISTER: Good afternoon everyone. Well, it's another V Day for Australia - another vaccination day. The AstraZeneca vaccine has been administered in South Australia. It will be rolling out amongst other states over the course of the next few days. The vaccination program is critical, absolutely critical, to the way that Australia continues to emerge from the COVID-19 pandemic and, indeed, the COVID-19 recession.
As I said yesterday, Australia is leading the world out of the COVID-19 pandemic and out of the COVID-19 recession. We saw that with the national accounts figures that were released earlier this week, which puts Australia in the top group of nations. In fact, of advanced economies, right at the top in terms of how we're coming out of the COVID-19 recession. But, equally as we've known for many months, Australia has also, from a health perspective, been very successful in suppressing the virus here in Australia, particularly when compared to other countries around the world. Australia is in a very unique position, it's a position all Australians have worked hard to achieve, to ensure that we are in the situation we are in today.
National Cabinet has played a key role in all of these achievements, in all of these successes. And National Cabinet met again today, and for what was once again a very constructive meeting. At all times in the National Cabinet, what we've sought to do is to chart the way forward. Of course, we come up against obstacles, we come up against issues that we have to deal with. There's been plenty of surprises too along the way, which have required responses at the time. But at all times what we seek to try and do is ensure we're doing this on as nationally a consistent basis as possible - not always achieved - but we also understand the principles that should drive how we open up. Now, the good news is that we are opening up. We are far more open than we were. We want to stay open, though. That's the key to the confidence and the economic recovery that we're seeing coming out of the COVID-19 recession. And so today it was agreed, on the work that we commenced a month ago, that the Director-Generals of all the Premiers' departments and the Secretaries of the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet will continue to do the work to inform National Cabinet on how the risks are changing and the data that is needed to be provided to Premiers and myself, and Chief Ministers, to ensure the decisions we're making about whatever future further opening-up and removing of restrictions is done in a consistent way that looks not just at the health issues that are relevant but, of course, the impacts that are had more widespread on the economy. Now, the reason there is more opportunity to do that now, particularly when it comes to the economy, is because of the improvements we're seeing with the rollout of the vaccine, the improvements we're seeing in terms of the health outcomes right across the country. That gives us further opportunity to give greater certainty and greater confidence to business, and Australians all around the country, so they can return to as much of the normal life as they possibly can.
We also received an update on the vaccination rollout today. And I'm going to ask Professor Murphy, who's joining us today, to give us his update on those programs. You would have already heard today from Minister Hunt about the issues that were raised earlier today. That program is on track. It's a significant program of a scale that we have not seen in this country before. And everybody is working together to ensure that we can deliver those vaccines all around the country. Four distribution plans for the vaccines, the progress that we're making with aged care. The enabling regulation, which is important to support pharmacists to be able to play their role in the vaccination program - all addressed today.
Of course, the Chief Medical Officer has always updated us on the health situation around the country, and some of the current issues. On Pacific workers, we have been able to put in place a pre-travel quarantine pilot. Now, only South Australia at this point has indicated they're keen to join in with that program, but other states are considering it. This is the situation where other countries, such as Vanuatu and Fiji, where they do actually run quarantine programs, that there will be an opportunity to quarantine post-travellers as part of the seasonal worker program. And that is something that's been particularly worked through with the Chief Medical Officer, and I want to thank him and also DFAT for the work they've done working with those jurisdictions.
Today I can also announce that the Commonwealth is entering into an agreement with the Northern Territory Government to further expand our Howard Springs national resilience quarantine facility to 2,000, up from 850. And that will be done over the next few months, and that is an important addition to the capacity of those quarantine facilities, to receive those return chartered flights that Australia has been putting in place now for many, many months. That is where people will quarantine.
The other arrival caps remain as we had them before. I want to thank New South Wales in particular, who are taking more than 3,000 a week. Both Western Australia and Queensland are also now back over a thousand per week, and South Australia at 530. And I'm looking forward soon to a decision from the Victorian Government, once they're in a position to advise us of when they'll be also in a position to take flights again.
So, all in all, a rather routine meeting of the National Cabinet today. Considering the information before us, setting the chart, charting the way forward in terms of how we can keep Australia open and seek to do that on a far more consistent and predictable basis, because that lies at the heart of our economic recovery as well.
So, with that, I'll hand you over to the Chief Medical Officer, Professor Kelly, and then I'll hand you over to Professor Murphy. Thank you.
PROFESSOR PAUL KELLY, CHIEF MEDICAL OFFICER: Thank you, PM. So, a couple of slides up on the screen. Maybe go through to the next slide. So, we have a visual representation of where we're at in terms of the epidemic here in Australia. And so we're used to hearing the total numbers since the beginning of the pandemic, when we had our first cases at the end of January last year. So, we're up over 29,000 cases, 909 Australians have lost their lives. But I think it's time now, as we go into 2021, and as the PM has mentioned, looking at the way we chart our way out of this pandemic, both from the health and the economic perspective, that we should start thinking about what's happened this year rather than the whole of the pandemic.
So, since the 1st of January, there's been 600 cases of COVID-19 in Australia, and only 104 of those have been locally acquired. So, the vast majority are overseas cases. In fact, in the last week, of the 60 cases we've had, they've all been overseas-acquired cases, similar to at the very start of the pandemic. We've had less, throughout the whole of this year to date, we've had less than 20 people in hospital. Less than- one or less people in ICU, and zero deaths. Contrast that with the rest of the world, let's go to the next slide, thanks.
There is increasing cases still in many parts of the world. There are some very encouraging signs in some - in Europe and North America, where cases have started to decrease. Hospitalisations have started to decrease. And deaths have started to decrease. But, even so, year to date - so, from 1 January to today - over 33 million cases in the world. And over 765,000 deaths. My sister lives in Italy. They're at the moment having 18,000 cases a day. And around 300 deaths in Italy.
So, of course, we're in an excellent place here in Australia. We continue to look at the rest of the world, particularly the emergence of variants of concern, and also what is happening in the vaccine rollout and what effect that's having on hospitalisations. And Professor Murphy will talk about that shortly. But that's something we need to keep in mind as we go through this year. What is it about the vaccine rollout, when we get to certain levels of vaccination around the country, that we can start to look at our public health baselines and also reactions to outbreaks as they occur - and they may well occur as we go through, particularly into winter. And that's the information that myself and my colleagues on the Australian Health Protection Committee will be giving in to that process that the Prime Minister has outlined already.
So, I'll pass over to Dr Murphy now to talk about the vaccine rollout.
PRIME MINISTER: Thanks, Brendan.
PROFESSOR BRENDAN MURPHY, SECRETARY OF THE DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH: Thanks, PM. So, this huge once-in-a-generation logistical challenge of the vaccine rollout is going well. We're just coming to the end of Week 2. We're ramping up. We started carefully and progressively across Australia, as we can do because we are in such a good place, as my colleague has already outlined. We don't have a burning platform. We have time to do this properly and carefully.
Just to remind you, we have two very, very good vaccines. A year ago, we wouldn't have dreamt that we could have two vaccines that are so good. And it's important to emphasise that all of the data, particularly coming out of the UK and other places, is showing that these two vaccines are both equally excellent, particularly in all age groups. So, we know we've got two vaccines, we've got the Pfizer vaccine - which we've now had two weeks of experience with - and we've had our first AstraZeneca vaccinations today. We've got 300,000 doses of AstraZeneca from international sources - that is being rolled out now and will start up in every state next week. And we'll also be starting up vaccinating some aged care workers. But the really, really exciting thing is that in the week beginning the 22nd of March we will start to release the onshore supply of AstraZeneca vaccine. A million doses-plus a week, which gives us the capacity to really ramp up and broadly vaccinate our population as quickly as possible.
The value of having onshore production cannot be underestimated. Every country in the world is depending on international supplies. They're seeing them come slowly. We have been very lucky with Pfizer. They have kept their supply going. But it's relatively small volumes, and that will keep going throughout the rest of this year, and that will be a very valuable vaccine. But we'll get a lot more of the AstraZeneca vaccine. That's the one I'm going to have, and I'm really looking forward to it. Next slide.
This is the sort of reporting that we discussed at National Cabinet today, that we will start to put out, initially weekly and then progressively daily. The data on this slide still have to be verified, but they're pretty indicative of our situation as of the end of the day yesterday. We've seen well over 70,000 vaccinations. 241 residential aged care facilities and disability care facilities have been vaccinated. With well over 20,000 residents. They're protected with their first dose now - that is a fantastic thing. And the states and territories have all been ramping up progressively with their Pfizer clinics. Many of them have nearly completed, or have completed, those quarantine and border workers who are protecting us in the quarantine hubs. They're the people at highest risk because they're the ones who are in contact with the only people in Australia at the moment who have COVID - the returned travellers. Also in phase 1A, as you all know the phases now, we have been vaccinating those front-line healthcare workers, emergency department workers, ICU staff, and the like. With the AstraZeneca doses being rolled out by the states and territories and by the Commonwealth next week, we will be starting to vaccinate a broader range of healthcare workers. And then, in that week beginning 22 March, between 22-29 March, we will start to vaccinate the more vulnerable people in our general population - the older Australians, the over-80s and the over-70s. And that is when we will be rolling out to general practices, progressively over the course of a month we'll be rolling out to over 4,600 general practices in Australia, where people can go to get their vaccines as close to their home as possible.
This is again a huge logistical exercise and I want to pay absolute credit to the medical bodies who have worked with us closely, the states and territories who have worked with us, our logistics providers who will be delivering vaccines to so many sites across the country.
This is a very exciting time. We're on track, we're doing well, and we're going to keep ramping up and get this community vaccinated as soon as we can. Thanks, PM.
PRIME MINISTER: Thank you. Now, because I'm joined by Professors Murphy and Kelly today, I would be grateful if we can deal with matters that relate to their responsibilities and the National Cabinet, then happy to move to other matters. And at that time I will ask Professors Kelly and Murphy to leave us.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, do you blame the Italian authorities, blocking the supply of the AstraZeneca vaccine to Australia? Given obviously what’s just been laid out in terms of how bad the situation is there?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, they're certainly responsible for exercising the veto right they had through the EU process about those supplies coming to Australia. But the point about that is that we'd always anticipated that these sorts of problems could arise. And that's why we've done a number of things, the most significant of which is to ensure that we have our own domestically produced vaccine. And we're one of few countries that have done that. That means that has given us sovereignty over our vaccination program, which I think is incredibly important. I mean, I'm in regular contact with European leaders. As Professor Kelly said, in Italy people are dying at the rate of 300 a day. And so I can certainly understand the high level of anxiety that would exist in Italy and in many countries across Europe, as is regularly conveyed to me. And so they have some real difficulties there. They are in an unbridled crisis situation. That is not the situation in Australia. But, nevertheless, we have been able to secure our supplies, and additional supplies for importation, both with Pfizer and AstraZeneca, which means we can continue the rollout of our program. So, I want to assure Australians that we've been able to secure those vaccines. This particular shipment was not one we'd counted on for the rollout, and so we will continue unabated.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, did you ask Daniel Andrews to resume hotel quarantine, and do you think Victoria's policy is putting an unfair burden on other states?
PRIME MINISTER: Yes, I did. And we have regularly made that request and the Premier advised me today that he hopes to soon be able to provide a response to that. He wasn't in a position to be able to do that today. Jane Halton, who did the work at our request for the quarantine review for the National Cabinet, who has recently been in Victoria and observed the practices they have firsthand. And she's given a positive report about that. And so we look forward to Victoria resuming that as soon as possible, because that will obviously add to the ability to bring Australians home. I mean, the second-highest number of Australians on that list are from Victoria, over 10,000 Victorians are wanting to come home. So, I'm sure they would welcome their home state receiving those flights as soon as possible.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister [inaudible]
PRIME MINISTER: I'll go here, then there.
JOURNALIST: When will we see that increase in capacity at Howard Springs go up?
PRIME MINISTER: Look, we anticipate - we're currently at around 850. And there are wet season issues that we're currently dealing with. And so we would expect that to occur around April/May.
JOURNALIST: Is there any reason for the delay, why that's taking between now and April and May?
PRIME MINISTER: It's a ramp-up of workforce - that's a critical issue. But there's also wet season issues as well.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, given the Northern Territory are more than willing to double their capacity at that Howard Springs facility, was there any thought given to other states increasing their capacity? Or changing where their locations will be, I know Queensland’s previously spoken about going regional?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, no, the hotel quarantine arrangements have always worked most effectively where they're close to the major airports where the flights are coming. And I think this is a very important point. The flights go to where they're designated to go. Australia can't just redirect flights, commercial flights, of airlines to go to other ports where they don't have the ground crew and the other supports that go to supporting the aviation industry. Often times that includes the freight and other things that are in the belly of the plane itself. And so it's not just a matter of a plane flying somewhere else. The Howard Springs facility was set up on the recommendation of Jane Halton's review, and we acted on that recommendation, and that was to support the supplementary quarantine capacity that was needed by our charter flights, which the Australian Government is putting on, where we can direct those things. And so that gives us greater capacity to respond to that. We're happy to look at other issues, but we need firm, costed proposals for that, and I have no such firm, costed proposals.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, earlier this week, in New South Wales, the Health Minister and also the Premier criticised the Federal Government for not releasing data fast enough in relation to the aged care facilities that were getting vaccinated. Are you in talks with New South Wales about increasing that flow of information?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, we have. I stress, though, this - the aged care vaccinations are run by the Federal Government. They're not run by the state government. But we're happy to share the information about how the federal program is rolling out into those aged care facilities. And today not only did all the states and territories receive a full list of all the facilities that have been visited, but they also received an indicative planning list for next week's as well. So, look, that's part of the flow of information in the early stages of the vaccine rollout. I mean, one of the points that Professor Murphy was just saying, you've seen up there the indicative weekly report that we've provided. We agreed that that should be done on a Monday, with the data to the seven days to the end of the Sunday, of the previous day. And we want to take that to a daily level, ultimately. But at this stage, while the data flows are still being confirmed between the states and the territories and the Commonwealth, then we're confident about that weekly picture. And we hope to move fairly quickly to daily. I think those daily reports will give Australians a lot of confidence about the success of the rollout.
JOURNALIST: The network of 4,600 GPs, is that sufficient? Will you need state health authorities to shoulder some burden of which the Premier here obviously is very keen to offer those services?
PRIME MINISTER: Brendan?
PROFESSOR BRENDAN MURPHY, SECRETARY OF THE DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH: Sure. So, the Premier here is obviously very keen to roll out as many GP practices as possible. We have planned around the 4,600 on the basis of the availability of sufficient dose to be able to give them at least 50 doses a week to deliver. You really can't run a vaccination service with less than that. If we get more vaccine supplies, which we are working with, working with CSL to see whether we can get more production, we still, as the Prime Minister said, are working to get more international supplies, we may well be having additional vaccination sites. And in Phase 2 some community pharmacies will also come on board. But the states and territories are running AstraZeneca vaccination clinics. They'll focus mainly on their healthcare workers, the broader range initially. But they will also provide some community vaccination. It's a partnership between the Commonwealth and the states. We're all in this together.
PRIME MINISTER: And I should stress too, the blocks it moves in, I mean, in the early phases, you're dealing with hotel quarantine workers, and they're working through those. You're dealing with vulnerable people in aged care. Aged care workers. When you get to the balance of the population, which is, you know, people sitting in this room, for example, then there will be, in a completely different phase where others will be involved in that process and can support it. But one of the issues that I've raised is this is not the same as doing flu vaccinations, and there's often a comparison made, I think, in the analysis of this. It's not the same thing. It is a very different exercise. And that's why the Commonwealth has taken such a direct role in this. And the strategy that was formulated for the rollout and agreed last year is the one that we're proceeding with.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, have you talked to your EU counterparts about getting that shipment that’s been block released? Or have you had any luck on that front?
PRIME MINISTER: I've had quite a few conversations, as has the Foreign Minister and Health Minister and others in engaging with our EU counterparts on these matters over some time.
JOURNALIST: There’s been a handful of new cases diagnosed in Cairns overnight in hotel quarantine. They've all been linked back to a copper mine in PNG, are you confident with the border situation between PNG and the Torres Strait?
PRIME MINISTER: We discussed this today. And Border Force, in particular, has a very significant presence in that part of Australia. As you'd expect them to. It's actually the closest border we have to land of anywhere around Australia. That particular case, I might ask Professor Kelly to comment on, because he's close to the details of it. But can I assure you, as we were able to do with the Premier today, that our focus on those border controls is very strong.
JOURNALIST: So, there's no plan to up those border measures or change them?
PRIME MINISTER: If that is necessary, then that will be done.
JOURNALIST: Premier Berejiklian-
PRIME MINISTER: Sorry, I will just go to Brendan.
PROFESSOR BRENDAN MURPHY, SECRETARY OF THE DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH: Just on that matter, so I had a very detailed discussion with Jeannette Young, my counterpart in Queensland, yesterday, about the Torres Strait. It's been a point of concern for quite some time throughout this pandemic, and what's happening in PNG. So, we're of course assisting PNG on the ground through the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade in terms of the Torres Strait itself that's a partnership with the Queensland Government in relation to vaccination for example, and the ABF presence there, as the Prime Minister has said has been upgraded over time. But that would be a key component of their AstraZeneca rollout to the Torres Strait, and we're working through with the elders of those areas to make sure that happens.
JOURNALIST: On international borders generally, it was Premier Berejiklian's intention to raise that today, in terms of moving to discussions around reopening. Did she do so? And is there any agreement with her position?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, there's no disagreement amongst any of the Premiers or the Chief Ministers about the closure of international borders and the current arrangements we have for that, which extends out to the end of June. That is a unanimous position. The discussion we had today about how we get open, stay open, is really about how we inform those choices in response to any events that may occur along the way. What I want to see - and I know the New South Wales Premier wants to see - is that we fully realise the capability of our national economy, reconnecting all of our states and territories. And there's been a lot of progress done on that in the last few months. We've seen more of the Commonwealth open up over these last few months, and we want to see that stay that way, and not fall back. And there is every reason to have the confidence of that as the vaccination program continues, as the success right across the country of the quarantine program continues. I mean, even in the very serious cases that you've just mentioned up in, involving the mine, I mean, that's been contained within the quarantine. And that has largely been the experience of Australia throughout the entire pandemic. And when you think about the hundreds of thousands of people who have gone through hotel quarantine, and the very small number of cases that it's failed to contain, that is a success rate that any other country in the world would swap places for in a heartbeat. So, we share that view about wanting to open up. But at this stage, opening up to international arrivals at that scale is not considered safe or wise.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, can we ask some questions now on other matters?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, I'm happy to get to those. But I'm going to deal with the issues of the National Cabinet first.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, is there any update on the Toowoomba quarantine proposal?
PRIME MINISTER: No, I still don't have one. That's the update I have. I need a detailed, costed proposal that the Commonwealth could consider. There's been a lot of going backwards and forwards, but as yet the Commonwealth doesn't have a costed proposal that we could actually consider.
JOURNALIST: Just on the overseas shipments, we're meant to be getting more than 3 million doses from overseas. Are we still relying on those at all? Or are we completely not needing them?
PROFESSOR BRENDAN MURPHY, SECRETARY OF THE DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH: So, we have those 300,000, which will really take us through at our current rate. We plan to use them until the CSL local production comes. We are still working, and still expect to get those other 3.8 million, and we may yet get more in coming weeks. And if we get some more in coming weeks, we will obviously ramp up the pre-local production release phase of the AstraZeneca. So, we can scale our vaccination program according to what we have at the moment. At the moment, we've deployed 200,000 doses right throughout the country to states and territories, and they're about to stand up clinic next week. If we get more, they can do more. So, it's all scalable and we've got the time to do it.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, the ripping-up of hotel quarantine invoices by some states - Queensland, Western Australia - what do you make of that in terms of [inaudible]?
PRIME MINISTER: It's a matter for them. That's what I make of that. It's not a matter for the Commonwealth, it's a matter for the states to resolve those matters between themselves.
JOURNALIST: We're all in this together, aren't we?
PRIME MINISTER: If they've got outstanding invoices between states, I'm sure they can work that out. I don’t think they need my help to do that.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister just on international borders, is there any update on foreign students? Is that something that we’re any closer to seeing?
PRIME MINISTER: No, there's no change on that front. It would be good if we could get to that point, but at this stage we're not at that point. The opening of international borders, we don't think is wise at this time, and for the period that we've suggested, and that's totally consistent with the medical advice. And we've always been happy to work with the international education sector if they want to put in place supplementary self-funded quarantine arrangements and flight arrangements. That has always been there for the international education industry, the large universities and others to go down that path. They haven't chosen to go down that path. Our focus has remained on the responsibilities we have as a Commonwealth.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, notwithstanding our onshore vaccine capacity, are you worried about vaccine nationalism going forward? And is the incident in Italy overnight an example of vaccine nationalism?
PRIME MINISTER: Yeah, look, vaccination nationalism or protectionism is a matter that has been regularly raised in international forums that I have been involved with. It's a matter I discussed with Ursula Von der Leyen when I discussed this particular matter. It's fair to say the European Union has seen a large amount of vaccines leave the European Union, so it would be unfair to suggest that they've engaged in a universal practice of that nature. But, obviously, you know, it's important that contracts are honoured. It's important that the vaccines not only reach across Europe and North America, but particularly in the developed world as well. I have been so impressed by the way that the Pacific Islands nations have performed during this pandemic, keeping their citizens safe. Up in Papua New Guinea now, it's a more distressing situation. It has deteriorated somewhat. But, frankly the fact they have been able to maintain the position they have for so long is a great credit to Prime Minister Marape and the work that they've done there. So, yes, it is a real issue. It is a matter that I think particularly advanced countries have to be quite vigilant about, and it's certainly a matter that I've raised very consistently, particularly for access for vaccines to those in the Pacific Islands family, and South-East Asia.
JOURNALIST: Professor Murphy, can you give an outline of what role specifically has it been finalised, what role the military will play in the vaccine rollout, and how many medical professionals or nurses they have on hand to assist in that role?
PROFESSOR BRENDAN MURPHY, SECRETARY OF THE DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH: So, it's a relatively minor role. There's a team of about 60 ADF personnel who are clinically trained, mostly nurses and paramedic-style-trained people. They were standing up teams anyway to vaccinate the Defence Forces, and what we've done is ask them to stand up a bit earlier to help with the aged care rollout, as you've obviously been aware. Aged care rollout has been a bit more complex than we thought, and we need to supplement it, particularly in those parts of the country where sending a contracted team might be difficult. The ADF have the capacity to get anywhere and do anything, so it's a relatively small contribution, it's not taking any health professionals away from any state and territory health service. It's not using Reservists. It's just the Defence Force, as they have done throughout this pandemic, stepping up to help.
PRIME MINISTER: Okay. Well, on that note, thank you, Brendan, and thank you, Paul. Happy to deal with other matters.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, now that the family of the woman in Adelaide that made very serious allegations against the Attorney-General has called for what they described as any inquiry, whether that's a coronial inquest or some form of independent inquiry, will you support them in that?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, let's be clear. Yesterday, when I responded to this question, I was referring to an inquiry that I was being asked to put in place. The issue as to whether there is a coronial inquiry in South Australia is entirely a matter for the South Australian Coroner. And if they chose to go ahead with that, of course, I would welcome that. But it would be highly inappropriate for me as Prime Minister, or any other politician, to interfere or intervene in a decision that a coroner should properly make about those issues.
JOURNALIST: And if they do hold a coronial inquest in South Australia, do you think that the Attorney-General should be given the opportunity to give evidence in person, sworn evidence, to be able to help put his record on the official agenda and, you know, to defend his own good name?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, the coronial inquiry would be into the rather terrible events with the death by suicide of the woman at the centre of the inquest. And if the coroner sought that, then I have no doubt that the Attorney-General would cooperate with any coronial process.
JOURNALIST: Can I ask you a question about the rule of law, which is obviously very important. There's lots of statistics on sex assault that tell us, that say, in New South Wales, 15,000 women will report to the police with an allegation of sexual assault, a handful of those get to court. And 3% of those actually end in conviction. Now, are 97% of those 15,000 women liars or fabulists, or is there something else going on?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, it's an important question, Sam, and it's one that just doesn't affect Commonwealth jurisdictions. In fact, it is predominantly a responsibility of state jurisdictions for the administration of law and order in relation to criminal matters, particularly criminal matters such as this. But the rule of law is the essential process by which all Australians are subject to. And there is an equality before the law as well. Yesterday, I spoke about the presumption of innocence, the rules of evidence, the process of courts. The equality of the law is also important. You and I face the same law. We're subject to the same processes under that law. There's not one set of processes for one Australian and another set of processes for another. So, we're all subject to that. And those laws need to be administered as effectively and as professionally and competently as possible, and that's what we would hope in all of our jurisdictions. And I have to say in Australia - in Australia - I think our rule of law stands up to the assessment of many other countries. And that's an important thing for us to preserve. And we must preserve it now. We must preserve it now.
JOURNALIST: And in relation to the Defence Minister calling Brittany Higgins - I understand she called Brittany Higgins - perhaps you can explain what she's referring to - a "lying cow", why are there no consequences ever for your Ministers? If you can get away with saying that without any consequences, is there anything that you would ask a Minister to resign over? And she said in a statement today that "our lawyers are looking after it". Are taxpayers paying for her lawyers? Are taxpayers going to fund any potential recompense to Brittany Higgins?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, I'll come back to you on the latter matter. But in relation to the former, Minister Reynolds has offered an apology, as she should and as I said yesterday. And I didn't find that acceptable, the comments that were made within her office at that time. They weren't public statements, of course. These were comments made in a, not in a public space - that doesn't excuse them.
JOURNALIST: But they were about Brittany Higgins weren’t they?
PRIME MINISTER: And it was relating- as I referred in my answers yesterday, Sam, you'll be familiar with those - about what they related to.
JOURNALIST: So was she talking about Brittany Higgins or someone else?
PRIME MINISTER: She was not talking about the allegations of sexual assault, no, she wasn't talking about that.
JOURNALIST: But she was talking about Brittany Higgins?
PRIME MINISTER: Look, I've already addressed that matter, Sam.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister can you guarantee that Linda Reynolds will still be the Defence Minister when you call the next election?
PRIME MINISTER: Linda Reynolds is returning. She's currently on leave and will return to her duties when her leave is finished.
JOURNALIST: Will she still be the Minister?
PRIME MINISTER: She maintains my confidence.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, on that, I guess you've made comparisons between the, you know, what happens in Parliament and what happens in the private sector. If someone in the private sector called a former employee a "lying cow", they would be fired?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, you must have worked in a lot of different places to me in the private sector. I don't know how that comment would…
JOURNALIST: To Sam's point...
PRIME MINISTER: I mean I can only reflect on some of the things I hear about media rooms and the way they talk about people in those places. And if that were the case, you'd have to clear the whole place, I suspect.
JOURNALIST: But to Sam's point, what would someone need to do to get...?
PRIME MINISTER: This was a comment made not in a public place. This was a comment made during a period which was very traumatic and very stressful. The Minister deeply regrets saying these things and has offered an apology, as she should.
JOURNALIST: Does it concern you, then, that there's leaks coming out of the Defence Minister's office?
PRIME MINISTER: No. I think on this matter it was a very traumatic week. These events are very unfortunate. And the Minister has apologised, as she should.
JOURNALIST: Have you asked the Minister to apologise to Brittany Higgins?
PRIME MINISTER: I think she understood from my comments yesterday and my discussions yesterday that I did not support those comments in any way, shape or form. And I'm pleased that she's taken her decision to apologise.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, you ruled out an independent inquiry into historic sexual assault allegations against Christian Porter. But how can you move on as a leader and a Government when these allegations remain untested and unresolved? Don't you need a circuit breaker?
PRIME MINISTER: No, I don't accept this proposition that any Australian should be subject to a rule of law that is different to anyone else. There is the presumption of innocence. I believe in the presumption of innocence. That process, as the police have said, has concluded. And given that process has concluded, the presumption of innocence stands. And so we should be able to move on from that. There is no alternative process. There is no alternative rule of law that should apply to one Australian and not to another. And the suggestion that there should be, I think, can go to undermining the very principles of the rule of law in this country. We are governed by that rule, not the rule of the mob or anybody else.
JOURNALIST: On foreign policy, there's reports in the United States that President Biden has called for a meeting of leaders of the Quad. Have you received that invite? How important is that alliance, given the circumstances globally at the moment?
PRIME MINISTER: This is one of the first things President Biden and I discussed when we spoke some weeks ago. And I spoke to Vice-President Harris just this past week. The Quad is very central to the United States and our thinking about the region, and looking at the Indo-Pacific also through the prism of our ASEAN partners and their vision of the Indo-Pacific. So, yes, the Quad is very central, I think, to our ongoing arrangements. The President and indeed, the Secretary of State, have made clear that their re-engagement in multilateral organisations, particularly in the Indo-Pacific, is key to building stability and peace in the Indo-Pacific. We share that view. We encourage that view. And we strongly welcome that view. And so I am looking forward to that first gathering of the Quad leaders. It will be the first ever such gathering. I have already had bilateral discussions about this with Narendra Modi and Yoshihide Suga, the Prime Minister of Japan, and of course the Prime Minister of India. And of course we’re looking forward to those discussions and follow-up face-to-face meetings as well. This will become a feature of Indo-Pacific engagement. But it's not going to be a big bureaucracy with a big secretariat and those sorts of things. It will be four leaders, four countries, working together constructively for the peace, prosperity and stability of the Indo-Pacific, which is good for everyone in the Indo-Pacific. It's particularly good for our ASEAN friends, and those throughout the South-West Pacific, to ensure that they can continue with their own sovereignty and their own certainty for their own futures.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, how confident are you that Christian Porter and Linda Reynolds will return from sick leave into your Cabinet?
PRIME MINISTER: I'm very confident. Thank you.
Press Conference - Tomago, NSW
4 March 2021
PRIME MINISTER: Thank you very much Mark, it’s great to be here today, it’s great to be back in the Hunter. It’s tremendous to be here of course with Minister Andrews, and Senator Hughes and I want to thank them for the work they’re doing here on the ground.
Australia is leading the world out of the global COVID-19 recession. That’s what yesterday’s National Accounts confirmed once again. Growth of 3.1 per cent, over the course of the year, through the year only down 1.1. Now if I’d said that a year ago, the idea that the Australian economy would be down 1.1 per cent through the year that would have been absolutely devastating news and indeed the impact of that is certainly been felt here in Australia, that’s why we’ve provided such unprecedented support. But when you compare the impact of the economic shock of COVID-19 across the world and more importantly how we’re coming out of the COVID-19 pandemic, then this is something that Australians have achieved in a remarkable way.
As a federal government, as a Commonwealth government, we've been very pleased to play our role in that comeback. It's certainly on. And as we move through the gears again, as we gear up the economy and we get into the next phase, it's an exciting time for Australia. Our economic recovery plan is not just about providing the immediate support - as we have over these many difficult months. It's also about the rebuilding that is going on now and the building for the future. Which is what you're seeing right here. In the Hunter, they're building the future on this site with lithium-ion batteries. When I think of all the regions of our country, it's very hard to consider a region that will benefit more from the economic policies we're putting in place than the Hunter. When I reflect on my last few visits here to the Hunter,
firstly, the gas-fired recovery and how we need to address the energy needs of this important sector - then to be here for the Joint Strike Fighters' maintenance program occurring over at Williamtown, and the defence industry that is being built here and expanded here in the Hunter. And to be back here again today to launch the Resources Technology and Critical Minerals Processing Plan Pathway, the priority roadmap for our manufacturing strategy, once again we find here in the Hunter those investors, those partners, whether they're in the CSIRO, the University of Newcastle, coming together to make the reality of manufacturing here in Australia for the future - just not for the present.
I've been here before looking at the skills development that is being done and the training that is occurring here under the programs we're putting in place, providing the workers for the places that we're standing on right now. As Mark was saying to us, when I asked him before - Why here, Mark? He talked about the skills. He talked about the university. He talked about the CSIRO. He talked about the partnerships. He talked about the opportunities. And here they are in the Hunter. And that's tremendously exciting to see that our manufacturing strategy that we set out in last year's budget - some $1.3 billion specifically going into these partnership grants that driven by these roadmaps developed up together with industry, will see critical areas like critical minerals processing, making the batteries that will power the world's economy into the future. And it's not a new issue for us. For some time now, our government has been working closely, whether it's been the United States or Japan or other parts of the world through our partnerships, about how we can fill in the supply chains around critical minerals and rare earths. It has been a keen topic of our national-level discussions. It is a sovereign and strategic priority for Australia to ensure that we are hard-wired into this supply chain around the world. And a supply chain that Australia and our partners can rely on. Because these rare earths and critical minerals is what literally pulls together the technology that we will be relying on into the future.
So, preserving the industrial base that has been so successful here in the Hunter, but also giving it a future through these types of initiatives. I'm going to ask Karen Andrews to make a few comments on that strategy in a second. But there are a couple of other matters I'm sure you understand that I need to address.
First of those is the AstraZeneca vaccine, as you know, has arrived in Australia. The Minister for Health announced that a few days ago. I can now tell you that the batch testing for the AstraZeneca vaccine that has arrived has been completed and it’s being distributed to the states and I understand that the first of those vaccines will be administered in South Australia tomorrow. That's welcome news. The next phase of the receipt of those vaccines that we were able to secure from overseas, supporting this first phase of this rollout of the vaccine rollout across the country. Let's not forget, though, that 50 million doses of the
AstraZeneca vaccine will be made right here in Australia, in Melbourne. And we took the decision to have the sovereign capability to do that because we did not want to be, over the course of our vaccination program in Australia, overly reliant or dependent on supply chains from somewhere else. So we did it here. We built it here. And we are one of the few countries in the world that have that capability. And so, while these initial doses of AstraZeneca that have come in from overseas have been approved by the Therapeutic Goods Administration, and now batch-tested, will be rolled out. And that commences from tomorrow. What will follow that is, ultimately, the approval of the manufacturing process here in Australia for the AstraZeneca vaccine, which will launch the next very significant phase of the home-grown vaccination of Australians for COVID-19.
Now the third point I need to address today is the press conference, statements made by the Attorney-General, Christian Porter, yesterday. These are harrowing events. And for the family of the woman at the centre of these issues, as the Attorney-General commenced his remarks yesterday, my heart can only break for anyone who has lost a child, and the issues surrounding that and the way that this matter is now being addressed in the public domain. This must be a harrowing time for her friends and for her family. And I don't want to do anything that would seek to add any further, any further difficulty for them. Christian Porter, the Attorney-General, has made it very clear in his statement yesterday that he has rejected absolutely the allegations that have been made. That is the same rejection that he made to me last week. In this country, there is a lot at stake. If you don't go too far from here, you will find countries where the rule of law does not apply. And you will be aware of the terrible things that can happen in a country where the rule of law is not upheld and is not supported, in whatever the circumstances. The rule of law is essential for liberal democracies. And we weaken it at our great peril. And it can be hard at times. And I understand, particularly under these circumstances, it can be hard to understand just how important that principle is in how we deal with these, the most sensitive and the most traumatic and the most personal of issues. But we must reflect on that principle, because it is that principle that undergirds our democracy itself. The presumption of innocence. The investigation of allegations involving criminal activity by competent and authorised bodies. That is, the police. And to act in accordance with the decision of those bodies and, indeed, the courts that deal with any allegations that are taken forward for prosecution. That is our rule of law. It is something that every single citizen of this country depends upon - and that is the principle upon which I seek to support, to ensure the good governance of our country. And so, as traumatic as these events are, that principle must continue to guide us, and it will certainly continue to guide me and my government as we deal with these very sensitive issues.
On related matters, I can tell you that, earlier this week, we put in place new arms-length arrangements for additional support to be provided to people who work in the parliament. That is a counselling process and service that is available to people who find themselves in the situation needing that. That is a major change to the way this service was previously delivered by the Department of Finance. We've put those arrangements in place now. There are other inquiries when we’re, that I hope we'll be able to finalise with the opposition and other parties - the terms of inquiry on the other matter. I don't think we're too far away from that but I did not want to wait for those additional and more effective support services to be put in place as soon as possible, and they have been operating now for several days.
So I'm going to hand over to Karen now, if you could give us just that patience. I'm sure you'll want to return to those issues, and I'm happy to address them. But I'd ask, that at first, we deal with the announcement we've made today, and then I'll ask Mark and his team and they'll stand aside and then I'm happy to deal with the other matters. But, Karen?
THE HON. KAREN ANDREWS MP, MINISTER FOR INDUSTRY, SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY: Thank you, Prime Minister. And we are here today to release the National Manufacturing Roadmap for Resources Technology and Critical Minerals Processing, and to announce that funding for that program is now open. Now the Prime Minister announced a $1.5 billion Modern Manufacturing Strategy in October last year. Some key parts of that were naming National Manufacturing Priorities for Australia. This is the first time that this has been named, ever, by a government. What we have determined are that there are some priorities for manufacturing here in Australia where we have comparative or competitive strengths. So, so far, we have released the roadmaps and opened funding for space, and also for medical products. So, today is the opening of funding for resources technology and critical minerals processing.
Now there are two streams of funding that are open for that today. The first one deals with the commercialisation of good ideas. Now this is not funding to come up with the good idea - this is funding it to commercialise that good idea. And that's exactly what we have seen here today with Energy Renaissance. They have worked very closely with the university, they've worked very closely with CSIRO, they're now at the stage that their product is commercialised, it's ready to be manufactured, and to be manufactured at scale right here in the Hunter. The second stream that is open today is the stream that will enable and support our businesses to be able to enter international supply chains. So, to become part of global supply chains for other countries right around the world.
In terms of resources technology and, specifically, critical minerals, Australia has a very long history of being a resource-rich nation where we have done extraordinarily well at digging that product out of the ground. The path that has been missed is the value-add. So, whilst we are very good at digging the product out of the ground, we ship it overseas, it's processed overseas in many instances, and we pay an extraordinary amount of money to purchase that material back in a different form, here in Australia. As a government, we want to change that we want to do more of the value-add here in Australia. Resources technology is an area where we are already world-leading, but there are significant opportunities for us to expand that even more. To look at how we can recover more of our material from waste that exists. With critical minerals, we have an abundance of critical minerals here in Australia. We have incredible stores of lithium. At the moment, we aren't processing that to any great extent here in Australia. But we want to make sure that, through our critical minerals processing roadmap, that we are setting a pathway where Australia can recover the maximum amount of lithium, and that we can then look at how we can value-add to that and, specifically, looking at how we can build the battery industry right here in Australia.
So this is an enormous opportunity. The grant funding is open for the first round for four weeks. There's already been a high level of interest in this. There are three more priority areas to go. And we will be releasing those over the next few weeks. Thank you.
PRIME MINISTER: So questions, if you have them, on the manufacturing initiative today, or the Hunter, for that matter?
JOURNALIST: Prime minister, [inaudible] Port of Newcastle later on, [inaudible]?
PRIME MINISTER: I want to ensure that the Newcastle Port can deliver all the services that this region needs for it to be successful. There are some processes currently underway. That are addressing those issues. The Treasurer announced those a little while back. I know they've been well received here. And I want to see those followed through. But let me be very clear about the outcome I want to see. Whether it's the port here in Newcastle or the port up in Townsville or wherever ports may be, I want to be able to, in Gladstone, I want these ports to be able to service the regions as fully and as competitively as is possible. That's what I want to see. I want to see the Port of Newcastle working for the Hunter, and I'll be working to that end.
JOURNALIST: Does that mean you'll be imposing a federal solution to the ACCC action against New South Wales ports, or will you be cooperating with the New South Wales government on that?
PRIME MINISTER: It means that I'm going to allow the process, obviously, that the Treasurer has instigated, to continue its process. And I would hope that it would achieve an outcome similar to what I've just outlined. But that's a matter for them - it's not for me to intervene in that process. But I'm just telling you, as a Prime Minister, and to the people of the Hunter, I know what's needed here. And that's a Port of Newcastle that works for the Hunter. Because when that happens, the Hunter's able to do more for Australia.
JOURNALIST: Does that mean you're committing the government to resolve the issue around the compensations paid to New South Wales ports?
PRIME MINISTER: It means the objective that I've set out.
JOURNALIST: [Inaudible] gas plant [inaudible] BAE, what’s your vision for the Hunter in 10-12 years time [inaudible]?
PRIME MINISTER: I'm standing on it. I want to see more of this. What I'm excited about when I come up here to the Hunter - I meant what I said. All the things we're doing. Whether it's in skills training, whether it's in energy, whether it's in supporting manufacturing, whether it's expanding our trade markets. I really can't nominate a region that would benefit more than the Hunter from all of these things. In so many ways, the Hunter is the model case. And I want to - if it works in the Hunter, I know it's going to work for Australia. And that's why I'm coming back so often. Because I'm seeing it work. I'm seeing the collaboration between universities, science agencies, investors. I'm seeing the passion, I'm seeing the commitment. And I'm just keen to ensure that I'm working with the Hunter to remove any obstacles that could be in their way, because I can assure you, a policy problem solved here in the Hunter means it's going to be a policy problem solved elsewhere in Australia. Because these are the regions that I particularly want to see go ahead into the future. And so, whether it's making lithium batteries or continuing to make aluminium, or the processing works that will occur here, or the training or the science exploration, the medical products - all of this, I want to see it happen. And I know if it's happening in the Hunter, I know it's happening in Australia.
