PREMIER BAIRD:
I am delighted to be here today with the Prime Minister, the Federal Treasurer, the Federal Member together with State Members and we’re here today to start what has been a long spoken about project - over 15 years they’ve spoken about in the local community - the upgrade to Narellan Road. Well, the partnership between the Commonwealth Government and the State Government has finally delivered and it really builds on the theme. It is quite simple - the community is sick of words. They want to see sods, they want to see roads, they want to see action, and that’s what we are delivering here. We’re delivering roads, long overdue. It is going to reduce congestion, provide access to university, provide a better quality of life for the communities along this road, and that is what we’re about.
We are a State Government that’s working very constructively in a great partnership with the Commonwealth Government in delivering for Western Sydney.
Delivering roads to reduce congestions, delivering for families, and what we have today is the start of a long overdue upgrade - one I’m delighted to be part of. Our Government is delighted to be part of and most importantly as our local members go amongst their community, the communities called for it – well the good news is we are delivering it. And it’s great for the overall economy, it’s great for the State and obviously it is a good day for the people of South-West Sydney.
So I’ll ask the Prime Minister and then the Federal Treasurer to say a few words.
PRIME MINISTER:
Well thanks so much Mike, and look, it is terrific to be here in Campbelltown. It is great to be here with Russell Matheson and our State colleagues.
As the Premier said, this is a very important local project. People have been waiting for 15 years in and around Campbelltown for this project to get underway. It’s an important local project, but it feeds into a very important programme for Western Sydney infrastructure and that - in turn - feeds into a stronger national economy.
So the Narellan Road upgrade, it’s a $103 million project, it’s starting already. That will feed into the overall Western Sydney infrastructure programme – that’s a $3.5 billion programme. That of course will facilitate amongst other things the construction of the Western Sydney airport.
Then of course there are other major projects like WestConnex, which the Commonwealth is facilitating with a $1.5 billion grant and a $2 billion concessional loan and projects like NorthConnex. Local projects feeding into metropolitan projects, feeding into national projects to create a stronger economy with more jobs and more prosperity for all.
This is the Commonwealth Government’s plan and it is terrific to be working in the closest possible partnership with Premier Baird and the New South Wales Government.
In the end though, we can only do this when we’ve got a strong budget and what we’ve been doing with the Commonwealth Budget is to try to spend less on short term consumption and more on long term investment. That is at the heart of the recent Commonwealth Budget and that is what is absolutely necessary if we are going to build the strong and prosperous economy for the safe and secure Australia that everyone wants.
So I’m very pleased to be here with my friend and colleague, the Treasurer, Joe Hockey. He is the guardian of our Budget and in the end it is a strong Budget that makes a better life possible for the people of Western Sydney.
TREASURER:
Well, thanks Prime Minister and Premier.
I'm here with the infrastructure Premier and the infrastructure Prime Minister and even though it is a very significant project here, are you wondering why a Prime Minister, a Premier and a Treasurer are here? It is because in many ways this is a starting gun for the biggest infrastructure spend in Australia's history and that’s about creating jobs. Instead of spending money on $900 cheques to people, we are building infrastructure that builds a stronger economy and creates more prosperity and puts the power in the hand of families, rather than in the hands of the people that lend the Australian Government money. And that’s what we want - to empower individuals and families and small businesses. This is a jobs programme, but it is a productive economy programme, and you're absolutely right Prime Minister, this is based on the Budget. This is what the Budget is about. About prioritising the things that are going to grow the economy, build a stronger economy and more jobs.
I'm very pleased to be here. There will be many more of these projects rolled out over the next few years in a terrific partnership with the State and I thank in particular, on behalf of the Commonwealth, the Premier, who has joined up to our asset recycling programme that helps to make projects much bigger than this come to fruition over the next few years as we build a stronger and more prosperous Australia.
PRIME MINISTER:
Ok, do we have any questions?
QUESTION:
Prime Minister, what is the latest on MH17 as far as our mission goes?
PRIME MINISTER:
Could I deal with general subjects and political subjects first then we'll come back to MH17?
So are there any questions about this particular project, any questions about general politics and then we'll get back to MH17.
QUESTION:
Prime Minister, do you think it's reasonable to ask people to apply for 40 jobs a month?
PRIME MINISTER:
What we are determined to try to ensure is that we have very active jobseekers. Looking for work should be a full time job if it is being done on the Commonwealth taxpayer. That is what we to ensure – we want to ensure that if you're out of work, you're serious about looking for work, and that's what these new requirements - which are still subject to consultation of course - but that's what these new requirements aim to achieve.
QUESTION:
Prime Minister, Labor is saying that it is counterproductive because whilst people are, for example, working for the dole, they’re not actually able to apply for jobs. They claim under the Howard government when this was in place, increased unemployment. Is that just incorrect?
