PM: I'm joined by Parliamentary Secretary Kate Lundy, who does our work in Immigration and Multicultural Affairs and I'll have something to say about this man in a moment.
But we are here today for a very important event, and that is to announce the 40 Australians who are going to be our People of Australia Ambassadors. This is a program where we've been our in the community looking for those Australians who go out of their way to make sure that our wonderful multicultural society is a cohesive and strong society - people who take those extra steps to make sure that migrants to our country end up integrating and participating in the Australian way of life.
The Australians that we've chosen come from all sorts of different backgrounds and they are involved in a wide range of activities - whether it's getting kids involved in sport, whether it's helping kids learn to read at school, whether it's helping elderly migrants who have their needs for particular forms of aged care and particular language needs, these are Australians who do that work in their community.
And so we wanted to recognise them. We wanted to say thanks and we wanted to say that they are People of Australia Ambassadors who should be recognised nationally and by their local communities as they go about this great work.
Now, there's not many occasions in my life that I'm called upon to talk up things associated with Collingwood, but I'm making a special exception today, a special exception because Harry O'Brien is one of our People of Australia Ambassadors and he is doing remarkable work through Australian Rules Football into our multicultural communities and involving kids
And I'd like to thank him for the work that he does, thank the Collingwood Football Club and Eddie for the support that they give and I'll ask Harry now to make some remarks about being a People of Australia Ambassador.
O'BRIEN: Thank you very much Prime Minister. I must say that just listening to the Prime Minister speak I got a little bit emotional because I was just reflecting a bit on my life and my upbringing. You know, coming to Australia at three years of age, moving here to Melbourne first and living in the Fitzroy Commission flats, then later on growing up in Perth from the age of seven.
I grew up in a family where no-one looked like me. I was the only child in my family of four children in my family, I was the only child of African descent and always remember feeling different and we all know how honest kids are at school, they'd always ask me, you know ‘Why are you black? Why is your family white? You must be adopted' and this would happen every day and I even remember the embarrassment of the roll call every day where the teacher would try their best to say my name - my real name isn't Harry, I was born Heritier - and I remember the teacher trying to say my name and, trying their best, but they'd always have difficulty and I remember the kids snickering and laughing and I would just feel this sense of detachment, sense of separation from the society that I was living in.
And I remember this used to be something that really upset me from a young age, but I got to a point of probably about 13 years of age and I remembered that I would do my best to make sure that people wouldn't feel this way and this filled me up with a lot of passion to work in this field of trying to show that we as a human race, and particularly in Australia as a population, have a lot more in common than we do that sets us apart
So, to be nominated by the Government and to be recognised by Julia, I just, I'm so humbled by the experience of it all. I didn't even know that the Prime Minister knew who I was, so, yeah, going back, just thinking back to all the pain that I went through, but now being able to have a platform to assist in, I suppose, the conscious evolution of our society and moving us closer to oneness, rather than the separation.
So I'm so grateful for this opportunity and I really do, I do have the desire to represent the people of our community as best as I can.
Thank you very much.
PM: Thank you very, very much.
Now, we'll happily take questions.
JOURNALIST: What sort of duties will Harry perform as an Ambassador? Will he have any sort of specific duties at all?
PM: Harry will be out there and our other Ambassadors will be out there continuing the work that they do and hopefully building on it, but building on it with the appointment of being a People of Australia Ambassador. And we are going to use them as the eyes and ears for the Government in communities right around the country, and we'll be asking them to forward to our Australian Multicultural Advisory Council what they learn so that we can better inform government work and government programs.
Now, of course, government's got to do all of the things that it does to get our immigration program right, to offer settlement services, to make sure that in our communities right around the nation there's education and healthcare services when people need it. But we all know that the glue that brings us together is the thing that happens person to person, family to family, sporting group to sporting group, out there in the community that brings people together. And that's why we can learn so much from people who are doing that really practical work, as Harry has been doing and will continue to do.