JOURNALIST: Three times in six months do you, you're in the Paterson electorate again. Do you support Brooke Vitnell as a Liberal candidate in this election?
PRIME MINISTER: Well I will allow the party members to make those decisions. And I'm sure they'll make a very good decision.
JOURNALIST: No captains pick on that one?
PRIME MINISTER: I will allow the party to make their call.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, Lex Greensill’s supply chain finance company is teetering on the brink of insolvency and has applied for protection under Australian law, he says there are 7,000 jobs at risk. Some here, in Newcastle, some in Whyalla, are you being briefed on this?
PRIME MINISTER: It's not a matter I can comment on today. No.
JOURNALIST: Have you had any contact with them?
PRIME MINISTER: It's not a matter I can comment on today, but I'm happy to follow up the matter after, through my office.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister you’re here to talk [inaudible] resources [inaudible] jobs, [inaudible]?
PRIME MINISTER: We're the first government to actually go to the step that so many others haven't over a long period of time in getting to the settlement that we have. And we're going to continue working through that process and delivering on those commitments, and many other commitments we've made on those issues. There is also continues to be an enormous amount of scientific work that is being done around this, which we committed to undertake. So we're just going to continue to commit and follow through on what we've said we'd do.
JOURNALIST: Matt Kean [inaudible] New South Wales government [inaudible] two days ago, dissatisfied [inaudible] do you think the government, the Commonwealth government should do more?
PRIME MINISTER: I think we should honour the commitments we've made, and continue to follow the process that we've been engaged in over a long period of time. And we will continue to honour the responsibilities that we have here as a federal government, as we have been doing.
JOURNALIST: Will that [inaudible] around the place?
PRIME MINISTER: I've made my comment.
JOURNALIST: How concerned are you about warnings from Kerry Schott that these coal fired power stations will be gone by 2030?
PRIME MINISTER: I think that's highly unlikely, for a number of reasons. The first of all - I mean, those that don't have a life that go beyond 2030, they're positions that are known. And so I don't think she's necessarily just referring to that. But I've been in Japan recently, I've been to many places where the demand for what Australia produces continues. And that will be the case for some considerable time into the future. Some considerable time into the future. The rate at which coal-fired plants are being built in China and other parts of the world - I mean, that's a reality. And so I think Australia's contracts and Australia's participation in that trade - if it wasn't Australia, it'd be another country that was doing that. That wouldn't change any emissions outcome, but it would mean the removal of jobs in Australia. And so I've never seen that as a particularly smart thing to do. So, look - the world, over time, is moving to a different energy economy. That's true. People here in the Hunter understand that, as they do down in the Illawarra and other parts of Australia. But that transition is taking place over quite a period of time. And the government is working hard to ensure that we both maintain the industrial base - particularly of regions like the Hunter - while, at the same time, fostering and investing in the transition in the future. That's what we're seeing right here today. That's what we're seeing right here today. And that's why I'm so pleased to be coming back so often - because I see the real world of that change that takes place over decades done in a way here which I think is really, at the end of the day, concerned about the livelihoods of people who depend on these industries.
JOURNALIST: The UK Energy Minister told Matt Kean she'd like to see more ambition from the Australian Federal Government on emissions reduction. Do you think, going to Glasgow, you need to bring a stronger commitment?
PRIME MINISTER: I've outlined that our commitment is to get to net zero as soon as possible and preferably by 2050. And I’ve also said that that shouldn't be done at the expense of regional Australia and ask regional Australia to carry that burden on behalf of others who are in, you know, northern Sydney, in metropolitan areas of northern Sydney, or in southern Sydney for that matter, or anywhere else. I'm very conscious of the change that is going to take place over many decades, and Australia is playing its part. I mean, we have reduced our emissions by 19 per cent since 2005. You'll be aware that, in New Zealand and Canada, that figure was 0 to 1 per cent. So that's what's being achieved in Australia. We have the highest rate of household solar anywhere in the world. In the world. So, Australia is making gains here which are often unappreciated. We're very committed to being part of the future energy economy, but I'm not going to sell out regional Australia to do that. I'm going to ensure that we get there through technology - not higher taxes. Not higher taxes. Technology is the way to get to where we need to get to. And the technology that is going to be built right here, by Mark - right here - is how you get there. If you want to get to that goal, then you need to be doing what we're doing right here. Backing in manufacturing industries that actually are part of that future energy economy while, at the same time, finding lasting solutions to support the livelihoods of those who are engaged in heavy industry. That's what I'm going to be doing this year.
JOURNALIST: Do you support the extension of the petroleum exploration licence of the coast of New South Wales?
PRIME MINISTER: We're talking about the one down on the...
JOURNALIST: Between Port Stevens and Sydney?
PRIME MINISTER: Yeah, yeah. No.
JOURNALIST: You don't support the extension?
PRIME MINISTER: No.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, we're looking at climate change and all sorts of things here. You're talking about more resources. Will those resources be taken out of the earth in a way that protects our environment and saves vulnerable species?
PRIME MINISTER: Of course, yeah.
JOURNALIST: We've got Brandy Hill Quarry that’s endangering koalas and other things happening here in the Hunter that have residents concerned. We have a vulnerable population of dingoes at Tea Gardens Hawks Nest. I just wanted to know what the government's position is on that?
PRIME MINISTER: If, I read recently a book, a friend of mine sent me a book by David Attenborough. I don't know if you've read it. I'd encourage people to read it - I think it's a very interesting read. And he makes a very important point. As serious as issues around climate change and these things are, he points out that, at the end of the day, what actually supports the planet is ensuring that we maintain and support biodiversity. That is his fundamental point. And there are a range of things you need to do to address biodiversity. That's why we have the EPBC Act. That's why the Department of Environment puts in place the initiatives and regulations that sit around, whether it's mining operations or many other types of activities, to support biodiversity. That's the purpose. Biodiversity is essential for life on this planet. That is absolutely true. It's been the case forever. And our policies are designed to try and support that biodiversity - but do so in a way that ensures that we support the livelihoods of Australians around the country and to support the transition of our economy, which will continue to occur, but do so in a way that protects and supports the very heavy industries that we've had in our regions for a long time. And those heavy industries will continue to adjust and change over time. Everyone who works in them understands that. It's not all changing tomorrow morning. But it is an evolving process, it’s a gradual process, which is moving at a pace which supports the livelihoods and the economy of regions like the Hunter but, at the same time, meets our overall objectives which are environmental, as well as economic and, in particular, supports biodiversity.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, can I ask - have you spoken to the Attorney General since his press conference yesterday?
PRIME MINISTER: Okay, I'm happy to move to those. I just want to check that... I'm very happy to move to them… I-
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, can I just clarify the response that you gave regarding PEP11, Keith Pitt is currently considering an application to extend the offshore gas exploration license between Port Stephens and Sydney, are you saying that you don’t support the extension of that license?
PRIME MINISTER: I am. Pretty clearly.
JOURNALIST: That will make some of our tourist operators very happy.
PRIME MINISTER: It's going to make me very happy. I think that's the right decision.
JOURNALIST: Will you be pushing Keith Pitt to make this decision soon?
PRIME MINISTER: It's a matter the government's working through, but I'm happy to answer the question - you asked me what my view is. I've told you fairly plainly. I tend to be a fairly plain-speaking person.
Okay, why don't we move to those other issues? Thank you very much, Mark. It's great to be here with you today and congratulations on everything you and your team are doing. I'm looking forward to be back here in October. That's it. Good on you. Thank you very much. Thank you.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, if I could ask, have you spoken with the Attorney-General since his press conference yesterday? And are you still confident he can continue as AG once he is back?
PRIME MINISTER: Yes, I have, and yes, I am. I spoke to the Attorney yesterday and I'm pleased that he's taking some time to get support to deal with what has obviously been a very traumatic series of events, as you'd appreciate. He's getting that support, as well as the support of his colleagues, as he takes that time. I'm looking forward to him returning to his duties once that period of leave is completed.
JOURNALIST: Did you believe his account of events that he said yesterday?
PRIME MINISTER: Look, my judgement is based on the report of the police. That's the point I was making before. They are the competent and authorised authorities to make the judgements about any such allegations. And they have made their conclusions. And that's - as people have said in similar occasions in the past - that's where the matter rests.
JOURNALIST: So you’re ruling out an inquiry, independent inquiry?
PRIME MINISTER: Of course. Because the police have dealt with this matter and given us their understanding of these issues and their status and, as has been the case on other occasions, that's where the rule of law completes its process.
JOURNALIST: There have been some criticisms of the national broadcaster's coverage of this scandal. Do you have any concerns about the way it's been covered?
PRIME MINISTER: That is not my concern. That's not my issue. My issue here has been to try and deal with what has been a very traumatic series and sensitive series of issues now going over several weeks, but particularly this one. And my concern is for those directly impacted, particularly the family and the close friends who I'm sure - and there are- you've seen the reports about the different views there - and also others who have had allegations made of them and their mental health situation, which is in good shape. But it's important that people under any of these sort of stresses take the opportunity now to ensure that they can take the space and be in a position that they can return to their duties as soon as possible.
JOURNALIST: It does appear that he might be considering retirement, do you think that he will come back after his leave?
PRIME MINISTER: Yes, I do. And no, there's been no suggestion of that whatsoever. He is quite, he is looking forward to coming back and to resuming his duties. We, you know we have a lot to do, and we are doing it. It's demonstrated by what we're doing here today. There are many sensitive and difficult issues we're dealing with as a government. I began this week revealing to the country the Royal Commission into Aged Care's findings and their report. Whether it's that - just this week, we have had the royal commission in Victoria into mental health, I’m looking very much forward as the Premier and I have been discussing now for many months, how we can work together to put in place a better state-federal model in dealing with mental health. There is the significant issues of managing our energy economy, of getting our manufacturing sector going, of rolling out our infrastructure programme, of most significantly rolling out the COVID vaccine and keeping Australians healthy and safe as we come out of the COVID-19 pandemic and restoring the jobs. I mean, our government is getting on with a lot of very, very important tasks for the Australian people. These matters are very serious. And we have addressed those matters in accordance with the rule of law, and we hope with sensitivity and respect for those who have been most traumatically affected by these events.
JOURNALIST: Have you had a chance to read that dossier yet Prime Minister?
PRIME MINISTER: Well the dossier was provided directly to the Federal Police. On the Wednesday evening when I spoke to the Attorney-General, we had not received the dossier at that time. We were aware that such an anonymously provided set of documents had been provided to other members - in particular, Celia Hammond, as well as Senator Wong and Senator Hanson-Young. Now at that time, I had not received - my office had not received - those documents. But we were aware of the contents of those documents, because I contacted both - well, had a discussion with Celia Hammond, and she advised me of its contents and that she'd provided them to the Federal Police. So I spoke to the Federal Police Commissioner, and we had a discussion about the contents of that material, and he advised me of the process that they were following, and then I spoke to the Attorney-General about these matters, and he rejected the allegations very specifically - very clearly, I should say. I received it in the office - not I personally - it came to my office on Friday afternoon. I was in Sydney. It came to Canberra. And so I instructed that the materials immediately be sent to the Federal Police, which they were.
JOURNALIST: [Inaudible] allegations?
PRIME MINISTER: I have to make my decisions based on the process followed by the police. See, there is no other alternative for a Prime Minister than the rule of law. There's not another process. There is the rule of law. And the people who are competent to deal with these, to assess allegations of this nature and advise as to whether there is further action to be taken - ie, perhaps to move to try and form a brief of evidence - they didn't form that view or, indeed, if there's a brief of evidence prepared, that should be put to a prosecutor - it didn't even come to that stage. But that is the process. And when that process runs its course, as the New South Wales Police has said it has, then the government must rely on the rule of law.
JOURNALIST: Given the circumstances, though, surely an inquiry will clear the air, we’ve got it would seem almost impossible for police to prosecute this or bring this to a court under the circumstances, surely an independent inquiry would resolve some of the issues though?
PRIME MINISTER: No, I don't agree with that. I don't agree with that, because I don't agree with the precedent or the prima facie case for there being such a process. Because that would say that our rule of law and our police are not competent to deal with these issues. And they are competent to deal with these issues. They have reviewed the materials, and they've formed their assessment. There is not some other process. There is not the mob process. There is not the tribe-has-spoken process. That's not how we run the rule of law in Australia. We run the rule of law based on police. On courts. On judicial systems. On rules of evidence. On presumption of innocence. That's how liberal democracies function. And we have to be very careful - very careful - even in traumatic and sensitive issues like this, that we don't fundamentally undermine that principle. Because upon that, our entire system is built.
JOURNALIST: How careful has your Defence Minister been describing, reportedly describing, an alleged victim here as a lying cow?
PRIME MINISTER: I spoke to Minister Reynolds this morning about this matter. A couple of points I'd like to make. First, she has already spoken to her staff and apologised for those comments. So she knows those comments to have been inappropriate and wrong. The second point I make - and I share her view, obviously, about that. The second point, though, is they were made in her private office in a stressful week. And they weren't made in a public place. And nor were they intended for that, that doesn't excuse it, not for a second. And she made the appropriate apologies to her staff and rectified that. The third one I want to be very clear about is she was not making those comments, as she said to me this morning, in relation to the allegation of sexual assault. She was not saying that about that, at all. Her comments, she said to me, related to the further commentary about levels of support provided, and her frustrations about how she felt that they were doing everything they believed in their power to provide support, clearly, over a period of time there was a very different view about that. And we've acknowledged that, and that's why we're addressing the issues the way that we are.
JOURNALIST: But either way, it's an extremely insensitive comment to make given the circumstances. Should she resign over those comments?
PRIME MINISTER: She has deeply regretted them. She made them in a private office. She immediately apologised. Well soon after, I should say. These-
JOURNALIST: She only apologised when it came out in the media.
PRIME MINISTER: That's actually not true. That's actually not true.
JOURNALIST: So who'd she apologise to?
PRIME MINISTER: She apologised to the staff about making what were inappropriate comments, long before it became public. And what is - I would just simply say to people - you know, it's been a very traumatic several weeks for many people. People directly involved by these events who are our primary concern. But equally, there have been others who have been drawn into this. They're human beings. They say things that sometimes they deeply regret. I'm sure that all of you have found yourself, at a time of frustration, perhaps saying things you regret. And I would simply ask you, given the comment was made in a private place, that you offer the same generosity to how you’d perceive something you might have said, and perhaps apply the same standard to Linda Reynolds who, at the time, was under significant stress. She deeply regrets it. They were offensive remarks. She should never have made them. I don't condone them. But what matters is that we continue to address the substance of the issues here, as we are. I'm looking forward to the process which is being set up to get underway. I'm pleased that we’ve already been able to put in more support at arm's length for staff members or, indeed, members and senators who find themselves in a position where they need that counselling and support. It's done through the same organisation that also provides the 1800RESPECT service in Australia. So, that's a good initiative. We've taken action on that. But, of course, I understand the significant interest in these issues. They're very important. We're dealing with them. But at the end of the day, we have to deal with them in accordance with the fundamental principles upon which this country operates. We are a liberal democracy. At this time, I see liberal democracy under threat in so many places around the world. And so I'm going to stand up for liberal democracy each and every occasion, and I think we all, as Australian citizens, have an obligation to do that. Thanks very much, everyone.
Press Conference - Kirribilli, NSW
1 March 2021
PRIME MINISTER: Good afternoon everyone. I’m here to release the Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety, I'm being joined by Minister Hunt and Minister Colbeck. This is the first of many volumes.
I have spent the last few days poring over this. It's personal. The care of those we love is personal. Minister Hunt and I know this, as so many Australians do. We've both had parents who have been through the system. Their experiences were positive experiences, certainly in my case. And I'm forever grateful for the support and care my father received. My father spent his last moments in an aged care facility. I visited him there on many occasions, as we did as a family. You cannot separate the personal element of this, whether in discharging your responsibilities as a Prime Minister, a Minister, an aged care provider, a regulator, a carer, a worker, a cleaner, people who deliver the meals. We are all part of a system that is supposed to be providing the best quality care we can for older Australians, particularly as they age. And despite what I think are the best efforts and intentions of many governments over many years, which has been acknowledged by the Royal Commission, despite the fact we're spending double almost what we were seven years ago, we've tripled the number of in home aged care places, we're adding 1,200 a week at the moment. Many changes on quality commissioners and standards and all of this.
When I became Prime Minister, I received many briefings, as you'd expect me to, and across a range of issues and when we were addressing this issue and the assurances I sought about the quality of care being provided to older Australians in our system, I couldn't get the answer that I wanted to know and would have liked to have heard but it was impossible to hear that because it wasn't the case. No-one could give that assurance to me. And so I decided to ask one of the hard questions and that hard question was asked in the form of establishing a Royal Commission. Because I wanted to know what the quality and standard of care was being provided to my fellow Australians.
And so we called that Royal Commission and I warned the country we should brace for impact and be prepared for what would follow and it has been a harrowing process. The stories, the accounts, the evidence that has been brought together over these several years now are all set out in the Royal Commission and Australians as they read them they’ll feel the same way I did, I'm sure. And the Royal Commission has now, I think, set out a very important roadmap which I think will establish generational change in this country when it comes to aged care. It's the inquiry we needed to have. It's well considered. It's honest. It's positive. It's compassionate. It's comprehensive. It's candid. It's passionate and it's ambitious. All the things I would hope it would be when I called it. And that it could provide me and my ministers and my Government and indeed the parliament with what we needed to know in order to bring about this generational change that is needed. And I say generational change because the Royal Commission itself notes that we have been doing things in the system this way for about 25 to 30 years. Under the same constraints, under the same set of assumptions, there have been changes and there's been improvements. That's all true. Of course it is. But largely we've been operating in the same paradigm and what the Royal Commissioners - and I thank them earnestly for their work and all of those involved working in the commission, bringing this together - what they've said is the basic paradigm needs to change. And I agree. We need to make generational change so that the individualised needs and that needs-based care is developed that respects the dignity of the individual Australian.
The values, the rights, the needs. This is what must drive the system of the individual. And there was something very potent that Commissioner Briggs spoke of. Life is to be lived every single second, every single minute. It is precious. This is something I have believed my entire life, life is precious. You don't wait it out. And the fact that Australians feel they are waiting out their life, it's impossible to put into words how you respond to that. So generational change is needed.
I thank the commissioners because they're honest because they know there are no easy fixes. In fact they themselves couldn't agree on some fairly significant issues. So they've honestly provided their different perspectives on that and I welcome that and we will consider those perspectives.
This will take time. It will take quite considerable time to achieve the scale of change that we want to and need to. The commission itself sets out a 5-year timeframe for the measures that are set out in their report. And we must also take care in how we do this.
The commission itself highlights the great risks that come to people and individuals who are vulnerable and frail because of the training and availability of care workers. Because of the governance systems that are in place that oversee the delivery of that care. In many cases the quality of providers that are providing that care and the compliance too and the standards that are set and the information that's available to help those standards be upheld. So as we would seek to try and address the many urgent and short-term priorities that are set out in the Royal Commission, we also must exercise care at the same time. We cannot just take people off the streets and put them into people's homes and ask them to start caring for people. That would be irresponsible. If someone is going to go into someone's home or go into the room that they're living in in a residential aged care facility, we cannot compromise on the standards that should be there for those workers to be able to provide that support. And so we will seek to address the significant workforce issues and the standards issues and the quality issues and the governance issues. The new act and all of these things that are set out in these recommendations.
As we both frame our response and then implement our response, we must be careful because we are dealing with the needs of people who can be very vulnerable and very frail. So we must take care to do that and do that in a responsible way. Today I'm going to ask Minister Hunt to set out the initial - that's just today - the initial response we're putting in place to deal with a number of matters that we had anticipated having been working through this process now. A total sum $450 million immediately in initiatives that we'll be proceeding with. But there will be more and it will be comprehensive and addressed throughout the Budget process. I've made that very clear on numerous occasions. I didn't ask this question on the basis of not being prepared to deal with the answer. I was serious when I asked it because I wanted to know, they've told me and now I'm committed to dealing with the issues that are raised in this report together with my Government team and it will tell all of us. It will test my Government, it’ll the Budget and it’ll test the Parliament. It will test the way in which we are prepared to deal with this issue. As a once in a generation opportunity to actually change it for a new generation. That's the test for all of us. And I look forward to working with anyone, all parties, who are prepared to work with us to put in place the right response to this report and what needs to back it up.
Over the last two years also, while we called the Royal Commission, we haven't been idle. As we've waited for the Commission to do its excellent work, Minister Colbeck has been engaged in putting in place many initiatives and he can also speak to what they are. They were never intended to be the solution to- within its current paradigm. And that will continue but the work that now we have the opportunity to do - and I like to see this as an opportunity - we have this opportunity with this report to make that generational change and I look forward to working with all those who are going to work with me to achieve that.
And particularly on that I note I ask Minister Hunt to come speak to these matters. Thank you.
THE HON. GREG HUNT MP, MINISTER FOR HEALTH AND AGED CARE: Thanks very much to the Prime Minister and to Richard. As a son of a father who spent his final months in aged care, let me start by thanking all of our carers, our nurses, the cleaners and the cooks, the doctors, the pharmacists, the volunteers, the providers that have been taking care of our loved ones. They do a great job. They do a great job. But I also know from this report and from our work in these roles, that there are great challenges, two huge trends. The ageing society which is part of the Western World. More older Australians. And at the same time, the legitimate expectation of better, stronger, deeper care. Those two things come together. Our society and our task on our watch.
And that means that we have two fundamental duties. One is to help shape the national culture of respect for our elders. We have much to learn from some parts of the world. The concept of the elder. Somebody who has given to that society and that community but who deserves respect and care and dignity. And, secondly, to help provide at the national level, that fundamental care structure. And that's where we go from here. We know that there are 1.3 million people within the aged care system in Australia. Home support, home care, residential aged care. And this monumental report, 8 volumes, 148 recommendations, monumental in scope, two years in construction, over 10,000 submissions, 640 witnesses, sets out some fundamental choices. And, yes, there are some alternative approaches that have been presented by the commissioners. But the central vision is of a nation where we value our elders, where we respect them, we provide care and we provide dignity. And we respond to their individual needs. That's the critical thing. We respond to their individual needs.
So it includes, as the Prime Minister said, a 5-year plan, a 5-year roadmap, ambitious, challenging, but achievable. And there are five pillars to the way in which we'll respond to this in terms of home care, quality and safety, services and sustainabilities, workforce and governance. And I'll come to those in a moment.
Just before doing that, in protecting our Australians it is important to note that today there have been zero cases of community transmission for COVID around the country. That's 31 days this year and no lives lost in 2021. An almost unthinkable collective national achievement. In terms of the rollout, we have now passed 10,070 seniors as of last night who were vaccinated in residential aged care facilities, our most frail, roughly the same number as New South Wales and almost 3 times greater than almost any other state. Facilities, over 130 facilities, and another 20 to be done at least today which will take us to well over 150 facilities and nationally over 33,700 Australians who were vaccinated but with the numbers to significantly step up during the course of this week.
So then that brings me to our initial, as the Prime Minister said, response, with the full response to the 148 recommendations to come during the course of the Budget process. Firstly, in terms of home care, we will immediately act on transparency of fees and commence an audit program of over 500 facilities per year. And providers, that's a very important part of protecting our elders against any abuse. At the same time, we'll be implementing a new quality control system within home care.
Secondly, in terms of residential care, quality and safety. We will commence a process of 1,500 extra audits of facilities per year under the Aged Care Quality and Safety Commissioner. But we will also put in place under that Commission regulation to ensure further protection against chemical and physical restraint. We will appoint a new senior restraint leader within the commission and we will extend the pharmacy program within the commission and under the department to 2025.
In terms of residential aged care, services and sustainability, our third pillar. We will, exactly as the commissioners have recommended, immediately extend the viability supplement, the 30 per cent uplift to the 30th of June as an interim measure whilst we prepare our response to the Budget. But the Prime Minister has indicated that this is an immediate measure today but there will be a long-term solution set out in the Budget. That's the equivalent of $760 per metropolitan resident and $1,145 per rural and remote resident. We will also put in place a targeted fund to support providers facing stress.
Fourth. In terms of our fourth pillar, workforce, with regards to skills, we will make available immediately for 18,000 places to supplement those which have already been brought in for new home care and residential care workers to be trained because if we can lift those numbers, we lift the places that we offer. And that is a critical step forward. And then finally in terms of governance. We have accepted the Royal Commission's request to respond in full by the 31st of May. We will begin a governance training and funding program for, we expect, 3,700 senior leaders across boards and senior executives.
We will put in place a new Aged Care Act. And that will be a significant process but it's based on a simple concept of respect for the individual. Instead of being about providers, instead of it being about money, it's about respect for the individual needs and that is the fundamental generational transformation.
And so I'll finish where I started. As a son who has watched this process, as a son who watched his father pass just days before we came into government, I want to thank all of those who have been involved in the commission, in particular our Commissioners Pagone, Briggs, and of course Commissioner Tracey who passed during the course of it. To thank our carers and our nurses, our doctors, our cooks and our cleaners and everybody involved in taking care of our older Australians, our time is now.
PRIME MINISTER: Richard? Richard is just going to say one or two things and then I’ll get to questions.
SENATOR THE HON RICHARD COLBECK, MINISTER FOR AGED CARE SERVICES: Thanks, PM. Thanks, Greg. Can I just start by thanking Commissioners Pagone, Briggs and Tracey for their work over the last couple of years in the preparation of this important report. As both the Prime Minister and Greg have said, it is a once in a generation opportunity to create real change in the way that aged care is provided in this country.
Can I also thank all of those who've submitted to the Royal Commission, particularly the families and the residents who have told us their stories. The Prime Minister said when the commission was called that we were going to hear some really, really hard things, and we have and, unfortunately, we continue to do that, which is what really drives me in wanting to fundamentally reform the way that we deliver aged care in this country. The thing that being in this portfolio has done, the thing that being in the process of the Royal Commission has done is, from my point of view, is to make me fundamentally question the whole way that we deliver aged care in this whole country and go back to first step fundamentals in looking at what we should be doing if we're building a new system. It is the stories and sitting down with family and loved ones and listening to them, usually in tears, talking about the loss of dignity that their family member has suffered as a part of living within the system which is driving my ambition with respect to this reform process.
So thank you to all of those families, A) who have submitted to the Royal Commission, but to those who have sat down opposite me at the desk to talk about it. I said when we received the interim report that the report would put us all on notice, and it did. It put the Government on notice, it put the aged care sector on notice and it put the Australian community on notice. It talked about the fact there has been a lot of cans kicked down the road in aged care for 20 years by successive governments and the attitude of the community more generally to senior Australians isn't what we want it to be. I think we now stand in a situation where we have the opportunity to change all of those things. Both the Prime Minister and Greg have reflected on that.
It's now our role to engage with the sector and Australians to commence that reform process. Minister Hunt has indicated that we've made a number of initial response measures today just in the same way that we've responded to the interim report and, particularly, the COVID report to improve the way that the system operates, and each of those responses has had an eye towards where we might go in the design of the final system. It needed to do that. The concept of continuing what's been described by the Royal Commission as an "ad hoc" approach needs to stop. We need to look at a fundamental reform of the system.
But we have continued to do the things that we've needed to do to increase the capacity of the system but also its delivery. Since ScoMo became Prime Minister we've invested $5.5 billion in over 83,000 new Home Care packages. As he said a moment ago, we are currently offering new Home Care packages to Australians at the rate of 1,200 per week out to the end of this financial year. We've put in place new quality standards, a new aged care charter of rights, we've improved medication management, we've put in place measures to reduce the number of people under the age of 65 in residential aged care, that is bearing fruit. It is making a difference and we'll continue to work in that area.
We've asked for infection control leads in every aged care facility. We've established the Workforce Industry Council and can I say I'm really delighted at the progress they've made particularly since May when their new CEO Louise came onboard. We've invested $185 million over 10 years in dementia research, and that’s off the back of $200 million that we invested when we came to Government in 2013.
And we've continued to invest in improvements to the My Aged Care website so it is easier for senior Australians and their families to navigate their way through the system. And of course last year, during COVID, we invested $1.8 billion into the COVID response. And we will have new regulations to manage restraint by the 1st of July, because we put in place a process to review the new regulations that came into force just two years ago. Those recommendations are back with us. But we also put a sunset clause into those new regulations which means that we have to have new regulations in place by the 1st of July so we continue our work as both the Prime Minister and Greg have said to reform and improve the system.
And this Royal Commission report that's been under way for more than two years now gives us, I think, a great imprimatur to do that but the opportunity, as the Prime Minister and Greg have said, to create generational change for the way that senior Australians receive aged care.
Thanks.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, this report says that one-in-three Australians in residential aged care have substandard facilities. It says that 13 to 18% of people in aged care have been assaulted, and it says the current aged care system and its weak and ineffective regulatory arrangements did not arise by accident. The move to ritualistic regulation is a natural consequence of the Government's desire to restrain expenditure in aged care. In essence, having not provided enough funding for good quality care, the regulatory arrangements could only pay lip service to the requirement that the care that was provided was of high quality, now you've been Prime Minister and Treasurer for five years or so. Do you agree this is a national disgrace and do you accept any share of responsibility over that?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, of course I do Andrew. I’ve been Prime Minister for two years and prior to that, I was Treasurer for three. I’ve been in this Cabinet since we were first elected and so our Government will take our share of the responsibility like all governments over the last 25 to 30 years, which is what the Royal Commission - that very quote that you've just referred to - was referring to governments over the last 25 years. That has been the prism, the framework in which our aged care sector has been funded and run. And while, as well-intentioned as everybody who may have served in governments, in cabinets, or in policy advice systems, or run health aged care facilities or provided support in whatever they could, despite those best intentions, those are the outcomes, Andrew. That's why I asked the question, because I could not get the assurance that the answer would be any different to that. And so, I honestly asked the question. You now have the answer. I now have the answer. And the road map that it sets out to dealing with that fundamentally seeks a shift from a constrained system that focuses on funding to providers to a needs-based system that puts the person at the centre. That is the change-
JOURNALIST: Well, how much money is required?
PRIME MINISTER: No government has done that. No government has done that in the last 30 years. And that is what the Royal Commission has found. And, as a result, it requires some very significant change to how these arrangements are put in place, everything from governments and data, and standards, to training, to the resource that is made available and how we support that within our community. This is a challenge to all of us. So, yes, the findings of this commission work is as shocking as I feared it would be and, frankly, expected it to be. But knowing that, I still called it and, knowing that, I'm standing here before you today saying we propose to deal with it. Now, that's going to be a difficult task because over my time we've increased funding from $13 billion to $24 billion. In my own time as Prime Minister, over $5 billion of extra funding into Home Care. In the time of our Government, everything from charters of Rights to Aged Care Quality Standards and commissioners, and cops on the beat, and specialist service outreach, and all of these things have been done, yet still - yet still - these outcomes are still not being achieved.
JOURNALIST: How much money is required, Prime Minister, and why only one volume released today? Aren't there eight?
PRIME MINISTER: There are eight. And all eight are being released.
JOURNALIST: [Inaudible]
PRIME MINISTER: Of course we’ll release all eight.
JOURNALIST: How much money is required?
PRIME MINISTER: This is, the answer to that question is not known at this point, Andrew. And the Royal Commission doesn't know what the answer as yet. And what the Royal Commission has found is that is an assessment that has never been undertaken based on a needs-based model.
JOURNALIST: Given that, Prime Minister, [inaudible] required to fix it?
PRIME MINISTER: I'm absolutely committed to taking this report and addressing the issues that are raised in this report and to finding the best way for us to achieve that. That's what we have to do. It won't be easy. And as I said it’s going to test everything from our Budget to everything else. But, you know, in this country we have a needs-based system of healthcare. In this country we don't have a needs-based system of aged care. No government has done that ever - ever - and the result of that is what we read in this report today. That's why I say that generational change is now required. When I became Prime Minister, there were a range of arguments as to why Royal Commissions hadn't been pursued before. I didn't accept them. And I called one. So here we are, ready to go.
JOURNALIST: Does it concern you that some of the recommendations [inaudible] argued are pretty basic recommendations. Does that concern you?
PRIME MINISTER: Of course it concerns me. Of course it does. That's why it fuels my passion for the response.
JOURNALIST: The fact that the commissioners have slightly different recommendations-
PRIME MINISTER: Yep.
JOURNALIST: How are you going to commit to addressing the recommendations? How do you avoid that pick and choose approach, you know?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, we will exercise our considered judgement. We will work with the sector. The fact that the commissioners have come to different views I think highlights the complexity of this problem. See I, this is my trust of the Australian people. Our issues that we have to deal with are very complex and difficult in government. I don't think Australians think this is easy to fix. If it was, then someone would have done it a long time ago. I can tell you, plenty of people have tried in the past and they haven't succeeded. And they've done with the best of intentions. So I'm not standing here today, making judgements about my predecessors I'm not making judgements about previous governments. I'm simply saying that we are where we are right now and I think Australians understand how complicated this because a lot of them have had to deal with it. They've had to deal with the DAT payments and the RADs and all of these things and try and make choices that the fact there isn't star rating processes on quality, things like that, and they've had to sit down in family meetings like I've had and try to understand how the system works and how you can get the best support and care for your family member or someone you're providing care to. So I think they get that this is really complicated. I think Australians get that we have difficult tasks that we have and knotty problems that we have to deal with. I think they get that and so now, through this report, that I commissioned effectively on their behalf, they now expect us rightly to go and address what's here and to fashion our response and come back with how we can put it into place.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, what's your number one priority to improve quality and safety for older Australians both at home and in aged care facilities?
PRIME MINISTER: There's one thing that I think pretty much sums up the whole approach and that is the person to whom you're seeking to provide care has to be at the centre. That's the nub of this. That their dignity, that their care, that their respect for them as a human being and a fellow Australian has to sit at the centre. Now, that's not a glib statement. That's a statement with great policy power behind it. And that's the sort of thing that should be enshrined in the Act, as the Royal Commission has recommended. That's what should be guiding every director on every governance board of an aged care facility in the country and every other service provider. That's what should be governing every policy official in the country, whether they're working in pricing of these through a pricing authority or a quality care cop on the beat, or, indeed, people working in our offices dealing with the challenges of these issues every day. Putting that Australian at the centre is the fundamental change to this system. Now, you might think, "Well, why hasn't that always been the case?" Fair question. But I can tell you the way the system has been designed, this Royal Commission demonstrates that that's not how it's worked and that's what we need to change.
JOURNALTIST: Did you know about the claim of the historical rape...
PRIME MINISTER: I'm dealing with aged care right now. Happy to deal with other issues but let's talk aged care.
JOURNALIST: This report was delivered last Friday. You gave us half-an-hour to attend a press conference. You tabled the report while we were here. How can we ask questions to know what's relevant in the report without knowing what's in it?
PRIME MINISTER: There will be plenty of opportunities to ask many questions. This isn’t the only day I’ll be standing before you on this. Today I’m here telling Australia we have released the Royal Commission. We commissioned it.
JOURNALIST: That's a spin tactic isn't it, Prime Minister?
PRIME MINISTER: No, with great respect, this report is not about the media. This report is about Australians and their care. I am releasing the Royal Commission report. There are 8 volumes, 8 volumes and I would encourage you to digest all of them. And on occasion, after occasion, after occasion, I have no doubt that you will quiz me on every element of it. You will ask me every appropriate question and I’ll be happy to answer them. Today is the day for us telling Australia that it is released. There'll be plenty of other opportunities.
JOURNALIST: This is a major social reform and you've stopped us from actually looking at the report. Is that because you've got two Commissioners who disagree on the reforms and the way forward?
PRIME MINISTER: No. I don't understand the question.
JOURNALIST: The Commissioners are split on a number of fundamental reforms.
PRIME MINISTER: Because it is a complicated issue.
JOURNALIST: So which of the reports and recommendations would you take onboard?
PRIME MINISTER: That's what we'll consider and include that in our response.
JOURNALIST: Isn't it a problem that you've got a Royal Commission blueprint [inaudible].
PRIME MINISTER: No I think it's a problem that people think this is so simple. We can't be glib about these issues and that they're simple to do with. I'm not surprised they are. I'm not surprised that people with that level of experience who have poured over this, heart and soul, for years, and then still in coming to understand what the way forward is there'll be difference of views. That does not surprise me. And I don't think it surprises Australians who've had to deal with this system either. These are knotty problems, they're hard to solve.
JOURNALIST: Does it concern you that after two years they can't come up with a figure as what you need to spend as you've just characterised it. I haven't read the whole report.
PRIME MINISTER: No, it’s a heavy read. There is much more for me still to pour through. It's eight volumes. There is a lot further to go as we delve into this. Again, Andrew, it doesn't surprise me because this is a hard issue. And I think we're being unrealistic to think that everybody is going to come to one point of agreement on the way forward. If it was that simple, then governments would have done this years ago. It's not that simple. Things have changed. Even in the time that we've been undertaking this Royal Commission, in the time as my time as Prime Minister and, indeed, Treasurer, where aged care services will be, I believe, provided in the future, substantively, overwhelmingly, particularly over time, will not be in facilities. They'll be in people's homes. And there will be a range of supports that are provided. Not unlike how you see individual care packages developed for people under the NDIS, and that people will get tailored, individualised care plans for them and the supports they need. The Royal Commission talks of everything from allied health to dental and oral care and all of these issues, including community supports, and engagement in activities outside of their home and how that form parts of their package. The technology, I've seen this, particularly when I've gone into disability accommodation homes and I've seen the revolution that is taking place for people living with disabilities so they can live as functionally as they possibly can and have as many choices as the rest of us. That can transform the delivery of aged care, and Commissioner Briggs in particular makes that point on many occasions. That's how I see aged care evolving into the future. Individualised, tailored, using every bit of technology, with a more qualified and more experienced workforce that is larger than it is today - much larger than it is today because, frankly, it has to be. Because if it's not, they cannot provide the care that a needs-based system demands.
JOURNALIST: The Commissioners disagree on two fundamental issues - funding and regulation. We already know that the Government supports what Commissioner Briggs is suggesting…
PRIME MINISTER: How do you know that?
JOURNALIST: Because the Government has already responded to the Royal Commission in a...
PRIME MINISTER: I'm sorry, the Government has made no decisions on the findings on this report. So it is simply incorrect for you to suggest that.
JOURNALIST: The Department of Health and the regulator put a submission in…
PRIME MINISTER: I'm the Prime Minister. This is my Minister. Our Cabinet will decide our response to this Royal Commission, OK? So we've released it. I think I’ve answered your question, thank you.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, after reading the documents sent to you regarding the allegations against one of your cabinet ministers, what was your reaction?
PRIME MINISTER: Have we finished with the aged care questions?
JOURNALIST: No we haven't finished with the aged care questions.
PRIME MINISTER: OK let's keep going if there are aged care questions.
JOURNALIST: I'm asking about the 100,000 [inaudible] for the Home Care packages. Only 57,000 have been released.
PRIME MINISTER: We're releasing aged care for Home Care places at a rate of 1200 a week. I said over $5.5 billion additional funding has been put into those places and that is some 85,000 additional places. I want to ensure that we continue to work through to get those in home aged care packages to people as quickly and as safely as possible. We have to be careful that in delivering those in home aged care places that we do it at a pace where that sector can deliver those places. If we are providings places that are going to be delivered by care workers that don't have the requisite training or skills then I think that could be very dangerous. And so we will work at the pace where we can deliver those in home aged care places to people as quickly and as safely as we possibly can, which is exactly what we've been seeking to do over these past few years in particular.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, better safety and higher quality [inaudible] providers have estimated about $20 billion extra funding per year will be needed. How much can the Government afford and how much are you willing to pay?
PRIME MINISTER: These are very very early questions, and the answers to those questions will be worked through with the Government as we develop our response. We will do that very carefully and we will do it with the support of all the full offices of the Government in particular the Treasury and the Department of Finance, and the various mechanisms, there are mechanisms that are highlighted in this report itself and we'll consider pulling together our comprehensive and well considered response but today I am not giving you our response. We have announced a series of measures $450 million in total that deals with many of the significant issues highlighted in the Royal Commission but this is an initial announcement to correspond with the release of the report. Our comprehensive response will come in the course of the Budget.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, the providers are obviously at the centre of aged care and the report highlights practices before providers. Given that, do you expect some providers will be forced out of Australia's market if you completely implement the recommendations?
PRIME MINISTER: Aged care is about the people receiving the care. That's what it's about. That's all that it is about. And I want care providers - care providers who provide quality care, and who can do that, and to do it well and to do it consistently and with the trust of the people they're providing it to, and the consistency. And that's who should be in the aged care system.
JOURNALIST: Do you believe that there should be mandatory qualifications for aged care workers Do you think they need [inaudible] qualification?
