JOHN ALEXANDER:
It's my pleasure to welcome our Prime Minister and Minister Peter Dutton to Macquarie Park which is the innovation capital of Australia. While you're the builder of the roads of the 21st century, you're also the innovation Prime Minister – welcome.
PRIME MINISTER:
Thanks, John – it's terrific to be here in the electorate of Bennelong and as John has pointed out, this is very much a hub of the pharmaceutical industry, of the medical device industry and it is substantially co-located with Macquarie University. So it is great to be here at Cochlear.
Earlier this week the Government released our Industry Innovation and Competitiveness Agenda. It's about trying to put science at the centre of industry policy, it's about building on our strengths and a company like Cochlear is precisely the kind of manufacturing business – sophisticated manufacturing business – that we want to see more of in the years and decades ahead and it's precisely the kind of business that our Industry Innovation and Competitiveness Agenda is designed to promote.
Cochlear has some 2,700 staff, about 1,200 here in Australia. You've seen the extraordinarily sophisticated manufacturing facility which they have here. Obviously they've been working very closely with the university to bring this about. This is in some ways a collaboration with the university and something like 90 per cent of their manufacturing work is exported. So this is the manufacturing future for Australia. It is the manufacturing future for Australia and the policy which the Government announced earlier this week is designed to encourage businesses like Cochlear. It's designed to encourage our researchers, our manufacturers, our business people, to come together for everyone's benefit.
This is the latest initiative in this Government's plan to build a strong and prosperous economy for a safe and secure Australia. We're also announcing today some medical research funding and I might ask Minister Dutton to speak to that.
HEALTH MINISTER:
Prime Minister, thank you very much and thank you to John Alexander but also thank you to Dr Chris Roberts who's an inspirational Australian and Cochlear's an inspiration to the next generation of manufacturing in this country and they employ Australians, as the Prime Minister points out, in a sector that's incredibly important for us, particularly as an exporter.
I'm very pleased to be here with the Prime Minister today though to announce some grants in NHMRC funding and we provide over half a billion dollars – $540 million – worth of funding to 773 projects and I'm particularly pleased that we have put significant amounts of money into research around cancer, around cardiovascular disease and also around diabetes. They are the three big winners out of this half a billion dollar investment into medical research.
I'm also very pleased that we've put about $12 million into asthma research. It has the highest percentage funded of projects in this round of funding and it means that we will spend over three quarters of a billion dollars this year on medical research and I want to thank very much Professor Warwick Anderson in the NHMRC and the world class researchers around the country who have made it possible for us to invest into these projects. This will mean Australian lives saved and it will mean different ways of finding cures and better ways to treat Australians as a result of these projects.
So we do incredibly well in medical research in this country and the fact that we want to double the amount of money that we're effectively putting into medical research through the Medical Research Future Fund I think is a great credit to this Government. And we want the support of the Senate to see that fund come to fruition so that we can provide additional support to those young researchers and the medical research institutes around the country who punch above their weight and that feed into the sorts of technologies that we see here at Cochlear that become the massive exporters and employers for tomorrow's Australia.
So thank you very much to Cochlear, for the way in which you've received us today and I really believe that Cochlear is a great example for a number of other countries around the world but companies here over future generations. It is a great company and I'm very pleased to be here today.
QUESTION:
Minister, is this new money or is this to be funded through the MRFF?
HEALTH MINISTER:
No, this is money from the National Health and Medical Research Council funding. So the Government provides about three quarters of a billion dollars each year and I'm pleased actually that we've been able to make this announcement earlier than would normally be the case this time of year so we can provide researchers with the certainty over Christmas.
PRIME MINISTER:
Ok, do we have some questions?
QUESTION:
Prime Minister, what's the biggest threat at the moment – is it the cancer of ISIS or is it the Ebola virus?
PRIME MINISTER:
I'd prefer to take a few questions on medical research and on the Government's Industry Innovation and Competitiveness Agenda and then I'm very happy to turn to that question.
QUESTION:
Prime Minister, the focus here very much on medical innovation, but you have been asked this question previously in the week about pharmaceuticals and actually Australia producing some of the drugs and opiates. Now Tasmania is a massive producer of medical opiates, has anyone here made representations to you about how to further that? Tasmania in particular looking at furthering that industry?
