PM: It's good to be back here on Sunshine Coast. Let me open my remarks by just talking briefly about the tornado victims at Lennox Head in New South Wales. This has been a devastating tornado for local residents. The New South Wales Government has acted.
I wish to announce now that the Australian Government will also be providing emergency assistance to those who have suffered damage at Lennox Head.
This will take the form of personal hardship and distress grants. It will take the form of concessional loans of up to $130,000 for affected small businesses. It will also involve concessional loans of up to $25,000 for voluntary and non-profit organisations and road and rail freight subsidies of up to $15,000 to affect any primary producers.
These are practical forms of assistance, but the bottom line is this, the Australian Government stands behind the people of Lennox Head who have suffered this considerable damage to their local community and will in there supporting them as they seek to rebuild.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister when did (inaudible)
PM: Just, I'll take questions in a minute more broadly.
It's good to be here today with Wallace and with Tabitha - where's Tabitha? There she is. And Jason and Jon, here on the Sunshine Coast to talk about the economy and jobs and apprenticeships. This is a cornerstone of what we seek to do as an Australian Government.
The global economy and the Australian economy took a battering during the crisis, and what that's done is affected jobs and apprenticeships right around Australia. We've helped support jobs by our national economic stimulus strategy. In fact, we've had the growth of some 225,000 jobs since the crisis hit when jobs have been shed right across the rest of the world.
The important other thing is this - to make sure that we're also providing support necessary to keep businesses taking on apprentices, and that's what the Apprenticeship Kickstart program is all about. Kickstart apprentices, the program has so far, I'm told by Jason, the Parliamentary Secretary, has supported some 24,000 young people right across Australia. That's a big number.
Here on the Sunshine Coast I'm told that the program between December and February has added some 456 new apprentices. To put that in perspective, that's about double the number that were put on in the previous period, over the previous December-February period. And we see these results right across the country as we see local employers taking up the Kickstart program because it's all supporting young people in apprenticeships in order to get those young people into jobs and not to become victims or permanent victims, of a global recession.
The other thing is this, the really good thing is in communities like this around the county we're also hosting these local jobs expos. I understand this is probably number 18 we've run around the country. I've been to a couple before, or at least one up in Far North Queensland and this is a great opportunity to see people connected with local job opportunities, and you see in the crowds here today at Kawana. This is a large group of people who have come in response to what we've organised here with local employers, local traineeship providers and other local non-profit organisations as well. It's a really good thing.
Nationwide, we've connected about 6,600 people to jobs as a result of jobs expos, and that's pretty good in the midst of a real problem in terms of employment around the country affected by the global economic recession. Here today on the Sunshine Coast there are some 600 jobs up on that board there and this is a really good thing. It actually helps people connect into the labour market and to real job opportunities.
So, my message to you today is very simple - this Australian Government is on about keeping the economy strong, protecting Australian jobs and building the apprenticeships we need for the future, because where the rubber hits the road is in the lives of people like Wallace who's training in the building industry and people like Tabitha who's training to be a chef and one a day a master chef so that these young people carve out there futures, and we want to support them on the way through.
Before I take your questions, Jason, who's the Parliamentary Secretary for Employment, will add some remarks.
CLARE: Well thanks Prime Minister, and thank you so much for your support for the jobs expo program and for Apprentice Kickstart. This is really a jobs supermarket. You can see on the board where we've got 600 jobs on offer today. The idea is really simple - we put local employers that have got jobs and local people that are looking for work in the one place, and it works. As the Prime Minister has said, we've run 18 job expos around the country already and created 6,600 jobs, and we're going to create hundreds more jobs here today on the Sunshine Coast.
It's all part of the Government's plan to keep the economy strong and making sure that we recruit more apprentices. Apprentice Kickstart has been incredibly successful. We're now recruiting more apprentices in traditional trades than we were before the global recession, and to put that in perspective, in the 1990s, when Australia went into recession, the number of apprentices in traditional trades fell through the floor. The number of apprentices being recruited in traditional trades dropped by over 30 percent and it took 13 years before we recruited the same number of apprentices again.
