ABC Darwin
HOST: Julia Gillard, good morning.
PM: Good morning Julia, and I'm afraid this could get a bit confusing, couldn't it? Two Julias talking to each other!
HOST: It often does. I had a question from a listener on the text earlier asking about the Greens and who is running your show about I thought they were talking about me but they weren't.
But interesting news this morning that Clive Palmer is setting up his own political party. He's interesting for the Territory because he says neither big party cares Indigenous infant mortality rates. Should that be a more prominent issue on the political radar?
PM: Well that claim is complete rubbish from Mr Palmer. We've been very focused on Indigenous mortality rates, child mortality.
It's one of our key Closing the Gap targets and it's where we are seeing real improvement and real progress.
So the facts are always good to acquaint yourself with, and I suggest Mr Palmer acquaint himself with those facts.
HOST: Do you welcome the party though, it could perhaps split the Coalition vote and make your job ease easier of getting back into Government?
PM: It's all a question for Mr Palmer and the appropriate party registration processes.
HOST: One of the issues that's really hurting in the Territory at the moment I'm sure you're aware is the cost of living. We pay 20-30 cents more than the national average for fuel.
We've got the highest rents in the nation and this week the ABS figures showed an inflation rate four times the national average.
Will you consider increasing the zone rebates for Territorians to ease the cost of living and promoting economic growth? I know that's something former Chief Minister Paul Henderson said he'd raise with you.
PM: Darwin is a place of great economic growth and that has its upsides and sometimes its downsides and one of the downsides is cost of living pressures. For example, you see all of the price pressures in housing.
So I do understand that it can be very tough for people here to make ends meet.
We've worked with those cost of living pressures to try and help families out, doing things like increasing the tax-free threshold so you can earn $18,200 before you pay a cent of tax. That's in contest in the next election.
We support that change, people paying less tax; more than 40,000 of them here around Darwin.
And of course the Opposition wants people to pay more tax and get rid of that measure.
HOST: What about increasing that zone rebate though?
PM: Well, it's fundamental in our Constitution that tax arrangements are effectively the same around the country.
There is the zone tax rebate. We will support the zone tax rebate for the future.
HOST: Would you be happy to increase it?
PM: We haven't got any plans to change the zone tax rebate. The approach we've taken instead is to do things like cut tax, provide the School Kids Bonus to help with the costs of getting the kids to school; benefitting more than 10,000 children here.
And of course we did provide an historic increase in the pension too; benefitting more than 8,000 pensioners here.
All of that's in contest at the election because the Opposition is opposed to each of those measures.
HOST: But you've got people like Andrew ‘Twiggy' Forrest and Gina Rinehart calling on separate tax zones or removing capital gains for building a second home in the north. Are you totally opposed to that?
PM: Well number one, we do have the constitutional requirement that we don't discriminate between parts of the country on taxation arrangements.
Number two, I think a number of those measures are not fully thought through. I don't think people in Darwin would say that it was of great benefit to them if people could own a holiday house and they live in Melbourne or Sydney and that holiday house is capital gains tax free for them. That wouldn't do anything to alleviate property prices in the Darwin property market.
HOST: Prime Minister, Territorians are still pretty unhappy with your captain's pick, parachuting Nova Peris into the Territory Senate ticket ousting 15-year sitting Labor member Trish Crossin.
You declined the interview to explain that to us here in the Territory. Was that choice an example of poor political judgment not predicting that reaction?
PM: Absolutely the right choice and I will be seeing Nova today and be very pleased to see her. I wanted to put my political party, the Labor Party, in a position where we were supporting a female Indigenous candidate - Nova Peris, a great person - also on the votes of Territorians, and of course this is a choice for Territorians come election day.
But should she be supported by people in the Northern Territory she will be the first woman Indigenous Australian to ever serve in our nation's Parliament and for me, I say it's about time.
HOST: You farewelled a Labor politician in Townsville while you were there, an outgoing politician, will you be doing the same with Trish Crossin, will you be meeting her today?
PM: I'm not what you mean by the farewelling a Labor politician in Townsville?
HOST: I thought you had an engagement in Townsville or somewhere in North Queensland? I must have misread that report-
PM: I see, sorry, I know what you're talking about. Kirsten Livermore who is a very great friend of mine and the Member for Capricornia, she has chosen to not stand again at the next election.
She's been in Parliament since 1998 and wants to make a different choice for her and her quite young family, her young children. So we did have a farewell function for her.
Trish Crossin will be with me when we're at Charles Darwin University today opening a new centre there and I will be very pleased and proud to be there and I know Trish will be very much looking forward to that opening too. She has been a great supporter of the university here.
HOST: Has she been badly done by though?
PM: Trish has made a fantastic contribution in Federal Parliament. She served in the Federal Parliament for quite some time and I've obviously taken a decision that I believe is best for the future.
HOST: Prime Minister, on grog in the Territory, alcohol-related admissions to emergency have doubled at the Alice Springs Hospital since the banned drinkers register was scrapped. Your government wants it back. The Northern Territory Government doesn't. What are you going to do about it?
PM: Well I am absolutely dismayed by this and made that very clear when I gave the Closing the Gap report to Federal Parliament, which is our once a year stock-take about how we are going against our aspirational targets to change circumstances for Indigenous Australians in education, employment, health, life expectancy.
This is a huge retrograde step in the Territory. It means that there's more alcohol abuse, more rivers of grog and with all of the devastating consequences that has for individuals and local communities.
