ABC Capricornia
HOST: Good morning Prime Minister.
PM: Good morning.
HOST: You've announced $4 billion in funding for the Bruce Highway over the next 10 years this morning. How will this money be spent?
PM: Well some of it will be spent right here. I know from being in Rockhampton during times of flood and from receiving representations from Kirsten Livermore, your local member, how focused people have been the Bruce Highway and particularly on the Yeppen Crossing.
You know that there's work there underway already, I'm sure people sometimes talk to you about delays as they negotiate their way past that work.
We are announcing that out of this $4 billion new commitment to the Bruce Highway up to $300 million will be made available for the second stage of work there.
That's about raising the north bound lanes and it's also about a bridge - 1.6 km bridge.
The first $50 million will be made available so it can be spent this year which means you can move from the works that are happening there now to this next stage of works.
And so that's about making that area more resistant to flood than it has been because obviously the level of it, the physical level of it is going to be raised.
HOST: That $50 million be in the May budget?
PM: Yes, it will.
HOST: Is there any more of that $4 billion anticipated to be in this year's budget?
PM: The whole commitment to our Nation Building 2 program from which these funds are being drawn will be in the May budget.
So to explain that, what we do is we budget money for infrastructure, we called our first plan Nation Building 1. It is coming to an end, it will be replaced by Nation Building 2 and from that broader allocation for infrastructure, money is allocated for specific projects and $4 billion will be allocated for the Bruce Highway.
HOST: So there won't be any cuts needed to fund this package?
PM: We've already made room in the budget for a continued investment in infrastructure.
We knew that we'd have to keep investing; there are many infrastructure projects around the nation that are important.
Of course, the $4 billion is being allocated across a 10-year program of works but you will see the allocations in the budget for our Nation Build 2 program which is the source of funds to keep drawing down on for these works on the Bruce Highway.
HOST: The state government has said it would spend $1 billion on the road if the Commonwealth put in $4 billion over 10 years. Have you got a commitment from the state government that they will do that?
PM: Well it's over to Premier Newman. They have said that they would enter an arrangement with the Commonwealth where we are overwhelmingly picking up the cost of these upgrades, an 80-20 share - so there's $4 billion on the table.
HOST: When will these communities start to see the benefits of this funding?
PM: Work will be in progress this year, so this calendar year.
HOST: This week we've future heard talk about the potential future deficits as revenues fall, there's also been a slowdown in the mining sector. Do you think that here in Central Queensland we've lost the opportunity to really capitalise on the mining boom?
PM: No, I don't. We are in the mining industry moving past the peak of capital investment. That peak is yet to come but it is looming, so will reach the peak of the capital investment.
What does that mean? It means the new money going into build big new projects, the absolute peak of that will move through.
But then we will be in production so you construct the huge new mining ventures and then people work in them for years and years and years to come.
The peak of that capital investment will pass and then people will be working in mining for years and years to come.
And during that phase, the production phase, when we're actually getting ore or gas or it is and exporting it, we want to make sure that the profits that are made, the very high profits that are made, are appropriately shared and that's what the minerals resource rent taxes is about.
HOST: Speaking of taxes, the Opposition appears to be stepping back from their company tax cut commitment. You've promised a one per cent cut, have you abandoned that plan now or will you take if to the election?
PM: No, we some time ago accepted the reality that the Opposition was voting against that, determined to block it in the Parliament, had the ability to block it in the Parliament and that we wouldn't get it through.
So some time ago we announced that we couldn't further proceed with that plan because of the negativity that we see on the other side of politics.
HOST: We've had a number of visits from high-ranking government members in the last 12 months here in Rockhampton. Is this an indication that you see Capricornia as a key battle ground for this election?
PM: It's an indication that we're very regular visitors to Rockhampton. I've been a regular visit here as Prime Minister and before that as Deputy Prime Minister.
It's about coming and being here, being here to talk to people, being here to physically see things because as good as Kirsten's descriptions are, you need to come and see things for yourself and being here to make important announcements for this community.
HOST: Kirsten Livermore, what do you think needs to be done for the next five months for the seat of Capricornia to be retained by Labor?
KIRSTEN LIVERMORE: I think you're seeing an example of it today. It's really drawing people's attention to the investments that we've already made.
Things like the investments in our schools, things like the MRI machine up at the Rockhampton Base Hospital, things like the training centre, the training college for medical students, also on the grounds of the Base Hospital there in Canning Street, things like the cancer centre at the Base Hospital.
The list goes on and on; the investments we've made in Central Queensland University.
So by having these opportunities with ministers and the Prime Minister coming to town we can talk about the things that we've already done here in Capricornia over the last five years of our government and to use that to draw people's attention to what we are committing to in the future.
Things like the Gonski reforms which will put much greater funding into each and every school here in Central Queensland. Things like these improvements to the Bruce Highway.
So I guess when I talk about these things I explain them by saying to people you can trust our commitments on these things because you can look at our track record.
When we say we will put up to $300 million into improving the Bruce Highway, the southern access into Rockhampton and improving its flood immunity, I can point to people that there's already $85 million of work that's happening there as a result of a commitment by this government.
When I'm saying to people, we will put these improvements in place in our primary and secondary schools I can point to the major investments that we've already made into school infrastructure, into numeracy and literacy, into teacher quality so there's a whole lot that we can do in the next four to five months talking about the future but using our very obvious track record to convince people that we are serious about these priorities and we've got the capacity to deliver on them.
HOST: Prime Minister, we've seen Chris Trevor announced as the Labor candidate for Flynn. He was very strong Kevin Rudd supporter and he was quite vocal when you took over the Prime Ministership, are you satisfied that he will be good candidate for Flynn?
PM: Absolutely. CT, Chris Trevor, is a fantastic human being and someone very dedicated to his local community, a very proud advocate for his local community.
And I'm sure that people in that community will be very pleased to see that CT's put himself forward again for their consideration and their vote and I will look forward to seeing him and spending time with him.
And I think I'll get the opportunity to see him today in fact.
HOST: Excellent. Do you think you've done enough to convince the electorates of Capricornia and Flynn that the Labor Government is the best option for this country?
PM: Well here we are today: $4 billion announcement for the Bruce Highway, a proud track record of investing in the Bruce Highway.
Our investment since we've come to office including this new investment is $5.7 billion. That compares with the Howard Government investment, of $1.3 billion over 12 years.
So do those figures: $5.7 billion committed by us since we've been in Government in 2007; $1.3 billion over 12 years. I think people would look at that and they would read our commitment to this community and to the communities that share the Bruce Highway.
HOST: There have been reports in News Limited papers this morning that Labor staffers are being offered an extra two weeks' pay in the event they no longer have a job after the election. Is that because you're worried people are going to jump ship before the election because they're afraid they're about to lose their jobs?
PM: This report has not given you the right information and so your question is wrong. That's not your fault. You've read it on the front page of the newspaper.
This is a determination for all staff that work for politicians and it's a determination about the amount of time that people have to make an election about whether they'll stay or whether they will go.
So that's it. It's a simple normal procedure that's happened in the past, it's happening again and the spin put on it in the papers is just that.
HOST: Thank you very much for your time this morning. We do know you're a very busy woman so I do appreciate it.
Kirsten Livermore and Julia Gillard, thank you very much for your time.
PM: Thank you.