PREMIER BAIRD:
It’s great to be here with the Prime Minister announcing the start of another project here in Western Sydney. Bringelly Road is a critical road for the local community here. I’m delighted to be here with the Prime Minister and the Roads Minister and the Federal Assistant Minister for Infrastructure, because together we are building the roads for the future.
Why this is great news for this local community, because local community getting round day to day, congestion is relieved by improving these roads, but it is also future-proofing the city. So it is the future pathway to 30,000 new jobs at the airport and what we are doing together with the Federal Government is saying let’s not just build the airport here; let’s build the infrastructure first and as the airport comes and as the jobs come, let’s have the infrastructure to match.
Now, that has long been [inaudible] in terms of any former government, but this State Government, together with the Federal Government, myself together with the Prime Minister, we are proud to be delivering the infrastructure the community has long hoped for. Talking to the local members here today, they can’t believe that this infrastructure is being built. They’ve long spoken about it, long hoped for it. Well, it’s taken this State Government and this Federal Government to get it done.
This is a $500 million project. It is underway today. It is reflective of the work going on across this state. Whether it be the North-West Rail Link which is underway, the South-West Rail Link just next door which is being completed, we are building the infrastructure this city needs to be a global city. We are making it easy for locals and local communities to get around and we are also providing access and opportunities for tens of thousands of jobs. That is how you get a global city moving. We’re proud to be here delivering this for this community and this city. It needs it and it has taken the determination of this State Government and the Federal Government to deliver it.
PRIME MINISTER:
Thanks very much, Mike. Yes, it is very, very pleasing to be here to witness the start of the half a billion dollar Bringelly Road upgrade. This is a Commonwealth Government and a State Government which doesn't talk, which delivers. That's what we're on about – not talk, but delivering – and it's really important that we give ourselves the infrastructure that this city, this state and this country needs.
I hope to be known as an infrastructure Prime Minister; I know Mike wants to be known as an infrastructure Premier. There has been so much talk for so many years. Well, now the delivering is happening thanks to a strong Coalition Government in Macquarie Street and a strong Coalition Government in Canberra.
What's happening today is the beginning of the half a billion dollar Bringelly Road upgrade. It starts today. Stage One is finished by the end of next year. The whole road – the whole 10 kilometres – will be upgraded within four years. It's a very important part of our overall plan for Western Sydney of which the show piece, of course, will be the Western Sydney Airport that different governments have been talking about for 50 years, but which this Commonwealth Government, helped by the state, will finally deliver. But you're not getting just an airport; you're getting all of the associated infrastructure first so that when the airport comes, when the jobs come, it will be in a properly integrated way.
One of the reasons why I'm so keen to be an infrastructure Prime Minister is that more infrastructure means more growth and more growth means more jobs. This is a Government which is here to help create more jobs for the families of Australia and that means higher economic growth and that means more infrastructure like what we're seeing today.
So, I can't think of a better way to start 2015 than standing shoulder-to-shoulder with Mike Baird, announcing this very important infrastructure upgrade for the people of Western Sydney, for the people of New South Wales and ultimately Australia, because if Sydney is going well that's good for everyone.
It's great to be here with our parliamentary colleagues, with Russell Matheson, one of the local Members, with Jamie Briggs, the Assistant Infrastructure Minister who's done so much to make this work happen and, of course, with Duncan Gay who is masterminding the infrastructure expansion here in New South Wales. This is a very good day for the people of Western Sydney. It's a very good day for our economy, because better infrastructure means more growth and that means more jobs.
DUNCAN GAY:
Prime Minister and Premier, thank you for making this happen. The importance is that we're doing this before the major problems occur. We're actually building a road through virtually a greenfield site. That means we're not moving a lot of houses, we're not doing a retrofit, we're not coming in after the problems occur. Your initiatives have allowed us to go early. The other thing is that for the people of South-Western and Western Sydney, they've now become accustomed to diggers, scrapers, dozers, new ashfelt – something they hadn't seen before. They used to stop on the side of the road and gawk at a dozer or a digger; they’re now becoming used to it. They've got to be used to it for a long time in the future, because between the State and Federal Governments, we plan a lot of infrastructure in this region.
ASSISTANT INFRASTRUCTURE MINISTER:
Thank you, Prime Minister and Premier and Duncan. This is today about jobs: this project will help unlock jobs, it will create jobs in this construction, it will allow the South-West growth centre to create more jobs and, of course, when the Western Sydney Airport is built. Tony Abbott as Prime Minister said we would get on and make a decision and we would make it happen, this is part of the infrastructure plan that will make it happen.
Make no mistake, the Abbott Government along with the Baird Government will deliver this infrastructure. We laid down the plan last year, we are delivering the infrastructure this year and we'll have a new airport in Western Sydney in a decade and it'll have new roads servicing it. It will have jobs created in its construction, it'll have jobs ongoing for people in Western Sydney into the future.
