PM: I'm joined today by the Minister for School Education, Peter Garrett, and by the local Member for Fraser, Andrew Leigh, and we're here at Harrison School. I'd like to thank Dennis, the school principal, who's made us feel so welcome.
I'd also like to thank Laura and Tyler, our school prefects who have assisted in showing us around the school today. We were just reflecting we've learnt a bit about colours and shapes that we didn't know before.
We're here a week away from the Federal Budget, and the Federal Budget is all about keeping our economy strong. It means that as a nation we've got to live within our means, just like families do, which is why the Budget will bring us back to surplus in 2012-13.
But the Budget is also about what we value as a nation, what we believe is important, and that's why in the forthcoming Budget, even in a tight Budget, we will be making new investments in education.
With the Minister for School Education and with Andrew Leigh, we announced one of those investments yesterday - to reward great teachers.
Here today, I want to announce a new investment to support students with disabilities. As a Government, we have already made record investments in supporting students with disabilities and their families. That includes increasing the carer payment by $100 per single per fortnight. It includes the $600 carer supplement to help with the pressures and cost of living that people face when they are caring for children with disabilities. It includes doubling the Commonwealth's investment in disability funding to $6.2 billion.
Of course, we've almost doubled school funding, and there are streams of support within that funding for the special needs of students with disabilities, and through our Building the Education Revolution program, we've made sure that special schools have access to the biggest building grants.
In addition, we have built on our $190 million package for autism and the forthcoming Budget will deliver our election commitment for early intervention funding for children who have hearing impairments, sight impairments, cerebral palsy or Dragile X syndrome. That means that their families will be able to access up to $12,000 of early intervention support, and that's at a total cost of $146 million.
But on top of these major investments, today I want to announce that in the Federal Budget we will provide a new $200 million allocation to support schools and students with disabilities. This $200 million will commence to flow in the next school year. It will be funding for 2.5 years. Of course, school funding beyond that period will be worked through in the context of the school funding review being led by David Gonski.
This $200 million of additional support will be available to assist schools right around the country - all schools in all school systems. The way in which the money will be invested will be in accordance with my vision that we want to make a difference for every child and every school.
The $200 million will go to support additional ways of assisting students with disabilities. These include enabling better access to specialist services, for example speech therapy and occupational therapy, better access to the equipment that can make a difference for students with disabilities. We've seen some of that equipment on display today. Some of the new technology is truly amazing, enabling students with disabilities to better communicate and better participate in class rooms than ever before.
The funding can also be used to assist with additional support in class. Students with disabilities obviously need access to additional teaching support and work with teacher aides.
And it can be used to adapt the curriculum to meet the needs of students with disabilities.
In addition, the money can be used to support teachers who need professional development and assistance to maximise their ability to do the best quality job for students with disabilities
This is an important new investment - $200 million is a lot of money, and we are investing it in a tight Budget because we recognise that there's nothing more important to the nation's future than what's happening in schools today, and we want to make sure every child in every school gets a great education, and that includes ensuring that our students with disabilities also get the opportunity for a great education.
I'll turn now to the Minister for School Education for some comments.
MINISTER GARRETT: Thanks very much, Prime Minister.
Today is yet another clear example of the commitment that this Government has to making sure that every kid in school in Australia gets best opportunity to fulfil their potential, including those kids who have special needs or who have disabilities.
I'm really, really pleased that we're here, able to make this announcement on the eve of the Budget, very aware of the fact that for many schools there is a considerable challenge in making sure that they are able to provide the best possible education that they can to kids, including those kids with disabilities. I want to put on the record my thanks to the special working group that we convened to provide advice to the Government as to how might best go about assisting kids at school who do have special needs, and I really want to say that their work was thorough and we've looked very closely at their recommendations and we've acted on them today.
We intend to deliver this special investment for kids with disabilities into schools though national partnership arrangements and direct funding arrangements with the non-government school sector. My expectation is that we will work closely with the States as they deliver into their schools the kind of support that we know will make a real difference to the teachers, to kids and to parents, who will know that their kids are getting that kind of support in the schooling environment.
It's important for us to really face up to the fact that if we want to make sure every child gets the best start in life, then that means every single child, including a child including a child with disability, and now, with this investment today, we're making sure that these kids get the support in our schools that they need.
It's a great day for the schools that work hard with these kids, a terrific day for the kids themselves. I'm absolutely thrilled and delighted that we're able to make this announcement.
