PM: Well I'm here with Minister Greg Combet and obviously we've just come from the first meeting of the Multi-Party Climate Change Committee and that meeting was attended by me and by Minister Combet. We were joined by Senator Bob Brown and Senator Christine Milne from the Australian Greens, Mr Tony Windsor, an Independent in the House of Representatives. The Committee was assisted by Mr Adam Bandt the Member for Melbourne and Mr Mark Dreyfus, the Parliamentary Secretary for Climate Change and Energy Efficiency. The Deputy Prime Minister who is a member of the Committee, Wayne Swan, was unable to attend today because he's commenced his travels overseas to attend meetings of the IMF and the World Bank. Mr Rob Oakeshott, who is also a member for the Committee, was unable to attend today, as people would be aware I think, he's just welcomed a newborn baby to his family so had more pressing matters than coming to a Climate Change Committee.
We were also joined by our four expert advisers, Professor Ross Garnaut, Professor Will Steffan, Mr Rod Sims and Ms Patricia Faulkner, who attended the meeting.
Today's meeting was a constructive and collaborative one. Specifically, the meeting endorsed the Terms of Reference for the Committee's work. The meeting also agreed the operating procedures and meetings schedules and agreed how it would work in terms of the release of information. Specially, the meeting agreed that there would be a Communiqué released in relation to each meeting of the Multi-Party Climate Change Committee and obviously I am releasing that Communiqué now.
The meeting also discussed the need to make sure the community is informed that we are harnessing community consensus about climate change and in that regard the Committee agreed that there would be a dedicated website which would provide information about the Committee's work, that the Committee would periodically release documents to inform community understanding about climate change, that we would create the Climate Change Commission which would engage in public outreach work to inform the community about climate change and about pricing carbon.
The Committee concluded that in view of the creation of this Committee and its intended outreach work, that the proposal for a citizens' assembly should not be implemented but there would be other ways of harnessing public dialogue, engagement in the science of climate change and engagement in questions of pricing carbon.
The Committee also commissioned today an update of the work by Professor Ross Garnaut on climate change, of course, he authored the Climate Change Review, a major piece of work, this follows commitments given to the Member for New England during the course of the negotiations leading up to the formation of the Government. So that piece of work will be updated.
All in all, this was obviously the foundation stone of what will be a work program for the Committee. It was a good and constructive exchange and I'm looking forward to the further meetings of the Committee. I'll just turn now to see if Minister Combet wants to add at all?
MINISTER COMBET: Nothing to add, Prime Minister.
PM: You're alright, ok, and we'll take your questions. Yes, Lenore?
JOURNALIST: Will the Government continue to make decisions on other aspects of climate policy and press ahead with election policies like Cash for Clunkers while this Committee meets or will you wait until to see what foundation carbon price you've got and then do the other thing?
PM: (inaudible) ahead with other aspects of climate change policy, including our election commitments, you've described one, the election commitment we made about enabling people to replace older vehicles, or assisting people to do that. Of course, we've got a big set of election commitments including the investment of a billion dollars in transmission lines to bring renewable energy into the national electricity grid. So there are, you know, three big streams of work here. Obviously, renewable energy, the renewable energy target work, for example like the transmission lines, is a big stream of work. Work on energy efficiency is a big stream of work and we will continue to with both of those and we've got election commitments in both areas. The Multi-Party Climate Change Committee will be focused, in accordance with its Terms of Reference, on issues associated with carbon pricing.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, you might have noticed that some business people were claiming yesterday that there's some sort of culture of intimidation under the Labor Government. Is there and do you find such claims ironic considering only less than six months ago the mining industry was spending many millions of dollars trying to intimidate you out of going ahead with a policy?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, look the only thing I would say is obviously there will be times when the government agrees with business community members, there will be times that we disagree, there will be many, many occasions on which the business community does not have one view, so we will agree with some and disagree with others. The only important thing is that on all sides they are respectful conversations.
JOURNALIST: (inaudible)
PM: Well, I think my track record would be one of having respectful conversations. Whether it was the business advisory group that helped the Fair Work Act or whether it was the set of discussions I had with Australia's leading miners leading to the agreement on the Minerals Resources Rent Tax.
JOURNALIST: The Government has put aside $3.1 billion for water buy backs. If the Murray Darling Basin Authority comes back with their draft guide tomorrow with deeper cuts how does the Government propose to finance cuts to the tune of 27 to 37 per cent?
PM: Well I think the appropriate thing here is to go through the process. The Murray Darling Authority will be releasing its plan, as I'm advised, tomorrow. That will then be the subject on consultation and discussion and that work will be led my Minister Burke.
JOURNALIST: Will the Government consider following the advice of the Department of Finance and take money from the funds set aside to improve irrigation infrastructure?
PM: Well, we'll get the plan properly in the public domain first and we'll have Minister Burke lead the consultations about it.
JOURNALIST: (inaudible) cost more than you budgeted for currently?
