PREMIER: Okay well delighted to, delighted to greet the Prime Minister at Minto Public here today and along with Andy and Megan and Jason Clare, the local member, the State Minister for Education and of course Grahame West the Member for Campbelltown at the state level. Delighted to be here today as we literally see work on the ground as part of the education revolution and the stimulus package that the Prime Minister announced earlier this year to protect Australians, to protect Australian families from the worst effects of the global recession.
And this money is going into hardware in schools right across Australia but here in NSW some $642 million in the first round, some 206 schools being managed by (inaudible) the local managing contractor here in South Western Sydney; so delighted to see on the ground work. Back in February when Kevin asked us to come down to Canberra and he briefed us on the stimulus package, he said he wanted work happening in schools by June this year, so we've seen it here this morning. Prime Minister.
PM: Thanks mate. It's great to be back at Minto and this is the second time I've been here in a reasonably short period of time, because this is where the work is happening to support jobs and business and apprenticeships today by investing in the infrastructure we need for tomorrow. That is what our Nation Building for Recovery plan is all about, that is what Building the Education Revolution is all about as well.
This Nation Building for Recovery plan will involve an investment of nearly $15 billion in every primary school in the country, and a large number of secondary schools as well, because we want our kids to have the best facilities to learn, to become everything that they can become, to shape their own futures, with the best environment for our teachers and for our local parents to work in and to get together in. And at the same time creating jobs on the way through. Our Nation Building for Recovery plan as I said before is about supporting jobs, small business and apprenticeships today by investing in the infrastructure we need for tomorrow.
The Treasury has calculated that if we did not have this investment then we would have more than 200,000 more Australians out of work because of the global economic recession, each year for the next two years. So we're on about making a difference with jobs and we're on about making a difference to kids' futures as well.
The Premier has just mentioned of course the figures here for NSW. What we've done today is participate in a ground-breaking ceremony for what I understand is the first Government school in NSW as part of the Building the Education Revolution building program. Across NSW we have some 2,389 Primary Schools for the 21st Century projects, 1,764 schools across NSW. This represents around $2.9 billion of approved projects in NSW under the program. And also on top of that we have an investment of $414 million in NSW as part of the National School Pride program and that includes projects like shade cloths, classroom refurbishments, school storage facilities, upgrades for sporting facilities, painting and carpet upgrades.
Which of course brings us back to what's happening here at Minto. We have a national program, nearly $15 billion, a huge slice of it being invested across the state of NSW because this is the biggest state in the country, government schools and non government schools. But where the rubber hits the road is here at the local primary school level here at Minto.
Look at the smiles on the faces of the littlies here as they think in a year's time of them having for the first time in the history of this school a multi-purpose hall where they can gather together as a community, have performances, do all sorts of other things which supplement the school day and the life of study and work and community participation here in this school environment.
On the jobs front, I was very interested to hear from the local building company this morning, who is a 90-year-old Australian company, I am advised. But in this region of Sydney already putting on more than 100 additional staff into their company itself before you get onto the large number of sub-contractors that they will engage in these projects right across Sydney's south-west. And Sydney's south-west is just one part of the national story. These are jobs for subbies, these are jobs for chippies, these are jobs for sparkies, these are jobs for people who do the painting, these are jobs for people who do the earth works.
When I was last talking to a building company in Sydney, they told me in a project that they were bidding for on the Central Coast of NSW, on any given site they were looking at up to 20 or 25 different trades being deployed on a given building site for a multi-purpose hall and on any given day anywhere between 50 and 60 and more people on site doing one part of the work or another.
This is about making a difference to jobs, to local jobs, to local business. And for the business people who come, for the workers who come here to work and the tradies, they go off and they buy lunch, they go off and they get some business cards printed, they go off and do a whole lot of other things which flow on from the work which comes from these projects.
So I just conclude in these terms: this is a really good day for Australia. A good day for NSW, a good day for NSW government schools because it's making a difference for the future, building the facilities we need in the future and supporting the jobs that we need for today.
Over to you folks.
JOURNALIST: Can I ask you on a related matter? Are you concerned -
PM: Depends how related it is.
JOURNALIST: Are you concerned at all Prime Minister about the Auditor General's report that says that the cost of doing things so quickly in fact is higher than if you take a more considered approach to infrastructure spending?
PM: You know, we are in the worst global economic recession in three quarters of a century. That is, the worst global economic circumstances since the Great Depression. And when the Australian Government took decisions firstly last October, again in December and again in February to invest activity in the economy to step into the gap left by the private sector in retreat, we said this had to happen quickly to have effect.
One of the problems in many other countries around the world is this - that infrastructure plans had been laid out which don't have effect for a year, two, three, four years time when the activity has to be injected into our economy now. There will always be controversies on the way through. There will always be debates and disagreements about should it be here, should it be there, should've been built in this way, should've been built in that way. But you know something, that's been part and parcel of most debates about community infrastructure building throughout history.
But we're determined to make a difference now in the economy and to make sure that we get these facilities built for our kids as quickly as possible.
One final thing on that, look at the international economic data, the worst global recession in three quarters of a century, but Australia doing better than most of the other economies. We are the fastest growing economy in the OECD. We are the fastest growing economy across the major advanced economies. We're the only major advanced economy not to have gone into technical recession so far. We had the second lowest unemployment and we had the lowest debt and lowest deficit of the major advanced economies.
And the question is asked, can things always be done better? I'm sure they can be. But we are determined to make a difference through what we have done and I believe the data speaks for itself that we are having an effect.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, given today's polls, are you expecting that Malcolm Turnbull will be going up against you after the winter break?
PM: The Government's getting on with the business of jobs and supporting business in the midst of the worst recession in 75 years and I think the Australian people are just tired of the politics of fear and smear.
JOURNALIST: Who would you prefer to face at the next election, Mr Hockey or Mr Turnbull?
PM: I believe that the Australian people want government to do as we are doing - getting on with the business of supporting jobs, small business and apprenticeships and traineeships now and they are fed up and tired of the politics of fear and smear.
JOURNALIST: On another matter can I ask you about the GroceryChoice website -
PM: Sure.
JOURNALIST: Any more reaction on that? I mean the Choice people are saying it's like the retailers being in charge of their own website is like Dracula being in charge of the blood bank.
PM: Let me just say a few things about the whole question about how we support better our consumer protection in this sector. A few things that the Government has engaged in so far.
First of all, what the Government has done is boosted ACCC powers, that's the Australian Consumer Competition Commission powers by criminalising cartel conduct like price fixing.
Secondly, introducing a national consumer law bill to increase ACCC powers in general. Thirdly, we've also strengthened the predatory pricing provisions of the Trade Practices Act. Fourthly, we've released a discussion paper out for comment on creeping acquisitions law which will allow the ACCC to be able to scrutinise smaller acquisitions by larger companies who have a lot of market power.
And finally, we've implemented the Review's recommendations on national unit pricing code which commence on the 1st of July. The Government has been very active on this whole question. There'll be a continued discussion of course with retailers in the supermarket industry on the matter that you raised and I am confident the Minister will work a proposal through with the industry over time, it'll just take time.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, were you disappointed last night that Bruno didn't ask you to dress in one of those wool bodysuits too?
PM: No (laughter). It takes either courage or foolhardiness to appear on any television program with that guy. And as I said prior to going on to that program, I would have really appreciated it had my staff told me before I went on, that when I went on it was not just with Rove, but with Bruno. Anyway, I'm just happy to have survived. Okay folks, thanks very much.