We have done that in one and you see two of those young apprentices here today, Wallace and Tabitha, and they're two of 24,000 young apprentices that we've put on. But we need more apprentices: we need more carpenters; more chefs; more plumbers; more electricians, and that's why we've extended the Kickstart program from now until November - to recruit even more apprentices to build the skills that we need for the future.
PM: Thanks, Jason. Over to you, folks.
JOURNALIST: (inaudible) tally of workers sacked because of your super profits tax?
PM: Well, can I go to the question of Xstrata and Xstrata's claims in recent days. I'd draw everyone's attention to a report in today's Sydney Morning Herald which fundamentally challenges the accuracy of what Xstrata had to say yesterday - point one.
Point two - the head of Xstrata has said in the last 24 hours, he believes his company should be paying less tax. Well, I don't think Australians agree with that.
Thirdly, the Government's Resources Super Profits tax is designed to do one core thing - support the growth and development of marginal mining projects in their early, difficult years when they are not generating profits, and then taxing them later when they become much more profitable. The net result, according to independent modelling by the Australian Treasury: that the mining industry would grow in its investment by some 4.5 to 5.5 percent, and employment would grow across the mining industry by 7 percent.
So, I say again, when it comes to Xstrata and the boss of a company who says they are already paying too much tax, I think it's time that people like that got real and secondly, I will say again what I said in the Australian parliament yesterday: this Government will not be intimidated by the statements or actions of any Australian mining company or any foreign mining company because our job is to act in the national interest.
JOURNALIST: (inaudible) possible future negotiations then you might try and work out some sort of deal?
PM: We've said consistently, from the beginning, that we've got a strong, good consultation process with many, many mining companies right across Australia, and most mining companies are actually cooperating fully in that process. It's a good process.
Now, from time to time you're going to have a bunch of companies go out there and they're going to try and generate a scare campaign and a fear campaign. I say to them this Government will not be intimidated by any scare campaign, any actions, any statements, by any mining company foreign or domestic. Our job is to govern in the national interest. We intend to do so.
JOURNALIST: What about the Queensland Government? They're urging you to put the baseball bat away and to negotiate with the miners.
PM: Well my job is to act in the Australian national interest and I think when you're dealing with some of the very big mining companies around the world, like Xstrata, it doesn't pay to behave like a pussycat. I think it's pretty important to be pretty firm about the national interest. That's what we intend to do.
I say again - we're not about to be intimidated by Xstrata or by anybody else. Tax reform is tough. When was the last time any of you saw a mining company put their hand up and say they were prepared and happy to pay more tax? General silence around the room. Can I say, therefore, that when you're engaged in a reform like this, it's going to be tough. This debate is a tough debate. What's the bottom line, however? The Australian people deserve a fair share of the resources which they, the Australian people own and as a result of that enjoy better super, lower taxes for small business, lower taxes for all Australian companies, as well as investment in the infrastructure needs of our resource regions.
JOURNALIST: The Sunshine Coast is an area that's been, obviously, incredibly hard hit by the GFC. 600 jobs is a drop in the ocean for this part of the world. What is the Federal Government doing to help us, I suppose, get through these troubling times?
PM: Well, let me go to that in some little detail. Number one, the total investment in stimulus in the Sunshine Coast would go into the hundreds of millions of dollars. While I do not have the figure before me at present, on the law of averages you would find that this is a multi-hundred million dollar investment.
Secondly, specifically for the building industry, like Wallace is involved in it at the moment. We now are engaged in the biggest school modernisation program this country has ever seen. Some people chose to criticise it. That's fair enough, they can do that.
The overall impact on the building trade, people who are out there as subbies, people who are out there as electricians, people who are out there as carpenters, people who are there as bricklayers - there's a huge impact on overall employment levels.