PRIME MINISTER: I've seen that recommendation. There are a number of recommendations, for example, the suggestion of carers' leave, which I must admit I'm quite attracted to, I’ve mentioned that, in the same way that maternity and paternity leave are provided. But in relation to the qualifications I want to be confident that the range of tasks being provided are ones that are appropriately qualified. The suggestion here, of course you're referring to people with nursing, nursing ATARs, things like that to have cert 3 qualifications are there, then of course they should be there. There are other - other services that are provided as part of the aged care system, which may not require that.
JOURNALIST: You mean the personal care workers who make up 70 per cent of the workforce?
PRIME MINISTER: Not necessarily. No, I don't mean that necessarily at all. What I want to be sure of is that the people who are providing care and the services they're providing as part of that. That they're properly trained and qualified to do that. That's why I've read carefully those recommendations and will be considering them and giving them the appropriate weight that I think they genuinely deserve.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, on another issue.
PRIME MINISTER: I think we're still on aged care.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, after reading the document sent to you about the allegations made against one of your Cabinet…
PRIME MINISTER: I'm still on aged care. Unless there's other aged care questions I’m happy to go-
JOURNALIST: Can you give us some kind of commitment that you will implement the 138 findings in the Royal Commission, and if not, why?
PRIME MINISTER: For a start, some of the recommendations are completely conflicting with each other. So that obviously doesn't enable me to give you that answer because some of the recommendations are completely different to each other and they set out the reasons for that. And so the Government will have to obviously work through that and consider it. What I've committed to today and the ministers have committed to today, is in direct request by the Commissioners that we do this by the middle of May, I think it was, that we do just that. The issues raised in this Royal Commission must be addressed and the fundamental issue is the generational paradigm shift that needs to take place in the way that we deliver aged care services in this country. Individually, individualised, needs-based, dignity care and respect. That's what we need to do. That's what I'm committed to doing.
JOURNALIST: How can the Australian public...
PRIME MINISTER: Sorry. I couldn’t quite hear you.
JOURNALIST: Are you convinced that the commission's report will provide a good blueprint going forward for aged care reform?
PRIME MINISTER: Yes. Yes, I am. Because it is so comprehensive. The time taken to deal with all of this won't be short. There'll be immediate-term priorities that we'll need to move on. There'll be short-term,
there will be mid-term, there will be long-term because we're seeking to ensure that, over the generation, there is that generational shift. That's what we're seeking to achieve. Yes.
JOURNALIST: But you have two sets of recommendations from the Commissioners, they disagree with each other fundamentally. So you're going to have to decide whether recommendations you take onboard and go ahead with, aren't you?
PRIME MINISTER: Correct. That's why we're the Government.
JOURNALIST: That's why also you'll probably going to go with Lynelle Briggs, because she has already explained and the Government has also submitted, is the way forward that they want.
PRIME MINISTER: When we provide our response, that's our response. When we provide our response to all these recommendations we will address those issues.
JOURNALIST: So is this going to be another situation, isn't it, we've had 20 reports in 20 years. Now we have a Royal Commission report which was supposed to sort all of this out, we'd have a clear blueprint.
Now you've got two conflicting reports about the way forward. Isn't this going to paralyse the Government once again.
PRIME MINISTER: No. Government is complex, the world is complex, it is a complex set of issues which have given rise to those outcome which is the Royal Commission have identified in the report that I've asked them to do. I think it is glib to suggest that the fact that two very experienced Australians, in conducting their Commission, can come to some different views on how to deal with this problem is extraordinary. It's not. It's real. As Prime Minister I’ve got, I think it's the contrary, isn't it...I think it just highlights how complex this is.
JOURNALIST: It's less than ideal, isn't it?
PRIME MINISTER: It's real, Andrew, and I have to deal with what's real. I have got to deal with the real situation in aged care. When I asked the question, through the Royal Commission, I didn't centre a preset notion of how they would come back and what they would say but I am pleased that they have been as honest and candid and comprehensive, and compassionate, and fulsome in their responses they've been and they've been as up-front about it, including where they have differences. I think Australians are big enough to deal with this complexity. I know my Government is. And that's what we'll be doing. So…
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, last year you rejected the accusation that the Morrison Government didn't have a COVID plan for aged care. But one of the recommendations in the report is for your Government to establish a national plan for aged care and COVID. So, what happened? Did you have a plan or not?
PRIME MINISTER: Greg?
THE HON. GREG HUNT MP, MINISTER FOR HEALTH AND AGED CARE: I'll deal with that. In fact, we had six stages, the first of the elements was in February.
JOURNALIST: But why the recommendation to establish...
THE HON. GREG HUNT MP, MINISTER FOR HEALTH AND AGED CARE: I think you'll find that that was in the interim report. There were six stages to what we..
JOURNALIST: COVID happened after the interim report.
THE HON. GREG HUNT MP, MINISTER FOR HEALTH AND AGED CARE: No, no, no, this is the COVID interim report.OK. To give some history, there has been an interim report, there has been a COVID report or a COVID interim report and there's been a final report and we've responded on the day of release on each occasion because we wanted to show respect to that report and to consider with immediate action. We set out and, indeed, Professor Murphy, in evidence to the Commission, set out the six stages of the plan and then we subsequently put out a further element. So that was very clearly set out, I think, by Professor Murphy including, of course, the extraordinary work which was done by the AHPPC, by the medical advisers in laying this out in February, in March, in April, and in three subsequent iterations.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, JobKeeper costs $100 billion and that's the biggest program ever. If you're in a position where you're going to have to give aged care up to $20 billion a year from now on in, it's a pretty big hole, isn't it?
PRIME MINISTER: What I'd say is that the fiscal elements of our response to this package have not been framed yet, they haven't. So I'm not going to make any assumptions about the figures that you've quoted. I know, I've seen plenty of figures out there, Andrew...
JOURNALIST: Do you think that's outlandish?
PRIME MINISTER: I’m going to wait to see the figures that Treasury and Finance provide in terms of our response and that always comes through the disciplined process of the Budget. I've sat around...
JOURNALIST: Isn't the disciplined process the reason we have this problem? I mean, that's what I've just read from the report.
PRIME MINISTER: No, that…
JOURNALIST: Of course there has to be a process…
PRIME MINISTER: You've just thrown some numbers at me and I'm saying I haven't got any official numbers from Treasury or Finance yet and they're the figures I'll focus on when we make our response.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, after reading...
PRIME MINISTER: Hang on. I know it is a public of topic of public discussion. We are releasing a report into aged care with one in three people have been found to have received substandard care and that deeply distresses me. And the point has been raised that I don't want to answer questions about aged care. I am answering questions on it. And I think we should answer the questions about aged care. I will get to the issue. I'm here, I’m not going anywhere. I'm happy to address them. It is another important issue, I acknowledge that but aged care has our focus just for this moment.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, the person being at the centre of care can actually be problematic. For instance, sometimes it could be used to justify excessive force or the use of antipsychotics. We have seen that alot in aged care. How will you ensure that this idea of person centred-care isn’t used to justify excessive force being used on a person?
PRIME MINISTER: I wouldn't agree with your proposition. I just wouldn't link those two statements together. That's not certainly what's being suggested to me either through the commission or the other advice I’ve received. I would say quite the opposite. I would say that putting the individual at the centre and their wellbeing and their ability to live every second of their life would suggest against the inappropriate use of chemical restraints I would say. The Royal Commission has been very, very vigorous in their recommendations on chemical restraints and we've already taken action on those which I know commissioners have already welcomed.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister it is problematic when someone can’t make a decision for themselves?
JOURNALIST: [Inaudible]
PRIME MINISTER: I’ll come back to that, I’m happy to do, sorry?
JOURNALIST: What's your response to the fact that the Royal Commission has said that the Government has failed aged care, the aged care sector during the pandemic?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, I don't, I don't believe that's the case. And we've set out our reasons for that. And the performance for our aged care system when you look at it internationally during the course of this pandemic has been one of the world stand-outs. So that is the Government's view. But to come back to the question that was asked in relation to people being able to make individual choices, one of the reasons I think we've been able to make a lot of progress in the National Disability Insurance Scheme is the advocate's role that is played in this process. One of the I think very good, recommendations in this report is a similar network of pathfinders, if you like, through the aged care system, quite a large network of them, that is there to assist people and their carers and others to make decisions in the best interests of the individual that they love and care for. I think that's a very useful recommendation. We've seen that work very well in the NDIS. I've got to tell you, that there are a lot of parallels in how we can make the aged care system work with how we've made the NDIS work. We've come up to a scale of some 450,000 or thereabouts people now on the NDIS and there’s been a lot of lessons learnt in how we’ve got that point, and one of the key things has been about the individualised care plans, that have been put in place to support [inaudible] had to develop those plans and then to consistently build the workforce and the accountability about the delivery of those plans. So my point about that is this is possible. We are already doing it in another part of our service delivery for those living with disabilities. So this can be achieved. But we've got to get the settings right for how we do that in aged care. That's quite, I've got to say, for the sector, quite a transformation from where they have been up until this point. It is quite a transformation for how the government system has worked up until this point. That's why the settings through a new Act need to be fundamentally reset for the generation of change we're looking for.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, you said that person-centred care is the way forward. That's your new policy. That's been the policy for the past 10 years in aged care.
PRIME MINISTER: Well, no it hasn't.
JOURNALIST: It hasn't?
PRIME MINISTER: I'm sorry. The Royal Commission has just found that that's not true.
JOURNALIST: Well, they may not be delivering person-centred care but that has actually been the policy…
PRIME MINISTER: Well, it hasn't been effective and that is what the Royal Commission has said. It has said that the Act hasn't put, that the system hasn't put the individual at the centre, and I agree with them.
JOURNALIST: The extra funds required, how much do you think will be user pays and how much from the taxpayer?
PRIME MINISTER: These are not matters we're not in a position to respond to yet, Andrew. As I said our response will be developed and prepared as part of the Budget process.
JOURNALIST: One of the biggest problems has been the [inaudible] of the regulator, [inaudible] Tony Pagone wants an independent watchdog away from Government, and Lynelle Briggs wants to stick with the Government regulator. Considering it is so [inaudible] and has [inaudible] What is your opinion? Are you going to stick with Lynelle Briggs recommendation or [inaudible]?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, the answer is the same. And that is, that is a matter we will consider as we pull together our comprehensive response to the whole Royal Commission report and we haven't concluded on that matter as we've just received the report. So I think to suggest that we would have quickly formed a view about that in a matter of days I don’t think is realistic.
JOURNALIST: [inaudible] because it's in the Department of Health's submission to the Royal Commission.
PRIME MINISTER: The Department of Health is not the Minister. It is not the Prime Minister. It is not the Cabinet. It is a Government department that has expressed views to the Royal Commission along the way. Government policy is set by the Government,
JOURNALIST: [Inaudible]?
PRIME MINISTER: It is the view of the department. I receive advice from departments quite often and have over the course of my ministerial career which I haven't agreed with. That doesn't make it government policy. It becomes government policy when Cabinet agree it. You've been a journalist for some time. You'd know that.
JOURNALIST: So you're not opposed to an independent watchdog away from [inaudible]?
PRIME MINISTER: I’m open to the recommendations that have been put forward in the Royal Commission and we are going to carefully consider them all and exercise our judgement about the best way to go forward on all of these things, consistent with the principle of individual-based, needs-based care for older Australians.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, part of the recommendations that the commissioners actually agree on is the need to introduce a levy [inaudible] aged care, [inaudible]
PRIME MINISTER: They do.
JOURNALIST: [Inaudible] Will you commit to that?
PRIME MINISTER: Look, we'll consider those things. You know our gin to. In fact as Treasurer I once sought to increase the Medicare levy by half a per cent to provide support to the National Disability Insurance Scheme and I wasn't supported in that by the Labor Party, or the Greens for that matter. So that's something that I've seen in other contexts that the parliament hasn't supported before. So you'd forgive me for being a little wary at this point.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, have you asked the Cabinet Minister who is accused of, or the subject of allegations aired by the ABC, of rape allegations, have you asked him if he denies those allegations?
PRIME MINISTER: Yes, I have and he absolutely does. Categorically.
JOURNALIST: When did that occur?
PRIME MINISTER: That occurred last week, last week I became aware of a set of documents that had been circulated to, I think four individuals. I was told that I was one of those individuals. At the time my office or I hadn't received those materials but I was aware that at least one of those members had. And they informed me that they had relayed that to the Federal Police through the AFP Liaison Officer. I had some discussions that night, I still hadn't received our copy until late Friday afternoon. And consistent with the actions as the others who received those materials, we forwarded those on through my office to the AFP as well. They were, as I understand it, they were identical materials. I had a discussion with the Commissioner last week, about these matters, and I also has a discussion with the Secretary of the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet, and the Deputy Secretary, about these issues and I had a discussion with the individual, as I said, who absolutely rejects these allegations. And so after having spoken to the commissioner and to the Secretary and Deputy Secretary of my Department at this stage, there are no matters that require my immediate attention.
JOURNALIST: Do you believe him? Do you believe the allegation to be false?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, that is a matter for the police. See, I'm not the Commissioner of Police,
JOURNALIST: That's not the point, though, is it?
PRIME MINISTER: No, I'm sorry, it is actually. It is. Allegations of criminal conduct should be dealt with by competent and authorised agencies, and that,
JOURNALIST: You must believe him otherwise you wouldn't-
PRIME MINISTER: Andrew, give me the courtesy of actually answering you. It is the police, in a country where you're governed by the rule of law, that determine the veracity of any allegations of this nature. It is the police. My office, I, do not have the people or others who are trained or competent or authorised to invest matters of this nature. The police are the ones who do that. And the police have had this matter referred to them. The individual involved here has vigorously rejected these allegations. And so, it's a matter for the police. And in my discussions with the Commissioner, there were nothing immediate that he considered that was necessary for me to take any action on.
JOURNALIST: But, Prime Minister, you would know that without this complainant alive, the police cannot conduct an investigation. So what actions are you going to take as the Prime Minister to send a message that you are looking into this situation?
PRIME MINISTER: By referring it to the Federal Police, which is exactly what I and the other three persons who received this information did. Now it is with the Federal Police. There are other jurisdictions that potentially could be involved here. And the Federal Police Commissioner will advise me of the status of those things when he is in a position to do so.
JOURNALIST: When you were sent those documents, and you read through them what was your reaction?
PRIME MINISTER: To send it to the Federal Police to ensure that I understood in a country where the rule of law applies that they could be properly assessed.
JOURNALIST: [inaudible] Sorry can I just clarify, you haven’t actually read through these documents yourself, given the seriousness of these allegations, why haven’t you read [inaudible]?
PRIME MINISTER: I'm aware of the contents of them. I've been briefed on the contents of them. And it was appropriate, as the Commissioner himself advised all of us in the Parliament, to refer any allegations to the proper authorities. That is the way, in our country, under the rule of law things like this are dealt with. And it is important to ensure that we uphold that. That is the way our society operates. Now, these are very distressing issues that have been raised, and as there are other issues that have been raised in relation to other members and other cases. But the proper place for that to be dealt is by the authorities, which are the police. That's how our country operates. That system protects all Australians.
JOURNALIST: So you won’t be ordering an inquiry on this?
PRIME MINISTER: I'm not the police force. I have given it to the police to investigate.
JOURNALIST: A question for the Health Minister if possible, on the COVID, on the vaccine,
JOURNALIST: Sorry to finish this off-
JOURNALIST: It’s a difficult situation for you though,
JOURNALIST: When, when did you first hear about the letter last week?
PRIME MINISTER: Wednesday, evening.
JOURNALIST: Wednesday. And you spoke with the minister [Inaudible]?
PRIME MINISTER: Wednesday evening.
JOURNALIST: And AFP Commissioner?
PRIME MINISTER: Wednesday evening.
JOURNALIST: And had you heard about these claims at all before last week?
PRIME MINISTER: No, not really of any substance, no.
JOURNALIST: What had you heard if not of substance?
PRIME MINISTER: Only rumours of an ABC investigative journalist making some inquiries. That's all I'd heard. I didn't know the substance of them.
JOURNALIST: Did you know who it was about when you heard those rumours or when you heard vaguely about [inaudible]?
PRIME MINISTER: I tend to not pay attention to rumours.
JOURNALIST: Was the rumour of alleged rape [inaudible]?
PRIME MINISTER: Well I wasn't aware of the substance of it and as a result not in really a position to pursue it. When I was put in a position to pursue it, I did.
JOURNALIST: Sorry, Prime Minister, this was the trigger for the Reece Kershaw letter, presumably? [Inaudible]?
PRIME MINISTER: I spoke to the Commissioner that night and I think it's important that these events of the last fortnight or so I think have triggered a lot of very strong feelings and views, and experiences that people may have had and I discussed this with the Commissioner. And he and I agreed that it was important that people understand that where these things arise, there is a proper process for dealing with these things and that proper process is what he outlined in that letter and that process is not new. That process was the standing process. So there was no change in the process. But given that these issues had the potential to be raised in many ways, potentially because of, you know, of how this can occur in situations like this, the Commissioner believed that it was important, as did I, that people understand that when dealing with such sensitive matters, that they need to be dealt with in the proper way, which is to refer them to the proper authorities, which is the police. Now, in addition to that, it's also important that there is appropriate support that is provided to people who could find themselves in this situation and are making or passing on information that they may have received from a third party. In this case, it was anonymised. I had no idea who sent that information to me. So anonymous documents being sent around to people, that should go to the police and they should provide me and others who need to be aware of these things with what they believe the veracity of those things to be. But the advice that was provided to members was to remind them all of the way that sensitive matters like this should be dealt with and I think that's entirely appropriate.
JOURNALIST: When you said you were aware of rumours before last Wednesday and you mentioned there was an ABC journalist involved, was this around - did you become aware of those rumours around the same time as that Four Corners Canberra bubble story? Is that when you became aware of it?
PRIME MINISTER: Yeah, but I had no idea what or who it was about.
JOURNALIST: So that was the timeframe,
JOURNALIST: [inaudible] the info that you became aware of around that time?
PRIME MINISTER: That there were journalists asking questions about a member.
JOURNALIST: In relation to what we now know is this matter?
PRIME MINISTER: I didn't know that was the matter.
JOURNALIST: [inaudible] When you actually spoke to him on Wednesday night, did he say that he knows the woman involved and what,
PRIME MINISTER: I'm not going to go into the conversation. Simply to tell you I was asked, did I raise it? Yes, I did. And he vigorously and completely denied the allegations. So that means there is a proper process now for it to follow.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, did you say before that the system protects all Australians but, clearly, it doesn't given the Government's [inaudible] to these allegations of sexual assault. More obviously needs to be done [inaudible] in the system Does the ministerial code of conduct go far enough?
PRIME MINISTER: I believe the ministerial code of conduct in these cases sets itself out pretty clearly. And that’s what I’m acting in accordance with.
JOURNALIST: But is it clear? We're talking about multiple allegations here.
PRIME MINISTER: Well you know- some of you are from the Canberra gallery, others aren't. But we can't have a system in this country where allegations are simply presented, and I'm not suggesting this in this case, but we can't have a situation where the mere making of an allegation and that being publicised through the media is grounds for, you know, governments to stand people down simply on the basis of that. I mean, we have a rule of law in this country and it's appropriate that these things were referred to the Federal Police. They have been. They're the people who are competent and authorised to deal with issues of this sensitivity and this seriousness. And that is what our Government has done. That is what I have done. That's what Senator Wong has done, that’s what Senator Hanson-Young has done and that’s what Celia Hammond has done. And I think that’s that’s the appropriate response.
JOURNALIST: [inaudible] Do you believe it is acceptable for this Cabinet Minister to remain in his position while he has the matter hanging over his head?
PRIME MINISTER: I think it’s appropriate for the matter to be dealt with by the Federal Police and the Federal Police to advise me of the nature of this, which they're doing. At this stage, the commissioner has raised no issue with me, and the Department Secretary was present for that call as well. That would cause me to take action under the ministerial code. That's where we are, right now. And, you know, I'm aware of other allegations, and, you know, I think similar - similar principles apply. We've got to be careful to ensure that we still follow the rule of law in this country. Yep, last question here?
JOURNALIST: The person against whom the...
PRIME MINISTER: I think there's a vaccines question as well? Is there a vaccines question? Yeah, okay.
JOURNALIST: The person against whom the alleged assault took place died by suicide last year.
PRIME MINISTER: Yes.
JOURNALIST: And there might be a South Australian coronial inquest into that matter. Should the Commonwealth step in to expedite that inquest, expedite another inquest, or have another investigation just to try and get to the bottom of that person's sad death and any connection to the [inaudible]?
PRIME MINISTER: I would take any advice on that from the commissioner, with whom I've discussed the matter, or the Secretary of my Department, and I haven't received any advice or even a suggestion to that end. There are a series of formal processes here that may or may not take place. It's not for me as Prime Minister to seek to interfere or intervene in those processes.
But we've got a question on vaccines? And then,
JOURNALIST: Health Minister, we have had another day where [inaudible] vaccines have been expected but haven't arrived again. Are you still in a place where you still have confidence in delivering the vaccines to aged care facilities and what's been done to improve that situation?
THE HON. GREG HUNT MP, MINISTER FOR HEALTH AND AGED CARE: What we've seen is a scale-up, in particular. We took action - there was one particular firm last week, but just to provide the information, as I mentioned earlier, the Commonwealth, as of last night, had overseen 10,000 of 14,000 doses that were made available, provided, about 72 per cent, 134 facilities. We're expecting approximately 20 today, which will take it well over 150. New South Wales is doing a great job. They've administered a similar number of vaccines. I spoke with and had a very constructive conversation with Gladys Berejiklian today, the Premier. They've delivered about 10,000, 339 or 74 per cent of their doses. Victoria has delivered about 3,862, or 30 per cent of their doses. Queensland, 2,030 or 32 per cent of the doses that they've received. Other states and territories have done very well. Tasmania, essentially, delivered 100 per cent of their first week doses and has been the leader in the pack. But everyone is working together. It's being scaled-up. I'd be happy to take any details of the particular facility, because this morning, we do, as we do every morning, check all facilities that are scheduled, have they been notified, all facilities that are scheduled, are they due to receive anything, is there any facility that's not? So I'd have to check the specific details. But as I said to Gladys Berejiklian today, New South Wales had been provided with information over the weekend and when you put it together, they'll be receiving 80,000 dozes of Pfizer and AstraZeneca over the course of the next nine days. So 14,000 of those are due to arrive today. And the balance over the course of the next week with the arrival of AstraZeneca and additional Pfizer. So the country is scaling up. It is over 33,000 now. Soon enough it'll be over 100,000 then it’ll be over a million and then it’ll be over two million. And every day, this goes to all the things that Anne was raising, it is about protecting all Australians but in particular protecting our older Australians. I know you've been passionate about this and I want to thank you. So that's it from us on,
JOURNALIST: [Inaudible] 75% of people who died of COVID were aged care residents. Yet the Government has decided not to make it mandatory for aged care workers to get the vaccine. Why is that?
THE HON. GREG HUNT MP, MINISTER FOR HEALTH AND AGED CARE: This was not a Government decision this was a decision of the medical advisers, the chief health officers of Australia who make up the AHPPC, we’ve always followed medical advice on vaccinations, we won’t be departing from that and these are people that have played an incredibly important role. We deeply respect their role. And so if they were to provide alternative advice, then the states have all committed to following that with what are called public health orders. But we will follow the advice of the medical advisers. It's kept us safe. We’ve today received the report of the Royal Commission and that's now about making sure that we keep our older Australians safe.
Thank you very much.
Press Conference - Penrith, NSW
26 February 2021
Melissa McIntosh, Federal Member for Lindsay: Hello everyone, welcome to Penrith and what a great news story this is. Prime Minister, to Minister Andrews, Minister Payne, and Anthony Pratt, I’m so proud that we are backing manufacturing in Western Sydney, and in my community and now we’ve got Visy coming in to Penrith. And that is great news. Anthony and I had a conversation about how much we both want to back Australian manufacturing and I’m really really pleased that Anthony and Visy is in Western Sydney, more local jobs, and we are getting manufacturing back in Australia.
Anthony, would you like to say a few words? Thank you very much.
Anthony Pratt, Executive Chairman of Visy Industries: Welcome Prime Minister, it’s an honour to have you at Visy Glass Penrith. The Prime Minister through his great economic leadership has initiated a renaissance in Australian manufacturing. Which means more skilled jobs and higher wages. The coronavirus has reinforce manufacturing self sufficiency. Visy applauds the Prime Minister’s six sector manufacturing focus, including our two sectors, recycling and clean energy, and food and beverage manufacturing. Spurred on by this, Visy is proud to have made the biggest Australian manufacturing acquisition of 2020, a $1 billion deal to make glass bottles. Today we are pledging to invest and additional $2 billion over the next 10 years which will create thousands of new green collar, well paying manufacturing jobs, and bring our total investment value in Australia to $11 billion dollars. Now, $380 million of that investment has been brought forward over the next 18 months because of the government's accelerated depreciation policy. It'll be spent increasing the recycled content of glass bottles in Australia from 30 percent to 70 percent, including offering councils a glass recycling bin. It will also be reducing landfills by building another clean energy plant in Victoria that runs on paper mill rejects, converting also our Brisbane paper mill to running on paper mill projects that were previously going to landfill, a drum pulper in Victoria to use waste paper, previously going to landfill, and doubling our one hundred percent recycled plastics factory in New South Wales, as well as water recycling projects to reduce water usage at our recycled paper mills by 40 percent. These initiatives will not only reduce landfills but also increase the recycled content of our customer's packaging, which we call remanufactured right here in Australia. So thank you again, Prime Minister, for your great leadership. Thank you.
Prime Minister: Well, thank you, Anthony. And to all the wonderful Visy team here in western Sydney and indeed right around the country. On Sunday, I joined Jane Malysiak, one of Australia's many migrants who have come to this country, to get a shot in the arm, to give us the boost to come out of the covid-19 pandemic. I'm now joined by Anthony Pratt, one of Australia's great migrant families, and he's given us a shot in the arm when it comes to Australia's comeback, economic comeback from the covid-19 recovery. Anthony and and Visy are a great Australian company, and it's on display around us here. Their vote of confidence in western Sydney, their vote of confidence in Australia gives us the great confidence, I think, to continue the economic recovery that is underway in Australia. It is born of both his vision for Australia and how he sees his company's role in the future of this country, as they always have. But as he said, it's also born of the policy settings we've put in place as a government to encourage exactly this type of a commitment and exactly this type of investment. We just saw yesterday that the non mining investment figures that we saw coming back in the December quarter shows a turnaround. We saw an almost 5 per cent increase in new investment in plant and equipment. I was with the Advanced Manufacturing Taskforce out here in western Sydney that Melissa has brought together, out here in western Sydney to translate our modern manufacturing strategy on the ground here in western Sydney. And Visy’s announcement today, through Anthony just totally backs this in. It backs in the jobs, it backs in the technology, it backs in the investment, it backs in Australia. And for that Anthony, I'm truly grateful for your belief in where we're going as a country. The other thing it does, though, is it connects with our government's absolute commitment to boost our circular economy industries here in Australia, our recycling industries here in Australia. We are very serious about this. And to see Visy, who is a world leader in the circular economy here and particularly in the United States as well. And as we learned today, when you use recycled glass, it reduces the amount of energy you need in the process to make those jars and those bottles by one third. So it's not only great for the circular economy, it's also great for reducing emissions.
So what we see here today is just so many things coming together. Our belief in western Sydney. The jobs that are going to come from the economic comeback from the COVID-19 recession, what we see is the policies of the government working to deliver the investment on the ground, to see the investment in new plant and equipment, which wins contracts and create jobs. And it sees the investments going into industries that are reducing emissions and making Australia a cleaner and more environmentally sustainable place. That's quite a package, and that is all being brought together. And it's happening here in Australia, we’ve been making things in Australia for a very long time. And we're making them now and we're going to keep making them in the future. We're making them here in western Sydney on this very site for a very long time. We are going to keep making them here in western Sydney as a result of the policies we've put in place.
So it's very exciting to be here. I'm joined by Karen Andrews, the Minister for Industry. She'll speak in a moment. And she has been leading our Modern Manufacturing Strategy.
But before I do that, I want to make a comment on another very important issue, and that is the passing of Sir Michael Somare, the first Prime Minister of Papua New Guinea. He has been over the course of his amazing life, the champion of the sovereignty and independence of the people of Papua New Guinea. I consider the people of Papua New Guinea our family, always have. I have been in contact this morning with Prime Minister Marape, James, my very good friend, and passed on to him and to Lady Veronica, our deepest condolences and sympathies for the Papua New Guinean people. There will be great mourning across Papua New Guinea, from the lowlands to the highlands, to the villages, to the cities. Sir Michael was an extraordinary man of his generation. He was the light of his generation, which has lighted up the path for Papua New Guineans today and into the future. And so I just want to honour him in his passing and reaffirm Australia's great friendship- more than friendship, our family relationship with the people of Papua New Guinea.
I'm going to ask Karen to say a few words and then we're very happy to take questions.
The Hon. Karen Andrews MP, Minister for Industry, Science, and Technology: Thank you, Prime Minister. And of course, my deepest sympathies to the people of Papua New Guinea.
Anthony Pratt gets manufacturing. He would not be investing billions of dollars here if he did not see a future in Aussie manufacturing. Scott Morrison gets manufacturing, the Morrison government gets manufacturing. And that's why we are well underway, delivering the modern manufacturing strategy, which names six key priority areas, Visy is leading in two of those areas. Firstly, recycling and clean energy and of course, the work that they do with food and beverage manufacturing of the packaging. So with the opening of these rounds, what we are doing as a government is driving investment in manufacturing here in Australia. That is going to be underpinned by the work that we are doing across the significant economic pillars of industrial relations, of tax, and particularly what we are doing with driving energy prices down. This is really the start of the manufacturing recovery here in Australia. Congratulations to Visy. I thank you so much for your commitment. This means so much to us here in Australia, and I'm sure it means a lot for the workers here of Visy. Thank you.
Prime Minister: So, as usual, if we could address, while we are here today, I'm happy to take questions on that. And I'm sure Anthony's happy to take questions on Visy's role here. And then I'm happy to take questions on other matters.
Journalist: Prime Minister, on this investment, it's only as good as the jobs it creates. Underemployment is still a bit of a sore point for some people. Some million people are underemployed. Want more hours? Is that something your government is concerned about in the COVID bounce back?
Prime Minister: Absolutely. And that's why our policies are in place to address just that. We're seeing underemployment falling. We're seeing unemployment falling. We're seeing the number of people on JobKeeper in this quarter alone, people coming off JobKeeper, again, far more than we’d anticipated. We saw that in the last quarter as well. You know, we're seeing apprentices in work. We have almost 60,000 apprentices here in New South Wales right now who are in those jobs right now because of the apprenticeship subsidies we have put in place during the COVID-19 recession, 58,000 thereabouts here in New South Wales right now. We met some apprentices here today, but they are specifically supported; they are in small businesses, they are medium sized businesses. When we went into the covid-19 pandemic, one of the first initiatives we took economically was to say we've got to support those apprentices because they would have been the first to go and all the training and all the hard work all the commitment, you know their parents encouraging them to get a trade and go and take that decision. And we want to see more Australians do that. And I hope those who may be considering a trade and going into an apprenticeship take a message from that, that our government believes in you taking on that apprenticeship and sticking at that apprenticeship. And why at the greatest risk to apprentices being driven out of the workforce, we stepped up and made sure that apprentices could stay in jobs. And as the recovery has begun, we're getting new apprentices into jobs. So I understand from Visy that their investments here, we're talking thousands of jobs. We're talking thousands of jobs here. How many? Well, it's you know, that is going to continue to be driven by the effective outpouring of that investment and the bringing forward of some over $350 million. That's right, isn't it Anthony, over $350 million. And that involves about $100 million specifically right here in this very plant, as I understand it. So that is what's going to get people back into work. That's what's going to keep apprentices in work and that's what's going to get more hours.
Journalist: Prime Minister, Visy are one of Australia's largest private companies. They've got the confidence to invest $2 billion dollars. What about smaller businesses, though? Are they looking to invest long term in the context of border closures, which can shut things down at the drop of a hat?
Prime Minister: Well, what I was excited about today with Melissa McIntosh, the member for Lindsay is she has brought together an advanced manufacturing taskforce to translate what Karen and I are doing at a national level. She's making sure it's delivering here on a local level. Just like she is on Dunheved Road and Mulgoa Road and the extra MRI machines out here in western Sydney, which I know Marise Payne’s thrilled about as well as a resident of western Sydney and Patron Senator for a long time. So she's delivering on the ground for those local, small and medium sized businesses here as part of this strategy. And, you know, whether I'm here in western Sydney or I'm up in north Queensland or out in outback Queensland or anywhere else in the country, down in Victoria, I'm walking into shop floor after shop floor. And what I'm seeing is new equipment. And that's what those CAPEX figures from yesterday was demonstrating, that, this is small and medium sized businesses. I walk in and the first thing they say to me is, let me show you this new whizz bang bit of kit we've got here on the floor and I'll go over there. And there's lots of buttons and there's lot there's lasers in there. There's all sorts of things. I don't know what it means or how it works, but they do and it's massively improving their productivity. So, yes, I'm excited that we're seeing small and medium sized and large businesses like Visy invest more. And that's great for the economy. But it also has a long term benefit because it means those businesses are more able, they've got better kit, they've got up to date care. And the accelerated depreciation, the tax incentives for investment are working. Our plan for economic recovery is working.
Journalist: Prime Minister, what can you tell us about a situation with vials of Pfizer going to an aged care home, St Vincent's aged care home in Werribee, in Victoria? Has there been some kind of stuff up? What details do you know about it?
Prime Minister: Well we are 4 days, today's day five of a nine-month rollout of vaccination. I can tell you that over 90 aged care facilities have now been supported through those vaccinations. I can tell you that some 23,000 Australians already, as at the end of day four, have been able to receive those vaccinations. And in the early days where there are logistical difficulties, where there is anything of that nature, and indeed with the cases of the increased doses that were applied up in Queensland, I'm very pleased to hear that both of those individuals are well and one has actually returned to their facility I understand today. But where issues arise, they are quickly dealt with, they're identified, they’re worked through. You'd expect that with any vaccination programme of this scale. And so where things don't go completely to plan, they're quickly addressed, as you've seen happen this this week. And that's why it's so important that where things of this nature occur, it's important that I provide that reassurance that these things are addressed. And I think for all leaders to do the same thing. The vaccination programme could not be more important to Australia's future. And as we continue to roll it out, where there are things that are learnt in the early phases, they will be applied to ensure the most important thing, and that is the safety of Australians and the safety of this vaccine.
Journalist: Prime Minister, you must know you must know from your own experience, you’ve had family members in nursing homes and many people here have and to get cancelled on at the last minute. We've seen more cases of it today in Sydney and Victoria and Brisbane, that’s very anxiety inducing for our frail Australians?
Prime Minister: As I said, over 90 aged care facilities have already had the vaccination,
Journalist: Out of 240.
Prime Minister: And there'll be more. And the Health Minister will update on when we get to those numbers. We're in day four of a nine month programme, and each day as that rolls out, it'll continue to improve. We said it would start slow and it would get to a pace and a scale, and that's exactly where we're heading. So I would say to those families to not be anxious about that, that in the early phases, if there are logistical issues that arise with the programme, they'll be quickly addressed and then they'll soon be followed up and the vaccinations will arrive. And over the course of a number of days if necessary, if it takes that long, then that'll be rectified. People are working hard to deliver this on the ground. This is mobilising quite a national effort. It's mobilising a state and territory effort as well. And that's why I'm absolutely confident that as we go from day to day, the lessons of each day will only make the system better, more improved. But at all times, at all times, safety is the paramount issue.
Journalist: [inaudible] in relation to Kate Jenkins the sexual harassment commissioner, [inaudible]?
Prime Minister: You’re talking about the Respect at Work?
Journalist: Yep.
Prime Minister: Respect at Work, do you want to address that Marise?
Senator the Hon. Marise Payne, Minister for Foreign Affairs: Thank you very much, Prime Minister. The Sex Discrimination Commissioner's report, Respect at Work, is a groundbreaking piece of work, in the Women's Economic Security Statement, which was released in October last year. We began the implementation process of a number of those recommendations, particularly including the establishment of the Respect at Work Council, which will be chaired by the Sex Discrimination Commissioner herself. The recommendations across I think there are 55 of them across a broad range of areas cover government, they cover business, they cover industry. They cover state and territory authorities and a number of regulatory agencies, both Commonwealth and state and territory. The Attorney General who has responsibility for the implementation of the report, is working through that process. Amanda Stoker has now taken on responsibility for, as the newly appointed assistant minister for the bringing together of all of those bodies in the recommendations as they've set out in the respect at work report. And we look forward to making the government response as soon as possible.
Journalist: [inaudible]?
Senator the Hon. Marise Payne, Minister for Foreign Affairs: Well, I think the Women's Economic Security Statement actually covers 9 of those recommendations, and they are the ones which the Commonwealth was able to respond to in the context of the Budget and the WESS itself. The rest, as I say, are very multilayered. This is a whole of Australia workplace issue. We don't need to be reminded, but we have been reminded very, very acutely in the last two weeks of the importance of the work that has been done by the Sex Discrimination Commissioner. An unsafe workplace is unsafe for everyone. Nobody should have to work in that environment. And we are very focussed on bringing those recommendations together and implementing them through the government reporting process.
Journalist: Prime Minister, has Phil Gaetjens spoken to your office about his report? Has he given you any indication of when it’s going to be finalised, whether you're going to share those results?
Prime Minister: I can give you the same answer I gave to the house yesterday, it was the same questions. No, I don't have a firm timing on when that report, I expect it to be provided to me at the earliest possible opportunity. And and, yes, he has been making engagements with my office to follow up those matters. And when I receive that report, I can report further.
Journalist: Pfizer’s given some updated, sorry, Pfizer’s given some updated information on cold storage for their, for their vials, have you spoken to them or are you across those details will it make them,
Prime Minister: Yeah I am, look this is this is potentially exciting news. There's been an approval from Pfizer for cold storage, which, as we know, has to be under the prior approval of I think sub-71 degrees. And as part of our contract with Pfizer, that included dealing with the cold chain logistics for the delivery of those doses. Now, they're saying that can now be done at a refrigerated temperature. As I understand it. Now, our approval to use the Pfizer vaccine in Australia is not based on federal approvals in the United States or in Europe or anywhere else. It's provided by the Australian Therapeutic Goods Administration. Now, I'm aware today the Minister for Health has been in contact with Professor Skerritt about that matter. And, of course, the TGA will consider that at the earliest possible opportunity, and has asked Pfizer to bring forward what has been provided on that so they can consider it. And in doing so, I'd remind you, because it goes to my earlier comments. I remember Professor Skerritt saying that having approved a vaccine, he said, the work has just begun. It hasn't concluded. And what we're learning with the vaccine and the vaccination rollout is there are always things to add. There are always things to learn from. And there is new science. There are new findings. We're already seeing whether out of the United Kingdom or Europe or Israel or the United States, we're seeing some very, very positive results, which is improving our level of confidence, not reducing it. And so that's why just focussing on the day to day tasks of the vaccination is what my government is focussed on. It's what the state governments are focussed on. It's what the health and medical industry is focussed on, to just continue to do it safely. And every piece of new information we can gain to improve that is very, very welcome. But I just want to assure Australians that the doses of vaccine that are provided in Australia are done on the basis of Australia's medical experts approving those vaccines and not just their chemistry, but their manufacturing as well and how that is done. And so Professor Skerritt is the same head of the TGA that approves those vaccines, that approves the vaccines that we take our children to. And we trust them to provide those vaccines.
Journalist: Prime Minister, the Australian government believes that it won this round with the tech giants vs the Australian government, and is the legislation really worth it now that we’ve got deals being struck outside the media code, and what industry is next now that media is out of the way? To make these tech giants as you say, pay their fair share?
Prime Minister: Well, you know, Australia under my government always stands up for itself. We always do that. We have a great and strong belief in Australia's sovereignty and where we think, where we think that is being compromised or under challenge, then I can assure you my government will always step up. Now, in this case, it's been an issue we've been involved in for some time, whether it's getting them to pay more tax, their fair share of their tax, whether it's ensuring that the rules that exist in the digital world are as strong as those that exist in the physical world. And that's everything from a safety ensuring that our vulnerable Australians, particularly children, are not exposed to violent and sexual content, ensuring that terrorist incitement content is dealt with. We have led the charge on all of these issues, as we indeed have with the big global tech giants when it comes to not paying Australian news services, what they should be paid to support our independent media sector. The code was critical to ensuring that the arrangements that have now been struck between the global tech giants and those media companies so Australians can have a free media, that was essential for that. But, you know, my answer to the broader question is what I want in the digital world is I want the rules there, the safety there, the protections that are, there that exist in the real world. I want that to exist in the digital world. Global tech giants, you know they're changing the world. But we can't let them run the world. You know, people in free societies like Australia who go to ballot boxes and who go and they vote, that's who should run the world. The people and citizens of the nations of the world, not big global tech giants. They produce amazing technology that does amazing things. We've seen the impact of technology here in this very place, and it's exciting. But at the end of the day, all of these things must be accountable to sovereign elected governments, which means that at the end of the day, Australians should be in charge.
