PM: Thank you very much. I've got three matters to deal with today. First I would like to offer my congratulations to the Queen on her Diamond Jubilee. Today is the anniversary, the sixtieth anniversary of her accession to the throne. We will be saying some more about this in Parliament tomorrow and particularly the ways that Australians can get involved in celebrating the Diamond Jubilee this year.
For today it is enough to say that we are marking a remarkable event for our Monarch, she is the only person to reach - the second person to reach the Diamond Jubilee anniversary, a truly remarkable event. I believe Australians remember her visit to Australia last year with a feeling of warmth and many Australians will want to get involved in celebrating this milestone this year.
Then secondly, we have today triggers payments to assist those people in Queensland and in New South Wales who are again suffering with rising flood waters. Unfortunately these scenes are only too familiar to us after the events of last summer and now we're seeing Australians again in need and in trouble in Queensland and in parts of northern New South Wales.
The extra payment that's been triggered today is the Australian Government Disaster Relief Payment. It's a payment of $1,000 per adult and $400 per child to assist people who have been forced to do things like evacuate their area. Now this has been triggered across a wide series of areas so the best thing for people to do if they want to check their eligibility is to ring the Department of Human Services on 180 22 66 or go to the website www.humanservices.gov.auin order to seek the assistance that will help them through this time.
And then thirdly, tomorrow marks the start of the Parliamentary year. We come to the start of the Parliamentary year with the Australian economy strong as a result of the decisions the Government has taken to protect jobs and to keep our economy strong. As the Parliamentary year starts tomorrow it will trigger the start of a year long debate on the Australian economy. It will be a debate a between the Labor Government's approach; between our approach of managing the economy in the interests of working people or the approach of our opponents who are determined to slash $70 billion out of services for working families.
It will be debate between our approach in supporting jobs, just as we did during the global financial crisis, or taking the approach now being recommended by the Opposition of not supporting jobs and particularly seeking to slash jobs in the car industry.
It will be an economic debate between our plans for a clean energy future or the Opposition's plans to rip tax cuts away from working Australians. It will be an economic debate about whether we build the new economy our nation needs while supporting jobs and families today or whether we stand still.
During the course of this year our nation will face up to some important choices - do we embrace the future or do we try and run and hide from that future. Do we make sure working Australians get a fair share of the resources boom or do we just let that resources boom and the wealth it generates go to a few. Do we make sure that we support working families with the assistance that they need or do we succumb to the Liberal Party agenda of cut backs for working families. These are the issues that at the core of the economic debate which will happen in 2012.
I have made up my mind about all of the choices in this debate. We stand for managing the economy for working families. We stand for jobs today and building the new economy that we will need tomorrow. We stand for getting ready for the future and making sure that we take tough decisions today rather than leaving them for future generations.
I'm very happy to take any questions.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, are you heartened by today's Nielson Poll?
PM: There's any amount of commentary on opinion polls and I'll let others do that commentary. What I would say about the Government is the election will be in 2013. We've got a lot of hard work to do. As a Government we've got a lot of hard work to do delivering the plans for the economy that I've outlined today and of course during recent speeches. We will be doing that hard work.
We do have a lot of hard work to do and if we do that hard work I believe we can win the election when it's held in 2013.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, Bob Brown today is blaming a relentless sexism on some of your political difficulties. Do you accept Bob Brown's critic? Has your gender made your job as Prime Minister more difficult?
PM: Look, I've made statements about these questions in the past as recently as last night on Mike Willesee, I haven't got anything to add.
JOURNALIST: On the economy, a lot of forecasters are suggesting this year could be as bad as the global financial crisis. As part of your economic management, are you prepared to stand by with more economic stimulus as you did during the GFC and would that affect the budget surplus?
PM: Well Denis let's be clear on the Government's outlook for the Australian economy. Our outlook is that we will continue see growth in the Australian economy. We're not immune from the events in Europe and we're not immune from a sluggish US economy either. But we are in the growth region of the world and because we are in that growth region, that does mean that we've got an underlying strength in our economy.
