PRIME MINISTER:
Good morning. It’s excellent to be here at Southern Dental Industries. This is a great Australian business, which employs about 200 people locally, more overseas, exporting to 100 plus countries. It’s precisely the kind of business that is going to benefit from the Free Trade Agreement that we’ve just finalised with China. Currently, these products face a five per cent tariff going into China and that tariff will be eliminated under the Free Trade Agreement. That will give them a significant cost advantage and so a company which currently has about 2 per cent of the world’s market in dental amalgams and dental fillings will have a chance to dramatically increase its market share. So, this is good news for jobs, it’s good news for prosperity. Trade means jobs, freer trade means more jobs.
This is a Government which is doing the things that the Labor Party couldn’t do. It’s undoing the mess that the Labor Party made. For 10 years, the Labor Party couldn’t get these sorts of agreements finalised. They were started by the Howard Government, they were finalised by the Abbott Government while Labor had six years of procrastination, chaos and confusion.
One of the biggest disasters of all under Labor was the border protection crisis. That has been brought very much under control by this Government. The boats have all but stopped and last night in the Senate, in what was a big win for our country, the Senate supported the reintroduction of Temporary Protection Visas. We always said that three things were necessary to stop the boats – offshore processing, turning boats around and Temporary Protection Visas – and last night, the final piece of policy was put in place. This will enable the Government to deal with the backlog of 30,000 people who came to Australia illegally by boat under Labor. These people, if they're found to be refugees, will receive Temporary Protection Visas which means that no one coming to Australia illegally by boat can expect to get permanent residency.
So, again, this is a Government doing what Labor couldn't do, fixing the mess that Labor created. We didn't create these problems, we take responsibility for fixing them. Labor won't even admit to creating them in the first place. That's the culture of denial which is afflicting the Labor Party in Canberra. Nothing's changed and if they ever got back into Government they'd be even worse next time than they were last time.
It's a pleasure to be here with Alan Tudge, my Parliamentary Secretary, in the heart of his electorate and I know he wants to talk about some of the exciting prospects for the people of Aston as a result of the Free Trade Agreement.
ALAN TUDGE:
Thank you, Prime Minister, and thank you Prime Minister for coming here and can I thank Jeff Cheetham for hosting us here today at his business. This is a fantastic local business which is going to be a great beneficiary of the Free Trade Agreements, particularly with China. It will be manufacturing and selling even more products to China. But it's not the only business in the local area. There's a pharmaceuticals business just down the road; it's also a beneficiary. There's a milk producer just down the road; it's also a beneficiary. There's hair products producers just down the road and it will be able to sell more products into China. What all that means is more jobs for local people, more wealth for local people and more opportunities for local people.
So, overall, these Free Trade Agreements are fantastic for local constituents here in the outer east. I'm so proud of this Government to be able to achieve those Free Trade Agreements, because at the end of the day, these Free Trade Agreements mean more jobs, more investment and more wealth.
PRIME MINISTER:
Ok, do we have any questions?
QUESTION:
Prime Minister, you're obviously talking up the positives this morning. Looking back at the year, out of a score of 10, what would you give your performance?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well, I know other people will rate our performance and I'm not going to do their job for them. The trouble with giving yourself a score is that if you say 10 out of 10, people think you're full of yourself and if you say six out of 10, people think that you're not sufficiently full of self-confidence.
Obviously, there is more to do. There is always more to do, but I'd much rather be a glass half full person than a glass half empty person. Australians are by nature optimists and I think that a lot is going right for Australia. If you look at the general economy, we've got retail sales that are up six per cent against a year ago, we've got housing starts at near record levels, we've got job creation at twice the rate this year than last year, we've had the business conditions survey record the biggest jump since 1998.
So, a lot of good things are happening and if you look at the Government, two of the most intractable problems that governments faced in recent times – the boats and the budget – we are addressing both of them with an absolute clarity of purpose and an absolute strength of character and you are already, even on the Budget, starting to see some very strong results and the boats, as I said, have all but stopped.
QUESTION:
What would you give Joe Hockey out of 10?
PRIME MINISTER:
Again, I rate Joe very highly indeed and the public should, too, because the Treasurer of the Commonwealth of Australia, particularly when you've just had six years of chaos and scandalous fiscal mismanagement, has probably the hardest job in the country. Joe is tackling with this with a will, with a purpose, with a single-mindedness and a strength of character which was completely absent under Labor.
QUESTION:
Mr Abbott, in regards to the TPV legislation, would you say that's a welcome win for the Government?
