Subjects: Petrol prices; COAG meeting
E&OE……………………………………………………………………………………
JOURNALIST:
Why is it not necessary to discuss petrol at COAG when it is probably the number one issue that voters are concerned about?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well it’s not on the agenda but if they want to raise it in general business at the end, that’s fine.
But we only meet infrequently as a group and I would like tomorrow’s meeting to achieve something. Now you’re not going to get a resolution - we can’t cut the price of crude oil by talking about it tomorrow.
The big challenge for all of us tomorrow is salinity and water quality. The Commonwealth has put $700 million of new money on the table – no ifs, buts, maybes, funny tricks - $700 million of new money and I’m asking the States to match that.
Now if we can do that we can come out of tomorrow having reached agreement to spend between us $1.4 billion over the next few years to tackle the salinity problem and improve water quality, we will have done something that’s of lasting benefit to the Australian people.
I think that is far more important than having essentially a political debate about a problem that we can’t fix. That’s why I’ve got salinity on the agenda and I haven’t got fuel pricing on the agenda. Thank you.
(ends)