Murwillumbah
PM: I am very much enjoying my morning here with Justine Elliot in her electorate, the electorate of Richmond.
And we are here in Murwillumbah and joined by a lot of community members, and thank you very much for coming along.
I do want to say something about here, and an announcement for this community. But before I do so, I have got a couple of other issues I need to deal with.
People will have seen on their television screens the footage of the devastation caused by the tornado in Victoria's north-east.
This has been a truly startling event. People would have seen that 20 have sustained injuries, there have been homes damaged, destroyed, trashed, vehicles have been overturned. A lot of damage has been done.
So, we have worked with the Victorian Government and we are activating disaster assistance to help people who are affected by the tornado and the storms associated with it.
What this will mean is that there is some first-instance assistance available to help people with the costs of getting food and absolutely essential supplies and replacements of essential items.
This assistance is available to people in the Alpine, Benalla, Greater Shepparton, Indigo, Moira and Strathbogie local government areas.
People can find details of that assistance on our Federal Government disaster assist website, or the telephone number to ring is 180 22 66.
So, our communities in Victoria, particularly in Victoria's north-east, are facing a very difficult day and our thoughts are with them and some practical assistance is available.
And then second, I do want to welcome the release of Warren Rodwell.
Warren Rodwell is an Australian citizen who has been kidnapped over the last 15 months. He was kidnapped in Mindanao in the Philippines.
Mr Rodwell's family have shown a great deal of courage and stoicism in what has been a tremendously difficult situation.
I do want to pay tribute to the Government of the Philippines and their agencies and personnel who worked so hard to secure Mr Rodwell's release, including particularly those who combat kidnapping in the Philippines for the Philippines Government; they have done some remarkable work.
I would also like to pay tribute to our own Australian officials, including those from the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, from the Australian Federal Police and indeed from Defence who have also worked hard on this matter.
Our thoughts are with Warren Rodwell on this day of his release, and with his family.
I know that his family is keen to ensure that their privacy is respected at this time, and I am sure that our friends from the media will do that.
But I think all Australians will be very pleased to hear this news and delighted on behalf of the Rodwell family.
And then third, coming to events right here where I have had the opportunity to talk to a number of community members today.
I am in a position today to announce that the National Broadband Network is on its way to communities here on the far north coast of New South Wales, and for the community members who are listening around, it is going to come here first. This is the first community.
Murwillumbah will be the first of a number of communities in this region to see the benefit of fibre to the premises.
What that means is we will see construction of fibre to the premises for 5,000 homes and businesses in 2015-16, in that financial year.
NBN Co will shortly be releasing its updated maps. It does that around this time every year. And for everybody locally, when you see that map come out, make sure that you get on the NBN website and have a look because you will see your name emblazoned there.
The National Broadband Network is an important development for our nation. We simply cannot be a strong, prosperous economy in the future full of opportunity if we don't have this infrastructure of the 21st century.
This is as pivotal to the century in which we live as electricity and the copper wire telephone network was to the last century.
That copper wire network of telephone calls has served us well but now we need this infrastructure.
So it will not only transform our economy, enable us to bring services, including health and education services, to people in new ways, but it will end the burden of distance for regional communities including regional communities here in the far north coast of New South Wales.
It means that people will be able to get access to the world, local businesses can trade with the world in the same way that businesses in Sydney's CBD or Brisbane's CBD can.
It means schools can get the best of education from around the world and it does mean we can provide things like GP consultations - health care in the home for older Australians - in new and innovative ways.
So I know this is going to be received as good news today here locally and I am very proud to be here to announce it.
I will hand over to Justine for some comments including about this wonderful centre we are in, and then we will take some questions.
JUSTINE ELLIOT: Thanks so much Prime Minister and welcome to Murwillumbah. It has been a great morning this morning.
Thank you for coming and making this really important announcement for our area.
The fact that Murwillumbah will be the first of many for the fibre rollouts of the NBN is going to make a huge difference to people here on the north coast.
As you said, that's 5,000 houses and we will be having that NBN fibre rolled out from 2015. And what a huge difference this will make to the people of the north coast.
I speak to small business people every day who can't wait to have the NBN here.
School children, it will be remarkable for them. Right across the area it will make such a big difference for business, for health services, and we are so excited you were able to come here today and make this really important announcement.
And thanks to everyone who has come along to share the great excitement.
I'd also like to note that we are here making this announcement at the Murwillumbah Community Centre. Now this centre is here today because the Federal Labor Government delivered more than $2 million for this fantastic community project, it really is a great venue.
We were very pleased to make that commitment prior to the last election.
