PRIME MINISTER:
It's very good to be here at Luther College with Sussan Ley the Assistant Minister for Education. It's good to be here with the local members Kevin Andrews and Michael Sukkar as well. I want to thank the college, led by Principal Michael Kleidon for making us so welcome.
This is a fine school, it's a fine school which is doing its best to have a focus on the hard sciences; the science, the technology, the engineering and the math which are going to be such an important part of our future if we are to stay at the cutting edge of progress – if we are to stay at the forefront of the first rank economies.
This is going to be helped by the $12 million commitment to STEM in schools which was announced as part of the Government's Industry, Innovation and Competitiveness Agenda earlier in the week. This is all part of trying to build a strong and prosperous economy for a safe and secure Australia. We are a country which does have a strong economy. We are a country which has a strong society but we can never rest on our laurels. Our competitors and rivals are striving to improve themselves and we must strive to improve ourselves too. It is the reforms that you put in place today which build the prosperity of tomorrow. That is why I am so pleased with the Competitiveness Agenda that we released earlier in the week and that is why I am so pleased that the $12 million that we committed to STEM in schools will reinforce the good work that is already being done here at schools like Luther College.
ASSISTANT MINISTER FOR EDUCATION:
Thanks Prime Minister, Luther College is a perfect example of the educational focus that we need for the competitiveness agenda. Their Science for Girls Programme is exemplary and also their focus on computer coding and training. We've got to remember that 75 per cent of the most in demand jobs in the future require science, technology, engineering and maths, hence our focus as well on making sure that we get these things right in future training of our students.
QUESTION:
Prime Minister, on P-Tech can I ask about the pilot programme in Geelong? Are there any particular companies you have been speaking to or industries?
PRIME MINISTER:
We have indicated that we are very, very keen to try to replicate in Australia the programme which has very much been a brain child of President Obama in the United States. I believe there are now some 20 of these P-Tech schools in the United States.
I was able to have a look at one of them in Brooklyn in New York in June. That was a collaboration between the local educational authority and IBM. IBM has done some mentoring; it has provided staff training, staff assistance and this is something that has been very much supported by the educational unions in the United States because they see it as a way of ensuring that youngsters leave school with a job as well as just an education.
I certainly don't see this as business taking over schools. I see this as business working with schools to ensure that youngsters leave school with the kind of aptitudes and knowledge which are necessary to get people a good start in the workforce.
QUESTION:
Any idea on the timing of P-Tech?
PRIME MINISTER:
I would like it to be as soon as possible. I know we have almost finished this particular academic year. It would be nice to think we could do it for the beginning of the next school year but that might be a little bit ambitious. Let's see. As quickly as possible would be our objective.
QUESTION:
Prime Minister, just on Ebola, will you reconsider sending out medical experts to West Africa?
PRIME MINISTER:
I am happy to come to that question in a moment but I would like to finish on STEM issues and Competitiveness Agenda issues before I get onto other subjects.
QUESTION:
Prime Minister how far have discussions gone between the governments on P-Tech?
PRIME MINISTER:
They have begun, as I understand it, but they have got a way to go. I know that there is a general enthusiasm from the Victorian Government for this. Certainly the Victorian Government has been keen to see more technology teaching in their schools. The Victorian Government has been keen to promote a school-based apprenticeship system. So, they are well disposed. Discussions have begun. Let's see how quickly we can get it into practice.
QUESTION:
On Competitiveness, will you listen to some of your Backbenchers possibly and let Australian firms tender into the submarine manufacturing process?
PRIME MINISTER:
The point I want to make is that we need to get the best possible submarines for our Navy and decisions about future submarines have to be made on the basis of what is best for our Armed Forces – not what is best for a particular region or what might be best for a particular company here in Australia.
The important thing is to make decisions based on what is best for our Armed Forces and what is best for the personnel who will serve in them in the future. The last thing we want is a substandard submarine. We would not want that. We would want the very, very best submarine that Australia can reasonably get access to. Like all of my colleagues, I would like to see our Armed Forces using Australian equipment wherever possible, but it has to be absolutely world class and it has to be at a competitive price.
QUESTION:
On Defence again, do we have an update on where Special Forces soldiers are at with Iraq?
PRIME MINISTER:
Look, we are no further advanced in terms of any announcement today than yesterday. We are working as quickly as we can with the United States and with the Iraqi Government to finalise a status of forces agreement. Our Special Forces are ready to go. They are ready to go. As far as this Government is concerned, we want to see them in Iraq as quickly as possible so they can work with the Iraqi Security Forces to ensure that the gains made by the ISIL death cult are halted and reversed as quickly as possible.
The ISIL death cult has declared war on the world. They are reaching out to Australia with the 60 or so Australians that are fighting with them and their allies already, the 100 or so Australians that are supporting them with recruitment and fundraising. So, the work the work that our Special Forces will do in Iraq is part of domestic security as well as part of international security.
