PM: Firstly it's really good to be back here in Brisbane today at the Crackerjack Carnival. This is great testament to Clem Jones the former Lord Mayor of Brisbane. Clem Jones began this carnival back in 1974, he began the Camp Hill Carina Welfare Association back in 1957 and it's a huge community event with one purpose. To raise money to keep local community support going. Local community support for 17 sporting clubs across this part of Brisbane.
It's a fantastic charity, but the people who benefit are from the literally tens and hundreds of thousands of young people across Brisbane who have benefited from these facilities over 50 years. Each year there's 100,000 local people who use these facilities - Rugby League, Tennis, Basketball, Netball, the whole works, as well as Swimming. It's a fantastic initiative and I'm pleased to be here today to support it.
Second thing I'd like to talk about today is the 2020 Summit. The 2020 Summit was held not all that long ago and we said at the time of the 2020 Summit that we'd also bring foreword the recommendations or the conclusions or the summary of the matters raised by the 2020 Summit.
The 2020 Summit was put together nationally so that Government could shake the tree to see what ideas we're out there in the Australian community about our country, not for the next 12 months, not for the next two years but out to the next decade and beyond. Australia needs long term planning. That's why we convened a 2020 Summit so we could have long term planning and thinking not just short term thinking. And secondly on top that, that we could engage the whole Australian community. Both the business community, the community sector as well as those engaged right across all the fabric of our national life.
We had 1000 participants in Canberra, we had 500 school summits, we had many, many other community summits held right across our nation as well. We said at the time of the Summit that by the end of May we would produce through the Prime Ministers Department, the summary document of the various ideas put forward at the Summit.
So what we are releasing today is a document of some hundreds of pages. It will be on the website of www.australia2020.gov.au and that document is being released today consistent with our undertakings before.
The other thing I'd say about the Summit is this. It contains a whole range of practical ideas and they include a recommendation for a community core whereby young Australians undertake community service in return for HECS debt relief. A learning for life account that extends Australia's superannuation system to areas like life long learning. A new national preventative health care agency. A national clear energy portfolio for several flagship projects. An Australian sustainability challenge from the youth summit an initiative to improve the understand of rural Australia among those who live in our cities and a comprehensive enquiry into Australia's taxation system.
These are some example of the ideas put forward at the summit and our undertaking is this and I said it at the time. We'll embrace some of these ideas, others we will not be able to embrace and others again we'll modify. That's what we said at the time, that's what we say today. But we also said once the summary document was ready we put it out to the entire community.
That is our return back to those who took a weekend of their time to come to Canberra and to contribute to this important national initiative in a new way of governing. That is opening the doors to allow the community to come in and speak to Government, which is what we did.
Finally the Government has also said on the 2020 Summit that by years end we will provide our full response to all of these matters. Those we can accept, those that we cannot accept and the reasons why as well as those that we'll modify. The 2020 Summit - an important way of throwing the doors open of the Government to the community to allow the community to come in and have their say and then on top of that the Government within a reasonable period of time to respond to what the community has said.
I thank those who participated in the Summit for their efforts. Over to you folks.
JOURNALIST: Do you have a short list of favourites then that you will be pushing for?
PM: Well I go to say one of the big areas of debate from the business sector was of course the need for a comprehensive overhaul of the nations taxation system. That's why we've initiated the Henry Commission of inquiry into tax, into income support and into retirement incomes policy. That is a massive exercise, it's not really been done that way in more than a quarter of a century and some would argue since the war. That's one thing we've embraced.
Another is the call by the business community for a seamless national economy. That's why through the COAG process involving the States we are now going through item by item 27 pieces of legislation to try and bring about a system whereby if you are a business operating in Queensland, you can easily register your business name or go through the business regulatory procedures in the other states without it costing you a bombshell to do so. That's another one
But one I think is really worth following here in the community sector is also this idea of a community core whereby young Australians undertake community service in exchange for some HECS debt relief. I think that's a good one to think about as well. But I say that on top of the fact that there are literally dozens and dozens of ideas put forward here and we'll work our way through these methodically. But as part of being open with the community about what was said at the Summit, this document puts it all together, puts it out there and if there are any errors in it I'm sure those who participated in the Summit will let us know. But I think the Prime Ministers Department has done it's best job to make sure it's as good as possible.
JOURNALIST: (inaudible)
PM: Well you know Clem Jones I remember Clem from 1974 flood in Brisbane. I remember him from previous crackerjack carnivals which have been virtually a complete washout and today again when the weather gods have decided that Brisbane and South East Queensland needed some rain.