And we did that, here we are, we committed, we promised and we delivered. That's what Federal Labor Governments do.
And now Murwillumbah has this outstanding community centre. And I understand that since we opened it in late November, I think they've seen thousands of people.
It makes such a big difference in the lives of so many locals.
So we were very proud to open it that day and we're even prouder to be here today in this great Murwillumbah Community Centre announcing the NBN rollout for our area.
So thank you Prime Minister.
PM: Thank you. We are happy to take some questions.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, Labor has just eight seats in Queensland. Four of which I think at the moment are on less than six per cent. Would you consider accepting Kevin Rudd's invitation to join you in campaigning in Queensland in the lead-up to the September poll?
PM: As I have made clear we will be out there, the full Labor team, working together during the days of governing, and campaigning together during the election campaign.
So I will certainly, when the election campaign comes, be campaigning with every member of my team, including Kevin Rudd.
JOURNALIST: Joel Fitzgibbon says that Labor chose to lose the election over returning Kevin Rudd, what do you think about his comments?
PM: All of this is behind us. We are here getting on with important things for this local community and for the nation.
The National Broadband Network is so important for our nation's future. It's about jobs, it's about opportunity, it's about the best of services.
My focus is now very much on the future for Australian kids. We are joined by a lot of kids today.
My focus will be on what's happening in their classrooms and making sure that they get a world-class education so that they - as our future citizens - can live in a nation with the best of infrastructure, the best of skills and consequently the strongest prosperity that we can give our nation's future
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, who will be your Cabinet replacements?
PM: I will deal with the ministerial reshuffle in coming days.
JOURNALIST: Are you expecting any more people to leave your ministry, or are you planning to sack anyone from your ministry?
PM: I will deal with the ministerial reshuffle in coming days.
I am very lucky to be supported by so many great ministers who are doing very, very good work.
I will make the final arrangements for the ministry in coming days and announce it then.
JOURNALIST: Do you support Anthony Albanese - do you still support him?
PM: Minister Albanese is doing a good job, a fantastic job. He is a very valuable minister and I work very closely with him.
JOURNALIST: What about Mark Butler? Do you support him?
PM: Minister Butler is a very able minister who is continuing to do very important work for us in some difficult areas.
Mental health care is an area that had unfortunately been long neglected in Australia's national life.
Minister Butler has brought a new focus to it, and he has brought too a preparedness to deal with the big reform agendas that we need in aged care as our society ages.
JOURNALIST: Do you think Kevin Rudd supporters should all go?
PM: I am dealing with ministerial reshuffle arrangements in a few days' time.
JOURNALIST: Did you ask Minister Mark Ferguson to resign?
PM: Mr Ferguson made his own decision.
JOURNALIST: Will there be enough talent in the Government so close before the election?
PM: Absolutely. One of the things about the Labor team is it is an incredibly deep team. There is a depth and wealth of talent there.
My problem when it comes to ministerial reshuffles is making the fine judgments about who to promote because there are so many possibilities, and so many people with real ability who could step up and do the tasks before them.
Unfortunately there are only so many spots. But the difficulty in it isn't finding people to do the job; it is being spoilt for choice.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, would you consider returning to the old system where ministers were selected by the caucus and not yourself?
PM: My view has been that it is appropriate for me as leader to make ministerial selections, and I will certainly be making these ones.
JOURNALIST: Do you believe that you can win? Essentially obviously this has been very damaging over the last few days. Do you think it's still a possibility for the Labor Party to win the election?
PM: Of course, and the election will come down to an incredibly clear, incredibly stark choice for the Australian people.
Our future is not assured. You can't just say well a prosperous strong future rolls out for Australia as an automatic thing.
We only secure that future by making the right choices today.
Our future is not assured.
And we will be the only political party presenting at the election with a clear plan for our nation's future which is all about jobs and opportunity and prosperity for all, and a clear plan to support families today as they go about the all-important work of raising the next generation.
On the other side of politics, all we'll ever see is negativity and that's all we'll ever see come the election campaign.
JOURNALIST: Would you consider putting Kevin Rudd in your Cabinet again?
PM: I am making ministerial selections. Mr Rudd some time back made clear that his future is as the Member for Griffith. He verified that as recently as yesterday.
RESIDENT: As a Murwillumbah resident, with many thanks for what you've done so far, we still find it a little bit hard to serve the people that we're here to serve. Hopefully there may be a grant for us?
PM: One of the things I am going to leave this community absolutely sure about is that you are incredibly proud and you are not backwards about coming forwards when it comes to the future, so I actually think we are going next door to talk about what's possible there, which is what you wanted me to do.
Thank you very much.