JULIA GILLARD: Can I open by making some remarks about John Button who has passed away overnight. I knew John Button of course being a member of the Labor Party in Victoria and I always admired him. John Button went into politics with the reputation of being an honest man who spoke his mind and he came out of politics with the reputation of being an honest man who spoke his mind. He was short in stature but he was a legend of the Labor movement and he is particularly responsible for driving the economic debate in this country during the era of the Hawke Government. When this country had to make difficult decisions about opening its economy to the world, John Button was always a voice for reform. And when we look at today's economy and we look at our national prosperity we need to reflect on John Button's contribution to building it over ten years as a minister in the Hawke Government where he was a leader of the economic debate. He is going to be sorely missed of course by his family my condolences go to his partner Joan and to his children. He is going to be missed by the Labor movement and the Labor Party and I think he's going to be mourned by many who remember his contribution during that time and recognise what he did for this nation's prosperity. And I would note coming from Melbourne's west as I do, when I go and visit local car plants like the Toyota factory both the managers and the workers still talk about the Button car plan and there is still acknowledgement by them that the industry would've be unlikely to still be here today if it hadn't been for the visionary work of John Button. So there would be people all around the nation who are stopping today to reflect for a moment on John Button passing and my condolences go to his family and friends.
On the topic of International education I'm here today for a major international education forum. International education is vital to this country's prosperity, education is our third largest export industry and around this country today there is some 450,000 students from overseas who are studying here. Its good for our economy, its good for our cross cultural exchange, its good for our understanding of our place in the world, its good for developing friendships and links that then go on to feed economic exchanges between nations as well as personal exchanges between nations but increasingly we're not just seeing international students come to this country to study in our secondary schools, our vocational education and training providers and our universities, increasingly we are seeing Australian education institutions develop campuses overseas either on their own or in partnership with local providers. We want to make sure that those off shore campuses also offer students a quality education experience, we have a reputation internationally for high quality, we want to maintain that reputation for education provided here and for education provided in Australian institutions overseas.
That's why today I have launched our new AusLIST program it is a web based resource to enable students in other countries and employers in other countries to search and to look at Australian education providers overseas. The education providers who are part of AusLIST have given us assurances of the quality of their education and obviously that will be monitored. This is part of a quality assurance program so when students overseas are making a decision about whether or not to study at the Australian institution in their country or in their region, they can read about that institution, they can view its quality performance and they can be ensured its quality is being monitored by Australia. This is another important development in making sure our international education system continues to provide quality education to students from right around the world. So it's an exciting development and it's been my pleasure to launch it today at this international education forum.
I am happy to take any questions.
JOURNALIST: Do you think your speech today was understandable in light of the flack that Kevin Rudd has received for his speeches overseas so far?
JULIA GILLARD: Well I suppose really to assess someone's speech you need to take a survey of audience members obviously this is a specialist audience of international education providers and they are very keen to make sure the sector continues its reputation for high standards. They are very keen to get an insight into government thinking about the future of international education and importantly we're very keen to hear from them in the context of our major review of higher education and making sure that we have a world class system for the next 10, 15, 20 years.
JOURNALIST: Are you concerned at all about the Olympic Torch coming to Australia?
JULIA GILLARD: The security for the Olympic torch in Australia will be provided by Australian security personnel. We obviously have great security personnel in this country they will make the appropriate arrangements so that the torch can proceed on its passage around this country. It may be that people choose to demonstrate; obviously we would say to people who choose to demonstrate in any circumstance that it's important that those demonstrations are kept peaceful.
JOURNALIST: Will you be there to greet the torch?
JULIA GILLARD: No I won't be. I understand the torch lands in the country on the 24th of April and I am in commitments in my electorate in Melbourne that day.
JOURNALIST: Do you support the Olympics being held in Beijing given what's happening at the moment over human rights over there?
JULIA GILLARD: Well the Prime Minister has made very clear our deep concerns about human rights abuses and our deep concerns about human rights abuses in Tibet. We've also made it very clear that we do not support a boycott of the Olympic Games. The Dalai Lama himself has not called for a boycott of the Olympic Games. In our exchanges with China we always raise human rights questions we will continue engagement with China on these issues we'll continue that dialogue because of our concern about human rights issues.
JOURNALIST: Will anyone from the Government welcome the Olympic Torch?
JULIA GILLARD: It's my understanding that the Minister for Sport, my colleague Kate Ellis will be in Canberra to welcome the Olympic Torch when it arrives.
JOURNALIST: Will the Prime Minister or the Governor General go to Beijing for the opening ceremony if invited?
JULIA GILLARD: Well the Prime Minister has been invited to attend the Beijing Olympics and as he's made it clear he is weighing that up obviously the Prime Minister's diary is a very crowded one, the Prime Minister is a very busy man and he is weighing it up in the context of other diary priorities.
JOURNALIST: In the news polls Labor is doing very well but the opposition says you are still in your honeymoon period.
JULIA GILLARD: I've obviously seen the news poll into today's papers can I say I think working families are probably more interested in a different set of numbers than the numbers in news poll. I think they're interested in numbers like how much is their mortgage is costing them, how much its costs them to put petrol in the tank of their car, how much it costs them to go to the supermarket and to get the shopping in for the weekly grocery round and on each of those pressures on working families the government understands its concerned about that pressure and is doing what it can to ease that pressure.