QUESTION:
On Ebola, will you reconsider sending our medical experts to West Africa?
PRIME MINISTER:
We have done a lot on Ebola already. We have committed so far some $18 million to the efforts in West Africa. That is on top of the $40 million a year that we give to the World Health Organisation. About a fortnight ago, there was a UN meeting and we quickly stumped up an additional $10 million. We were thanked by the UN Chief for providing just the kind of quick and effective response that the situation demands. UN spokesman Nabarro said of Australia's $10 million contribution at that particular meeting, that it was, and I quote, "Just the kind of quick and effective response that the UN is seeking". We are doing a lot in West Africa.
I have to say that at the moment we are focused on ensuring that our hospitals here in Australia are well prepared to receive any Ebola patients should they get here. We are continuing to carefully screen people who are coming to this country from West Africa.
We are also preparing ourselves to respond should it be necessary to any regional outbreaks of Ebola, because, let's face it, there are some countries in our region whose public health systems are not as strong as Australia's and were Ebola to break out there, we would expect to be asked for assistance.
We are carefully monitoring the situation in West Africa, we are assisting the World Health Organisation and others to respond appropriately in West Africa, but we are also quite rightly and understandably focused on being prepared here at home and in our region.
QUESTION:
What's the latest advice on the Ebola risk here?
PRIME MINISTER:
We've had, as you know, a number of people report to hospital with symptoms. Thank God it's turned out that none of them have actually had the virus. We can't be certain that we won't get an Ebola patient here given international mobility. We certainly can't be certain that there won't be Ebola outbreaks in our region. So, the important thing is to be as prepared as possible.
What I am very reluctant to do, though, is to direct Australian personnel into an Ebola hot spot when we don't have any means of effectively evacuating such personnel back to Australia and we have no commitments from other countries to treat them there either.
I think it would be a little irresponsible of an Australian government to order Australian personnel into this very dangerous situation if we didn't have effective risk mitigation strategies in place, and at the moment there is no way of doing that.
QUESTION:
On terror laws, the legislation drafted by your Government proposes to hold the biometric data of potentially eight million Australians. Don't you consider that to be an invasion of privacy?
PRIME MINISTER:
This is a Government which will do everything we reasonably can to protect our people, and obviously, the Australian people are entitled to be protected against an outbreak of politically motivated hate crime here in Australia. That's what terrorism is: it's politically motivated hate crime. It's designed to scare people out of being themselves and that's why it's very important that we do everything we humanly can to ensure that it doesn't come to this country.
QUESTION:
So can you assure Australians then that they won't be subjected to identity theft?
PRIME MINISTER:
I can assure Australians that we are putting what we think is effective legislation into the Parliament. It is now being scrutinised as it should be by the Joint Standing Committee on Intelligence and Security. I hope we can have a bipartisan approach to this. I thank the Leader of the Opposition for the constructive bipartisanship that we've had up until now and I am confident that the scrutiny of that Committee will ensure that the legislation that comes forward is legislation that all reasonable Australians would support.
QUESTION:
What are your thoughts on Richard Flanagan's comments on your environmental policy?
PRIME MINISTER:
I am pleased that another Australian has won the Man Booker Prize. I haven't yet had a chance to look at the book but it must be pretty good or it wouldn't have won! I have read a couple of his previous works and I think he is an interesting and stimulating author. I don't spend my life commenting on literature and I will leave litterateurs to make their comments on politics.
I am confident that we are a country which has a very, very strong environmental record. We are taking strong and effective action against climate change. We are taking strong and effective action on practical environmentalism. We are deploying the Green Army to restore degraded bush, to clean up polluted waterways, to assist volunteers and councils and farmers in Landcare projects. We are investing massively in the health of the Great Barrier Reef. We have an environmental record which is absolutely second to none.
QUESTION:
Prime Minister, back on education, IBM are opening some data centres and rolling out their Watson technology in Australia, so they're spending a lot of time in Australia. Have they expressed an interest in going into education programmes like P-Tech?
PRIME MINISTER:
We have only just announced it and let's see which particular businesses put up their hands to say that they would like to help, but certainly, IBM have been very active in comparable schools in the United States. They're a great international company. Let's see if they volunteer to do similar work here.
QUESTION:
Prime Minister, would you support a public national sex offenders register similar to what the Northern Territory Government is planning?
PRIME MINISTER:
What other governments do is a matter for them. I am disinclined to pursue such a thing nationally. We don't have a national murderers register, we don't have a national thieves register, we don't have a national white collar criminals register. I am disinclined to single out particular crimes for particular public registers. I think the important thing is to do what we can to have strong and effective law enforcement agencies, to have strong and effective laws and I think if we've got strong and effective police forces, strong and effective criminal intelligence, if we have got judges and prosecuting services that are taking swift action when criminals or potential criminals are arrested, I think that's the best way forward.
Thank you.
[ends]