Journalist: The final report of the Aged Care Royal Commission has been officially handed down. I don't know if you've had time to be briefed on it yet, but have you or what do you expect?
Prime Minister: Well, I called the Royal Commission into aged care as one of my first acts as Prime Minister because I was deeply distressed at many of the things that had been reported to me. And having been a member of Parliament for some time and worked in my own local community, aware of the great challenges that were facing that sector. I said at the time of calling the Royal Commission that above all, we needed to establish a culture of respect for older Australians in both how we provide care and how they lived through that portion of their lives, because fundamentally many problems can stem from a lack of that respect. So I called the Royal Commission knowing full well that it would be, it would be candid that it would provide very raw advice to governments and to all Australians and to state governments as well. All of us where we have responsibilities. But obviously the federal government has the primary responsibility here. So I did that because I wanted to know and so I expect to receive a copy of that report today, and I will spend the weekend working through that carefully, and I will be together with the Health Minister and the Aged Care Services Minister providing an interim response soon after. And, of course, the substantive response, which I have pledged on behalf of my government, that will come as part of the Budget process this year. Its timing, I think, is well placed to ensure that we can incorporate that in our response in this year's budget. But I will say, as the Royal Commission has gone on, the government has not sat idle. When I came to the job of Prime Minister, we were investing an extra $1 billion dollars every single year in aged care, and we're now investing an additional billion and a half dollars every year in aged care services and out over the forward estimates we have tripled the number of in-home aged care places. And in fact, right now the number of in-home aged care places has been extended from our most recent announcement in December, is rolling out at an extra 1,200 a week. 1,200 a week. The aged care quality commission oversight, ensuring that people are safe and protected, that their rights are respected, that they are respected. That is why I called the Royal Commission. This Royal Commission, I think, will identify serious, serious and disturbing issues that are a product of decades, decades. And it's important that I think the government is then supported by the parliament right across all parties. And we get on with the things that we need to do to address the recommendations that are put to government. So I look forward to hopefully a bipartisan, a multi partisan approach to us addressing those issues. And this issue is about our family members. It's about individual Australians and the way we deal with this it has to be beyond politics. We have to focus on getting the solutions right. Having called the Royal Commission, I'm committed to addressing the many issues that I'm sure will be raised in it. Anyway, thank you all very much. Good to be with you.
Address, International Women’s Day Parliamentary Breakfast Australian Parliament House, ACT
25 February 2021
Prime Minister: Thank you very much, Janelle, and thank you also to Debra. Can I acknowledge the Ngunnawal people and can I acknowledge you, Aunty Violet, and thank you for your very warm welcome to the country today. And challenge accepted, I was just trying to check what round Sharks and Rabbitohs meet. I know it’s not the first one, we’ve got the Dragons that is only two and a half weeks away. Looking forward to that. But hopefully you’ll be there on some other occasion. We’re all looking forward to that. But thank you for your welcome, on every occasion you are always so warm and provide the right settings. So thank you for that.
I acknowledge the Ngunnawal people, both past, present and emerging. Can I also acknowledge any veterans in the room today, particularly our serving members of the Defence Force and particularly the women in the Defence Force and the amazing job they do all around the world for us and here at home. I have no doubt the CDF is very aware of, as is the Minister for Defence.
Can I acknowledge, of course, my many colleagues here today, too many to mention by name. But of course, can I acknowledge the Leader of the Opposition, can I acknowledge the Deputy Prime Minister, the leader of the Greens. But can I particularly acknowledge Marise Payne, my dear friend, Minister for Women. She is in other ministerial portfolios, but particularly in this respect I acknowledge her today. Can I acknowledge Penny Wong, can I knowledge Larissa Waters. But the many other colleagues who join us here each and every year for this event.
This event we normally gather and I would normally like to speak of the many things that Janelle has already made reference to, which we can, of course, be very pleased about. But, of course, the events of the last couple of weeks I think provide me with a great opportunity this morning to share with you some of my own reflections.
This has been a very traumatic few weeks for the people who work in this place, but even more traumatic, obviously, for those who are the subject of those issues. So I just wanted to share with you my own personal thoughts about the very issue that brings us here together today, and that is women.
The three points I want to make to you today are about respect, protect and reflect, but even more traumatic, obviously, for those who are the subject of those issues. So, I just wanted to share with you my own personal thoughts about the very issue that brings us here together today. And that is women.
The three points I want to make to you today are about respect, protect and reflect.
My hope is that we will live in a society where we can truly say that women are respected. That is what we are trying to achieve, because from the disrespect of women or failure to respect women, all the other challenges flow. Violence, discrimination, deprivation, abuse, assault, lack of recognition, not hearing. It all starts with the failure of respect for women.
Now, I believe if we want to create a culture of respect for women, it must draw from a deeper wellspring in our society and our community of respect for one another. In this place, we deal with so many of the consequences that start with a lack of respect. Respect for the elderly. Respect for Australians who live with the disability. Respect for Indigenous Australians. Respect for elders. Respect for youth. Respect for one another. Respect is where changing the culture, whether it be of this building and all of us who work here, or outside of this building where we deal with the many consequences which stem from a lack of respect in the first place. Respect is where it must start.
Specifically, it stems from respect for shared humanity. A respect for the aspirations, the protection, the safety, the opportunity of each and every Australian. Particularly in relation to respect for women. Respect for the contribution. Respect for the recognition. Respect for the understanding that has brought the experience, the world view, the community view, the household view. Respect for the opportunity. Respect for the choices and agency. Respect.
So it's my hope and commitment that particularly as we move forward, whether dealing with the very traumatic and difficult issues that this place has been openly discussing these last few weeks, or indeed, the important work we have to do in addressing this culture of respect and that is in the formation of the next national action plan in relation to violence against women.
And what I love saying about that is it is the next one. It's not the first one. The first one started under the previous government under Prime Minister Gillard. And that work has been respected and continues, and it's not just the work of our Government or our Parliament, it is the work of every government in this country. It is a national plan which is shared right across our great commonwealth. And at the heart of that must be fostering a culture of respect for women.
Now, I said protect. And I know many in this room would rightly say to me, that protect, what are we protecting against? Well, I can tell you what we're not protecting against. We don't need to protect against the vulnerability of women. That's not the issue. We need to protect against those who would disrespect women. That's where the perpetrators are. That's what we have to protect against, it's not about - thank you - it is about understanding that vulnerability is not the issue here, or arguably, not even present. That is not the problem. That is not the issue. The problem is the lack of respect and the actions that are perpetrated against women, whoever they may be perpetrated by. Whoever.
And so protecting must be a key part of our actions if we are to respect women and protect against the consequences of disrespect. Now, that protection must take many forms. For the safety, for the safe shelter and housing, for the support that is necessary, for the equality of opportunity. I could speak of the Women's Economic Security Statement. I could speak of 1800Respect. I could talk of the Safe Houses programme. I don't intend to, only to mention them in passing because the protections that need to be in place are about bridging that gap that currently exists. And that should be the aim of the protections we put in place, whether it is the support for women, in particular, who may be victims of sexual assault and how they can speak up and take those matters forward and the support that is wrapped around them, or in any other set of circumstances in the workplace. Reducing the gender pay gap, creating the opportunities for women to forge forward in areas and industries where sometimes they don't have that opportunity, oftentimes. Protecting against that.
But it's also about ensuring that our rule of law and the way we administer the rule of law in this country is respected and protected as well, because there is no greater defence for the liberties and safety of every single Australian than the fact that we live in a country that is governed by the rule of law. And you only need to go not too far from this country, not too far to see when the rule of law does not operate in a country and it is not respected and its processes and those who are authorised and have the authority and the experience and the ability and the training to deal with these sorts of issues. Where that isn’t present, those who suffer most are women.
We must in this country understand that one of the key protections for women against the disrespect of women in this country is the rule of law. There is no substitute for it. There is no alternative justice system. There is no alternative law enforcement system. There is only one, and we must redouble our efforts to make sure it is as effective as possible.
In conclusion, let me talk about reflect. I've been reflecting a lot on this, as we all have, I think, in the last couple of weeks and for much longer periods. I reflect on the examples of women and in this last year, there have been many women, most, not least of all my own members of my own Cabinet, so many of them here today who I acknowledge, including Linda, who was not with us today, who would love to be with us today. And I want to thank all of those members of this place, from all sides of politics, who I know have reached out to Linda, particularly in these last 24 hours. I spoke to her last night and she is very appreciative of the support she's had from across the Parliament.
But I think of Kathryn Campbell. Secretary of the Department, of Anne’s Department. In the middle of the pandemic, as we saw the lines of those stricken by unemployment and desperate about their future, I turned to Kathryn Campbell, of course, through Anne and Stuart Robert, about how we were going to get the support to those Australians who needed it. And Kathryn, one of the finest public officials in our public service, was up to the task and she did an amazing job in completely reinventing and developing our systems at rapid speed to ensure that we could get that support.
Jenny Wilkinson, another Deputy Secretary at Treasury, one of the key designers of JobKeeper. I turned, Josh and I turned to Jenny and sought her advice and it was outstanding and she was recognised in the honours list this year.
I turned, of course, soon after I became Prime Minister to Christine Morgan, who has advised me over these many months on how we can do more to prevent death by suicide in this country. And she's been a constant source of expertise and strength and insight and understanding.
I turned to Caroline Edwards, the Associate Secretary of the Department of Health, and for much of that time during the early phase of the pandemic, the Secretary of the Department of Health. And I've often spoken to you about Professor Murphy or Professor Kelly. But I can tell you, Caroline Edwards has been an absolute champion of the work that has been done to ensure that Australia has one of the best records in the world on the health response in the pandemic. And all of the women, Rosemary who is here, of course, Frances is here. Strong women who know what they’re doing and making an enormous contribution to this country.
I reflect on Leila Abdallah, whose gracious act of forgiveness at a time when her children were stripped from her from an act of terrible violence and her capacity to process that and express forgiveness.
I think about a dear friend of mine who I celebrated her 50th birthday very recently and one of her greatest achievements, I have no doubt, together with her husband, they have raised their amazing son to respect women.
I reflect on that because, as difficult as the issues that we’re dealing with, the progress is occurring. We become despondent because of our failures. But let's not forget the progress and those who are leading it.
Let's not forget that during the middle of the pandemic where we surged support into organisations like Lifeline, but particularly 1800Respect. That the work of protecting against domestic violence continued in the middle of that, done by amazing people.
Let’s not forget the amazing work, particularly of women serving in the front lines of our health systems, our emergency services systems, and thank them and reflect on the fact that we are a nation that is blessed by strong women over our history.
And finally, I reflect on my own responsibilities, as each of us in this place must. I can comment, others can comment on what each of our responsibilities should be, but the best contemplation is when we reflect on our own responsibilities and we consider what we, each of us can do, to make Australia a better place to live. A place where women can truly grow and feel respected.
Press Conference - Canberra, ACT
23 February 2021
PRIME MINISTER: Welcome, everyone. I am joined by Minister Ruston and Minister Cash. I want to assure all Australians that I can tell you, nothing will distract me or my Government from my pledge to them to save lives and save livelihoods. I pledged when I became Prime Minister that I would keep our economy strong. I said I would keep Australians safe and I said I would keep Australians together. I think if there's one thing that Australians have learnt about me and my Government is we're a pretty focused bunch. We know what our job is and we are very focused on that and I will remain forever focused on that. Because I know Australians, as I said to my party room today, they rely on me, they rely on our ministers and they rely on us to remain focused on them at all times. That is why, I believe, that over the course of this most difficult past year, it has been the focus of that attention on the Australian people that has enabled to connect with their great spirit of resilience. That is the platform upon which Australia has been one of the most successful countries in the world in dealing with this crisis, both in terms of saving lives but also in saving livelihoods. We have always remained focused on the task at hand and that continues today, like any other day and will continue into the future.
At the start of the pandemic, when we were addressing both the health issues and the economic issues, what was very clear to the Government was that the sheer shock, the economic shock, and impact of the COVID-19 pandemic was that the social safety net that we had would soon become overwhelmed by the level of demand that would be placed upon that. And even with the increased estimates of what we thought that demand would be, we saw it very quickly become very clear, that the Government's income support measures would need to be further enhanced. And so we came up with what has been, I think, and I think many others think, has been one of the key economic policies in its design that have protected Australian livelihoods and lives over the course of this past year. It was the combination of an enhanced social safety net, which was the COVID supplement, which was our first initiative, to ensure that we strengthened the safety net upon which Australians would rely on. And then there was JobKeeper. JobKeeper, which effectively nationalised private sector payrolls to deliver a system of income support to a degree this country has never seen before in its history and did so in a fair way, with the same payments to everybody that were affected. A very Australian way. And the combination of JobKeeper, together with JobSeeker supplement, ensured that Australians had the confidence and the certainty to move through what would have been the most uncertain period of their lives for most of them. Perhaps not Jane Malysiak, I suspect she has seen some more uncertain times in her life and that generation has. But for most of us, the most uncertain time in our lives. Those two measures came together to provide that emergency support. Now, we said it had to be targeted, we said it had to be time-limited and there needed to be a clear path for how we would pursue this once the emergency situation had receded. At the end of next month, we will be in a position where JobKeeper expires and we will be in a position where, under the legislation, the JobSeeker COVID supplement also expires. The Government has been working steadfastly as to the arrangements that will be in place after that point in time.
Now, on Sunday I said we had moved into a new chapter with the commencement of the vaccination programme. I said that that would change how Australia was dealing with the pandemic. That is as true for the economic supports and other measures that have been in place as emergency measures, as it is indeed true for the many responses put in place on restrictions and things of that nature, and that will continue to change over the course of the year. But Sunday was a change day. Sunday was a day that Australia confidently moved into the next phase of how we fight this pandemic and we battle to secure the livelihoods and lives of Australians. And so, as we come into that next chapter, and by the end of next month, we will be well into that, as tens of thousands, if not greater, will have been vaccinated by that point, and the National Cabinet will have met again. That we believed it was important that we show faith once again in our social safety net. What I mean by that is we are now confident that at the end of next month that our social safety net can once again be able to provide the support it needs to Australians, as we come out of the COVID-19 recession, for that social safety net to be there for them if they find themselves without work. But we've also formed the view that that base level of support that exists within our social safety net needs to be adjusted for the long term. So we are moving from short-term emergency measures to long-term arrangements now that people can rely on, should they find themselves out of work. Now, we've still got a long way to go, we understand that, and that's why the Treasurer and I on another occasion will be making further announcements about what we will be doing in other parts of the economy. But the truth is the JobMaker Hiring Credit, that's in place, the tax cuts, they're in place, the instant expensing arrangements, they’re in place, the bring forwards of infrastructure projects, they're in place.
The economic recovery plan continues to rollout but we change gears. And with that change of gears, what we are doing now is we are re-basing the JobSeeker payment to ensure that the long-term arrangements now are there for people to rely on should they find themselves out of work and to get the support they need when they're out of work and that will lead to an increase of $50 per fortnight in that base payment. But as I'm sure Anne will set out to you, that is of course not the only payment that people receive when they're on JobSeeker. There's Commonwealth rent assistance, there's energy supplements. There's a range of other payments which increases the amount someone will receive on a fortnightly basis by more than $150 extra per fortnight because of those additional supports. That’s our social safety net. We are now moving. I said every day would become more normal, moving back to a normal safety net arrangement is part of that normalising process but we're ensuring that it is set at a base we believe is appropriate going forward. Now, that puts the JobSeeker payment at 41.2 percent of the national minimum wage, which is commensurate with what it was during the time of the Howard government. It is true that this is one of the single - it is the single largest increase in the JobSeeker payment since the mid-'80s, year-on-year, that is true. But I think the more relevant feature to focus on is what it is as a percentage of the minimum wage. And this brings up from 37.5 percent up to 41.2 percent. That is commensurate with where it sat during the period of the Howard government.
Social security payments, welfare support, when people need it, is something we strongly believe in. And at a cost of $9 billion over the forward estimates, including the costs between now and the end of this year, that is a contract with Australians and Australian taxpayers. Australian taxpayers believe in this system, I believe in this system, and they know it is important for people who really need it. Particularly now, many people who may go on this payment who have never been on it before in the months ahead, as there has been over the course of last year, and what's important is the mutual obligation that we all have, one to one another, in how our social safety net works. Every person we get in a job, they're better off and the country is better off. So that remains our objective. If you're on JobSeeker, we'll work night and day to get you off it and into a job. We've already seen 93 percent of the jobs back into our economy. This is great progress but there is so much more to do. Every person we get off JobSeeker on to a job, that not only puts their household budget in a better position so they can have greater control over own lives, that also supports the Australian people’s budget, as expressed through the Australian Government’s Budget. It moves somebody from receiving taxpayer support to being a taxpayer and that was the big game-changer that actually enabled us to bring the Budget back into balance prior to this pandemic.
So with those rather lengthy introductory comments, I appreciate your patience, I will ask Anne to take you through those changes, and for Michaelia. There are mutual obligations requirements here that were put into this arrangement which are simply designed to one thing - to help people get back into work.
SENATOR THE HON. ANNE RUSTON, MINISTER FOR FAMILIES AND SOCIAL SERVICES: Thank you very much, PM. The package of measures that we are going to announce today are clearly about getting the balance right. We need to support people while they're looking for work, we need to create the incentives so they want to look for work. And we also have to remain a disincentive so they’re not disincentivised to work. But what we need to do is we need to ensure that we have a system that is fair and sustainable for the people who need it and the taxpayers who pay for it. As the Prime Minister said, this is the single biggest increase in unemployment benefits since 1986 with a $50 per fortnight increase. But in addition to that, we're also increasing the income-free area to $150 per fortnight for those people who are on JobKeeper and Youth Allowance other, as opposed to those people who are on a student payment or who already have a higher income-free area. What it does is create a greater incentive for people to put their toe in the water and test the job market because we know that people who report earnings are twice as likely to transition off payment than those who don’t report any earnings. As I say, the Prime Minister said, it comes at a $9 billion price tag.
We also will be extending a couple of temporary supports over the next three months, one of which is the ordinary waiting period. Currently, the ordinary waiting period is waived so that people who come on to payment don't have to wait for one week before they receive payment. In recognition that we need to make the smoothest transition on the 31st March to 1st April, that waiver will remain in place until 30th June. In addition to that, we will also maintain the accessibility to payment for people who are in isolation, because they have COVID or because they're caring for somebody who has COVID. This means 1.95 million Australians who are currently on working-age payments will receive an increase of $50 per fortnight as of the 1st of April. This is single parents, this is young people, this is students as well as JobKeepers. Just some statistics - that means 240,000 single parents with a child under the age of eight will receive a payment of $850.20 per fortnight. There will be a further 220,000 people who are over the age of 60 or who have a caring responsibility for a child over the age of eight, who will receive a JobSeeker rate of $676.30, including the energy supplement. When you consider there are a further 290,000 Australians on JobSeeker payment who also receive Commonwealth rent assistance, they will now receive $768.80 per fortnight. As I said, we want to make sure that people who are on payments experience firsthand the benefits of being on work by incentivising them to get back into the workforce. Certainly, there can be no doubt that this is the single-largest extension or measure that we put in place for those 1.95 million Australians who currently are on working age payments. We have made sure that in doing this, we have balanced their support, incentive to work and making sure we have a sustainable welfare system into the future so that not only today but into the future we will have a system that can continue to support people who need it. We will continue to make sure that our welfare system is targeted and comprehensive, with a range of supports that recognise the individual needs of Australians who need our support at this time. Thank you.
SENATOR THE HON. MICHAELIA CASH, MINISTER FOR EMPLOYMENT, SKILLS, SMALL AND FAMILY BUSINESS: Thank you, Prime Minister, and thank you, Minister Ruston. Today, the package we bring before you also entails a strengthening of mutual obligation requirements. As the Prime Minister has said, the best form of welfare is a job. And our commitment as a Government is to do everything that we can to get people who are on welfare to get into a job. As such, we're reinstating mutual obligation requirements but we're also strengthening them. Last year, as a result of COVID-19, we did have to put a pause on our mutual obligation requirements. But now, in 2021 and in particular with 93 percent of the jobs lost during COVID returning to the economy and with our focus on our post-pandemic economy, it's time to reinstate mutual obligation. What does that actually entail? In the first instance, there will be a requirement for job seekers to attend face-to-face appointments with their providers. They currently do not have to do that, as a result of COVID-19. We're also going to increase the number of job searches a job seeker does per month. As a result of COVID, they were reduced to eight. We will progressively move that to 15 job searches a month and then, as of 1st July, 20 job searches a month, which is what it was before the pandemic hit. We will also, after six months of being on welfare, require people to enter into an intensive training stage. In other words, we're going to give them the best chance they can to do a short course to enhance their skills or to do some work experience. If they then do remain on welfare, that will give them an even better chance of getting a job. So this will now occur at six months. You often hear, though, employers saying, "Joe applied for a job. He was qualified for the job", or she, "and they said no." What we will be doing for employers is introducing an employer reporting line. So that if someone does apply for a job, they're offered the job and they're qualified for the job but they say no, the employer will now be able to contact my Department and report that person as failing to accept suitable employment. This will then mean that my Department can follow up with that person or alternatively, Jobactive can follow up with that person to ascertain exactly why they said no to a suitable job. In the event that they do not have a valid reason, they will be breached for that. We will, at the same time though, be increasing the number of audits we do of our job providers. We need to ensure that our job providers are following up on our job seekers and ensure they are doing the right thing. Remember, this is all about getting people off welfare and into work. We currently undertake around 4 percent of the caseload by way of audit. We will be increasing that to 10 percent of the caseload. We will also require all job seekers in stream a digital to now prior to being able to get their welfare payment to fill out their career profile. Currently, they don't have to do that. That type of information is instrumental in ensuring that we can properly match you, your skills and your career profile to a job in demand. This is all about acknowledging that, if I am receiving welfare, I have obligations to do everything I can to get into a job. But this is also the Government's commitment to all Australians. The best form of welfare is a job, and we will do everything that we can to move people from welfare into work.
PRIME MINISTER: So our social safety net is a social contract. It is a contract between the Government and Australians but it is also a contract between Australians, and what you've heard just announced today is about getting the balance of that right.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, even the best plans need a stable Government to implement it. Is your government stable, what assurances have you sought on received from Craig Kelly? And what is your plan with the Speaker of the House of Reps?
PRIME MINISTER: There are no changes that are required as a result of the announcement you've heard earlier today and you've heard that directly from the Member for Hughes. The government will continue to function, as it has successfully. And as the government has led Australia through the worst situation we've seen since the Second World War, we will continue to do so undistracted and we'll be able to do so with the support of the Parliament from the very undertakings that the member for Hughes has indicated himself, publicly.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, what does it say about your authority over your party room when you lose one of your own members to the crossbench, and this is an individual who owes you? You saved his pre-selection?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, in relation to the member for Hughes, to Craig, we had a discussion a couple of weeks ago as you'll be aware. I set out some very clear standards and he made some commitments that I expected to be followed through on. He no longer felt that he could meet those commitments, but I can tell you, my standards don't change.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, when did Craig Kelly tell you he was going to quit the Liberal Party? Did he seek any guarantee about his pre-selection from you, is there anything he asked you to do that you would not offer him?
PRIME MINISTER: No, I learned of it at the same time as he announced it to the party room.
JOURNALIST: Had you lost confidence in Mr Kelly, his ability to be a Liberal MP given his freelancing and also his ability to win pre-selection for the Liberal Party, for Hughes?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, the matter of his pre-selection is a matter for him in the Liberal Party but that is no longer an issue because he has resigned from the Liberal Party. But I say what I just said to you before, I set out very clear expectations on a range of matters that I expected Craig to follow through on. He'd given me a number of commitments in relation to that. He no longer felt that he could meet those commitments and, as a result, he's made his decision today and by his own explanation, he has said that his actions were slowing the government down and he believed the best way for him to proceed was to remove himself from the party room and provide the otherwise support to the government so it could continue to function as it so successfully has, which he says is something that he remains committed to. So I would expect him to conduct himself in that way.
JOURNALIST: You're down to 75 on the floor now. So you've lost your working majority, Kelly, Mr Kelly has promised you or guaranteed you know, supply and confidence but what about your legislative agenda going forward? Is it going to make you rethink plans? And something like the energy bill which you’re not sure what’s going on with it at the moment, you now need a crossbencher for every vote effectively if you're opposed by Labor. Are you going to have to rethink the next 12 months?
PRIME MINISTER: No.
JOURNALIST: No?
PRIME MINISTER: No. I mean,
JOURNALIST: Branaby Joyce has already been seen down in the office with Craig Kelly. Do you have any expectation that Craig Kelly will actually join the Nationals? And given that he has defied your requests as you described in various ways in relation to various alternative COVID cures, do you have any concerns that he's just going to end up with the National Party room?
PRIME MINISTER: No, I don't, but that's really a matter for others.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, a senior member in Mr Kelly's office, a staff member rather, has - is under police investigation amid allegations of inappropriate work conduct. There is actually an AVO taken out against that staff member. Would you expect that that staff member no longer be employed as a member of the government, and did that have any - are you concerned that Mr Kelly chose to keep that staff member onboard while those investigations took place?
PRIME MINISTER: I have long expressed to Mr Kelly my concerns about that staff member and he has long understood what my expectations were about how he would deal with that matter.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, you said at the start of this press conference, "nothing will distract me or my Government from my pledge to save lives and save livelihoods". Are sexual assault allegations a distraction for your government and will you commit to setting up a dedicated support line for staff who work for the government and opposition to report sexual assault?
PRIME MINISTER: No, they're not a distraction. I do not consider those a distraction. I consider those a very important issue. So I wouldn't accept that suggestion for a second. They're important issues and we are addressing them, and the process that we're engaged in, in a multiparty way, which Minister Birmingham is leading that process now and I look forward to that process being settled very, very soon. I don't want to pre-empt the recommendations of that inquiry but I already moved this week to ensure there is additional counselling support that is available to staff right now. I think one of the things we've learned is that both the awareness of support services and, indeed the delivery of those support services, is coming under a lot of scrutiny. Today, Celia updated the party room on the processes I'd asked her to engage in. She has recommended to me, together with Anne Webster from the Nationals, that that process be consolidated into this broader multiparty process. And I agree with that and our leadership agreed with that today. So I think that will mean that that process is the single process for dealing and allowing staff and others, former staff and others, to engage with the process finally agreed between all the parties. So I consider it a serious issue, I consider it a significant issue. It is something we have to deal with and I am dealing with but it also won't be at the expense of what Australians expect me to deal with each and every day. So the two will be done.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, what's the timeframe that you’re considering for this independent inquiry that Simon Birmingham is setting up? Are you going to commit to making public the findings before an election is called? And will there be an interim report so that staff know that progress is being made on this issue.
PRIME MINISTER: Well most of the answers to those questions are what is being discussed amongst the party leaders together with Simon now. So I can't really preempt what they will agree and what they will put forward, but it would be my expectation that certainly any report of that body would be made public. That would be my expectation. And I, when it would be completed by, I would hope they could proceed as quickly as possible but as thoroughly as possible. And I would hope that to be a reasonable timeframe and I would expect that to be well in advance of the next election. So that would be my hope and expectation. I suspect that view would be shared by the other party leaders representing the many parties that are in our parliament.
JOURNALIST: A follow-up on that question, PM. What about the Phil Gaetjens' review into your own office - will that be made public? If not, why not?
PRIME MINISTER: I haven't said it won't. I've simply said that I'm waiting for Phil to provide that report and I'll give further advice on that once I receive it.
JOURNALIST: On the matter of Brittany Higgins and her alleged rape. Can you explain why the alleged perpetrator's employment was terminated, apparently before the Government knew that an alleged rape had taken place, and if you tell us it’s because of a security breach, can you explain what was the security breach?
PRIME MINISTER: It was because of a security breach. That was the reason for it. As I understand it, it related to the entry into those premises.
JOURNALIST: After hours?
PRIME MINISTER: That's my understanding, but that's a matter of public record.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, on today's announcement, welfare advocates seem to be saying that they think it's not enough. Can you explain how and why you reached the conclusion that this amount was enough?
PRIME MINISTER: Yeah, and Anne, you may wish to comment on this as well. 41.2% of the national minimum wage, which puts us back in the realm of where we had been previously. The indexation had been different to other payments and, as a result, it had fallen down to 37.5%. We had obviously taken advice about the level of the payment and this puts it back, comfortably, within the middle of the range that had previously been in place. Now I have no doubt that whatever rate you set the payment, there will always be suggestions by some that it should be more. There'll be some who will suggest it should be less. That's why a government has to exercise judgement in getting that balance right. But not just in the setting of the payment but also the conditions that sit around the provisions of that payment and that are seeking to support people not to have to rely on that payment and to be able to get them back into work. So they were the matters we considered as a government and took advice obviously. But ultimately governments make these decisions. And where we’ve made a decision, even though it has come at a considerable expense to taxpayers, some $9 billion, the final estimate will be confirmed in the Budget later this year, taking into account all factors and the updated forecasts that you’d expect in a Budget. But what I do know is this, is every person we get back into a job means that will be a lesser cost to the taxpayer. And that's why the mutual obligation arrangement is so important.
But I’ll ask Anne if she would like to comment further?
JOURNALIST: [Inaudible] they’re seeing it at $4 a day which doesn’t seem like very much?
SENATOR THE HON. ANNE RUSTON, MINISTER FOR FAMILIES AND SOCIAL SERVICES: Well look, back to your primary question around the process, the comprehensive process that we've been through, and clearly as I said in my statement we had to balance out three very strong interests that we had to balance. One, obviously, is to make sure that we provide support to people who find themselves out of work. We needed to make sure that we created a system and improved a system so that the incentives to take up work were there, and the disincentives were removed. That's very much part of the package that Minister Cash has put forward. But we also need to make sure that not just that it is a fair system but it is a sustainable system because we have to look after the people that need the system, but we also have to understand that it is paid for by taxpayers and it needs to be sustainable into the future. We certainly have drawn on the experience that we've seen over the last 12 months. We've had elevated levels of payment to people who are on unemployment benefits, recognising that back in March and April, the jobs market closed and the support was needed. But as the economy is recovering, as the jobs market is improving, certainly, we need to make sure that we have got the right incentives for people to go back to work. But our comprehensive and targeted welfare system has not changed. People who need additional assistance because of their circumstances, people who are renting who get Commonwealth rent assistance, people who have children who get support through the family tax benefit system, but there are a myriad of other supplements and allowances that are paid to people that recognise the range of individual circumstances. And all of these factors have been considered in coming up with the rate along with the other indicators that the Prime Minister has outlined in his response.
PRIME MINISTER: Hang on a sec, just to illustrate the point that you're making, a single person on the JobSeeker payment, inclusive of the increase anticipated because of indexation in March, will now see their payment increase, the base payment increase from $570.80 to $620.80 cents. That's inclusive of the indexation. It actually goes from $565.70 to $620.80. On top of that, if they're receiving Commonwealth rent assistance, that payment would increase to $760.40. And on top of that, the average value of standalone supplements - the energy supplement and so on - is an additional $13.03. So the suggestion that anyone who was on JobSeeker is simply on that payment alone and there aren't additional supports that are provided is not correct. There are additional supplements as you can see there, to the tune of some $150 in addition to that base rate, which would be a common experience of most people who would be on that payment.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, have you outlined the expectations you expected of Mr Kelly's behaviour to stay in the Government, when you spoke to him a few weeks ago?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, I was speaking to him at that time about his support for the government's position on health matters and I've consistently outlined to him the matter in relation to the staff member that was referred to in an earlier question.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, will the extra spending on JobSeeker simply be absorbed into larger Budget deficits and does the Minister expect there'll be savings from the tighter mutual obligation requirements?
PRIME MINISTER: In answer to the first question and Anne can address the other matters, at present that goes directly on to the Budget bottom line and that is where it would be absorbed. And-
JOURNALIST: So there'll be no savings?
PRIME MINISTER: Well no, I'm saying I'll let Anne address those issues.
SENATOR THE HON. ANNE RUSTON, MINISTER FOR FAMILIES AND SOCIAL SERVICES: Well, clearly, the main objective of making sure - of all of the programs that this government has been putting forward have been focused on jobs. And of course, by getting somebody off welfare and into a job, there clearly is a saving, not only a saving because their lives are better because they're no longer relying on welfare but they're in the jobs market and they're paying tax. But there is no savings provisions considered in this particular package. But, clearly, we hope that it works well enough that we do have significant savings in the process of doing it.
JOURNALIST: Senator Cash, could I ask a question in relation to Brittany Higgins? So in October 2019, the Defence Minister Linda Reynolds called your Chief of Staff to alert him to a media enquiry regarding and incident that had happened in that office. What did the Defence Minister tell your Chief of Staff? He then spoke to you and then you then spoke to Brittany where you were very supportive and hugged her and told her you would look after her. If you maintain you didn't know it was a sexual assault, what did you think you were talking about?
SENATOR THE HON. MICHAELIA CASH, MINISTER FOR EMPLOYMENT, SKILLS, SMALL AND FAMILY BUSINESS: Well, that is exactly what the Defence Minister said to my Chief of Staff. There was merely a media enquiry. I then spoke to my Chief of Staff and Brittany together. Brittany was actually concerned about the media enquiry and that she was a media adviser and she was going to have people enquiring about her. She was very concerned that she was going to become a story. It was actually about her job and nothing more. I have absolutely not and I have made my position very clear in the Senate.
PRIME MINISTER: I'm sorry, I have an international call I have to make. Thanks, everyone.
Press Conference - Castle Hill, NSW
21 February 2021
THE HON. GREG HUNT MP, MINISTER FOR HEALTH AND AGED CARE: Well welcome everybody to the Castle Hill Medical Centre, it's a privilege to be joined here by Australians such as Jane, and John, Brett, and Mila and of course, the Prime Minister, The Chief Medical Officer of Australia, Professor Paul Kelly, the Chief Nursing and Midwifery Officer of Australia, Professor Alison McMillan, and the Member for Mitchell, Alex Hawke.
Today marks the commencement of Australia's National COVID-19 Vaccination Programme. It's an important step for Australia. Australians have stood shoulder to shoulder over the course of the last year, and now they are putting their shoulders to the job. They are making themselves available. And over the course of this week, we hope to see over 60,000 vaccinations, 240 different aged care centres, 190 towns, and suburbs around the country from Alice Springs to Albany, to Altona Meadows and so many others. But we have, in order to provide confidence, we had a group of Australians that represent our disability residents and workers, our aged care residents and workers, our frontline border protection workers. And of course, on the advice of the Chief Medical Officer in order to provide confidence, the Chief Medical Officer, Chief Nurse and the Prime Minister of Australia.
With that I am delighted to introduce the Prime Minister.
PRIME MINISTER: Well, thank you Greg, and Alison and Paul, Alex. Of course, to you Greg and the wonderful team at the Department of Health who have done just such an extraordinary job in preparing for what is the biggest vaccination effort our country has ever undertaken.
This is an historic day for Australia. Jane Malysiak has seen many historic days in Australia over the course of her more than 80 years of life. She grew up in Poland in the Depression, she went through to the Second World War. She came to Australia. She built a wonderful life and is still living it gloriously today. And to have her here today and so many others who have joined us both in the front line of those who we know are most vulnerable, and in the front line who protect them. Whether it’s those working in quarantine on our border force or those working with the aged, the aged care facilities and home care, or those working with disability care and indeed those vulnerable Australians as well.
What we’re demonstrating today is our priorities on those Australians. What we're demonstrating today is our confidence. I am supremely confident in the expert process that has been led to get us to this day. So from tomorrow, tens of thousands of Australians over the course of the next week will confidently come forward from those key priority groups that have been defined to ensure that we move into this next phase of how we've been preparing and dealing with COVID-19.
I said at the outset we were going to make our Australian way through this pandemic. And the Australian way has proved to be when you look around the world, one of the most effective there is. And the reason for that, in my view, has consistently been the strength and resilience of the Australian people, the expertise that they've had available to them under the stewardship of Professor Kelly and Professor Murphy and so many others around the country has been exemplary. But it has been the response and the responsibility of Australians each and every day through this pandemic that has seen our Australian way through. And I say to my fellow Australians, now, the next step of that journey begins.
And so I call on my fellow Australians and I have by my own example today, joined by the Chief Nurse, and the Chief Medical Officer of our country, together with those Australians who are in the top priority of this vaccination programme, to say to you, Australians, it’s safe, it's important. Join us on this Australian path that sees come out of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The information is there for you to assess, for you to respond to. We've gone to great lengths with our scientific and medical community to ensure that the things you want to know about, that information is there for you. You're right to ask those questions. And that's why we have worked hard to ensure that you have that information. That our GPs are aware and that you can have those conversations. But what matters is that we all get through this together and we get through this together, Greg talked about putting the shoulders to the job, well today I put my shoulder to the jab, and that's what I'm asking Australians to do in joining me and all of their fellow fellow Australians, as we continue on the successful path we’re been on.
I’m going to ask Paul and then Alison to say a few words then happy to take questions.
PROFESSOR PAUL KELLY, CHIEF MEDICAL OFFICER: Thank you PM. As has been mentioned, I'm here in solidarity with the people that are really on the front lines, and are the priority groups for this vaccine today. So we've seen members of the Defence Forces and the ADF right at the frontline of our border controls, and in our quarantine system, we've seen people from aged care, disability and residential care and their carers. These are the frontline workers that we need to and want to protect as quickly as possible, because they're the ones most likely to be exposed to the virus. And most importantly, those people in our aged care facilities, residential aged care facilities and residential disability facilities, who are the most vulnerable Australians in terms of COVID-19. So I'm here in solidarity. I'm not asking for anyone to do something that I'm not prepared to do myself. We have a remarkable thing now with two fully registered vaccines in Australia. This is the first that was available. And so the plan was always that the Prime Minister, myself and Professor McMillan would be the first to get that first vaccine. I can absolutely guarantee that if that first vaccine had been AstraZeneca, I would have had that one. And in fact, the Minister for Health and Professor Brendan Murphy will be receiving that vaccine as soon as it's available, very soon. So this is an important step in the journey. It is not the last step. There are many steps to go, but absolutely, I encourage all Australians when your turn comes, as some of us have been privileged enough to do today, to take that opportunity to line up and get those vaccines and that's going to protect you and your families and the whole of Australia.
PROFESSOR ALISON MCMILLAN, CHIEF NURSING AND MIDWIFERY OFFICER: Prime Minister, Minister, Alex, Paul, thank you for the opportunity to join you here, to show our solidarity, and our confidence in this vaccine, to reassure you it doesn’t hurt, I won’t say the terminology, but it really doesn’t hurt at all. This is such an important day for Australia, but it's a particularly focus obviously, on our health care workers they are the people who are part of 1A who will be starting to get this vaccine tomorrow. And I want to encourage all of them to have confidence in this and to get the vaccine along with aged care workers and, of course, the aged care residents, but also those who really are at the front line. I'm going to Howard Springs tomorrow to work with the team to look at how we can expand that facility, enormously successful facility. And this will help me as I feel that I go there and those that are working there that that additional protection. So, again, please, all Australians, this is the next step for us all, protecting those that are the most vulnerable and keeping safe our health care workers who look after us. So I encourage everyone to when your opportunity comes to get the vaccine. Thank you.
PRIME MINISTER: Thank you Alison, happy to take some questions.
JOURNALIST: PM, why did you feel you had to bring the programme forward a day to do this today?
PRIME MINISTER: This is a curtain raiser. That's how I describe it. I mean tens of thousands of people will be coming in tomorrow and I wanted them to know as they went to bed tonight that we have been able to demonstrate our confidence in the health and safety of this vaccination to let them know that it's good to go. And I was very happy to send that message today with my colleagues here, but also with those Australians who we wanted to demonstrate were the priority groups for this vaccination over the coming weeks and months. And so people could understand what the priorities would be that it is important we all do this, but most importantly, that it is safe.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, how concerned are you about vaccine hesitancy and why do you think some Australians are worried?
PRIME MINISTER: This is the biggest vaccination programme we've seen and it's in the middle of a pandemic, a global pandemic that none of us have seen unless, you know, we’re centenarians. And as a result, I appreciate and understand that people have questions. I appreciate the scale of what's going on here and that Australians would rightly want to know more information. So I'm not surprised by that. I think that's, I think that's quite [inaudible]. And that's why we are seeking to approach that in a very calm way, but most importantly in a very informed way, this whole process has been developed and it's being run and is been signed off by the best medical experts in the world, and they are Australian. And so for that reason, I would encourage people to join with us, as I said before, but also to answer the questions, have the questions answered that they want to ask. I think that's completely understandable. You know, I think as time goes on and as people see the benefits, as we're already starting to see in other countries, that have gone down this path, that I would expect to see confidence continue to lift. We have one of the highest rates of vaccinations in the world more generally when it comes to other vaccines. And so Australia's got good form on this. And that's why I say all the way through the pandemic, that Australians have shown the ways themselves. I think in their very co-operative, patient and responsible approach to how they’ve responded to the pandemic themselves.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, your health minister this morning has said that on his watch the department won't be advertising on Facebook because of what's happened in the last couple of days, but when it comes to the vaccine. Do you think that it is worthwhile for the health department to advertise about the vaccine and the safety of the vaccine on social media or are you comfortable that people are well enough aware of the vaccine that you don't need to do that?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, I'll ask Greg to add to this, but we'll be using all the communication mechanisms and tools to reach people. And that's what I anticipate, we’ll be putting an enormous effort behind this communications campaign. And I want to particularly thank Alison, and many others who have been involved, Professor Skerritt, and others who have played such an important role of reassuring Australians, and they will continue to do that. But Greg did you want to add?