So I'm dismayed and very concerned about it.
We will keep pressure up on the Northern Territory Government to change its mind and to step away from this incredibly destructive change.
HOST: How will you do that?
PM: Well, we engage with the Northern Territory Government in a series of ways including all of the ways in which we support the work of the Northern Territory Government for Indigenous Australians. So we will be making very clear our expectations.
I don't want to be in a position where we are continuing to invest at record rates only to see that good work undermined by the tap being turned back on for the alcohol.
HOST: But the CLP has no measures to control the supply of grog. Can you actually intervene other than urge them to do something?
PM: The CLP Government was elected by the people of the Territory, so the CLP Government does get to make decisions here.
But we get to have our voice heard and we get to have a very, very strong say about the use of federal funds and the circumstances in which those funds should be used and should be made available.
Once again, there's no point putting lots of money in to try and build communities up and change lives if at the same time the CLP here is turning the tap on for the grog.
HOST: So you're talking about possibly withholding funds if they don't agree?
PM: Well I'll stick with my last statement but I'm very determined on this matter. I am dismayed and disgusted by what has happened here.
HOST: The Federal Government funded a medi-hotel at the Royal Darwin Hospital. The CLP wants to use it for the rehabilitation of problem drunks. Will you approve that?
PM: I understand that there are discussions in progress about this, so I'll leave those discussions to Minister Macklin and of course our Minister for Health Tanya Plibersek.
HOST: Are you happy in principle though for it to be used for rehabilitation?
PM: I'll let those discussions on all of the details go through. But philosophically it comes back to the point you and I just discussed.
It's the old saying about whether you build the fence at the top of the cliff or you put the ambulance down at the bottom of it.
It's always better to prevent harm. And having appropriate alcohol management strategies is about preventing harm, and that's why I very much support and believe that the Banned Drinkers Register should be brought back.
HOST: Julia Gillard, you're heading out to the CDU as you mentioned there. The Vice-Chancellor has sent an email to students warning them that they will lose $14 million over the next five years.
Meanwhile you're hoping to negotiate with Chief Minister Adam Giles to try to get him to sign up to the Gonski school funding deal. Why would he if that's the result?
PM: Well on the university funding arrangements I think it's important that people have got a sense of size and scale here.
We have increased funding to the Charles Darwin University since we came to Government by more than 90 per cent. More than 90 per cent; that's a lot of money.
And each year we provide around $120 million to CDU and I'm glad we provide it. And we will provide more next year than we provide this year, and more the year after.
What is being asked of CDU and universities around the country is that there is a moderation in the rate of growth of funds after a more than 90 per cent increase - a moderation in the rate of growth of funds to enable us to invest more in schools around the country, including here in the Northern Territory.
And I want every child in the Northern Territory, every child, to get a great education and I want every school to have the resources it needs to provide the kids in that school a great education.
The model of school funding we're putting before the people of the Northern Territory is certainly right for the Northern Territory because it recognises factors like the additional resources you need to educate Indigenous kids, to work small schools, to work schools in remote locations.
So it's a big step forward for education here and that's why the Chief Minister and the CLP Government should embrace it, just the way Premier O'Farrell embraced it for his state of New South Wales.
HOST: Our Chief Minister Adam Giles doesn't sound too keen though, this is what he's had to say so far.
CHIEF MINISTER GILES GRAB: Look if the Prime Minister wants to change her offer we'll be more than happy to have a chat. But what's currently on the offer is a deadly deal in the dying days of a bad Labor Government at the federal level.
HOST: A deadly deal and unacceptable says Adam Giles. Do you think you can change his mind?
PM: He might want to hop on the phone to Premier O'Farrell who runs the biggest schooling system in our country and ask Premier O'Farrell why he thought it was a good deal for New South Wales schools, for the education of the 1.1 million students in New South Wales schools, and for the future of the New South Wales economy.
HOST: How confident are you though that he will sign up?
PM: Well you'd have to put that question to Chief Minister Giles. But it comes down to a very simple proposition - do you put the children of the Northern Territory first? Yes or no?
HOST: A lot of our listeners want to ask you about gay marriage. New Zealand's done it, France has done it, even New South Wales is talking about it. Why are we as a nation being left behind on legalising gay marriage?
PM: Well I've got my own views on this but the appropriate thing is that every Member of Parliament can come to the Parliament and exercise their conscience and make a choice when propositions for change of the Marriage Act are put before the Parliament to create same-sex marriage.
For my political party, the Labor Party, I ensured that that was the case. I didn't want anybody to think that they needed to follow what I was going to do, they should all think as individuals.
We need to see that spread to every side of politics, and in particular the Liberal and National parties.
HOST: But isn't this is sort of thing that does need some leadership?
PM: It's the sort of thing where people should get a conscience vote. You've just pointed to the change in New Zealand.
In New Zealand the parliamentarians there had a conscience vote.
HOST: Julia Gillard, you're in town for a little while longer, what are you up to today?
PM: Well I'll get opportunity to see some schoolchildren so I'll much enjoy that.
I'll get the opportunity to go to the university and to open a new centre there.
I'll get the opportunity to be out and about talking to people so I'm very much looking forward to it.
HOST: And will one of those people be the Chief Minister?
PM: It's likely that I'll be able to catch up with him later today.
HOST: Thanks for catching up with us this morning.
PM: You're very welcome.