PRIME MINISTER:
I'm a supporter. I know there are proposals to produce medical grade opiates in other states and that, as I understand it, is working its way through our regulatory system. But I am a supporter of a strong and successful pharmaceutical industry here in Australia. We are a major supplier of opiates to the world and in fact our largest elaborately transformed exports are in pharmaceuticals. So this is a very important part of our economic future and that's why it's good that Peter Dutton and myself are here at Cochlear today because medical technology generally is something that Australia is very good at. We're good researchers, we're good appliers, we're good innovators and Cochlear have done all of that. They've researched, they've applied, they've innovated, they've manufactured and they've exported.
QUESTION:
More broadly on your innovation statement, we've seen a lot of commentary this week talk about, you know, we have seen a lot of these proposals before. You've spent the last three days spruiking this statement. How are you going to show you're going to walk the talk and particularly when it comes to schools being closely aligned with industry, you're saying that probably can't happen at the beginning of the next school year but is there a timeline that you have in mind and can you bed that down?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well, we want to do it as quickly as possible, Laura. I don't want to pretend for a second that what we are doing is inventing the wheel here. We're not. We are building on work that is already happening in lots of schools right around Australia. In New South Wales we've had school-based apprenticeships for about 15 years. They have similar sorts of things in most other states. So, what we're talking about is a further development of innovation which has been taking place in our education system for quite some years now and we want to do it as quickly as we can. As you know, Laura, I was in New York and I visited a P-Tech School – a Pathway to Technology School in Brooklyn – one which President Obama has taken a particular interest in. In the United States the teaching profession sees these Pathways to Technology High Schools, these partnerships with local businesses, as a very important way of ensuring that young people leave school with a job as well as an education. So, it's about increasing the partnership between innovative businesses and educational institutions.
QUESTION:
Prime Minister, how important do you think innovation and technology is to Australia's future economically compared to say mining or agriculture? Will it be a focus for the future?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well, innovation and technology is absolutely essential for our future. It is absolutely essential for our future in all spheres and what we need is innovation and technology applied to everything we do; whether it be administration, whether it be manufacturing, whether it be prospecting – we need more innovation technology everywhere. We do have proven strengths in certain areas; mining and resources is a proven strength, agriculture and food is a proven strength, medical research and technology is a proven strength. That's why these new industry growth centres are going to focus on areas of proven strength. It doesn't mean that we're ignoring other things, it doesn't mean we're neglecting anything else but we do want these new industry growth centres to focus in areas where we know Australia can do well and we want to do even better in the future.
QUESTION:
What's more of a threat to Australia? Is it the cancer of ISIS or is it the Ebola virus?
PRIME MINISTER:
They're both very serious threats and we have to deal with them appropriately. Obviously, the Government is dealing with the ISIL death cult at home and abroad. We've got strengthened intelligence and security agencies, we've got new legislation coming through the Parliament in the next few weeks, we've also got our force in the Middle East and every day now Australian Super Hornets are flying combat air patrol and sometimes strike missions over Iraq and our special forces are ready to go. We are awaiting simply the final legal clearances for that to happen.
On Ebola, it is a very serious outbreak. It's a very serious threatening and ominous outbreak. That's why Australia has been contributing very substantially to the funding of the efforts that are being made in West Africa and about 10 days ago the UN Secretary-General's spokesman praised Australia's quick and effective response. He said that was precisely the kind of response we needed to Ebola – the quick and effective Australian response.
Now, I know there are some suggestions that we should order Australian personnel to West Africa. There's a world of difference between volunteers going and displaying selfless humanitarianism which I praise and the Government ordering Australian Defence Force personnel to go to an area where we don't have the capacity to evacuate people. We don't have commitments from others who might be able to evacuate people. There are no facilities that we can rely upon on the ground to treat our people. So, in the absence of proper evacuation processes, in the absence of on-the-ground treatment facilities it would be a little reckless of an Australian Government to commit our personnel at this stage.
What we are focused on – and Peter Dutton will be doing more on this very point this afternoon – what we are focused on is ensuring that we are as ready as we humanly can be, should we get Ebola cases here in Australia, and we are prepared to do what we can in our region should there be an Ebola outbreak here.
QUESTION:
As Brian Owler said yesterday, he's concerned about Australian preparedness – there should be a review. And on volunteers, yes, there's about 30 Australians who have gone over to West Africa to be volunteers with various agencies. You welcome that. Will the Government then facilitate that more volunteers, if they do want to go over, with proper training or are the agencies doing that on their own?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well this is a matter for the agencies and we have substantially funded the World Health Organisation and organisations such as Médecins Sans Frontières to do precisely this. So, obviously, I have nothing but admiration for Australian health professionals who are prepared to do this but, again I stress, there's a world of difference between health professionals volunteering to serve with the agencies and the Australian Government ordering our defence and other personnel into harm's way. We have an obligation to ensure that various risk mitigation strategies are in place and at the moment they're not and they can't be. We also have an obligation to be ready to assist closer to home should there be an outbreak in our region.
