Brisbane
PM: I am absolutely delighted to be here. I'm obviously here with Premier Newman and members of his team I'm sure he will introduce.
And from my team I've got Jenny Macklin, our Minister for Disability Reform and Graham Perrett who is the local member and it's great to be in your patch of the world at this very impressive facility.
Thank you very much for hosting us here today and thank you for gathering in such large numbers too.
The Premier and I have joined together today to make an important announcement for the people of Queensland, indeed an important announcement for our whole nation.
And I know I'm looking out on a crowd of people who could tell me, could tell all of us, the whole nation, about the problems that there currently are with care for people with disabilities.
For so long in Australia people with disabilities have had to put up with an underfunded and fragmented system.
That's meant things like people not being able to get the personal support they need to have a shower more than once a week.
People having to have fundraisers to get a new wheelchair because the system wasn't going to deliver them a new wheelchair.
These are the practical real world problems that families have had to live with, and it's not good enough for Australians to have to live with those pressures and strains. And here, particularly in Queensland, people have felt those stresses and strains.
People with disabilities, their families, their carers, their friends, their loved ones have for a long period of time now asked us as a nation to do better.
For too long their voices went unheard.
I'm very pleased that as a Government, the Federal Labor Government, we listened to those voices and embarked on a journey to create a national disability insurance scheme.
Whilst that journey has taken some time, the last few weeks have seen amazing steps forward in realising that national scheme of care, DisabilityCare, right around Australia.
Over the last few weeks we've seen a funding source secured for DisabilityCare in the form of a Medicare levy with bipartisan support.
I've been able to enter into an agreement with Victoria and with Tasmania, and I'm proud today that I'm here able to enter such an agreement with the great state of Queensland too and I thank Premier Newman for that.
The agreement that we are announcing today means that DisabilityCare will be rolled out in Queensland.
The rollout will start in mid-2016 after Queensland has worked hard to come up to benchmarks that other states are also being asked to achieve.
And then it will ramp up to mid-2019 when it will be in full operation.
That will make a difference to almost 100,000 people in Queensland with severe disabilities; people who need care and support and need that care and support from us.
This is a big thing to do. It's also a costly thing to do, and so as two governments we've had to work together to put the money together to make this happen.
To take one year of operation, a full year of operation in 2019-20, what the agreement today means is that the Federal Government in that year would contribute $2.1 billion and the State Government would contribute $2 billion.
That's a lot of money but it will make a real difference in the lives of people with disabilities.
With today's agreement we reach the stage where almost 90 per cent of Australians are going to be covered by DisabilityCare. The agreements are done to cover almost 90 per cent of Australians.
So can I use this opportunity to say to the Chief Minister of the Northern Territory and to the Premier of Western Australia, I do want to work with you to make sure that those places and the people in them - the Northern Territory and Western Australia - get covered by this scheme too.
So with those words I'll turn to Premier Newman for his contribution.
PREMIER NEWMAN: Thank you very much, Prime Minister.
I'd like to welcome the Prime Minister here to Macgregor today and also to Minister Macklin. I acknowledge Graham Perrett whose electorate we're in and also we have Minister Tracy Davis and Mark Stewart, the State Member for Sunnybank; great to be here with all of you.
I guess, ladies and gentlemen, it's a fair comment to say that as you look across the nation I don't think you will find too many families where somebody doesn't have a close relative or a close friend that is affected by a disability.
And indeed that is the case in my own family where a close relative lived a normal life for many years in business and then ended up with an acquired brain injury which meant they had a significant disability having to then live with their elderly mother as their carer on an ongoing permanent basis.
So throughout this whole debate I've been painfully conscious from a personal perspective of the needs of people with disabilities, and particularly what it means to families to have to care for somebody, a close relative, in such circumstances.
I am absolutely thrilled and delighted to be here with the Prime Minister. This is a historic moment, and I say to the people who are here today that have disabilities and their friends and families, congratulations.
You have fought the good fight, you have convinced your fellow Australians and Queenslanders of the need to do something better than we've done before.
So it's a very, very special day and the day is yours and I am thrilled for all of you.
I want to thank the Prime Minister for making the decision on the levy. This is a new, important scheme.
It is something we haven't done before and it's important that Australians who say they want to help understand that when you say you want to help and you ask government, whether it be the State or Federal Governments, to chip in and to do something, then ultimately we're the ones as a community that have to chip in.
But I acknowledge that it was a big decision for the Prime Minister to make that call last week.
