PM: I begin by making some remarks about events in the last 24 hours in Pakistan. This is a shameful, cowardly attack on innocent cricketers. A shameful, cowardly attack by terrorists on innocent cricketers. It deserves universal condemnation. It gets condemnation from Australia.
Cricket occupies a special place in the hearts of sports lovers and Australians, but also sports-lovers across the world and therefore, this therefore is a doubly atrocious act given that it has been perpetrated against those who give us as Australians and sports lovers across the world such pleasure in watching the game.
It reminds us that terrorism remains a threat in various parts of the world. It reminds us again of the absolute requirement to maintain vigilance in our counter-terrorism measures both within Australia and around the world.
Secondly, I'd like to make some remarks about today's national accounts figures. The Australian economy has contracted in the December quarter, reflecting the impact of the global economic recession. With 17 of the world's most advanced economies already in recession and 27 of the advanced economies already experiencing at least one quarter of economic growth, Australia cannot continue to swim against the global economic tide.
Australia can reduce the impact, cushion the impact of the global economic tide but we cannot stop it altogether.
The Government's economic stimulus package last year and repeated with further action this year is designed to cushion the impact of the global economic recession on Australia, as reflected in the fact that in the December quarter, the Australian economy was among the top five performing economies in the industrial world.
What this demonstrates is that had the Government not introduced its stimulus package at the end of last year, the impact on Australian jobs and the Australian economy would have been worse.
This underlines the Government's resolve to continue to take whatever further action is necessary to underpin growth and jobs in the future through actions to stabilise financial markets, actions through our Nation Building program, actions also to support employment, apprenticeships and training, and actions also in international responses which will soon be brought to a head with the G20 Summit in London.
That is important because until global credit markets are properly stabilised, it follows that we are going to continue to have a major cause for continuing concern in the global economy, a continuation of the global recession and the roll-on impact on the economy in Australia as well.
This also reminds us that at times of great economic challenge such as Australia is going through at present, we are all in this together. Government at all levels, business, unions, workers, the community, and in this together we are going to come through this together as an economy and as a nation.
I said before that Australia and the Australian Government stands ready to take whatever further action is necessary to continue to support growth and jobs in the future. And part of that means action to assist employment and to assist apprenticeships and to assist traineeships, which brings me into the particular question of the matters which the Premier and I have just been discussing here in Gladstone and the work that we have seen here today at this great apprenticeship workshop here in Gladstone.
One of the practical things we can do as a nation - government, federal and State, the Australian Government and the Queensland Government - is to get in behind practical programs to support apprenticeships, to keep people in apprenticeships and where people are being pushed out of apprenticeships anywhere to find other ways that we can maintain their skills out of trade apprenticeships.
What we are announcing here today in Gladstone is an additional 3,650 pre-apprenticeship places around Australia, which means some 730 of those pre-apprenticeship places will come here to Queensland. This is a practical piece of policy to support young kids, like those we've been talking to here this morning in Gladstone, get into their apprenticeships in the first place and to make sure they've got the skills to sustain those apprenticeships.
In particular this program is designed to provide assistance with pre-apprenticeship training - often when kids are going into apprenticeships there are still continuing problems with literacy and numeracy - up to 13 weeks' job-search support as well as post-placement support in apprenticeships as well.
I noticed here from what I've been told in Gladstone, there has been something like a 98 per cent success rate in placing these good, young Queensland kids into apprenticeships and from apprenticeships into positions in the real economy. We want to support that through practical measures such as I've outlined today. They build on other measures announced in recent times by the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Education and Training, Julia Gillard, and they act in partnership with those which are being supported by the Queensland Government.
If I can turn now to the Premier.
BLIGH: Thank you Prime Minister, it's great to join with you here in Gladstone today, talking about apprenticeships and skills. Can I also join with the Prime Minister and express my condemnation on the attacks on the Sri Lankan cricket team, on behalf of all Queenslanders I send our very best wishes to the team and hope, wish them a very speedy recovery. We look forward to seeing the Sri Lankans playing out here safely in Australia very soon.
The strength of the Queensland economy has been evident today, defying the national trend, when we see growth in the December quarter for the Queensland economy. It's not as strong as we predicted because we have seen the Queensland economy take some effect from the global financial crisis. But the fact that we see continued growth in the Queensland economy is evidence that Queensland is still a strong State. We keep our State strong by investing in skills, so that as we come out of the global financial crisis we will have what it takes to take advantage of the opportunities that will present themselves.
