Canberra
PM: Accompanied by the Leader of Government Business, the Leader of the House and Minister for Infrastructure, Anthony Albanese, and by the Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy, Stephen Conroy.
Today in the Parliament the Government has delivered an historic win for Australian families and businesses, laying the way open for our further delivery of the National Broadband Network and achieving an historic microeconomic reform in this country through the structural separation of Telstra, however before going into that I do want to turn to the Leader of the House to have him explain today's Parliamentary proceedings.
MINISTER ALBANESE: Thanks, Prime Minister. Today we saw the Parliament resumed in the House of Representatives, quite simply at great cost to the taxpayer so that Tony Abbott could rant and rave.
It is extraordinary that there was no vote on the Bill as has been amended by the Senate last Friday. So what we saw was days of delay, prevarication, opposition and blocking in both Houses of Parliament, and when it came to the crunch, the Opposition didn't even vote against it.
The Opposition had three amendments today before the House, two of which were ruled out of order by the Speaker. So after having days to get their act together on this vital piece of legislation, three amendments, one lost on the floor of the Parliament, one ruled out of order because it simply wasn't in accordance with Standing Orders, and one they didn't proceed with.
The only explanation for their behaviour over recent days is that they wanted to go through Tony Abbott's suspension motion, of which he knew, because of the number of pairs that had been granted, there was no possibility of it being carried by the House, which is what Mr Oakeshott's comments on the floor of the Parliament went to.
This is an Opposition that throughout the year, through their own behaviour of wrecking on the floor of the Parliament, has alienated themselves from the very people who just months ago they said they wanted to join with them in forming Government. It's not surprising that we leave this Parliament after the last five weeks' sittings, with the Independents alienated from the Opposition due to their own destructive behaviour.
PM: Thank you. So today once again we've seen Mr Abbott play the role of wrecker - negative, bitter, and his side of politics in an absolute shambles unable to deliver even the most simple mechanisms in the Parliament to pursue their own agenda.
Against that relentless negativity, the Government today has delivered a win for Australian families and Australian businesses. The legislation that has finally been passed today is there for the National Broadband Network, part of preparing for the National Broadband Network, and new superfast broadband will transform the way we deliver health services. Will transform the way we deliver education services, and will transform productivity in our economy.
And of course this legislation also delivered a microeconomic reform of great merit in its own right. For almost 30 years now this nation has tried to reform Telstra, to end up with a structural separation so that the wholesale business and the retail business were not fused together, creating an anti-competitive monopoly. Today we have achieved that structural separation. Once again, this is a win for families and a win for Australian businesses, it's a win for the economy, it's a win for those who believe that competition delivers better prices, better services and more innovation, and that's exactly what we have achieved through this legislation.
Now this is a big win, but the Government will not be resting on our laurels having delivered this win for Australian families and Australian businesses. As we move from 2010 to 2011, I want to make it clear that 2011 will be a year of delivery, it will be a year where Australian families can increasingly see the services they rely on like health changed because the Government is delivering health reform. Where they will increasingly be able to see, in their nation and in their own communities, the power of highspeed broadband, where they will increasingly be able to see the benefits of the Government's work to keep our economy strong and keep the number of jobs growing.
2011 will also be a year of decision. It will be the year the nation needs to make a decision on pricing carbon. It will be a year in which the Government will make decisions on increasing participation in our workforce. We've talked about our ageing society, we've talked about the demands of the resources sector for new workers and new skills, in 2011 we will move from the discussion to the decisions, new solutions, new skills, new opportunities for Australians as we lift workforce participation.
I'll now turn to the relevant Minister for comments on the National Broadband Network and then we'll take questions.
MINISTER CONROY: Well thank you, as some of you were here on Friday, some of this may be a little bit repetitive but what was the most, the most disappoint part about the performance again today, was that in the past when Labor Governments had a historic mircoeconomic reform in the Hawke and Keating period, the Opposition could always proudly say 'well we stood up and were counted, we voted for microeconomic reforms.' But that mantle is now passed, this is an opposition that is interested in nothing more than opposition and wrecking. When it came to a choice between supporting significant, what is often described as the holy grail of microeconomic reform in the telecommunications sector, the Opposition went missing. So it is with some disappointment that I saw one final chance they had to actually get on board and they decided to go down the wrecking and opposing path.
