Brisbane
PM: It's great to be here in Queensland. I'm joined by the Deputy Prime Minister, Wayne Swan and by Yvette D'Ath our member for Petrie. And we've just been inspecting with our state representatives as well the progress right here.
This is progress on the Moreton Bay Rail Link. This is something the local community's been waiting for, for more than 100 years.
This is a community that is seeing spectacular growth. Yvette D'Ath, the member for Petrie in the Federal Parliament represents this rapidly growing area. What that rapid growth has meant is that there is congestion.
About half of the people who live here journey out of the area every day. More than 80 per cent of them do that in a private vehicle they're driving. And so you've got a lot of people on the roads waiting for an alternative; waiting for this rail link.
I'm really pleased that we were able to make this possible after 100 years of waiting with a $742 million investment.
And I acknowledge that this has been a partnership with the Queensland Government and also with the local council who played their part to support this project.
What this means for this community is more time at home with the kids rather than in the car. More ability to access job opportunities through getting on the rail. More economic opportunities brought to the region itself because of this work. Literally thousands of people will take a pay packet home because this infrastructure project is being built.
This community, with its rapid growth, is very similar to the electorate that I represent in the Federal Parliament. It has got all of the stresses and strains of growth. People want to know that their government is planning for the future, and right here you are seeing a delivery of that plan with better infrastructure.
I am also looking forward to being here for the rest of the day and into the evening. We have a Community Cabinet here. We will be at the Hercules Road State School and I think everybody for making us welcome there, and we will be meeting with the local community members and answering their questions.
Whether it be about jobs, whether it be about health, whether it be about education or the National Disability Insurance Scheme. And I expect we will get people who raise with us their concerns about job losses here in Queensland because of the actions of the Newman Government. About cutbacks to education and cutbacks to TAFE that the Newman Government is engaged in. About cutbacks to health.
People in this community need to know that governments are investing for the future. We are certainly getting on with that and I am looking forward to the discussion with the community to come and I thank Yvette D'Ath as our local member for having us here.
JOURNALIST: The claim in The Australian that you received $5000 in your bank account, is that true?
PM: I have read today's Australian and having read today's Australian closely, there is not one substantiated allegation in today's Australian. It does not contain one allegation of wrongdoing by me.
The Australian newspaper has spent months and months and months in so-called investigative journalism looking at this matter. And after all of those months and months and months of looking, there is not one substantiated allegation of wrongdoing by me.
This matter has been trawled over for the best part of 20 years and at the end of it being trawled over for the best part of 20 years, there is not one finding of wrongdoing by me. And there is a reason for that, I didn't do anything wrong.
This kind of smear that we are seeing in today's Australian, no allegation of wrongdoing by me, but the stories being published today, this is smear pure and simple and I'm not going to dignify it by becoming involved in it.
JOURNALIST: Do you remember getting the $5000 from Bruce Wilson?
PM: I have just dealt with the nature of these smears.
JOURNALIST: But Prime Minister, does unsubstantiated mean untrue? That there was no cash deposit?
PM: There is no allegation in today's Australian of any wrongdoing by me. This is smear, pure and simple. And let's look at the week that we've just been through.
On Monday I announced that we would have a royal commission into child abuse in institutions in Australia. Yesterday I was in Perth meeting with Secretary of State Clinton and Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta, talking about our national security in our region, working with our ally the United States of America.
Here I am today in Brisbane, in the federal electorate of Petrie, looking at progress on a major infrastructure project and looking forward to Community Cabinet tonight. And during these three days, what's the Opposition been doing? Well everyday they've been out further pursuing these smears.
Every day they have been engaged in smear. Even though Tony Abbott as Leader of the Opposition has said that he's not going to engage in endless personal smears, even though he said that he's going to get on with the things that matter.
Well, I say to the Leader of the Opposition with this smear day after day, is this really getting on with the things that matter?
I'm here pursuing my vision for Australia's future, and the Liberal Party can throw anything they like at me and I will still be standing here pursuing that vision for the future.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, the AWU officials at the time weren't concerned about any Liberal or Labor links to this, they were just concerned about what they saw as an unusual payment. Do they have reason to still have those concerns?
PM: If you've got a substantiated allegation to put to me then put it, otherwise don't engage in this smear. There is no allegation in today's-
JOURNALIST: There is no allegation.
PM: No, precisely. Smear.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, should there be more indigenous Members of Parliament and should they come from the city or the bush?
PM: Yes, I do believe that our Parliament should represent our national including indigenous Australians.
I am not going to engage myself in the kinds of things that have been said in recent days, trying to divide indigenous Australians up into neat little columns and descriptors. People are people; people bring with them into the Parliament all sorts of attributes and outlooks on life.
I do believe our Parliament is at its best when it represents the nation it's there to serve. That means we do want to see more indigenous Australians, we want to see more women, we want to see more Australians from multicultural backgrounds in our Parliament.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, should the Royal Commission examine removing the seal of the confessional, so priests have to say what happened in there?
PM: When I announced the Royal Commission on Monday, I talked about people averting their eyes. So, not just the incredible wrongdoing by adults who have engaged in these vile acts involving children, but the people who averted their eyes.
Adults have got a duty of care towards children and it is not good enough for people to engage in sins of omission and not act when a child is at risk.
As for the way that the Royal Commission will take evidence and deal with getting the facts together in this matter, that is going to be a matter for the Royal Commissioner or Commissioners that we appoint.
As I have said consistently since I announced it on Monday, we want to take a really careful approach here. That means that we're going to consult on the terms of reference. We're engaged in that now and we've been out forging the necessary links with the representative groups of the survivors as well as talking to a State and Territory counterparts and of course we will be talking to institutions, including churches, about this Royal Commission and its terms of service.
JOURNALIST: You mentioned this afternoon the Community Cabinet; you're probably anticipating you'll get some angry people there. Are they going to be angry towards your government; I know you've said that there is a state issue there as well. But they haven't been entirely happy with how you've been doing.
PM: Well let's see Community Cabinet and then we can judge. My experience of Community Cabinet around the country is people come talking about the real issues that matter in their lives.
Now, some people come because they are a member of a representative group and forever and a day what they've wanted to see is more expenditure by government on a particular area. But there are many people too, who are not involved with any group that is agitating for anything, because people live in the local community, they care about jobs, they care about education, they care about health, they care about giving their kids a future and they want to hear what our plan for the nation's future is.
We've made clear our plan for the nation's future with the delivery of the Asian Century White Paper, how we're going to be a strong and prosperous and fair society in this century of change. So I'm looking forward to the exchange with local community members.
But when I've travelled to Queensland I have heard a fair bit of anger about Campbell Newman's cuts, a fair bit of anger about the job losses, a fair bit of anger about what that means when your kid is sick and you need some assistance, or the quality of your child's local school or whether you or your child will be able to get a better opportunity in life by going down the road to the local TAFE. So I would not be surprised if some of those things are raised tonight.
Thank you very much.