PRIME MINISTER:
It's a win for Australia. It's a win for Australia, because the Australian people deserve secure borders and no Australian wants to see hundreds of people dying at sea, which is what you got under Labor. So, this is a win for Australia, it's also a win for humanitarian values, it's a win for human decency and I say thank you to the crossbench and the Senate for being prepared to do what Labor couldn't face up to. The Labor Party, which created this disaster, they blocked and wrecked every attempt to fix it, but the crossbench has shouldered its responsibility and while I've had my frustrations and arguments with the crossbench over the last few months, I tell you what, they're a lot more responsible than Bill Shorten and the Labor Party.
QUESTION:
But if you're willing to release children now, why not do it earlier? Why not take them out of detention earlier?
PRIME MINISTER:
The important thing is to stop the situation where the numbers of children in detention were just building up and up and up, where the numbers of people, including children, dying at sea was just going up and up and up. And now, thanks to the legislation that was passed last night, we have very effective deterrence in place to ensure that the evil trade of people smuggling does not get going again.
QUESTION:
Do you think with Labor in power now in Victoria at a state level, it's going to be harder for your Government, or for your Party, to gain traction between now and the next federal election in Victoria?
PRIME MINISTER:
We've got some terrific local members here in Victoria. Alan Tudge is my Parliamentary Secretary, but he's also a very effective local member. You just heard Alan talking about all the businesses in his electorate which are going to benefit from the Free Trade Agreement. This is a sign of someone who knows his electorate. Michael Sukkar in Deakin, Jason Wood in La Trobe, Sarah Henderson in Corangamite, these are all outstanding local members and I expect them to be returned at the next election. I think we'll be competitive in seats like McEwen at the next election, because what we want to deliver is real benefits and real outcomes for the people of Victoria.
We went to the election campaigning very strongly for East West Link. I believe the people of Victoria want East West Link. Notwithstanding the change of government, I think people still want East West Link built and my appeal to Daniel Andrews is don't throw 250 people out of work on the eve of Christmas, keep East West Link going, because East West Link means 7,000 jobs and it means a better life for millions of Victorians.
QUESTION:
Are you willing to put the $3 billion of federal money into other projects which Labor claims are ready to go off the shelf?
PRIME MINISTER:
We're happy to look at proposals that the Victorian Government puts forward on their merits, but $3 billion in federal money is reserved for the East West Link. If they've got other proposals that they want to put to us, by all means put them, but we want East West Link built and there's $3 billion of federal money that is put aside for East West Link when the Victorian Government finally comes to its senses.
QUESTION:
So you don't think the Labor Government here has a mandate to scrap the East West Link?
PRIME MINISTER:
I think the Government has a mandate to do the right thing by the people of Victoria. This Government – this federal Government – absolutely has a mandate to build the East West Link because this was the centrepiece of the commitment that we made at the federal poll just 12 months or so back to the people of Victoria.
QUESTION:
This is a bit bizarre, but could you override the state Government and build it yourself?
PRIME MINISTER:
I don't think you can realistically build something like this without cooperation between the Commonwealth and the states. So regrettably, no, we couldn't override the state Government, but I am appealing to the state Government, look at the big picture. I'm happy to work with the Victorian Government on some of its priorities, but in return, I think it should be prepared to work with the Commonwealth Government on our priorities and our number one infrastructure project in Victoria is the East West Link. It's not the only one – there's the Great Ocean Road, there's the widening of the Tullamarine Freeway – there are all sorts of projects that we are happy to support here. We're happy to work with them, but they should work with us as well.
QUESTION:
This morning were you stuck in traffic coming out here?
PRIME MINISTER:
The traffic was a little easier than it sometimes is because I left just after the main peak. But everyone who has used Hoddle Street, Alexandra Parade, Flemington Road, knows what a nightmare that is and it's pretty well a weekend nightmare as well as a weekday peak nightmare and that's what East West Link is aiming to fix. It's not just fixing things for motorists; it's helping the residents, too, who will have their suburbs returned to them if East West Link is built.
QUESTION:
Just one quick question about Aboriginal Social Justice Commissioner, Mick Gooda's, report. I’m not sure if you’re aware of it, but he said the overrepresentation of indigenous Australians is the most urgent human rights issue facing the nation today. What are you doing to tackle this?
PRIME MINISTER:
The best thing we can do for indigenous people is to get the kids to school, the adults to work and the community safe. That is the absolute total preoccupation of this Government in indigenous policy: to get the kids to school, the adults to work, communities safe. We’ve just seen the Forrest report – the Twiggy Forrest report into economic and social dysfunction in Aboriginal and remote communities – and we'll be responding to that very soon. But we are absolutely determined to ensure that sit down money is ended and we will take strong steps to try to ensure that people's welfare payments are not wasted on booze and cigarettes and gambling, because the taxpayer of Australia quite rightly supports people in need, regardless of their ethnicity or background or geographical location, but it's right and proper that people act responsibly and that's what our changes will be designed to bring about.
[ends]