PM: I'm delighted to be back in Adelaide. I'm here with Senator Don Farrell and with Amanda Rishworth the Member for Kingston and she's done some work with Bedford.
I do want to say a very big thank you to the people from Bedford who have made us so welcome today. I've had the opportunity to look through this very great place, so to each of you thank you for what you're achieving here.
This is a very important place for people with disabilities in South Australia. What it shows is that with the right care and support, people can certainly make a life for themselves and can enjoy the benefits of work. And I have toured through here and watched flat packs - furniture being made which will be sold at very well-known outlets like Bunnings. So a commercial contract, the right quality being made by a work force that is diverse, giving people the opportunity of a job. And people doing are all the training their Certificate 1, Certificate 2 and Certificate 3. So it really is a fantastic outcome, it's really heart warming to be here.
And I wanted to come here at the end of budget week because the budget does make provision for the launch sites of the National Disability Insurance Scheme. We want to make sure that right around the country we are doing better for people with a disability. At the moment, what care you get can depend on how you got your disability, whether it was in a transport accident or at work, or whether you were born with it, got it through a disease or got it through an accident outside work and outside a motor vehicle. It's a really cruel lottery. And we want to end that through a National Disability Insurance Scheme. And that's why we've budgeted a billion dollars to start launching the scheme a year earlier than the expert group the Productivity Commission advised. We're doing it a year earlier because we want to make a start.
On Tuesday night, we announced a budget that brings the budget to surplus. Exactly as promised. That's the right thing for our economy now and it's a remarkable result for Australia, so soon after the global financial crisis. It's something we should all be proud of. That we've been able to bring the budget to surplus so quickly. It gives us a buffer for the future if we need it, it also gives the Reserve Bank room to move on interest rates should they choose to do so and we know from last week's interest rate reduction how important interest rate cuts are for families around the country. It's also a budget where we've deliberately tried to work to provide benefits to low- and middle-incomes.
We know many families around the nation are struggling to make ends meet. And so in the budget we wanted to provide assistance through the Schoolkids Bonus and we've already got that through the Parliament, the first budget bill through and for families around the nation, including 100,000 families here in South Australia, it will mean before 30 June they will see around $410 for each primary school student in their family, and $820 for each high school student in their family and that will be a bonus that happens every year for all of the costs of getting the kids to school.
We've also decided to use some of the money from the mining tax to support families through the family payment system. That's an extra bit of relief, too, for families with two children, it will mean $600 extra; for families with one child, $300 extra. These are important measures to make a difference for families under a lot of cost of living pressure.
Yesterday, Tony Abbott's party in the Parliament, the Coalition, voted against the Schoolkids Bonus and today, on national TV he has indicated that families shouldn't rely on the family payments we are providing, having voted against the Schoolkids Bonus, Tony Abbott is warning families that he's going to take the extra family payments away. This (inaudible) just doesn't understand the kind of cost of living pressures that families are under.
So I'm very happy to take questions.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, the state governments have indicated that they're not necessarily willing to provide the (inaudible) in funding to go with the NDIS. How contingent are those trial sites on securing that money from state governments?
PM: We are going to bring a spirit of goodwill to negotiating with the states to get this done and I'm very confident that we will.
JOURNALIST: But Treasurer Jack Snelling has said the South Australian Government does not have the capacity to contribute. This, the only Labor mainland state government, what chance have you got of getting cooperation when even-
PM: Well we'll be working hard to get this done and I sat around the Council of Australian Governments table with premiers and chief ministers where we all talked about importance of the National Disability Insurance Scheme for the future so I'm very confident you will see the launch sites on time as promised.
JOURNALIST: The Costello-Kroger (inaudible) this morning, is it a relief to have the pressure off you?
PM: Look there's not much that I would agree with Peter Costello about, I'd have to say. I've been in Parliament when Peter Costello has been there and I didn't agree with him much then. So there's not much I would agree with Peter Costello about but I do agree when he says that Tony Abbott is not economically literate. And I'm really not surprised that the Liberal Party's casting around for someone who understands economics.
JOURNALIST: Do you think one of them is not telling the complete truth and their so-called conversation?
PM: Well they've got completely different versions. So they will have to work that out but Mr Costello has been talking about how economically illiterate Tony Abbott is. He has been on the record about that for years and years and years, that Tony Abbott doesn't understand economics and on that I find myself in agreement with Peter Costello.
JOURNALIST: But Mr Costello picks a fight with just about Liberal (inaudible).
PM: Look I'll leave all of them to work through that.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, just on Federal politics, have you spoken to Mr Oakeshott (inaudible) about his comments about what appears to be his nervousness now?
PM: Look I'm very confident the Government will be continuing to deliver its budget bills just like we delivered the Schoolkids Bonus.
JOURNALIST: So you haven't spoken to him?
PM: Look, I'm very confident we'll deliver our budget bills the way we delivered the Schoolkids Bonus this week. I'm very confident the Government will deliver its budget bills.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, the South Australian Treasurer has also said that the minority government and the proposed carbon tax are behind with consumer sentiment at the moment which is in turn damaging the state government's finances. Do you accept that that uncertainty is damaging the sentiment of Australian consumers?
