PM: I'm very pleased to be here with my ministerial colleagues Minister Brendan O'Connor and Minister Gary Gray. Gary Gray is here in his capacity as representing this part of the world in Western Australia, and we're here today to celebrate signing a major new contract with Austal. This is a contract to build new patrol boats for our waters. We already have more assets patrolling our borders than ever before, but we do want increase the capability and reach of the vessels that patrol our borders, and so as a Government we are investing $350 million in a new class of patrol boat, the Cape Class.
This will be 8 new patrol boats joining the efforts to patrol our borders, and of course when we have these border patrols they're about a series of potential challenges: they're about the importation of illegal substances like drugs; they're about combating people smuggling; it's also about potential environmental threats; and of course about illegal fishing.
I'm very pleased that we were able to make this investment and make it right here in the skills and capacities of this workforce. This investment will support 500 direct jobs and indirectly will support around 1,000 more. It will of course go to support further training efforts - more apprentices, more skills coming on stream. I've had the opportunity to talk to people who work here, people who started their apprenticeship and are still here building the vessels that we can see behind us.
I'm very pleased that Austal will now more into generating the Cape Classpatrol boats. This new fleet will be fully available and in the water by September 2015. Construction is going to start in 2012 and we will progressively see these vessels come onto active use and come into our fleet.
I'll turn to Minister O'Connor for some comments on the key capability differences of this new class of patrol boat.
MINISTER O'CONNOR: Thank you very much, Prime Minister.
Well, the Prime Minister's already outlined the threats that our border protection must deal with each and every day. The Cape Classvessel of course is an enhanced-capable vessel. It will advance its capability compared with the Bay Classvessel and there's no doubt as a result of the new design these vessels will be able to sail longer - they'll be able to sail 4,000 nautical miles compared to 2,700 nautical miles. That allows them to have up to 28 sailing days. They'll also be approximately 18 crew on each vessel compared with 10 crew now, which again allows them to deal with certain challenges in a more effective manner, and indeed these vessels are much larger, which provides not only better amenities for crew but of course also the capability of carrying other passengers, particularly either dealing with people smugglers but most likely responding to safety-of-life-at-sea situations.
So, there is no doubt as a result of the contract being won by this Australian-owned company Austal we will see from early 2013 new vessels working with Customs and Border Protection to protect our waters, to protect not only our mainland coastline but to protect the coastline of our external territories. This is indeed a magnificent project, not only jobs for Western Australia but it means that Customs and Border Protection, who do a fine job now, will even be able to do a better job once these vessels hit the water.
PM: And before we take questions can I just say a big thank you to everyone who's made us so welcome here today, to Andrew and Tim and Courtney and Russell thank you very much.
So, we're very happy to take your questions.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, you seemed to get a pretty positive reception last night at the People's Forum. Do you think that's an indication that people are starting to accept your carbon tax message, or the message is getting through?
PM: I certainly enjoyed the People's Forum last night. I thought there were some great questions and it was a good discussion.
I'll continue being around the country, talking to people about the need to put a price on carbon, how it will enable us to realise a clean energy future as we support Australian jobs, cut taxes and increase the pension. So, I was pleased to have that discussion last night and I'll continue having them right around the nation.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister you seem to be changing, or your Government seems to be changing, the language about returning the budget to surplus in 2012-13. Can you guarantee the budget will actually return to surplus in that time?
PM: Clearly we've seen some instability in global markets and some stresses and strains coming out of the US and also out of Europe, and we believe that will have an impact on global growth and we're not immune from that. It makes the challenge of bringing the budget back to surplus in 2012-13 more difficult, but it is certainly our objective to return the budget to surplus in 2012-13 and we expect to achieve that.
JOURNALIST: (inaudible) rock-solid guarantee, though, previously (inaudible) can you still maintain that rock-solid guarantee?
PM: I think you are possibly confusing me with Tony Abbott giving an iron-clad, rock-solid guarantee about the medical safety net at one election and then immediately breaking that promise afterwards.
