GILLARD: I obviously grew up in South Australia and am well familiar with Proclamation Day. It is an important event in the South Australian calendar, to mark the time that we became a colony.
It has been great to be here today and it has also been particularly good to be here to see the first participation by the local indigenous people in the proclamation day ceremony. So it has been a delight to join the Governor, to join representatives of the South Australian Government, fellow MPs and of course, the local council in celebrating this special event.
JOURNALIST: (inaudible) suggesting a presentation that a bill of rights should be developed for indigenous Australians. Is that likely to happen in the near future do you think?
GILLARD: The process that the Government is undergoing is our commitment to closing the gap. Obviously during the course of this year, the Government took the historic step of delivering an apology on behalf of the nation to the Stolen Generations of Indigenous Australians.
Now our commitment is to substantial closing of the gap targets. There is a big gap in life expectancy, in educational attainment, between Indigenous Australians and non-Indigenous Australians.
That is our focus, not a bill of rights, but practical action to close the gap.
JOURNALIST: On to other matters. The Sunday Telegraph reports today about the misuse of Government provided credit cards by (inaudible) defence force. What is your reaction to that news today?
GILLARD: As I am advised these credit cards have been in use for around four years. There are 58,000 such credit cards. There have been a very small number of incidents of fraud or misuse and they have been vigorously pursued.
Obviously we have robust measures in place to make sure that any incidence of fraud or misuse is detected and dealt with. The Government is also involved in a major review program throughout Defence, to deal with efficiency measures.
That is being overseen by my colleague, the Minister for Defence Joel Fitzgibbon. But I would stress that given there are 58,000 such cards in use, for legitimate purposes, that the incidence of misuse has been very small indeed and there are robust systems for dealing with any incidence of misuse.
JOURNALIST: (inaudible) there is still $100,000 odd dollars of taxpayers money that is still (inaudible). What sort of, will that be repaid or -
GILLARD: Well as I am advised, when there has been evidence that cards have been misused, that has been pursued, including by criminal charges where that has been justified. So there are robust and strong systems for dealing with any misuse. Obviously any act of dishonesty needs to be detected and needs to be punished. That is the perspective the Government takes.
It takes it in relation to all matters, but including the use of these credit cards. As I am advised the detection systems are robust. And I do think we need to remind ourselves that the number of cases of misuse is very small indeed.
We are talking about 58,000 cards that have been used over four years and we are talking around 200 cases where there has been evidence of misuse. So a very small proportion of misuse in relation to these cards.
So overwhelmingly our Defence Force members are doing the right thing and doing their jobs to the highest standards of professionalism, all day, every day and we should never forget that.
JOURNALIST: So you are satisfied that the use of these credit cards is being closely enough monitored?
GILLARD: Well we are involved in a thorough going review of defence measures. That was instigated by my colleague Joel Fitzgibbon earlier in the year. We are always on the look out for efficiency measures.
We are always on the look out to do things better. But as I am advised, there are robust measures in place in relation to the use of these credit cards to make sure they are used for appropriate purposes and to detect and deal with any measures where there are concerns.
JOURNALIST: (inaudible) national drug study (inaudible) suggesting a move from alcohol to ecstasy. Does that concern you?
GILLARD: Any use of illicit drugs concerns me. Any use of alcohol, inappropriate use of alcohol, heavy drinking, binge drinking, is obviously of key concern to the Government.
During the course of the year we obviously dealt with the tax on alcopops. We believe that alcopops were not sufficiently taxed compared with other alcoholic beverages and we moved to act on alcopops.
We believed that there was a lot of evidence that alcopops were the favoured drink for teenagers who were binge drinking, particularly at young ages.
Any use of alcohol for binge drinking or illicit drugs is obviously a concern to the Government. We engaged in a number of public health campaigns to warn people of the dangers of illicit drugs and to warn people of the dangers of the misuse of alcohol.
And I would repeat all of those messages, particularly as we move towards New Years Eve. People have to stay safe, they have to look after themselves, so that is obviously saying no to illicit drugs and only drinking in moderation. And certainly when people are driving in the holiday season, we too often see the consequences of the misuse of alcohol and combining it with driving.
So it is very important. People have a good new years eve, but keep safe.
