Melbourne
PM: Well I'm delighted to be here with Nicola Roxon and with our Labor candidate for Gellibrand Tim Watts and I'd like to thank this wonderful, wonderful school.
I am not sure if our principal is in the back there but thank you to her and thank you to all the students for the very warm welcome we have received here.
Of course we are only two or three minutes' walk from where my home is in Altona, so it is great to be here in a local school.
I have been here today teaching a class about economics and the Government's Budget.
At the same time the Minister for School Education, Minister Garrett has been teaching a music class in a school.
We are trying to show our teaching skills and no doubt teachers around the country will have a view about how well or how badly we have gone.
But we are trying to make a point about the importance of teaching, good quality teaching, to the future of Australian education and to our children reaching their full potential.
Making sure that teachers are high quality and we are supporting teachers to be their best is a big part of our National Plan for School Improvement; tied to new funding for Australia's schools.
Here in Victoria I want these children, the children I have met today and the children in Victorian schools to benefit from our new plans for education funding reform.
There is a difference of $4 billion for Victoria.
On average that means an extra $1.8 million per school.
I have reached agreement with Premier O'Farrell in New South Wales, and I don't want there to be a situation where if you drive across the border, on one side of the border there are children in schools that are better resourced, getting a better education, and on the Victorian side of the border, there are schools with less resources and less ability to give those kids a great education.
I don't want Victorian students to be left behind.
That is why I am very determined to work with the Premier here and premiers and chief ministers around the country to roll out our new funding plans for Australian schools.
Compared with just having the old system roll on, our new system will make a difference of $16.2 billion. That is a lot of money but it will come tied with new ways of working.
It will mean really practical things; more literacy and numeracy coaches, more ability to have specialist teachers, more ability to support teachers to be honing their skills and their craft so that we have got better and better teachers in front of classrooms, more ability to afford the equipment that schools want.
These are really important changes for Australian education. They matter for every child in every school.
They matter for children here in Victoria, in Victorian schools, and today I want to say very clearly to the Premier of Victoria and to the Government of Victoria, I want to work with you to put more resources into Victorian schools.
I am happy to take your questions.
JOURNALIST: On the question of resources, the Opposition and quite a few state ministers are suggesting that those figures are changing or might not be correct. What do you say to that?
PM: The figures are correct. The figures are in the Budget papers.
The Shadow Minister for Education, Mr Pyne has been on a deliberate campaign of distraction here because he doesn't want to say clearly to the Australian people that he and the Leader of the Opposition stand for schools being $16.2 billion worse off.
So he will say anything to try and distract from that.
But Premier O'Farrell today has confirmed yet again that he signed up to this arrangement with the Federal Government because it meant better resources for the children in his schools and better outcomes for the children in his schools.
So, people can look at that; a Liberal leader, Premier O'Farrell saying better resources, better outcomes for kids as opposed to Mr Pyne's silly distractions.
Obviously those silly distractions should fall away.
This is about a better deal for Australian education.
The difference between my plan and Mr Abbott's plan is more than $16 billion.
JOURNALIST: Are you concerned, Prime Minister, with the deadline of 30 June and you have just got one state signed up so far?
I understand you have sent a letter to the Victorian Government basically giving them an ultimatum. Would you like things to be moving perhaps a little quicker than they are on the issue?
PM: We are working hard on it but we need to have the deadline. We need to have the deadline so schools know what funding position they are going to be in for calendar year 2014.
Schools make plans just like everybody else makes plans and they need to know what money is going to flow.
That is why the deadline is 30 June and it is up to premiers and chief ministers to make sure that they work with us to meet that deadline.
JOURNALIST: Are you closer to a deal with any of the states or territories?
PM: Well the Victorian Minister for Education has said that he thinks it's 50/50 here in Victoria.
I would hope that the Premier focuses on it and that it is a lot better than that.
I really do not see why the Premier here in Victoria would want to have his schools less resourced than the schools Premier O'Farrell runs just across the border.
Just think about it, you would be driving through Albury-Wodonga and one side of the border would be better funded schools and the other side of the border worse funded schools.
That is not a vision for the future of Victoria.
JOURNALIST: How likely is that to happen though? Is that a reality?
PM: Well Premier O'Farrell's been able to do it and if Premier O'Farrell's been able to do it, running the biggest school system in the country, then I believe other premiers and chief ministers can do it too.
JOURNALIST: Kevin Rudd says in a blog post he has changed his mind on same sex marriage. Are you reconsidering your position?
PM: What I have done as Prime Minister is make sure that for the Labor Party that there is a conscience vote.
That means every member is free to come to the parliament and vote in accordance with their conscience.
That is what happened when this was voted upon in the Australian Parliament.
Obviously individual Labor members, including Kevin Rudd, will use that freedom to reflect deeply and to form their own views about same sex marriage.
