Rarotonga, Cook Islands
E & O E - PROOF ONLY
PM: It's great to be here in the Cook Islands. I've just arrived for the Pacific Islands Forum.
Australia is a Pacific Nation. This is our region. It's our part of the world and it's important to us.
We are deeply connected in this region - not just the ties of geography, though they're important - we are deeply connected as the regional power guaranteeing security in this region.
We are deeply connected in trade and investment and of course we are a very substantial aid donor.
That means that the stability and prosperity of the Pacific Islands matters to Australia and that's why the Pacific Islands Forum matters and that's why I'm here.
The Pacific Islands Forum focuses on a range of issues to do with stability and prosperity, and particularly important is the focus on sustainable development and mitigating the effects of climate change, the focus on economic integration and economic growth, the focus on the best use of aid dollars making sure that all aid dollars make the biggest possible difference, and the focus on good governance.
Whilst I'm here I'll be having discussions across this range of issues. I will be particularly focussing on three issues in my discussions and work within the Forum.
A key agenda item for this Forum defined by the Cook Islands is the Pacific Ocean, the maritime environment, the sense of these island nations being the custodians of a huge ocean area.
This fits very well with Australia's focus on our marine environment and this will be one of the things I will be particularly focussing on during these discussions.
Second, I will be very focussed on skills and skills development. For these nations to seize the best possible future they do need to see further work on education and training. That's important to see growth in their economies.
Thirdly, as the only woman attending the forum, the only female leader, I will be focussing on gender equality.
Gender equality matters, not only because of the basic principle that men and women are equal, but gender equality matters because it's one of the keys to unlocking development and so I will be focussed on gender equality issues.
During the course of the forum I also expect issues about Fiji to be canvassed and issues about success of the Regional Assistance Mission to the Solomon Islands.
I'll be meeting with the President of Nauru and the Prime Minister of PNG, amongst other leaders.
In those discussions with the President of Nauru and the Prime Minister of PNG I will be discussing the work we are doing together on asylum seekers and regional processing.
I will later in the week be meeting with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton who is coming to attend the post-Forum dialogue.
So it's a big agenda and I'm looking forward to getting stuck into it.
JOUNALIST: Prime Minister, in your meetings with the leaders of Nauru and PNG, what progress are you trying to make in terms of offshore processing?
PM: Well work's already begun. We've sent the reconnaissance teams and as you will have seen from all of the pictures and footage work is happening, construction work, through our defence force.
We are negotiating a memorandum of understanding with Nauru so I'll certainly be discussing that with the President of Nauru.
Australia already had a memorandum of understanding with PNG, but I will be talking to Prime Minister O'Neill about the arrangements for the processing centre at Manus Island.
JOURNALIST: Nauru yesterday said that it didn't believe that people could be held indefinitely on Nauru and furthermore that they wanted to see asylum seekers processed efficiently. Does that gel with your Government's determination to make people wait for a comparable period of time that they'd face in say Indonesia or Malaysia, because that could be a very long wait indeed.
PM: Well it certainly does. Our policy push here is to make sure that people do not get an advantage from having got in a boat.
That is why when people are transferred to PNG or to Nauru they will have to have their claims processed to see whether or not they're a genuine refugee and if they are a genuine refugee then they will have to wait the same amount of time for a resettlement opportunity as they would have waited if they hadn't got in the boat.
Of course when we get to that stage, having acquitted the no-advantage arrangements, we would want to see people resettled as quickly as possible and we've been very clear all along that there's nothing about the Houston package that says people should be held indefinitely.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, does that mean some of those people could be resettled in Australia and how quickly could that happen?
PM: It means exactly what I said responding to the Houston report, not a word different. The aim here is to ensure that people get no advantage from having got in a boat.
So we want to see arrangements on Nauru and Manus Island where people are processed to see if they're genuine refugees.
If they're not genuine refugees then they should be returned to their countries of origin. If they are genuine refugees, they will get a resettlement opportunity, but having waited the same amount of time they would have waited if they had not got on the boat and paid a people smuggler.
JOURNALIST: Are you at odds with Nauru and PNG on this, because they seem to be saying that their understanding of their agreements is that people will be processed as quickly as possible and then resettled, including in Australia.
PM: I think we're on the same page. Our intention is for people to be processed, to then wait for the same amount of time they would have waited had they not got on a boat, and then to obviously be resettled as quickly as possible.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, on climate change, why have you changed your position on the floor price, and secondly, won't this destroy your budget figures given that revenue is based on the price put on carbon?
PM: Well I think settle back down might be the message. Minister Combet's dealt with this extensively in Australia, but let me say this.