But it is the important decision that gets this whole thing across the line. So congratulations Prime Minister, it's an important initiative. And I certainly, again of course, strongly support that.
What does it mean for Queenslanders? Well, currently about 45,000 people get support under the current arrangements in Queensland and yet there are many, many more - tens of thousands more - who need support right now but sadly only those with the greatest of needs have to date been funded in Queensland.
Currently we put in around $900 million a year and that will rise, as I committed in December last year, to about $1.8 billion a year in only five years' time.
With the money coming from the levy that rises to $2 billion and essentially you're seeing approximately a 50/50 arrangement with the Commonwealth.
Well what does that mean? It means we go from just under 45,000 people a year getting support as the Prime Minister said, to around 97,000 people across Queensland getting that support. And that is right; it is just, it is appropriate.
So I want to thank again everybody involved in working so hard for this. I thank my Minister, I thank Minister Macklin, the Prime Minister for their work to make this all happen.
I am truly delighted and thrilled to be here on a very historic day for Australia and for Queensland.
Thank you.
JOURNALIST: Will there be a trial site in Gympie as has been flagged?
PREMIER NEWMAN: Well look, in terms of the implementation arrangements you heard the Prime Minister say that we really crank it up properly from mid-2016.
We will now be talking about how we go forward with trial sites and the like.
But I just make the point that there is a lot to sort out, a lot of the detail to work through, but we had already been changing our arrangements in this state so we actually go towards the features of the NDIS.
One of the great things about DisabilityCare Australia and the way this is going to work is that people, the people with disabilities themselves get the funding, get the resource, and they get to decide what sort of care they need.
So we are moving towards that right now.
As to specific trial areas or locations, we're more than happy to do that but we will work that through with the Commonwealth.
JOURNALIST: Do you expect this arrangement to be reviewed by Tony Abbott?
PREMIER NEWMAN: Well that's a matter you need to put to Tony Abbott and I'd only say that I'd be pretty confident that he sees very much what people are saying and what they want.
I look at these folk today and we know what people around the nation are saying that they are prepared to support this and I think again that there is support for people to put their hand in their pocket and pay for this as well because it's new, it's bold, it's important and it gives a level of care and support that we haven't had in this nation before.
JOURNALST: It's quite rare to see the show of unity between you.
PREMIER NEWMAN: I don't know about that. We have the most delightful dinners, don't we?
PM: We do. People will talk, Campbell.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, how are you going forward to reach agreement with Western Australia and the Northern Territory?
PM: As I said at the end of last week, I think the momentum is with this now so I can't make decisions for the Chief Minister or for the Premier.
But I do think that they'd see Premier Newman today, they saw the Premier of Victoria, the Premier of Tasmania, so see work very much happening across the political divide on this, and hopefully that momentum urges them on to reach an agreement with the Federal Government.
JOURNALIST: Are you anticipating the same sort of agreement over Gonski?
PM: Well I would hope so.
PREMIER NEWMAN: I'll just go back to what the Prime Minister said.
That's an issue for another day and another time but this just demonstrates, I think, that both the Federal Government and the Queensland State Government are prepared to work together when there's an important issue at stake.
And that's what we've done today, and I'm again thrilled to be here for this important event.
JOURNALIST: Premier, you initially said that the scheme should be only funded by the Federal Government. What was the change?
PREMIER NEWMAN: Well look, today's a day for celebration, not really raking over the embers of past discussions and debates, really.
The only thing I'll say on the matter is that I was always guided by the original Productivity Commission report.
But an agreement has been reached today. We will stick to that agreement and again, I acknowledge the Prime Minister's decision to go with the levy and that is appropriate.
I can't stress that enough. If you want to do something new, something bold, something that hasn't been there before, whatever the field is, then it is then fair and reasonable to put to people that they put their hand in their pocket and pay for it.
And reaching out to people with disabilities, their families and carers is something that we haven't done in the right way before in Australia and that's why the levy is important and justified.
JOURNALIST: Is there any idea how many people in Queensland are waiting for this?
PREMIER NEWMAN: Well essentially it's roughly the difference between the 45,000 that currently are receiving assistance under current arrangements, and around I think it's the north side of about 85,000 or so.
So there's a gap of at least 40,000 people anyway.
We believe it will be 97,000 who get support in five years' time when the scheme kicks off.
One thing I haven't mentioned today by the way is that Queensland is working on the NIIS, we have to work on the implementation of that as well.
And that is something the Treasurer and I are putting our thoughts to at the moment. But there's no decision made on that yet.