But the National Broadband Network, obviously now has an enormous task to do, it has an enormous task to begin the rollout around Australia at its peak, as many of you have heard me say, there'll be 31 different build spots around Australia. There will be an enormous engineering task, but this isn't Government that's just resting on its laurels, this is a Government, and for those of you who've seen my new title, you've probably not noticed it yet, the Minister Assisting the Prime Minister on Digital Productivity, I know you're all going 'what the hell was that?' but that is about making sure that this Government takes advantage of all the applications, the e-health applications, the e-education applications, the aged care applications, the veterans' care, sustainable energy policy like smart grids that are being rolled out in Newcastle, all of these areas of Government and more that I haven't mentioned, that is the task of this Government now is to move on and start making sure that those applications are being rolled out along with the National Broadband Network so the true benefits of the revolution that we are beginning to unleash here and able to be enjoyed by all Australians.
PM: Happy to take questions, Phil?
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister were you surprised at the election result in Victoria and what message is there in that for you?
PM: Clearly the Victorian election result is still working its way through, I know that we are probably anticipating today seeing Premier Brumby and Opposition Leader Ted Ballieu deal with this in press conferences, so I don't want to substitute myself into statements that should be made by those two leaders, but what I would essentially say about the Victorian election is it was an election fought by a capable Premier - John Brumby I believe is a very capable man and he has led Victoria very ably - but an election being fought by a Labor Government that had served the Victorian people for 11 years and was asking of course for a further four years in office to take it to 15 years.
You don't need to be too much of a student of political history to know that it is very difficult for long term governments to present and have their mandate renewed and I think that's what we've seen happen in Victoria.
Michelle?
JOURNALIST: Ms Gillard one of the reforms that you mentioned in your speech this morning, again now, is health reform, hospital reform. With a change of Government in Victoria, what do you anticipate that will do to your capacity to deliver that, do you think the Victorians will renege, and will you be seeking early discussions on this issue?
PM: Whoever emerges as the Premier of Victoria, I will say to them what I'd say to every other Premier and Chief minister - our health reforms are about more doctors, more nurses, more hospital beds, more responsive emergency departments.
Now, Premiers, I believe, and Chief Ministers, want to see their communities enjoy more doctors, more nurses, have access to more hospital beds, elective surgery done more quickly and more responsive emergency departments, and I said this morning, and I'm happy to say again, for any Premier there is a simple mathematical equation here. We know that if states continue to carry the burden of predominantly paying for hospital costs, that if you fast-forward the clock that will take more than they earn in revenue. Simple maths - not sustainable, requires reform, and we are standing ready to deliver those reforms, including stepping up to 60 per cent of the hospital costs, which now press on state governments. So, I'll be making that case very clearly to Premiers and Chief Ministers around the country.
Latika?
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, if I can ask you two questions, please, following on from this morning's speech, when do you think you will legislate for a carbon price, not just have made a decision regarding one?
And on a separate matter, does Australia have anything to fear from the next round of Wikileaks? Do we have anything to fear from cables from Australia being published?
PM: Well, on Wikileaks, I'm not going to comment on cables and intelligence matters, but obviously the Government is keeping the matter under close appraisal and the Attorney-General has been making some statements about our mechanisms for doing that today.
On the first, carbon pricing, I've said today that 2011 needs to be the year the nation decides - that we decide on how we will price carbon with sufficient consensus that it can be legislated.
Now, this parliament is the master of its own destiny, but for the Government we will drive the agenda so that in 2011 it can be transparent for Australians and for parliamentarians what the Government believes needs to happen in order to price carbon. We want to do that working through the multi-party climate change committee. We want to do that working with community members and with our two roundtables - the business roundtable and the roundtable involving unions, community groups and environmental groups - but we need to force this matter through in 2011, that is, through to decision, a decision on how we're going to price carbon that is capable of getting support in this parliament and enjoys support in the community.