We're fighting inflation to try and take the pressure off interest rates, we're dealing with petrol prices through our new petrol price commissioner, we're of course dealing with grocery prices through an inquiry and we've got a commitment to a monitoring system. We want to ease the pressure on working families. When it comes to the opposition I find it difficult to understand what it is that the Opposition Leader Brendan Nelson stands for. When it comes to the economy on one day he supports the independence of the Reserve Bank Governor on another day he doesn't. On one day he says Work Choices is dead on another day he supports the thing that was at the heart of Work Choices, Australian Workplace Agreements and indeed his spokesperson on Workplace Relations supports going further so I think the opposition needs to define for the Australian people what it stands for because it seems every 24 or 48 hours it changes.
JOURNALIST: There has been more talk about a merger again with the National Party. What do you think about that?
JULIA GILLARD: Well these organisational matters are matters for the Liberal Party and the National Party to discuss and they can do that without the benefit of my views but at the end of the day the Australian people aren't interested in political party structures what their interested in is whether or not people understand what is happening in their lives. And they want to know what politicians stand for. They want to know what their vision for the nation is. And when the Opposition Leader is unable to declare a vision on comparatively simple questions like the independence of the Reserve Bank Governor, like whether or not they still believe in Work Choices, obviously it becomes hard for Australian working families to work out what the Liberal Party stands for. And I think the conclusion they draw is that the Liberal Party has just lost its way.
JOURNALIST: Given your electorate is in the west do you support an east-west tunnel?
JULIA GILLARD: Look I have noted the Eddington report with interest, it's the subject of great discussion in my local community. We had a 2020 summit in my local community last Friday afternoon. It was the topic of discussion there and I believe that dialogue will continue. There are a range of possible options but I think everyone is recognising that something needs to be done to deal with traffic congestion from the west of Melbourne into the city. This is a huge growth area full of new housing estates full of new families -- transport options need to be increased. Obviously we're interested in increasing public transport options as well as private transport options. The Brumby Labor Government is reviewing the Eddington material having received it from Sir Rod Eddington and I anticipate that local communities, including my own, will continue to be part of the process of discussion and decision making with the state government.
JOURNALIST: What's the government's response to the youth homeless report today? Will there be funding for that?
JULIA GILLARD: I was deeply concerned and distressed to see these statistics in today's newspaper. When you've got reports telling you that thousands, indeed some 36,000 young people are experiencing homelessness I think that would concern everyone. I'm sure every Australian would like to say that they live in a nation that ensures our young people are looked after and if people find themselves in difficult circumstances whether due to family breakdown or whatever has put pressure on them, that there is a helping hand rather than just sleeping rough as the solution. The Government's already invested $150 million in combating homelessness. We know that there is more to do. That's why we have asked Tony Nicholson from the Brotherhood of St Lawrence to work with the government to help us to find what else needs to be done but we simply don't want to see anyone let alone young at risk Australians sleeping rough.
JOURNALIST: As Education Minister and Workplace Relations Minister what's your view with linking teachers pay rises to productivity increases?
JULIA GILLARD: On the question of teachers pay we've said it's very important that our society is sending a message that teaching in valuable that the best and brightest should aspire to teach. We want the leaders out of the classes of today to become the teachers of tomorrow and of course that means that we need to reward excellence and merit in teaching. On direct wage negotiations they are obviously matters for state governments but we have said to our state and territory colleagues that we want to work with them on lifting the pressure on disadvantaged and low performing schools. We want to enter into a new arrangement with them to try and combat educational disadvantage where we find it. Inevitably as we have that discussion with our state and territory colleagues who are very enthusiastic about the prospects of doing more to combat educational disadvantage that will lead us to discuss questions of teacher quality.
JOURNALIST: Invasion of the Merrylands school yesterday are there concerns that, should parents be concerned that our schools are coming American type schools with gang problems?
JULIA GILLARD: Look I certainly don't want to spread alarm but what happened in that incident has absolutely no place in this country. Absolutely no place in this country, I know the police are now investigating it, that investigation has to proceed and the people responsible have to be held to account. But that sort of conduct by anyone has got no place in an Australian school.
JOURNALIST: So you don't have security concerns about our schools?
JULIA GILLARD: We indicated at the last election that we would provide some security support for schools that are at particular risk that program is being run by my colleague Bob Debus. They are for schools that have particular security concerns for example we've had Jewish schools in this country that have faced particular security concerns but my overall message would be that that kind of gang culture and gang violence has got no place in this country.
JOURNALIST: Is the Rudd Government considering banning ATM's at poker venues?
JULIA GILLARD: The Rudd Government through my colleague Jenny Macklin has called a meeting with our state and territory colleagues that meeting will be proceeding in June. The Prime Minister's made it very clear that he is concerned about gambling culture and problem gambling that is a concern that is shared by the community. In parts of this city where I live where there are many poker machines, many venues, much concern about how much of family income is being consumed by gambling. It's a concern shared by the community, so we're going to work on that with our state and territory colleagues and Jenny Macklin my colleague and the Minister for Families is leading that initiative and leading the discussion with our state and territory colleagues.
Ok last question.
JOURNALIST: Has the Brumby Government approached the Rudd Government for funding for any of the projects on the Eddington Report?
JULIA GILLARD: The Brumby Government is obviously considering the Eddington Report, working through it. You would have seen the statements that Premier Brumby made when it was received. We have said to our colleagues in the states and territories generally that we are keen to deal with the infrastructure needs of this nation, that's why we've set up Infrastructure Australia which will be guiding government to identify the projects that most need to get off the ground for this nation's future prosperity.
JOURNALIST: Has there been a specific request from the Eddington Report?
JULIA GILLARD: We've got Infrastructure Australia working on the job and as Premier Brumby has indicated he is considering the Eddington Report .