PM: Happy to take questions.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, for the last month or so we've heard about how this is going to be a tough budget, there might be cuts to might be cuts to medical research, various other sectors, the public sector, for example. Today we hear you've announced a big new tranche of funding in the Budget. I'm a bit confused about what your Government's Budget message is. Could you actually just explain it to us?
And secondly, are you happy with how Wayne Swan is selling the Budget message at the moment?
PM: Thank you very much. Very simple, the Budget message - the Budget message is about doing what we need to do now to keep our economy strong. Of course, our economy is facing up to some short-term challenges, including recovering from the natural disasters we saw over summer and also the impact on our economy of the natural disaster in Japan, and the record-high dollar is putting some pressure on sections of the economy, but the record-high dollar is a reflection of the strength of our resource sector.
So, we know whilst the economy faces some short-term challenges that we are moving to a high-growth phase for our economy. We've got a record number of investments in the pipeline. That means our economy will be at close to full capacity.
The right thing to do when the economy running strong, when it's going at close to full capacity, is to bring the Budget back to surplus to make sure that Government doesn't add to inflationary pressures within the economy, because that would be bad for the cost of living of individual Australians. It would be bad for Australian families.
That's why we're determined to bring the Budget surplus in 2012-13. That's why we will make the cutbacks necessary in order to do that. We will live within our means.
But even as you live within your means, you make choices - choices about the things that matter to you the most, and what we are indicating today as a Government is education, supporting students, supporting students with disabilities to get a great education is one of the things that matters to us the most.
I've constantly said as Prime Minister that there is nothing closer to my heart than education, because a great education for students is about our future as a society; our economic future, because the people in this school and in schools like it around the country today, the children here are going to be the adults of tomorrow, the ones who keep our economy strong; but it's also a vital investment for fairness. I don't want us to be a country where some children miss out on a great education, and that's why we're making this new investment.
Now, I think people will judge us on our at the choices, and when we look at the choices that this Government's made - for example, in our record funding in disabilities - if you look at the last full year of the Howard Government, they had 40 per cent less in funding, direct funding, on support for people with disabilities than this Government does.
At the last election, Tony Abbott's policy was to assist 6,000 students with disabilities when we know that there are that there are more than 160,000 students with disabilities in Australian schools.
Well, we're making a different set of choices. It's important that students with disabilities get a great education. That's why I'm proudly making this announcement today on top of our record funding to support children, people, families with disabilities.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, since you raised Tony Abbott there, while you've been overseas and in the weeks beforehand, he's been visiting factories, work floors, to tell them we shouldn't have a carbon tax, that it would be bad for them. He seems to have had some effect on, certainly, the union movement in Paul Howes, hardening his rhetoric. Is Tony Abbott outflanking you on this issue and do you think that you're losing the battle to convince people of a need for a carbon tax?
PM: I don't comment on polls and I'm here today talking about a very important policy for our nation, a policy that will start making a difference in children's lives from the next school year on.
But on the question of carbon pricing, we will continue to explain to the Australian community how important this is for the future of our economy and how important it is for our environment.
It's easy to raise fear. It's easy to be negative. What's harder is to design the right solution to deal with a big challenge like climate change.
That's what the Government is about, and that's what we'll keep explaining to the Australian community.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, just on the second half of my question from before, I mean, Wayne Swan, for example, angered steel producers over the weekend, saying that there won't be a great impact on them from the carbon tax, ‘bad luck', essentially. Are you happy with that sort of message? Is there a mixed message going out, mixed messages going out from your Government at the moment, about the moment about the impact of the carbon tax? Are you happy with his performance?
PM: I'm smiling at the cheering coming in from one of the classrooms in school.
Wayne Swan is doing a first-class job as Deputy Prime Minister and as Treasurer. He's working incredibly hard in the lead up to the Budget next week and he's doing a first-class job as we lead towards Budget day.
Wayne has been making what I think about the important set of points about the impact of carbon pricing on Australian businesses. It's important for the facts to get out there. There's a lot of fear around. Tony Abbott is making it his business to generate a lot of fear.
The Government will be there, day after day, putting out the facts so people can understand what carbon pricing will mean and judge for themselves.
And let's remember what we're talking about is putting an impost on the 1,000 biggest polluters, businesses who are the 1,000 biggest polluters in this country and using that money to assist households, protect Australian jobs and to fund programs that tackle climate change.