And I think you can tell from that really moving rendition of his own life story what it can be like and how a helping hand and a word of comfort at the right time during the journey of your life can make a real difference.
JOURNALIST: What are the specific characteristics that Harry has that makes him a good Ambassador?
PM: Well, he's stepped forward already. Before we had this program he involved himself in this work of reaching out to our multicultural communities, informed by his own life experience. It can be an incredibly powerful combination to get sport and community, our sporting stars, all working together using kids' natural love of sport, natural idealising of sporting stars, to give them a helping hand and to bring them into the life of our community, so Harry's already been doing that. Obviously I'm wishing him all power as he does all of that work, not so much necessarily on the field, but certainly out there in our local communities.
JOURNALIST: Harry, how rewarding is it doing community work, or voluntary work throughout the community?
O'BRIEN: Yeah, I think anyone that does, I suppose, volunteer or is active in the community will know that they should do it because it gives the greatest satisfaction to be able to give back and for myself I know that I feel the best when I'm doing something for someone else and we even have it here at the Collingwood Football Club, especially on the field, having Mick Malthouse as our coach and now Nathan Buckley, the theme has always been make your team mate a better player and that's how teams are successful and it's not just limited to sport, this should be, I suppose, the creed for our nation, is make your neighbor a better person, make the person next to you better, make their life easier and I think that's what we're moving towards with great initiatives like this.
JOURNALIST: Harry, obviously you've been playing in the competition for a few years, have you seen cultural acceptance improve, or is there still some way to go?
O'BRIEN: Look, to be honest, I've always seen the AFL as being a leader in society with a lot of things, and in this particular instance, when I got into the AFL system in 2004, at the end of 2004, there was already a lot of education, you know the AFLPA and the AFL work together to educate players on cultural awareness and inclusion and I've always seen the AFL as leading the way, but never being complacent, always looking for different ways that we can reach out to the community. So, yeah, the AFL is the leader in this field.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, is the Government looking to change the pokie reform timeline?
PM: I see that today there's all sorts of speculation in the newspapers about this matter, but my answer to you is going to be the same as yesterday, which is I'm not intending to engage in a running commentary on discussions with Mr Wilkie whilst I'm in those discussions.
Here in Melbourne, I do want to say this: as everybody knows my electorate is here in Melbourne's west and I am concerned about problem gambling, because in my own local community I've seen the damage done.
JOURNALIST: Are you still confident of retaining Andrew Wilkie's support?
PM: Well, as I just said I'm not engaging in commentary on this matter.
JOURNALIST: (inaudible)
PM: We've said when we've got something to announce then we'll certainly announce it, but whilst I'm in discussions with Mr Wilkie I'm not going to engage in commentary on those discussions.
JOURNALIST: (inaudible)
PM: Well, I'm not engaging in commentary on this matter, nor responding to people who are engaging in commentary on this matter.
JOURNALIST: But your commitment to reform is undiminished?
PM: I am concerned about problem gambling. In my own electorate in Melbourne's west we do have people who come to my office looking for help because they are in the most desperate of circumstances. So I am concerned about problem gambling, I've been involved in discussions with Mr Wilkie, I know that he also has a passionate concern about problem gambling. But I'm not going to engage in commentary on our discussions whilst we're having them.
JOURNALIST: (inaudible) your ministers have publicly stated that mandatory precommitment is the best solution though. Do you still believe that?
PM: Well, look, as I said to you yesterday, and I think maybe the day before as well, I'm not going to engage in commentary whilst I'm in discussions with Mr Wilkie.
JOURNALIST: The Opposition says it's about trust. Can Australians trust you to (inaudible) pokie machine reform?
PM: Once again, I refer you to my last answer.
JOURNALIST: Have you had a chance to discuss this issue with Mr McGuire?
PM: No, I haven't. We've been, I said as soon as I got out of the car, it is inevitable that I will get a comment from Mr McGuire about having worn black and white today and that has been the nature of our discussions and it wasn't intentional.