JOURNALIST: As far as the level of care provided, some people who have a semblance of care at the moment say it's not enough. Will that be ramped up as well, not just the amount?
PREMIER NEWMAN: It remains to be seen exactly how this works out.
I'll just make this point that people who received a package in Queensland at the current time, it's fair to say those people usually received a level of funding that is greater than the other states currently.
But the other states actually provided care for more people.
So the per capita funding right across the population in Queensland was lower than the national average but those who received support got more money for their needs.
So what's happening with NDIS or DisabilityCare Australia is that we are moving to national benchmarks, and the Prime Minister alluded to that.
So we're increasing our funding and of course then there's the federal funding that comes in over the next few years as well.
So we're going to reach those national benchmarks first.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, when do you expect to introduce the legislation?
PM: Well, we've already legislated to create DisabilityCare.
So that legislation went through the Parliament, it deals with matters like eligibility which are, of course, so important to the scheme and so important to the people here and people who have advocated for this for a long time.
On the legislation for the Medicare levy, we'll be looking to introduce that into the Parliament during budget week, so that's next week.
QUESTION: I'm a father. I've got two kids that currently go to this school. My youngest one is in normal mainstream. My oldest one is sitting there right now.
Without this school they struggle. They don't struggle in normal mainstream because there's no funding for any of these kids in the disability in special schools, mainstreams, what about them? That's where they're struggling.
PM: Actually in mainstream schools, is that what you said?
QUESTION: My son goes to Forest Lake which has the only special-care education in this whole city. There's no other one in this city. They're doing the best they can with what resources they can.
This school is the only one that actually brought my son where they have. And even then it's not the government funding the school, it's people like me that put in thousands and thousands of dollars to actually put the money into this school to get our kids help.
PM: Well, I'm happy to say something about that and then we can move to taking other questions from the media.
And I'm happy to get your name and stay in contact and give you some details.
We entered a national partnership arrangement, what we call a national partnership to bring $100 million more to bear for students with disabilities including kids who have learning issues because of conditions like autism into schools, so into mainstream schools.
Now you would have heard a lot about the work on school funding, school improvement, the work that David Gonski and his team led through a report.
That's asking us to put a loading on so that for the education costs of children with disability there is more money available to recognise that for their education they need more resources. And we're working on that with states and territories.
At the moment there aren't even national definitions or even the foundation stones, but we're working on that at the moment.
And I'd be happy to make sure that we can give you all of the details of that work and I'll get someone to come around and get your name and email or contact number and we'll take it with us. Thanks very much.
PREMIER NEWMAN: I'd like to get that too because actually we've just kicked off a program to support kids with autism, and I'd like to get you that information so you've got those details.
That's just kicking off, it's one of our things that we're just bringing in.
JOURNALIST: [Inaudible]
PM: When we introduced carbon pricing we introduced a package of assistance for families and households.
It included a tax cut, a change to the tax free threshold. So it took a million people out of the tax system, millions paying less tax and people now can earn $18,200 a year and not pay tax.
We also introduced increased family payments and increased pensions.
All of that will still be delivered and the benefits that have been promised will be indexed.
What we said about future tax cuts is as the carbon price moved up then there would come a time that through more tax cuts we would provide more assistance.
What the Minister has dealt with today is the fact that the carbon price, once we get beyond the period of the carbon tax into the emissions trading scheme, will be less than was originally anticipated.
Because it's less there's not the need for that new stream of assistance.
When the carbon price does get to the stage that that stream of assistance, those tax cuts are required, then they will be given.
So this is a recognition that the carbon price is going to be less.
And if I can just make a point about the mechanics of carbon pricing, people will have heard a lot about a carbon tax.
The carbon tax lasts for three years, then we get to an emissions trading scheme, the same sort of scheme that Prime Minister Howard supported when he was prime minister.
That has a price set by the market, and it is that market price that is less than was originally anticipated.
JOURNALIST: Is $11 billion an accurate deficit figure?
PM: Well, the figures that I think you might be getting confused with, what we've confirmed is that for this financial year compared with the figures in the last budget, the writedowns in revenue are $17 billion.
So that's $17 billion of less tax money coming to the Government than was anticipated.
JOURNALIST: It's also referring to the forecast from Access and Deloitte, are they accurate?
PM: We do all those numbers on budget night.
JOURNALIST: Since you've allocated funding [inaudible]
PM: It is, you've just used the word ‘billions' and you've used that deliberately because this is a huge project.
