Sydney
PM: It's great to be here in Liverpool. I'm joined by the Minister for Employment Bill Shorten, by Chris Hayes, the Member for Fowler, and by Laurie Ferguson, the Member for Werriwa.
And we're here at the Whitlam Leisure Centre which today is hosting a Jobs Expo.
Jobs Expos are held around the country and they have been an incredibly successful way of bringing people with work to people who need work.
We commenced the Jobs Expo program because we knew around the country that there would be a real benefit in creating an occasion which brought employers together with job seekers.
This is proving already to be a tremendous success. More than 3,000 people have gone through so more people have come and gone even since the time that we were on stage addressing the crowd.
More than 3,000 people have come through; there are 1,200 jobs on the jobs board so that means we are forging real links for people to get a job.
Today, I am also announcing a strategy to help the greater western Sydney region get more jobs locally, jobs in the region itself.
We're talking about the third-biggest economy in Australia after the CBDs of Sydney and Melbourne - a great manufacturing region, a transport and logistics hub.
People here in greater western Sydney, south-western Sydney, often have no choice but to spend a long period of time journeying to work.
We have announced during the week that we want to see the right infrastructure proposal, the right roads proposal to get people to the city and freight to the port.
But another thing we can do to relieve congestion is to create jobs in this region itself which is why I'm pleased to be able to announce a $1.5 million investment to bring together people who can facilitate researchers in this region working with local businesses to make sure they put forward really high-quality proposals to attract at least one innovation precinct to this region.
There are going to be 10 such precincts around the country and they are a strategy to create jobs.
Many Australians I think get frustrated when they hear that we have invented something new, a great new idea, and then it gets commercialised overseas.
Often that happens because there aren't the great links there need to be between our researchers and business people.
Our innovation precincts are about building those links and we will facilitate the best quality proposals coming forward from this part of the world.
So I'm genuinely delighted to be here. I know time is short for everyone but we will take some questions.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, in a speech this morning Kevin Rudd praised the contribution the successive generations of migrants to our international standing and our living standards.
This week you've put out a tough message about Aussie jobs first and I'm wondering how that message promotes Australia's living standards, our international standing and your own aspirations about our push in the Asian century?
PM: Well, you've heard me talk this week comprehensively about Australia, its future and migration to Australia.
I'm a migrant.
We've built a great multicultural society together - not without problems, there are occasionally problems - but our success in the world, in blending people from around the world into a peaceful, harmonious society is something we should be very proud of.
It's been good for Australia, our migration program, it's been good for our economy, it's been good for our society and we continue to have people migrate to this country to make it permanently their home, to become Australian citizens, to get a job, to raise their families just as my mother and father came here.
I've talked this week too about one migration visa class which is for people to come to this country on a temporary basis.
The reason for that visa class is so businesses, if they face acute skills shortages, can source a worker from overseas.
And I've said when it comes to that visa class we do have to make sure we're putting work opportunities for Australians first.
The purpose of that visa class isn't for someone from overseas to get a job whilst an Australian ready, willing and able to do it misses out.
That's not the purpose of 457 visas and so to the extent that there are any rorts in the system, and clearly there's some material that would concern people, we're going to crack down on them.
We did when we came to government crackdown on 457 visas because they were being abused and they were taking jobs that could have been performed by Australians.
When we hear evidence that that is happening again then we crack down again and that is the appropriate thing to do.
So a great migrant nation, Australia, a specific visa class which should not be used to substitute for opportunities for Australian workers and, second, should not be used to down tools on training.
We need some 457 visa holders now and we do need them.
But it's because our nation didn't invest in training at an earlier point in time.
When you go to hospitals and you meet nurses from overseas, doctors from overseas, we need their skills for our hospital system absolutely, but we are reliant on them because in the days of the Howard Government when Minister Abbott was Minister for Health, we didn't train enough doctors and nurses so we don't have enough now.
Well, I'm very determined that our training system is there giving Australians the skills they need for the jobs of the future.
I love it when I hear a story like David's about getting a way through as a young person to a job and an opportunity.