Today, as part of investing in those apprenticeship skills, the Queensland Government commits to expanding our 10 per cent apprenticeship policy on government projects.
For a number of years, we have as policy required Queensland Government projects in the government sector to have 10 per cent of apprentices as part of that building project. We will now extend that policy to all building projects that we administer using federal Government funds, we will extend it to all building projects undertaken by our government-owned corporations like Queensland Rail, like our Port Authorities, and we will extend it to other forms of contracting than traditional procurement, including joint ventures, alliance contracting and PPPs.
In effect this will mean that the apprentices that are employed on government building projects in Queensland will double. It means that in the next financial year we will see close to 1,100 more apprentices as part of our building program.
Queensland has the largest building program in the country. Our building program is house for a very large part of our economic growth and that's why I am committed to keeping every single project.
Next year, our building program will see $14.5 billion of State funds and that will be added to by the Commonwealth's stimulus package. We will see as a result of that, more than 1,100 new apprentices. This makes good economic sense and it gives real opportunities to young Queenslanders to get the skills they need so that they can be part of growing the Queensland and the Australian economy.
PM: Thank you. Now over to you folks.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, do fear that a recession is now likely given these figures came on the top of the stimulus package (inaudible)?
PM: I believe that governments, Australian and State, need to work together to continue to cushion Australia, to continue to cushion Queenslanders from the full impact of the global economic recession.
The reason we have brought in an economic stimulus package at the end of last year, the reason that we have brought in a much bigger one in February this year, which hasn't even begun flowing through to the economy yet, is because we fully get the fact that around the world, the global economic recession is biting deep. And it gets harder and harder for Australia to swim against the tide.
Of course we stand by what we have articulated in the most recent economic forecast put out by the Australian Government. Obviously, the news since then continues to get worse from around the world. And obviously all the risks as we said then are on the downside.
But we believe we have a strategy which will see Australia through this crisis and we're embarked on that strategy with a practical course of action. Stimulus package last year. Stimulus package this year. A four percentage reduction in interest rates. And we have still as a government more to do.
JOURNALIST: Do you think it's going to be enough - $42 billion to stave off another fall in growth and therefore recession?
PM: As I said repeatedly from the beginning of the global economic crisis, what the Australian Government can do, in partnership with governments like Queensland which are out there investing in infrastructure, is that we can cushion Australia from the full impact of the global economic recession. We cannot eliminate that impact.
The point underpinning the address I gave in Sydney yesterday on the international economy was to underline one core fact and that is - we need to see a return to normality in global financial markets, a return to health in the major global banks. That is the core of the global economic problem at present. Affecting in turn private credit flows across the global economy, affecting in turn the Australian economy and the economy of Queensland. These are the facts. That's what's bearing down on us globally. What we can do nationally and at a state level, is through our investment in nation building, through our investment in necessary infrastructure, cushion the impact of that global economic recession. But the truth is as I've always said is that it is cushioning because there is no silver bullet available to any level of government in the midst of a global economic recession.
JOURNALIST: (inaudible)
PM: Well, I've known Anna for a long, long time. She's a first-class Premier. The thing about Anna Bligh is that she understands that the global economic recession is real for Queensland as opposed to Mr Springborg who has said that this is not relevant to Queensland. Can I just say to all Queenslanders - when you see the global economy going into a significant recession, when you see the impact on the Australian economy and jobs, including here in Queensland, it is real for Queensland, it is not peripheral for Queensland.
JOURNALIST: Are you going to any other seats in Queensland during this election campaign?
PM: Oh look, I'm sure I'll be back in Queensland. I live here. It's home and I get here as often as possible so I'm sure we'll sort that out over time. I'm here in Gladstone today, back in Gladstone today. Been here many times before and I'm looking forward to being back.
JOURNALIST: (inaudible)
PM: Well I go back to the core question here which is, we've got a global economic recession which is affecting growth and jobs across Australia, across Queensland and in regions like this in Queensland. It is real. As governments we must work together to reduce the impact of the global economic recession on Queensland growth and jobs and families, whereas Mr Springborg says it's not relevant to Queensland families, growth and jobs. There is a stark problem here. It simply does not add up.