This is the right thing to do to have a strong economic future with a clean energy economy. It's the right thing to do by our environment.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, or Minister Garrett, can you tell us how will the funding, the $200 million, be divided or be allocated between the schools, and secondly, a theme that's emerged in submissions to the school funding review is that students with disabilities who go to non-government schools aren't able to get the same levels of support, levels of funding, that students with disabilities in Government schools can get. Do you accept that that's the case, and if so, what do you intend to do about it?
PM: Well, I'll have Peter explain the distribution mechanism.
MINISTER GARRETT: Thanks, Dan.
The national partnership will deliver the funding to the States on a proportional basis according to the equivalent enrolments of each State, and then the national partnership will provide for the States those opportunities into Government schools to deliver funding on the basis of those student identified with disability, and in the non-Government sector, across those other sectors, in the same way.
My expectation is that they will be decisions that will be taken both by sectors and the States, as they do now in terms of do now in terms of making sure that there is provision for services and support for kids with disabilities in those schools.
JOURNALIST: PM, if I may, just one last-
PM: -Oh, sorry, on the-
JOURNALIST: -On the second question-
PM: Well, Peter can, sorry, deal with that, too.
MINISTER GARRETT: Look, it will be a question for the States and the sectors to deliver this funding in a way which they think best meets needs of supporting kids with disability who are in their school systems.
JOURNALIST: On the question of, do you accept that there's a disparity between the levels of support that students with disabilities can get in non-government schools compared to those in Government schools and, if so, do you intend to fix that?
MINISTER GARRETT: Well, I guess the point to make about this is that we've already got significant investment which can potentially be delivered to kids with disabilities in Government systems through some of the national partnership money that's already out there.
So, if you want to try to disaggregate where existing investment at the Commonwealth level is going, in terms of supporting students with disabilities, that's an exercise which will happen over time as we review those partnerships.
What I'm confident about is that this will make a significant difference to schools in both sectors, government and non-government, and that the education authorities or the school system drivers will make sure that they focus on kids with disabilities in a way which assists them in the teaching of those kids in their school systems.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, the United States says that it's inconceivable that Osama bin Laden could have not had support within Pakistan. Do you trust Pakistan?
PM: Sorry, smiling again at the playground noises that are now going to come through to our press conference, even as we talk about some very important questions.
The United States has made statements, I think a very obvious, commonsense statement, that Osama bin Laden could not have been where he was in Pakistan without a support systems, so that's obviously true. President Obama has also made sure that he has thanked Pakistan for helping lead US forces, helping lead the United States, to where Osama bin Laden was so they could engage in the action that led to the death of Osama bin Laden.
Secretary Clinton has today confirmed how important it is to keep working with Pakistan on counter-terrorism. That's my view. That's Australia's view. We think it's very important to continue to work with Pakistan on counter-terrorism. We have a Memorandum of Understanding to drive that cooperation, and we will keep working with them.
We do need to recall that of the people who have suffered from the despicable violence led by Osama bin Laden or inspired by him, the people of Pakistan have very greatly suffered.
JOURNALIST: Will you be seeking assurances, though, from Pakistan? You haven't said whether you trust Pakistan as well, but will you be seeking assurances from Pakistan that nobody in the military base just down the road or in the Pakistani interservice intelligence agency knew that Osama bin Laden was living just down the road?
PM: We will keep working with Pakistan through our counter-terrorism and other cooperation. We do have good cooperation on counter-terrorism issues and we'll continue with that.
JOURNALIST: PM: I just wanted to go back, you said something about the carbon tax before. Anna Bligh today has said she doesn't back a carbon tax yet, either. When you've got people like Anna Bligh, and last week or the week before Paul Howes, good Labor people, saying they're now feeling nervous about this tax, and we need more detail, I mean, isn't it incumbent upon your Government to actually release more details sooner rather than later about the impacts of the carbon tax, the rate, the compensation that will be available? I mean, is that something on the cards?
PM: Well, the important thing here is to consult and get the details right, and certainly I understand that many Australians will judge their final view about carbon pricing when they can see all of the details. That's very, very understandable.
What is also very understandable is as a Government we wanted to take a highly consultative approach, to canvass views about the best way of getting this right.
Now, I invite you to consider the reaction to the alternative. If we had walked out and said, ‘Here is the full details of carbon pricing. We've created this in a black box. We haven't talked to anybody. Here it is, it's immutable, it's written in stone', then the business community, trade unions, indeed, State governments, would have said ‘How do we get a voice in this process? How do we get heard?'.