PM: We'll work though and obviously first and foremost, I understand there's been media commentary about this today, but the plan from the independent authority is being released tomorrow.
JOURNALIST: There has been criticism that the Climate Change Committee is shrouded in secrecy, how much information will you be releasing, after each meeting, in the Communiqué? Will it be substantial information or it will it basically be housekeeping?
PM: Well, I think we should be very clear about this, and I do want to be very clear. The Multi-Party Climate Change Committee is going to work in a manner comparable to a cabinet sub-committee. It is not a cabinet sub-committee but it will work in a comparable manner. That means, of course, that outcomes from the Committee will be publically announced. The Committee, from time to time, will choose to publish work for the public to digest but discussions in the room will be confidential.
JOURNALIST: When will the climate change people's forum kick-off, when's that due to occur?
PM: As I've indicated, we won't be proceeding with the citizens' assembly but we will be creating a Climate Change Commission and looking at a public engagement strategy so more work will happen on that.
JOURNALIST: (inaudible)
PM: That's correct.
JOURNALIST: (inaudible) Institute of Public Affairs that points to significant rises in power prices over the past five years? How do you expect to be able to sell a carbon price to the public when a lot of them are already struggling with power bills?
PM: Well I understand that electricity prices and rising prices are a big pressure on many working families but I think we also need to note, and I would just point out that on the Committee we are joined by Mr Rod Simms who is the Chair of the Independent Pricing and Regulatory Tribunal dealing with electricity matters, so he's an expert in electricity prices and that expertise will be available to the Multi-Party Climate Change Committee. But on electricity prices, obviously these are a big pressure on working families and many experts will tell you that one of the problems in electricity generation is uncertainty about pricing carbon and it is preventing people from making the huge, long term investments necessary to generate more electricity and that puts upward pressure on prices.
JOURNALIST: Why was Adam Bandt at today's meeting? He's not a member is he? Can anyone just come along to this Committee?
PM: No. We won't be anticipating seeing you there, Matthew. Adam Bandt and Mark Dreyfus were there assisting the Committee with its work.
JOURNALIST: Well, what are they doing?
PM: Well, obviously, the Committee's going to have a big work program. Mark Dreyfus assists the Minister. He's the Parliamentary Secretary for Climate Change. Mr Adam Bandt is obviously going to assist Bob Brown and Christine Milne with their work.
JOURNALIST: In the new age of transparency, the Treasury and Finance Departments released their incoming government briefs without any fee. Your Department is asking media outlets about $4,000 for the pleasure of reading what you've seen. Will you ask your Department to waive the fees so people can see the incoming government briefs?
PM: Well, as you know, Freedom of Information matters are dealt with by delegates in Departments, not by politicians and that's exactly the appropriate way from them to be dealt with.
JOURNALIST: (inaudible) the whole modelling exercise of the options that this Committee comes up with, like they did for the CPRS and do you envisage that you'll need to have a public advertising campaign to try to sell the whole idea to voters?
PM: Well obviously the Committee's got work to do, I'm not at this stage going to say what modelling or other things may be appropriate. We've just had the first meeting, it's dealt with a series of set-up matters which I've described to you and we will work through. Obviously the Committee can have recourse to the resources of Treasury or indeed any other part of the public service to inform work at the appropriate point.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister (inaudible) advertising?
PM: We've got no plans presently for advertising.
Latika?
JOURNALIST: Now that your Citizens' Assembly is dead, buried and cremated, how do you, can you say exactly how do you plan to harness the community consensus you're seeking and why do you need to do that when polls already tell us up to two-thirds of Australians do want a price on carbon now?
PM: Well first and foremost we think it's important that the community is fully informed and fully engaged in questions of tackling climate change and fully informed and engaged on questions of pricing carbon. Many people, I think, are hungry for more information and so we are envisaging a Climate Change Commission, we talked about this during the election campaign and we will continue to work on its structure and how it can best go out and engage community members and provide the information they need and they seek.
So this is an outreach program, I genuinely believe across the community many people are hungry for more information, many people would like to know more about what they can individually do to help, many people do want to understand what pricing carbon would mean for them, for their families, different options, how it would work. Many people are very interested in the science and see a lot of reporting in the media about the science and want to ask further questions. So I think there is a big scope here to engage to community and have dialogue and provide the information they seek.
JOURNALIST: And to follow up, do you envision maybe an advertising campaign for that?
PM: Well I just answered that, we've got no present plans.
Yep, Phil?
JOURNALIST: Who will be on this Climate Change Commission, how will it be comprised?
PM: Well we haven't made the decisions as yet about the structure and as you will see in the communiqué that's been released today the Committee's going to work through on that question.
JOURNALIST: (inaudible) of the Citizens'Assembly, or did you let it go meekly?
PM: Well as I've just said to you, this is a Committee working akin to a Cabinet Committee in terms of information protocols, so discussions in the Committee are confidential Phil, you'll just have to die wondering.