We're already seeing washing through our economy the benefits that come from the huge demand for resources today and what we are doing as we build the new economy of the future is making sure we benefit from the huge demand that will come from our region for what will be a wide range of services - from tourism to international education to food to wine and beyond. So that's the Government's economic plans.
Now on the economic information available to me, I see no reason to move from describing the Australian economy and its prospects as I've just described it to you. But what people can be certain of at every stage is we are a Government that acts to support jobs. We've shown the ability to do that in past, we're doing that today as our economy is being transformed by changes in the global economy and in our region. We're doing it for example in the car industry and we will resist any attempts by the Liberal Party to stop us supporting jobs.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, what are Australia's options in ending the bloodshed in Syria given that China and Russia vetoed the UN Security Council motion on the weekend?
PM: We are supporters of the plan outlined by the Arab League, we've made that very clear which is why we are very disappointed to see the exercise of these vetoes at the UN Security Council. We certainly think that was the wrong decision, the wrong path and an abdication of responsibility in the face of the violence that we are seeing in Syria. So we will continue to press internationally for support for the Arab League plan.
JOURNALIST: You have foreshadowed the referendum to recognise Indigenous people in the Constitution during this term or at the election. Do you still think that timetable will be possible in light of both the political situation and the fact that there's some controversy over the expert panel's recommendation or do you think you would need to push that into another term?
PM: Well when you say the political situation Michelle, I'm not sure I'm going to agree with your analysis, let's be clear about the process here. We asked an expert panel with Australians who are well known for their passion in this area to provide advice to Government, to Parliament, to the Australian community on recognition of Indigenous Australians in the Constitution.
That panel produced a unanimous report and I think that is an achievement. Now that report is the subject of consideration by Government and of course the subject of consideration by the Opposition and others.
In order for a referendum to be put and successfully carried we would need the most overwhelming bipartisanship, we would need everyone to make sure that they were there raising their voices and campaigning for change. To see anything other than bipartisanship, we know in Australia, means that a referendum will head for a no vote.
So at this stage we'll continue to work through our response to the report. We'll continue to say to others in this Parliament that we want to see bipartisanship. When we have been able to fully explore how that bipartisanship may come about, then we would look at the timing of the referendum.
JOURNALIST: With regard to car manufacturing, we've been told for many years now that taxpayer assistance is to help car manufacturers innovate and eventually, with the hope they can stand on their own two feet. Do you think that it's - do you think taxpayers can ever look forward to a day when they don't have to be propping up the car manufacturing industry in this country or is it the case that we can't have one without taxpayer subsidies?
PM: Well if you look at the car manufacturing industry in Australia it is innovating, it's particularly innovating, to provide the kind of motor vehicles that are cleaner and greener and that people want to drive today. But we've got to understand we're in an international competition as to whether car manufacturing happens in our nation and other governments around the world are prepared to provide actually a great deal more assistance than we provide to car manufacturing.
So we have been a co-investor with the car industry to keep car manufacturing here and we are working on future co-investments. Now the cost benefit analysis for tax payers out of that is not just about the car industry jobs that it holds in this country, it's about the importance of that skill system and that ability to innovate and that kind of equipment and machinery to the whole of manufacturing and manufacturing employs around one million Australians.
So we have been a co-investor with the car industry to keep car manufacturing here and we are working on future car investments.
Now the cost-benefit analysis for taxpayers out of that is not just about the car industry jobs that it holds in this country, it's about the importance of that skill system and that ability to innovate and that kind of equipment and machinery to the whole of manufacturing, and manufacturing employs around one million Australians.
So we've taken a very hard headed decision that, given the benefits for jobs, that we should be in the business to co-investment with car manufacturers in Australia. Clearly the Opposition has come to a different view and they are very content to see 46,000 Australians who work in the car industry no longer have jobs and the 200,000 Australians who rely in part on car manufacturing in this country to also face threats to their employment.
JOURNALIST: Is that indefinite assistance?
PM: Well I've made it clear how we make decisions about these things.
Phil Coorey.
JOURNALIST: Just back on the economy, you've said recently that one of the things that could keep the economy strong is lower interest rates and you've said the Reserve has the capacity if they so choose. Are you concerned that the banks are signalling right from the get go this year that they're not going to pass on rates cuts in full?