Well, we've taken a different approach. We've announced the way in which carbon pricing will work as a mechanism, and then we are intensively consulting - allowing business to have a voice, allowing trade unions to have a voice, allowing State governments to have a voice in the design of carbon pricing. That's the right thing to do.
The details will be announced when they're ready. I know - call me old-fashioned, but I think what Government should do is not march to the beat of the political cycle, but march to the beat of the policy cycle and get policy right.
Today is a great example of that. Minister Garrett has been working very intensively with stakeholders so that we could better understand the needs of students with disabilities and how we could better assist. That's the right thing to do.
It's a very stark contrast to how the Howard government used to do business. When we came to office, no clear national definition of students with disabilities. That continues to be so now, but the Minister is working through a process to ensure that we can better understand numbers of students with disabilities and where they are.
When we came to office, there wasn't a list of disadvantaged schools in this country. No-one in the Howard government had ever bothered to turn their mind to the question of education disadvantage and where it was, so we've worked through a proper process and now every Australian can see where disadvantage is through the My School website.
So, we take a proper policy approach. We've done it in other areas of policy, done it in relation to the policy we've announced today. We'll do it in relation to carbon pricing.
JOURNALIST:Prime Minister, are we at risk of a home-grown terror attack, and has that risk increased from the death of bin Laden?
PM: We have not increased our terrorism alert. It is still at the same level that it was before the news came through of the death of Osama bin Laden. Our security agencies continue to do what they do so well, which is be vigilant and prepared for any potential terrorist attack, so that work continues.
Our message to Australians overseas, and it is an important message, is if we start to see mass demonstrations in any country in the world protesting against the death of Osama bin Laden, then not to become swept up in those demonstrations. Don't go down and have a walk with the camera to go and have a look. That is not a safe place to be. That is our advice to Australians overseas, and obviously for our embassies and our consulates we have put them on alert. So, that's been the approach we've taken.
All of that advice is Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade website, and of course you can register if you are travelling overseas through the website. That is always a really smart thing to do, because if something happens, like the tsunami and earthquake in Japan, it means it's much easier for us to know where Australians are so we can go to their assistance.
So, if there's one message I can reinforce, any day you're travelling is a smart day to register with the DFAT website.
JOURNALIST: (inaudible)
JOURNALIST: One more question on Afghanistan.
PM: Alright, we'll be generous, Nino - we'll go here and here and then we're off.
JOURNALIST: Thank you. I just want to know, given that Pakistan has nuclear weapons and it may be the case that there were elements of the country that were supporting Osama bin Laden, does that concern you, that Pakistan is a dangerous country, and also, on another topic, the Future Fund has started dumping its investments in cluster munitions. Does that mean the Government is now going to ratify the treaty it signed in 2008?
PM: Well, look, I'm not going to answer a question which is a speculation upon speculation in relation to Pakistan. I don't think that that would be an appropriate thing for me to do.
I'm also not going to speculate on investments that are made by an independent body.
JOURNALIST: Just on Afghanistan, we had a parliamentary debate earlier this year and you made your Government's pretty clear, that you support Australia's presence there, and obviously the Coalition also supports that presence.
There is already talk about pressure on President Obama to draw down US forces there earlier, because of the death of bin Laden, because there's a perception perhaps this will help the security situation. If that happens, how will your Government respond? Would you consider withdrawing Australian troops earlier, and, I guess, how would you arrive at that decision, as well?
PM: Well, once again I'm not going to speculate on a series of hypotheticals. I attended last year NATO's summit in ISAF format. What that means is that all countries participating in the mission in Afghanistan were around the table, including Australia. President Obama was there and the countries involved in the mission in Afghanistan agreed the strategy in Afghanistan. It is a strategy of transition. It is a strategy of training the Afghan National Army and Afghan Police so that we can move to security leadership by Afghan nationals of their own nation.
What I said yesterday, and what I'm very happy to repeat today, is the death of Osama bin Laden does not mean that al Qaeda is out of business. No-one should succumb to that analysis. Al Qaeda is a resilient terrorist network. We know that terrorists have trained in Afghanistan. They have hatched their evil plots whilst training in Afghanistan. Our mission there remains the same, and that is to make sure that Afghanistan does not again become a safe haven for terrorists.
Thank you.
JOURNALIST: Have you spoken to President Obama since came back from (inaudible)?
PM: No.
Thank you.