PRIME MINISTER:
I think the trouble is that the Labor Party – I regret to say – has never really liked Work for the Dole. Basically they are hostile to Work for the Dole and we have seen over the last day or so an attempt to sabotage this big expansion of the Work for the Dole programme.
We want people who are out of work to be as actively pursuing work as they possibly can be. We want, as far as is humanly possible, people to have the chance to show the world what they can do, not just what they can’t do. I think that fit, working-age people should be working, preferably for a wage but if not, for the dole.
QUESTION:
Why are you considering dumping the ASC as the builder of the Australian Warfare Destroyers and when do you think that decision will be made?
PRIME MINISTER:
What we want is a strong and viable Australian naval ship building industry. We want a strong and viable Australian naval ship building industry and we want world-class ships for our navy.
If possible, we want them to be built in Australia. I’m talking about ships generally, obviously the Air Warfare Destroyers are being built in Australia but it is also important that we get this project completed as quickly as possible with as few cost overruns as possible, and unfortunately there have been very significant cost overruns, there have been very significant delays. We’ve got to tackle that urgently and that’s what the Government is in the process of doing.
QUESTION:
Can we ask a question about MH17 now?
PRIME MINISTER:
Yeah, sure. No more questions on the subject?
Ok look, Matt, you might just want to repeat the question?
QUESTION:
Yeah, sure. Where is the mission at Prime Minister as far as MH17? The AFP and the Dutch led mission is still having troubles getting into the area.
PRIME MINISTER:
We certainly want to have another go today to get access to the site, because our absolute determination is to recover the remains, to assist the investigation and to obtain justice. That’s our absolute determination and we believe that we owe it to the dead and we owe it to their loved ones to make every reasonable effort to access the site and to do the job that we are so keen to do.
If it doesn’t happen today, we’ll try again tomorrow. If it doesn’t happen tomorrow, we’ll try again the next day. If at first you don’t succeed, try, try, try again: that is the approach that the Australian Government and our international partners, particularly the Dutch, have got to this.
Now, it is a very fluid situation on the ground. This is contested territory. We don’t take sides in the geopolitical contests of Eastern Europe, at least at this time. All we want to do is to bring home our dead. That’s what we want to do and as things stand, we expect to have another go at it today.
QUESTION:
Will Australia impose further sanctions on Russia?
PRIME MINISTER:
We already have some sanctions on Russia. I’m not saying that we might not at some point in the future move further, but at the moment, our focus is not on sanctions, our focus is on bringing home our dead as quickly as we humanly can. That’s our focus. So, I know that various things are happening in Europe and elsewhere – that is a matter for the Europeans and others. We are just focussed on getting onto the site as quickly as we can. We want to get in, we want to get cracking and we want to get out.
QUESTION:
Prime Minister, the Treasurer on Radio National earlier today ruled out imposing further sanctions joining the US and EU. Would you disagree with him over that?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well look, Joe and I are absolutely at one here and our focus at the moment is wholly and solely on our recovery mission – it is wholly and solely on our police mission to the site to recover the remains, to assist the investigation and to obtain justice for the dead and for their loved ones. That’s our whole and sole focus at this time, but I might ask Joe to add to that.
TREASURER:
I made no such claim. That’s just dead wrong. What I pointed out was exactly what the Prime Minister just said; that our priority is to get in there and recover the bodies. That is our priority and we are going through, as the Prime Minister described it, a contested area which, given it is an hour and a half to drive in to the plane wreckage and drive an hour and a half out through a contested area, where there is fighting and we have unarmed Federal Police going in - it is high risk and our primary focus always is and has been to get our dead Australians out of there and then deal with the other issues after that.
QUESTION:
When this first happened though, Treasurer and Prime Minister, your rhetoric was quite strong and you were quite critical of Russia. Are you backing away from that now?
PRIME MINISTER:
This is a situation where on any particular day we are focussed on a particular task, and right now the clear task is to get on site as quickly as we can, as safely as we can and to do our job as quickly as we can and to get out as quickly as we can. Again, I stress - what our objectives here? Our objectives are to recover the bodies, to insist the investigation and to obtain justice for the dead and for their families.
QUESTION:
Prime Minister, there is a report that an Australian has gone to Ukraine to fight with the Russian separatists. What do you make of that and also the reports overnight that we have Australians that are involved in Syria and Iraq in fighting with the terrorists over there?
PRIME MINISTER:
I have a very strong message for any Australian who is thinking of going overseas to engage in guerrilla warfare, Jihadism, anything of this nature: don’t do it. It is a serious crime and if you come back to Australia you will be arrested, you will be charged, you will be jailed.
This is a serious crime. We do not want Australians going abroad to fight in other people’s wars – we do not. We do not want it done and if you do it - you are doing wrong and you will suffer the consequences.
Thank you.
[ends]