PM: It's good to be in Perth today and good to be here at WACOSS and to be here with Senator Siewert from the Australian Greens, and of course Senator Mark Arbib, the Minister for Employment. What we're here today to talk about it is practical measures that you can take to reduce the impact of the global economic recession on jobs in local communities. That's what Government action is all about. Nationally, how do we implement measures which cushion the impact of the global economic recession on Australian working families and those doing it tough.
Just now we've met those in the community sector, for example, who are out there at the front line, assisting families who are in need of emergency relief payments, and you would have heard the reports from some of those community organisations about how difficult it is. The Government has increased our payments for emergency relief to the community sector. Plainly, however, there is more work to be done. I've listened very carefully to what was said before by one of the representatives from Uniting Care about the number of families now being turned away in terms of emergency relief payments.
This is the absolute human face of a global economic recession which has been no respecter of countries, no respecter of communities, and no respecter of families. Damage, both personally for families and for communities, has been widespread.
The role of responsible governments is to cushion this impact. What we have done through the Nation Building for Recovery Plan is to do so through our stimulus strategy. Short-term stimulus through payments to families, medium-term infrastructure investment - the largest school modernisation program in the country's history, as well as unprecedented investments in social housing, and long-term investment in infrastructure as well - road, rail, ports, as well as high-speed broadband, education infrastructure as well as medical research infrastructure and hospitals.
But the other arm of what we are seeking to do as Government is to assist at the community level as well, and that's where the local jobs fund has come into play, and that's why the work that we have done, together with the Australian Greens, and together with Senator Fielding, in the rolling out of the local jobs fund has been so important.
What we're here to do today is to announce those successful projects from round one of the local jobs fund here in WA, and from this initial allocation of $4.5 million here in the West we'll be providing support for six projects that will in turn support some 190 jobs and 60 work experience positions, as well as three traineeships.
Of course, what we've seen today is a very practical illustration of the sort of work that that can involve, and that is through this WACOSS-supported initiative, to support those who are conducting energy audits out there in the community, energy audits of community organisations themselves, so that they can reduce their electricity bills, their gas bills and their water bills - doing something positive for the environment and at the same time something positive in terms of the bills that they've got to pay.
This is one practical set of initiatives, one practical set of local jobs initiatives of the large number that we're supporting across the country, and I'm pleased today to be able to confirm those announcements here in Perth.
I might turn now to Senator Siewert to make some remarks, and again I place on record my appreciation for the support of the Australian Greens in securing passage for the Nation Building for Recovery Plan in the Senate, and their particular involvement in this fund, and then I'll turn to Senator Arbib.
SIEWERT: Thank you, Prime Minister. I must say it's a pleasure to be in this room. I've sat in this room for hours and hours of meetings, so it's a pleasure to come back to help make this announcement.
The Greens, as people would be aware, supported the stimulus package through the Senate after we negotiated a number of elements of the stimulus package, but in particular the local jobs fund. We were particularly keen to ensure that the stimulus package had an element of funding that provided for local communities, jobs in local communities, and worked with non-Government organisations to provide jobs for the community and local jobs.
So I'm particularly pleased that WACOSS and West Swan are the two projects, but the projects in particular that we've seen today I think are particularly innovative projects. It combines those essential elements of training, local training, and of course energy sustainability and working with non-Government organisations, so I think that's, I'm particularly pleased with that announcement.
We were also very pleased to be able to work with the Government. I think that the Greens demonstrated that we can work with Government for positive outcomes. This is a positive announcement. We decided that we wanted to work positively with Government to achieve an outcome, and we have. We can see today that we have achieved an outcome. There are going to be real jobs provided in this community, and I'm particularly pleased, of course, that it's in my home state of Western Australia.
We have such innovative projects, not only this project but the project working with West Swan TAFE, that's particularly training people to work with community on drug and alcohol related issues I think is also a very positive demonstration of what we can achieve through this economic stimulus package.
So, again, I'm pleased with my colleagues here in Parliament because I think it's a very good demonstration about the way the Parliament can work when we all it to reach a common goal, and that is to help the community.
Thank you very much, and I'm very pleased, as I said, that we're in here in Lotteries House working with such a great group of people. Thank you.
PM: Thanks, Senator. Minister.
MINISTER ARBIB: Thank you, Prime Minister, thank you Rachel, and I also place on record my appreciation with the Australian Greens and also to Senator Fielding for the work they did in terms of the jobs fund arriving out of the stimulus package.
