PRIME MINISTER:
It's terrific to be here in Anglesea. It's great to be here with Terry Mulder, the Victorian Roads Minister, with Sarah Henderson, the local Member for Corangamite – a strong voice for Corangamite, who is doing an excellent job as the new member and who is listening and delivering for the people of Corangamite.
Today, I am able to make the third announcement of upgrades for the Great Ocean Road which is happening as a result of the joint Victorian and Commonwealth $50 million commitment to this road made during the recent election campaign. $1.8 million will be spent early in the new year to upgrade this section of road from Tonge Street to the Anglesea River. This is a road which carries something like 16,000 vehicles a day, in the peak season. As soon as the peak season has passed, this upgrade will begin.
I also note that it is, today, 100 days since the change of government. And the constant emphasis of the new Government has been on building a stronger economy for a safe and secure Australia. We want to get our taxes down, we want to get our regulation down, we want to get economic growth up and this is where important infrastructure comes in because the better the roads, the better the infrastructure, the easier it is for people to do business, the easier it is for people to live their lives.
So, it's entirely appropriate that I should be here on the 100th day of the new Government, in Anglesea, with this outstanding new member for Corangamite, with the State Roads Minister Terry Mulder to announce this significant piece of new infrastructure thanks to the new Government in Canberra and the Victorian Government.
I am going to ask Terry to add to these remarks and I am going to ask Sarah Henderson to speak.
TERRY MULDER:
Thank you, Prime Minister. I think as most Victorians would be aware this is the longest war memorial in the world. 3,000 returned soldiers worked on this road between 1919 and 1932. It is a treasure for the state of Victoria. The road is in a state of disrepair in a number of locations and this great announcement between the Victorian Government and the Commonwealth Government will go a long way to repairing the road and bringing it back to the state that it should be in. There’s an issue too in relation to safety on this particular road, in the last five years there's been 229 crashes - 11 of those have resulted in fatalities, 91 in people being seriously injured.
We have a fantastic record here in Victoria in terms of road safety. We stand today, I think we’re 43 down on last year, which is the biggest single drop since the early 1990s. There's been a really strong effort here in Victoria in relation to road safety, driving the toll down, and we want to make sure that this road is not just in a good sense of repair but is also a very safe road for people to travel on.
We have to be mindful of the fact that as these works are being carried out that the community will still wish to operate, run their businesses right along the Great Ocean Road, the 240km. Sarah Henderson, the local member, has been involved in community forums along the Great Ocean Road in terms of informing the public about the project going forward but this is a great day for Victoria, it’s a great day for the Commonwealth Government, recognising the importance of this particular piece of road infrastructure to the people of Victoria and indeed all the tourist s who travel along here.
I will just hand over to Sarah Henderson. Thank you.
SARAH HENDERSON:
Prime Minister and Terry, it's great to be here. This is a wonderful announcement, a number of months ago of course the Prime Minister was here in Anglesea announcing our $25 million commitment to the Great Ocean Road matched by another $25 million from the state. This is a wonderful commitment to building the roads of the 21st century. As Terry has mentioned I have been working along the Great Ocean Road meeting with various communities getting their feedback because an important part of this project is listening and then delivering and it’s great to be here to deliver another project, the $1.8 million we're committing to the Anglesea Road here today.
So, thank you very much, Prime Minister and thank you Terry for your commitment as well.
PRIME MINISTER:
Thank you so much Sarah. Do we have any questions?
QUESTION:
On the budgetary position, is your Government entirely blameless for any sort of Budget deficit or debt you may incur?
PRIME MINISTER:
What we are going to see tomorrow from Joe Hockey is Labor's last Budget statement and it will be Labor's only truthful Budget statement. What is going to happen tomorrow is that we will be ruling a line under the fiscal damage that Labor has done. Sadly, the economic damage will continue for some time but we will be ruling a line under the fiscal damage that Labor has done and we will be starting the repair job.
QUESTION:
But is your Government entirely blameless? You have had your own initiatives that have obviously added to the deficit as well?
PRIME MINISTER:
There's been no substantial new spending from the new Government. What there is is blow-out after blow-out in the spending of the old government, that's what we will see tomorrow. We will see that Labor's six years has been a period of debt and deficit, of fiscal profligacy absolutely unparalleled in Australia’s history.
QUESTION:
Mr Abbott, do you accept any blame for what has happened with Holden? Of course there is a lot of finger pointing going on at the moment.
PRIME MINISTER:
Like everyone, I think it's tragic that Holden will close down in 2017, close down its local manufacturing, just as it was tragic when earlier in the year Ford announced that it would close down its local manufacturing in 2016. But I don't want to play politics here. I don't want to indulge in the blame game. I will leave that to others, sadly, others who should know better. My task, the Government's task, is to have a strategic approach to these things. There are great strengths throughout our country, but here in the Geelong region there are great strengths in higher education, in bio-medical research and manufacturing, great strengths in tourism and this announcement today is about playing to the strengths of this region. So, just as one sector gets smaller, other sectors can get bigger. I want to see people transition from old jobs into better jobs in the future and that's what this Government is all about.
QUESTION:
When will your Government return the Budget to surplus?