Kevin has done that, every Labor member is free to do that.
The problem that we have in the Australian Parliament is on the other side of politics, conservative members are not free to follow their conscience.
They have to follow Mr Abbott's party dictates.
When you look around the world and at those nations that have changed their laws and embraced same sex marriage, a hallmark of those nations has been that conservative leaders have given their members a conscience vote.
So the step forward that we need to see here is that Mr Abbott does what I have already done for the Labor Party, and that Mr Abbott gives his members a conscience vote.
JOURNALIST: Is there any chance that you will change your position on it?
PM: Look, I have made my position clear. But I have also made it clear that I don't ask any Labor member to vote with me.
What I ask them to do is to think deeply and to vote in accordance with their conscience.
JOURNALIST: Today the top Victorian road cop said that people who, P platers should stay on their P plates until they are 25. What do you think about that?
PM: That is a matter for the Victorian State Government.
JOURNALIST: Back on Kevin, are you disappointed with the timing of it, taking away attention from the education reforms?
PM: That is a matter for Kevin. Every Labor member has the ability to vote in any debate on same sex marriage in accordance with their conscience.
JOURNALIST: South Australia's taken some moves to ban betting ads during televised sportscasts. Would you like to see something happen, or a quicker process, federally?
PM: We are already making change happen.
I have been very clear about this. It just drives me crazy when I am sitting in front of sporting coverage and what you are getting is discussion of live betting odds instead of getting to watch your favourite sport.
So I can understand how frustrating this is for people, for sports lovers.
Because we understand how frustrating it is for sports lovers, we are already working on a code of conduct.
That work is proceeding and proceeding quickly so that we can make a difference to this coverage of odds for sporting events.
JOURNALIST: Andrew Wilkie said this morning that Tom Waterhouse was showing contempt to parliament by not appearing in the parliamentary inquiry into gambling. What do you think about that?
PM: I will leave that as a matter for Mr Wilkie if he wants to comment on it.
JOURNALIST: Do you think that Tom Waterhouse-
PM: I won't be commenting on the work of parliamentary committees. The people on those committees can comment on it.
JOURNALIST: On the Australians sentenced in Dubai. Is Australia making any further representations on behalf of Matthew Joyce?
PM: Can I just say I can understand how incredibly a distressing time this is for Mr Joyce and for his family.
They have lived with pressure and uncertainty for four years and now have got the worst possible news.
We have made representations in the past on behalf of Mr Joyce and Mr Lee, particularly about the amount of time they were forced to wait.
We will continue to make representations and we will continue to provide consular support.
We will be there continuing to provide assistance for Mr Joyce and his family as they deal with such devastating news.
JOURNALIST: Has Australia received an extradition order for Angus Reed who was found guilty in absentia in Australia?
PM: We don't comment on individual cases.
JOURNALIST: One more question about gay marriage. Do you think the tide is swinging the other way, and do you think Labor MPs will change their mind over time towards gay marriage?
PM: Have a look at how people voted when this was the subject of a vote in the parliament relatively recently.
I think inevitably over time some people will look and think again. Mr Rudd's obviously chosen to do that.
But you will see the way in which Labor members voted during that debate. They are on the record as to what they believe about same sex marriage.
JOURNALIST: Do you think that you will ever change your stance on it?
PM: I have made my stance clear. But the important thing for me is that members of my political party can exercise their conscience when it comes to voting.
And the next big change that needs to happen is that Mr Abbott needs to follow in the footsteps of conservative leader John Key in New Zealand, conservative Prime Minister David Cameron in the United Kingdom and do what those conservative leaders have done and allow their members a conscience vote.
JOURNALIST: When you see the other countries passing legislation on marriage equality, what do you make of that?
PM: What I make of it is what I have just said, that it is obviously an issue of public debate.
Members of Parliament reflect public debates in their own way in accordance with their own conscience, and a hallmark of those debates in other countries has been that everybody has been able to come to the parliament and vote in accordance with what they believe.
JOURNALIST: How do you think that Australia gains from its young people travelling overseas to study? Are you planning more links with overseas schools particularly in Asia?
PM: We certainly are big supporters of young people travelling overseas to study and schools having links.
This has been part of our vision from our Asian Century white paper.
You would see in that what we call the Bridge Program that brings schools in Australia into partnership with schools in our region, and of course all of that will be turbo-charged by the NBN because people will be able to interact as if they were in the same room.
And we are big supporters of Australians studying overseas too.
When I was relatively recently in China, I announced another step forward in us supporting young Australians studying in our region, and of course we have got the biggest scholarship program that there has ever been to bring people from our region to study in Australia.
From time to time you would hear people talk about the ‘Colombo plan' and we need a ‘Colombo plan'. What we do now dwarfs the Colombo plan. We do so much more.
Thank you very much.