PM: Thank you very much and thank you for making me and Julie Owens, the Member for Parramatta and Jan McLucas, our Parliamentary Secretary for Disabilities, so very welcome today.
We've had the opportunity to watch some cooking in progress, we've had the opportunity to see some music played and a song being written, and we've also had the opportunity to hear from Shirley, who talked about the importance to her of being able, ultimately, to live independently. And that's what today's announcement is all about.
People with disabilities want choices, the same kind of choices that we all aspire to exercise in our own lives.
And one of those choices is making the choice about where you live, and in what circumstances you live and we understand that when people are striving for that choice that government needs to respond.
So I am really delighted to be here with Julie Owens today to announce the successful grants that will come from the Supported Accommodation Innovation Fund.
These grants will give $60 million to 21 organisations to build 27 supported accommodation and respite projects for adults with severe or profound disability.
Now these bricks and mortar investments are absolutely critical, but we actually know to create suitable accommodation for people with disabilities, you need more than the bricks and mortar. You need the care that comes with it and the support that comes with it and that's what we're striving for through these new accommodation opportunities.
The Supported Accommodation Innovation Fund is all about developing new ways of partnering and working together so that we not only have the bricks and mortar, but we have the care required and we have to opportunity for people with a disability to have their voices, their preferences, their options listened to.
So the projects that have been successful have been genuine collaborations that have worked with communities, worked with families, worked with people with disabilities, to respond to their needs.
The Affordable Community Housing Limited has succeeded for two innovative projects, and we've heard them spoken about today. In total they will receive $5.8 million and I'm very pleased that one of these innovative new projects will be right here in Grandview Street, which is great news for the local community.
Now this announcement today shows how, as a Government, we are seeking to better meet the needs of people with disabilities today. We want to be responding and we want to be working with communities around the country for better options, better support and better care.
We also want to be working towards a National Disability Insurance Scheme, which will in all aspects of the lives of people with disabilities, give them the opportunity for better support and better care.
It will end for all time the spectre of what now is a very cruel lottery where the level of support you're entitled to depends entirely on the circumstances in which you acquired your disability.
So it can be a very different life experience for someone injured at work or in a transport accident, as opposed to someone who acquired the same disability at home or was born with that disability.
We want to end that cruel lottery through a National Disability Insurance Scheme. We are looking at this as another great Labor reform, just like Medicare for all time changed how we think about how health care and how Australians get to access health care. A National Disability Insurance Scheme will change for all time the way in which people with disabilities get care and support.
It's a big thing to do, and it's going to take some time to build. Just like Medicare is a complex system and you need to get every aspect of it right, a National Disability Insurance Scheme is a complex system and we need to get every aspect of that right too.
Now that means that the system in full is some time away, but I am hoping in coming weeks to be able to have something more to say about the way in which we will build a National Disability Insurance Scheme, how we will take the next step on what is a journey over time and which will take some time towards a full National Disability Insurance Scheme.
Now over recent days, I've been talking about the forthcoming Federal budget, and it will be a tough budget. But even against the backdrop of a tough budget, it is our way, the Labor way, to make sure that we are always supporting those and prioritising the needs of those who need our care the most. And so I'm very pleased to be here for today's announcement.
Congratulations, and I know that the money is going to go to make some real differences in people's lives.
Thank you.
So we're happy to take media questions, I'm not sure if that means our media friends need to group in closer than they are at the moment, or whether they're going to stay where they are.
JOURNALIST: (inaudible)
PM: You'll group in, OK. That's not meant to imply groupie, that's just grouping in.'
JOURNALIST: You have lots of fans out there I'm sure. Prime Minister, Bob Carr's views on drugs, he says he's pro-decriminalisation. What's your personal view on drug decriminalisation?
PM: Look my view about drugs is clearly, I mean drugs kill people, they rip families apart, they destroy lives and we want to see less harm done through drug usage.
So we want to make sure that we're supporting people to get treatment options and that we are getting our police to do what they rightly should be doing which is policing our laws on drugs.
I'm not in favour of decriminalisation of any of our drug laws. We want to keep supporting people who need our help to break out of a cycle of addiction, and we need to keep policing so that we are tackling those that are seeking to make a profit out of what really is a trade in incredible misery.
JOURNALIST: So are Bob Carr's outspoken comments causing problems for you?
PM: Look, I've just put my view about the issue that you've raised.
JOURNALIST: If adverse findings are made against Craig Thomson from Fair Work, what will that mean for the ALP?
PM: Well Fair Work Australia is an independent body. I know that there is speculation about its report. It's a matter for Fair Work Australia when it's released and I'm not going to speculate about what its contents may be.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, yesterday Robert McClelland said some comments, he said that the carbon tax is a burning issue that needs to be resolved by dialogue with the public. Can you do that?
PM: Look, on those comments and on putting a price on carbon, let me say this very clearly - I understand that there is some anger about the decision I made to put a price on carbon. I do understand that and I've acknowledged that before. But I made the right decision in the nation's interests and in the interests of seizing a clean energy future.
That's what people expect the nation's leaders to do, to make the right decisions in the national interest and we have. Putting a price on carbon will enable us to seize a clean energy future; it will enable us to better support families with tax cuts, family payment increases and pension increases, and it means we will see new sources of energy, clean and renewable energy for the future.
So it's the right decision for our economy, the right decision by our environment. Of course we'll be out there explaining that decision to the Australian community. We continue to have a lot of hard work to do to explain carbon pricing, but people will have the opportunity to judge carbon pricing for themselves from 1July this year.
JOURNALIST: And (inaudible) Robert McClelland, he said that the public is repulsed and fed up with spin. Has he talked to you about that?