JOURNALIST: But that is just the point, they are saying that it is the cost that seems to be a factor for (inaudible) and that alcohol is too expensive and they seem to be having a better night out on illicit drugs because they can spend less on those than they can on the cost of alcohol. (inaudible)
GILLARD: Well I think the ultimate thing here is to get the message through that whether it is misuse of alcohol or whether it is use of illicit drugs, these can jeopardise people's heath.
They can end up in unsafe situations. Obviously we want people, particularly young people to be able to go out and have a good time. But as the television campaign of warnings we have in place now shows, misuse of alcohol, use of illicit drugs can end in tragedy. And I would be saying to all Australians, but particularly young Australians as we move towards New Years Eve, to have a good time, but to stay safe, and staying safe means confining drinking to drinking in moderation and not using illicit drugs.
JOURNALIST: Miss Gillard, the action by the ETU and other (inaudible)
GILLARD: Well look that is a matter for the unions involved and if they choose to raise something at the ILO then that is a matter for them. What I can say about the Government's industrial relations laws is we believe we have got the balance right.
When I introduced the Fair Work Bill into the Australian Parliament, I fully expected that there would be some employers who said we had gone too far, some unions who said that we hadn't gone far enough.
We believe we have got the balance right and importantly, we have delivered on our promises to the Australian people, to sweep Work Choices away and to replace it with a fair and balanced industrial relations system.
JOURNALIST: Is this going to increase business (inaudible)
GILLARD: We have been very clear since we first launched our workplace relations policy in 2007 that pattern bargaining would not be legal under Labor's laws. Pattern bargaining is not legal under our Fair Work Bill. That is a situation we have made absolutely clear month after month, day after day.
Our bill is about having a safety net for all Australians that they can rely on, standards at work that can't be stripped away from them. It is about bargaining at an enterprise level and it is also about being protected from unfair dismissal.
WorkChoices stripped away the safety net and people could be dismissed on a whim and have no remedy. Our bill fixes that.
JOURNALIST: What is the Federal Government's reaction to the military action in the Middle East over night, with reports that up to 200 people have been killed.
GILLARD: Well obviously this is a deeply concerning matter. Clearly, we are calling on Hamas and other militants to cease shelling Southern Israel. Obviously they have broken the ceasefire and engaged in an act of aggression against Israel.
Israel has responded. We are echoing the calls from around the world for parties to move back to a ceasefire.
We are saying in relation to this that Hamas has engaged in an act of aggression, Israel has responded. We are saying to the Hamas that they should cease any further action.
We are saying to the Israelis that all care should be taken to avoid injuring civilians and obviously the world would want and I am sure all people who want peace, would want the ceasefire to re-emerge and for all violent action to stop.
JOURNALIST: (inaudible) Israel overreacted (inaudible)
GILLARD: Clearly the act of aggression was engaged in by Hamas, that commenced shelling with rockets and mortars into Israel. That is what breached the ceasefire and Israel responded.
In terms of any response, we would make it clear that all care should be taken to try and avoid injuring civilians and obviously people. Care needs to be taken by Israel in that regard. But for all us I think who care about peace around the world and peace in the Middle East, what we would be urging is for the ceasefire to start again and for all violent action to stop.
JOURNALIST: There is a new advertisement out today which is critical of the Government's climate change targets, saying that five per cent is something that John Howard would have been proud of. Do you think the Government has let voters down on that percentage having promised stronger targets?
GILLARD: I believe the Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme that the Government announced in mid December gets the balance right - gets the balance right in dealing with the profound challenge of climate change and making sure that our nation is responding to that profound challenge, whilst ensuring of course the we are supporting Australian jobs and we are making sure that we are not creating circumstances where there is carbon leakage, where things that should be occurring in Australia go offshore.
So we believe that we have got the balance right. We believe that it is an effective scheme to deal with the profound problem of climate change. Once again, when we launched the carbon pollution reduction scheme, we expected that with an issue like that, there would be some people that thought we had not gone far enough and others that thought we had gone too far.
We worked hard through a very consultative process, led by Senator Penny Wong, of this state of South Australia, to work with everyone to get the balance right, and we have achieved that.
[ends]