Subject(s): National Broadband Network; Constitutional recognition for indigenous Australians; Carbon pricing; Better Schools Plan
PM: It's great to be out here again with Luke, our candidate for Solomon. This is a really important part of what we are doing in Solomon and across Australia.
What are we trying to do? Build an economy for the twenty-first century, build an economy which deals with the challenge of the end of the China resources boom, building the infrastructure of a new economy to take us beyond the resources boom.
This infrastructure is like building a railway network in the nineteenth century or a freeway network in the twentieth century. This is the freeway of the twenty-first century.
Here we are in Darwin, one of the most remote centres in Australia. And remote from the rest of Australia but the gateway to Asia.
This technology is going to revolutionise Darwin's future and the Territory's future with bandwidth and band speed which is going to make sure that any business, any school, any hospital, anyone engaged in practical daily life can link immediately with their counterparts across Asia and across the rest of Australia.
It's going to transform the way in which we do business.
The bottom line is this. With the NBN, we are finally overcoming the tyranny of distance for Australia, overcoming the tyranny of distance for the Territory and for the smallest communities across Australia.
One of the great things about this reform is that we have decided that there shall be no digital divide in Australia between the people who live in downtown Sydney and Melbourne, and Brisbane, and those who live out in the regions.
Everybody should have access at affordable prices to the NBN, so that they can make sure that their businesses or their organisations are going to function effectively in the twenty-first century.
So what does it mean here in this neck of the woods, in this part of Darwin? This Friday, we're going to have switched on 2600 homes across Darwin for access to the NBN.
This is the beginning of a huge project for Darwin and the Territory. Of course right across the Territory we're going to see this happen as well.
Fibre construction on Darwin's NBN has already commenced with more than 25,000 homes and businesses.
And we've seen the rollout activity in areas like Bayview, Casuarina, Darwin City, East Point, Eaton, Fannie Bay, The Gardens, Larrakeyah, Ludmilla, The Narrows, Parap, Stuart Park, Alawa, Anula, Leanyer, Lyons, Malak, Marrara, Moil, Tiwi, Wagaman, Wanguri and Woolner, and I am sorry if I mispronounced any of those.
But the bottom line is it's coming to a suburb and a community near you in Darwin and through our use of wireless and satellite technologies right across the Territory as well.
The whole point is this is the future. Copper is the past.
Mr Abbott, and surprisingly Mr Turnbull, represent the technologies of the past.
Mr Turnbull knows better. He is just doing what Mr Abbott is telling him to do.
For the future, it is fibre optic, every modern economy around the world is laying out fibre optic.
In ten years’ time we will look back on this day and say why didn't we do it ten years earlier? That is what we will say.
If in ten years’ time the other mob get in and they decide to go back to good old nineteenth early twentieth century copper, everyone will shake their heads in wonder as to how this pack of mugs in Australia, the alternative government of Australia, could think that this was a solution for the future.
This is about the economy, it's about health, it's about education, it's about the future. And I'm proud to be part of it.
Final word – when I first put my name to the Australian people to become their Prime Minister in 2007, I said we would build a National Broadband Network.
We're the party of nation builders. We're out across every city and centre in the nation, either building it now, laying it out now, or planning for the layout over the next couple of years.
This is the largest engineering project in Australia's history.
I am proud to be the Prime Minister who took to it the people first up and I'm proud to see the product of our work here in the suburbs of Darwin today.
Over to you.
JOURNALIST: A question pertinent to events later today. There seems to be some disquiet in East Arnhem Land about your timetable to amend the Constitution to recognise the indigenous population. What is your timetable?
PM: My view is that we should be in the business of bringing about constitutional recognition for the First Australians as soon as possible.
Remember, I committed prior to 2007 that an early act of the then Australian Government was to have a national apology to Aboriginal Australians and the Forgotten Generations. We did that.
We are now committed to rolling out the constitutional recognition for the First Australians and we want to get that work done.