THE HON. GREG HUNT MP, MINISTER FOR HEALTH AND AGED CARE: Yeah. So and we'll continue to provide information, what we wouldn’t be doing in the immediate future is doing additional paid advertising. So, of course, these are social media outlets, which have a general capacity to post but then on top of that as all of you would know far better than me, there’s the capacity to do paid advertising which is not [inaudible] for now.
JOURNALIST: So you’ll post about the vaccine but you won't use paid advertising to boost that information?
THE HON. GREG HUNT MP, MINISTER FOR HEALTH AND AGED CARE: Correct.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, is there any update on when we can expect the first shipment of AstraZeneca to arrive from overseas?
PRIME MINISTER: When we have more information on that then we will be providing it.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister you’ve been quite consistent about the vaccine being voluntary in the community in some elements, there is a bit more of a sense that it should be mandatory. The actions of some Premiers in closing borders and things, are you going to discourage Premiers and employers and that kind of thing to not to make it mandatory for people to take up?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, the Australian way is for this to be non-mandatory. That's the Australian way, but there are already precedents that when it comes for where there are public health reasons, or where any vaccination such as flu vaccines for people working in aged care facilities or those working in ICU wards, that's a fairly normal process. And health workers in particular are familiar with that. And if that were the case, that that would be the basis of a public health order put in place by a state jurisdiction. Now we've already had this discussion amongst the Premiers at the National Cabinet and indeed our health ministers have also discussed it, as has the Chief Medical Officer with the chief health officers. And at this point, their advice from the medical expert panel is that is not anticipated. But as with everything, you watch the information, you take the advice, you see how it progresses and you make sensible decisions. Now, if there are genuine health reasons that medical experts would advise that, then state jurisdictions would consider, what I'm pleased about, because I appreciate the Premiers working with, not just on this issue, but on the broader vaccination approach. And, of course, the broader management of the pandemic, it's important that we have consistency on those public health orders that relate to things like that. And that's what the AHPPC is working to do, that's what the premiers and health ministers are working to do.
JOURNALIST: What does this mean for the timetable for opening up state and international borders. And when can Australians expect life to resume and return to normal?
PRIME MINISTER: Well it’s a little too early to say, I’d say on a number of those things I note today- I understand and I'm happy to be corrected if I haven’t got this information correct but my understanding is the Queensland Chief Health Officer today has made some comments about this as one of those states that has often used those tools. I welcome her suggestion today that what we are commencing can certainly reduce the need for those types of responses in the future. And I believe that is that's where people want to get to at a state level. That's certainly where I want to get to. And that's why I asked the Secretary of the Department of Prime Minister Cabinet to present back to the National Cabinet on how this changes, how we manage the risk of COVID going forward. Today is the beginning of a big game changer. There's no doubt about that. And it's successful rollout will only further reduce the risk. And when you reduce the risk, then obviously you do not need more blunt and extreme measures in order to deal with COVID. I mean while we still don't know and Paul, you might want to comment on this. We still don't know absolutely based on the medical evidence about the impact on transmissibility. What we do know, but I've got to say, signs are looking good, what we do know is that this deals with serious disease and, you’ll know, a year ago, it was about this time last year a little soon after actually, that our biggest fear as we faced the pandemic a year ago with those horrific scenes that we have seeing occur in Europe and in other parts of the world, you know, that led to mass graves in New York, things like this. We were looking at that type of abyss. And what this vaccine does is removes that risk of that serious and widespread and sort of cataclysmic spread of disease with those results. Now, there are many other viruses that are in our community. We all know that. And we don't have the sort of responses we've had to COVID to those. COVID are far more aggressive, and we're seeing increasingly more aggressive strains. But if you reduce, remove the level of serious risk of serious illness that you can begin to start managing this like you would any other virus in the community. But Paul did you want to add to that?
PROFESSOR PAUL KELLY, CHIEF MEDICAL OFFICER: I think I think you've summarised it well PM, that key point is about severe disease. And we know that both the AstraZeneca and the Pfizer vaccine which I now have had, that will protect me. This is new evidence coming all the time from the real world experience from countries that have been vaccinating now for a couple of months. In the case of Pfizer and a little bit shorter in terms of AstraZeneca in the U.K., for example, that real world experience is absolutely confirming that decreases in hospitalisations and decreases in deaths, decreases in serious diseases. These are really important findings and early advice out of Israel seems to be suggesting, that there is also a decrease in the viral load or the amount of virus that people are carrying after if they become infected after vaccination. That's leading us towards an idea about and about how useful this is to stop the transmission. But these are early days and so preliminary information is useful. But I would wait to see the confirmation.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, you've brought forward several, you've launched several reviews into what was brought forward by Brittany Higgins, what would you
PRIME MINISTER: I’m very happy to deal with those issues but given we've still got Professor Kelly and Alison with us,
JOURNALIST: When’s the average punter going to be able to get the jab?
PRIME MINISTER: Sorry?
JOURNALIST: Just the average Joe, when are they going to be able to get the jab?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, there were, there were a lot of average Joes, and Jills who work in aged care and disability care and who have disabilities or live in aged care facilities or work on border force and in hotel quarantine. They are the priorities. I’ll let Greg go through the next couple of steps. But this is about getting through the whole population. We said we’d get there by October and that’s, we’re on track.
THE HON. GREG HUNT MP, MINISTER FOR HEALTH AND AGED CARE: So there are five phases all up, phase 1A is the phase which commences today about aged care and disability care residents and staff, our frontline border protection and quarantine workers and our frontline health care workers. Phase 1B will involve our over 80’s, our over 70’s, immunocompromised, indigenous Australians over 55, and emergency service workers. Phase 2 will involve the over 60, the over 50s, critical workers, and indigenous Australians under 55. Phase 2B, they will then be the general balance of the population. We recognise that there will be people who catch up because of life circumstances or increased confidence. And then subject to clinical trials the third phase would involve children. But there are global clinical trials and we won't make any predictions on the outcome of them.
JOURNALIST: PM Premier Berejiklian has said that it’s her Government’s intention that everyone working in hotel quarantine gets the jab in the next coming weeks, indicating that people who choose not to get it might not get any more shifts in the hotel quarantine system. Do you think that that's the correct approach that people who don't choose to get this jab should not be working in hotel quarantine? And perhaps Professor Kelly can I get your epidemiological [inaudible] please.
PRIME MINISTER: Well I’ll throw to Paul. The priorities for people working in hotel quarantine are obvious and it’s stated in our strategy, that's exactly what we wish to achieve, and that's what the Premiers are seeking to achieve. I'm very confident that that isn’t going to be a problem, and the Premier is too, see I'm quite confident about how Australians respond sensibly to these things. And I believe, having spoken to some of those who are working in those very facilities at the moment they’re all just saying let's go, let's get on with it. So I'm not going to jump to those next levels, because I think that's frankly something that we need to ponder at this moment, because I believe, I believe they will respond very cooperatively because they are working on the front line of it. And so I'd be surprised if that proved to be the type of issue that you've highlighted. Paul?
PROFESSOR PAUL KELLY, CHIEF MEDICAL OFFICER: Thank you PM. So I'd encourage anyone that's in that priority group as an absolute priority, get a booking and get going with the vaccination. Like the PM I very much trust the Australians, that most people will take this vaccine once it becomes available. We have extraordinarily high immunisation rates in Australia, extraordinarily high. 95 per cent in some cases even more in aboriginal communities. So people take up that opportunity, we know that and recognise the issues that are coming to the fore about hesitancy, but I'm sure once we get started, that will dissolve, that will dissolve on our front lines straight away. We need it to dissolve in relation to aged care and disability care residents because they are the most vulnerable and we just need to get them protected before [inaudible].
JOURNALIST: Professor Kelly, can I ask, there are some concerns within the multicultural communities that they're kind of being left out of the consultation programme, we’ve been speaking to quite a lot of them, they want to know how can we make sure misinformation isn't getting into these communities? So what information are we giving in language and culturally appropriate to these groups?
PROFESSOR PAUL KELLY, CHIEF MEDICAL OFFICER: So I'll let the minister add shortly about what he’s been doing and we have the Minister [inaudible] here also, so look we've done a lot of work with the with many of linguistically diverse communities and hopefully those communities around Australia. We had specific briefings last week with the media that goes to that, we're talking to the elders of many communities and leaders of the community's we have very strong support, for example, from the Muslim community through their imams, and so those things are really important. We've learnt a lot of lessons along the way in this pandemic how important that is. And so we’re, no one never gets left behind here. We will be countering every message which is discouraging people and replacing those with encouragement.
THE HON. GREG HUNT MP, MINISTER FOR HEALTH AND AGED CARE: Look at very briefly, we've not only had widespread engagement with multicultural Australia, we are doing advertising in over 30 languages, we've been working with SBS, which has been fantastic. We are doing fact sheets in over 60 languages. Professor Kelly mentioned the Islamic community issued a statement of support for many members of their community as possible to take up vaccination, and others are doing it. We are also empowering local communities across cultural and linguistically diverse backgrounds to design and develop their own grassroots campaigns and outreach campaigns. And, briefly, Alex Hawke is the minister for multicultural affairs to make some comments.
THE HON. ALEX HAWKE MP, MINISTER FOR IMMIGRATION, CITIZENSHIP, MIGRANT SERVICES AND MULTICULTURAL AFFAIRS: Thanks, Greg. And just add to what Paul Kelly said there, I think multicultural communities are also embracing the concept of vaccination as the wider community is, and from the government's perspective, we have a series of consultations, roundtables with community leaders, faith leaders, some of which have been mentioned today. There's so much diversity in the Australian community. We thought about translations in about 60 languages, there’s communications would be in every single one of those languages. There’s video communications. We're working with the Multicultural Council of Australia as well to ensure that every part of the vaccination message is delivered to every community in Australia. And here we are at the cusp of western Sydney, there’s diversity all around us in these communities. And we're finding great support from all those community leaders, from those faith leaders, from every part of the multicultural community in Australia for the vaccination rollout. And the government will keep working with them as issues are identified. And what we're seeing so far is the great support from those community leaders, from those faith leaders they are speaking with their communities every day, every week. And the message is getting through.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, Prime Minister, on Brittany Higgins if we may now?
PRIME MINISTER: Are we finished with [inaudible] health?
JOURNALIST: What do you think is the first thing that's going to go back to normal? And what is the last going to get back to normal once we get going on the scale of this vaccine?
PRIME MINISTER: Well Greg you might like to comment on that and I’ll allow you to do that. Every day that goes past from here gets more normal. Every day. And that's what we've started today. And that's what's exciting about today. The exact path will in many ways illuminate itself as we work through these issues. But the thing I've got to tell you that I'm most pleased about today is that I now know as this vaccination rolls out, and particularly because it focuses on the most vulnerable in our community. That the greatest fear that I have as Prime Minister in facing this pandemic, this vaccination addresses, and that is serious disease and the sort of widespread fatalities that we saw overseas. That is what I'm most pleased about that, that element of this pandemic because of this vaccination, that we move further away from that every single day. That's a big change. That is a massive change. And that will lead to others. Greg?
THE HON GREG HUNT MP, MINISTER FOR HEALTH AND AGED CARE: Sure, so I think the first thing that changes is confidence and that's the first thing and today is about confidence and hope and protection above all else, and yes that will lead to shops and schools being progressively more and more open and other activities around the country and in the later stages of course, in a world where there are between 300 and 400 thousand cases a day engagement with the outside world, is something which happens perhaps on a more staggered basis. But what changes today is confidence goes up.
JOURNALIST: Just in relation to that issue, on Brittany Higgins,
PRIME MINISTER: Okay, I'm very happy to answer the question, but I do know there's a lot of health questions and, but if we are finished with the health questions I’m going to excuse Alison and Paul. That's my key point.
JOURNALIST: Can you give people reassurance that those Australia will choose not to get this, that there won't be a mandatory- no one will be forced to get it?
PRIME MINISTER: Well it’s a non-mandatory vaccine. The only issues that can arise in relation to that are public health orders issued by the state and territory governments. Which is currently the case with the flu vaccines and many other types of vaccines. So that would be exactly the same process that chief health officers and chief medical officers would assess for particular applications based on the health advice, but that just relates to the performance of an occupation. There's no mandatory compulsion on anyone in this country to have it, but I do know Australians from how they responded already to this pandemic and they have been a source of strength for the results that we've achieved, the Australian way that we have embarked on we will continue and it steps up a whole nother gear as of tomorrow.
Okay, thanks. Thanks Alison. Thank you very much, Paul. Happy to take other questions.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister you've launched 4 reviews in response to the allegations that have been brought forward by Brittany Higgins, what do you ultimately hope comes from those reviews?
PRIME MINISTER: I hope they will give us what we need to change the culture not just today, but longer term. And I hope that it will ensure that the systems and processes that we’ve relied on here will create and provide greater support to anyone who would find themselves a victim of those types of events in the future. It's a fairly straightforward expectation. I want the culture to be better. I want the system to be better for the sake of particularly those who were impacted directly by these things, but also for those who are in a position of seeking to help and support people in that situation. That's what I want to know. I want to honestly know and if we need two, if we need four, we will get what we need to ensure we find out that information. There are many good ideas and suggestions that are already coming forward. There are changes that have already been made in recent years, and I think this will really help us do that.
JOURNALIST: But three of those reviews are being conducted by your Department and your staff, and that's hardly independent or at arms length?
PRIME MINISTER: None are being conducted by my staff. My Department is involved in that. There's also the process, Celia Hammond is involved in which is a Party process, and then of course there is the multi-party parliamentary process, that Minister Birmingham is working through with the other party leaders, and we hope to make further announcements there, if we believe there's a need for further things then we’ll be taking that advice, particularly from my Secretary of Prime Minister and Cabinet. So we're keen to know how to make it better.
JOURNALIST: Jennifer Westacott from the Business Council of Australia was saying today that the, there's a pervasive culture of discourtesy, disrespect and bullying in Parliament House. What do you say to her claims?
PRIME MINISTER: I think the culture needs to change and it needs to continually improve, but I've got to say, if any workplace, thinks that this is just confined to the parliament, they are kidding themselves, seriously, they’re kidding themselves, we've got our issues to deal with as a Parliament, and we're saying we do.
JOURNALIST: So she needs to look at her businesses that she supports?
PRIME MINISTER: You can make your own comments. All I'm simply saying is we need to deal with what's happening in our house and everybody needs to deal with what's happening in theirs.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister Samantha Maiden says that she went to your office, the PMO on the Friday to raise questions about Brittany and what she had said. You say you didn't find out about it until the Monday the 15th. So are we to believe that your office did not inform you of this for 48 hours?
PRIME MINISTER: Correct.
JOURNALIST: And is there, why? Why on earth did that happen?
PRIME MINISTER: I’ve expressed my view to my staff about that very candidly on Monday.
JOURNALIST: Are they being reprimanded? I mean, it's a very serious allegation that isn't being brought to the Prime Minister.
PRIME MINISTER: And you can be assured that they know exactly my views about that.
JOURNALIST: PM your Health Minister again this morning
PRIME MINISTER: But, you know, it's not about how I feel. It's always about the person who's at the centre of this, and that's why we have to do these things. That's what it's about.
JOURNALIST: In relation to support for people who make, Brittany and others like her who make, raise complaints like this. Minister Hunt appeared to back an independent body to deal with complaints, of this nature this morning, calling for an external structure to make sure people have confidence in coming forward. Do you agree that we need an external body to deal with complaints of this nature?
PRIME MINISTER: I've already said I think there’s merit in that. But I think that is for the process that we’ve put in place to actually consider those things and to make recommendations that can then be accepted and we can go forward. I really don't want to prejudge a lot of this. I said a few days ago, last Tuesday in fact, that what we need to do is ensure that people are able, in these circumstances, to feel they can raise these issues, even though people are saying, you can, they need to feel that they can and to do so in a discrete and a private way and so they can get the support they need. And that's what I want to see happen. But the other thing, we must deal with this issue, it's a very important and serious issue. I can assure you I and my Government are going to take it very seriously. But as a Government, we've also got to focus on the many other things that we're here today to do. Australians are relying on me and my team to protect their livelihoods, to protect their lives, to maintain the health of the country, to make sure we roll out this vaccination programme, that we get Australians back into work, and that we remain very focused on the things that are impacting them every single day of their lives where they are. I can assure you we will deal with this other matter which is very serious, but I can assure you, it won't take away from us dealing with what I know Australians need us to do. Our come back from the covid-19 pandemic is underway. And today, we have just taken another massive step forward down that the Australian path. Thank you all very much.
Press Conference - Collaroy, NSW
20 February 2021
JASON FALINSKI, MEMBER FOR MACKELLAR: Thank you, ladies and gentlemen, for coming to Collaroy today. I'd like to thank the prime minister and the minister for coming to God's country. As you know, we saved Christmas this year for the rest of Australia by going into lockdown. And ever since then, we've been inviting people, we've been having people come back to our beaches and it looks like we have a few more today. And so thank you, Prime Minister and Richard, for being part of those, that group. One of the reasons that this is God's country is because we have the most number of surf lifesaving clubs of any area in Australia and the work that surf lifesaving does both here and around the country and indeed in many parts of the world, to make sure that people can come to beaches and swim safely and have a day out safely is extraordinary, the sense of community that they bring to those places in which they operate. We've seen here on the northern beaches during our lockdown, where we had 70,000 people in one day going to get tested for COVID. And the reason for that is volunteer groups like Surf Lifesaving, where everyone knows they're not just doing it for themselves, they're doing it for the rest of the community and for everyone else around Australia. And I want to thank my community for being part of that, the community that I'm proud to represent. And Prime Minister, I especially want to thank you for coming up here today to make this important announcement.
PRIME MINISTER: Thank you Jason. I'm also joined of course by Minister Colbeck and Senator Bragg, but importantly Graham Ford who’s the President of Surf Life Saving Australia, who's a Bronte boy as we know, he and I have known each other for many years. You might ask as the local member for Cook, why I'd be coming all the up to the northern beaches today to make an announcement about surf lifesaving. And that's true. We have also the finest surf lifesaving clubs of anywhere in the world down in the Shire.
And it was great to see so many young kids from the shire today. But the reason I wanted to come here today is I wanted to thank the people of the northern beaches, as Jason and I were speaking during the course of the summer break. And I have on a number of occasions now expressed my appreciation to the tremendous response and patience of the people of the northern beaches that not only kept themselves in their own communities safe, but in doing so they were keeping the rest of the country safe. And I know it was a very tough period for the people on the northern beaches. And working through that, over a time when you would have wanted to be here with your family and doing the things that families and friends do over the summer. And the people of the northern beaches put that aside and did what was right for their country and for their community. And so it's, I think, very fitting to be here and saying thank you to the people of the northern beaches Jason. Here at a surf lifesaving club, because I know from my own experience that there is nothing that is more central to a community that lives along the coast of this amazing country than our surf life saving clubs. They are not just a place where 173,000 dedicated members come to and provide a service to their local community they are the very beating heart of the community itself, from the young nippers and the families that come around those, the social events that occur as a community here in this club and at so many other places, the way our surf lifesaving to bind and knit our communities together I think is extraordinary.
Of course, there is the athleticism and the competition and the healthy lifestyle message that goes along with being a member of a surf lifesaving club. But on top of that, the values that are taught at surf lifesaving clubs, the respect for each other, the respect for community service, the respect for training and the discipline that goes with that is teaching our young people a tremendously important lesson. So I want to say thank you to those more than 173,000 members of our surf lifesaving community and the over 300 surf lifesaving clubs, some are large like this some are small, like down at Burning Palms, in the Royal National Park, very small clubs. They've got a great mud pass team, by the way, Graham which I'm sure you know. But they all do their bit and we want to help them do their bit even more.
Recently, we've already committed over $20 million dollars to support the surf lifesaving community, doing the amazing job they do, looking out for all of us when we come here for a day of leisure with our families. And today, we're announcing a further $9.7 million dollars. And that is going to two very important parts of what our surf lifesaving community does. Firstly, it helps them with the gear that they need. I just went through, I don't think I was with the gear steward, but the gear steward I'm sure would talk about the importance of the equipment they have to help save lives. And I saw some of the new equipment they've been using, which they've got from the United Kingdom, which certainly helps with their training in preparing for rescues. This gear is very important and clubs will be able to access up to $10,000 dollars a year in getting the gear they need to keep you and your family safe at the beach. But the other thing we're doing today as part of this package is we're investing even more in the training. When you see those men and women out there in the red and yellow, of course, you want to know that they've been as trained as best as they possibly can to assist you if you find yourself or your family members in trouble or friends down at the beach, and the training, the time that goes into training and clubhouses like this is even more often than what goes into standing on that beach each day when they're on patrol. And so we need to give them more support on the training, the tools that they need to train and to ensure that their trainers are of the best possible standard. And I'd say our trainers are the best surf lifesaving trainers of anywhere in the world and sets the standard. So I'm very pleased to be able to be doing this today. I'm a passionate believer in the surf lifesaving movement here in Australia. I think it is quintessential to who we are as Australians because it's about community, it's about service, it's about lifestyle and it's about values. And I'm happy to back that every single day of the week.
And so thank you again to all the northern beaches clubs, and there are a lot of them up here Jason, there's heaps of them up here and they're all great clubs and they all do a great job. But to the I think of 314 there is around the country. Thank you to all those, and particularly the ones that I'm involved with down in the Shire they've had a difficult time over COVID.
And just before I pass over to the Minister. During COVID, it's been community groups like this that has got us through to where we are now. And so I'm really looking forward, as I said yesterday, to the vaccination programme formally starting on Monday, that will formally get away on Monday. And we'll be sending the clearest possible messages about the importance of that vaccine, the safety of that vaccine. That vaccination means that as this year progresses, the normality of life that we enjoy as Australians, which includes coming here, getting together as part of the community, getting out there and our great Australian environment, and particularly on these amazing beaches that we have all around our coastline, we want that to return to normal, that vaccination is the pathway back to that normal. And so I just want to continue to encourage, I'll be leading by example on that front. And it's important that we all engage with that process, understand the information, become informed from the from the true sources, from the authorised sources, the best medical experts in the world here in Australia designed this programme, running this programme to keep you safe and to ensure the Australian comeback in the COVID-19 pandemic continues. Richard?
SENATOR THE HON RICHARD COLBECK, MINISTER FOR SENIOR AUSTRALIANS AND AGED CARE SERVICES: Thanks, PM. Thanks, Jason and Andrew, good to be here with Graham, who was sharing some time in Parliament House just a couple of days ago, this is a really important announcement, as the prime minister has said, it provides additional capacity over and above the relationship that we already have with the surf lifesaving movement around the country. And in just simple practical terms, rather than being able to access up to $5,000 dollars a year, a club can now access up to $10,000 a year for their gear and that will make a big difference. It's been a very, very tough summer, as we've seen over recent weeks. So this is an important announcement. But I see it as also being very timely. 248 deaths last year, lives lost around our coastline and as the Prime Minister said it is really a part of coastal life, and as a senator for Tasmania where the water's colder and you've got to be a bit more intrepid to go in it's still an important part of life. And I was talking to some friends the other day, they were often to Clifton Beach for the state championships that weekend and they were really looking forward to their participation in their community sport and their community events, so the additional capacity with respect to the kit that they need, the prime minister talked about being so important, but also that training and the the the equipment that supports the training. So, at an important time where we've had a really, really tough summer, some additional capacity and support for the surf lifesaving movement, I think is really important. It's timely and it will make a really important contribution to all of these communities that we see up and down our coastline, around our coastline, around the country. Those 314 clubs, over 170,000 members are very, very important, and move within the context of our community cohesion and as the prime minister sais, as we come out of COVID and as people flock to our beaches as we're allowed to move around the work that they do becomes even more important and the lives that they can support and save are obviously, being able to save those lives is a really important thing for the families of those who have supported. So really good to be here. Thanks for having us on [inaudible].
PRIME MINISTER: Graham did you want to?
GRAHAM FORD, PRESIDENT SURF LIFESAVING AUSTRALIA: Okay thank you Prime Minister, and Minister, and Jason and Andrew, this is a very special day for Surf Life Saving, as the prime minister said we've had a lot of challenges over the period of COVID. And the increase in finding that's going to our clubs, doubling the amount of money that we're going to receive for the equipment funding is so important. The Prime ministers just had a look at the equipment shed, there's so much equipment we need to protect the people when they come down to the beach and so on behalf of the 314 clubs, I thank the prime minister and the government for your generosity. I would also like to just say that the vocational education funding was initiated by the prime minister three years ago. And over that three year period Prime Minister we've given 25,000 national vocational education awards. Which is a significant achievement for our organisation. As the Prime Minister said, yes we see the surf life savers out there today, they seem to be standing around, but the amount of training that goes in to ensure that they are rescue ready to go and rescue someone who gets into trouble is an extraordinary contribution, not only for the trainers, but also the assessors. over the last year our surf life savers rescued 11,000 members of the public.11,000, our 47,000 volunteer patrolling members. They also conducted 1.6 million preventative actions, and 68,000 first aid treatments. As the prime minister said, we're there on the front line looking after the public, ensuring that they are safe. And finally, I'd just like to say that we have a programme which we run, which is called Our club is your club, in other words, our clubs sit here, we are very grateful that we have the good locations we have, but we also are part of a community and our communities are inside our club, we have a Silver Salties programme where we bring people from around the area, perhaps at my age Prime Minister to become part of our club, join in the club activities and that's been funded by the Australian government. It means they don't have to go out and do their Bronze Medallion but they could they could just be part of an amazing community. So on behalf of Surf Life Saving Prime Minister, thank you again we are very appreciative for all of the efforts that we saw [inaudible].
PRIME MINISTER: Thank you, why don't we just quickly or at length if you'd like, deal with the announcement made today and then Graham's obviously available to answer questions on that and then as always happy to move to other events of the day that you'd like to raise.
JOURNALIST: Yeah, didn't have any questions on the announcement.
PRIME MINISTER: Well, I'm pleased to see there's strong support for the announcement today and it's well received. Thank you Graham. Thank you very much. Thank you for being with us here today. Happy to take other questions on other matters.
JOURNALIST: You spoke just there about, you know, the importance of authoritative, trustworthy information right now, given the vaccine rollout and pandemic, I saw one of the Facebook executives was apologising today about inadvertently blocking health and emergency services. Do you think it is enough that they apologised, are you angry about how this has happened, could they face legal action?
PRIME MINISTER: Well look I expressed I think very clearly my views about this over the last few days. What I'm pleased about is that Facebook is back on the table, they're back at the table that's what we want to see. We want to work through this issue. And so I welcome the fact that they're back engaging with the government as they should. And those actions were completely indefensible. I appreciate the apology that's been provided, but my job now is to ensure that we get on with those discussions and that we bring them to a successful conclusion. The Australian government's position is very clear. People would know the strong support that has been provided internationally for Australia's position. In many ways. Well, in every way, Australia has led the way. When it comes to this issue, as we have on other occasions when it comes to the tax treatment of goods that Amazon were selling in Australia. Or the display of violent extremist material on social media platforms, we led that charge together with New Zealand, particularly Australia, through the G20. And so we're no strangers to taking the lead on this. And so I'm pleased to have both had the international, the strong international support that has come forward. But I'm also pleased that Facebook has decided, that it would seem to tentatively friend us again and and get those discussions going again.
JOURNALIST: Has Facebook opened itself up to a class action by removing charities and health organisations?
PRIME MINISTER: Look, I'll let legal minds go over those issues. My focus, though, is to get this issue resolved positively, to ensure that the protections that we want to put in place, to ensure that we have a free and democratic society here is supported by an open news media can continue. That's a very important part of who we are. And I think this is what has motivated me and my government to do this.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, what's your initial reaction to the story that a second woman alleges she was raped by the same man who accused of assaulting Brittany Higgins?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, I'm very upset about those circumstances, and particularly for the young woman who, I don't know who that is. And nor do I need to know who that is. That is a very distressing event. I can only say that at all times the ministers who had knowledge of this incident that took place at Parliament House at all times sought to have that matter taken up by the police and for it to be investigated by the police. I welcome, very much welcome the fact that that is now occurring. That has always been what we sought to encourage. And I'm glad that that investigation is now once again underway.
JOURNALIST: At what point was your office made aware of these second allegations?
PRIME MINISTER: I read about when they were in the media.
JOURNALIST: On the first alleged incident has Phil Gaetjens finished checking which of your staff knew and when?
PRIME MINISTER: No he hasn't.
JOURNALIST: Have you got a time frame on that?
PRIME MINISTER: As soon as possible.
JOURNALIST: That second woman says that her attack would never have happened if your government had dealt with Brittany Higgins' allegations properly in the first place. Does that argument have merit?
PRIME MINISTER: I'd simply say this. We at all times, the ministers who had knowledge of this matter and those who in a senior position in the staff that had knowledge of those matters in those offices at all times sought to have this matter fully investigated by the police. Now, that is not something the government can force. We cannot do that. And as a result, it had always been our position to encourage that, and indeed, Minister Reynolds facilitated a meeting with the federal police to enable that process to commence.
JOURNALIST: Does Minister. Reynolds still have your support to remain as Defence Minister?
PRIME MINISTER: of course she does.
JOURNALIST: Once those enquiries are finished could there be any action against senior staff and Ministers?
PRIME MINISTER: Well I'm going to wait and see what the Secretary of the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet presents so I'm not going to pre-judge that. What's most important is that as a result of these shocking events, which I think have traumatised many, particularly those around the Parliament building and those who work in that area, but I have no doubt that these events will have triggered the experiences of many, young women in particular, but women and men around the country who have gone through similar experiences and that is deeply distressing and I, that is why I'm seeking to try and address this as swiftly,but as effectively as we possibly can. I'm looking forward to Minister Birmingham completing his consultations with the other parties and the independents, the crossbenchers and others, to finalise the terms of that review that will be independently done. I'm looking forward to the input coming into that process about how it should be done, current members of staff, former members of staff contributing through the processes to ensure that that's done thoroughly and properly. I absolutely agree that there is significant work that still remains to be done in the Parliament House work culture. That is absolutely the case. This has been a challenging issue for many, many years. And I think we would be naive to think that it's not a challenge that other workplaces face all around the country, but I agree the parliament should be setting the standard.
JOURNALIST: Have you asked your staff what they knew about Ms Higgins claims?
PRIME MINISTER: Of course I have.
JOURNALIST: Is there a systemic failure within the Liberal Party itself or it is broader than that?
PRIME MINISTER: I think we've got a problem in the Parliament. And the workplace culture that exists there. That we must continue to improve. I mean, in my time as a member of parliament now, I have seen improvements over that period of time. The former Prime Minister, and I particularly in relation to the conduct of ministers, for the first time, put the most stringent of controls on ministers, who would face dismissal if they were to have sexual relations with a member of their staff, that never existed before. And that I think set a very strong standard and set a very strong signal. And I was very pleased to support Prime Minister Turnbull on that and I maintained it as Prime Minister. So these events truly do sicken me. They do sicken me, as they should anyone and so what I must do and continue to do, is focussed on ensuring that the needs of our staff are addressed, that they are safe, that those who have suffered the trauma, and horror of events like this in the past, are respected. And that we give every support we can to ensure that the police authorities can take up these matters as discreetly as they possibly can. So as not to discourage in any way, shape or form anyone who might want to bring forward a complaint. This is a very complex issue, I think Australians do understand that. It is very hard to address these issues, I'm very resolved to do so together with all the members of the Parliament. This is an issue that all parties in some way, shape or form have had to deal with, whether it's here in state parliaments, in other places. Members of the media will be very aware of that. And it's true that members of Parliament staff, aren't the only staff who work in that building, too, and live in a very similar culture. And so we've got a big job to do, I'm resolved to deal with it.
JOURNALIST: What is your message to young women who might want to get into politics and see this and are just horrified by it. What's your reassurance to them about getting involved in the Liberal party or other parties?
PRIME MINISTER: Well whether they want to be involved with my party, the Labor Party, the Greens or anywhere else where frankly there have been issues in all of these areas before, is that those who are there now will be doing everything we can to make sure that this workplace is as safe as possible, just like I would hope every employer in the country is doing everything they can to make their workplaces as safe as possible. And that is the commitment I can give. And that's what I'll follow through on. I feel very strongly about these issues. I always have. And we must continue to do better.
Press Conference - Camperdown, NSW
19 February 2021
The Hon. Gladys Berejiklian MP, Premier of NSW: Good morning, everybody. I'm extremely pleased to be here at the Royal Prince Alfred Hospital in Sydney alongside the Prime Minister of Australia, Scott Morrison, the New South Wales Health Minister, Brad Hazzard, and many, many key staff, our front line workers in the New South Wales health system.
We are all extremely pleased and excited that the vaccine rollout will commence on Monday here in New South Wales. And RA will be one of three hubs where within the course of three weeks, 35,000 frontline workers in quarantine and throughout our health system will receive the vaccination. It is a complex but simple process for us, for those of us who will eventually get the vaccine, and especially for those people who will get the vaccine on the first few days. The Prime Minister, myself and minister Hazzard have just had a walk through. And I want to thank all of the staff involved in the process. They've gone through a number of processes of dress rehearsals for want of a better term to make sure everything is precise and ready, and also to make sure that especially with the first vaccines that are administered, that we have good observation, good data and good information to support everybody through the process. It is a mammoth task, but a critical task and a game changer in dealing with the COVID pandemic.
I'm incredibly proud of team New South Wales and the way everybody has worked together. And the vaccine rollout is an example of that. And I want to thank the Prime Minister and his team for facilitating the supply of the vaccine, but also working with us in making sure it's distributed as efficiently, as safely as possible. And it is no doubt going to change the way in which we live with COVID. It does change the way in which we will think about the restrictions and life. However, in the meantime, until there's a critical mass of our population who've been vaccinated, we all have to stick to the rules as strictly as ever. We can't be complacent during this time. We're in a transition phase. We cannot be complacent. The second that we're complacent, community transmission will occur and we will go backwards. And that's something we don't want. What we need to make sure is during this transition phase that we continue to follow the health advice. We continue to get tested even if we have the mildest of symptoms, and that we make sure that when we're available- we have the opportunity to take the vaccine, that we should take it. And that is really important. As you know, both the Pfizer vaccine and the AstraZeneca, when they, when that arrives as well, have different ways in which we need to store them and get them out to our communities. And that's obviously a factor - That's okay, it’s a medical emergency - But obviously that also has a factor in how the vaccine is distributed in the cohort of the population that will be invited to have the vaccine.
I believe very strongly that the overwhelming majority of our population in New South Wales will be very keen and eager to get the vaccine. But I also understand that people want confidence in the process, confidence in the efficacy, and can I assure you that when my turn is here, I will be getting the vaccine as quickly as I can. I think it's an extra line of defence. And the more of us that get the vaccine as soon as possible, the better it is for everybody. And can I thank the federal government for the supply, they've made sure that there's enough doses for everybody and we're looking forward to be able to roll that out in New South Wales.
Obviously, the PM will say a few words and then we're happy to take a few questions. Thank you.
Prime Minister: Thank you, Premier, thank you, Gladys. And thank you, Brad. And particularly thank you to you for the work that I've seen here is as impressive as anywhere you will find it, I believe, around the world. You know, I've said on many occasions I've never felt more proud to be an Australian, but I'm very proud of my home state, too, I've got to say, Gladys, the leadership you've shown together with Brad and the whole team, but particularly the health professionals and workers here of New South Wales, have done I've got to say, I think the best job in the world. And, you know, you think about a city as sophisticated, as amazing as my home city of Sydney and what Sydney in particular has been able to achieve over the course of this pandemic when you compare it to places like New York and London and Paris and so many of the great cities of the world. And I tell you what, Sydney shines on a bright day, as we all know, but it certainly has shined here during the course of this pandemic under your leadership, Gladys and Brad and to all the amazing health workers that we have here in this state. So I thank you very much for that. And so we've seen that on display here again.
We're ready to go. That's the clear message when it comes to rolling out this vaccine. We have been preparing. We have been planning. We have been dotting the I's. We have been crossing the T's. The best medical experts and professionals in the world have both signed off on these vaccines. So you can be confident. But then the best medical experts and professionals in the world have been designing the process and have been preparing for this process. As you've seen that just upstairs, they are ready to go. What particularly impressed me today when I saw this process is how sympathetic it is. How human it is. Yes, it's a jab and yes, there's a lot of technology and yes, there's a lot of science, but what I'm particularly pleased about is the care, the concern that is being demonstrated to Australians as they'll come through this process. I know for many this may be a very anxious process. And I think the plans here have taken that into account to reassure, to calm, to encourage, to observe, to make sure everybody's okay. So it's just not about the health protection of the vaccine. It's the care that is being put into this and the care that is being provided to every Australian through the amazing processes and systems that have been built here, that are on display here.
Now, that'll be the case as we move from these initial phases with Pfizer. And we moved in the AstraZeneca phase and it will go out more into GP's and there’ll be pharmacists and it'll get into remote communities and all of this. And so the care that has been put into the planning and the preparation I'm seeing matched by the care that is being provided to each and every individual. So you can feel confident, you can feel safe and you can bring your family. And I'm looking forward to those vaccinations starting very soon as is I know the premier and the other premiers because as she rightly says, as this programme rollout, it does change how we can ultimately manage this virus in this country. This does change it. And that's why it is our government's biggest priority, particularly now as we prepare the country to engage in the vaccination process and to ensure that we can significantly reduce the risk of serious disease.
That's what this is about. When Gladys and I sat around a table almost a year ago now, our biggest concern was serious illness and fatalities. I mean transmissibility at that point was certainly an important topic of conversation. But what we were concerned about were those horrific scenes that we were seeing of people dying, some with ventilators, some without, in the most awful of conditions, this vaccination deals with that risk. And as a result, that changes how we can confidently go ahead managing the virus in Australia into the future.
Still a long road. But again, I want to just thank everyone who's been involved in the meticulous health planning here. But the thing I've really got to thank them for most is the care that they're putting into this, the care.
Now one last thing I want to ask everybody to do to support the vaccination process and the digital process that's associated with that. Go to my.gov.au today, particularly if you're in those early phases of the vaccination rollout, please go on there. Please update your details to ensure they're accurate because of that process, actually is supporting the certification process for the vaccination more broadly. So it's a simple thing. Those who know that they're in that first wave, that's important. Of course, those who are elderly, we've got 240 facilities that are in towns right across the country, 190 locations around the country, which will be in that first wave of vaccinations, we're protecting our most vulnerable, protecting those who are working on the front line, protecting our health workers who have been working with this not just today, but for the full last year. And their courage and bravery well we all know.
So happy to take questions, of course, of the clinicians who are with us as well.
Journalist: Are you confident that once everyone is vaccinated, the programme is completed, that we can open up our borders to the rest of the world?
Prime Minister: What I've always been confident about is taking one step at a time when it comes to managing the virus. I'm confident that as we move through the vaccination process, we can significantly change how things are done here in Australia. And I think the very suggestion you've made is very possible. But I've never got ahead of myself on this, on the science. We wait for the evidence. It's not just Australia that's getting vaccinated here. It's the rest of the world. And some countries like Israel, we've seen some fantastic results coming out of Israel. But when we're thinking about countries in our own region, in Indonesia, for example, in India, I was talking to Prime Minister Modi about these things yesterday. There are big jobs to be done there. But look, I think it is a reasonable expectation that as time goes on, as the vaccination rolls out across the world and here in Australia, you should rightly expect that things will change in how we manage the virus. Why? Because the risk of someone getting seriously ill is addressed. There are plenty of viruses that are dealt with here each and every day. And we don't have the sort of controls that we have in place to protect against those viruses in the community that we do for COVID. So I think you can expect to see that normalise as time goes one.
Journalist: PM on that issue, travel etc and the borders. Once we start having these vaccines and we take the details down and take all people’s information down in the system have we got any further yet on the vaccine passport to enable that travel to one day happen? Has that got any...
Prime Minister: You mean internationally?
Journalist: Yeah.
Prime Minister: Look, this is a process that we're still working with, with international partners, ICAO and others. And what we want is a proper accreditation process which can load up into that system. Now, we obviously have very good systems here and we've worked hard on them. We know what our systems can do and we can be confident about those. It's about getting to a level of confidence across many jurisdictions that would enable that outcome. So once I think we get a greater understanding of everybody's systems, that can give the airlines in particular because they are the gatekeepers here largely on this, they can have the confidence about what's being loaded up, who's had a vaccine, what vaccine have they had, who approved that, what's the role of the WHO. So there's a fair bit of work to still go there.
