PM: It's good to be here in Darwin today and to have the opportunity to directly see and experience the remarkable work that is done by our Border Protection Command. We have today been on a training exercise on one of the patrol boats.
Obviously we have these patrol boats, we have assets securing our borders. Currently, we have 18 boats and 18 aircraft available to secure our borders. This is more assets than we have ever had before patrolling our waters. We are committed to providing 8 additional - sorry, 8 new I should, say - 8 new patrol boats, obviously with additional capabilities that can be used to patrol our borders.
It's been a great pleasure to be joined in this task and training exercise by the relevant Minister, Brendan O'Connor, Minister for Home Affairs, Justice and Customs; by the local Member for this area, the Member for Solomon, Damian Hale. I'm also joined today by David Bradbury, the Member for Lindsay in Western Sydney, who's come to see this work first hand.
I understand, as Prime Minister, whether you reside in Darwin, you reside in Sydney's west, or you reside in any other part of the nation - Australians are concerned when they see boats on our horizon and they want to make sure that the Government is actively managing to protect our borders.
Yesterday, I made a major public statement of my attitudes to protecting our borders. I particularly signalled that I will relentlessly pursue- through regional cooperation- creating a regional processing centre.
This is important because it will disrupt the business model that people smugglers sell. There's no point getting on a boat if what happens when you get off the boat is you are returned to the same regional processing centre.
I said yesterday, and very clearly, that this is not a quick fix. It's going to require a lot of discussion and a lot of work with partners in our region. I thank them for the cooperation they've shown to date as the region addresses irregular people movement. I particularly thanked the Indonesian Government yesterday, and we will be working on that goodwill as we pursue the discussions about the regional processing centre.
I'm very happy to also be here today to say that in a further step indicating the depth of our cooperation with the region, that the Minister for Justice and Customs and the Minister for Home Affairs will be making available additional police resources and equipment in our region. These new resources will be particularly directed at Indonesia, at Malaysia, at Thailand, and at Sri Lanka, amongst other countries.
These new resources include an additional seven Australian Federal Police officers, who will join other Australian Federal Police officers already deployed in our region. These officers are having success in disrupting people smuggling ventures. They've disrupted ventures which have prevented 5,000 people making the dangerous journey by boat.
The additional resources will also be focussed on Indonesia, with additional patrol and aircraft capability; with additional resources to assist in the forensics of police work; with additional resources to assist the police there. We have cooperated well with the Indonesian maritime police, and with these new resources and capabilities, obviously that cooperation can be strengthened.
I just want to make one remark on another matter before taking questions.
Today, Senator John Faulkner has publically confirmed that if the Government is re-elected he will not seek re-appointment to Labor's frontbench. John Faulkner is currently serving as the Minister for Defence and will do so until election day.
John has done a great job as Defence Minister and enjoys the respect of all of those who have worked with him. John is a legendary Labor Party and Labor movement figure. He's devoted 30 years of his life to active political involvement, full time.
What I have asked him to do, I've prevailed upon him to do, and he has agreed to do, is to seek re-election as a Senator and stay in the parliament. I believe he's got a further contribution to make as a member of the parliament and as a member of the team, but it's his personal wish, and it's been a long time coming, to take a step back from the added pressures of being a senior minister in government.
So, I thank John for everything that he's done today across his working life to support the Labor Party. I thank him for his ongoing support for Labor. I thank him for ceding to my pleas and agreeing to stay in the parliament.
It's my intention that when we move to the election that John Faulkner will travel with me as we go about election campaigning. He's a very senior person, a very wise head, and I very much rely on his wisdom and counsel and will continue to do so.
I'm happy to take any questions. We'll sweep through. We'll start over here.
JOURNALIST: The presence of Bradbury behind your shoulder, there. Doesn't that just confirm that this is a short-term political stunt, the Dili solution as it's been called?
PM: What I think it confirms is that there is concern across the Australian community about the question of border protection and asylum seekers. What I'd say is David Bradbury, as the Member for Lindsay, is he has, as a man very much in touch with the feeling in his community, indicated these concerns. Yesterday, when I spoke to the Australian nation through my speech, I indicated that I understand these concerns.
People want to see effective border management, and that is what we will provide.
On the question of timeframe, I couldn't have been clearer yesterday. There is no quick fix. I am not presenting a quick fix to the Australian people. I'm not presenting a slogan. I am indicating my determination to have new arrangements in our region, including a regional processing centre, and that's what I intend to pursue as Prime Minister, step by step and piece by piece.
We'll just go here and come back. Yes?
JOURNALIST: Perhaps you can indicate some idea of what the timeframe might be? Is it going to be a really long time or (inaudible)
PM: Look, I'm not going to give any timeframe on fostering this kind of regional cooperation. We need to be working with all of our neighbours.
I am thankful that the President of East Timor has indicated a preparedness to be involved in this discussion. I am thankful that the Prime Minister of New Zealand has also indicated that he is prepared to be involved in this discussion as a resettlement country for people who are genuine refugees.