Paul Bongiorno?
JOURNALIST: In 2010, Labor's been unable to win enough confidence of the voters to form government in its own right. It's been a very bad year. Is the Labor brand toxic?
PM: I understand that the Leader of the Opposition has been out making those statements today. You'd expect Tony Abbott to be out playing politics on a day in which the Government goes to parliament and, despite his negativity, despite his wrecking, delibvers a major reform, and what I can say to you and say to the Australian people is today I've been focussed, the Government's been focussed, on delivering a win for Australian families, Australian businesses, and the Australian economy. Tony Abbott's been focussed on hurling political insults.
Matthew?
JOURNALIST: There is a debate within the Labor Party at the moment, partly, I think, pushed on by the Victorian election result, about whether the future of electoral recovery for your Federal Government at the next election lies in moving your policies to the left, towards where the Green sit on issues like same-sex marriage and border protection, or going to the more traditional bread and butter, economy, services argument. On which of those two arguments do you fit, or do you believe that it's possible to deliver both?
PM: The future for this Government in terms of community support lies in governing and governing well. That's exactly what I will deliver - good government.
Yes?
JOURNALIST: (inaudible) that shows that most Queenslanders are yet to be convinced that the minority government is working, and 52 per cent think we should go to a new election to give one side out of the two a majority. How are you going to convince those people that your Government is working and that this can last three years?
PM: By governing and governing well, as we have been during this parliamentary period - securing important reforms through the parliament. We're talking about one such very important reform today, reforming our telecommunications industry for the future, but of course other important reforms have gone through this parliament - sustainability of the PBS, for example, has been an important measure dealt with in this parliamentary session, and we've got more than 15 bills that have passed this parliament.
So, the best way of demonstrating to the Australian people that we are governing well is by doing it, and we are.
Yes?
JOURNALIST: Nick Xenophon said today that he can't support the NBN access arrangements bill as it stands, as it was introduced to parliament last week, because it could lead to preferential pricing for Telstra. Do you share his concerns, and are you willing to go through this kind of parliamentary saga every time an NBN-related piece of legislation moves through both houses?
PM: Well, I'll get the Minister to comment on the detail of the legislation, but want I can say about this parliament is whether we're talking about NBN or whether we are talking about other matters, we need to work through the parliament the Australian people voted for. That does require discussion, respectful conversations.
I think announcing the finalisation of the piece of legislation that we are here talking about today, we are showing what you can achieve with those respectful conversations.
MINISTER CONROY: The Senate has always been a challenge for a ruling Labor Government, so we're sort of used to it, negotiating our way through the Senate. It's nothing unusual. It's different, obviously, with the Reps, but the Senate has always been a chamber where we've negotiated until we've either won or lost a bill.
On the specific issue that Senator Xenophon is raising, what is set out in that bill is that if the NBN want to give, say, a volume discount, it has to go and get approval from the ACCC, so it doesn't say the NBN can just go off and give a volume discount to anybody or make any pricing arrangements.
Now, Mr Quigley has consistently said the policy of the company is not to give volume discounts, so there is Mr Quigley on the record, and I said, if you actually read the relevant legislation it's very specific - it can only be done if the ACCC gives it the tick.
JOURNALIST: Is that, since Mr Quigley has said that, why is there any room within the legislation for volume discounts to be allowed? Why not simply state in the legislation that there will be no volume discounts?
MINISTER CONROY: Well, we've put in a mechanism that the ACCC could tick them off or it could reject them if they were sought, so we're just allowing a degree of flexibility in the legislation, but let's be clear - it has to be done with the ACCC's approval, but the bill's been out as a draft for some time and this is a bill which will now work its way through all the committee stage. We'll listen to the committee. We'll listen to the other members of parliament, and we'll consider that sometime in the first half of next year, but I would imagine this is at least a six-month process that we'll be going through.
