Darwin
PM: It's fantastic to be here in Darwin and I'm joined by Nova Peris, our candidate for the Senate, and by Luke Gosling our candidate for Solomon.
We've just had the opportunity to talk to some wonderful kids here at this fantastic school, and thank you very much to David, the principal, for making our visit possible.
I'm here in the Northern Territory today and I want to make one point very clearly, which is I want to see every child in every school in the Northern Territory get a great education.
I want every child in every school in the Northern Territory to reach their full potential.
I want every school to have available to it the resources it needs to get the children in that school a really great education, a world-class education.
And I want to make the point too that here in Darwin, which is growing so much, and which understands the opportunities that flow from the growth in Asia, people here are already living that.
They know what that means for our economy; that we can only be the strong economy we want to be for the future if we've got great schools.
Four of the top five schooling systems in the world are in our region and ours is not amongst them, which is why I've set a goal for our nation that we be in the top five in the world by 2025.
To do that we've got to properly fund our schools and we've got to improve the ways we're working in schools; a reform agenda that makes a difference.
I want to see the Northern Territory, the Chief Minister here, the CLP Government, sign up to ensuring that the kids of the Northern Territory don't get left behind.
If Premier O'Farrell in New South Wales, running the biggest schooling system in the country can embrace the changes that I'm advocating, then it can be done here in the Northern Territory.
And I'd ask the people of the Northern Territory do you really want to see the children in your schools fall behind the standards in New South Wales?
The school improvement plan that I've put before the nation means an extra $300 million for schools here in the Northern Territory.
What happens if that doesn't go ahead? Well you will see schools here go backwards by $200 million; that's a half a billion dollar difference.
It's very important for every child in every school that we get this right for the Northern Territory.
I'm happy to have been here today at this school to be able to talk about the differences that school funding and school improvement can make, and I'm very happy to hand over to you now for some questions.
JOURNALIST: Adam Giles says the deal that's on the table at the present time are unacceptable, what are you prepared to do to change his mind?
PM: If Premier O'Farrell, running the biggest schooling system in the country, could embrace this arrangement as good for his state, good for the children in New South Wales, good for his schools, then I don't see any reason why Chief Minister Adam Giles can't do the same here in the Northern Territory.
After all, this is a model that not only provides base funding for every child in primary school and secondary school, but adds loadings on to that for the factors that make a difference about educating children, including loadings for Indigenous children, children from non-English speaking backgrounds, extra money for children with disabilities and extra money to support small and remote schools.
If you were designing an arrangement for the Northern Territory how could you do any better than that?
We were just talking about it before, when you take all of that into account, given who gets educated in the schools in the Northern Territory, this actually in many ways is a better deal for the Northern Territory because of the way these loadings work.
JOURNALIST: If you're not prepared to change what you're offering, are you prepared to put more pressure on Mr Giles to sign up?
PM: I certainly want to see Chief Minister Giles sign up.
JOURNALIST: The Federal Government has very broad powers over the Northern Territory. If it's such an important deal and so vital for the children why don't you just force him to take it?
PM: We are working with premiers and chief ministers around the country to get agreement here.
It is up to the Chief Minister to embrace his responsibilities for every child in the Northern Territory.
JOURNALIST: At COAG the Chief Minister described this deal as ‘death or Siberia', what do you make of that sort of commentary on your education reforms?
PM: I think since COAG we've seen Premier O'Farrell sign up and I don't think really that anybody who is thinking about this deeply can come to the conclusion that this is somehow a bad arrangement if it's been embraced by Premier O'Farrell.
Premier O'Farrell is in the Liberal Party, in the CLP equivalent in New South Wales, and he said it's the right thing for the children in his state.
I think, therefore, a lot of the kind of white noise around this falls away and it becomes just a very simple proposition: do you want to put kids first or not?
JOURNALIST: Are you prepared to withhold funding from the Territory to get the Territory to reinstate the BDR?
PM: We are very concerned about what has happened here with the Banned Drinkers Register and we're very concerned about the way in which alcohol hits communities, it devastates lives and more than an individual's life, wrecks families and hurts communities.
So we will be continuing to pressure the CLP Government to go back to the Banned Drinkers Register.
This is very important for the people of the Northern Territory; for those whose lives are blighted by alcohol and for the community generally.
We already know that there looks like there are increased admissions into the Alice Springs Hospital because the Banned Drinkers Register has been taken away.
JOURNALIST: What do you think of the proposed Northern Territory alcohol reforms?
PM: Well, we want to see a comprehensive approach here and so a comprehensive approach isn't about being there once the crisis is well in train, it's about stopping it get to that crisis point which is why the Banned Drinkers Register makes a real difference.
JOURNALIST: Would you put in place a federal scheme?
PM: We as the Federal Government have got our responsibilities; the CLP here has its responsibilities.
It has been entrusted by the people of the Northern Territory to make decisions for this place and it needs to step up to making the right decisions.
JOURNALIST: Will you impose an Alice Springs-wide alcohol management plan?
PM: The Alice Springs alcohol management plan is the subject of discussions that we want to see between the Federal Government and the Northern Territory Government.
Minister Macklin has put a proposition and we want to see some sensible responses from the CLP.
JOURNALIST: Nigel Scullion said that he doesn't believe the National Congress of Australia's First People should be federally funded because it makes it dependent on the Government. Do you feel that maybe it should be an independent body?
PM: We believe the arrangement that is in place now is the right arrangement and so we are opposed to this cutback just like we are opposed to the deep cutbacks that the Opposition has planned for Indigenous programs.
In the last week what we have seen is an Opposition staff member be very, very rude towards someone who is leading an effort to improve Indigenous education.
In the course of that it has become clear and has not been denied by the Opposition that they are planning deep cuts to programs that support Indigenous Australians.
Now, I'm not surprised by that because clearly the Opposition has a plan for deep cuts right across the board - health, education, programs that support Indigenous Australians, as well as a plan for tax increases.
JOURNALIST: You've got the power to impose mandatory supply restrictions on alcohol, why don't you just do that?
PM: We're at a stage before that where we've put a proposition and we're waiting for a sensible response.
JOURNALIST: Will you impose it if the Territory Government doesn't [inaudible]?
PM: We're at a stage before that as I've just said.
JOURANLIST: In the last Territory election there was a large swing away from Labor in the bush, are you concerned that could happen at the federal election, you might lose Lingiari?
PM: I'm concerned about kids getting a great education. I'm concerned about people who face tax increases if the Opposition becomes the Government.
I'm concerned about pensioners who would lose pension money.
I'm concerned about families that would lose their School Kids Bonus.
And I'm concerned about the deep cuts that are planned for Indigenous Australians and the programs that support them.
Instead, on 14 September I'll be asking Australians to endorse the election of a majority Labor Government with a very clear plan for the future to make sure that our nation is stronger and smarter and fairer, and that starts in Australia's schools.
JOURNALIST: Have you heard about Clive Palmer setting up a party in Queensland, what do you think of that? Does it split the Coalition's vote and help Labor?
PM: That's a matter for Mr Palmer.
JOURNALIST: On education, how close do you think you are to reaching an agreement with the Northern Territory Government?
PM: I've made clear my determination here, so I'll take that determination with me to the next event that we've got to attend.
Thank you very much.