The aim here is to stop people risking their life at sea in a dangerous journey in a boat; to stop having all of the safety at sea issues that presents for the individuals involved as well as those who bravely work for our Border Protection Command; and to end the people smuggling business in the sense that people smugglers would no longer have a product to sell if the end result of getting on a boat was that you went to the regional processing centre.
Yes?
JOURNALIST: On the Muckaty Station and the nuclear waste dump, you said the decision to build it there would be led by science, but the science shows that the Tennant Creek areas is prone to earthquakes and that the best place in country is a site near Woomera. Will you re-visit the decision to put the dump at Muckaty and actually institute a process that is based on science?
PM: Look, as Prime Minister I am staying with the same arrangements that people would be familiar with to date. We need, as a nation, to solve the problem of where we will store low- and medium-level waste. That waste is generated in processes valuable to the whole community like nuclear medicine.
There is a further process to go through in relation to Muckaty and we will go through that process.
We had a question over here? Yes?
JOURNALIST: Are you concerned that you've brought forward a meeting of New South Wales Labor candidates and if so, why have you decided to bring that forward?
PM: I actually don't set such meeting dates. That's not something I do as Prime Minister. Those dates are set by our Labor Party officials. I did not make the decision to move the date. I was not involved in the decision to move the date. All of those arrangements are made by those who assist us on the campaign and were made separately to me.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, given that PNG is a signatory to the Convention on Refugees and was at the time of Manus Island, given the fact that refugees or asylum seekers on Nauru were processed in that Tampa period with the assistance of the UNHCR, how can what you're proposing be different on East Timor? Isn't it the same?
PM: Let's just remind ourselves of a little bit of history, here. Of course, the Pacific Solution was announced by the Howard Government as a unilateral action of that Government and it was announced as an urgent response. It happened very, very quickly when we had the Tampa and other pressures. That processing was then undertaken on Manus Island and Nauru.
That's not my approach. It's not what I'm seeking to achieve. What I'm seeking to achieve through an open conversation with regional partners is a regional change in how we deal with irregular people movement.
Obviously, as Australia's Prime Minister, standing here with great representatives of the Australian people in the national parliament, our focus is on people movement to Australia, but we are not the only country that is experiences people movement. East Timor experiences people movement itself. It therefore makes for the region to work together, to cooperate to take away the product that fuels an evil trade and that is the trade of people smuggling.
That's my approach. I haven't made a quick announcement. I'm not putting this forward as a quick fix. It will be a process. It will build on, of course, the Bali process that has been in train for some time. These options have been canvassed within Government for some time.
What's new is my determination to proceed with and to pursue this solution.
JOURNALIST: Ms Gillard, Damian Hale wants the Federal Government to pay compensation to traditional owners so Territorians can fish for free. Should southern taxpayers be funding that sort of measure?
PM: Look, I am going to indicate now I am not a person with a great personal familiarity with fishing. I would rely on others for the best of their expert advice. I understand this is an issue that Damian has raised as a local community representative and that's absolutely appropriate and we'll have a discussion about that.
JOURNALIST: But it's in your court. Will you make federal funds available for that?
PM: Best thing for me to do always is to work it through a step at a time. I can understand Damian's concern about local community members, obviously, for any decision that's got financial implications. We're running a Government which will get back into surplus in 2013. Any decision we make is taken through proper processes and prudently, so I'm not going to be announcing any decision today.
We'll take one more question here and then I must admit I have to go.
JOURNALIST: What does John Faulkner's decision today do for the credibility of the Government going into the next election?
PM: Well, look, I think John Faulkner will be missed at ministerial level. He is a senior and very, very capable figure. But he has made it clear that personally for him, that he feels that this is the right time to move from a ministerial career, and can I indicate this feeling by John is not a new one. Shortly after the 2007 election he indicated to the then Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd, and to me, that he thought he had one term in him as a Minister. When the question came up about a new Minister for Defence John re-affirmed then to the then Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, and to me, that he, in stepping up to the job as Defence Minister felt he really only had one term in him - the 2007 electoral term - as a Minister. He's now pursued that political and personal decision, a decision based on how he personally feels about where he is in his life.
But I very much wanted to keep his talents and abilities available to me as Prime Minister, and to the Labor team. That's why I've asked him to work as a key strategist with me when we do have the election period, and that's why I've asked him to stay in the parliament and I'm very, very grateful, very grateful, that he's taken the decision to stay.
Thank you very much-
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, one more question.
PM: Very, very quickly.
JOURNALIST: (inaudible) so now we're, sought of, buying them off with our asylum seekers. How do you think that's going to look (inaudible)
PM: Well, look, I think that the best people to speak to the East Timorese people are the representatives of the East Timorese people. This is a new democracy. It has a President. It has a Prime Minister. Obviously, the President has indicated a preparedness to talk through these issues, and I welcome that.
Thank you very much.
ENDS