JOURNALIST: Do you think the NBN bills will be, when do you think they'll be voted upon in the Senate?
MINISTER CONROY: Oh, it's not for me to say. It's taken 12 months to get this one up, longer than 12 months to get this one to completion, so I'd be a bad judge of when we'd actually get a chance to vote on it.
It'll be debated, I'm sure. As I said, there'll be a lengthy committee process. There'll be lots of discussion on it, but as for when the chamber- I would hope that it could be done before the first half, but the Senate's program is in the hands of the Senate.
JOURNALIST: Malcolm Turnbull
says that they support the structural separation-
MINISTER CONROY: -Well, he said that, but he had a chance to vote for it today. He had a chance to vote for it today, and he didn't.
JOURNALIST: In the Senate, people like Nick Minchin gave absolutely savage attacks on the proposal. What do you make of the Senate actually speaking differently to what their supposed policy is?
MINISTER CONROY: Look, there's clearly been a divide within the Liberal Party over this. If you go and took a poll - you know, you sometimes do - not for attributing, the majority of Liberal members that I have spoken to support structural separation. They recognise the mistake the Howard Government made, and they in private have been very supportive, but there've been those that have been campaigning hard, like Senator Minchin, to protect his legacy, which is the privatisation of Telstra, and the world has now moved on and today's vote moves the world on in a quantum leap, and so while I've congratulated Malcolm a number of times on saying that he supported structural separation, he had the chance to put his mouth where his money was, and that was a fail - an absolute fail.
PM: OK, can I suggest, Latika, the easiest answers to your question are timing for the next bill, try and find out how long Mr Abbott is going to mire himself in wrecking and negativity. That's an important piece of information, and yes, you're right, the Liberal Party is divided on Tony Abbott's wrecking tactics.
Yes?
JOURNALIST: But Labor (inaudible) in Victoria and it also looks like losing New South Wales next year, it's just in four months. How much help will you be giving Kristina Keneally over Christmas and the summer break to help her stem the tide, stem the damage which is likely to be inflicted in March?
PM: Well, I'm intending, let me tell you, to take a little bit of a holiday over Christmas. Yes, there are state elections to come. We've just had one in Victoria. I will be associating myself with state campaigns in the way you would expect a federal leader to do.
Ultimately, state campaigns turn on state issues, and Premier Keneally will be out there arguing for the further support of New South Wales voters.
Now, I understand that following the Victorian election there will be any amount of political commentary about what all of this means. I'll leave that to the paid political commentators. That's not my job, but I will just briefly remind on this - of course, we saw John Howard successfuly govern and be re-elected in circumstances where people were marching to ballot boxes in state elections voting for Labor governments. Australians separate these two questions in their minds. That was clearly on display during the period of the Howard Government.
JOURNALIST: (inaudible) Ms Keneally's call for Mr Riordan to resign?
PM: Look, these are matters for the New South Wales branch.
Yes?
JOURNALIST: You mentioned health, but changes of state government, state government level, what affect would that have on the overall COAG agenda of your Government?
PM: Well, I will be working with, obviously, currently, if you look across the stats and territories we've got Premier Barnett in Western Australia. My job as Prime Minister is to work with the Premiers and Chief Ministers that their states and territories elect to get a job done for Australian families and for the future of the nation. That will be my mission and that's what I'll be going about doing.
Yes?
JOURNALIST: (inaudible) which is a lot more (inaudible) first five weeks of parliament. Shouldn't voters expect their elected members to turn up for work, rather than playing hooky on the last day, especially given that people like Tanya Plibersek had trouble getting a pair when she was pregnant?
PM: Well, I'll go to the Leader of the House, but can I just say this in response to your question: Today's sitting need not have occurred. It only occurred because of Mr Abbott's negativity, and Mr Abbott only came today to hurl insults.
Now, I think taxpayers will take a pretty dim view of that - you're right - but the person who needs to explain the parliament being brought together at this expense is Mr Abbott. The only reason he was here today was to hurl insults, not to do anything in the interests of Australian families.
