PM: Thank you very much. I'm here with Senator Mark Arbib, the Minister for Sport.
we're having a very good day out at Red Hill Primary School, and if I can reinforce the message to kids, please get involved in 2012 in the Prime Minister's Olympic and Paralympic Challenge, please get out there, be active, earn those points and earn those rewards including gold, silver and bronze medals - and you've got plenty of amazing Australians to inspire you in that task.
We're very happy to take any questions.
We'll go here and then come across to Matthew.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, do you like Kevin Rudd?
PM: Look, Kevin Rudd and I are working together in the interests of the nation. Kevin has been attending for us the conference in Bonn on our further strategy in Afghanistan and is now pursuing the nation's interests in a number of places overseas.
Yes, Matthew?
JOURNALIST: At the weekend the Labor Party changed its platform to endorse gay marriage, a position that is the opposite of your personal position. Do you believe that your Party's position is in line with mainstream community views on this matter?
PM: I think that there's a range of views in our community and I think the fact that it was such a major debate within the Labor Party reflects that difference in community views.
What I thought was most important was that people at the conference and in the Parliament get the opportunity to vote in accordance with their conscience. For some people, this is about their most deeply held aspirations for their own lives. For some people it's about religious convictions they've always been motivated by. People will have a variety of views and I just think it's appropriate that at our conference, in the Parliament, in the community, people speak from their hearts on this matter.
JOURNALIST: But you need the support of the political mainstream to retain government. I'm asking you whether you believe that the position is in line with the views of the people that you need to vote for you for you to be re-elected?
PM: I'm not making judgments on the politics of this. I'm sure others, including commentators, will want to do so. My judgment was about the ability of Parliamentary representatives to speak from their heart and to vote in accordance with their conscience.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, do you think Sky News should be compensated for taking part in the ultimately doomed tender for the Australia Network?
PM: Well, we haven't received any applications for compensation. If we do, then of course they'll be properly considered.
We'll go here and then come across - yes?
JOURNALIST: Just a couple of things, why did you snub Mr Rudd in your speech to the conference? Will you be encouraging the release of the full election review, and also was the release of snippets of it pay back for his behaviour over the weekend?
PM: Right, well, I'll take that three-part question.
First, I spoke to the conference about Labor ideals and Labor's vision. I'd ask people to have a look at the speech and judge it for themselves.
What I did in that speech was talk about the things that this Government has done, this Government, of course, being in office since 2007 with Kevin Rudd leading this Government for a period of time and now a very valued member of this Government. So, I talked about what we have been doing, but most importantly I also talked about our future and focussing on the needs of working Australians at this time of great economic transformation in the life of our nation.
Now, remind me of question two.
JOURNALIST: Will you be encouraging the release of the full review, and was the leaking of parts of it payback for Mr Rudd's behaviour?
PM: OK, the Faulkner-Bracks-Carr review was something that I ordered as Prime Minister. It's been dealt with by our National Executive. It's now been dealt with by our national conference.
My eyes aren't on what happened in the 2010 election. My eyes are always on what we need to do today to ensure that we're building opportunities for Australians in the future.
On the question of the leak, the first I knew about it was when I opened my Sydney Morning Herald yesterday.
JOURNALIST: But what about his question? He asked you if you though it was-
PM: -I just did answer his question, thank. Yes, here, thank you. I'll take a question from here.
JOURNALIST: Why was the tender established for the Australia Network in the first place if you were not prepared to see it through to the end? How can the business community have confidence that you won't cancel other tenders?
PM: I think we've got to be very focused on the circumstances here.
The Government did believe it was appropriate to have a tender round and we wanted to have a tender round that came to completion in good faith and acquitted all of the usual tender rules. What happened here was that there were several leaks that compromised the process, and having seen that happen it was appropriate to bring the process to an end.
Then, the Government determined that in order to give certainty and to deal with this matter, having seen that problem with the tender round, that the appropriate thing to do was to have these services provided by the ABC.
This is an important arm of soft diplomacy for Australia. Many other nations around the world that have comparable services have them associated with their public broadcaster.
We'll just take one at a time - yes?
JOURNALIST: Does it now look like the ABC is the second-best option, given that there were those leaks and you're now not allowing a competitive process to be followed through?
PM: Well what it looks like is what it is which is that the Government authorised a tender round. We would have liked that tender round to come to conclusion. We are in a position where that is not possible. It has been compromised by several leaks during the process.
As a result we needed to make a decision for the future which would give certainty. We've made that decision and we've taken public policy choice that this function should be with the ABC.
We'll go over to Paul Bongiorno.
JOURNALIST: Thank you very much, Prime Minister. Did you wait until Mr Rudd had left the country before you made the decision?
PM: This was a decision made at Cabinet last night. There was a Cabinet submission circulated which Minister Rudd, like all Cabinet Ministers, received.
Can I just make the simple point about Cabinet processes - many Ministers need to be away from a Cabinet meeting for a variety of reasons. The usual process is they ensure that their views are represented within the Cabinet room by the Minister acting on their behalf, and that happened in this case. I'm not intending to go to Cabinet discussions, but the absolute usual protocols, that an acting Minister conveys the view of the Minister who is necessarily absent, happened in this case.