Journalist: Prime Minister, the premier has said earlier this week that people working in hotel quarantine will be chosen based on their willingness to get the vaccine, is that something you support?
Prime Minister: Of course, of course.
Journalist: Do you think everyone working in hotel quarantine system should have to get the vaccine?
Prime Minister: Well, we’re strongly- strongly encouraging it yeah.
Journalist: is there, you’re strongly encouraging it, is it going to be mandatory?
Prime Minister: Well, I'll let the premier speak to that. But when it comes to particular occupations, whether that's hotel quarantine workers, whether it's the ICU workers here at RPA or it's people working in aged care facilities. Our chief health officers and the chief medical officers have already had discussions about this. And their advice at this point is that there would be no requirement for that. But they are watching that very carefully. That can only be enforced through a public health order under state laws. But what I thank all the premiers for, and particularly Gladys, is that should that be necessary, we would seek to do that on a nationally consistent basis, exercised through consistent public health policy. Gladys?
Premier Berejiklian: Oh, yes, certainly I have overwhelming confidence that sufficient numbers of people who work in our quarantine system or have the potential to work in the quarantine system will be vaccinated. All the feedback I've received from the workers that I come into contact with is that the vast majority are enthusiastic and feel it will give them an extra protection, not just for themselves, but also potentially for their families and loved ones. We know the greatest risk to New South Wales is through the hotel quarantine system and people working in the system know that. And I want to express my deepest gratitude because these are our men and women who are on the frontline every day protecting the rest of us. And I think it's only fair that people who are in that situation are offered the vaccine first. But also I understand and appreciate that the vast majority will want to take it. And if they don't, my strong preference is that people who have the vaccine are the ones that work in the quarantine system. There's thousands of people from whom we can, we can make sure that's the case because that allows us to move forward and reduce the risk for everybody. And we don't like to make things mandatory in New South Wales. If you look at the way in which we've dealt with the pandemic, it's been a lot of trust between the public and our health experts and the government and the business community. We've all worked together on trust, and I have absolute confidence that sufficient numbers of people will come forward who are offered the vaccine and take the vaccine, because we know that it helps us reduce the incidence of serious illness. And there's also studies to suggest it reduces the rate of transmission potentially as well. And these are all pluses. It's an extra line of defence, a very important one, and especially for that for those people on the front line. The feedback I've had from those I've spoken to is overwhelming enthusiasm to take the vaccine.
Journalist: Do you have any plans to write that into the public health order?
Premier Berejiklian: Well, we you know, for us, it's early days. It's watch and see for us. But I have confidence that the vast majority of people who are offered the vaccine, especially the health workers, because they appreciate what the virus can do, some of them have witnessed the horrific consequences of severe illness. Some of them have been nursing our COVID patients. Some patients are in hospital for months and come back to hospital after they've had a mild case. And then return for months and months, so we know the severity of the disease. We don't want anyone having to go through that. And we also know that you can't predict how someone will react once they have the disease. But the vaccination will prevent serious illness. It will reduce, we know reduce the rates of serious illness and that’s what we need to get to, it will be in due course very similar to how we treat and react to the flu vaccine. I mean, the flu vaccine is there. It reduces the incidence of mortality, reduces the incidence of serious disease. And the success of us dealing with the pandemic is getting to a stage where we can live with COVID, where the vast majority of people who might get the disease don't end up in hospital. They don't get it severely. They don't die from it. And that's why the vaccine is so important. My strong message to everybody is, please, please take the vaccine.
Journalist: Would you consider offering incentives to make sure that people do take it and if so what incentives would you consider?
Premier Berejiklian: Yeah, I'm completely happy and comfortable for there to be incentives for people to take the vaccine. I think that's a positive way to do it rather than penalising people who haven't taken the vaccine. I would like to see incentives for people who do take the vaccine because it is a good thing for our community. I know there are some, a minority in the community that don't feel that, but the vast majority of our residents, I think, will welcome the vaccine's arrival. Appreciate what it can do in our fight against COVID. And also, this is what I've really been, really been buoyed by during this process, is that all of us aren't just thinking of ourselves, but we're thinking of our loved ones. We're thinking of people around us. And getting the vaccine not only helps us keep ourselves healthy, but also those around us. And that's really important as well.
Journalist: The Victorian Premier has added the families of quarantine staff to his list of priorities to receive the first jab, would you do the same?
Premier Berejiklian: Oh, we’re definitely looking at that. But please know that we are the state that is lifting the majority of the burden. And we've got 3,000 people coming in every week. I'm not sure where Victoria's up to, but we've got 3,000-
Prime Minister: Zero.
The Hon. Brad Hazzard, NSW Minister for Health and Medical Research: Zero.
Premier Berejiklian: Zero at the moment. We've got thousands and thousands of people working in our hotel quarantine system. And when it comes to organisations like the New South Wales Police Force, they have a roster. So potentially thousands and thousands of police officers can be rostered on. And of course, with our health workers, we have thousands and thousands of them involved in the process. So please know that, of course, we're going through the list of priorities, but our main priority is to protect those on the front line. But also to reduce the likelihood of community transmission and that’s what really matters for us and please know that the reason why I’ve been probably the loudest advocate for that amongst all the Premiers is, it's because New South Wales is doing the heavy lifting on that.
Journalist: The AstraZeneca vaccine, has got the TGA approval now we saw the pictures released earlier in the week. It’s rolling off the production lines, why are we waiting till March to get that one out, why aren’t we starting that straight away?
Prime Minister: Well, there are two AstraZeneca vaccines, as you know. There is the ones that are coming to Australia from, that are being imported and the ones that we're manufacturing. And so we are as you know, the AstraZeneca vaccine has been approved here in Australia. And so we are looking forward to the arrival of the AstraZeneca vaccines in Australia very, very soon. And then it'll follow the same process for preparing for its rollout as it has with the Pfizer vaccine. And so we're close.
Journalist: So no reason why we couldn’t roll it out tomorrow?
Prime Minister: Well it’s not here, the very good reason for it not to be rolled out tomorrow is the AstraZeneca vaccine has not yet arrived in Australia,
Journalist: But the one we are making has started the production, it’s there?
Prime Minister: But that goes through a further approval process by the TGA. What Professor Skerritt said earlier this week on Monday is he approved the AstraZeneca vaccine that is being imported from overseas. And there are two parts to an approval. There's one that basically deals with the vaccine science of the vaccine itself. And then there is an assurance around the manufacturing process to produce that vaccine. So the manufacturing process for the imported AstraZeneca vaccine has been concluded and it has been approved. They will now continue to go through the approval process for the Australian manufactured vaccine for AstraZeneca. So that's that's that process.
Journalist: On another topic if possible?
Prime Minister: Well I’m going to just stay on health for the moment. And then once we're finished with health, then I might excuse our clinicians.
Journalist: Premier just to Alice’s question, could you provide a specific example of what an incentive might be?
Premier Berejiklian: Oh, look that will be up to private organisations. We, you know, I presume that airlines might say that they would want people vaccinated when they go on international flights. There could be some hospitality venues that may be able to ease restrictions further if you know, patrons have- I mean, look, there's a whole range of options. And I don't want to speculate, but I am very much of the view that rather than penalise people who don't have the vaccine, we should be thinking about ways in which- sorry, there's another plane.
Prime Minister: Signs of life returning to normal.
Premier Berejiklian: Rather than penalising people who don't get the vaccine, I think we should be considering incentives and, but it may not be government led. There may be private organisations that choose to have those incentives. But as I said, if you look at our track record in New South Wales, we don't like forcing anybody to do anything. But what we can do is give the strongest advice, the strongest recommendation and our preferences. And we just ask the community to respect that. And I think the vast majority of our citizens will, because they'll appreciate that the sooner the vast critical mass of us get the vaccine, the sooner we can lead to a more normal life living with COVID. And we know COVID is going to be around, unfortunately for some time, for years. But just like the flu, the secret of success will be treating it as much like the flu. The flu can kill, obviously not at the same rate and not of the same severity. But we have to get to a stage where we can live with COVID without having people worried about getting to hospital or dying. And that's why the vaccine is very useful in that process. But until we get to that level of critical mass, we have to keep with all the restrictions. We need to get tested with the mildest of symptoms. We need to make sure we are keeping the hand sanitisation as well. And of course, our quarantine workers can't let down their guard more than anybody. We know that a second of distraction or a second of letting your guard down can have tragic consequences. And now we actually, during this transition phase, as I call the vaccine rollout, we need to be more vigilant than ever because the risk of the vaccine- or the risk of the disease seeping out into the community is great. And we need to be on our guard every single day until a critical mass of the population has access to the vaccine.
Journalist: What if people don’t sign up to mygov health, they haven’t opted in, is that going to create problems in keeping track of the vaccines and for future?
Premier Berejiklian: Well, clearly, we just ask everybody to follow the health advice in New South Wales, every state has their own booking system. So as we start with the early cohorts of health officials and police and cleaners and frontline workers that are getting the vaccine, we have a booking system which you go through. But obviously, it's really important for us to have national data on who's getting the vaccine, what the consequences are. And that is important research for us to be able to use in the fight against COVID. So I ask everybody to follow the instructions you are given to log on to the national website, but also to make sure you follow instructions in your state in terms of the rollout. And that's what people have been doing in the main already. There's nothing new there, but it's important for us to have national data as well as state based data, and that will help us not only fine tune the rollout, but also fine tune our response to the pandemic.
Journalist: Prime Minister, when are the doses at CSL in Victoria-
Prime Minister: When are the doses at CSL in Victoria expected to be approved?
Prime Minister: Well, Professor Skerritt outlined that on Monday, and that really is in his hands and we anticipate hopefully that will occur next month. But at this point, that is completely in their hands. And I can assure you I won't be doing anything that would seek to place any undue pressure on them going through the proper medical process that they should follow. That is so important. Now, our Therapeutic Goods Administration is the world standard and that is critical to Australians having confidence. And I just want to reinforce the points the Premier has just made. I think one of the reasons, if not the most important reason that Australia has done so well and indeed New South Wales has done so well under the most strain, I should add, is because Australians have responded so well, Australians have been sensible, they've been cautious, they've been sensitive, they've sought the information. They've made good judgements. They've supported each other. And, you know, we're backing that in. And that's why I can be confident about how I believe this process will roll out. It’s not just because Teresa and Paula, they're doing an amazing job. And our health workers are doing an amazing job. But, you know, Australians are doing an amazing job. The turnout I remember, Gladys, on the testing, when everything that has happened and whether it's here or whether it's the turnout on testing in Victoria or Queensland or anywhere else, Australians are going, yeah, we get it. We know what we have to do we get it. And that can be a bit inconvenient at times. But we get it. And we know if we keep following the advice and doing the things that are being asked of us, we're going to keep ourselves in the best possible position. And that's, I just continue to encourage Australians to go down that path and being themselves, because that's their natural, their natural inclination.
Journalist: Prime Minister once there is the initial phase after the three weeks, do you think the vaccination is enough to convince other Premiers, Ms Berejiklian hasn't done this, to enforce quick lockdowns when there's just a handful of cases?
Prime Minister: There is no doubt that the vaccination programme being rolled out, particularly once you're dealing with that sort of first line of defence of frontline workers, protections around in aged care facilities, which is part of the first week’s roll out, the quarantine workers. And so on, there's no doubt that that provides a big change to how we assess risk around COVID in this country and all the measures that we have put in place across the country, whether be it nationally or whether as independently determined in each of the states. Those decisions, as they have said themselves, are based on the assessment of the risk as advised by their health officers, but not just by the health officers, because premiers as the Premier knows, and leaders, we have to make decisions that take into account all of these factors, whether it's the health advice, the economic advice, the industry advice, critical supply chains, safety on roads, all of these sorts of things, we're charged with the responsibility of taking that broader view. And the work that I commenced with the Premier’s very strong support at the last meeting for the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet to go away and work with the Directors General of all the states and territories to answer this question for us. Okay, the risk is going to change, i.e. it's going to go down with the vaccination. It's going to go down because of the improvement in practises. So when the risk goes down, what does that mean for the other responses that states have been using up until this time? I mean, you only use a tool for as long as you need that tool. And if you don't need that tool anymore, well, you can put it back in the box. And I think we're getting to that point on this and I'm looking forward to it. And I know the Premier is very supportive of that as well.
Journalist: But does that happen after the next, after the initial three week rollout or are we talking, vaccination?
Prime Minister: Well, I'm going to let, I'm going to let those officials do their job and to calibrate that and to understand it and advise us on that. Because, you know, every step of the way, we have been careful about how we've done this. We've just taken, you know, cautious steps, informed steps. We've sought the information. We've listened to the experts. We've talked it around. We've discussed it, we’ve sat as cabinets, state cabinets, federal cabinet, National Cabinet, and made decisions. And we'll continue to do that.
Journalist: Will you be getting vaccinated on Monday?
Prime Minister: I'll be getting vaccinated very, very soon.
Journalist: PM I’ve got to ask too, we've got the state rollout on Monday obviously and the federal roll out on Monday with the aged care versus quarantine etc etc, who’s going to go first?
Prime Minister: Well, what is important who goes first, are those who need to be in the front line of dealing with this. And we've already said who should go first in the national vaccine strategy. That's who should go first. I think it's very important, and the Premier and I were discussing this earlier today in the first round, I'll be taking the Pfizer vaccine and so will my Chief Medical Officer. The Premier will be taking the AstraZeneca vaccine because I think it's important, as will my Health Minister, be taking the AstraZeneca vaccine. I think it's important. These are all great vaccines, they're not better than each other. And it's important for us as leaders and this is my health advice, that I demonstrate I'm happy to get it. Very happy to get it. I think it's important people understand it's safe. And there's no way I can say that more than rolling up my sleeve and getting the vaccination.
Journalist: Prime Minister, there’s quite the pressure you’re facing, the world is watching and waiting to see what you’ll do if Facebook don’t back down and return the news pages?
Prime Minister: Well, I might thank them for this. Thank you so much. Good luck, you're doing a great job.
I've been in this space before. You know, Amazon told me when I was Treasurer, you know, we don't - we’re not paying tax. You know, we're not going to be subject to paying tax on, on products of less than a thousand bucks. We're not doing it. We’re going to pull out of the country. I said, you go right ahead. You go right ahead. But the law of our country and who pays tax is made by Australians. They came back within three months. And when we dealt with those horrific, those horrific scenes in Christchurch of the, of that terrorist attack there on that mosque. The first thing we did, apart from consoling our Kiwi brothers and sisters was to say that can't happen. And we called them out and I said to them, you know, you can get an ad to me on your platforms in about two seconds, but you're telling me you can't identify violent and extremist material and you can't get rid of it. I'm calling you on that. I took it to the G20, got all the leaders of the world to agree with that position. There was also the Christchurch process, which Prime Minister Ardern led with President Macron. And the world came together on that and we called them out. This is the same process. Look, I applaud Google for the way they have engaged. They have respected this process, yeah they had some concerns about it. They said a few things early, negotiations work like that. But I would just say to Facebook, this is Australia you want to do business here you work according to our rules, and that's a reasonable proposition. We're happy to listen to them on on the technical issues of this, just like we listened to Google and came to a sensible arrangement. But the idea of shutting down the sort of sites they did yesterday as some sort of threat. Well, I know how Australians react to that. And I thought that was not a good move on their part. And they should move quickly past that, come back to the table and we'll sort it out. But our record as a Government is on, is resolve. We've demonstrated that before. I've worked with these other organisations before. Threats are made. And that's not a good way to deal with this Government.
Journalist: You had international support on the Christchurch agreement, will you get more support on this one as well Prime Minister, you’re ringing India’s Prime Minister for instance.
Prime Minister: Well, let me just be clear about that. I mean, well, I was speaking to Narendra Modi yesterday. We were talking about a whole range of other issues, as you'd expect us to. But this is one issue we discussed because there's a lot of interest in it. People are looking at what Australia is doing. I've had these exchanges also with Prime Minister Trudeau, and I know Prime Minister Johnson is very interested. I've spoken to President Macron about these things, in the same way we talk about that they should pay tax too. And we discuss that a lot. And so there is a lot of world interest in what Australia is doing. And so that's why I, I invite, as we did with Google, Facebook, to constructively engage because, you know, they know that what Australia will do here is likely to be followed by many other Western jurisdictions. And Prime Minister Trudeau has made that exact point. They're already going down this path and they're looking precisely at it now, you know, I suspect by the time the G7 and the G20 comes around, I suspect this issue will be long addressed. So I don't think, I haven't made any suggestion that I'd be taking it up in those forums. I would hope that we would have resolved it long before then. Long before then. But it's not okay to unfriend Australia because Australia is very friendly. We'd like to remain very friendly and it's time for them to friend us again.
Journalist: Prime Minister, you've previously said that you were unaware of the Brittany Higgins incident, but a text message revealed today that one of your staffers knew about it and he said that he told you about it back in 2019?
Prime Minister: No, that's not what the report says at all. It says nothing about him telling me anything. That's not what the report says at all. It refers to-
Journalist: So did your office know about it earlier than this week?
Prime Minister: Well, the matters that, I'm aware of those reports and those matters are in the scope of what I've asked the Secretary of the Prime Minister and Cabinet department to actually look into within that scope. And we've had that conversation this morning. And I would expect that to be considered in the scope of what he is already doing. But I set out in the Parliament this week the timetable of when I'm advised my office knew about it. And I can tell you I knew about it on Monday and frankly, it shattered me. It absolutely shattered me. I mean, of course, the many ramifications of this, but frankly, the one that shattered me the most, it was just the sheer humanity of what has occurred here. And that was deeply distressing, as I'm sure it was for everybody when they were first confronted with this news.
Journalist: The messages aren’t [inaudible] though, [inaudible] The messages aren’t a good look though, have you misled the Australian Parliament or has your office misled you about it?
Prime Minister: I certainly have not. I've sought to be as open and honest as I can be about this matter, I've told you everything I know about this matter and I will continue to. This is devastating. This is awful. And there are many who I know, anyone who has been confronted with this information, I'm sure would agree. But, you know, the thing that's most important is, are the issues that Brittany has raised. And I've been listening to those carefully and seeking to address them in the best possible way I can. So and I'm just going to continue doing that. We have to deal with issues of culture, which I'm sure you would agree are not confined to the, you know, the offices of Parliamentarians. I mean, this is an issue that every workplace deals with, and we have to make workplaces safe. I have no doubt it occurs in the media, in the media workplaces and media workplaces, offices in law professions or whatever it might be. This is a big problem. And we've all got to do what we can to change the culture of all of our workplaces. And that is what I'm committed to do. I'm horrified by this. It has been deeply distressing, but it's, whether I'm distressed is not the issue. It's about Brittany at the end of the day and anyone else in that situation. And that's what I have to maintain my focus on. And that's what I am focussed on.
Journalist: Are you disappointed though that your office didn’t tell you in April of 2019 when they found out, apparently found out?
Prime Minister: Well, that is not a matter that's been established. And my advice is, is exactly as I set it out in the Parliament. And that's why I've asked the department to within the scope of what I've asked them to do to look at these matters in terms of the advice I've received, which I think is the appropriate thing to do.
Journalist: Why do these messages suggest otherwise then?
Prime Minister: Well only you can- that is for you to interpret, what I'm telling you.
Journalist: Isn’t it for your office to interpret?
Prime Minister: Well, I've received the advice from my office and I've asked my department to actually look into that advice so I can be assured. I would like to know if there was anything different here, I would like to know. I want to know. And that's why I've asked the Secretary of my department to actually test that advice that I've received. That's how I go about understanding these matters fully. And I will continue to be open and honest. But the most important thing is to focus on what we have to fix, because that is an ongoing task. It has been an issue for a very long time now I hope, and I would hope that is improving. But, gosh, we've got a lot more to do as a community.
Journalist: Premier one issue in regards to a state issue, there’s been criticism from Jodi McKay about the appointment, the potential appointment of Mick Fuller the Police Commissioner to the NRL Commission, apparently you have given your approval? What’s the situation?
Premier Berejiklian: Oh, look, there's nothing come across my desk and if anything of that nature came across my desk I would make sure that there was no conflict and everything was okay before anything like that preceded.
Journalist: Do you think it would be a good appointment to the NRL Commission?
Premier Berejiklian: I don't want to answer hypotheticals. That's a matter if and when it materialises. Thank you.
Press Conference - Canberra, ACT
16 February 2021
PRIME MINISTER: Thank you, everyone. I am joined by the Minister for Health and Aged Care Greg Hunt and Professor Skerritt, who heads up the Therapeutic Goods Administration. I said several weeks ago at the Press Club that our top priority this year was to roll out the vaccination programme here in Australia. This is an enormous exercise. There has been meticulous planning undertaken for an extensive period of time to make sure we get this right, so Australians can have absolute confidence in the programme that's being rolled out here in Australia. The vaccination programme is critical to our ongoing management of the COVID-19 pandemic. And the vaccines that we have, they address the critical issue of serious disease and indeed, the risk of fatality that can arise from COVID-19 and increasingly we're seeing positive signs about its impact on transmissibility as well. This is an enormous exercise that requires many steps. The planning of the strategy, the securing of the vaccines, going through the important approvals process which can give Australians confidence. I said this morning when we take our children to be vaccinated, it's Professor Skerritt who says that vaccine is safe for your children to take. This is the same Professor Skerritt who is telling you when it comes to these vaccines that they’re safe to take and it's in your interests and in the public health interest of the nation.
That's why I'm pleased to say today that the Therapeutic Goods Administration has today approved the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine for use in Australia following a full and thorough assessment process. The vaccine has met requirements for standards, for safety, quality, and efficacy, and will be provided free to Australians and it means that Australia now has two safe and effective COVID-19 vaccines available. Initial supply into Australia will be imported from overseas. In the coming months, the AstraZeneca vaccine will be manufactured here in Australia, as the Minister for Health and Aged Care and I visited the facility in Melbourne just last Friday. And that will mean Australia is one of the few countries in the world that can manufacture its own COVID-19 vaccine here by CSL.
Our vaccination programme is on track. Our vaccination programme has the backing of Australia's best medical experts and that means that we can proceed along the path that we have set out and I look forward to working with all the states and territories and medical health professionals across the country, those involved in the logistics supply chain, to ensure we can get this out right across the country and it's going to make a huge difference to how we live here in Australia this year, and in the years ahead.
I will pass you to the Minister for Health.
THE HON. GREG HUNT, MINISTER FOR HEALTH AND AGED CARE: Thank you very much, Prime Minister and Professor Skerritt. AstraZeneca is cleared for lift-off. What I can say is that the TGA has approved the AstraZeneca vaccine for use in Australia on the basis of all ages and a second dose at 12 weeks. They have taken the best advice from around the world. They have also had the opportunity to examine the advice and real world evidence gathered from the emergency use provisions in other countries. In particular, the Lancet Journal said very recently in an article published on 3 February 2021, ‘COVID-19 vaccine AstraZeneca confirms 100 percent protection against severe disease, hospitalisation, and death in the primary analysis of phase three trials.’ That's the Lancet. And then overnight, the World Health Organisation in its statement for authorisation of use noted that the AstraZeneca vaccine was shown in clinical trials to be safe and effective in preventing symptomatic COVID-19 with no severe cases and no hospitalisations, more than 14 days after the second dose. Now, the world will obviously continue to gather evidence on safety and efficacy, but from the Lancet journal, from the clinical trials, from the World Health Organisation, the strongest possible advice. Our Australian officials have taken advice from the United Kingdom.
What that means is that the vaccine rollout is on track. Yesterday we mentioned the Pfizer vaccine, I can confirm today we're expecting at least 240 aged care facilities to be included in the vaccine programme next week. That's a very important step forward in protecting our older Australians. The AstraZeneca vaccine, on current advice, we hope and expect that it should be able to commence subject to shipping confirmation, which we can now proceed to, in early March, if not earlier. In early March if not earlier. And then, of course, we move to an increase in total numbers with the CSL Australian-made AstraZeneca vaccine due subject to TGA approval to commence in late March at one million doses per week to be made available. So that programme will help keep Australians safe.
Then finally I would note that around Australia, we have seen two new cases of community transmission, both within Victoria, both already on the advice I have, within isolation. Seven states and territories with zero cases and a total of 55,000 tests around the country at a time when we know that there were 374,000 cases and 8,200 lives lost around the world. So our containment is strong. But we always have to remain vigilant. The vaccine rollout is on track and today's another important milestone. I particularly, thank John, before asking you to speak, want to thank you and all of the team at the TGA that have worked extraordinary hours to tick every box, to assess everything, to make sure that safety, safety, safety, is the number one priority. They and our medical professionals and all the companies involved have worked literally around the clock for a long, long period. Thank you.
PROFESSOR JOHN SKERRITT, HEAD OF THE THERAPEUTIC GOODS ADMINISTRATION: Thank you, Prime Minister, and Minister for supporting the work and the announcement. So this is the second vaccine that we have approved for COVID-19. We are also the second, only the second regulator in the world after the European Medicines Agency, with whom we work very closely. We have a preferential, long-standing collaboration and relationship, and it's been strengthened under COVID times. But we're the second medical regulator to have actually done a full conditional approval of the vaccine. There's a number of other countries such as the UK, you're familiar with, Brazil, and so forth, who have authorised this vaccine in emergency authorisation.
As the Minister said, just overnight, the World Health Organisation confirmed its support for an emergency use listing for this vaccine. They also confirmed a couple of things I want to tackle head on, because I know they've been the subject of some discussion, both in the medical fraternity and the media. The first relates to age. And our approval of this vaccine does not have an upper age limit. While the data for this vaccine in older groups is limited, and that goes back to the original design of the trials, where AstraZeneca targeted their initial trials towards health care workers, who obviously are of working age and usually under 65, and only included older people later on. But our analysis of the data gives us no reason to suspect that the vaccine would not be fully efficacious in older groups. Secondly, the experience in the UK, in the rollout, and we've got to remember they have been vaccinating with the AstraZeneca vaccine now for more than a month, and their experience is also of very good results obtained with both of the major vaccines in older groups. And of course, their rollout has been targeted, not only towards front-line health workers, but towards those in what the British call care homes. So there is real world evidence of the vaccine going well in older groups, and also there's evidence from blood tests looking at the response of the immune system to these vaccines, which again shows a strong immune response in people over 60, people over 65, and so forth. Yes, more data on a lot of things will emerge as months and weeks and years go by, including the duration, how long these vaccines actually provide protection for. But on the balance of the evidence, we have no reason and we felt there was no reason to limit its use to particular age groups.
The second thing I want to tackle head on is efficacy, because a lot has been said about this vaccine. As the Minister said, a recent study just published a couple of weeks ago in Lancet, one of the world's top medical journals, showed from a more detailed analysis of trials, because as time goes on, you have more people who may or may not get COVID from these trials, more people whose data can be assessed for safety and performance of these vaccines. And it showed 100 percent efficacy against severe disease, illness and death. More importantly, it showed that when there was a 12-week interval between doses, and this is what ATAGI, the advisory group has recommended, there's 82 percent at least protection from those groups. And what is important with that 12-week interval is it seems if you leave it more and more weeks, that you do get greater protection. And frankly, there's not a difference when you go into the real world whether something is 82 percent or 90 percent. So I would emphasise that a lot of the discussion on numbers is not particularly relevant. What is important is to get vaccines into people's arms. AstraZeneca gives us a vaccine that can be used not only in major facilities, but also in primary care through GPs and potentially through pharmacy practices. And having a vaccine accessible in a country as wide and brown as ours is absolutely important. All this information has now been published. If you go to the TGA website as well as the main Health Department website you will see that information.
Finally, I will mention a little bit about pregnancy and vaccines. As a group of international regulators, this is something that's obviously keeping a lot of us thinking. Now, like many clinical trials, vaccines are not tested in pregnant individuals, whether it's a new medicine or a new vaccine. Generally, if you're known to be pregnant, you can't volunteer for a clinical trial. It's just a safety measure, a precautionary measure. However, there were a number of people who didn't know they were pregnant or became pregnant during the trials, and there haven't been reports of adverse outcomes. The other thing that regulators worldwide are doing is recognising, especially in countries like the UK, US and Europe, some of the hospitals cannot afford to take their pregnant nurses and doctors off the front-line, when we're in a crisis situation with a sheer number of cases. So many of those people have exercised personal choice by being vaccinated. They're being closely followed on a register. Obviously, those babies are yet to be born and so forth, again, there's no evidence of anything untoward such as miscarriage or illness during pregnancy. But as the weeks and months go on, we'll know a lot more about pregnancy with these vaccines. The aim, of course, is as time goes on we'll know more about the vaccines in all the groups in the community, including children.
I’d also just like to close by saying that each of the major vaccine companies has now commenced studies in adolescents or in some cases in children as young as six. Thanks very much.
PRIME MINISTER: Thank you, Professor Skerritt, and thank you again to you and everyone at the TGA for the extraordinary job they have done for their country over these many, many months. I seek your co-operation as usual, because we have Professor Skerrit with us, why don't we focus on the vaccine and the announcement first? I'm sure there's other issues you want to raise and we can address those then. So on the vaccine. David?
JOURNALIST: On the science, and possibly Professor Skerritt could answer this one too, but you mentioned that there was a stronger efficacy with the 12-week delay between the first and second jabs. I thought we were heading towards a rollout that was a 3-week gap. Is that changing, what is going to be the approach on the gap?
PROFESSOR SKERRITT: So the 3-week gap relates to the Pfizer vaccine. The recommendation on the gap for the AstraZeneca vaccine is 12 weeks. That will add complication to the logistics. This is something that the rollout team, part of our same Department of Health, we’ve been meeting just today, Brendan Murphy and I and the others met to discuss that today. Now what we said at TGA, is you could give the second AstraZeneca jab anywhere between 4 and 12 weeks. Because let’s say sadly if you had to start chemotherapy in a few weeks' time, you might want to bring that jab forward. So it’s efficacious as soon as 4 weeks after, the AstraZeneca, but the recommendation, routinely, is to leave it 12 weeks.
JOURNALIST: Professor Skerritt, the TGA information on the jab says it should be a case-by-case basis for older people you’ve just said that there's no upper age limit. Can you explain what that means? And should older people get the AstraZeneca vaccine?
PROFESSOR SKERRIT: So we recommend that older people should get the AstraZeneca vaccine. The wording "case-by-case" I guess relates to a discussion of really, it comes down to what old means. I'm 61, when I was 40, I thought that 60 was old. Now I've decided that 61 is very young. So old is always in your mind. To be fair, what, I'm going to get into trouble now. To be fair, we were aware and there were reports globally of deaths in Norwegian aged care facilities. Now it turned out that sadly, hundreds of people in any state or territory die per month in aged care facilities of what we used to call old age. So the issue about old people for any medicine or any vaccine or indeed any surgical procedure is look at what doctors call futility. If someone only has a few weeks to live, you don't give them a hip replacement and you may not give them a vaccine or medicine. So that's where we’re hinting at, but the vaccine is recommended for use in all ages.
JOURNALIST: Given the 12-week gap here, does that mean reaching your goal of having everyone vaccinated by October, you would expect every Australian to have had at least their first jab by the end of July, and if I may Professor Skerritt, how does that gap interact with people getting the flu vaccine? Do they have to wait until they've had both doses or could they get it in the middle?
PRIME MINISTER: I'll let Professor Skeritt deal with the second question and then Greg can deal with the other one.
PROFESSOR SKERRITT: I'll talk with respect to the flu vaccine and again, this is an issue which has occupied the minds of regulators worldwide. Because we're wanting to identify whether there are particular adverse events related to the COVID vaccines, or the flu vaccines for that matter - if you give both of them together, you don't know which one may have caused the problem. Not that we're seeing significant problems. There's well known issues such as headache, temperature and sore arm and so forth, but nothing that seems to be really very serious. So at the moment, it's recommended that you have your shots 14 days or so apart. So if, for example, you're in a phase 1A group, if you're say a front-line quarantine worker or whatever and you have your shot in the next couple of weeks, we'd recommend them to wait a couple of weeks until they have their flu shot. But they don't have to wait until the end of 12 week or the end of both shots to have their flu shot.
THE HON. GREG HUNT MP, MINISTER FOR HEALTH AND AGED CARE: Just in terms of the timing, what it means is that more Australians will have more vaccines earlier. That's a happy by-product of the decision. It also means that we are absolutely on track, so every Australian who seeks to have the vaccine will be in a position to have had at least the first dose. We'll look at what it means in regards to the second dose. But frankly, it's very, very good news. It means higher efficacy. It means more Australians earlier and it means a position where every Australian who seeks to have it will undoubtedly have had their first dose. We will now remodel what it means in terms of the tail But I would say - it doesn't mean we're on track. It means that we're ahead of schedule for where we intended to be.
PRIME MINISTER: One here, and then we’ll come over the other side.
THE HON. GREG HUNT MP, MINISTER FOR HEALTH AND AGED CARE: Can only deal with 12 weeks.
JOURNALIST: Sorry just on the AstraZeneca vaccine for over 65s. Are you breaking away from precedent in terms of lack of data? Would this have been approved if we weren't in a pandemic?
PROFESSOR SKERRITT: No we're not really breaking away from precedent. It's perhaps not very well known, but many vaccines are actually approved on what are known as immunological correlates. In other words analyses of blood samples, so let’s use the seasonal flu vaccine. As many of you will know, every year, because the flu vaccine mutates or drifts - the flu virus mutates or drifts so much, we need to bring in a new flu vaccine. Sometimes it has four components. Sometimes one changes, in a bad year 2 or 3 or, we’ve never had all 4 change thank god, but 2 or 3 can change. So it changes every year. Now, we simply can’t, don't have the time to wait to a flu season happens to see people get the flu and whether the vaccine works. And so, we use a lot of tests with blood and cell samples. And so, it's quite well established in vaccines to look at that evidence from blood and cell samples, and it showed quite a strong immune response in the over 65s. And so, it's very similar to what we've been doing with other viruses such as the flu virus for a long time.
JOURNALIST: If we had either one or both of these vaccines last month or the month before like we have seen in other nations, Melbourne would still be in lockdown, other state capitals would have gone into lockdown, and with that in mind, was it worth it to go through the slower approval process rather than going through the emergency approval process?
PRIME MINISTER: Look I appreciate the question. Firstly, there has been no slow approval process. This has been, I think, the most efficient and timely process that the TGA I think has ever undertaken for any vaccine. And they've done it in a way which has cut no corners, ensured every inquiry that they would have undertaken in relation to a vaccine would have been undertaken. And that was the safest way to conduct that process and to arrive where we're at today. So the option of doing something different was not present without putting at risk the safety of the process. That is sacrosanct I think to the effectiveness of the vaccine. And let's not forget that the significant success that Australia had over the course of last year in comparison to other countries created the space, Australians created the space for Professor Skeritt to be able to do the best job that they are capable of doing. And I've got to tell you - Australia's TGA’s best is the best in the world. And so that enabled them to do that. So that was the right decision. That was the right decision to do that and that's why we proceeded on that basis.
Phil?
JOURNALIST: I’ve just got one on IR, can I just ask about IR, that...
PRIME MINISTER: Unless there’s vaccine questions? Because I’m going to excuse Professor Skerritt.
JOURNALIST: Professor, obviously dealing with something new in terms of a multi-dose vial. What wastage are you building into the supplies, obviously we are over supplied by raw number? And are there any circumstances in which you can envisage a particular person getting both vaccines?
PROFESSOR SKERRITT: As you’ve mentioned, the Government has procured many more vaccines than the whole population of Australia requires. And it may well be that we're in a position to share them with our Pacific neighbours in the coming months once we get to a situation of vaccine rollout in full swing. In terms of wastage - this is something that the group working on the rollout is very focused on. And I won't steal their thunder by going into detailed strategies, but they have detailed strategies to make sure that there's going to be enough people present and available, for example to use up the entire Pfizer vial. One of the advantages of the AstraZeneca vial, and that's why I said earlier - it's important to remember that approval of the AstraZeneca vaccine will really help with people getting vaccinated. Because this is a vial that can go- if you use half a AstraZeneca vial in a GP's practice, it can go back in the fridge overnight and then it can be used again the next day. You don't have to throw it out. So there's a lot of advantages to this product - including less wastage.
JOURNALIST: Are there any circumstances in which someone could get both?
PROFESSOR SKERRITT: We're encouraging people and this is a consistent message globally, we're encouraging people with your two shots to have two of the same thing. We don't have a crystal ball and what we don't know, especially with the emergence of variants or maybe these vaccines provide two years of protection but not life. Whether in 2022-2023 people will have to have a booster. No-one knows that, again it’s something that we are looking at fairly closely. The immune response seems to be pretty durable but there's only one way that we will know next year whether people have to have a booster and that is wait until next year. It may be then that a different vaccine is ideal to use as a booster. There actually are some trials starting in the UK and one or two other countries where they're deliberately using two different vaccines to see how well that combination works.
JOURNALIST: Professor Skerritt, people who've already had coronavirus, will they be receiving either of these vaccines? And Prime Minister, today, Victoria's announced it's going to be building its own quarantine facility, which could spell the end of hotel quarantine. Given that we've just approved two vaccines, and we're starting the rollout, is something like that necessary? And will you be providing any federal assistance?
PRIME MINISTER: I’ll let Professor Skerritt do the first one.
PROFESSOR SKERRITT: I'll do the first one short. Again, the advice, there is no advice saying don't have it. And of course, in Australia, we're fortunate that the numbers are fairly small. But a number of other countries are vaccinating people who have had coronavirus, there is no adverse event. In fact, what we're suggesting is that some people may only get off with one shot because in a way, what the vaccination does is give a further boost to the natural immunity you may have had from catching the disease. But time will tell with Australians. That's one area that our hospitals and doctors will carefully monitor. They'll take particular interest in people who have had coronavirus and then they give a vaccination to.
PRIME MINISTER: Thank you, Professor Skerritt. The other issue, of course, we will work with the Victorian government, the New South Wales government, the Queensland government on all these issues, as we always have. I mean, we've provided significant support to all the states, particularly through the Australian Defence Force. And when it comes to supporting those quarantine arrangements in New South Wales, they've operated hotel quarantine at triple the capacity of when Victoria was actually open and they've been able to do that quite successfully through hotel quarantine. I note also that the New Zealand government, which doesn't operate as a federation, have also consistently used hotel quarantine as the most effective way to enable people to come back and for those facilities to also provide an appropriate quarantine period. But we'll continue to work with states on these issues as they wish to pursue them. Also seeking to get as many Australians home, I should stress international travellers are not allowed to come to Australia. Australians, residents and citizens are allowed to return home. And that's what we're seeking to do, in many of these cases we look at these as supplementary capacity to hotel quarantine. It is true, even though on an international scale, the number of incidents in the Victorian situation are few. They've, of course, had a pretty significant impact, particularly last year. But it is also true that in seven other states and territories they've had, they've had great success in managing that inflow and also preventing both breaches. But where breaches occur, their systems have been very strong, whether that's in Queensland or Western Australia, of course, New South Wales or other places. But we'll work with them as we always have. And I know the Victorian government has always appreciated that support. Yep? Greg?
JOURNALIST: These facilities- are you saying they should not be used to replace hotel quarantine but complement it,
PRIME MINISTER: We’ll work with the Victorian government That's all I said, Greg.
JOURNALIST: Are you concerned that Victoria, through this announcement today and through the language of Dan Andrews over the past week, that he is shifting away from the hotel, preference for hotel quarantine?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, that's just not clear yet based on the information that's in front of us. But, you know, the objective, the task doesn't change. Our focus as a government is, of course, on delivering the $6 and a half billion dollar vaccine programme, and that's where the Commonwealth has been putting in our effort around these issues and we've worked with the states on the many other issues, so 2021 can prove to be a far more open year than 2020 was.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister you said this morning that I'm not happy about this being brought to my attention about the Britney Higgins,
PRIME MINISTER: Sounds like we’re moving onto other issues which I'm happy to do but I don't think we need to detain Professor Skerritt for that. But Chris, did you have one more for Professor Skerritt?
JOURNALIST: On travel, as you roll out this vaccine and people are vaccinated, are you going to change your disposition towards Australians travelling overseas and returning who have been vaccinated?
PRIME MINISTER: Not clear yet, and we have to wait on the evidence for that and the success of the vaccine and what that means in terms of transmissibility and other issues, that obviously we don't rule that out. But those decisions will be guided by the medical advice when they're ultimately taken. But I look forward to that day.
So we're going to move away from those issues. Professor Skerritt, thank you to you and all your team. Doing a great job, thank you very much.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister you said, I'm not happy about the fact that this, the Brittany Higgins matter was not brought to my attention. And I can assure you, people know that, amongst those people, I assume, is Defence Minister Linda Reynolds. Are people from your office also, have they also been spoken to, with your disquiet about this?
PRIME MINISTER: People, people know, people know and they should know. And these are issues that I would hope would come to my attention. And that is one of the many things that that I've asked the deputy secretary of PM&C to look at is as we work through the issues that have to be worked through and we want to make sure that those systems are up to the standard that I would expect.
JOURNALIST: Will heads roll over this?