PRIME MINISTER:
We will get back to surplus as quickly as we can. That's why it's so important that we boost economic growth. That is why it's so important that we get taxes down, we get regulation down, we get productivity up because if we do those things we get growth up. The best way to get the Budget back into surplus is to restore economic growth and my deep regret is that wherever you look, whether it's our campaign to reduce taxes, whether it's our campaign to get red tape reduced, the Labor Party is opposing us. Everything that we are proposing Labor is opposing. Bill Shorten's political strategy is obviously to blame the new Government for everything, even though we have only been here for 100 days and to obstruct everything they possibly can. Well, they might think that is clever political tactics but it just shows to the public that they don't get it. They don't get it. They are still in denial about the result of the election.
QUESTION:
When will we see the details of the support provided to the Holden workers?
PRIME MINISTER:
We will be making announcements in the next couple of days about how we can support manufacturing and how we can play to the strengths of great parts of Australia, like Adelaide, like Geelong, like western Melbourne.
QUESTION:
Have you spoken to the head of Toyota here in Australia about securing their future?
PRIME MINISTER:
It's very important that we do everything we can to try to boost the prospects of businesses generally. That means getting taxes down, it means getting regulation down, it means getting productivity up and, yes, I have spoken to the head of Toyota and I look forward to continuing discussions at various levels of government with Toyota. I certainly hope that Toyota can stay. They have a very different business model to Holden. It's a business model that relies substantially on exports and that's why I think we have good prospect of keeping them. I want to make it very clear that in the end it will be the creativity, the dynamism and the commitment to running a successful business on their part rather than taxpayer handouts which will secure the future of all the businesses of this country.
QUESTION:
On radio this morning you mentioned there had been an uptick in boat arrivals. How much of that is because of diplomatic tension with Indonesia?
PRIME MINISTER:
Obviously it's important that we do get renewed cooperation from Indonesia. There has been a dramatic overall decrease in boat arrivals. A week or so back, there was a small uptick and, look, we will stop the boats – as simple as that. We will stop the boats and my message to the people smugglers is that the game is up for you. It doesn't matter what is happening on the ground in Indonesia on any one day. The game is up. The boats are stopping. And they will stop.
QUESTION:
Can you really do that without the support of the Indonesian Government?
PRIME MINISTER:
We will do what is necessary to secure our national interest. It is absolutely in our national interest that our borders are 100 per cent secure.
QUESTION:
There was an Immigration Advisory Health Group that has recently disbanded, is it your view that this expert panel isn’t needed?
PRIME MINISTER:
There has been no disbanding of advice to the Immigration Department. It’s just that we have moved from an unwieldy committee to a single officer and the chairman of the relevant committee is now the Immigration Department's health adviser dealing with exactly the same matters.
QUESTION:
So, you don’t think there is any decrease in the level of health advice?
PRIME MINISTER:
Absolutely not.
QUESTION:
Mr Abbott, the money that was promised to set up the trade schools, to help train apprentices, is that money still being committed? Are we still going to see those trade schools?
PRIME MINISTER:
I am going to pre-empt Joe Hockey's announcement tomorrow, but what I do absolutely reiterate is that things that have begun will continue, contracts that have been entered into will be honoured. So, no-one should be under any misapprehension about losing things, things that exist will continue. Contracts that have been entered into will be honoured.
QUESTION:
Are you backing away from your commitment to have a surplus at least as early as Labor had promised?
PRIME MINISTER:
Labor was never going to deliver a surplus. I mean, Labor was into more fairy tales than Hans Christian Andersen when it comes to delivering a surplus. I mean Aesop's fables had far more truth in them than Labor’s Budget forecasts. Now, we will get our country back to a responsible surplus, a responsible and sustainable surplus, as quickly as we humanly can. Tomorrow is about laying out the scale of the task. It's effectively Labor's last Budget statement. It will be Labor's first truthful Budget statement. It will set out the scale of the task and then the repair job begins.
QUESTION:
Mr Abbott on one to 10, how do you think your Government has done in 100 days of Government?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well, I am very satisfied that we have done a really good job and I offer people this document, a document that's been prepared by my Department which will give them, chapter and verse, exactly what the Government has done over its first 100 days. So, I am very satisfied with the job I've done, with the job my Ministers and the Government has done. I am very satisfied with that. But, look, I am not in the business of running a commentary on myself. That is the job of others and I will leave it to them.
QUESTION:
When will we see a conscience vote on gay marriage?
PRIME MINISTER:
We saw this matter dealt with by the Parliament over the last term. There was quite a decisive vote in the Parliament. I have no reason to expect this matter to come before the Parliament again but if it does it will be dealt with by the Coalition Party Room in the normal way. In the end, policy is determined by the Party Room. It's up to the Party Room to decide what the policy is going forward should this matter come before the Parliament.
QUESTION:
Would you allow a conscience vote on this matter?
PRIME MINISTER:
If it is the policy of our Party, that a particular thing be so, that's something that our Party is committed to. If there is no policy on a particular matter, well then, obviously there is a free vote. In the end, what our policy is is a matter for the Party Room, but in the past the Party Room has had a very clear policy on this particular subject and everyone knows where I stand on this particular subject.
Ok, thank you.
[ends]