First and foremost the fact that we are linking with the European scheme gives a complete lie to the fearmongers who have tried to tell the Australian people that it's only Australia that is acting on climate change.
That has always been untrue and now it is demonstrably untrue.
Australians would be asking themselves the question how is it we can be linking to a scheme that covers over five hundred million people if no one else in the world is doing this? It doesn't make any sense, never has made any sense, has always been a false claim.
Second, the announcement that Minister Combet made yesterday reinforces the fact that the fixed price for carbon - the carbon tax - lasts three years and then it becomes a fully fledged emissions trading scheme.
That's exactly the same system Prime Minister Howard stood for in the 2007 election.
It's exactly the same kind of system that Brendan Nelson, Malcolm Turnbull and indeed Tony Abbott have advocated in the past. It's the same system that every living Liberal leader is committed to.
On budget figures, we rely on Treasury modelling and forecasts as we do for every other area of the budget and we will on carbon pricing forecasts as well.
JOURNALIST: But isn't there a danger though that the price in Europe at the moment is lower I believe than the fixed price that you were looking at? So isn't that going to cut your revenue?
PM: Well let's be clear about what's happening in Europe. All markets in Europe have been volatile as a result of the eurozone crisis.
There's been significant volatility in all markets including carbon markets. The European Union is taking steps to bolster price in its market. We're talking about what the price will be in three years' time.
In order to predict a price in three years' time, you don't simply look at today's price and say to yourself that's inevitably going to be the price in three years' time. I mean that's nonsense, clearly nonsense.
What you do is you rely on the best possible advice about what the price will be in three years' time, that's the Treasury modelling, and that's what we rely on.
We rely on Treasury modelling and forecasting for all sections of the budget, just like governments have in the past.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, you mentioned that Fiji's likely to come up in this. Will you be supporting any moves by the Forum to re-introduce Fiji or lift the suspension on Fiji, perhaps not at the whole level of the Forum but in some parts of the Forum?
PM: Our position on this is clear. We will continue to press for a return to democracy in Fiji and it is only that return to democracy that should see Fiji join the Pacific Islands Forum.
As the Foreign Minister, Minister Carr has said publicly and as he publicly demonstrated when he met with his counterparts from New Zealand and Fiji, when we see progress in Fiji we're prepared to acknowledge progress has been made.
When we see progress, we're prepared to as a result of that progress change arrangements, so for example, because we have seen some progress, there is now discussion of an exchange of High Commissioners.
But the key to coming back into the Pacific Islands Forum and to being acknowledged around the world as back from where Fiji has been is a return to democracy. It's having an election.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, the Government's announced a large dental program today back in Australia but it hasn't yet identified as I understand it exactly where the money's going to come from. When will we see those details and is it irresponsible to make a large promise without yet identifying where the funds will come from?
PM: Well the announcement today is about a large saving. That is through the closure of a scheme designed by the former Government, by the Howard Government.
Indeed the Leader of the Opposition was personally involved in its design and it's been the subject of economic blowouts and it's also been the subject of lack of fairness.
It's a scheme in which, literally, some millionaires are able to benefit whilst a teenager from a poor family can't get a filling for their tooth.
In those circumstances, that scheme is being replaced by a better and more cost-effective set of arrangements.
So the Minister for Health, Tanya Plibersek has both announced today the closure of the scheme that is inequitable and blowing out, as well as some new arrangements to better help Australians with dental care.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, there were violent protests in Melbourne construction sites. Are you worried that these protests could spread?
PM: Violence is always wrong in whatever setting and of course everybody should conduct themselves peacefully. If they want to make a point, there are ways of making your point peacefully.
JOURNALIST: What do you say about Mr Abbott's plan though to bring the Building Commission in response to what's happened in Melbourne?
PM: Well Mr Abbott's always stood for the complete return to Howard Government policies, so WorkChoices would be back and the Australian Building and Construction Commission would be back absolutely.
And as a result of that people would see things like their penalty rates end. They'd see their awards ripped up and they'd be forced back on the kind of individual contracts that did so much harm to many working families when Mr Abbott was last in government.
JOURNALIST: What's the significance of the visit of Hillary Clinton?
PM: I think it shows visibly how deeply engaged America is in our region and I think it's very important that Hillary Clinton does participate in the post-Forum dialogue.
The United States has announced it's rebalanced towards the Asia Pacific. It is in Australia's interests, it's in the interests of the region for America to be deeply engaged.
JOURNALIST: Some analysts have interpreted it rightly or wrongly as an attempt to curb China's growing influence now for a decade or so in the Pacific. Do you see it that way?
PM: Well I would note that China will also be attending the Pacific Islands Forum post dialogue.
Thank you very much.