QUESTION:
Prime Minister, Macquarie's Ray Hadley has had calls this morning from mining company workers and people associated with AUSMAT teams. They say there aren't enough aircraft equipped as air ambulances for medical evacuations and the AUSMAT teams are not equipped to prepare for infectious diseases. Is this the case as you understand it and is the Opposition putting these teams at risk by trying to force them into such situations?
PRIME MINISTER:
Look, I am not aware of what was claimed on Ray's programme and I'm happy to have a look at the claims and see what's in them. I don't want to play politics with Ebola. I think it's too important. It's too serious a situation to be a party political football. I am determined that Australia, as a good international citizen, will do what we reasonably can and that's why I was pleased to have the UN spokesman Navarro welcome Australia's commitment of additional funding as precisely the kind of quick and effective response that the UN is seeking as it grapples with this particular problem.
Our focus at this point in time is on funding the World Health Organisation and other agencies to deal with this disastrous situation in West Africa. It's ensuring that here at home we are well prepared to deal with any Ebola cases that might come to Australia and thirdly, that we are ready to respond to any regional outbreak, particularly in countries in our region that lack the kind of public health infrastructure that we have in Australia.
QUESTION:
The Intelligence Committee is about to hand down recommendations for the second tranche of the terror laws on foreign fighters. How will you approach these recommendations? Like you did the first? Are you likely to adopt all the recommendations from this bipartisan committee?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well let's wait and see what recommendations come down. I have a lot of faith in this particular committee. It's got a pretty good record of working constructively with the agencies and amongst its members. I think it's to the credit of both sides of Parliament over the years that they have nominated senior and responsible members to serve on this committee. I am confident that the recommendations of this committee will be serious and we will take them seriously.
QUESTION:
Prime Minister, will you take Bret Walker's submission? He's been particularly concerned about sunset clauses and other aspects. How much weight do you put on his words?
PRIME MINISTER:
It was a submission, as I understand it, to the committee; let's see what the committee makes of the submission. But certainly, there are sunset clauses in some of the provisions that we've brought forward and I think often sunset clauses are appropriate. Let's wait and see what the committee has to say.
QUESTION:
Prime Minister, given the recent allegations against Barry Spurr, how confident are you that he was the right person for the Government to call on to consult on the curriculum review?
PRIME MINISTER:
The Government appointed two people to do the review. They appointed further people to advise on other aspects and it was the reviewers that chose the gentleman in question, not the Government.
QUESTION:
How do you feel about Jackie Kelly quitting the Liberal Party?
PRIME MINISTER:
Jackie is a friend of mine. She's a former colleague. I have tremendous respect for Jackie, but I have a very clear message to people who want to see reform of the Liberal Party: stay in and fight. Stay in and fight, because I want to see a more accountable, transparent and democratic party here in New South Wales and once we've got the state election out of the way, this will be a very high priority for me, personally. You can either be part of the solution or you can opt out and let things pass you by and I would very much encourage people to stay in and fight for the things that they believe in.
QUESTION:
Prime Minister, do you stand by the integrity of the curriculum review?
PRIME MINISTER:
Yes, I do.
QUESTION:
Were you offended by the language Barry Spurr used in his email?
PRIME MINISTER:
I saw a report on page two of the Tele. I haven't had much of a chance to read it yet and I'm not easily upset, I've got to say, so I'll study it closely.
QUESTION:
Prime Minister, just a question for yourself or for Mr Dutton, should ASADA have more powers to implement tougher penalties and does that therefore impact the rights of athletes?
PRIME MINISTER:
This has been a long running saga and I think it's high time that this particular saga was drawn to a close. ASADA should do its job, it should do its job efficiently and effectively and it should resolve all of these matters as quickly as possible. We had this dramatic press conference in the era of the former government when it seemed the former government was desperate for a distraction and so all of these heads of sports were summonsed to Canberra. We were told this was the blackest day in Australian sport and since then, we've had all sorts of allegations swirling around, we've had all sorts of controversy, we've had all sorts of careers ruined and lives blighted, but it's still hard to see what exactly a lot of this was about.
Plainly, sport should be clean, sport should be fair. I say to ASADA: get on, finish the job, so that we can all move forward from this.
Thank you.
[ends]