We've got some wonderful projects that we're announcing today. As the Prime Minister said, six projects in Western Australia, the majority in Perth, $4.5 million, which is going to support 190 jobs and support 60 work experience positions plus three traineeships.
Some of the projects, as we've seen, WACOSS' climate change readiness for community project, and that's $1.89 million. They've also got a second project, which is $1 million, which is to establish a labour pool of 38 retrenched workers in the Kwinana-Rockingham area, and they're going to be working with local community organisations, using the skills that they have from their workplace to assist community groups in that community.
Swan TAFE, as Senator Siewert said, is receiving $780,000 and that will be to support 52 apprentices that they have, and also to create or retain 50 work experience positions, and they will be working, as Senator Siewert has said, in terms of the construction of residential training facilities for Palmerston Farm, which is a not-for-profit organisation.
There's also two Indigenous organisations that have received funding. The Martu people have got a media project which will support 12 jobs and 10 work experience jobs with Goolarri Media Enterprises, which is receiving $356,000.
And again, the jobs fund is part of the stimulus package, but it's only one part of the stimulus package. At the same time, we are rolling out the construction of primary school halls, libraries and classrooms across Western Australia. Currently, there's 934 schools that have been approved. That's going to be $1.5 billion worth of funding, every school in Western Australia, primary school, high school, public school, private school, is receiving between $50,000 and $200,000 for school maintenance.
Of course, we're doing something like 2,200 new community houses in Western Australia, and in transport, I'm sure you know we've got the Kalgoorlie to Adelaide railway, on which work which work will soon commence, and also the Mandurah entrance road construction which will also soon commence. So we are doing everything we can to support jobs in Western Australia because we are in a global recession. Unemployment is rising, and we can't afford to take any job for granted.
Thank you.
PM: And having said that, over to you, folks.
JOURNALIST: Mr Rudd, just talking about the schools program. There's been criticism in the way that the Federal Government (inaudible) to some of the most needy schools around the country, all of them, it seems, in regional and rural areas. How do you respond to that criticism?
PM: What I'd say is we have the largest school modernisation program currently underway in Australia's history. Secondly, it's a total investment nationwide of some $14.8 billion. Thirdly, when we announced the stimulus package we said we'd be investing, as far as secondary schools were concerned, in some 500 secondary schools. Funding has been committed, I'm advised, to about 537 secondary schools. That's before we go to the investment in all primary schools
I've travelled to most regions in the country. The universal feedback I have got from local P&Cs, P&Fs, that's parent bodies in Government schools and non-Government schools, as well as principals, has been to say ‘at last, we've got the ability to invest in a multi-purpose hall, at last we have a 21st century library, at last we can have investment in a state-of-the-art science centre or a state-of-the-art language centre'.
This is what we're doing, this is as we've committed that we would do it, at the time that we announced this package, and the Government believes this is all part of Nation Building for Recovery, which is, investing in jobs, business, and apprenticeships today, while also investing in the infrastructure we need for tomorrow. School infrastructure is an important part of that.
JOURNALIST: You've just referred to-
PM: Hang on, this one here, and then I'll come to you.
JOURNALIST: Do you feel that you've let down some of those schools though, for instance (inaudible)
PM: Can I just say how many schools there are in Australia - nearly 10,000. Do you know how many primary schools there are in Australia? About 7,500. We've got about 2,300-2,400 secondary schools, government, non-government, Catholic, independent.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister-
PM: What we have done, what we have done in all of those schools, is to seek to invest to improve their school infrastructure, and can I say, I believe that the overall investment in school modernisation has been appropriate for the future. It has been in support of communities right across the country, and it has also been to provide much-needed education infrastructure in communities which have sat around for decades and not had one dollar of additional capital investment made in them.
Wherever I have gone, the Fraser Island Coast in Queensland, Far North Queensland, regional New South Wales, parts of Victoria and elsewhere, the responses I've got is, ‘at last, we have these investments'. There will always be concerns and complaints raised about elements of the program. I understand that. I accept that. As I said, this is the single largest school modernisation program in Australia's history, and the Government is proud of it.
JOURNALIST: The Yakanarra Community School asked for 500 grand for its state-of-the-art language centre and didn't get it, but PLC Pymble got $3 million for a multi-purpose hall and library. Shouldn't money have been allocated according to need, and I'm referring specifically to the outcomes in a place like the Kimberley, where Indigenous kids aren't doing as well as the kids in Pymble.