PM: I want to be very clear about what I've said about interest rates. Of course the Reserve Bank acts independently, so it is not for me to either predict or ask for particular interest rate movements. But there are things that government can do to create the room to move in monetary policy should the Reserve Bank choose to do so and key to that is showing fiscal discipline, which is why we are determined to bring the budget to surplus in 2012-13 as promised. It's the right thing to do in this phase of our economy's growth.
On the passing on of interest rate reductions to bank customers, we've been very clear about that and will continue to be clear, that people who are the customers of banks are entitled to be very angry if they don't see interest rate reductions passed on and we've made it easier for them to shop around.
JOURNALIST: (inaudible) trade.
PM: Yes.
JOURNALIST: How confident are you of reaching an FTA with say Korea and Malaysia this year? How are will you be working on that?
PM: The Minister for Trade is working very hard, particularly on the agreement with South Korea, but beyond that and very hard in international trade talks too. We have led a new and innovative approach to trying to break the deadlock in the Doha Round and it's not easy, it ain't easy. But Dr Emerson has done a very good job in trying to bring like mindeds together, people who are prepared to engage in some change and push forward for change. So we will be continuing to work on free trade agreements.
We do that because it's in Australia's interests as a great trading nation to see our products, our services, get into more markets and to do that with freer and freer access. We don't have anything to be afraid of when it comes to holding our heads up in the world as a great trading nation.
JOURNALIST: (inaudible) this year?
PM: Look, I'm not going to make predictions about singing dates. I think you would be well aware that there have been political circumstances in the Republic of Korea around the free trade agreement with the US and that has had to be worked through, those difficulties with that free trade agreement in the political system there and that has had consequences for the continued negotiations on the Australia agreement. But we are continuing to negotiate.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, on private health insurance, with the pokies legislation you didn't put Andrew Wilkie's plans to Parliament because the numbers weren't there. Are the numbers there for the private health insurance rebate means test and are you willing to make any further changes?
PM: Look, we obviously want to see these changes pass the Parliament and will continue to necessary discussions to get these changes to pass the Parliament. This is an incredibly simple fairness proposition - do you believe that working people, people who are in casual jobs, people who are perhaps an apprentice, struggling their way through low wages to get that all important ticket for their future, whether their taxes should be used to subsidise private health insurance for people who are much, much better off than they are. A very simple fairness proposition, a Labor fairness proposition and we will continue to press others in the Parliament to support that fairness proposition and obviously we are dismayed that the view of the Liberal Party and National Party is that a trade apprentice should be paying his or her taxes in order to subsidise the private health insurance of a millionaire.
JOURNALIST: Just on the economy, Prime Minister, if you are presented with a choice between saving jobs and protecting your surplus, what would you do?
And secondly do you this it was unkind of Rupert Murdoch to call Kevin Rudd delusional?
PM: Well we're not confronted with that choice in our current economic circumstances.
JOURNALIST: (inaudible)
PM: Well, let's be clear about our current economic circumstances and we'll deal with the facts and the circumstances as the present to us.
Of course the Government during its life dealt with economic circumstances where our nation literally confronted the possibility that the world could be moving into something like the Great Depression, and what we did then was we stepped up and supported jobs and we supported 2000 of them and we did that against resistance in this Parliament from our conservative opponents, day in, day out.
So no one should be under any illusions about how central supporting jobs is to me and to this Government. And we supported jobs in smart and sensible ways, including renewing the school infrastructure of this country, something that will count for the future, enabling teachers to teach differently today and at higher quality levels because they've got a more flexible capital stock.
So whenever we need to step up and support jobs, we step up and support jobs and we're doing it now in the car industry. But the economic circumstances that we face today are our economy is in growth, notwithstanding the events in Europe and the weakness in the US economy, our economy is in growth, because we're in the growth region of the world.
So what's the right set of decisions in that circumstance? Well, it's to support a budget surplus and show fiscal discipline. It's actually the right choice for the strength of our economy and if it's the right choice for the strength of our economy then it's the right choice for jobs.
Yes, Heather.