Clem Jones rain, hail or shine would be here to support - community support and community charities and I'm pleased to be here in the spirit of Clem Jones supporting this fantastic event for Brisbane.
JOURNALIST: On another topic will petrol be excluded from emissions trading scheme?
PM: What we've said consistently about emissions trading is that we have the Garnaut inquiry interim report which comes out in the middle of the year and it will provide it's recommendations on the way forward. A final report from Professor Garnaut will come out some time in September, October and it is in response to those reports that the Government will begin to formulate its direct response, including the coverage of the regime.
What I'd say very clearly though is that last year when the Liberal party was in Government they said through Mr Turnbull that land transport and petrol would be included within the emissions trading regime. Now they seem to be saying something slightly different. We'll make our position clear once we have the Garnaut report in hand.
JOURNALIST: You must have concerns though that if it is included the price of petrol could soar?
PM: The key thing with helping motorist under financial pressure is to make sure that low and middle income earners are not financially disadvantaged by any changes which arise from the emission trading regime. And that they receive a reasonable helping hand from Government on the way through.
One of the reasons we're working hard on this is because we don't want to see low and middle income earners hurt and that's why we're taking our time on this - both in relation to petrol and more widely on energy prices.
One of the problems by the way in Government is we've been in Government for 6 months. We had 12 years of inactivity by the Liberal Party on emissions trading and in 6 months we've had to go from basically a zero start to where we are now, given that we've got to deal with an international negotiating agenda, proceeding at the same time which requires Australia to put its hand up for its position under Kyoto by the end of next year.
JOURNALIST: Now latest research suggest that the National obesity - anti obesity campaign may be misdirected?
PM: Well on the question of childhood obesity I think its very important that we understand fully where the challenge lies. We believe that obesity represents one of those chronic disease challenges for the nation and we must act to make sure it doesn't result in a epidemic of diseases like type 2 diabetes. That's the challenge.
Also obesity has enormous compounding effect on cardiovascular disease and some categories of cancer. Therefore we do need a national campaign on obesity but lets go to some of the survey results.
It said that the overall growth rate grows slightly from 6 to 6.8 per cent between 2000-2006. It said that for boys in the lower income bracket it rose from 5.4 to 9.3 (per cent). For children from wealthier families from 4.9 to 6.8 (per cent). For boys from such families 3.7 to 4.9 (per cent). Girls in lower income families 3.9 to 6.8 (per cent) and also some other data as well.
What I'm saying is most of the data here is heading up not down. So you've got two alternatives you can either say this is not our problem, we're not going to do anything about this or you can act. And what the Government has decided to do rather than just brush it away is launch its $62 million national preventative health strategy to fight obesity. This is one step in the right direction.
It's a bit like action petrol, obesity and things like grocery prices. You can have a go at dealing with the problem or you can simply say it's too hard. I'm in the category of having a go and seeing what you can do.
JOURNALIST: Should it be more heavily aimed though at low income families?
PM: What we've got to say is that we've got a national challenge of obesity. It affects different communities in different ways and certainly affects for example indigenous communities if different ways and an effective national strategy has to be tailored to the different demands in different localities but the overall effect would have to be this.
You can either let the figures go up and up and up which produce an epidemic of chronic disease or you can act now to bring it down (inaudible) is a good step in the right direction.
JOURNALIST: Sorry Prime Minister a young boy 11 year old Daniel Clarke. He wrote to the then Prime Minister Howard regarding the funding for an Orang-utan project that he was given. Apparently this little boy has now received a letter from Minister Garrett suggesting there's no more funding there. Isn't that disappointing to you this little boy worked hard and now is feeling crushed?
PM: Well I think this is, I can really understand the little boy concern for Orang-utans. I really value his efforts in this area. I think when former Prime Ministers go around and make these sort of promises, they need to actually make sure that they are funded.
What we have done is made sure that there is a $500,000 commitment for a 4 year partnership with the Nature Conservancy and this compliments our $30 million support for the Kalimantan Forest and Climate Partnership, which will helps tackle the causes of deforestation and the protection of their habitats. Now we take seriously our responsibilities when it comes to nature conservation here and around the world. We're trying to do it offshore with our partners in Indonesia and comprehensive ways in Kalimantan and I fully understand the little boys passion and commitment.
I value that but there is also a different way of handling it as well
JOURNALIST: (inaudible)
PM: We will continue on the challenge of Orang-utans.