Of course, we've consistently said that our economy's needs in 2012-13 will be to have the budget in surplus. So, we had the days of the global financial crisis and it was the right thing to do during those days to put stimulus into the economy and to support Australian jobs, and we came out of the global financial crisis stronger than any other developed country. We didn't go into recession, and the fact that today we have solid growth prospects, low unemployment, good Government finances, all of these economic fundamental strengths are in part because we came out of the global financial crisis so strong.
As we came out of the global financial crisis we said the right thing was to have fiscal discipline, fiscal rules that would return us to surplus in 2012-13. We are determined to keep pursuing a budget surplus in 2012-13 and we expect to achieve that surplus.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, on asylum seekers, how concerned are you that we're not going to have a rush of boats (inaudible)?
PM: As the Minister for Immigration has made clear and I'm perfectly happy to make clear, we have entered an arrangement with Malaysia. We believe in the proceedings before the High Court we've got a very solid legal case, so anyone who is contemplating paying a lot of money to a people smuggler and risking their life at sea should thing again because the risk that they are running is that they will promptly be taken to Malaysia.
JOURNALIST: In regards to the asylum seekers that might be sent to Manus Island, will they then be sent to, if their refugee status is approved, will they be sent to Australia?
PM: We'll deal with all of the details of this arrangement following further discussions with PNG. What we've said for a fair period of time now is that we wanted to have an assessment centre in PNG. We were in active discussions with the Government of PNG, and then of course Sir Michael, the then Prime Minister and a very pivotal figure in the life of the nation of PNG, became more unwell, causing, of course, the PNG Parliament and the PNG people to focus on their own circumstances and issues.
Now, of course, a new government has emerged and Prime Minister O'Neill has made it very clear that he is very positive towards the proposal and wants to work with Australia on it, so we'll take it to the next step and we will look to conclude arrangements with PNG and obviously when we have we'll make full details of those arrangements available.
JOURNALISTS: (inaudible)
PM: We'll deal with all of that a step at a time. What we've got now is a new Prime Minister in PNG. He has said very publicly that he's very positive about entering into an arrangement with Australia for a centre, so we'll get about entering that arrangement.
JOURNALIST: Will the Cape Class vessels be better able to respond to tragedies such what happened at Christmas Island?
PM: I'll get the Minister to comment on that.
MINISTER O'CONNOR: Can I say in relation to the awful tragedy that occurred on 15 December, the vessels in question that went to the assistance of that vessel in distress that foundered on the rocks were in fact larger vessels, they were not Bay Class vessels. ACV Triton and one of the Armidales went to the assistance, so it's not a situation that would most likely engage a Cape Class vessel. Cape Class vessels are replacing Bay Class vessels and the Bay Class vessel type was not in the position to go to the rescue of those people. As I say, they were larger vessels in question.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, are you concerned about the scathing report from Comcare into the conditions inside immigration detention centres?
PM: This Comcare report was received a number of months ago and the Department of Immigration has already acted to respond to its recommendations. Of course, working in a detention centre environment is challenging - it's always been a challenging job across the long history of mandatory detention in this country.
Comcare has made a series of recommendations and the Department of Immigration is responding to them.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, Tony Abbott's (inaudible) this morning that he's given the opportunity to rescind a carbon tax that things like the pension increases, the tax rebate (inaudible) and the family payments, those sorts of things will go with it. What's your response?
PM: In the last federal election campaign the Opposition got itself into an $11 billion black hole. Its promises just simply didn't add up.
Now, from leaked internal documents from the Opposition, it's clear that they're in a $70 billion black hole. To give people a sense of the size and scale of that, $70 billion is the same as not paying out any Medicare money for four years - no Medicare money for anyone for four years. Or it's the same as not paying the age pension or any other payment to senior Australians for two years.
$70 billion is a lot of money, and when you've got a black hole that big, that huge, when you have to see the size and scale of that black hole, you know, what is the Opposition proposing to do? Not pay pensioners for two years? Not pay anybody a dollar in Medicare for four years? That's the size of the black hole they're talking about, so I think they've got some questions to answer about how on earth they got themselves into this position and how on earth they're going to get themselves out of it.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, Joe Hockey says the Coalition will find the savings it needs by looking at Government waste. Do you accept that?
