Sydney
PM: Can I say it is a very great pleasure to be here. I am joined by John Murphy, the Member for Reid.
We are in a wonderful school, Auburn West School. Thank you very much to John, the principal, for having us here. The kids here have been absolutely fantastic. So a big, big thank you to all of the staff and students here.
What I've got to do today is read a story to these kids and that is part of story time right around the country; an initiative today to get kids around the country all reading the same story at the same time.
It has been a great pleasure to participate in it.
I came today to read a story to these children first, because it is such good fun to do, but second because we want to put a spotlight on the kind of improvements that our National Plan for School Improvement will bring.
It will bring what we refer to as the reading blitz, a very strong focus from kindy to year three on literacy.
We want to make sure all of our children can read and write; that they are literate.
If our kids don't get those foundation stones in the early years at school, then it can be so hard to make that up later.
If our kids don't get basic skills - reading, writing, doing maths - then the world of higher learning is locked away from them.
So our new plan for schools is about improving outcomes for kids; more kids reading and writing the way we want them to.
That is, more kids reading and writing at the standards that we know they need to read and write at in order to succeed.
In schools around the country through our National Partnership programs, we have shown that if you combine new resources with new ways of working, you make a difference. You make a difference for the children.
Put simply, they get a better education, they achieve at a higher level.
Now we want to roll that out right around the country to all 9,500 schools.
I'm standing here in New South Wales and the Premier of New South Wales has signed on to our new funding plan and our plan for school improvement.
That means $5 billion extra for New South Wales. And I am calling on other states and territories to do what the Premier of New South Wales has done and to put the kids in their state and their territory first and to sign on with us to make sure that those children, their teachers, their classrooms, have the resources that they need for generations and generations to come.
This is important for every child because it is about every child reaching their full potential.
But it is also important for our whole nation's future because we cannot be the strong economy and strong nation we want to be in the future if our kids aren't getting a great education.
I am very concerned that Mr Abbott's plan is a very stark contrast to all of this.
We want to make sure that our schools are better resourced and our kids are achieving at a higher level.
Unfortunately, Mr Abbott has said that he wants to see schools go backwards.
The difference between his plan for the future and our plan for the future is $16.2 billion tied to our plan for school improvement to drive better outcomes for kids.
Australia's children are worth it. They're worth our investment. And I will keep working to get premiers and chief ministers around the country signing on to our plan for school improvement.
I'm happy to take questions.
JOURNALIST: You're talking about Barry O'Farrell signing on to your Gonski reforms. Why do you think you are finding it difficult to get the other states and territories to also sign on? Especially South Australia, Tasmania, and even the ACT, they're Labor states and territories?
PM: Premier O'Farrell here had to work closely with us through officials and he had to make some difficult decisions on his own budget. This is $14.5 billion of extra resources for schools.
Overwhelmingly, two for one, coming from the Federal Government, but states do have to step forward and put in some extra money too and that does require them to make budget decisions. And so, some time needs to be taken to do that.
As states and territories work through that, I'm obviously concerned that the Leader of the Opposition is out there lobbying to stop this happening in schools.
He did do that in New South Wales.
Journalist: But would you have expected the Labor states to have signed on by now, especially South Australia and Tasmania?
PM: I've set a deadline for 30 June and my expectation for the country is that states and territories sign on and meet that deadline whatever pressures are put on them from the Liberal side of politics, that they sign on and meet that deadline because that is what puts our kids first and improves their education.
JOURNALIST: What will you do if they do not meet that deadline?
PM: We have been very clear that this plan for school improvement and new school resources needs to be signed on to by 30 June.
Schools are entitled to know what funding position they are going to be in for school year 2014.
That is why we have set the deadline for 30 June.
My focus is on the days before that deadline and getting people to sign up.
JOURNALIST: Do you agree with Penny Wong's criticism of the Australian Christian Lobby regarding their comments [inaudible]?
PM: I endorse Penny Wong's comments from yesterday. I've seen what Penny had to say and I absolutely endorse her comments from yesterday.
There is no place for any form of bigotry in our public discussion.
JOURNALIST: The Salvation Army has recorded a 12 per cent jump in the number of people seeking their assistance and they say it is because of the Government's policy forcing single parents on to Newstart Allowance. How concerned are you about that?
PM: Let us firstly be very clear about the change that we have made.
What we have done is that there was a group of single parents who were on different rules to single parents generally.
So a change had been made some years ago by the Howard Government.
There had been a group that was grandfathered, and so we had single parents in exactly the same positions on two different schemes of assistance, and we moved to equalise that.
People with children are not simply in receipt of Newstart benefit.
