PM: I'm very pleased with the outcomes of APEC and let me just go through them.
Leaders had a good discussion about the global economy. We had a presentation from IMF head Christine Lagarde. As has been noted at the G20 and was reflected in the discussions here amongst leaders, the leaders are concerned about circumstances in the Eurozone and continue to urge European leaders and particularly Eurozone leaders to get on with the job of turning into deeds the words of October 27 regarding the Eurozone crisis.
It's very important that Europe takes the lead in resolving the Eurozone crisis. This is important for the global economy.
But APEC brings together a growth region in the world. Australia is part of that growth region, and that is good for jobs and good for growth. Leaders recognise that in order to continue being the growth region in the world and to put a shot in the arm of global growth, we do need to seek progress in trade talks, so leaders at this meeting did two important things: they issued the same kind of call as the G20 about the future of the Doha round. Australia for a long period of time has been saying let's break this global trades talk gridlock, let's get on with the job.
Doha has reached a gridlock. We need to find a fresh approach. G20 leaders endorsed that fresh approach and APEC has endorsed it, too. What that fresh approach means is breaking up the Doha round so that participants can get real action done.
Doha has reached a gridlock because it requires all parties to agree to all things before movement can be made. We believe that by breaking the round up we can see movement and APEC leaders endorsed that call.
In addition, APEC leaders determined to keep their markets open and to not take any measures to close markets - that is, to keep protectionism at a standstill through to 2015. There had been an earlier agreement for a standstill. Now, that has been extended and that is very good news indeed.
What that means is that APEC leaders have recognised that if we try and turn the clock back, if we try and go back to the earlier days of closed markets, then that will disadvantage everyone and ultimately cost jobs. So, this standstill is good for jobs in our region. It's good for Australian jobs. It's good for facing the future rather than seeking a return to the past.
Then, today, APEC has broken into a new frontier and that is the frontier of green growth, and it's done that in two very important ways. Through President Obama's leadership, there's been an opportunity for APEC to set an example to the world on clean energy and green growth. I think that's important because in the past APEC has set an example to the world on the way in which you can liberalise trade and trade more freely. Now, APEC is setting an example to the world on clean energy and green growth.
Specifically, APEC has agreed to reduce the carbon intensity of the region's growth through a goal of reducing energy intensity by 45 per cent by 2035. That means the whole region will collaborate to reduce energy intensity.
This is an important development. In Australia, we have a number of measures to increase our energy efficiency. Obviously we have standards for products and Australian households would be very familiar with looking at the standards for products to see how energy efficient a refrigerator, for example, is going to be. That's one way of increasing energy efficiency, reducing energy usage - to see those sorts of standards throughout the region would be a good thing.
In Australia, too, we have an initiative where big energy users have been required to publicly report on their energy use. That simple transparency measure, being held up to account in the eyes of shareholders and the broader public, has seen a 10 per cent reduction in energy use per year by those companies. That's the equivalent of 2.5 per cent reduction in energy use by Australia and a 2 per cent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions.
So, this focus on energy intensity and being more energy efficient across our region is an important one and the setting of this ambitious goal is an important outcome from this APEC meeting.
In addition, this APEC meeting agreed that countries and economies in APEC, that economies in APEC would have tariffs on environmental goods reduced to 5 per cent.
Now, this is unambiguously good news for Australia. We do not have tariffs of more than 5 per cent on any environmental good.
What that means is that we won't experience any of the pain that would come from those tariff reductions, but we will experience the benefit of being able to get environmental products which we produce into the economies of APEC with less of a tariff load.
And to give you an example of the kinds of products that this refers to, it refers to solar panels, to wind turbine gearboxes, to fuel cells, to more efficient fuels cell, to water-saving shower devices, which many Australians would be very familiar with given our water scarcity.
So it means we, as we produce these goods, can get them into APEC economies with less of a tariff load. That is unambiguously good news for Australia.
And then finally progress was made in our quest for a seamless regional economy, enabling businesses large and small to trade across our region and to get to market more easily. There was a particular focus in these reforms on small- and medium-sized enterprises, recognising that they are not of a size to have an office or a trade representative in economies around the region.
We've agreed to measures like having a regional database on regulations so the small and medium enterprises can improve their market knowledge and their ability to trade, and we've also agreed to promote regulatory convergence.
We've seen things like the Australian initiative, the Asian Region Funds Transport, which helps harmonise the way that investment regulations work so you can invest across borders more easily. We are going to build on that kind of work.
APEC has a good track record over many years, and I believe that today's meeting will stand as another highlight in that good track record of leaders in economies coming together and getting real work done, and the end result of that real work is it means jobs for people in the Asia Pacific and it means jobs for Australians.
I'm very happy to take any questions.
Yes, Matthew.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, have you any idea roughly what the current value of Australia green exports is and can you give us an idea of the potential for growth roughly in (inaudible)?
PM: Look, we have to do some modelling of the potential for growth, but we are a maker of things like these water-saving shower devices and they're very, very common in Australia. We are a maker of things such as wind turbine gear boxes. We do make some fuel-efficient fuel cells or energy-efficient fuel cells, so we can give you some figures about today's volume of trade. I can make them available to you.