PRIME MINISTER: I’ve answered the question Andrew thanks.
JOURNALIST: The question though, Prime Minister, Brittany Higgins says there were three very senior people in your office who knew about this alleged rape within days of it occurring? And you found out almost two years later, these are people you talk to on a daily basis. Why did they not tell you? Were they protecting you? What was the reason for you not being informed?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, in terms of three people, well, I should stress that the chief of staff of the minister's office at the time was not in the Prime Minister's office. They came and worked in the Prime Minister's office at a later time. So they were not there working directly to me or to Dr Kunkel in my office.
JOURNALIST: [Inaudible]
PRIME MINISTER: Well, there is I should stress that in relation to my principal private secretary, there is nothing that has been put in front of me, nothing, including phone records or anything else that suggests that that indeed was the case. So there was an issue of a security breach which was dealt with at the time. And the alleged perpetrator was sacked, removed, quite swiftly over the security breach, in terms of the allegation of a sexual assault that was not in front, I'm advised, of my office at that time. And so that that matter came later and was being dealt with within the Minister's office and on an anonymous basis ultimately. And so that matter was not at that point brought to our attention because the matter then didn't proceed to a police investigation. And that's why today I've expressed my concern about how these matters didn't progress to a police investigation, because that is always that would always be my wish that that- should that be what Brittany wanted.
JOURNALIST: [inaudible] didn’t express that? They didn’t tell you, were they protecting you?
PRIME MINISTER: Well I know that Minister Reynolds expressed that wish directly and that it was her wish that this matter be taken forward for investigation. But ultimately, ultimately, that was a choice made at the time.
JOURNALIST: Why didn’t the Minister tell you Prime Minister, why do you think the Minister didn’t tell you?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, I understand Minister Reynolds will say something further about this, but I understand there was a judgement made about the balance of protecting Brittany's privacy at the time and a judgement was made on that basis. Now, that judgement can certainly be commentated upon. It can certainly be judged. But that was my understanding of what occurred at that time. I want to stress again that this awful incident, this terrible incident, those who were around Brittany at the time were endeavouring to support and to help her. Now, as I said this morning, over the passage of time, clearly that was not effective. And I accept that. I accept that absolutely.
JOURNALIST: Picking up what you said about phone records then, do you not believe Brittany, that she was contacted by a senior person in your office to be checked in on in the wake of similar reporting? But why would someone from your office check in with her following the reporting on Four Corners around that issue if it wasn't because they were aware of it being beyond a security issue?
PRIME MINISTER: The point I'm making to you is that is not the recollection or the records of my staff on that matter. It's just not, so I can't really speak more to it than that. I understand that over time, particularly in situations like this, that information can become confused over time about who makes contact and things like that. I accept that. So I make no judgements about that. In fact, one of the things that has concerned me most about this issue is that clearly the trauma that built up over a period of time well after the incident itself as well. And I think that's one of the key things I want to hear from the Deputy Secretary about how we can ensure that support is immediate, effective and ongoing. Because on those three tests, particularly the latter one, clearly that support wasn't provided in a way that supported Brittany. As I said, that's something I would expect for my daughter and I should have no lesser expectations for Brittany and that's why I've taken the actions that I have today.
JOURNALIST: Was she mistaken in her recount that she is making?
PRIME MINISTER: I can’t comment on it because I wasn’t a party to either of the conversations.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, God forbid something like this was to happen again, how quickly would you expect to be told if one of your ministers was aware? And who would you expect to be told by?
PRIME MINISTER: There are two points there. The first one is and this is what I've referred to the Deputy Secretary and I flagged this, that in cases like this, there is an argument for a mandatory advice to the relevant department, which in this case would be the Department of Finance. But I just add a note of caution on this, that I would not want to have anything done in this process that in any way might create a triggered action that might lead to someone like Brittany in this circumstance not wanting to proceed. So I want to be very confident that any of these things that we might do around this event would in no way impede the agency of the victim in these cases and someone like Brittany in these cases. So I'm not going to rush to or any knee jerk reaction here. There is best practise in a lot of other jurisdictions, in a lot of other workplaces. And I would like them to look at that and carefully advise us about what the automatic response should be. Now, it is also possible that in circumstances like this, a terrible incident like this, can be advised to me, both by the Minister and through my office in an anonymous way. And I think it is very important to protect the privacy of individuals in these situations. And it is my absolute understanding that that was the intent of Minister Reynolds.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, what is your advice on the exact time your office knew about this alleged rape? What is your advice on that? You've obviously been speaking to people in your office about it.
PRIME MINISTER: Well, my understanding is that that precise matter was within the last couple of weeks.
JOURNALIST: Can I ask on IR, PM. Minister Porter has announced you have dumped that provision pertaining to the better off overall test in order to secure the rest of the Bill. Labor is unmoved by this, saying if you get re-elected, you're going to try and bring it back anyway. Can I get your response to that?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, the reason that we've decided not to proceed with that element of the package is because we've been engaged in good faith discussions with parties in the Senate and that those good faith discussions have arrived at the point where if we want to go further, then it's important that that provision no longer be pursued. So we think in good faith that that is a good one. Now, that shouldn't come as a surprise. We were very clear that in trying to get things through the Parliament, we would work with good faith partners. Now, the Labor Party hasn't sought to engage with us at all. We've got more engagement out of the union movement than we've got out of the Labor Party. And so the question now is, given that seemed to be the issue they had, well, why are they now going to vote against a Bill that actually ensures people get paid and that there's a pathway from casuals to permanent? I mean, is Labor going to drop the politics now and get on with it so we can get people back into jobs? Or are they going to cling onto this as a way of continuing to engage in a political debate here in Canberra? It's really a matter for them. But now, once we go through this package, then that's the package that we'll put and that's the package that we will legislate. I've always been very clear that we're seeking to get things done here. Where things can't get done and the Parliament doesn't support things, then why would we put people through that process?
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, on the review you've announced this morning, the one by the Deputy Secretary and one from Celia Hammond. What's your timeframe for those reviews and will you commit to making the finding of them public?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, I'm going to wait for further advice from both Celia and Stephanie about both of those issues on the timing. I mean, is this new. I want them to consider what they need to do, how long it would take for them to do that job thoroughly, and so I'll wait for further advice on both of those questions to come from both of them as we work through the process of having this set up and established. Today in the party room, I had a fair bit to say about this issue with my colleagues and the responsibility on all of us. But as I said in my earlier press conference today, it's just not on the Government members of Parliament to ensure that it's the right environment here in this place. It's incumbent on all members of Parliament in this place, they're all employers. And frankly, everybody who holds a position of authority in this building, whether they're running a news agency, they're running the prime minister's office or they're running an MP's office, we all who work in this building have an obligation to try and make it as safe as possible for everyone who works here. I'm going to have to call it then after that one, because Question Time.
JOURNALIST: Jacinda Ardern is not very happy with you and your Government for the stripping of citizenship of someone who went overseas potentially to be recruited by ISIS. Can you give us the background to that? And what assurances are you going to give Jacinda Ardern that what Australia did is in New Zealand's interests as well as its own?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, my job is Australia's interests. That's my job. And it's my job as the Australian Prime Minister to put Australia's national security interests first. I think all Australians would agree with that. Now, the legislation that was passed through our Parliament automatically cancels the citizenship of a dual citizen where they've been engaged in terrorist activities of this nature. And that happens automatically. And that has been a known part of Australia's law for some time. I understand that the New Zealand government has had some issues with that, and I understand that. And the Prime Minister and I are scheduled to speak later today. We speak quite frequently. This is an issue we've discussed before. So I'll leave how we practically deal with those issues to our discussion later today and I'm sure the many others that we'll have. There are still a lot more unknown about this case and where it sits and where it might go to next and so I think that will also be a subject of our discussions. But Australia's interest here is that we do not want to see terrorists who fought with terrorism organisations enjoying privileges of citizenship, which I think they forfeit the second they engage as an enemy of our country. And I think Australians would agree with that. Thanks very much.
Speech, Ovarian Cancer Australia Teal Ribbon Parliamentary Breakfast Australian Parliament House, ACT
16 February 2021
Prime Minister: Thank you, Jane. Thank you, Caitlin. You can’t put it more simply than that and I'll return to that in just a minute.
Can I acknowledge the Ngunnawal people, their elders past and present and emerging.
Can I acknowledge my parliamentary colleagues who are here with us today and of course the leader of the opposition, Anthony Albanese.
To you, Jane, and to you, Marina, thank you for the amazing job you do in leading this tremendous organisation in your search for hope. And to all the women wherever you are here today or perhaps watching or hearing this later, fighting. And their families, and those who love them, those who are caring for them, turning up every day, supporting the treatments, being there to hold their hand later. Fighting together, every single day for something incredibly precious, the most precious gift of all things, and that is life.
We've heard now from Caitlin, we look at Kevin, and Lilith and Willow. We can all tell stories of inspiring parents Lillith and Willow, that have impacted our lives. I know my colleagues can tell those stories, but I'll tell you what, I think you top them in the way that you can look at your mother and her tremendous courage and what she's done here today. You heard her passion, her strength, her determination, her caring nature, and we’ve seen her tears. And we've shed a few, I'm sure this morning, as others have at so many other times.
She walks in the footsteps of other very courageous women who have come here and many of us who join here today and have done so for many years now.
I remember here two years ago, hearing from Jill, and from Kristen, talking with them, seeing their courage and that emotion, they are terribly missed. The memory of that day stays with me. And I'm sure all who’ve made this an important part of our involvement here in national life.
The legacy lives with us, not just this day of your message, but each and every day.
And you're right, Caitlin, the past year for the country has been extraordinarily difficult and amazing things have been achieved.
We've all learned something about ourselves over the course of the past year and we're still learning.
We've done it separately, individually, but we've also done it together. And we have learnt that we are a little bit stronger than we perhaps thought we were.
But I'm sure that's something you discover each and every day.
We've learnt about the incredibly talented people in our medical research sector, in particular, and how they've been able to accelerate and drive change when supported and the focus while it has been on COVID, the lessons learned apply to every endeavour in medical research.
One of the things we've all experienced in the past year was the joys and frustrations of zoom and remote meetings. We all at some point had problems with a mute button.
One of the people I met remotely was Jacinta who lives in the Shire, in my own electorate. It was the first time we'd interacted, we got on really well, on her 59th birthday Jacinta was diagnosed with a serious ovarian cancer that had already spiralled into her bowel. It was a terrible shock. Her symptoms had only been around for a matter of days. There she was living a normal life, a wife, a proud mum of two adult children. Then, bang, she was thrust into two major surgeries and gruelling rounds of chemotherapy. And that's the diabolical thing about this cancer, as you all know, too well, by the time you know about it, it has already got a head start. One minute you are thinking about making school lunches, getting to work, going to the office, the next minute none of that matters anymore, as your doctor lays out what lies ahead of you and the grim challenge you face.
Speaking to Jacinta, because she is one of the beneficiaries of one of those decisions that are made in this place, shared decisions by all members of our parliament, which was to expand access to Lynparza under the PBS.
As you said, it's a life changing medication that will help a further 300 Australian women each year. Each course would normally cost around $140,000. And because of that decision, Lynparza now only costs $40 dollars, or $6.60 on a concession card.
The listing of life saving and life changing medications on the PBS is one of the proudest achievements, I think, of any government. This is why we have advanced societies. This is why we have advanced economies. This is why we have institutions of government. This is why we pay taxes, to do these things. But as you’ve reminded us, progress we have made is still not complete and there is still a very long way to go.
Jacinta was able to tell me she'd been able to return to work and she's back running, and can once again enjoy her husband Oliver’s wonderful cooking and best of all she told me she can laugh again.
She's still doing well. And she has reminded me we have to look to the future, as Caitlin has also here this morning.
So we must increase our efforts, the challenges you’ve set down this morning Caitlin I'm happy to take up, as we have in the years that have led up to this time, and I know that burden will be shared by the others who have joined me here today.
We make progress, but there is more to make.
We are the single biggest funder of cancer research in Australia, as a government. Invested more than $71 million in ovarian cancer research through the National Health and Medical Research Council.
And we're supporting the sort of high quality research that will improve diagnosis and treatment, as well as our understanding of its causes. This was noted earlier, Jane, some $16.9 million from the Medical Research Future Fund has been invested in groundbreaking ovarian cancer projects like the work done by Ovarian Cancer Australia. We are also supporting that fantastic traceback project, which identifies and offers testing to women and their families not previously tested for BRCA 1 and 2 gene mutations associated with breast and ovarian cancer.
We've been proud to fund the Ovarian Cancer Case Management Pilot, which we announced at this breakfast two years ago, which has led to the Teal Support Programme. That Pilot means that if you're diagnosed with ovarian cancer, you can have access to support and care no matter where you live. And you rightly make the point about those living in regional parts of the country, throughout what can be a terribly harrowing journey, this access has never been more important.
Around 200 women across Australia are getting that help right now. And I'm pleased to announce today that we're providing an additional million dollars to extend the pilot for a further 12 months.
That will keep going.
We'll just keep going, because we want you to keep going.
To Ovarian Cancer Australia, in this year, your 20th, you are everything that is being expected of you. And I know your work is greatly appreciated and I thank you for the great work you do.
It's a pleasure to be with you supporting this vital cause.
I'm sure my colleagues agree that we have a great privilege to do what we do each and every day in this place.
We have the privilege of meeting Australians from every walk of life, dealing with the full gambit of challenges that people face in their daily lives.
We meet them here in this place. We meet them out there across our land.
But I've never seen more courage than in the women who've spoken from this podium each and every year.
Statement on the Anniversary of the National Apology to the Stolen Generations
15 February 2021
PRIME MINISTER: Thank you Mr Speaker,
We gather to mark the anniversary this past weekend of the Apology to Australia’s Indigenous Peoples.
And we do so here, in the Parliament on Ngunnawal land.
It is fitting we do this here in this place where the Apology was given and the place which free people believe can embody a nation’s best hopes.
Today, as we reflect, we first give honour.
I honour the local custodians, the Ngunnawal people and the first peoples across this great continent.
I thank them - and their elders, past, present and emerging, for 65,000 years of continuous stewardship of our land.
I honour the Minister for Indigenous Australians, and the Shadow Minister for Indigenous Australians both of whom are making history here in this House.
Amidst the cut and thrust of this vibrant Chamber, we all share a deep respect for their journeys to this place - and the contribution that they make.
I also honour Senator Patrick Dodson, and Senator McCarthy, Senator Thorpe and Senator Lambie.
Every one of you is a testimony of resilience and strength, and a reminder of the journey our country is making.
And I honour the Indigenous Leaders who have joined us - and representatives from the Stolen Generations whom I met with earlier today. Wonderful people with very powerful stories.
It is 13 years since Kevin Rudd, the Prime Minister gave an apology on behalf of the nation in this very place.
There is nothing special about that number.
In the span of the 65,000 years of Indigenous habitation of this continent, it’s a heartbeat.
But nations are a living continuum of past, present and future.
In all of us, the loves, losses and traumas of our past, live on in us.
They linger, they have their own life, and they are passed on.
Nations, too, try to make sense of their past - to reconcile it - with truth, justice and with one another.
As Sir William Dean said a quarter of a century ago “true reconciliation … is not achievable in the absence of acknowledgment by the nation of the wrongfulness of past dispossession, oppression and degradation of the Aboriginal peoples”.
Earlier today, I found some quiet time to reread parts of Bringing Them Home.
Children forcibly removed from parents.
Mothers chasing after police cars that had taken their children.
Siblings separated.
Adoptions without consent.
Forced servitude.
Welfare institutions - cruel - devoid of warmth, love or care.
Parents searching for lost children.
Grief.
Trauma.
Endless pain that cascaded through generations.
All actioned by the state.
A state that seized absolute control over Aboriginal people’s lives: where they could live, where they could travel, who they could marry, and what children, if any, they could raise.
Actions of brute force carried out under claims of ‘good intentions’, but in truth betrayed the ignorance of arrogance, ‘knowing better than our Indigenous peoples’.
In acknowledging that fact, I repeat the words of my predecessor, Mr Rudd: I am sorry.
Truly sorry.
Mr Speaker, in past years, we have on this anniversary reported on our efforts to improve the life expectancy, health, education, and economic outcomes for Indigenous Australians.
But, as with so much that had been tried before, our efforts were based more on telling than listening.
More on grand aspirations than the experience of Indigenous peoples.
So while there was no lack of money, will or work, our targets were unmet.
And while there was some progress, our ambitions were unfulfilled.
Mostly, it was because we were perpetuating, the very idea that has plagued our country for so long - that we knew better.
We had to move in partnership.
And so, in July last year, we signed a new National Agreement on Closing the Gap.
An agreement reached through a historic partnership between Australian governments and Indigenous peak organisations.
A new chapter in our efforts – one built on mutual trust, respect and dignity.
It not only sets new targets – it changes how we achieve them, and who’s driving them.
Following this momentous achievement, all governments and the Coalition of Peaks will deliver their implementation plans in the middle of this year—twelve months on from the National Agreement.
And from here on, reporting on our national progress will occur mid year, but my hope is that this anniversary will remain a poignant reminder in our national life and parliamentary calendar as it should.
Mr Speaker, as we recall what happened in this chamber - and in the life of our nation 13 years ago, we should also remind ourselves of the hope of that day.
After Mr Rudd and Dr Nelson had spoken, Aunty Lorraine Peeters, a member of the Stolen Generations, presented the Parliament with a gift.
Think about that - a gift after being wronged.
The gift was a coolamon.
The coolamon carries newborns.
It carries life itself. The future. And with it, our hopes.
The coolamon was accompanied with a message “On behalf of our people, thank you for saying sorry”.
What grace. And hope. The message went on to say:
“We have a new covenant between our peoples, that we will do all that we can to make sure our children are carried forward, loved and nurtured and able to live a full life”.
Mr Speaker, on this anniversary, we reaffirm that new covenant and that shared hope.
Press Conference - Parkville, VIC
12 February 2021
STEPHEN MARLOW, GENERAL MANAGER SEQIRUS: Well, welcome. I would like to welcome the Prime Minister and the Health Minister here today to Seqirus facilities in Melbourne, it's a really proud day for CSL. Today we're marking the announcement of going into the final stages of vaccine production next week. Australian made vaccine, enough for all Australians. And we're really proud that CSL is making such a strong contribution to the nation's health. So we're very proud. I'd like to take a moment just to recognise the people of CSL. This hasn't been a 9 to 5 effort. We've been working around the clock. It's been a 24/7 activity, we’ve had our CSL Behring site in Broadmeadows, up the road and here in Parkville at our Seqirus facilities. We start the final stage of production early next week. So we deeply thank the people at CSL, it’s not only been a priority in their work life. But we know, we've asked them to work long hours and having to work weekends. It's also been a priority in they home life. So we thank them and we hope their families for the commitment. I’d also like to thank AstraZeneca. It has been a fantastic collaboration to get to where we are and the TGA for their support in getting us to this position. We're about to make enough vaccines for every Australian, right here on Australian soil. We know there's a long way to go, but we're ready. We're ready to step into that responsibility and we feel very proud to be able to make that contribution. On that note, I'd like to welcome the Prime Minister to say a few words.
Prime Minister: Thank you very much for the opportunity to be here today and to be also joined by Greg Hunt, the Minister for Health and Aged Care. To Brian, to you and the whole team right across the CSL family, particularly Seqirus here. You know, this facility has been doing this for around, more than 100 years right here where we are. And they've seen plenty of challenges in the past and they've met them and they're doing it again here today. Our vaccination programme and strategy is on track. And that's confirmed again by the visit that the Minister for Health and I have made here today. I also really want to thank all of the workers in the process whether out at Broadmeadows or they are here or anywhere along the chain. I want to thank the Therapeutic Goods Administration and all of those doing the work that they're doing to make sure that the work that has been done here, can forward and ultimately receive, we believe, the authorisation that will come from them
I've often said through this pandemic that I've never been more proud of Australians. And I can tell you as I walked around that floor today and I spoke to those who were going through that final stage, filling those vials and making sure they're going out safe, secure, to support the health and the recovery of Australians and to see the pride in their own eyes about the job they're doing for Australia. I tell you, it hits you. It really does. And, you know, that's the response of Australians right across the country. It's small businesses keeping their show together, keeping their employees on, finding their way through, understanding the challenges. Same is true here, the professionalism, the dedication, the very long hours. People here have been working long hours for a long time to deliver this, and they're doing it to deliver for Australia. And I want to thank them very much for that.
So our vaccination programme, it's on track and it's sovereign. We're doing it here in Australia, right here in Melbourne. And that is something that few Prime Ministers and Presidents around the world can say, because we are one of a handful of countries that made the decision to be able to ensure we had this capability here in Australia, by Australians. Brian, to you and the whole CSL family, I want to thank you for your dedication to see that realised here for your country. So within a matter of weeks, starting next week, as they finish, they do the final stage of that process. I call it the bottling process, the scientists have another name for it. But what that means is they bottle it and then they check it, and they check it, and then they check it again to make sure that when it goes out and when you go to your GP clinic or the place that you will go to get your vaccination, you can have great confidence not just in the vaccine itself, but the Australian production process that actually got it to that clinic where you received that vaccination for you and your family.
So it is another important day today. That final phase of that production process starts here Monday. Of course, they'll be working 24/7 in March, mid to late March, they'll be rolling more than a million doses out of here a week. That's a big production effort and that is going to change the country for the better. And for those who are producing that here, we just simply say thank you for the service that you're providing to your country.
Before I hand over to Greg, I’ll just make a quick comment on the challenges we're currently facing in Victoria regarding the most recent cases. We've dealt with these before, got on top of them before, dealt with them in the last few weeks, in Sydney, Brisbane, and Perth. And so a proportionate response by the Victorian government, which I understand from what we've been hearing this morning and the Health Minister's been in contact with his counterpart here in Melbourne, a proportionate response that enables those tracers and others to be able to get on top of it and get the same successful result that we've seen in other states that can and will be achieved here. Our role as the federal government is to support those efforts, to support Premiers, to support health ministers, to support the health workers here, to ensure that they can do the best they possibly can in the job that they have. So we thank all those who are doing what they're doing at the moment. I thank Melburnians and Victorians more broadly for their patience over many, many months in the past. I know you don't want to see Victoria go back into what you had to endure last year. And I can assure you everyone is doing everything to ensure that that is not replicated again on this occasion. There's no reason that it should, as other states have demonstrated, we can get on top of this pretty quickly, and I have reason for confidence that they can do the same thing by following that same process. So with that, I'll pass on to Greg.
The Hon. Greg Hunt, Minister for Health and Aged Care: Thanks very much, Prime Minister and Steve, CSL is a great Australian company doing great things for Australians. Their workers, as the Prime Minister said, literally working around the clock. Many of them have barely seen their families. They're doing it because they believe in their work. They believe in the value of what they're doing to bring vaccines to all Australians, to protect all Australians. And it couldn't be a more noble cause, it couldn't be a more professional group of highly trained Australians who are focussed on safety, safety, safety and ensuring that they keep Australians safe and that they deliver vaccines that will protect them. And so I really want to offer my personal thanks, I think in years to come when we look at the course of the pandemic in Australia, and every day we see the agony and the tragedy around the world, cases which thankfully are beginning to come down globally, but still often over 400,000 a day and sometimes over 10,000 lives lost. We compare that with where we are in Australia. No lives lost this year, which is almost inconceivable. And we see that we've done an incredible job as a country. But the next phase is on track. It's been planned. It's been prepared. And that's the vaccine rollout. We are on track for the Pfizer vaccine to commence in late February, on track for the AstraZeneca international- subject to the TGA approval to commence in early March and most significantly, on track for the AstraZeneca-CSL Australian made vaccine to commence, as the Prime Minister said in late March, subject to the final tick of approval from the TGA. All of those are proceeding, and that means we are on track to complete this vaccination programme for Australians by the end of October. Thank you very much.
Prime Minister: Okay. We’ll take some questions.
Journalist: Had you considered emergency approval for this vaccine, the Pfizer vaccine, given the situation we’ve been seeing in Melbourne?
Prime Minister: No, there is no advice to us that that will even be necessary. See, we haven't gone through emergency procedures here in Australia because we've been able to prevent emergencies here in Australia. And that has been principally through, I think, the great sacrifice and patience of Australians that put us in the strong position to follow the normal procedures. Now, that's important, I think, so I can stand in front of Australians and give the assurances that I have been giving, and Greg Hunt has been giving. But our process has been the normal process, the one where every ‘i’ is dotted, every ‘t’ is crossed, all the relevant medical professionals ask all the relevant questions they have to and have the time to make sure they get the answers so that when they give it the tick, you can get the jab.
Journalist: Prime Minister sorry to detract from positive news this morning, but Pete Evans is making a run for the Senate, do you think that will undermine the confidence in the vaccination rollout?
Prime Minister: No.
Journalist: Would the government consider asking CSL to look at producing some of the other vaccines which have been proven to be more effective?
Prime Minister: Look, I've- happy to cover that but I might let Greg,
The Hon. Greg Hunt, Minister for Health and Aged Care: Sure, what we’ve learned from CSL is that CSL can do just about anything. It was almost impossible that they could retool, that they could divert their entire processes and they've done this. So we'll continue to work with CSL and other companies on what's needed. At the moment we're in the fortunate position of we've secured 20 million Pfizer mRNA, I think that's what you're referring to. We've also just signed a major, multi-year deal, best part of a decade and beyond with CSL for vaccinations- vaccines and antivenom. And that in turn is allowing them to invest in a new plant. So we'll let them talk about their new cell based manufacturing. But they will be producing in Melbourne a state of the art new vaccination plant because of long term. So we'll continue to be guided. But right now, we had to get the vaccines in, the world has never had an mRNA vaccine. So we've got the best vaccine production overseas and the best vaccine production in Australia.
Journalist: Prime Minister, are you going to be leaving Victoria as soon as possible, considering we might be locked down tonight or tomorrow or in the coming days?
Prime Minister: Well, I was here yesterday and I was here today to be here. So after [inaudible] my programme here, I was heading back to Sydney that was my plan.
Journalist: Are you, have you been- or are you aware what is going to happen? Have you been briefed by the Victorian government at all?
Prime Minister: No, as far as I’m aware no decisions have been announced, and so I'm in the same position as you at this point that I've been touring a facility for the last sort of half an hour so there hasn’t really been that opportunity.
Journalist: What would be a proportionate response that you’d stand for?
Prime Minister: There have been proportionate responses offered in other states. But look, I'm going to leave it to the Premier to make his announcement. I'm not here to run commentaries on Premiers. I'm here to support Premiers in keeping people safe and keeping their economies as open as possible to support people's jobs.
Journalist: Would you say that same message to other states? In considering whether to announce border closures with Victoria?
Prime Minister: I support proportionate responses by other states as well. And I've always said my hope is that states do that.
Journalist: So a three or five day lock down as we’ve seen in other cities, do you-
Prime Minister: I’m not going to speculate on what the Premier may or may not do, I’m going to let the Premier make his announcements and to weigh up the things that he has to weigh up, in making any decisions that they will make here in Victoria. I don't think it would be fair for me to be making comments in advance of what he may or may not announce. I think that's the right thing for public confidence.
Journalist: Has he spoken to you in the last 24 hours?
Prime Minister: Sorry?
Journalist: Has he spoken to you in last 24 hours?
Prime Minister: We texted each other yesterday. I was in Melbourne, and we texted each other yesterday.
Journalist: When do you expect the AstraZeneca vaccine will be approved?
Prime Minister: We're moving very swiftly on that in accordance with the normal protocols. I don't want to pre-empt that. But I mean, Greg may want to offer further comment, but we're getting close. Now, remember the AstraZeneca vaccine? There are two authorisations that will come from the TGA. There is the authorisation that will come for the imported vaccines, that will come through. And then there is the authorisation that will come for the AstraZeneca vaccine and the manufacturing process here in Australia. So they are two separate decisions. The second one obviously builds on the first in terms of the actual vaccine itself. But as the TGA should, it then also needs to enquire into the process itself and be absolutely satisfied that it can give authorisation for the Australian manufactured vaccinations as well- vaccine as well.
Journalist: Do you think this could have been avoided if hotel workers, frontline workers had been able to get that vaccine earlier?
Prime Minister: The vaccination programme will commence first with hotel workers, quarantine workers, those vulnerable populations, you're familiar with the rollout plan, I think it is unrealistic, unrealistic to think that any quarantine programme, wherever it's run, has some sort of a 100 per cent failsafe. And I think we just have to bring some reality to the understanding of this issue. We have had breaches before and we've got on top of them quickly. That is my belief of what will happen here in Victoria. 220,000 people. 220,000 people have been through the quarantine system around this country and there have been a very small relative number of breaches. Handful of breaches, breaches is one thing then what you do to contain them is the next ring of containment, and the social distancing and all of those other measures, all of that has proven, particularly over the last month where we have had some tests of the system and the system has held up. So as the year goes on, Australians should and can feel more confident. And if they hear of a case number here or there, they should do as they've done in the past. And increasingly, I think the tolerance for risk and the responses that are required will moderate over the course of the year. And that is greatly assisted, of course, when individual cases are not represented as something quite catastrophic. That's not the case. The systems are there to deal with it. And that's what will happen here in Victoria.
Journalist: Prime Minister just on Crown Resorts. Are you confident that they can clean up their act and they can operate their casinos around the country without being a source of criminal activity?
Prime Minister: Look, really, that's not a matter that the federal government is directly involved in at all. That's a matter that state based regulators are involved in. That’s right, and that's why we have state based regulators that do that job. And so they are familiar with the precise issues that need management within Crown. And I would expect Crown under their board to ensure they deal with all the issues that have been raised in those licencing processes. That's what I'd expect them to do. That's what that regulation is for. And that's run by competent state authorities.
Journalist: Prime Minister with the final touches of the vaccine, particularly the manufacturing process, can that go ahead still without that final tick of approval from the TGA, do we basically get right up to the point of having the jab? Is that the only point that we need to really have the TGA ticked off on?
Prime Minister: Well, for anyone to have the vaccine, obviously, it's needs the TGA’s approval, but I mean, we've been working on this process of producing these vaccines I mean, I was last out at Broadmeadows in November of last year. We have been getting on with it and that means that once TGA approval is in place and then you've got the distribution and you've got all the testing that is going on in parallel to all of that, then that will enable us to to implement the vaccination strategy as we've outlined it to.
Journalist: We’re talking about the biggest vaccine rollout the nation's ever seen, are you not concerned about an anti-vaxxer running for the Senate?
Prime Minister: Well, that all depends how much publicity you choose to give him. I'm not going to give him any, so I don't propose you do that.
Journalist: Just on the CSL on this vaccine that’s being manufactured here, do you think the countries at a greater advantage have the vaccine?
Prime Minister: Can you say that again?
Journalist: Do you think the country is going to be at a greater advantage having a vaccine manufactured here that can be transported at about, I think it was 7 degrees Celsius, is that right? As opposed to the minus 70 degrees for some of the other vaccines.
Prime Minister: Look all of, each of the vaccines have their advantages. And obviously, AstraZeneca’s vaccine does for a large country like Australia. Have that advantage of being able to reach further and further into the country, particularly into remote areas, particularly in supporting our indigenous communities and rural and remote communities. There's no doubt about that. It's a different logistical challenge. But that doesn't at all mean that the logistics of the sub 70 degree temperatures that Pfizer has to be dealt with are not overcome either. We've got a distribution process for that which deals with that challenge. And, you know, when I talk to other leaders on these issues, which we often do, the discussions get very practical and we all use different phrases, eskies, chilly beans or, you know, whatever the other more technical terms are. But they are the practical issues leaders are dealing with the distribution of those vaccines. But I tell you, one thing I'm glad we've got here in Australia is that they're Australian made and they're being produced here. The early phase of the vaccination programme obviously drawing on the import of those vaccines and we’re getting very close. And I want to particularly, again, thank all of those who've done the great work in ensuring the continuity of those supply chains, of the vaccines that we've been able to procure and I want to acknowledge Minister Hunt for the fabulous job he's done in keeping all of that together and on track. My message today is very simple. Our vaccination programme is on track. It's safe. It is being produced by Australians to keep Australians safe.
Thank you all very much.
Press Conference - Officer, VIC
11 February 2021
JASON WOOD: Thanks, everyone. Right to go? My name's Jason Wood I’m the federal member for La Trobe. It's absolutely fantastic again to have Prime Minister Scott Morrison in La Trobe and here today in Officer South can I also acknowledge, having read here, the CEO of Simmons Homes and Denita from the Master Builders Association, and in particular to Thalia and Mitchell, this is your home. Congratulations. They were here under the or used the HomeBuilder programme. $25,000 dollars to get them in to the new home owners market.
La Trobe, you may not be aware, is in actual fact the fastest growing federal electorate in the country. For those who have driven along the Monash Freeway today, that was an announcement when Prime Minister was Treasurer back in March 2016, $500 million dollars. In actual fact, we've even put more federal funding into that, extra lanes from Clyde Road locally to Cardinia Road, but also South Gippsland Highway to Warrigal Road.
There's a lot of new infrastructure obviously going in to La Trobe. From new car parks to keeping people employed during this COVID pandemic has been something really important for us locally. So it's been keeping the tradies, especially from areas like Pakenham and some are on site here today. The HomeBuilder has been really important for us, not only locally, but nationally. And again, that's just fantastic to have the PM here today. A regular visitor to La Trobe. Thank you so much PM.
PRIME MINISTER: Thanks very much. Well, thank you very much, Jason, and particularly to you, Mitchell and Thalia, congratulations not only on taking on this wonderful opportunity you have here to build your first home, but congratulations on your engagement and your wedding next year, which is also tremendous news. And god bless you with all of that, I hope, you look forward to the preparations, I think planning a wedding can sometimes can be more difficult than building a house you might find over the course of the next year. But that's tremendous to be here with you. And to Denita, thank you also for joining us here today.
Australia's response to the pandemic is working. And it is working, and that is being recognised, particularly when you compare how Australia's response to the pandemic plays out to the experience of so many other countries around the world. That pandemic response has, of course, been about the extraordinary effort and the response that has gone into the health impacts of the pandemic. But it has also been about the response that we've put in relation to the economy. We said at the outset, save livelihoods, save lives. And we are doing both of those things. Our responses, the policies we put in place, the programmes we've put in place, are working and we're seeing the evidence of that. In January, we saw 100,000 Australians come off JobSeeker. We saw at the end of September, some 2.1 million Australians come off JobKeeper, some 450,000 businesses back on their feet as the comeback of the Australian economy continued. It’s lights, camera, jobs when it comes to the support and incentives we've put in place for our film industry as the rest of the world are seeing Australia's response to the pandemic. And they're saying that's where we need to be. That's where they're getting it right. And you know, whether it was JobKeeper or JobSeeker, the cash flow boost or the many other things that has seen Australia come through this with the strength that we have to date, HomeBuilder was one of those key projects, one of those key policies. And, you know, when we announced that policy, it had it’s septics, it had its critics. They said nobody was going to take this on. Not only did they take it on, but they've taken it on far beyond our expectations. Some, just shy of 82,000 applications. This is a pipeline of work of some $18 billion dollars, a residential building and construction industry, which you see on display here and so many places like it around the country was looking at a chasm at the end of September or thereabouts of last year. And now it is looking at a pipeline of two years at least of new work. That's a product of confidence. It's a product of the right policy settings. We just saw in the confidence statistics released yesterday, once again more optimists than pessimists in Australia about our economic future. That's because of the resilience and great optimism of Australians, no doubt. But backed in by the policies that they can see are working and are working for them, they're certainly working for Mitchell and Thalia here, as they can realise their dream of their first home as they move into it later this year. And then they are married next year. So that's exciting as a Prime Minister, it's exciting as a government to see that when you design these programmes that they get these types of results. This is what it was intended to do. This is what it is doing. And I think that is giving Australians great confidence. Now that's not to say there won't be bumps along the road still, that there are still not challenges, of course there are. But we are taking them, those challenges. We're dealing with them. There are sectors of the Australian economy that continue to have real challenges. The aviation sector in particular, as Secretary Kennedy was remarking earlier today, that's true. But we'll work through those issues and challenges, just like we've worked through all of the others, getting Australians back into work, getting businesses back on their feet, getting Australia moving forward strongly again. And that comeback certainly started last year. And I expect over the course of this year, over the course of this year, we will see that momentum continue. You know, we're taking Australia out of crisis. We're taking us beyond the crisis. A crisis we want to be behind us. And I think all Australians feel that way. And our policies are leading us out of crisis and they're leading us into growth. I'm going to ask Denita to say a few words and then we're happy to take some questions.
DENITA WAWN, CEO MASTER BUILDERS AUSTRALIA: Thank you, Prime Minister. Denita Wawn, CEO Master Builders Australia. It is no exaggeration to say that the industry was going to fall off a cliff when we put a proposal to the federal government in April about looking at incentives to try and get people back into the industry and back building homes. We saw contracts cancelled and sales dry up. When we announced HomeBuilder and I was thankful to stand there on a frozen, cold Googong morning, we in our wildest dreams never expected the success that we've had. But what has it meant? It has meant that we've seen, as the Prime Minister said, 82,000 applications, has resulted in around about $2 billion spent by the government. But let's look bigger picture. That means $18 billion to $20 billion worth of building activity. But it goes further, that then equates to $60 billion dollars worth of economic activity in the community because the residential building industry has a three times multiplier effect of economic activity, the biggest of any industry. So this is not just saving the jobs of our industry, but it is also saving the jobs of the building supply companies. It's also saving those guys, selling the bacon and egg and the coffees at the local store. It has had a significant impact throughout the community and we are very grateful to the federal government in providing this incentive and secondly, extending it. It is a pipeline of work that has meant we can keep hundreds of thousands of people in their jobs, but more importantly, create new jobs. Thank you.
PRIME MINISTER: Thank you. I'm happy to take some questions, Denita is sort of joining us for questions on this programme. And then we can move to other economic issues, if you'd like, or other issues as you'd like. Any questions?
JOURNALIST: When will the HomeBuilder programme come to an end or do you intend to keep running it right throughout this year?
PRIME MINISTER: The programme settings have been finalised now, so it has had a role in getting these sort of important projects brought forward and happening. And so the settings have now been finalised. So those opportunities that have been put in place, people have realised them. And the whole point of these programmes, whether it's JobKeeper, whether it's HomeBuilder, whether it's the COVID supplement on JobSeeker, all of these were designed as temporary, targeted, proportionate measures to stand in the gap during the crisis and then enable the economy to stand on its own two feet. We're not looking at renting an economy in the future. We're looking at having an economy that stands strongly on its own two feet.
JOURNALIST: Many of those incentives end next month, what's your plan to make sure the economy doesn’t fall off a cliff after that?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, there's $240 billion dollars, in fact, $251 to be specific more broadly, that has been pumped into the Australian economy in a record period of time. That money is now sitting on the balance sheets of households and businesses all around the country. Confidence is what unlocks that and then takes the Australian economy into the next phase. But the measures we still have in place, very important ones. The Job Hiring Credit, the JobMaker Job Hiring Credit, the apprenticeship support initiatives they continue, the instant expensing which continues, which drives the investment, as the Reserve Bank governor himself has said. The challenge now is about the investment that comes from the private sector. There is a point of handoff where the private sector stands up and that means the government sector has done its job. Supports that we provide more generally over time they continue, of course they do, the social safety net, a strong and effective incentivised tax system, R&D concession, those sorts of things. They keep the investment flowing. And when you look at particularly our manufacturing programme, $1.5 billion dollars, investing in critical manufacturing industries, the investment we're putting into new energy technologies, all of this continue to support what we're doing as an Australian economy, working together, governments, business, research institutions, scientific community and so on. So our plan is for the Australian economy to stand on its feet, for the Australian economy to get well clear of the crisis. You don't run an Australian economy on crisis settings when you’ve got through the crisis. We still have some challenges ahead of us, but we are certainly moving beyond that.
JOURNALIST: Speaking of the challenges, here in Melbourne are you concerned by the outbreak out of hotel quarantine, [inaudible] Holiday Inn at the airport. And are you concerned at all by the government's handling of that, given that they have said repeatedly that Victoria's hotel standard is the gold standard?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, I would be here if I wasn't confident. I’ve just flown down from Sydney today. That's why I'm here, business as usual for me being in Melbourne here today. But I'd say this. Look, I seek to support every state to be as successful as they possibly can be in what they're doing to manage the health issues around the COVID pandemic. So, you know, I don't have a favourite in any of this. I'm not looking to score them. I'm just looking to support them in what they're doing. And that's what Australians would expect of me. And so, you know, how they talk about each other is up to them. I'll leave that to them. But what Australians, I think, want to see is us working together. And I've got to say, the states and territories do, they do work together. They might have the odd state sledge here and there. But honestly, at the end of the day, that's not something I'm particularly interested in. I'm more interested in how they're doing things on the ground. We're putting significant support in to support the Victorian government here, as we did when Victoria hit the wall in the middle of last year and we worked with them to get Victoria out of that situation. We'll work through them on this situation. But as I said last Friday, the risk, the risk matrix is changing this year and our responses will change this year. You know we understand what happens and we learn from it and it gets stronger and stronger and stronger. So I believe our system is stronger today than it was 3 months ago, than it was 6 months ago, than it was 9 months ago. And that's why it gives me and I think Australians greater confidence to step forward into 2021. We'll manage these things along the way. We have, and I suspect that will continue.