It's a bit like his approach to how he's going to fund his election promises. Those figures don't add up as well.
JOURNALIST: Can you do three per cent without cutting jobs and services, when he was talking about his productivity dividend yesterday?
PM: You know something. In the Federal Government, when we have used an efficiency dividend in the 08/09 Budget for the whole country, we yielded $412 million worth of savings. Mr Springborg is saying that in one year in the Queensland budget, he can yield $1 billion worth of savings and mysteriously not affect jobs. Mr Springborg's figures don't add up. The only way in which Mr Springborg's figures add up is if his $1 billion is yielded by removing 12,000 jobs from critical services delivered by police, by nurses, and by teachers. There's no other way to do it.
JOURNALIST: Has he flattered you by (inaudible) a similar policy (inaudible)?
PM: There's a big difference between the Australian Government and the state government is that the state government of Queensland, like all state governments, is intensively engaged in the delivery of hospital services through nurses, through education services, through the employment of teachers, and of course law and order services through police and emergency services.
The overwhelming concentration of what state governments do is to deliver these critical services to the community. That stands in complete contrast to the structure of the Federal Government. This is a huge difference.
And notwithstanding that difference I refer you back to the figures that I reflected to you before - and Anna will add to this right now - is that Mr Springborg's figures don't add up on how he intends to fund this cut in 12,000 jobs, but I understand that if he doesn't believe the economic recession globally is relevant to Queensland.
PREMIER BLIGH: If I can I just add to the Prime Minister's comments about the federal efficiency program, what the Commonwealth Government did, like my Government, is that we look for efficiency but we do it carefully and thoughtfully and we actively protect frontline service delivery.
So the Commonwealth efficiency dividend did not apply to defence, it did not apply to state hospital grants, it did not apply to state grants for schools or non-government schools. They protected those frontline service delivery areas.
Mr Springborg's program is across every part of government. We have a state budget of over $35 billion, three per cent of it is $1 billion. And you cannot get $1 billion out of the Queensland Government unless you take something out of every single part of it. It is simply mathematically impossible, and anybody who understands what's happening in the global economy could not have proposed as Mr Springborg has to cut jobs and to cut services.
JOURNALIST: Your efficiency dividend, you are saying it (inaudible).
PREMIER BLIGH: No. We protected all of those areas from any efficiency dividend. And we have directed that to savings which are modest but achievable, without job losses. Have to be from areas like publications, from areas like advertising, from areas like consultancy.
PM: Can I just add to this on the question of these job losses and through Mr Springborg's plan - again the Australian Government has been in its efforts in 08/09, yielding savings through an efficiency dividend which produced at the end of the day a public service, we employ about 240,000 Australians. About the same size.
That's the sort of work that you actually have to do in order to yield savings which actually don't result in large job losses. And I contrast that again with this blunt instrument which Mr Springborg proposes to take a billion dollars out of nurses, out of teachers, and out of police. There's no other way in which you make those numbers stack up.
Secondly, for the period ahead 09/10, our position is this. The aggregate impact of our efficiency dividend at the Australian Government level for 09/10 will result again in no aggregate reduction in the overall size of the Australian Public Service.
That is responsible. It's doubly responsible in the current global economic environment. Mr Springborg who says that the global economic recession's not relevant now says the smart thing to do is to cut 12,000 jobs in frontline services. It doesn't add up.
JOURNALIST: How much room is there in the Budget for another stimulus package?
PM: Well I've said repeatedly that the Australian Government stands ready to take whatever further action is necessary. Remember this applies in four key areas. The stabilisation of financial markets, much as been done, we continue to monitor financial markets closely because what happens with supply of private credit in the economy is a fundamental and critical concern.
Secondly, in terms of nation building, in terms of the infrastructure which we are co-investing in and co-building in some cases with the states like the $15 billion we invested in the biggest school modernisation program in the country's history, a large slice of which will happen here in Queensland. Those practical measures we'll implement but we'll also keep a weather eye on what further needs to be done.
Thirdly, those who lose their jobs through no fault of their own, governments have a responsibility to assist employment, apprenticeships, training as well as providing for enhanced job search services as well.
Finally, international policy action to deal with the cause of the cancer of the global economic crisis and that's the problem with global credit markets.