JOURNALIST: (inaudible) last night with Mark Willesee you pointed out in one of your answers that you are Prime Minister. Why did you feel the need to do that?
PM: Oh, Heather, I had a discussion with Mike Willesee, I can't recall the form of the question, but obviously I thought with the form of the question that was the appropriate reply. Don't over read it, don't psychoanalyse it, you'd be wasting your time.
JOURNALIST: Should Fair Work Australia make public the findings of its inquiry into Craig Thomson and the HSU?
PM: Fair Work Australia is an independent body and it should act independently.
Yes.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, do you accept that part of the problem for your Government is that you haven't sold the message well enough, and if you do what will you do about that, what will you do better this year?
PM: Mark, I'm in the business of getting things done. I'm in the business of making the big changes, the tough changes that set this nation up for the future. And yes in the moment they can be unpopular and yes in the moment they can be the subject of protest vote campaigns and that happened with our clean energy future package last year.
But as we move into this year and to the delivery of that package then the question will become: Do you want to seize a clean energy future, or do you want to snatch back tax cuts from working Australians? Do you want to go with the cheapest plan for change - our plan, or do you want to impose a bill of $1300 per year on working families to pay for a scheme that won't work and can't work?
Now we will keep out there explaining what the Government is doing and how it will set us up for the future, but the measure here ultimately is the benefits that it brings to the Australian people, not only today as we support jobs and ensure that families have got a package of services which they need to help them on the way through, but how we are setting up our country for the future.
Yes Michelle.
JOURNALIST: (inaudible) any faults in selling, a number of backbenchers have made this point and a number of ministers have acknowledged that the Government needs to do better in explaining things. Do you acknowledge any fault on your part, or the Government's part?
PM: Look Michelle, we've hard work to do, not only in the continued making of change and the building of our new economy, but in explaining to working people, to people around the country, why we're making that change.
We live in complex times where people are still, I think, feeling the aftermath of a global financial crisis, the likes of which people had never seen in their lifetimes unless they were old enough to remember the Great Depression. Of course that weighs on people's minds, they look at Europe, they look at the US, they see the weakness in those economies and that weighs on people's minds. They turn on their TV screens and they can see one business that is engaging in redundancies, whist our mining sector cries out for more skilled workers and they want to understand who all of this adds up for them today and for them and their kids tomorrow.
Now that is the central economic message of the Government and what centrally this year is going to be about - explaining where we are, in a position of strength, but in a position of change, with a unique ability to leverage today's strength into tomorrow's strength if we're brave enough to take the hard decisions and to manage that change, to bend that change to our purposes for the future.
We are being invited by the other side of politics to stand still, to rip benefits off working families and to stop supporting jobs - we won't be doing it.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, you mentioned the depression there, I'm just wondering for a lot of Indigenous Australians out of work, long term unemployed, what's your message to them? Does your Closing the Gap report that's forthcoming, will that include good news for Indigenous Australians looking for a job?
PM: Well the Closing the Gap report will be a factual stock take of the differences that our policies have made to close the gap for Indigenous Australians. We said when we embarked on this strategy that we thought it was appropriate that there be an annual statement to the Parliament so every Australian could benchmark and see where we were.
We also said that these are very complex problems and if you're going to do things like change gaps in life expectancy, gaps in educational outcomes, therefore gaps in employment outcomes of Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australia it would take time and persistence. But I do believe as we look around the country we are seeing some really remarkable and very heart-warming changes. We've seen our big businesses, corporate Australia, step up like never before in my view to work with Indigenous Australians for employment prospects and for change.
That's all good signs, but I don't underestimate the complexity of the challenge here and neither should anyone else.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, you once urged journalists not to write crap. An awful lot has been written about leadership tensions, are there any tensions or are people writing crap?
PM: I would have to check what everybody's New Year's resolution is after my wise words from last year.
Yes, anything else?
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, when was the last time you spoke with Kevin Rudd and have you got an assurance of his support?
PM: Look, I deal with Kevin Rudd frequently in this capacity as Minister for Foreign Affairs. On everything else I'll leave you to your fevered speculation which doesn't need any facts or any commentary from me for it to continue.
Thanks very much.