Mr Abbott says, pull the rug from under all of that because you don't need it. There is a very stark alternative. If we pull the rug from under economic stimulus now, as Mr Abbott says we should do, you would see employment and confidence and activity in the building industry collapse nationwide, including here on the Sunshine Coast.
So, you ask what we're doing? It's called economic stimulus and one of the big forms of that stimulus is the school modernisation program. The alternative, of Mr Abbott, is to pull the rug from that and send Australia into recession. That is his script.
JOURNALIST: We need money for the airports, we need money for the university hospital, can the Federal Government promise us any of that infrastructure and (inaudible)?
PM: Well on the Cooroy to Curra stretch of the Bruce Highway that you mentioned the Australian Government has stepped up the plate and provided that investment. I noticed that the previous National Party Member for Wide Bay and the current National Party Member for Wide Bay, the Leader of the National Party, has sat there representing this region and done nothing to fund what is a horror stretch on the Bruce Highway. We've stepped in and decided to fund that and it's an investment of some hundreds of millions of dollars.
Secondly you refer to hospitals. Let me be very plain about that, the Australian Government in the health reforms that we agreed at COAG at the end of April agreed that for the first time the Australian Government will become the dominant funder of the public hospital system of Australia: its capital costs, its recurrent costs, its teaching costs, its training costs, its research cost. So if there are new hospitals developed guess what, for the first time in the country's history, the Australian Government becomes the dominant funder of those hospitals. That's the big change here.
So you ask what we're doing in terms of local infrastructure, the road we're investing in.
Secondly, the hospital system, we for the first time take on the dominant funding role. And I'd commend your attention, through the local authority here, the Sunshine Coast Regional Council, that we are investing with them in many, many other smaller scale infrastructure projects right across the region.
JOURNALIST: There's speculation that President Obama won't, may not be coming to Australia, have you spoken to him and do you understand if he doesn't make it out?
PM: As I've said always with President Obama, who I regard as a good friend of Australia and a good personal friend, he is welcome in this country at any time. Obviously at present he has a few things on his hands when it comes to the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, this is a significant problem for him to handle, but I hope to be speaking to him on the phone in the next day or so and we'll advise you further.
JOURNALIST: Will you be visiting Lennox Head?
PM: At this stage I have not been advised as to whether that would be useful or productive. What I will do however, is keep closely in contact with the State Government in terms of any further practical assistance which can be delivered and whether any specific Ministerial presence is useful and necessary. If so, that will be provided.
JOURNALIST: On the Sunshine Coats we've been for a long time very concerned about the growth rates here, (inaudible) Queensland being under pressure. You've obviously in the past backed a big Australia, do you continue to back a big Australia or is that something that you've changed your mind on as the pressure heats up in areas like here?
PM: You know one of the reasons we've appointed a Minister for Population for the first time in Australia's history, is to make sure we get this balance right for the future. So where you've got strong economic and population growth, that you're also planning for the infrastructure needs and the housing needs of those communities in the future. One such growth region of course is the Sunshine Coast. I know it well, I grew up here, I went to school here, I've seen the roads, and I've seen what's happened in terms of the number of cars, each time I come back.
So therefore the challenge for us as a national Government is to get the balance right across all the regions of Australia because each of those regions is different.
But on the key question of infrastructure here's the difference.
The previous Australian Government said infrastructure is the responsibility of the States. We, this Australian Government have said no, it's a partnership between the Australian Government and the State Governments. A partnership when it comes to roads, a partnership when it comes to rail, a partnership when it comes to ports, a partnership when it comes to affordable housing, and a partnership when it comes to general infrastructure.
It's getting that balance right, that's why we've got a Minister for Population, so that we get the balance right, matching the population pressures and or demands across Australia with what needs to be done to support local communities with the infrastructure they need.
Folks I've actually got to get to Brissy because I've got to address the Queensland Media Club, and I don't want to disparage your colleagues but I really do have to zip it.
Thanks very much.