PM: Look, on Robert's analysis, we are not a government of pretty words, I'm about getting things done. This Government has got things done in circumstances where there were many who proffered the analysis that they weren't do-able.
We are a Government that has been working to support families during a time when many families are feeling cost of living pressures.
We are a Government that's made the big decisions to build our future economy - the National Broadband Network, a clean energy future, the Minerals Resource Rent Tax to make sure we all get a fair share of the resources boom.
The big decisions we've made to improve education, and we're a Government that will keep delivering on those big decisions.
So it's not about words, it's about action. It's not about spin, it's about substance. That's the way in which I work and that's the way in which the Government works.
JOURNALIST: Are you concerned at all that he's acting as a spokesman for the people that backed Kevin Rudd?
PM: Sorry, I didn't-
JOURNALIST: -Are you concerned at all that he's acting as a spokesman for the people that-
PM: -Not in the least. That issue's been dealt with, resolved, and it's over.
JOURNALIST: But the polls show, Prime Minister, that Julie Owens behind you would be one of thirty MPs who will lose their seats at the next election.
What do you say to backbenchers like Julie who fear they will lose their jobs next year?
PM: What people like Julie talk to me about is the very hard work that they're doing in their local communities. We do have a lot of hard work to do over coming months. But let me be very clear about this - I have been constantly told that there are things that can't be achieved and that I can't get done.
I was told during the days of the election campaign that with the degree of leaking that we saw during the election that we couldn't possibly succeed through the election campaign. Well we proved that wrong.
I was told during the 17 days in which we worked to form a government that we'd never get the support of two country independents. Well we proved that wrong.
I've been told that you can't get big reforms done in a minority government, and let's just go through the scoreboard: NBN - biggest change in telecommunications in our nation's history, being rolled out. Carbon pricing - seizing a clean energy future. The MRRT - making sure we all get a fair share of our mineral wealth. Huge reforms in education. Groundbreaking reforms in health.
All of these things I was told day after day, month after month, we couldn't get done and we have done them.
So anybody who's writing this Government off is coming to the wrong conclusion. We have worked hard, we will continue to work hard, we've got a lot to do out in the Australian community, and we will be doing that over the many months between now and the next election.
JOURNALIST: What about the Auditor-General, the Auditor-General said this morning that the Australia Network process, said that it presented the Government in a poor light and that it cast doubt over the Government's ability to deliver such a process fairly and effectively.
PM: Look we'll respond to the Auditor-General's report as we do. We respond to audit reports.
On the Australia Network tender, the Government determined that it was best that the ABC do that work and that was the right decision.
JOURNALIST: With all these polls that are coming out, Labor's not getting any ground, on a personal note how do you front up every day to that, and what are you going to do to change it?
PM: Well I'm a very determined person and you will see me continuing to be out there delivering the big things that matter to Australian families and to the nation's future.
For the families of Parramatta today, we can say whilst they battle with their cost of living pressures that we have delivered tax cuts, we have delivered the education tax refund to help with the costs of getting the kids to school, we've delivered child care changes so that there's more money going into child care now than ever before, we've delivered an historic pension increase.
This year we will deliver more tax cuts, family payment increases, increase to the pension.
We understand that we need to be supporting families. We'll also be delivering to those families better health services as a result of the health agreement this Government struck.
And we'll be ensuring - because what matters to those families is the opportunity to have a job - that we're not only protecting jobs today, but we're building the future economy which will ensure those families and their sons and daughters have a really good chance of a prosperous future.
It's what the National Broadband Network's about, it's what the clean energy future's about, it's what the Minerals Resource Rent Tax is all about.
I'll be out there making that case to the Australian community, with all of the spirit of determination I think people know that I hold.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, Campbell Newman's Cabinet is being sworn in today. How will you deal with another obstructive conservative government at COAG when it comes up next month?
PM: Well once again, I was told after Barry O'Farrell's election by many in the media that it would be impossible that COAG ever worked again. It would be impossible that a major agreement was ever struck again. That that was it, no more big reforms at COAG, and what did we get done?
Well we went to COAG and we secured a groundbreaking health reform agreement, which means for communities right around the nation, they can see more doctors, more nurses, less waiting time in emergency departments, less waiting time on elective surgery lists and more local control of their hospitals.
So before you venture the analysis again, it might be best to look at how that analysis has proved to be flawed in the past.
JOURNALIST: Now Prime Minister, one more question on yesterday's announcement on the special visas, fast-tracking of visas for the American workers. The electrical industry says they're concerned that the Federal Government mismanaged the pink batts scheme. How will you manage this scheme - workers coming in, guaranteeing that there will be the right qualifications and the right services?
PM: Well we do that every day. These aren't the first skilled workers to ever come to Australia. Indeed, I wouldn't be here if we hadn't had a long, long, long history in this country of skilled migration. So of course we will use all of the normal processes to manage this skilled migration intake.
But the reason it's happening, and I think we've got to be very clear about this, unlike the American economy, our economy came out of the global financial crisis strong. So those workers in America are looking at an economy with unemployment rates of more than 8 per cent.
Here in Australia we're in a very different position, because as a Labor Government we stepped up during those difficult times to support jobs here in our country. Now we'll continue to support jobs for Australians in our country, and we'll always look to train Australians first and to give them an opportunity at those skilled jobs.
But we know, with the hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of billions of dollars of investment in the resources pipeline, more than $400 billion of investment coming through, that we will have a spike in the number of construction workers we need, and we are seeking to meet that so that our community can see those resources projects built and then see the prosperity that comes from those resources projects shared right around the nation through the Minerals Resource Rent Tax.
And this is one of the great divides in Australian politics today - whether you believe at this time of the resources boom we should be sharing that prosperity around the country or enabling it to remain in the hands of a privileged few.
Thank you very much.