PM: There has been a huge fear campaign from the Opposition on carbon pricing and it has caused many Australians to be worried about what carbon pricing is going to mean for them and their families. What they'll see in the run-up to 30 June and beyond is money to assist families flowing through, increased family payments, increased pensions and for anyone who earns less than $80,000 a year they will see a tax cut on 1 July. One of the reasons we thought it was the right thing to do to use some of the money from the mining tax to assist families with increased family payments is we understand people are under cost of living pressures and we understand that by supporting family budgets they will be out there buying the things their family needs and that's good for business.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, just getting back to Mr Oakeshott for a moment. Has he got a fairly solid case in his so-called apparent nervousness about Craig Thomson (inaudible). Don't you think that what he's saying makes sense?
PM: Mr Thomson will make a statement to the Parliament next week, the next time the Parliament sits. He indicated that in Parliament this week and I think that's the next step that will be taken.
JOURNALIST: With respect that wasn't the question. (Inaudible).
PM: The logical thing here is for Mr Thomson to give his statement as he's indicated that he would. As I said during the course of the week while we were in Parliament, I think we have to be very, very cautious about the Parliament setting itself up as doing the job that the courts are there to do.
JOURNALIST: (Inaudible)
PM: The Parliament is not there to be judge and jury. That's my view.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, with regards to the carbon tax, isn't Mr Abbott correct in saying if there was no carbon tax there (inaudible) compensation (inaudible)?
PM: Mr Abbott just doesn't get it that families are under cost of living pressure. And that's not about the pricing of carbon which will come into effect on 1 July, it's happening right now. Right now people have to do things like go and buy a new school jumper when their son or daughter has lost theirs. I was talking to a family about that yesterday. Or go and buy a new school calculator when one has been damaged or buy another pair of shoes because their child is growing and growing and growing. These are the pressures in the real world. And we've always wanted to help with those pressures, that's why we provided the Education Tax Refund. And now we want to provide that money in a better way because we realise that around a million families have been missing out on some or all of their entitlement. And to that, a bit of cost of living pressure relief so you can get the things you need for the kids going to school, Mr Abbott has just said no. He came into the Parliament and voted no against the Schoolkids Bonus. Now he is warning families he's intending to take away their family payment increases and give them back to Clive Palmer and Gina Rinehart.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, on a very parochial issue.
PM: Yes.
JOURNALIST: Are you going to see Black Caviar tomorrow in Adelaide and secondly-
PM: No, I'm not.
JOURNALIST: You're not?
PM: No, I'm not.
JOURNALIST: You wouldn't consider taking your mum along?
PM: No we - won't be there.
JOURNALIST: But it's the biggest thing to hit Adelaide in the last two weeks-
PM: Well I hope you enjoy it but I won't be there.
JOURNALIST: (Inaudible)
PM: I have some other commitments tomorrow which mean that I won't be there, but I hope you enjoy the day.
JOURNALIST: (Inaudible)
PM: Well that's Mr Abbott's warning to Australian families. Mr Abbott's warning today is that if he is ever Prime Minister, the family payments money will be taken away and this week he voted against the Schoolkids Bonus.
JOURNALIST: (Inaudible)
PM: I've never believed any of the commentary about the two political parties in Australian politics coming together. The Liberal Party's the party of fair work - sorry the Liberal Party is party of WorkChoices. We're the party of fair work. Huge divide in Australian politics whether you think working people are entitled to decency and respect in their workplaces, we're the political party that always builds the big things Australians need, like Medicare and universal superannuation, the National Disability Insurance Scheme. And we're the party that unashamedly stands for helping low- and middle-income earners whereas the Liberal Party stands for the benefits of a few.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, just on an early question on the states' commitment to the NDIS. (Inaudible) fail you and states cannot contribute that extra funding, does that mean the trial sites are dead in the water and you then have a scapegoat?
PM: We'll get the trial sites up and operating as promised and they will start on 1 July.
JOURNALIST: Even without the state governments' funding?
PM: We'll work with state governments. We've provided a billion dollars. So we are obviously in a position to works on costs and working with state governments on the trial sites. We're going to work with state governments in good faith to get this done. I've sat around a Council of Australian Governments table where every premier and chief minister indicated how important this is for the nation's future. And so we'll work to get states to work with us on up to four launch sites.
JOURNALIST: Is it possible without state government funding?
PM: It's possible for us to work with states to get this done and we will get it done. We've provided the funding in the budget, we've done that deliberately to put ourselves in a position to now work with states to get the launch sites up and running so I'm not at all concerned about this issue. We will be able to work with state governments to get this done and if I can, I hear a lot of commentary about whether we'll get things done with the states. I heard it in the run-up to the health agreement. Then we got a health agreement with every State and Territory. Heard it in the run-up to the last meeting of the Council of Australian Governments and then we delivered a blockbuster skills reform with the agreement of every State and Territory. We'll work and we'll get this done too.
Thank you very much.