PM: As Prime Minister I have already stated that I have taken responsibility for problems in the Government's home insulation program. There is absolutely no use sugar coating the facts there have been some serious problems in the implementation of this program.
Problems, that as Prime Minister, I have taken responsibility for and problems that I am therefore responsible for taking action to fix. I have today recommended to her Excellency the Governor General to establish a standalone department of Climate Change and Energy Efficiency. This move is designed to achieve the best co-ordination possible in the development and delivery of climate change policies and programs especially in relation to energy efficiency and renewable energy. This is best done by separating these functions from the Department of the Environment where they have resided for some years, a department which is best targeted on direct environmental protection responsibilities.
Senator Wong will be appointed Minister for Climate Change, Energy Efficiency and Water. Greg Combet will be appointed as the Minister for Energy Efficiency. Greg Combet will have direct responsibility for the oversight and the implementation of the wind up of the household insulation program and of the roll out of the household renewable energy bonus scheme. Greg Combet has spent his whole life standing up for the interests of workers and for working families. He's a man of great passion and a leader of great skill and he will use all of these talents to address the problems that have already been identified in the home insulation program and work as hard as any one man can to get the replacement scheme up and running as soon as it can be.
Minister Garrett will occupy the position of Minister for Environment Protection, Heritage and the Arts. Minister Garrett will maintain his responsibility for environmental protection measures and maintain responsibility for Heritage and the Arts. Under these new arrangements the Minister will have responsibility for the protection of the Australian environment and the promotion of the Australian arts and the Australian arts community.
By creating a single standalone department, with a Minister focused on the roll out and implementation of energy efficiency programs, these arrangements will deliver better compliance management for the future. The Department of Environment will return, as I've just noted, to its core business of protecting the Australian environmental interest. The Department of Climate Change will become the Department of Climate Change and Energy Efficiency. The Department's additional program responsibilities will include the household renewable energy bonus schemes, green loans, green start, solar schools and housing, commercial building and appliance energy efficiency standards.
I said, in recent days, and I've said, for some time, that as Prime Minister I would take responsibility for fixing these problems. That is exactly what I intend to do. There is much more, however, to be done and we intend through Greg Combet to get on with the job. This will be a difficult task. I've appointed a highly competent Minister to undertake this task. A man with formidable experience, great passion, great intelligence and great organisational skills to deal with the practical responsibilities which lie ahead. Over to you folks.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, Belinda Neal is refusing to consult with an insulation company (inaudible) citing preselection issues. Are you going to (inaudible) word to her about that?
PM: If that report is accurate it is completely unacceptable for any Member of Parliament not to engage with local insulation firms who are having difficulties at this time because of the Government's decision on the program. It's impact on workers, it's impact on business. I haven't been able to establish the facts on that but I will seek to do so. As I said to all members of the parliamentary party, yesterday in Canberra, our responsibility is to go out there, work with individual firms within all the regions of Australia and to deal with the implications which now arise for workers for those firms and for households and that's what all members of parliament should be doing.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, (inaudible) lost confidence in Peter Garrett to do his job?
PM: I believe it's now important for Minister Garrett to concentrate on core responsibilities of environmental protection and of course in heritage and the arts. There's no point sugar coating this. This does mean a different range, and reduced range, of responsibilities for Minister Garrett. Let us simply acknowledge that fact. As I said, the core responsibility for the Department of the Environment should focus on the protection of Australian endangered species and the wider remit of environmental protection and that of course is where the Minister's passions lie as well.
JOURNALIST: Is it fair to characterise this as a demotion Prime Minister?
PM: I believe it's, as I've said before, let's not try and sugar coat this. This represents a reduced range of responsibilities. That is a fact. My responsibility as Prime Minister is to put in place the best departmental systems possible to deal with energy efficiency programs in the future, for compliance arrangements associated with that and basically it fits. The Environment Department should be on about the protection of our natural environment, flora, fauna and the overall natural estate. We need different departmental arrangements in the future to deal with compliance when it comes to energy efficiency policies and regulatory regimes associated with that.