JOURNALIST: (inaudible) in relation to the Securency International issue with the (inaudible) bank notes, which is an RBA venture? Will you get Glenn Stevens to front a Parliamentary enquiry in relation to this issue, something that Bob Brown's been calling for since May last year?
PM: Well as Prime Minister I don't order the Reserve Bank Governor around and I don't order Parliamentary Committees around in terms of who they ask to see.
JOURNALIST: Are you concerned about this though, that the Reserve Bank would be involved in something like this?
PM: Well I'm not going to, this is a question with a lot of legal proceedings, I'm not going to speculate on any aspect of it.
JOURNALIST: Some time ago Bob Brown indicated that the Citizens' Assembly was gone, you then breathed new life back into it, why has it taken you so long to officially let go?
PM: Let's have a bit of clarity here about outcome versus method. What I talked about during the election campaign, what I talked about with the Citizens' Assembly was working through with the Australian community to provide information and to develop consensus about how we should tackle climate change. We obviously, in the run up to this year's election, during the course of the year and indeed late last year, had a debate in this Parliament about a Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme, there was a consensus in this Parliament that was then shattered. I thought it was important that we harness community members to rebuild a good, general public consensus on how to tackle climate change, how to price carbon. There's not one way of doing that, there's not one way of harnessing and involving community members, obviously the Multi-Party Climate Change Committee today is looking at and going to work through ways of doing that.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister then why can the Commission do that better than the Assembly, what will the difference be?
PM: Well of course the Climate Change Commission would be staffed by experts who would be available to speak to people on the science for example. Many people hear very confusing claims about the science and they want to understand them at a level of detail. You could imagine, for example, the Climate Change Commission being able to assist people with working through and understanding the science.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, when you were in negotiations with the Independents to form Government, did Rob Oakeshott ever approach you about the possibility of defence contracts with Birdon Marine?
PM: Well the Government's agreement with Mr Oakeshott is wholly transparent and was released by me at the time that the agreement was entered into, so there is no other matter that was agreed with Mr Oakeshott other than the things your transparently seen, has been available.
JOURNALIST: (inaudible)
PM: Well I think it's significant, there's no agreement other than the agreement that's been transparently made available which consisted of the signed agreement document and the letter to Mr Oakeshott. I do not recall Mr Oakeshott raising the matter with me, I simply don't recall it.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister do you expect any world leaders to be offended by your comment that you'd rather be here in classroom than with them?
PM: Well that's a considerable construction of my comment and so let's actually just deal with the facts and what I said. What I said was, and I don't think there's been any mystery about this and in conversations I would obviously always say this, it's not a passion about foreign policy that brought me into politics.
The first thing that caused me to get actively involved in any form of political activity was concern about opportunity and access to education. That was the driving passion that caused me in the very first instance to attend my first meeting, to hand out my first leaflet, to think about political matters and be involved in active political advocacy and I've carried that passion with me all of my life. Which is why when I get to go to Australian schools and talk to teachers and talk to kids I absolutely love it.
Of course as Prime Minister I will be representing the nation on the world stage, being a feisty advocate for our national interests and I've been doing that over the last few days in Brussels, in Zurich and obviously, accompanied by Mr Coorey amongst others, have been in Afghanistan.
JOURNALIST: So you don't feel you've offended anyone?
PM: I think the suggestion's absurd.
JOURNALIST: But if you're not that keen on it Prime Minister-
PM: Well that's not what I just said, I think that suggestion's absurd as well.
JOURNALIST: If you're not naturally passionate about it are you better off having Kevin Rudd taking care of business?
PM: Look what a silly construction of what I've just said. Let's just be very, very clear here. I first got actively involved in politics because of a passion for educational opportunity. Of course, as someone who's been in active politics now for a long period of time, I have a wide range of other interest.
If you'd like me to lecture you for a day and a half about the campaign against the toxic dump in Weribee I could do that.
If you'd like me to talk to you for a month or two about the Fair Work Act and my passion for fairness and decency at work, I could certainly do that.
If you'd like me to lecture long and large about healthcare reforms and how it's always been Labor in this country that's brought the waves of reforms that have kept our health system sustainable and equitable, I'd happily do that. I did that for many years in this Parliament as Shadow Minister for Health.
If you'd like me to talk to you about immigration and population policy, I could also engage in the Gillard oration about that; you pick any other subject and I'll give you a view as Prime Minister on it. I was making a simple point about the thing that brought me into active politics. Obviously as Prime Minister I will be a feisty advocate for our nation on the world stage.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, on water reform, just one further question, the main concern is about rural communities, obviously if you're buying from willing sellers the farmer gets the money but then the money might leave the community, are you considering extra support for rural communities that might be hurt by these-
PM: Well I think we'll allow the Authority to release its plan tomorrow and then of course Minister Burke will engage in consultations on the plan.
Thanks very much.