I'll turn to the Leader of the House on the pairs question.
MINISTER ALBANESE: Can I just add that Tony Abbott also wasn't there for the actual end of the debate on structural separation. He came, gave abuse and ranted and raved and then left the chamber, and he only returned when divisions were held.
Pairs occur and are negotiated between the Chief Government Whip and the Chief Opposition Whip. I'm not aware of all the circumstances for each individual.
I know, for example, that a couple of the pairs were because of a meeting of the committee that's dealing with the inquiry into Wild Rivers. It's appropriate, given that meetings would have scheduled and transport arrangements, etcetera, in Far North Queensland, that that occurred.
I think, over the year, we have seen the Opposition , as part of their blocking and negativity, some of their responses in terms of pairing arrangements have been, I think, completely indefensible - the fact that there had to be a little mini campaign to ensure there was a pair granted to Tanya Plibersek is perhaps the best example of that, but what I would hope occur is with a bit of maturity from the Opposition is that over the long break that actually recognise that this parliament, the 43rd Parliament, has been elected for three years. It's pretty obvious it's going to serve for three years, and that they should therefore act in a much more mature way when it comes to the functioning of the parliament, because I think that's what Australians expect.
PM: OK, we'll take the last two questions, and then we'll go. Yes?
JOURNALIST: (inaudible) cost, in ballpark figures today? Was it close to a million dollars?
MINISTER ALBANESE: That would be a matter for the Finance Minister. What I do know is that given that the Opposition failed to even call a division on the matter, the primary matter, that was before the House today, this could have been dealt with last Thursday, frankly, had the Senate not had a considerable debate - they actually had a long debate last Thursday about how long the debate would go for. They then had a dinner break. They then went home early. The fact is that this could have been dealt with.
It was clear from last Wednesday that there was majority support for this vital legislation in the Senate and the House of Representatives. Tony Abbott chose to play his negative game before the House of Reps today.
PM: Alright, Phil Coorey - last question.
JOURNALIST: A philosophical one.
MINISTER ALBANESE: Here we go!
JOURNALIST: This time last year, the Libs were two days away from knocking off their leader, Turnbull. They were in the pits. You guys were riding high. What's your takeout from the last 12 months? Is it the delivery of the speech you gave this morning? Is that the lesson you've learnt from the last year in the Labor movement, or is there more than that that you take out of what's happened in the last 12 months?
PM: I believe what we're elected to do is we're elected to, we go to the election saying to Australians we've got a vision of the future. We're elected to then methodically deliver that vision. Often, that's not easy. That's not easy, particularly in a parliament like this, with the negativity of the Opposition. That's not easy, but you've got to go about it with determination, methodically.
That's what we've been doing in this parliamentary session, and as I've said, 2011, I believe, is the year where Australians will be saying to us, and I am determined to this, Australians will be saying to us 'we want you to govern.' It's what I intend to do - not play politics: govern, govern for the future of all Australians; for their opportunities for the future; for ensuring that we have a strong economy and that we tackle the challenges of the future, including, of course, sustainability and climate change.
So, I ask to be judged by our actions and what we deliver for Australian families.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, you just said that you're not elected to play politics, but you've been standing here for 15-20 minutes smashing the heck out of your opponent because he didn't agree with your broadband policy. Isn't that inconsistent?
PM: Parliament is a place of debate, not a place of relentless negativity and wrecking. Tony Abbott's whole world view coming into this parliament was 'don't worry about broadband and reform for Australian families. Demolish NBN, demolish the Government', and when it was clear last Wednesday that he was not going to succeed in demolishing the NBN, he has forced, for the playing of politics, parliament to keep sitting, including today.
Now, I am going to give frank assessments of how the Opposition is behaving in this parliament. That is making clear to Australians, for example, what we're doing in parliament today.
It is impossible to explain why the parliament is sitting today without going to Tony Abbott's negativity and wrecking strategy. I've got to come here and tell people the truth. That is the truth.
Thank you.