There's just one thing we need to make sure that is done on the way through: to get bipartisan support from Mr Abbott's party.
The history of Australian referendums is that if you don't get bipartisan support, they will go down.
So what I want to make sure happens is that we get bipartisan support and then get to it the people as soon as possible.
I want this done in the next term of the Australian parliament. That is what I really want to see. And I really want to achieve that bipartisan consensus as rapidly as possible.
JOURNALIST: Mr Abbott says the he was Prime Minister he would release a draft amendment within the first 12 months of office. Can you match that?
PM: Constitutional recognition of indigenous people has been our policy from the beginning.
I find it always surprising when someone like Mr Abbott, who permanently engages in negative politics, begins to provide public lectures to the Australian Government on the question of indigenous policy.
I would say to Mr Abbott, in the parliamentary committee which is now seeking to resolve the question to put the Australian people, get your act together, tell us what you actually want, in detail, black and white, and let's get it done.
The Australian people are waiting for this. The Aboriginal people are waiting for this.
But frankly the ball lies in his court. It really does.
JOURNALIST: One other question on the referendum. Are you committed to the local government referendum proposal?
PM: I am really disappointed at what has happened with the apparent withdrawal of Coalition support for that referendum. I am deeply disappointed.
I have spoken to local governments across Australia who want to see this happen.
So the internal politics of division within the Coalition on this must be frankly just out of control.
You have Nats versus Nats, Libs versus Libs, Libs versus Nats. Frankly the nation deserves better and Australian local government deserves better.
I look forward frankly to having a frank conversation with Mr Abbott.
Of course I could have had it tomorrow if he bothered to show up for the debate in Canberra, about what his actual position is on this.
We have always been committed to making sure that we get this referendum done and dusted.
But it makes it really hard when you've got a withdrawal, an apparent withdrawal of bipartisan support.
JOURNALIST: The NT’s Attorney-General yesterday called for a 50 year exemption to the carbon tax for the Territory because he fears it’s going to jeopardise the future of the Territory and future growth.
PM: On carbon pricing, I just wish the Liberal and National Party would catch up with the twenty-first century.
In China they're introducing carbon pricing. Carbon pricing has been introduced into Europe a long time ago.
It makes for pretty cute, short-term negative politics to constantly bang on about this.
The hard thing in government is to work out what you do about a real problem called climate change.
That is what we are on about. That's what responsible members of the international community are talking about as well.
Can I say to the Northern Territory Government there is a very immediate challenge for the NT Government: are you fair dinkum about signing up to the Better Schools Plan?
I represent the Australian Government. I am here offering to invest, together with my team, $300 million extra into the schools of the Northern Territory over the next six years.
Every school will see increased funding. Every school will see increased funding and I still have stonewalling from the Northern Territory Government, whether they think this is a good idea.
I don't know what is going on up here, but in previous times, if the Prime Minister of Australia came to Darwin and said 'I want to invest $300 million in your schools’ it would take about 45 seconds to get an immediate and positive response.
They may have some real policy concerns about the nature of the plan.
Education Minister Bill Shorten will work with them on that, but the bottom line is this: I want to invest in the best schools possible for the Territory.
$300 million is on the table.
I can't understand why the NT Government want to walk away from that.
They're constantly saying they're cash-strapped up here. There’s $300 million to build better schools, to get better outcomes for our kids.
JOURNALIST: Will there be any give and take on that?
PM: Bill Shorten has been a good Minister. He’s been bringing the Tasmanians on side. That’s been good.
The Tasmanian Government has signed up. The South Australian Government has signed up. The ACT Government has signed up.
And the Government of New South Wales, which when I last looked was a pretty big state in Australia, they’ve signed up.
I think it's time we all put politics to one side, came together, united for the benefit of our kids for the next generation.
So Bill Shorten, I am sure, will be talking to the Chief Minister and his Ministers about this.
But we need to get cracking and get it done. Time is running out.
Thanks folks, all the best.