JOURNALIST: (inaudible) reforms still a priority for your Government?
PM: Look, not engaging in commentary, thanks.
JOURNALIST: (inaudible)
PM: Not engaging in commentary.
So, we can keep doing the questions a million ways, but you're going to get the same answers, so you'll be very frustrated.
JOURNALIST: The churches and some other community groups are worried about the OH&S reforms. Do you think their concerns are valid?
PM: Look, I dealt with a couple of days ago and I do want to make this point: what we've been doing with Occupational Health and Safety reforms is effectively codifying what has existed for volunteers beforehand. We have the endorsement of Volunteering Australia.
Volunteer organisations go out of their way to make sure that the volunteers who do all of that great work are kept safe, so we're taking a very commonsense approach to this.
JOURNALIST: But there are a growing number of groups are actually saying the opposite, that they feel, for instance, Anglicare are concerned about whether or not they can continue to have carers operating in the foster system. Is that something that you-
PM: -Once again, we're happy to work through with people, but Volunteering Australia did endorse out approach.
I think there's a question of getting the right information to people, because I suspect some of the things people have read in the newspaper may have raised some concerns, but when people have the benefits of the right information they will see we're taking a very practical, very commonsense approach.
And I deal with a lot of volunteer organisations. I mean footy clubs have a lot of volunteers who come and help and of course organisations that rely on volunteers make sure that those volunteers are kept safe. They understand that that's part of what they want to do, because it's the right thing to do and people will come and volunteer and everybody wants to keep those precious volunteers safe, so it's a very commonsense approach.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, do you agree with Bill Shorten's assessment that banks are putting profits ahead of people's welfare?
PM: We've said about Australia's banks that they are strong and given the world we live in, the global financial crisis and how that affected our country, and now of course the volatility we're seeing coming out of Europe, we can take comfort in the fact that here in Australia our four major banks are strong and also that as a nation we have got, for the first time ever, the coveted AAA rating from all three major ratings agencies.
But we've also said that banks need to offer the best possible products to banking customers. We've made it easier for people to shop around, so if they don't like the deal that they're getting from their bank, they can go down the street, or get online and look for another deal.
JOURNALIST: Sorry, the comments were particularly about the jobs cuts, so they're cutting staff-
PM: -On job cuts, I never want to see any Australian look their job. Of course that's a big blow for that person and for their families. We do want to see Australia as a great financial services sector, and overall employment is growing in financial services.
JOURNALIST: Can you comment on the agreement with the Opposition on irregular boat arrivals before Parliament resumes?
PM: We are still in discussions with the opposition on that matter.
And if I can just conclude on another matter, there's been newspaper reports today about concerns regarding the Oakajee Port development in Western Australia. Now, I understand that people are concerned about this matter and whether or not Australians will get a fair share of the work that goes to constructing the Oakajee Port.
It is my intention to write to Premier Barnett today to seek his cooperation to make sure that we can get to the bottom of this matter.
When we look at Western Australia what we see is a huge resources boom and that's fantastic, but other Western Australians want to know that they are going to get a fair share of the prosperity that comes from that resources boom.
So, I will be writing to Premier Barnett today to seek his cooperation to get to the bottom of this matter.
Thank you very much. Thank you.
O'BRIEN: Yeah, sorry, before we get going I'd just like to say before I was speaking to the Prime Minister and it became apparent to me that she has, I don't know, there's something, she's starting to develop a soft spot for the Collingwood Football Club and I thought I'd just try and get her over the line a bit, now that Barry Hall's left I think maybe she could adopt me as one of her favourite players. So, here's a present from the Collingwood Football Club to you.
PM: Thank you very much for that.
MCGUIRE: You can try it on if you like Prime Minister.
PM: That's OK, thanks Eddie.
I can definitely confirm you're one of my favourite People of Australia Ambassadors.
Thank you.
O'BRIEN: No worries, thank you.
PM: Thank you very much.