PRIME MINISTER:
It’s good to be here at St Mark’s Coptic Church, it’s good to be here with some many of my colleagues. This has been a marvellous community event, a marvellous opportunity to pay tribute to the Coptic community in Australia and to show solidarity with the Copts of the Middle East who have been persecuted for many, many years. These are difficult times, they’re difficult times in many parts of the world and yet there are signs of hope, certainly the new President of Egypt, President el-Sisi, is reaching out to the Copts of Egypt and that’s obviously good news for the Coptic community everywhere.
A couple of other subjects I probably should just briefly raise. First of all, on a very enthusiastic and triumphant note, it's great to see the Socceroos win the Asian Cup last night, fantastic to see Ange Postecoglou and his team succeed after a pretty frustrating time at the World Cup. I know everyone who loves football was so enthusiastic and thrilled at about 10 o'clock last night. Great effort, Socceroos.
There are more, I regret to say, tragic intimations of another atrocity by the death cult, if true, this will be a terrible shock for the people of Japan, an unspeakable horror for the family and this just demonstrates how important it is that all countries do what they reasonably can to disrupt and degrade this death cult which has ushered in a new dark age over parts of the Middle East.
Finally, I should just say to Campbell Newman how much I feel for him on what is obviously a difficult day for him and his government. I've spoken to Campbell last night – I will be speaking to him again today. He’s been a good premier who led a good government. Obviously there are lessons from the result in Queensland. The lessons are not to give up on reform, but to make sure that everything you propose is fully explained and well justified and obviously that's a lesson that we’re determined to learn in Canberra as well.
QUESTION:
How much blame do you take, Mr Abbott, for the Queensland election result?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well, it's interesting, I saw some of the leaders' debate, I saw some of the people's forum, and no federal issues were raised, so…
QUESTION:
The knighthood effect must have had an impact, mustn’t it?
PRIME MINISTER:
It was a distraction for a couple of days, I accept that and I very much regret that, but in the end, the voters of Australia are pretty smart. They judge state elections on state issues and they judge federal elections on federal issues, and as I say, Campbell was a good Premier who ran a good government, but there are obviously lessons in the election result last night and we're determined to learn them in Canberra.
QUESTION:
Prime Minister, political observers say that the problems that befell the Campbell Newman government are the same problems that are occurring with the Federal Government at the moment in that they're not listening to voters, they’re not prosecuting their reforms properly. What kind of lessons are you going to learn personal from that election?
PRIME MINISTER:
I am determined to ensure that Australia does not join the weak government club of the world. I am determined to ensure that Australia has a government that does what is necessary to build a strong and prosperous economy for a safe and secure Australia. Let's not forget that just 16 months ago, the people of Australia elected a Government and a Prime Minister to clean up Labor's mess, to build a strong and prosperous economy for a safe and secure Australia, and that is exactly what we're doing. Every single day, we have been hard at work with the best interests of the Australian people at heart. Now, I don't say for a second that we haven't made mistakes. I don't say for a second that we can't do things better, but I am not going to be distracted from the essential task of giving this country the good government that it deserves.
QUESTION:
Mr Abbott, your personal approval rating is 27 per cent. Can you recover from that?
PRIME MINISTER:
As I said, the people of Australia elected me as Prime Minister and they elected my Government to get on with the job of governing our country, to clean up Labor's mess. They elected us to do the right thing by our country, and I accept that we've had some difficulties – I accept that we've had some difficulties. I accept that we need to learn from the difficulties that we've had, but in the end, government is not a popularity contest, it is a competence contest. That's what it is, and that's what we are determined to continue to be: a strong and competent Government which is delivering for the people of Australia.
QUESTION:
What do you say about comments from one of your own backbenchers that your leadership should be up for discussion after this result in Queensland?
PRIME MINISTER:
Obviously people are able to raise whatever subject they want with me and that's exactly what they do every day. Every day I'm out amongst the people of Australia. You saw me out amongst the people of Australia just a few moments ago here at St Mark Church and I am always ready to discuss with them whatever is on their mind, and that's the way I've always been, that's the way I will always be.
QUESTION:
But Mal Brough has been asked to challenge your leadership. So how safe is it, really?
PRIME MINISTER:
As I said, we are getting on with the job of doing exactly what the Australian people elected us to do: to clean up Labor's mess, to build a strong and prosperous economy for a safe and secure Australia. Every day since the election, that's what we've been doing and every day until the next election, that's exactly what we will be doing.
QUESTION:
If your judgement is one of the central problems at the moment, how do you actually fix that? What processes are you going to do now to make sure that you have better judgement in the future?
PRIME MINISTER:
As I said, we are doing what we were elected to do.
QUESTION:
But clearly looking at the opinion polls it shows that it’s not very popular, so wouldn't the Government have to try and do something different?
PRIME MINISTER:
What we’re doing is we are building a strong and prosperous economy for a safe and secure Australia. I accept that there have been some difficult times – I absolutely accept that. And obviously we've had some difficulties in the Senate, but we have listened, we have learnt, we will be a more consultative and collegial Government in 2015 than we were in 2014. We will not take the Senate for granted in 2015, as perhaps sometimes we were tempted to do in 2014. But the important thing is not to naval gaze, it's not to focus on ourselves, the important thing is to get on with the job of being a better Government today than we were yesterday, being a better Government tomorrow than we are today. That's the constant challenge of government, every day to get on with delivering for the Australian people.
QUESTION:
Paid maternity leave, what's happening there? I mean, that’s going to be a big blow to people, isn’t it?
PRIME MINISTER:
I said before Christmas that I would be working over the break on a holistic families package, which would scale back and better target paid parental leave, it would focus on childcare. The important thing is to do what's best for families right now and I will have more to say about this in the next day or so.
Thank you so much.
[ends]