I'm proud that we've created more apprenticeships than ever before, more university places than ever before, trade training centres in schools offering great training opportunities and school-based apprenticeship programs to get kids in and find them a pathway.
That's what we do and that's what I stand for.
JOURNALIST: How big a problem though, Prime Minister, is the abuse, as you say, of the 457 visas really?
Tony Abbott says that you're really exaggerating this for political purposes and you've given some examples but what's the dimension of the problem, how big a problem is it?
PM: This is a clear difference between the political parties because I believe we should only be looking for temporary workers from overseas if there are skill shortages that we cannot fill any other way.
Mr Abbott believes that temporary workers from overseas should be a mainstay of our migration program.
Well I just don't think that's right.
That is a dispute between me and Mr Abbott. It's a different way of looking at the world.
In terms of abuses, well there is some evidence around that the Minister for Immigration has gone to about misuses, people describing jobs as highly skilled where they end up being jobs for security guards, people sourcing a worker and then that person ending up working for another business in circumstances where an Australian could have got that job.
So to the extent that there are any problems, I want to get them out of the system.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, the resignation of Ted Baillieu, is it somewhat of a relief given that there might be a fresh start and that given that he's given you a bit of grief, certainly over the last couple of weeks?
PM: My sense is that Victoria, the people of Victoria have grown weary of the cutbacks of the Victorian Liberal Government.
There is a huge campaign to fight the cutbacks in TAFE because that's denying people jobs and opportunities and denying kids the start they need in life.
There is also a fight back against the health cutbacks from the Victorian Liberal Government.
So I think in the Victorian community the sense really is that they're sick of the Liberal cuts and what I don't think people should have to risk is those cuts being added to by a Tony Abbott-led Liberal Federal Government.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, Pauline Hanson is running at the next election, your reaction to that?
PM: Well, of course I would fight Ms Hanson. I don't agree with her views and I don't think people should vote for her.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, what's your sense of what's happened in Victoria overnight? Some people have been comparing it to Kevin Rudd's demise. Is there any comparison there?
PM: You would have to speak to someone from the Liberal Party about the ins and outs of it.
In my view, the focus of many Victorians is on the cutbacks and what they mean in their everyday life.
JOURNALIST: People criticised you in the week for not doing a street walk. That looked like a walk and meet-and-greet to me. Were you pleased with that reaction and how do you think the week has gone generally?
PM: I have been and meeting people all week in a wide variety of circumstances including here now at the Jobs Expo.
I enjoy meeting people, I enjoy having a yack. Sometimes you're there, sometimes you're not, but I get the opportunity to meet people in a wide variety of circumstances and I always enjoy it.
I enjoyed walking through and meeting people in the crowd today.
JOURNALIST: And the week generally?
PM: The week generally I think has been a good week.
I've travelled to western Sydney before, I'll be here again, I've had the opportunity to be in these communities in the past and I'll look forward to the opportunity to do it in the future.
Every time you visit this part of the world you learn something, you meet someone who makes a real impression on you.
I've met workers in disability who've made a real impression and who are so anxiously awaiting the National Disability Insurance Scheme.
I've met young people whose life chances have been accelerated because of the work we're doing in schools through our national partnerships.
I've met people who are concerned at work and the long-term future for Australia.
I've met people who talk about the travel times and do want to see a plan that gets them out of travel congestion, takes them out of the traffic and enables them to spend more time with their families.
I've met people concerned about community safety; they don't want the kind of shattering of their sense of peace that comes when firearms are fired in suburban streets.
We have talked too about the quality of local health services.
It really matters to people that as a government we are putting more money into health, including more money into health in New South Wales.
So I have met a lot of individuals who have made an impression. I've had the opportunity to speak about our plans for roads, our plans for jobs, our plans for community safety.
JOURNALIST: On the issue of health services Prime Minister, the AMA today is calling for a complete rebuild of Westmead Public Hospital, one of the main hospitals out here. Are you sympathetic to that?
PM: I'm always very focused on making sure that we're improving health.
That's why I, as Prime Minister, struck an arrangement to make sure there's more money going into hospitals and health care than ever before in the nation's history and we become an equal partner in the growth in hospital costs.
