PRIME MINISTER:
It’s really good to be here at the Perkins Institute with Peter Dutton, the Health Minister, on what is a very good day for this state, this university, our country and because of the importance of health and medical research to humanity at large -an important day, really, for the wider world too.
This is a Government which is deeply committed to health and medical research.
Apart from Defence, health and medical research was the only area of government funding which was quarantined from savings pre-election.
Despite the fiscal situation that we have inherited we have committed an additional $200 million to health and medical research with extra dementia funding. We’ve also put some $35 million more into juvenile diabetes research and some $40 million more into a centre for tropical medicine at James Cook University.
So this is a Government which is serious about health and medical research. I was a minister who was serious about health and medical research, as health minister in the Howard government. In my time as minister we doubled health and medical research funding and of course in my time as minister we were able to provide hundreds of millions of dollars in infrastructure funding for health and medical research institutes including, as you’ve heard today, $70 million towards the construction of this magnificent building.
Of course in order to properly sustain better health and medical research funding, we need a stronger economy and this is why it’s so important to scrap the mining tax, to scrap the carbon tax, because these are holding our economy back. In particular, they are anti-Western Australian taxes.
As some of you would know, earlier today I effectively launched our campaign for the Senate by-election here in Western Australia. What the people of Western Australia need is a strong team that will do a better deal for Western Australia and a better deal for Western Australia starts in the Senate with the repeal of the mining tax and the carbon tax.
My challenge to the Labor Party and the Labor candidates here in Australia is: why are Labor and The Greens denying to the great state of Western Australia the tax relief that Western Australians deserve, in particular the repeal of the carbon tax and the mining tax? These are anti-Western Australian taxes, they must go and the only candidates that you can rely upon to get rid of them are the Liberal candidates at the coming Senate by-election.
It’s an honour to be here with Peter Dutton, my friend and colleague and I might ask him to add to these remarks.
HEALTH MINISTER:
Thanks very much, Prime Minister.
Just a couple of points.
Firstly, thank you very much to the staff and the researchers in particular who have made the Prime Minister and myself feel so welcome here today. This is a magnificent institute – world class – and the reason that it started construction was because, as health minister, Tony Abbott pledged about $70 million of Commonwealth money – an amazing amount of money- but it was repeated around the country when the Prime Minister was health minister because he was definite then and he’s definite now about the future being very bright for medical research.
It makes a huge difference in the lives of Indigenous Australians, for children, for families, not just here but around the world.
Some of the discoveries that will come from the Perkins Institute here will be ground-breaking and I pay particular tribute to the researchers that are here today.
Secondly, I just want to respond to a couple of comments made today that I’ve seen reported by the Shadow Foreign Affairs spokesperson, Tanya Plibersek.
It seems that Labor becomes more and more desperate each day. The Super Clinics programme which was a $650 million programme which Tanya Plibersek held up as one of her crowning achievements as health minister in the Rudd and Gillard governments – do you know that over half of those centres aren’t even open? Some of them are tied up in the courts, others remain as vacant paddocks. People just can’t get in to see doctors like they were promised to and regardless of all the scare campaigns that Tanya Plibersek wants to run, her record stands for what it is.
She was a complete failure as health minister. The Rudd and Gillard years were a complete failure; she contributed significantly to it and some of the shrill remarks made today need to be checked against her own failed record as health minister.
I think most Australians would understand that yes, Labor spent a lot of money in health but a lot it was wasted on these great big new bureaucracies, the Super Clinics programme and money elsewhere that didn’t deliver benefit to patients. And you contrast that to decisions that Tony Abbott made when he was health minister, to put additional money into medical research to double the number of medical skills we have. All those doctors coming through, graduating now, are because of the investment that we made in the Howard years.
The contrast couldn’t be starker. That’s why I’m very proud to be here with the Prime Minister today to see that investment come to fruition. Those researchers who will provide the support in these labs are world leading and it’s a great pleasure as Health Minister of our country to be able to support them not just today, but into the future as well.
PRIME MINISTER:
Ok, do we have any questions?
QUESTION:
Prime Minister, on homelessness funding, you said on the radio this morning that you couldn’t give a budget guarantee, but given that a lot of these agencies need to do their planning for next year’s financial year now and you are in Western Australia to give Western Australians a reason to vote Liberal. Why can you not give this $14 million a year guarantee?
PRIME MINISTER:
I didn’t say I couldn’t give a budget guarantee, I said I wasn’t going to announce the budget today. That’s what I said. But what I did say, what I did say was that we are not going to let the people of Western Australia down – we are not going to let the people of Western Australia down. I’m not announcing budget commitments today, but I have heard the plea from the Premier on this issue and I just want to assure the Premier and the people of Western Australia that we’re not going to let them down on this particular matter.
QUESTION:
So these agencies can rest assured that they will have that funding?
PRIME MINISTER:
I’ve given them what I think are important words of comfort.
QUESTION:
Can you tell me why you expect to see more of you in the lead up to April 5?
PRIME MINISTER:
I certainly am going to very vigorously contest this Senate by-election because it’s very important for Western Australia.
If Western Australia wants a strong team and a better deal, there’s only one way to vote and that is to vote for the candidates who you know are going to vote to repeal the mining tax and the carbon tax which are anti-Western Australian taxes and the question for every Labor person in Western Australia right now – why is the Labor Party with The Greens making it harder to repeal these anti-Western Australian taxes? That is the one question that needs to be put to Labor people in Western Australia over the next few weeks – why are you holding up the repeal of these anti-Western Australia taxes? They would be gone by now, but for the Labor Party and The Greens. The only people who like these taxes are the Greens and the Labor Party typically is against the people and with The Greens when it comes to the mining tax and the carbon tax.