PM: Well can I suggest that when it goes to the overall investment in Indigenous Australia, I'll draw your attention very carefully to the unprecedented agreement between the Australian Government and the states and territories, which I signed off on in Darwin in July this year, which brings together a very large-scale, for the first time, national partnership agreement with all states and territories across the whole spread of investments in Indigenous Australia.
For anyone to suggest that the Australian Government is not investing significantly in the needs of Indigenous Australia, given what we are now advancing in schools, in hospitals, more broadly in healthcare, in employment, in housing, and as well as a whole range of other programs, including here in the West, our support for great institutions like the Clontarf Academy, I don't believe that's correctly reading the statistics.
JOURNALIST: (inaudible)
PM: We have a long, long way to go yet when it comes to the economy, and to the extent that we are doing better than other economies around the world is because business, workers and Government have been working together here in Australia.
The bottom line, I think, is this, the core point, I think, is this; without the stimulus, through the Government's Nation Building for Recovery plan, the Treasury advises that the Australian economy would, right now, have been in the deepest of recessions and unemployment would have been going through the roof.
With the stimulus, under the Government's Nation Building plan, Australia is now the only advanced economy in the world to have produced positive growth over the last 12 months, which is why, generally, our unemployment rate is better than most other economies. But if you look at the internal numbers in the national accounts data, both for the national economy, and, by extension, the global economy, when you look at the trade figures, we still have a very long way to go, and there'll still very many serious bumps in the road.
I think the other point is this: to suggest, as Mr Turnbull has suggested originally, not to have provided Government stimulus for the economy would mean that the Australian economy would right now be in the depths of recession, and with unemployment going through the roof. Furthermore, for Mr Turnbull and the Liberals to be suggesting now that it's time to withdraw the stimulus, would be to pull the rug from underneath the recovery in the Australian economy, and pull the rug therefore under jobs for tradies and work for small business. This Government doesn't intend to do that.
JOURNALIST: The GDP increase is above expectations, though.
PM: As I said, the figures that have been produced today indicate still that we've got a long, long way to go when it comes to the economic recovery, but the fact that we are doing better than most other economies in the world is because business and workers and Government are pulling together, we're working together. But there's still a long, long way to go.
JOURNALIST: How concerned are you about the indicators from Wall Street overnight, (inaudible)
PM: Can I say the global economy is not out of the woods yet, by a long stretch and this economy, Australia's, is an integral part of the global economy. That's why we have implemented this Nation Building for Recovery Plan - to provide stimulus today, for jobs, for small business, and for apprenticeships, while investing in infrastructure we need for tomorrow.
It's very important that we maintain a calm, sober approach going forward, because the global economy ain't out of the woods yet. We're part of the global economy, and we believe, therefore, we should continue to implement cautiously and thoroughly the Nation Building for Recovery plan that we outlined some time ago.
JOURNALIST: Mr Rudd, you seem to be making history today as probably the first Labor Prime Minister to make a joint announcement with the Greens. Is this a signpost for the future?
PM: I'm not sure whether we have or whether we haven't before. Look, my attitude in Government is, we will work with other constructive forces. You know, I think you should just be upfront about all of this. The Greens and Senator Fielding were very supportive of what we sought to do in getting through the Nation Building for Recovery Plan. Today, we've been talking about some of the impact which that plan has had as far as the performance of the Australian economy is concerned relative to other economies around the world, so I'm more than pleased to acknowledge support, constructive support, where it's been delivered.
It would be good if we saw more evidence of constructive and positive engagement in the national political process than we've seen so far from various other parties in the Australian Parliament.
JOURNALIST: Does it make you at all uncomfortable, on behalf of your Labor colleagues in Western Australia, when the Liberal Premier constantly refers to you in Parliament as ‘my good friend Kevin Rudd' (inaudible)
PM: You know something, I read many things. One of them is not the WA Hansard. I have no idea in what regard or non-regard I am held in the debates in the WA Parliament.
JOURNALIST: It's regard.
PM: Yeah, right, I take your word for it. Can I just stay on that score though, my job as Prime Minister of Australia is to work constructively and positively with State Premiers and Chief Ministers across the country - Liberal, Labor, Calathumpian - and that's what I intend to do, because my job is to work as hard as I can to support long-term growth for our economy, through what is the most extraordinary set of economic challenges the global economy has been presented with since the Great Depression.
And having said that folks, I've got to zip. I've got to catch a plane.