JOURNALIST: How did Mr Garrett take the news?
PM: Minister Garrett and I had a long conversation earlier this afternoon. I indicated to him the course of action I'd be taking. He accepted my decision.
JOURNALIST: Did you have to tell him or did he offer a simpler way?
PM: I indicated that's the decision that I had taken. The Minister accepted my decision
JOURNALIST: Mr Combet you've got a big job turning public confidence for (inaudible) insulation program. How will you do that?
COMBET: Well I've taken on difficult jobs before and this is certainly a difficult job that the Prime Minister has asked me to do. We'll clearly have obvious difficulties in this area and there's plenty of work to do. I've spent my whole working life representing working people. I actually started in the unions, in the area of occupational health and safety. Safety for working families and for workers and for businesses has long been part of my work and it's an important responsibility and I'm very proud that the Prime Minister has that confidence in me to ask me to do the job. It is a big difficult job and as of this afternoon, I'll just have to roll my sleeves up and get stuck into it.
PM: We have a responsibility to help households, we have a responsibility to help workers, have a responsibility to help businesses because of the decision to cancel this program. As I said in my remarks before, Greg Combet's a man of great experience, great practical ability and I believe a man of deep passion when it comes to the interests of working families and workers generally.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister what happens if you (inaudible)?
PM: On the question of future departmental arrangements and administrative orders those will be determined in consultation with the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet. You will see that reflected in due course in the administrative arrangements. In terms of the internal arrangements within the new department, that of course, lies entirely within the province of the Ministers
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, on the environment, what message is Australia sending to Japan and its leaders (inaudible)?
PM: We are saying, loud and clear, to our friends in Japan that Australia does not support the continuation of commercial or scientific whaling in the Southern Ocean. We have a very basic position. What we've further said in recent times, and this has been the source of some diplomatic difficulty between us, is that if Japan cannot come forward with a proposal which reduces its current catch to zero over a reasonable period of time then we have no alternative but to initiate appropriate international legal action. Furthermore, what we've said to our friends in Japan is that in the absence of Japan deciding that, we would begin that action before the next whaling season this year.
JOURNALIST: You have said this before (inaudible)?
PM: What I have said before is that we would try diplomacy I've signalled very clearly, in the last week or two, that diplomacy comes to an end this year. And absent an agreement along the lines I've described before that international legal action will commence this year.
JOURNALIST: (inaudible) Peter Garrett was a first class minister, what changed your mind, why now?
PM: The decision I have taken goes to the underpinning, departmental structures here. One focussed on environmental protection, and another dealing appropriately with regulatory arrangements concerning energy efficiency. Those energy efficiency arrangements have been in the Department of the Environment for some years, I have concluded that that is not an appropriate mix, that is why I have acted in the way in which I have acted.
Secondly, in the case of Mr Garrett, no one would doubt his passion for the protection of the environment itself and therefore this change in responsibilities better enables him to focus in those areas. Areas such as the Antarctic, areas such as the Great Barrier Reef, areas such as the wide remit of the environmental protection biodiversity act. These are areas that are important for the governance, good environmental governance of Australia, they are of a different nature however to the grants and regulatory and compliance regimes attached to households, or other energy efficiency programs.
JOURNALIST: Do you accept that the original program was rolled out too quickly (inaudible)?
PM: As I said last night when asked about the implementation of the program, there have been problems with compliance, that is plain. In terms of decisions taken on the way through, the advice that I have had before me, as each challenge arose, then appropriate adjustments were made to the regulations and to the compliance regime.
Overall however, as I said yesterday, there have been compliance problems with this scheme and that is what we must now deal with at a very practical level. And when it comes to the implementation of these arrangements for the future, can I say again, as I began my remarks today, Greg Combet has a big task ahead of him. It is a difficult job, it is a hard job, but I have given it to a man who has got very broad shoulders and a lot of experience.
Thank you very much.