PM: How ridiculous - $70 billion. Not just aged pensions - every amount of money we pay to senior Australians, for two years. Every dollar we pay out in Medicare for four years. $70 billion is a huge amount of money.
We're here today talking about building new vessels, important new vessels for patrolling our borders. It's big investment. It's $350 million. I ask you to imagine $70 billion in comparison.
I mean, you can only find that kind of money in the Government's budget if you say ‘we'll smash education right across the board, we'll smash into aged pensioners right across the board, we'll smash into Medicare right across the board'. That's the kind of thing you have to do to find $70 billion.
Any other suggestion is simply laughable.
JOURNALIST: Do you find it significant that this leak came from the Shadow Cabinet in the first place?
PM: That's really a question for the Opposition to answer. Maybe it indicates that there's someone in the Opposition who is very concerned that they've got themselves into such an irresponsible position.
JOURNALIST: On the Manus Island solution, will the Australian Government be the only country to fund it, or could you see there's scope for other international agencies?
PM: We've always said that this was a bilateral discussion between us and PNG, so of course we'd make the appropriate provision to fund it - and we did. In the budget that we brought down in May made the appropriate provision to fund it. We'll now get about talking to PNG about all of the details.
JOURNALIST: Why has the Government sidelined the UNHCR in terms of the running of Manus Island?
PM: It's not a question of that. UNHCR makes its decisions about what it chooses to be involved in. It has been involved in the discussions leading to the arrangement with Malaysia and it will be involved in the implementation of that arrangement. We've never had the slightest expectation that UNHCR would be involved in the discussions with PNG.
JOURNALIST: What are you hoping to achieve in the US leadership dialogues over the weekend?
PM: That's an important event right here in Perth. This is a big year for international events in Perth. Of course we've got the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting later this year. This weekend we've got the Australian American Leadership Dialogue. This is a dialogue of longstanding between Australians, parliamentarians, business people, people from education, people from public policy think tanks, people from business and research institutes with counterparts in the United States. It always helps us draw closer as nations to have that kind of dialogue, so I'm looking forward to participating in it tomorrow.
JOURNALIST: Will you be having a sit down, one-on-one, with the head of the World Bank?
PM: I'll be meeting with a range of participants at the leadership dialogue, so right across the board I'll be seeing people, and yes, there are some attendees of some very considerable status there.
JOURNALIST: (inaudible) the surplus by 2012-13, is that a core promise from you (inaudible).
PM: We've just got to show a bit of common sense about all of this, and the common sense is of course we've seen events over recent weeks that will have an impact on global growth. We're not immune from that, but at the same time we stand in a country with great economic fundamentals, and here in Western Australia, more than any other part of the nation, you know about growth: you know about the growth coming from the resources sector; you know about the huge pipeline of investment, more than $400 billion. We've got low unemployment, we've got strong public finances, our economy is the envy of the world.
What we do is we update economic forecasts at budget time and also at the time that we publish the Mid Year Economic and Fiscal Outlook, and we'll do that again, but our continued objective is to come to surplus in 2012-13 and I expect to do so.
JOURNALIST: (inaudible)
PM: Let's just show some common sense about this. Of course, we update our economic forecasts. We're not immune from what's happening in the globe. We've seen events in recent weeks. Obviously we take those into account, our experts at Treasury do in terms of our economic forecasts, and our economic forecasts will next be updated in the Mid Year Outlook. Standing here I can certainly say to you it's our expectation that the budget will return to surplus in 2012-13.
JOURNALIST: There is a picture in a number of papers this morning of an 18-year-old asylum seeker (inaudible) think how could you send somebody like that to Malaysia, what would have to say to those people?
PM: Well I'd just repeat the words the Minister and I have said consistently about this arrangement - there are no blanket exemptions. There is a pre-assessment procedure but there are no blanket exemptions, and no-one who is contemplating giving their money to a people smuggler, getting on a boat, risking their life, potentially risking their child's life, no-one should do that assuming that there's an exemption in place for them or their child. There are no blanket exemptions.
Thank you very much.