JOURNALIST: Why did you decide to make the decision, though, to award the contract to the ABC, before the AFP had concluded its investigation or the Auditor-General's had concluded their investigation?
PM: Well, we believe that it was appropriate, given how long-running this matter had been, and that we did need to bring the tender round to an end because it had been compromised, to make a decision that would be clear and certain and we made it.
Yes, Mark?
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, leaving aside the outcome, do you concede the process has been messy, and secondly, would you like to see an interest rate cut this afternoon from the Reserve Bank?
PM: Look, the process was compromised by several leaks, so of course I would have preferred that that hadn't happened, but it has happened and being in Government is about taking the facts as you find them, not how you would wish them to be, and then dealing with those facts and making the best decision, and faced with these facts, that this tender has been profoundly compromised as a result of these leaks and needed to be brought to an end, a decision that has been public for some time now, we took the best decision we could to give certainty.
On the question of interest rates, the Reserve Bank acts independently of government, so its decision will be announced later today. Should there be any interest rate cut, then certainly I would want to see that passed on in full by the Australian banks. There is no reason for it not to be passed on in full.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, Prime Minister-
PM: -We'll come to Michelle second. Yes?
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, you say that it's been profoundly compromised by leaks. What do you mean? How have leaks compromised this process?
PM: Well, we received advice that given the leaks that had occurred that the process did need to be brought to an end.
JOURNALIST: What were the leaks, and -
PM: -Well, all of this is publicly known. That wasn't the decision from Cabinet last night. The bringing of the tender round to an end as a result of leaks was taken a while back, and taken a while back on the basis of very clear advice that that was what the Government should do given confidential tendering information had not remained confidential to the process but had gone into the public domain.
Michelle?
JOURNALIST: But then why didn't you take the decision then to go to the ABC, rather than it coming out of the blue now in the middle of these inquiries, and also could I just take you back to the previous question, would you favour the Faulkner Review be released?
PM: Well, with respect, Michelle, it's not out of the blue to us. We got advice that the tender round should be brought to an end, so it was brought to an end. We then had a proper Cabinet process, including the generation of a Cabinet submission which was circulated for coordination comments and all of the things that happen with a proper system of Cabinet Government. We then went through a proper Cabinet process to determine what should happen next. That submission came to Cabinet last night.
On the question of the review, the review has now been dealt with. It's been dealt with both by the National Executive and by our National Conference-
JOURNALIST: -But Faulkner and co want it out.
PM: Well, as I'm indicating to you, Michelle, it's being dealt with.
My focus isn't back to the 2010-11 election campaign. My focus is on what we need to do today and tomorrow to make sure that we're providing opportunities for working Australians during a period of profound economic change.
JOURNALIST: Firstly, do you think Tony Abbott should allow members of the Opposition to have a conscience vote on same-sex marriage, and secondly do you have an update on the Australian man who has been kidnapped in the Philippines?
PM: Well the answer to the first question is yes, I do. I think it's appropriate that all members of Parliament, irrespective of their political party, should be able to come to the Parliament and vote in accordance with their conscience on any bill that is moved by a private member to change the Marriage Act.
I do note, for example, in Labor's tradition, that bills in the past dealing with marriage have been the subject of a conscience vote. For example, the changes to the Family Law Act in the 1970s were the subject of a conscience vote.
So, I do think a conscience vote should be extended. I think it would be very tough to a Liberal Party member who had a very strong personal view to not be able to express that view in the Parliament and to vote in accordance with it.
Now, on the question you've asked me about the Australian in the Philippines, can I say this: we are certainly aware that an Australian in the Philippines, that he may have been kidnapped. There are media reports to that effect as well.
In these circumstances, a taskforce has been formed to deal with this issue. Our embassy in the Philippines is working with local authorities to try and establish the full facts here. We don't have the full facts now and we want to make sure that we establish the full facts, and we are providing consular support and assistance to family members of the man who may be involved in these kidnap circumstances.
JOURNALISTS: (Inaudible)
PM: We'll go here and then come across.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister you received a bad marks over the weekend for your series of speeches at the National Conference including the line ‘because we are us'. Are you going to sack your speech writer? And secondly, have you sent Kevin Rudd a Christmas card this year?
PM: I'm sending Christmas cards to all of my Parliamentary colleagues. Indeed, I'm sending them to some members of the Press Gallery as well, and we'll ascertain who after this press conference. No, that's not right. We'll be insuring that they're very widely distributed.
On my speech to conference, I spoke about the things I wanted to speak about.
Yes?
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister given the weekend's events, are you still able to work - have a functioning relationship with Kevin Rudd, and are you bracing for a challenge from him?
PM: The answer is, yes, of course we work together closely in the interests of the Government and the nation. Kevin is a very valued part of my team. He's doing a great job as Minister for Foreign Affairs. He's an incredibly active Minister for Foreign Affairs, pursuing our great Australian tradition of middle power diplomacy, what we like to style as punching above our weight. Kevin Rudd is doing that for our nation, so we'll keep working together with Kevin pursuing his work as the Minister for Foreign Affairs.
Thank you very much.