Modelling the growth would require making some sophisticated assumptions about what this will spur, but just from common sense if we can get in with the things we make and they are going to face less of a tariff barrier, that's good news.
Yes?
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, what was the real threat of an outbreak in protectionism in the Asia Pacific, given that the countries here have been moving in slightly different directions to, say, Europe?
PM: Well, I think the recognition here is that unity strength. The problem with turning your face back to the past and going back to the days of closed markets is once someone does it, then it makes it much, much harder for leaders in other economies to hold their nerve and to hold to where they are on free trade and indeed to keep improving free trade.
So, it is always important that there is unity and that there is, if you like, a locked-in approach where everyone says instead of going back and thinking that prosperity lies in beggaring my neighbour, we all look forward together and say prosperity lies in each of us doing all of the things we do best and trading between ourselves.
I've said before and I'm very happy to say again - we are a great trading nation. We can hold our head up in the world. We've got nothing to fear from free trade, we're good at it. We're good at the things that we do and having good access to market in our region helps us support Australia jobs, and if you think of all of the things we do across agriculture, across manufacturing, across services exports, freer and freer trade in the growth region of the world in which we live is good for Australian jobs.
Sorry, we'll go to Mark and then come across.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, reports today that the mid-year economic forecast will in fact be a mini budget. Is that what the Government's considering at the moment, looking at measures that go to this year's budget and budget years beyond that?
PM: The Government is of course working on the Mid-Year Economic and Fiscal Outlook. You'd be expecting us to do that at this time of year.
What I would say about it is you will see a continuation of the Government's strong approach to fiscal consolidation. We are very determined to keep pursuing bringing the budget the budget to surplus in 2012-13.
The Treasurer has made some of the very obvious statements about how global economic circumstances have made that a harder task, but we are committed to our path of fiscal consolidation, to bringing the budget to surplus.
We have very low debt by the standards of the world, we have very strong public finances, but we have a very clear plan and strategy and budget rules and budget approaches to bring the budget to surplus, and you should expect in the Mid-Year Economic and Fiscal Outlook to see more of the budget discipline that we've shown in the past.
Yes?
JOURNALIST: (Inaudible) how binding is the reduction in carbon intensity? It looks like the (inaudible)
PM: It's an aspiration for the region, but I still think that this is very important development. When leaders meet and effectively put their names to the communiqué that comes from the meeting, they do that because they think it's important to say this is our goal, and unless you set a goal, even if it's a stretch target, unless you set a goal you're never going to get anywhere.
So, a clear articulation of this goal, and it is a specific one - reducing energy intensity by 45 per cent by 2035 from 2005 levels - leaders have agreed to that knowingly, understanding that if we can reduce our energy intensity then we are doing the right thing by our environment and our world, it means less carbon pollution.
It also means more efficient production and more efficient products for people. If we look at the modern iteration of household products, they use less energy than the products of the past. That's a good thing all round - a good thing for the environment, cost-effective for the people who make them and cost-effective for the Aussie households that use them. We want to see that kind of approach more broadly.
I don't think too many Australians would say they don't want to see those stickers that tell them how energy efficient their dishwasher or fridge, they wouldn't want to see them go. Of course, spreading those kind of measures is a good thing.
Yes, Sabra?
JOURNALIST: I ask, is it, as the Government searches for significant cuts from MYEFO, is anything quarantined, and can we put today's APEC meeting in context? Just how significant are the things that you've achieved today - if you could say what you think about that?
PM: Well, the last thing I'm going to do with MYEFO is play a rule-in, rule-out game, but I would remind we're a Labor Government that has been driven by making sure that we work in the interests of working people and that the economy works in the interest of working people and that we see a spread of opportunity for all, and that we're making sure through services like our aspiration for a National Disability Insurance Scheme that we're not leaving people behind. So, they're the approaches we'll take to MYEFO. It's the approach we took to the last budget and it'll continue to drive us.
On the significance of this APEC meeting, I think it comes at a significant time in the global economy. We still see instability in Europe which is concerning and that means that there are risks in our global economy.
Australia's not immune from those risks, our region isn't immune from those risks, but we live in the growing part of the world, rapidly emerging economies, the benefits of economic growth and what this meeting has done is taken an important number of steps to better harness that growth and better add to that growth.
I think breaking this new frontier of clean energy and green growth for APEC is important. APEC has discussed these matters in the past - for example, in Sydney in 2000 - but this has really taken it forward as a new frontier for APEC. That's a very important development and I think at this period, given all of the risks in the global economy, for leaders to be so clear about their free trade desires and their refusal to closing markets is very, very significant, and whilst it is full of technical detail and unlikely to make front page headlines, with the exception of perhaps some of our newspapers, but unlikely to fill page after page of the newspapers, the work on the seamless regional economy is important to business and that means it's important to Australian jobs.
JOURNALIST: It's a bit like herding cats though, you (inaudible) the Australian states (inaudible).
PM: APEC's had a good tradition of getting things done in this area in the past and we're building on it, and with respect to my media friends, we're kind of use to herding cats.
Thanks very much.
JOURNALIST: Are you disappointed you didn't get a shirt Prime Minister?
PM: Very happy with my own jacket, thank you.