Today is an example of the Abbott Government with the Baird Government delivering jobs and economic opportunity for people of Western Sydney, of New South Wales and of Australia. It's great to be part of what is the beginning of a year of delivery for the Abbott Government.
QUESTION:
Prime Minister, sorry to go off on a different topic straight away, but can you just clear up this reported discrepancy, this heated argument, you've had with the Treasurer? Is it true?
PRIME MINISTER:
No.
QUESTION:
It’s not true?
PRIME MINISTER:
It’s not true, not true. Look, as you'd expect, there are lots of vigorous discussions inside the Cabinet, inside the National Security Committee, inside the Expenditure Review Committee, but all decisions are unanimous and this certainly was a unanimous decision.
QUESTION:
Why exactly did the Government back down on the $20 rebate cut?
PRIME MINISTER:
Let's look at the Medicare big picture, because all of us want to see a strong and sustainable Medicare for the future. I was a Health Minister for four years. I like to think that I was the best friend that Medicare had ever had when I was the Health Minister and I am determined to ensure the Abbott Government is the best friend that Medicare ever has and the way to ensure that's the case is to make it sustainable for the future.
A decade ago we were spending $8 billion on Medicare. Today, we're spending $20 billion on Medicare. Without change we'd be spending $34 billion within a decade on Medicare, so we do need change to make a great system sustainable for the long-term.
Now, the principles that this Government is following are very clear. We want to absolutely protect bulk billing for the vulnerable. We want to maintain and, if possible, improve our health services. We do want to see more price signals in the system over time, but fundamentally, we want to protect what is a good system and that does mean ensuring that costs are under control.
QUESTION:
Do you concede that you got the politics of this wrong for 12 months when you started 2015 promising a reset, but really backflipping twice within a couple of months?
PRIME MINISTER:
What we've done is we've done what needs to be done. We've taken this particular element of a series of proposals off the table pending further consultation with the medical profession. Now, I think that's the sensible thing to do. If you propose something, if you find that it's causing a problem, you take it off the table, you consult, you fix it and that's exactly what we'll be doing.
QUESTION:
Did you make a captain's call and overrule Mr Hockey and Mr Dutton?
PRIME MINISTER:
No.
QUESTION:
Are you concerned about someone leaking Cabinet discussions? It can’t be helpful for you.
PRIME MINISTER:
Look, the important thing is to get these things right. We have vigorous discussions, as you'd expect. We come to a settled position, as you'd expect, but obviously, if it turns out that we've got something in mind that's going to have unintended adverse consequences, we take it off the table and we think it through again and that's what we're doing. But the fundamental principle is we've got to make Medicare sustainable. We've got to protect our great Medicare system and over time that does mean more price signals in the system.
Now it's interesting, I was reading the front page of one of our newspapers today and I saw the Shadow Treasurer say that Labor will have spending cuts and tax increases in the future. Now, here we have finally Labor letting the cat out of the bag. Labor has tax increases in store for us should they get back into government and I think it's high time that Bill Shorten either pulled the Shadow Treasurer into line or told us what Labor's secret tax increases are.
QUESTION:
Just on the Bali Nine with Myuran Sukumaran and Andrew Chan, you say you've made representations at the highest level. Have you personally spoken to the Indonesian President and how many times?
PRIME MINISTER:
I’m not going to go into the detail of who said what to whom and when, but yes, I have personally raised these matters with the President of Indonesia. Australia opposes the death penalty. We oppose it at home; we oppose it abroad. If any Australian is subject to the death penalty abroad we make the strongest possible representations. Indonesia is a close friend, it's a good friend. We hope that they will extend the prerogative of mercy to these two Australians who appear to be genuinely reformed characters, but in the end, we do have to respect that Indonesia is a sovereign country.
QUESTION:
The Government is still to get some big savings measures through the Senate from last year. Do you have any plans to make new or different savings in this year's Budget?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well, we got the fundamentals right last year. Yes, it's been a long, hard slog with the Senate and I dare say that long, hard slog will continue, because when you have an Opposition-controlled Senate, obviously, it's difficult for governments to get their legislative proposals through. In every sitting fortnight since the 1st of July last year, we have had at least one major piece of legislation through and while, yes, there is still a lot of work to be done, starting with the higher education changes, we did get $10 billion worth of savings through, associated with the mining tax repeal. I think we had some $13 billion from memory of savings associated with the foreign aid budget.
So, we are making significant savings. We must make significant savings because thanks to the appalling mismanagement of the former Labor government, right now we are borrowing a billion dollars every single month just to pay the interest on Labor's debt and that cannot go on. But the assurance I give to you is that this is a Government which is serious about economic reform, it's serious about Budget responsibility and I fear listening to the Labor Party that no one else is.