As you know, I live in Melbourne, I actually live in Melbourne's west so we like to refer to it as West-East rather than East-West, but we won't let the semantics get in the way.
This is a multi-billion dollar project and what we do with multi-billion dollar projects is we have a proper process of assessment through Infrastructure Australia.
We asked the Victorian Government to bring this project to Infrastructure Australia for assessment.
That was done, but it's only been done relatively recently and discussions are still in train to get all of the details of that project.
We don't go around making multi-billion dollar infrastructure proposals, promises about funding for big road projects without an Infrastructure Australia assessment.
JOURNALIST: Has it been a good day to be the Prime Minister in Queensland? A pretty good reaction out at Marsden, you're signing this today?
PM: I had a great reaction out at Marsden, some very excited kids, lots of hand-shaking, lots of photographs, a few high fives and some very generous statements along the way.
That was a great day to go and see Marsden and one of the reasons I love going to schools is it's always tremendously energising to see our young people in their schools.
When I speak to them I always say it's where our future's being made.
It's the most important place in Australia, a schoolroom, so I like going to schools and I had a fun time at Marsden.
This is a great day. It's a great day for Queensland. It's a great day for Australia; more than anything else it's a great day for people with disabilities and people who have campaigned for change for so long.
JOURNALIST: [Inaudible]
MINISTER MACKLIN: This is an important matter when we're dealing with fraud, so of course the Department of Human Services and Centrelink need to be able to pursue people who do the wrong thing.
So we understand the decision that's been made.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, yesterday you dumped an increase in Family Tax Benefit A, why not scrap the Schoolkids Bonus or make further cuts to the baby bonus?
PM: To go to yesterday's decision, we're very mindful that for many Australian families it isn't easy to make ends meet.
I think people do understand that our economy has come through the global financial crisis in a different state than economies around the world.
Our economy's still growing, we've got the benefits of jobs and we avoided a recession and the loss of 200,000 jobs.
But having said that, many families haven't found it an easy period.
And so we've wanted to work with families to help them with those pressures.
Take a family earning $130,000 a year; they're $2,500 better off as a result of tax cuts that the Government has provided.
As a result of interest rate reductions which have happened whilst we've been in government, if you're paying off an average mortgage that's costing you $5,500 a year less than it used to.
We've proudly created paid parental leave to help people when they have a new baby.
We've proudly put more money into childcare than there has ever been in childcare before to help families with the cost of kids in childcare.
And we've provided the Schoolkids Bonus to help people with the cost of getting the kids to school.
And we're very committed to making sure that we work with families on those kinds of practical costs, like the costs of getting the kids to school.
There are times though when you do have to take difficult decisions.
We've seen big revenue writedowns. Put simply, what that means is there is less tax money coming into the government than was expected.
In those circumstances we have taken the decision that an increase in family tax benefits that hasn't been received yet will not be paid.
What that means is that people aren't losing money. What it means is a benefit that we had hoped to deliver now won't be delivered.
JOURNALIST: There's some claims in some media today that you had a sandwich thrown at you while at Marsden?
PM: Well far be it from me to say that the media errs on the side of the dramatic, far be it for me to say that.
But I think out of hundreds and hundreds of screaming over-excited kids, one kid thought they might just be a little bit naughty and had a little squealing sense of delight as they did it.
So there was half a sandwich which, was just really on the ground rather than anywhere else.
JOURNALIST: Did they get detention?
PM: A bit of hijinks, a bit of hijinks.
JOURNALIST: Can Australians expect any more reneging on some of these commitments before the budget?
PM: What Australians can expect to see in the budget is the Government continuing to make responsible savings.
We've made more than $150 billion of savings decisions over the budgets we've delivered.
But they should expect to see too us continuing to make wise investments, wise investments like putting money into DisabilityCare, wise investments like the money that we want to devote to Australia's schools to get the funding right for generations to come.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, do you believe that Tony Abbott's paid parental scheme will actually be implemented if the Coalition wins office or do you believe it's one of those things that may be watered down or changed?
PM: That's a question for Mr Abbott, but what I would say about Mr Abbott's paid parental leave scheme is, put simply, I believe women are equal.
I believe women are equal to men, I believe all Australians are equal and the Australian way is that we benefit equally or we actually give a helping hand to those who need a helping hand the most. That's the Australian way.
Mr Abbott's scheme is the complete reverse of that. The more you have the more you get and that isn't how we provide assistance in Australia.
Thanks very much.