QUESTION:
Prime Minister, there’ve been revelations about the National Rental Affordability scheme and a Sydney developer. Has this scheme now completely gone away from the concept of helping lower income Australians?
PRIME MINISTER:
Look, it’s yet another example of the utter incompetence of the former government. The former government was embarrassingly incompetent and untrustworthy and this is again another example of just how hopeless they were.
QUESTION:
You spent 24 hours in Western Australia in the September campaign – has this state been neglected in the past by federal politics on both sides?
PRIME MINISTER:
No, this is an incredibly important state as I regularly and rightly say – 10 per cent of the population, 16 per cent of the gross domestic product and 50 per cent of the exports of our country come from Western Australia.
My dedication is to helping Western Australia and the best thing we can do for Western Australia right now is to get rid of the anti-Western Australian taxes – the mining tax and the carbon tax – and only the Coalition, only the Liberal Party can be guaranteed to do that.
QUESTION:
Will the latest Commission of Audit be released for the May budget?
PRIME MINISTER:
Look, the Commission of Audit will be released, there’s no doubt about that. It will be released. It’s a very important piece of work which we have commissioned because we want to ensure that you the taxpayer get value for you dollar. We understand – the Coalition – that every dollar we spend comes from you the taxpayer in taxes or in borrowings so we want to treat every dollar with the same care and concern that you treat the dollars in your pocket. We do not want to waste money and that’s why we’ve commissioned the Commission of Audit. We will release it. We will release it, but we will release it at the right time which is when we are able to properly respond to this very important piece of work.
QUESTION:
What do you think of SPC’s deal with Woolworths?
PRIME MINISTER:
What do I think of SPC’s deal with Woolworths? Well I’m pleased. I am very pleased that this great Australian company looks like it is well and truly on the road to recovery and as I knew it would- it’s been able to do that without needing $25 million from the federal taxpayer. As I said at the time, it has a highly profitable parent, a parent which made $215 million after tax in the previous six months. Coca-Cola Amatil has in many respects a stronger balance sheet than the Commonwealth. I said it didn’t need the money, it was basically a good business that had put itself on the road to recovery and I wish them well and I’m pleased that they’ve got this deal.
QUESTION:
Do you feel vindicated not going into a deal with them?
PRIME MINISTER:
Look, it’s not about me – not about me. I think that we have made it absolutely crystal clear that if a business is in trouble the way to salvation is not Federal Government hand-outs, the way to save businesses in trouble is for the management and the staff to work together to save their business – that’s the way forward. The job of the Federal Government is to get their costs down and that means scrapping the carbon tax. It means scrapping the mining tax. It means getting the red tape and green tape off their back and that’s what you will see constantly from this Government. We will do our job as well as we can and we will trust businesses, their management and their staff to do their job as well as they can.
QUESTION:
The latest Troy Buswell incident, are you worried about the impact that will have on your campaign?
PRIME MINISTER:
No, I’m not because I respect his privacy and I think he has done his best and made a fine contribution to public life in Western Australia. He is obviously going through a difficult personal time at the moment as the Premier made clear yesterday. I think the people of Western Australia will understand because let’s face it, which of us at some stage doesn’t go through a difficult personal time? I think his privacy should be expected and it will be.
QUESTION:
What about driving a ministerial car under the influence, it appears that he doesn’t have any recollection; I mean surely that would concern you though?
PRIME MINISTER:
Look, people should be very careful on the roads at all times and obviously people shouldn’t drive if they are not capable of it.
QUESTION:
On media ownership laws and any potential changes to them by your Government, can you guarantee that they won’t imperil WA viewers’ ability to watch free-to- air television and cricket?
PRIME MINISTER:
I am very conscious of the fact that people want to see sport on television. They want to see sport-on-free to air television and the last thing I want to do is see a situation where people are forced to pay for things that they have always had for free. I do want to stress that the media world is totally transformed over the last couple of decades. We’ve got broadcasters that are now publishing newspapers online. We’ve got newspapers that are effectively broadcasting every day. It’s a transformed world. The regulations that were appropriate two decades ago almost certainly are no longer so appropriate today. We are open to change. It would be changed in a deregulatory direction but we are simply consulting at this time. As I have often said the only time change is really feasible in a situation like this is if there is a broad consensus about its direction.
QUESTION:
And you wouldn’t do anything to dilute news coverage in the regions either?
PRIME MINISTER:
Look, it’s important that we have an appropriate level of local content: whether it is Australian content on our screens, whether it be local content in our newspapers – our regional newspapers and our regional radio stations – that’s all very important. Let’s face it, the reason why people listen to local radio is to get local content. The reason why people buy a local newspaper is to get local content. So, I think it’s important that we work with people to ensure that this reasonably continues. I just want to stress that the main job of Government right now is not to run around with the clipboard trying to micro-manage Australians’ lives.
The main job of Government right now is to liberate Australians to live their lives better. It is to liberate Australians to have more strength and power over their own life and what we saw over the last six years was an incompetent, an untrustworthy government which loaded people up with taxes and regulations and it is my mission and the mission of my Minsters to build a better Australia based on the capability of the Australian people.
[ends]