JOURNALIST: And the European Union overnight gave approval for vaccines, Pfizer vaccines to be shipped out, does that now give a clearer timeline for when the first jab will be?
PRIME MINISTER: I'll have a bit more to say about that in the not too distant future.
JOURNALIST: Can’t say it now?
PRIME MINISTER: Not today. I won't be saying that. But I want to thank my ministers in particular, Ministers Hunt and Minister Payne and all of their teams in the Department of Health and Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade. We have worked through those issues constructively. We have very good relationships with the European Union. I, of course, have spoken to Ursula von der Leyen on many occasions over the course of the pandemic. And, you know, I've spoken to a lot of the European leaders, too, and I'm very aware of the extreme pressure that has been on them in relation to their access to vaccines. So I think Australia has done very well to maintain our supply lines here as has been confirmed by the European Union. So, you know, we're on track.
JOURNALIST: Did you have to intervene to get those ships on the way?
PRIME MINISTER: This is a- no, I wouldn't, no I wouldn't put it in that way. No, I wouldn't. Basically, the supply lines have been kept open as we expected them to.
JOURNALIST: They did put a ban in place so what got them to-
PRIME MINISTER: Well, that was an interpretation of what that ban meant for Australia. And I think that was misread.
JOURNALIST: So there wasn't a ban on them heading to Australia?
PRIME MINISTER: Australia wasn't the issue.
JOURNALIST: Is there any discussions around the borders given what’s going on in Victoria?
PRIME MINISTER: With who?
JOURNALIST: The borders, any border closure- any discussions, are you aware of? Given South Australia has closed their borders to us?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, look, they're matters for states, as you know. And as you know, I've always been an advocate of the hotspot approach and making that as localised as possible because that's what keeps Australia open. My objective is to keep Australians safe and to keep Australia as open as possible, because that's what builds the confidence and unlocks $250 billion dollars that the Commonwealth government has put in to support and strengthen the economy over the next year and beyond, including with projects like this programme here with HomeBuilder. And so it is a partnership, I think, with the states to ensure that we maintain that momentum and the risk tolerance that I think is within the Australian community. And I should say the risk resilience that has now been built up in states right around the country, has been on display. We had those shocks earlier this year and the systems passed the test. Now, that's not to say there won't be the odd issue here in this facility or in that state or in this place or that place. But the, I think the implications of that, particularly as the year progresses, will change and therefore the responses will change as well.
JOURNALIST: Is it time for a fundamental change to hotel quarantine?
PRIME MINISTER: No. I mean, the hotel quarantine programme has seen some 211,000 people come through it. And we're talking about a handful of cases. I mean, this is a system the rest of the world wants to replicate. And this is a system that has been very effective in protecting Australia. And that's why all the states and territories agreed last year that this was the right way to go and it has proved itself to be the right way to go. That doesn't mean there still aren’t challenges now, particularly as we've seen additional strains. But I applaud the work that's been done, whether it's by the Victorian government here with the changes that they've made over these last few months in particular, I think they're good changes. I think the way that they've moved on testing of quarantine workforces, good changes, and that information has been shared with other states and territories. We've established the National Resilience Facility at Howard Springs in the Northern Territory, which is what the recommendation was of the review that we undertook. And we'll consider other options if we think they're viable. But that's the facility that we've focussed on and that's the one we're expanding and that's the facility we bring the majority of our charter flights through so as not to put those charter flight pressures on other states and territories. But the hotel quarantine system has certainly had its shocks along the way. But when you step back and you look at the scoreboard in terms of how Australia has fared compared to all the other countries in the world, now, it's good for us to be hard marker's on ourselves. I'm not saying we shouldn't, and we should try and get to as perfect a situation as we possibly can. But I've got to tell you, Australia's got about as close to that mark as anyone else has in the world. And the states have done, I think, a tremendous job in doing that. And of course, you know, I'm grateful to New South Wales for taking the lion's share of that load.
JOURNALIST: Paul Kelly, did yesterday or the day before announce a review into the hotel quarantine system. What's that going to achieve though if you’re saying,
PRIME MINISTER: No I wouldn't describe it like that. I mean, there's a constant process going on with the medical expert panel, a constant process going on as to how they can continue to improve things and learn the lessons from what's happening. It's not a static process. It's a dynamic process. And it's been that dynamic process since this began in March, which has seen its constant improvement. So, no, I wouldn't describe it in that way. I'd just say it's just them doing their job, as they have been doing all along.
JOURNALIST: Just back to Cassie’s point, on the border closures, have you been briefed on the truck crash that occurred at Serviceton on the South Australian - Victorian border overnight? There’s been some indications that was-
PRIME MINISTER: No I haven’t had any full briefing on that. I've been in transit obviously since early this morning, and I haven't had that opportunity. So it wouldn't be appropriate for me to make comment on that.
JOURNALIST: Just on the economy. Will you commit to lifting the rate of JobSeeker? There are people who will struggle when that, when the Coronavirus supplement is removed?
PRIME MINISTER: These are matters we're still considering. And when we're in a position to make a statement on those, then we will.
JOURNALIST: Just on industrial relations, Labor says your changes to the better off overall test will see workers conditions and wages slashed. How can you guarantee that won’t happen?
PRIME MINISTER: Labor is engaged in massive overreach and their claims are simply untrue. We saw yesterday the leader of the opposition, we saw Labor demonstrate that they just don't know how to think things through. I mean, they weren't that flash on policy when they were in government. I think they've got worse in opposition. They just don't think through the consequences of what they're saying. And then they would leave you to bear the cost of those consequences because they haven't thought of them. You know, government requires you to think through those things. And that's what we've done. You know, we thought through the impacts and the implications of our policies to respond to the pandemic and how it would all come together, and that's why we set out at the start of the pandemic some really clear principles to guide us. Temporary, proportionate, using existing delivery mechanisms, engaging and effective with other arms of policy, monetary policy. We set all this out, and that guided our decision making. I've got no idea what's guiding the Labor Party, and I don't think the Australian people do either.
Thanks very much, everyone.
Remarks, F-35 Induction Event
8 February 2021
PRIME MINISTER: Well, let me start by thanking you, Uncle John, for your wonderful welcome to country here today. It’s great to be here with the Worimi people and our blessings also to your people and thank you for your warm welcome. We acknowledge the Worimi people, elders past and present and those emerging. Can I also acknowledge all of our Defence Force personnel who are here with us today, and there are a lot. It’s great to see you here today. And also to any veterans who I know work amongst those here at BAE or the many other partners. Veterans are the best type of recruitment you can make, particularly into these industries, but so many others. And can I just simply say to all, thank you for your service. Of course, the Minister for Defence, the Minister for Defence Industry, Linda and Melissa, it’s great to be here with you again. Chief Air Marshall Hupfield, wonderful to be here with you. Senator Hollie Hughes, to Gabby Costigan and Joe North from BAE Systems and Lockheed Martin. It is a long list of dignitaries.
We walked into Top Gun, the soundtrack, and I think many people are looking forward to the next edition of that movie too. But I'm frankly more excited by what I'm seeing here. And everyone who's involved in this project is a top gun in my view because it requires all of you to perform at the highest possible standard and to be the very best at what you do. I just met some of those amazing people who are part of this programme just in the other hangar just a few minutes ago. The best at what they do.
We're here today to mark another milestone in our step, our big step forward, that's about keeping Australians safe in a very uncertain world. Another important day in our $270 billion plan to shore up the nation's security in an uncertain world and what better place to do it than here at RAAF Williamtown. The base was established during World War II, a grim time as conflict came closer and closer than ever before. The base was set up to protect the port and steel operations of the Hunter. The first servicemen here at Williamtown lived in huts. The base was a war-time improvisation. The lesson of those times when we had let defence spending fall to record lows prior to the Second World War in the mistaken belief that others would save us, is that Australia must always, must always, be prepared. Always prepared. Looking to the future to be prepared and to act in the present. We always innovate and this base has always done that.
First, there were the meteors and the savers and the postwar years followed by the mirages. Some of us old enough to remember the F/A-18 Hornet’s recordbreaking journey from the US in the 80s. Those classic Hornets served as well for more than three decades and they still have a vital role at RAAF Base Tindal for some time. This year we mark quite a number of milestones, very important for our country. The 70th anniversary of the ANZUS alliance, the bedrock as President Biden said to me just last week, to peace and security in the Indo-Pacific. This Base's 80th anniversary, something that will be celebrated by the RAAF and its broader RAAF family, but also I believe of the Hunter community. And, of course, the centenary of the RAAF that we will celebrate next month.
But today's milestone for the first time we're inducting an F-35A Lighting Fighter to be maintained and modified right here at BAE Systems Australia Williamtown facility. Now, this is a huge step. It puts Australia at the centre of the fifth generation global Joint Strike Fighter programme, a vital, crucial component of our sovereign defence capability, underscore sovereign defence capability. It's also an achievement for Australian industry on a global scale. Eventually this facility will maintain all F-35 aircraft in the South-East Asia region, not just our RAAF fleet. This is another example of how the JSF programme is providing longer-term job opportunities in our nation.
Every single F-35, and there are more than 600 of them around the world, has a bit of Australia in it. Australian-built components. Now, this includes where they are made. In fact, at QuickStep facility at Bankstown Aerodrome in Western Sydney which I have had the opportunity to visit and see exactly Australia's broader role in this amazing programme. Some 50 Australian companies are providing parts and systems into the global Joint Strike Fighter programme and those contracts are worth $2.7 billion to date. We're not kidding. We're not mucking around here. We are a serious, serious part of this undertaking here in Australia and we're very proud of it.
We launched a new Joint Strike Fighter industry support program in December to further maximise the industry opportunities. In December, we also awarded a sovereign F-35 training support services contract valued at over $70 million to Lockheed Martin Australia and subcontractor Mill School, a wholly-owned Australian company. It's delivering 70 jobs in the Hunter and the Tindal regions. Lockheed Martin is also partnering with RDA Hunter and TAFE New South Wales through the STEM Start initiative to ensure there is a job-ready workforce to support the industrial technologies of the future, particularly here at Williamtown and BAE. We're all part of one big family driving this major change in the skills pipeline of this exciting region.
The sustainment of F-35s are predicted to generate around 750 jobs directly and indirectly across the country by 2025 and this will grow to thousands as more F-35s arrive in the region. Skills, jobs and new beginnings also, which the Hunter is no stranger to. I was pleased this morning to meet, as I said, some of those new recruits with Gabby that have now completed their initial training and will soon be hard at work maintaining and sustaining the growing fleet of F-35s.
It's a very successful project so far and we know it will continue on time, on budget, part of our plan to keep Australians safe. I said at the Press Club this time last week or thereabouts in Canberra, the protecting and securing Australia's interests in a challenging world is fundamental, fundamental, to what our Government is all about. I spoke of the conversation I had with President Biden last week and I was able to say to him as I have said many times before, Australia looks to the United States, sure, but we don't leave it to the United States.
We're a nation that has sovereign self-respect when it comes to our defence forces and our defence industry that support them. We do our share of the heavy lifting and I'm very proud of the heavy lifting that's being done here by BAE, together with the RAAF to ensure that we have that capability which at the end of the day means, as Australians even growing up this day, that for decades and decades to come, this programme will be keeping them and their families safe and growing jobs here in the Hunter. Thank you so much.
Press Conference - Canberra, ACT
5 February 2021
PRIME MINISTER: Afternoon. I’m joined by our well-rested Chief Medical Officer, it's great to have you back. And thank you to Dr Kidd for the great work he did as acting officer in your stead.
National Cabinet has met today. We were pleased to receive an update from Premier McGowan regarding the bushfire situation in Western Australia. We're hopeful of a better day today. But obviously this is subject to events. Yesterday was a very difficult day. Confirmed about 81 homes that had been destroyed, affected, and that is terrible news for those who are impacted by that. And we still have many, many firefighters out there doing their job. It was also good to acknowledge the cooperation that occurs around these arrangements, particularly in terms of the aircraft, which is all part of the national system that is supported by Federal Government funding arrangements, but in particular the states and the assets they have, which are moved around in accordance with the process that has been established for some time and has been very effective.
Today at National Cabinet we received important briefings from Dr Kennedy from Treasury, the Reserve Bank Governor was appearing before the parliamentary committee, but Dr Kennedy was able to cover all those issues off, and there had already been a presentation from the governor this week, which was well-known to us all. As well as the usual updates from Professor Kelly, but also from Professor Skerritt, as well as Professor Murphy on the vaccines. And it was good to have those updates on both where the TGA approvals were at and the rollout programs and the preparations that are being done with states and territories.
The combination of those briefings reinforced a very important point. And that is, now that we're in 2021, the risk environment, or the risk matrix - as we spoke about it today - has shifted. It has altered. There are a range of new forces, new trends, new influences on that risk matrix that will require us, as a National Cabinet representing state and territory and, of course, the federal governments, about the policy implications of that changing environment. Now, the risk environment changes for a range of reasons. First of all, it changes because the strength of the systems that have been on display, particularly over this past month - that has so far averted that third wave in Australia - a month ago, when we went into that very quick response in Brisbane, there was much we hoped for, but at that point that was yet to be seen on the ground in terms of how the community responded, and how the system stood up. Now, the good news is a month on from that, as we've gone through, whether it’s what we've seen there or Victoria or New South Wales or other places, that hope was confirmed, and that gives us a lot more confidence, even more than we had at that point. So, the systems are better, the responses we're getting from the public - including in places like Western Australia, or Queensland, where there hadn't been those types of instances as regularly as we've seen in, say, New South Wales or Victoria, where they have been managed - and we were very pleased about that. So, that has a downward impact on the risk. But, equally, where we've seen new strains and other new information coming forward, that can increase the risk. And then, of course, there is the impact of the vaccine itself. And as we're reminded today, vaccines are one thing, vaccinations are another. It's vaccinations that actually change what is happening on the ground and the risk environment in which policy is set, and in which responses are made in response to events that can occur.
On vaccinations, there are two parts to it, and Professor Murphy will speak more to this. There is the very strong evidence with the vaccines that go to issues of serious disease and the prevention of serious disease, and we spoke about that here yesterday. Then there is the issue of a vaccination providing support to prevent transmission of the virus. That also has a very profound effect on the policy environment and the response and how we manage the virus going forward. Now, when you reduce significantly the impact on severe disease - and, indeed, fatalities that result from that severe disease - there is the potential that then the virus can, over time, be considered in a very similar way to other viruses that are in the community. And there are many, and, indeed, some of those viruses ultimately, for the very frail, can result in fatalities. So, the point is that the vaccination program, over months, as it's rolled out, can change the nature of how Australia then manages the virus. And the point was made, it's less than about cases as it is about presentations at ICU or seeking significant treatment. And that we can potentially move to a situation where we manage the virus potentially like other conditions that are in the community. Now, we're not there yet. We're some way off that, as Professor Kelly will tell you. But that risk environment is what we now, as leaders of governments, need to define, understand, and ensure that our responses to things that occur are proportionate - as we saw with the Victorian response just the other night, some modest changes for a brief period of time. As we saw when there were situations in the Northern Beaches of New South Wales, Queensland did not shut that border completely to New South Wales. Proportionate responses, where there is greater certainty of what that will be, which will feed into the certainty and confidence that enables Australians to move forward. Both socially and economically. And this ties in very importantly to what Dr Kennedy was saying. The significant measures that have been put in place, particularly by the Commonwealth Government, which is the overwhelming lion's share, backed up by supplementary measures from the states, of economic supports, they will all be more effective in a policy environment that creates greater certainty. And that is understood by premiers, chief ministers and I, and as a result we've tasked Secretary Gaetjens to work with the directors-general of all the other premiers and chief ministers' governments to report back to us as soon as possible, having considered the various options and implications of this changed risk environment, and what the implications of that can be for policy settings and responses, and over what time. Now, they will draw, no doubt, on the expert advice of the AHPPC and Professor Skerritt and Professor Murphy to help inform what those options can be. But, equally, they will draw, I'm sure, on their own economic experts at a state level as well as here at a federal level to best understand how that can impact on logistics and how markets operate, and how the employment sector can continue to grow, and what maximises the least disruption to that.
So, I think that was a very important conversation for us to have today. It's changing. We're going to better understand that change. And that can have changes for the way, positively, how we manage this pandemic going ahead into the future.
The other matters considered today: It was agreed once again that the return of Australian residents is the priority, in terms of arrivals to Australia. We must remember that our borders are actually shut. No-one can just come to Australia. To be able to come to Australia, you need to be an Australian resident or citizen, or have a particular exemption in a particular occupation or something of that nature, which is handled through Border Force, to enable someone to come. And that is only a small proportion of the arrivals that come to Australia.
It was also agreed that from 15 February, the caps will return to the previous levels for New South Wales and Queensland. So, we will see that capacity lift again. And I particularly want to thank both of those states for that. As we know, New South Wales has always done the biggest share of that lifting, but, I've gotta say, Queensland in recent times also has been above the odds in terms of the caps that they've been working to. And so we welcome that returning on the 15 February. South Australia is also increasing what they'll take to 530. Victoria will increase to 1,310. And Premier Andrews and I will be having further conversations about where it goes after that. And, of course, I'm still working through arrangements with Premier McGowan. They're obviously still working through some of the issues of this latest case, and so we just want to make sure that that's appropriately paced, about when they might be able to return to those previous caps in Western Australia.
The states are continuing to work to improve hotel quarantine around the country. There is a continuous program of principle that were set out by the AHPPC. It was good to receive the reports on how that is being implemented, whether it's the closed circuit TV within those facilities and how that's operating, taking into account some of these more recent information about airborne transmission. And Professor Kelly, I'm sure, can respond to that if you have any questions on that. But hotel quarantine is the primary, and remains the primary system for running quarantine in this country. It has been incredibly effective, as I said to you yesterday. Over 211,000 people have gone through that process, and the number of breaches we've had - albeit, when they do occur, they're serious - is incredibly small in comparison to that large volume. There isn't a country in the world, I suspect - bar a handful - who wouldn't want to trade places in terms of the issues that we manage here on COVID for the ones that they do. And our hotel quarantine system has been incredibly effective in protecting Australia over this period of time.
That said, of course, we continue to act on the recommendation of Jane Halton in relation to other facilities, which was the Howard Springs facility, which is what the former secretary Halton had recommended, and we have been following through and acting on that. And we are looking to expand the capacity further of Howard Springs. Already expanding it to 850, and potentially well beyond that, which would involve a more than doubling of that capacity at Howard Springs. We will also continue to assess the proposal in relation to Toowoomba. But we are still seeking a lot more information on that proposal, and the secretary of the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet has pulled together the various agencies that need to assess that proposal. And there is a lot more information we're going to need before we can get to an assessment of how we go forward on that. And it's not just about understanding what the costing arrangements, but it is understanding the workforce arrangements to run a facility like that and how that can be delivered in that location, what the impact is on other local health facilities in a regional location like that. I know that they are issues that locals have been raising, and we have got to be very mindful of that. So, we are acting on that recommendation of Jane Halton, and what we also realise is that the hotel quarantine system, which can continue to be improved - and we can continue to supplement it with other options - but that remains the way in which we will continue to facilitate arrivals back into Australia of Australian residents.
And with that, I'll pass you on to Professor Kelly.
PROFESSOR PAUL KELLY, CHIEF MEDICAL OFFICER: Thank you, PM. So, just briefly on the current Australian situation. As of midday today, there's been six new cases in the last 24 hours, all in hotel quarantine. No locally acquired cases continuing that very positive trend.
Just to pick up on the PM's view there that we should be thinking beyond cases but to the effect, the serious effects of the disease, there's only 9 people in hospital in Australia right now. And recognising that some of those are in hospital because that is the way that positive cases are dealt with in a couple of the jurisdictions. There's very few people that are seriously sick. In fact, virtually none. There's no-one in intensive care, and we haven't seen a death in Australia from COVID for some months. Contrast that with other countries, in the week up to the 3 February, I spoke to National Cabinet today about that, in the US they had over 1 million cases in that week, and over 20,000 deaths. We are in a very different situation. We have been all along, and that is - a lot of that is to do with the strength of our hotel quarantine systems and our border controls. So, we continue to have a good situation here. In the last week, up to the 3rd of February, we only had 42 cases overall. All but two of those were overseas-acquired, and the other two, as we know, as has been reported in WA and now in Victoria in quarantine workers.
So, it's a very different situation. We also talked today about the variants of concern, and the Australian and New Zealand experience in relation to that. And again that's a very different situation to what we've seen with that extra - that increased transmissibility of the virus in other settings. So, in the UK, in the US, in South Africa, we've seen those variants that have cropped up in those countries, but are now spreading in other parts of the world, to cause major concerns in terms of the epidemiology of the disease. Here in Australia, we've had cases - not of the Brazilian strain yet, but certainly the South African-originating strain, B1.351. We've had 15 cases of that. We've had 76 cases of the UK strain, UK strain B117. Both of those are more transmissible. We've had only two of those cases out of that entire group have been in the community. They've both been in quarantine workers. So, up to the 3rd of January. And then there's one extra one now.
So, we've seen the South African strain in New Zealand and how that has emerged from their quarantine setting. Again, with the very strong public health response in New Zealand, as we've seen in Queensland, as we're seeing right now in WA and in Victoria, it's come under control. It's a very different setting. So, we have the virus which is more transmissible, but very different settings here in Australia, and indeed in New Zealand, in terms of the public health response, other responses, as we've seen in different states have been slightly different, but that public health response has been important, and the response of the community. So, we've seen again in WA, who haven't seen cases for many, many months, when the community has been asked to wear masks, they wear masks. When people are asked to go and get tested in WA, in a few days they went from 500 tests a day to over 17,000 tests in a day. Extraordinary response. And that's an incredible, wonderful thing for the community to be responding like that, but it's the key to these variants for us. It's getting on to it quickly, dealing with it quickly. The response from the community also reflecting that. And that makes us, as the PM has said, much more comfortable with those variants at the moment. But, of course, we need to continue to learn from these issues.
Quarantine, as the PM has mentioned, we discussed. There is absolutely a need to continually improve the quality of our quarantine. It is already really top-class. We've seen only a small number of incursions from quarantine, and we need to understand these are complex systems with humans, and there is always an opportunity or a chance of human error. There is also chance issues like two doors opening across a corridor, as has seemed to have occurred in the Victorian situation. So, we do need to continue to look at these things. At the National Cabinet, I think it was a month ago, I think it might have been earlier, a set of general principles were agreed. We can look at those again to make sure all of those things are being done. But the system has worked very effectively up to now, and continues to work very effectively. And it's a range of matters, not only the variants of concern, but the way people move, the way people are working within those environments, and a range of measures that we can do to continually improve that. And we're absolutely going to do that and give our health advice from the AHPPC into this new group that the PM has mentioned.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, I listened carefully to what you were saying about Steven Kennedy, and it's a bit unclear as to what you've actually asked him to do. What is the problem that you've asked him to solve?
PRIME MINISTER: I haven’t asked Steven Kennedy anything, I've asked Philip Gaetjens.
JOURNALIST: Sorry, he was chairing a group looking into the DGs, wasn't he?
PRIME MINISTER: No.
JOURNALIST: OK, sorry. Wrong fella. What's the problem you're trying to solve, talking to the various DGs?
PRIME MINISTER: What I've asked Secretary Gaetjens to do is to lead a process with the directors-general of all the state and territory governments to advise us on how the risk environment has changed in relation to the management of the pandemic, taking into account all the factors I've mentioned - the new strains that are emerging, improvements that have been made in how things are managed both on a testing, tracing, quarantine system improvement and public response, and thirdly the impact of the vaccines on the risk environment. And to advise us how we can have any change to the policy settings of the response to how we manage the pandemic. Now, that can include any number of things. That can potentially, over many months, can include how we respond to a breakout of a case. Now, right now, a breakout of a case has a particular context. Three months from now, when vaccinations are occurring, where there is a downward pressure on the risk of serious, serious illness, then the risk is different. And so it is about trying to recalibrate. I'm asking them to advise us how we recalibrate the risk settings on what our responses are.
JOURNALIST: Is it the impulse to close borders that you want to better manage?
PRIME MINISTER: No, I want to understand the risk settings better so we can better manage the pandemic and ensure our economy can grow and Australians can return to as normal life as possible.
JOURNALIST: As the vaccine starts to be rolled out, Prime Minister, and the vaccination rates increase, obviously perhaps the load on hotel quarantine will be reduced. But in that case, do you then look at home quarantine, on-farm, these other so-called bespoke options?
PRIME MINISTER: All these things I think become more possible, Mark. But they have to be assessed in terms of what the new risk environment is. Now, those things weren't possible last year. Mind you, on-farm quarantine is for seasonal workers, and that's proving quite effective up in Queensland. But one of the reasons why we did hotel quarantine was because we didn't consider home quarantine was effective enough in the risk environment we had. Now, over the next three, six, nine months, that could change based on all of these things that are impacting on what's happening here. Now, Australia, though, I suspect will be ahead of the world in our risk environment, as we already are right now, and that may enable us to do some things that they can't do in other places. I mean, New Zealand, I think, will be in a fairly similar place. Their vaccinations start some time after ours do, but largely I think we're looking at a pretty similar outlook.
I'll just move around.
JOURNALIST: PM, is essentially, sticking with Mr Gaetjens' work, is it essentially a path to normality, return to the new normal, what will be, you know, and less disruption for people and things like that?
PRIME MINISTER: Sure.
JOURNALIST: Is that essentially the work you're asking him to do?
PRIME MINISTER: Yes. And to get an understanding. They will be able to present us with some options that will be relevant in various stages of how that risk environment changes over time. But I do want to stress, while there has been some really good developments in terms of lowering that risk, there is also the negative developments in terms of new strains and what can be happening overseas. We can be doing really well, but overseas things can continue to be quite difficult, and so, you know, we've just got to take that all into account. But I'm simply saying that, over the last month, things have changed, and we think the focus, the shift of the risk is there and so we need to fully understand what options does that give us in the months ahead.
JOURNALIST: Would your hope be that all states all follow the same rules? So essentially it's one national play book? We get a case in Brisbane and everyone reacts the same way?
PRIME MINISTER: Look, ultimately you'd hope so. But, I mean, that's not to say that there could be some small variants to that. What's important is increased certainty about what happens, when event X happens, what is the response going to be? So, businesses can understand what's happening, employees can understand what's happening. This is a key factor that Dr Kennedy and others have consistently raised. You know, we have been able, from the Commonwealth's perspective, to transfer over $250 billion on to the balance sheets of householders and businesses in this country. Now, in many respects, as he was noting today and as I have noted to you, and the Treasurer has, unlocking that, because you know the savings rate has increased, that is the key to the further waves of support in the economy - is unlocking that. And he talked about a consumption-led recovery in the weeks and months ahead, and that's reflected in what we've seen in the uptick in retail sales and building approvals and things like that. So, unlocking the support will continue to drive those further waves of improvement in our economy. And confidence, as Chris Richardson often says, is the cheapest form of stimulus there is. And you can improve that confidence, I think, with greater certainty about responses.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, you mentioned before that Australia could do things differently that other countries might not be able to do under this risk environment. What are some of those examples? What do you want to see, in your vision, happen to Australia once the vaccine rolls out?
PRIME MINISTER: It's too soon for that and it's not right for me to speculate. What we need to do first is properly inform ourselves of how the risk environment has changed, and what flexibility that gives us in the future. So, let's just do it one step at a time. That's how we have been so successful to date. We don't get ahead of ourselves, we don't speculate, we don't lead people on, we don't raise their hopes unnecessarily. What we do is do the work, and that's what's going to happen now on what is a new phase we've already entered.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, Australia has fairly well-developed plans to roll out vaccines across the region, but there are also other countries, particularly China, which are seeking to get their vaccines into places like Papua New Guinea and Solomon Islands and so forth. What would you say about our approach compared to those of other countries in terms of actually getting those vaccines out into the community? And, also, what do you make of a proposal by a Chinese company to build a large mega-city across the Torres Strait?
PRIME MINISTER: I'll make two points. What we're doing in the Pacific is we’re not competing with anyone. We're just trying to help our Pacific family as best as we possibly can. When I told them this week that we would be spending $200 million across the Pacific to support their vaccination rollout and programs and as you know, we have been able to secure 150 million doses, which puts us in a very strong position off our own resource to be able to support those vaccinations, not just in the south-west Pacific but also across South-East Asia, where we're investing about $300 million, or thereabouts, to support that programme. One of the things the Pacific family said to me of leaders, was the great respect they have for our Therapeutic Goods Administration. And what I have said is I want to make sure that, particularly in the Pacific and developing countries of our region, that they get the best dose, they get a dose in Indonesia, would be my preference, in Papua New Guinea, in Samoa or any of these places, which is as good as the dose that my kids will get, or I'll get, or my family will get. That's very important. And they trust Australia's approval processes and regulation processes. So, I think that creates a natural preference in those countries, that if our TGA has given it the tick, then they're feeling a lot more confident about the jab. And I think that's a credit to our TGA. Look, on the other matter, I think that's very speculative at this point. I have a very close relationship with Prime Minister Marape, as I've had with previous prime ministers in Papua New Guinea. We regularly discuss the various pressures in our region, and I think we're very much on the same page about those issues.
JOURNALIST: Are you concerned though that Chinese companies are sort of going out there and trying this sort of thing...
PRIME MINISTER: I'm not surprised by it, but I think at this stage it would be best to file it under speculation.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, Prime Minister, so when the vaccine is rolled out widely by later this year, will our risk tolerance need to inevitably increase so that, for example, the goal of zero daily cases, or putting entire cities of millions of people down into lockdown from a handful of cases will not necessarily be sustainable, we'll need to learn to live with this virus?
PRIME MINISTER: I don't know if I quite describe it that way. What I'm saying is that the risk environment is reducing. So, even at the same tolerance level, more things can be done, because the risk has declined because of the various things that are being done to achieve that very outcome. What it means is, I mean, if I take you back to March last year, as we stared into that abyss both from a health point of view and economically, we were extremely concerned about tens of thousands of Australians dying. Now, we don't have those concerns now. We are not concerned about the overrun of our emergency departments or ICUs. We're not concerned about that. We are still concerned about people, particularly those most vulnerable, suffering severe disease that can result in fatality. But the vaccinations will certainly address that. And that means that, ultimately, with vaccinations the virus can present a similar risk to many other viruses that are already out there in the community. And we know what our tolerance for that is right now. So, I'm not making any comparison between those at this point. But what we want to understand is the potential for us to reach that point. And so you're right - once you get to that stage, the number of cases isn't the issue. I mean, we don't stand up every day and talk about the number of cases of any other virus, flu or others, every day. That's not to say that those viruses don't result in ultimately fatality for vulnerable people either. They do. But we manage that a different way to the way we're currently managing this pandemic. So, I think it is about how those two lines come back together. Just as an aside, can I say one line we were very happy to see coming together in our reports today is that the calls to 1800 RESPECT on domestic and family violence, for the first time we've seen in a very long time we've seen what we had on the previous 12 months start to come back together to what we've seen more historically. I welcome that. I'm sure we all do. And I hope that continues. But as we agreed all today, whether those lines are together or apart, they're all still too high. And it was a reminder today that there are many things we have to work on as a National Cabinet, not just the vaccine, and family and domestic violence is very high on our list, as is mental health.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, you mentioned a proportionate response and being happy to see that…
PRIME MINISTER: The what, sorry?
JOURNALIST: A proportionate response to outbreaks, mentioning New South Wales and Victoria.
PRIME MINISTER: Yep. And Queensland.
JOURNALIST: Looking back now to the beginning of the week, do you consider WA's response proportionate? Would you be happy with a response similar happening in the future? And on quarantine, WA's quarantine situation, was that discussed? Because on Tuesday, McGowan made some comments saying that, well, technically, quarantine is a federal responsibility as in the constitution, in response to Minister Dutton's criticism. Was any of that canvassed?
PRIME MINISTER: Not really, no. There's a lot that’s sort of reported in papers in the lead-up to National Cabinet, and then National Cabinet proves to be quite a constructive and collegiate meeting. Of course, we talk about quarantine facilities and how we’re running them and the improvements being made, of course we talk about the vaccines and their rollout and work through issues of that nature. But I've got to say, I mean, the Premier had made comments last year about whether we should be using places like Christmas Island and things like that. And our advice has been very consistent, that those are not conducive to the task. That's why we're at Howard Springs. I mean, the national resilience facility there, as it's called, that was the response to what Jane Halton recommended, and we put that in place. And we're looking to expand it. And, you know, we're not averse to other options as well. But they've got to be able to stack up. And they're always a supplement. They're not a replacement. That's what I want to be very clear about, the things that we're doing nationally are to supplement, because- and that's why our charter flights go through that facility. And that takes the pressure off what's happening in the states themselves. Getting other Australians back into the country. So, it's an additional capacity. It's not a replacement capacity. And, look, countries around the world are now putting in place our system in other countries. And others will argue whether that should have been done earlier. Well, we did do it earlier - March last year - and look where we are today.
JOURNALIST: And has WA's response been proportionate, in your view?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, I've maintained that over the course of the week. I mean, but again we've learned - I mean, the risk in Western Australia when this happened - and thankfully, again, no cases, great - same was true in Brisbane. The difference between Brisbane and Perth, and Victoria and New South Wales, is Victoria and New South Wales have dealt with cases and we were very confident about how Victorians and New South Wales residents would respond to things of this nature, and come out and get tested, and, you know, the very strong registration system, of course, in New South Wales. And all of that. So, we knew their systems were very good. And, equally, you know, both Western Australia and Queensland hadn't had as much game time for their systems, with their contact tracing and things like that, as the other states had. But what's been proved to be the case over the course of the last few days, whether it was Western Australia or, indeed, Queensland earlier in the piece, they stood up. So, we would hope that next time there wouldn't be such a need. Because they know their systems work.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, we've seen the Vice-Chancellor of the University of the South Pacific in Fiji essentially detained and then deported as well. This is an institution which has been described as a pillar of the Pacific. It's also an institution that you've spoken at, and it's also one that Australia's poured a substantial amount of money in over time. Has Australia expressed any concerns to the government of Fiji about this action? What were the nature of the concerns expressed, if they were? And do you view it as a blow to Pacific regionalism?
PRIME MINISTER: Look, there have been a number of issues in relation to the University of South Pacific, which has been the topic of much discussion among Pacific leaders and Pacific countries. I'm not going to say anything here that would seek to add to or seek to complicate that. We'll continue to work through those issues through the normal diplomatic channels.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, this week you drew a line in the send with Craig Kelly's comments. Liberal Senator Gerald Rennick says he is unsure if he will get the vaccine because he is too young to get sick. Do those comments undermine the government's efforts to get Australians vaccinated? And can you explain what the threshold is for free speech on this issue?
PRIME MINISTER: Well I think I can best answer that question, that the comments you have attributed to Senator Rennick, he has advised me this morning that that's not what he said. So there's not much more I can say about that given the premise of the question Senator Rennick disputes.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, are you suggesting that it is an inaccurate,
PRIME MINISTER: Sorry?
JOURNALIST: That the report by news.com.au is inaccurate? Surely it’s, if they’re direct quotes,
PRIME MINISTER: Well all I can tell you is what Senator- all I can tell you is what Senator Rennick has told me.
JOURNALIST: What did he tell you?
PRIME MINISTER: He told me that that was not, did not reflect his view.
JOURNALIST: And are you concerned that Craig Kelly has resumed posting about COVID treatments on social media since your chat?
PRIME MINISTER: I've seen a report about that and I don't think it represents the type of thing that is being suggested but my position is the same - I think a little less on that front is helpful.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, can you give us any indication how big the activity at Toowoomba could be under the plan that’s being discussed, would it be perhaps similar to Howard Springs and what would the costs to the Commonwealth be?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, we don't know about the costs, because there is no indication of what the costs are. That's one of the many things that needs to be spelt out and clarified as part of the proposal. I'd describe the proposal, at this stage, as a very - as an outline and there is a lot more to fill in. We are keen to do that, with the proponents and with the Queensland Government and look forward to working with them on that. I know locally concerns have been expressed, that what does this mean for local health services, and the local community. Fair questions. And we’ll just have to work through those. And we worked through those up in Howard Springs as well I should note. But Howard Springs is close to Darwin, which is a different proposition to what Toowoomba is. So none of these circumstances are exactly alike but we're looking at it on its merits and not opposed in principle to things of this nature. By our very actions up in Howard Springs, we’ve demonstrated that. But we have got to look at what the relative merits are of how we expand those types of capacities. And we know that there is a lot more capacity that we can realise up at Howard Springs. That may prove to be a far more effective way to achieve that given that you're bringing in charter flights then if you're adding to an existing facility in an existing place, then you're also not exposing new areas of health risk you are actually just keeping it focused where you’ve been able to demonstrate you can maintain and manage that risk.
JOURNALIST: Did any of the Premiers lobby you to extend JobKeeper and were there any fireworks during National Cabinet about who takes in how many international arrivals and hotel quarantine caps?
PRIME MINISTER: No, there were no fireworks. I mean, honestly, we're professional leaders of governments. We get on with the job as people would expect us to do. And I, to be honest, I think some of the dramatisation of these things in the lead-up to these meetings is a bit overstated and I think probably the public understands that. We take these issues really seriously and we work together constructively to achieve the outcomes we have achieved together. Which is Australia, in the leading bunch of countries of the world, both economically and from a health perspective. That is a shared achievement of all of us. But, most importantly, by the Australian people, who we serve. When it comes to - what was the other, first point you raised?
JOURNALIST: Did any of the premiers lobby you to extend JobKeeper?
PRIME MINISTER: On JobKeeper they received the same advice from Dr Kennedy that I had and that is the schedule for transition on JobKeeper should be maintained. And they, we had, I wouldn't say much of a discussion but we've always made it clear as a government that where there is tailored, proportionate, targeted assistance that we can provide together with the states, because I note again that - I mean, New South Wales and Victoria, I'd say, have had a particularly large fiscal response. Other states have been not at that level. Proportionally, a state like Tasmania has made a very large fiscal response. Other states have been different. States we noted are in a bit more of a flexible position in terms of providing more tailored localised supports, for example, under our tax system we can't discriminate between one part of the country and another. States are less constrained than the federal government. So I think what we resolved was where you can and need to provide additional support in particular areas then you need to do it in concert with each other. And it wouldn't be a matter of just one side of government - ie federal government. I mean we have put in $251 billion worth of fiscal support into the Australian economy on to the balance sheets of Australian’s households, families and businesses. That is more than double the combined fiscal support of all the states and territories put together. So I think we're doing our fair share.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, back on the risk profile that you talk about. Can you envisage a circumstance where Australians who get the vaccine don't have to then do two weeks in hotel quarantine? I'm thinking about you're going to get a jab, hopefully go and visit Joe Biden in Washington. When you come back, is there a circumstance where you don't have to then do two weeks of isolation?
PRIME MINISTER: I'm going to ask Professor Kelly to speak to that but at this stage, the answer is quarantine continues until further notice.
PROFESSOR PAUL KELLY, CHIEF MEDICAL OFFICER: I think ‘yes’, is the answer to that. The main issue is although we've had some preliminary evidence over the last few days in relation to the AstraZeneca vaccine, so it does appear that it does actually influence transmission, we don't have that sort of evidence at the moment for Pfizer or Moderna or any of the others that are in the transition towards being used in other countries. So, at the moment, that two-week quarantine in hotels as has been so successful up till now remains regardless of vaccination.
JOURNALIST: Is there a proven theory at all of the percentage of the population that needs to be vaccinated before you can change the settings?
PROFESSOR PAUL KELLY, CHIEF MEDICAL OFFICER: Certainly, that will feed into the Phil Gaetjens group the PM has mentioned. That's a very key point, actually. What mix of vaccines, how many vaccines, in which parts of the community and how that affects it. I mean, to be very clear, we're starting - we've got our prioritisation settings we've talked about many times at this podium and others which is looking at those at most risk of exposure. At the moment that's our quarantine workers and anyone working in that stream from airports through to people being cared for in hospital in relation to the borders. They're the ones at most high-risk of exposure and those that are at most risk of severe disease, which is our older Australians, particularly those in aged care facilities, health care workers as well are in that set. That’s our number one priority, we’ll start with those and that will really change that conversation about if we're looking to mainly make sure that people aren't getting severe disease, mainly not dying from COVID-19, that changes a whole range of things and that's where this committee will be really important.
PRIME MINISTER: Last question. Then I have to go.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, who in your mind has primary responsibility for hotel quarantine? Is it you or is it the premiers and the chief ministers?
PRIME MINISTER: The states run hotel quarantine consistent with the public health orders that are in place with each of their states and territories. That was the decision we made last March. And that was also made after having advised how the federal biosecurity laws work. And so, that's why it was agreed that that was the most effective way of putting that into place and it has been extremely effective.
Thanks very much.