QUESTION:
Prime Minister, the situation on Manus Island, is that fully resolved now? Was force used to resolve that?
PRIME MINISTER:
There was a major challenge to the policy of the Government and I'm pleased to say that that challenge has been defeated. It has been defeated. Now, I want to thank everyone associated with Operation Sovereign Borders for the work that was done over recent months and weeks in the lead-up to this serious challenge to government policy. There was a well organised, well-coordinated protest, indeed in some parts of the Manus centre. It amounted to a blockade. That challenge – that blockade – has now been broken thanks to good work by Transfield and their incident response team backed up, of course, by the Royal Papua New Guinea Constabulary and I say well done to all of the Operation Sovereign Borders personnel and I say thank you to the Government of PNG for their help and support.
QUESTION:
Are you that confident no detainees were mistreated in this process?
PRIME MINISTER:
The important thing is that order has been restored. The blockade of the compound has been lifted, services are now resumed and that's got to be good for everyone.
QUESTION:
Being the 20th January, will we see the inquiry into the Sydney siege released in next week and are both of you open to seeing, perhaps, a judiciary inquiry if necessary?
PRIME MINISTER:
Let's wait and see what the inquiry that the Premier and I jointly announced in the aftermath of the siege comes up with. We asked the inquiry to come back to us by the end of the month. I suspect, at the latest, by the first week in February we should have that report. Certainly, I was talking to my Secretary about this yesterday. I met with the police and intelligence chiefs yesterday to discuss the ongoing domestic terrorism challenge and we did look at when that report is likely to be available and at least by the end of the first week in February we'll have it.
QUESTION:
So are you just indicating there it might be slightly delayed and is there a reason?
PRIME MINISTER:
There could be a delay of a few days, but nothing substantial and, obviously, we'll look at that report, we'll digest it and if more is needed, more will be done.
QUESTION:
Prime Minister, why didn’t you attend the launch of the Queensland LNP on Sunday and is there a bit of a theory you're electoral poison up there?
PRIME MINISTER:
Look, there were plenty of my Queensland federal colleagues there, as you'd expect. Campbell Newman is a very strong Premier. He's got a strong team with a strong plan for a stronger Queensland and he wants to run his own race. He wants to run his own race and who can blame him for wanting to run his own race? He doesn't need Tony Abbott or Julie Bishop or Joe Hockey to hold his hand. When there's a joint announcement to be made, we'll make them. We'll make them. I've made lots of joint announcements with Campbell in the past and I'll certainly be making lots of joint announcements with Campbell in the future.
QUESTION:
Premier Baird, do you expect the Prime Minister to be a large part of your election campaign?
PREMIER BAIRD:
I expect the Prime Minister to be here at these sorts of announcements. The Federal Government has put $10 billion into Western Sydney. That is infrastructure that Western Sydney has waited for, as we heard, that local communities have said we'd love to see it but we never have and they haven't got much hope of it happening. Well, under this State Government and under this Federal Government it is happening and this is billions of dollars that are going into roads, that are going into railways and providing opportunities for thousands – tens of thousands – of jobs. Now, that is good news for Western Sydney and I expect the Prime Minister to be here at these sort of announcements because together we are making a difference to the lives of people in Western Sydney. People might like to play political theatre, but, ultimately, what you want to see is governments of all persuasions delivering for their local communities. That's exactly what the Prime Minister and I are doing and we will continue to do.
PRIME MINISTER:
And if I may add, this is a national Government which has well and truly delivered for the people of Queensland. We scrapped the carbon tax, we scrapped the mining tax and these were taxes which disproportionately impacted on Queensland. We're spending $7 billion almost on the Bruce Highway. We're spending a billion dollars on the Gateway Motorway upgrade. We're spending hundreds of millions of dollars on the Range Bypass there at Toowoomba. So, this is a Government which is delivering as a national Government for the people of Queensland just as the Newman Government is delivering as a State Government for the people of Queensland.
QUESTION:
Prime Minister, you mentioned higher education earlier. Is there likely to be any changes to the higher education package? Are you considering pushing back the start date?
PRIME MINISTER:
Look, this is a very good package and it will be front and centre of the Government's legislative agenda as the Parliament begins in a couple of weeks’ time. So, it's a very good package. It is overwhelmingly supported by the universities. The universities know that this is an important reform for them and an important reform for our country. As always, the Labor Party would rather offer complaints than solutions and I saw no less a figure than Maxine McKew, a former Labor parliamentary secretary, a former Labor member of the Federal Parliament who was saying yesterday that Labor really needs to wake up to itself, work with the Federal Government and get this package passed because it's very important for our universities, it's very important for our future as a creative, dynamic society and economy, and that's why we are absolutely persisting with these important reforms.
[ends]