We are providing an extra billion dollars here, unfortunately at a time that Premier O'Farrell is taking $3 billion out.
A lot would be possible if Premier O'Farrell kept pace with what we are doing in funding.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, back to the Liberal leadership in Victoria, are you expecting a fresh approach from a new leadership team?
PM: I deal with premiers and chief ministers around the country; I will of course make contact with and speak to the new premier, Premier Napthine, and talk to him about issues in Victoria.
During the time I've been Prime Minister there's been some coming and going from the COAG table and obviously I'll have a new face at the COAG table come April.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd and Stephen Smith say they were unaware of the Ben Zygier case. Does that surprise you?
PM: What's happened here is DFAT, our Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, has provided a report to our Foreign Affairs Minister, Minister Carr, who released it yesterday.
What that report makes clear is that there could have been better work between ASIO and the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade on Australia actively, proactively, engaging in consular work with this young man.
As it was, the family never requested consular assistance but I think we've learned some lessons about protocols for working when people are detained on issues associated with intelligence.
JOURNALIST: Just on western Sydney, Prime Minister, all the polling says that Labor's dead in the water here, the members next to you there are going to lose their jobs.
What's the sense you've got over the last four or five days? Is it just a lost cause or can you win the seats out here?
PM: I don't comment on opinion polls and people will make their own decisions in September about how they want to vote and the choice will be an incredibly clear one.
Who's got a plan for the nation's future so that we are stronger and smarter and fairer; who is helping modern families today with all of the stresses and strains of modern life?
This Government has a very clear plan for the future. We've charted the course and we want to pursue it.
We've got very clear programs to help families with things like the cost of living.
On the other side of politics we just see negativity.
Come September, people will make their choice.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, have you picked up a mood or an anger out there this week that people want change and want to put you out?
PM: I have been talking to people about the real issues that they confront in their daily life which are things like how long am I going to be in the car this morning and this evening to get from home to work and back again and what will I miss out on at home whilst I do that long bills journey?
How will I pay the bills when they come in, can I make it all add up?
What would happen if one of my children were sick and I needed to rush to the hospital?
Is my young son, my young daughter really getting the best quality education and are they going to get the best jobs in the future?
Should I be concerned about safety in my streets and what better can be done on safety in my streets?
These are the things, the real-world things, that people have been raising with me and I've been talking to them about.
JOURNALIST: Can we ask the local members about these things, about the mood out here?
PM: Look, I think I've answered for the team and we're not here to talk about opinion polls.
We're here to talk about the issues that matter for the people we've met walking through the Jobs Expo and what they'd be worried about is getting a job, that's why 3,000 people have come here today.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, on Sunday you said that shootings in outdoor areas have surged over the last 15 years but the New South Wales Bureau of Crime Statistics says that's not quite accurate. Can you clarify those figures?
PM: I certainly can. I was referring to the figures about shootings in public places and particularly firing into premises, guns being let off in streets, fired into houses.
When you look at the trend there, it has been up over the last few years.
There was a slight fall-off in the figures towards the end of last year but it's still up compared with the past and that's what people are concerned about and understandably so.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, the Labor leader in Victoria has expressed doubt that this will be the end of the Liberal leadership turmoil. Do you share that view?
PM: I will leave those comments with Daniel Andrews as Opposition Leader.
JOURNALIST: Tony Abbott's repeatedly attacked you for the way you deposed Kevin Rudd, do you think what's happening in Victoria somewhat blunts that consistent attack on you?
PM: I think that's a question for Mr Abbott.
JOURNALIST: One of the issues for the people of Liverpool is the proposed Moorebank Intermodal. Do you share their concerns about bringing more trucks out to this area?
PM: I understand those concerns. We want to do better by freight movement in Sydney and that does require new infrastructure and the Defence land there at Moorebank has been identified for some period of time including under the former Howard Government.
But movements of freight always have to be properly planned so that they're not impinging on people's quality of life and we'll want to stay very strongly engaged with local people here as that work rolls out.
Okay, thank you.