People with children are also in receipt of family payments and benefits like our Schoolkids Bonus.
Of course, I want to make sure that we are working with single parents around the country. They do an incredible job.
It is not easy to be a single person caring for a child, I absolutely respect and admire what single parents do.
But I also want to work with them so they get the benefits of work opportunities because it is unambiguously true that it is better for children if they grow up in a home where someone works.
That is what we are aiming for.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, one of the major concerns for young people today is the proliferation of gambling. It appears the Government's tough talk in public is quite different behind the scenes with the television industry?
PM: You are probably referring to a story on the front of the Sydney Morning Herald and already today the lobby group involved has said that the story is incorrect.
JOURNALIST: What sort of reception are you expecting at the Community Cabinet tonight?
PM: Well they are always interesting, Community Cabinet. What I tend to find is people are less focused on the issues that are in the newspapers or on the TV and very focused on them, their families and their local community.
I'm sure we will get a wide range of issues and some of them will be very, very local ones.
JOURNALIST: Back to Gonski, Christopher Pyne has sent a letter to all the state premiers and territory leaders in the last couple of days. He is suggesting that if the coalition were to win the election, that he would fund a deal that is better than Gonski. What do you make of him sending these letters out?
PM: Let us just get a few facts on the table.
Christopher Pyne has sent a letter to the media. It hasn't got to premiers or chief ministers yet.
So you are one of the happy recipients of the letter.
It is just a pity that none of the premiers and chief ministers are happy recipients of the letter.
And I think that is telling you this is a media stunt to get journalists asking questions like you have just asked.
This is an absurd proposition from Christopher Pyne, an absolutely absurd proposition.
Let's just cut to the chase here. It's got embarrassing.
Christopher Pyne is thrashing around with every distraction he can think of because he doesn't want to stand in front of a television camera and say and that he and Mr Abbott stand for schools missing out on $16.2 billion.
That is the truth and I understand that Mr Abbott and Mr Pyne will say ‘look over here, look over here', distract, distract, fudge, fudge, because they don't want to admit they stand for schools being $16.2 billion worse off.
At some point the thrashing around has got to stop and Mr Abbott and Mr Pyne have to say they stand for schools being $16.2 billion dollars worse off and then we'll have the community debate about whether or not our nation values our children more than that, and our nation values our future more than that.
Because you cannot make schools $16.2 billion worse off without hurting the quality of education kids are getting and hurting the economic prospects of our country for the long term.
So let's just have the rubbish go to one side and let's focus on what is true in this debate, and that $16.2 billion figure is absolutely true.
JOURNALIST: An additional 19 charges have been laid against Craig Thomson today, fraud charges. You must be pleased that he is no longer linked with the Labor Party?
PM: I am not going to comment on a legal matter.JOURNALIST: Just back on the Salvo's report, can we expect to see more initiatives to help single parents find work?
PM: What we have rolled out, and we have rolled out supports for people, rolled out supports to assist people to find employment, rolled out supports with childcare.
They have already been announced and budgeted for.
JOURNALIST: But obviously those parents say that the supports that have been rolled out so far [inaudible]?
PM: Well the approach we have taken is the one you have heard today.JOURNALIST: How worried are you about these seats in Sydney's west in the election on 14 September?
PM: We are here doing what I do regularly which is get out to communities.
I go to a lot of schools, I like coming to schools, I very much enjoyed being at this school.
Thank you very much to John and the team for having us here and we are on another Community Cabinet and as you know we do those very, very regularly and we have done them right around the country.
It is always good to have them and I am looking forward to tonight.
JOURNALIST: How worried are you about this area?
PM: We are here doing what we do and we will listen to community members tonight.
JOURNALIST: Do you think it is acceptable that the TV industry still wants to put live odds [inaudible]?
PM: I have made my attitude very clear to this. I have been asked on a number of occasions.
It annoys me, as someone who watches sporting events, that you get discussion about the odds and it worries me too, that kids when they are watching TV and watching sport are not talking about the things we would like them to be talking about which is the game itself and the team and how the team is working together and how good the individual performances are, but talking about the live odds.
So it does concern me.
We have just finished a public consultation period for the form of the code to deal with all of this.
Minister Conroy is obviously overseeing that and the report today in the Sydney Morning Herald, already the lobby group involved has been very clear that that report is wrong.
JOURNALIST: What about banning live odds during children's television hours?
PM: I am not going to prejudge what will come out of the methodical process that Senator Conroy has been going through.
JOURNALIST: But is there a backbench revolt being led by Stephen Jones against the Minister?
PM: Stephen Jones put a motion on notice for consideration in the last Caucus meeting. That is a very regular part of our procedures.
Thank you very much.