ALAN JONES:
The Prime Minister is on the line ahead of opening today and the title of the summit is very significant, it is called the Regional Countering Violent Extremism Summit: Challenging Terrorist Propaganda. The focus on propaganda. The Prime Minister is on the line. Prime Minister, good morning.
PRIME MINISTER:
Morning, Alan.
ALAN JONES:
So, this is about this online environment, I guess, the internet and everything else, social media which has no borders and so basically this stuff can be fed to people, young people, all around the world.
PRIME MINISTER:
That is exactly right, Alan, and what we have seen in Australia is quite young adolescents, almost children, who have been radicalised online by participating in chat rooms with people all around the world.
There are Daesh Death Cult recruiters based not only in Syria but also in Europe who are in contact with young people in Australia and at least some of these young people have tried to go to the Middle East to join the Death Cult there. Some of them, I regret to say, have sought to carry out terrorist attacks here.
So, this is a very dangerous global network – it’s not just something that is happening in the Middle East. The conflict in the Middle East is reaching out to us even in suburban bedrooms. That is the nature of the security challenge that we face, Alan.
ALAN JONES:
To the layman, you know, you’d say, well how the hell are you going to do this? How do you develop these resources when in fact this crowd ISIL, ISIS – whatever you call them – are disseminating I see up to 100,000 pieces of propaganda a day?
PRIME MINISTER:
The purpose of this regional summit is to look at what our friends and partners are doing, to share with them what we’re doing to try to work out what is best practice and to try and coordinate, as far as we can, with our security and intelligence agencies and our police services. So, we are better able to combat this. It’s a hydra- headed monster I accept that, Alan, I really do but this is no grounds for giving up. It is a reason, a very urgent reason, for redoubling our efforts and that is what this conference is all about.
ALAN JONES:
Good on you, well it’s called the Regional Countering Violent Extremisms Summit with the subtitle Challenging Terrorist Propaganda in Sydney. To matters closer to home Prime Minister, I mentioned yesterday I had no trouble whatever with Joe Hockey’s comments. I thought they were spot on. If you want to afford something, you ought to earn to pay for it. So, I don’t have a problem with that but at the same time what we do have a problem with is, and I see you made reference to this in relation to your daughters yesterday which I thought was very valid. Can I ask you because you are the Prime Minister how does a young person, or a young couple –I have them here, you have daughters – with a HECS debt of $40,000 paying rent $400 or $500 a week even if they are sharing – how do they afford a house on $500,000, if they are lucky in Sydney, which will require a deposit of $100,000. So, they have got to pay off their HECS debt, pay their rent and save $100,000. I’m not a defeatist – but that is impossible.
PRIME MINISTER:
Well, it is not impossible, Alan, because remarkably a lot of people do it. It is not easy – no doubt about that. I have got three daughters, as you know, one of them has just managed to get into the housing market, albeit in Canberra, and yes I suppose she has had a couple of lucky breaks along the way. The other two are looking at the housing market and thinking, “my God, it is a daunting task”. The point that Joe was making the other day is that you don’t want to over extend yourself and the better off you are the easier it is. I guess that is the reason to be constantly trying to better yourself, constantly trying to improve your job and so on.
What we can never have though are Government policies that make it harder and this is why I am so concerned about the Labor Party’s apparent attempts to dabble with negative gearing because if you muck around with negative gearing effectively you put rents up. If you look at what the Labor Party is proposing at the moment they want to hit your super with more tax, they apparently want to drive down the value of your existing home and now it seems they want to put rent up by fiddling with negative gearing.
ALAN JONES:
Of course they’re the past masters the Labor Party at spending without worrying about how you have to pay and I thought Joe Hockey addressed the issue about making sure you can pay before you spend. Nonetheless, can I just say to you, at the Canberra level, I know many of these issues are state issues. I could nominate to you now developers whom actually you know – I am going to leave them unnamed – who are shovel ready. Each of them could now, tomorrow, start five, six, ten thousand apartments ready to go but there is a Department of Planning, Department of Environment, there is an Urban Growth Department and these bureaucracies just consistently stand in the way. Joe Hockey made the point – supply and demand – we may need more supply, more stock – don’t we?
PRIME MINISTER:
Dead right. The red and the green tape is literally killing people when it comes to getting them into the housing market and this is why the Commonwealth Government is trying massively to reduce red tape and one of the things you would have noticed, Alan, is that Greg Hunt the Commonwealth Environment Minister has provided environmental go-aheads to more than $1 trillion worth of new projects. So, as far as is humanly possible we are trying to ensure that we are not the people standing in the way of these developments going ahead.
ALAN JONES:
Let’s go to the other end of the spectrum where I think Government is standing in the way; the heroes of Australia – the self-funded retirees. Now, we must have to believe that they are cheats and liars and swindlers because they made statutory to draw down a certain percentage of their self-managed super fund for fear they will do this awful thing and leave something to their children. So, if they are under 65 they have got to withdraw 4 per cent every year. So, if there is a million dollars, which they would be dam lucky, but supposing a million because the math is easy. They would have to draw down $40,000. They are not earning $40,000 with their interest rates. So, they are drawing down on their capital. How does that help keep them off welfare? I am begging you to think about changing the draw down rates.
PRIME MINISTER:
Well, a couple of points, Alan. The tax payer funded superannuation, or tax payer assisted superannuation contributions are there to help fund people’s retirement. They are not explicitly there to help people to give a nest egg to their kids. That said, all of us, quite properly, want to do the right thing by our children and I know every parent is quite proud of the fact that he or she will be making some kind of a contribution to the welfare, the ongoing welfare of their children, even after they are gone.
ALAN JONES:
But I am just saying to you on the draw down rates for example when he is 65 the draw down rate is 5 per cent. Now, taking the million, which you would be lucky to have but suppose he gets a million, he has got to draw down $60,000 – he or she – they’re not earning $60,000 with interest rates where they are. Shouldn’t the Government say, given the state of interest rates, we are going to halve these draw down rates?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well, this is something that the Government is looking at, I understand that…
ALAN JONES:
When can you make a decision? Does it cost you anything by the way?
PRIME MINISTER:
I understand that this review is close to being complete and we will have more to say…
ALAN JONES:
But it doesn’t cost you anything.
PRIME MINISTER:
I take your point, Alan. I do take your point. I just make the other point though that that retirement nest egg is designed to fund people’s retirement. It’s not necessarily designed to be an ongoing…
ALAN JONES:
But they’re not doing that, they’re not doing that! If they keep eating into capital they finish up on welfare which is the last thing you need.
PRIME MINISTER:
That is again a very fair point and thank God that there are so many people who have put so much aside…
ALAN JONES:
They’re heroes.
PRIME MINISTER:
…so that they are not a burden on the taxpayer and the point I keep making is that the one thing this Government has not the slightest intention of doing is loading more taxes on people’s superannuation.
Again, that is something the Labor Party does because they think that people’s super savings are a piggy bank for Government rather than something that people have put aside for themselves and ultimately for their children and grandchildren.
ALAN JONES:
I will keep hammering you on these draw downs.
PRIME MINISTER:
And look I understand that, Alan…
ALAN JONES:
Good, good.
PRIME MINISTER:
It’s very important to your listeners and it is something that we are looking at.
ALAN JONES:
It is very important. Now, you have just done a deal with the Labor Party over Renewable Energy Targets which I personally think are ridiculous. I don’t know how any Government could give a green light to wind power. You have got a Senate Inquiry into wind farms. It is an inquiry with all government and most crossbench support. It had its fifth public hearing yesterday.
Senator Leyonhjelm wrote yesterday and I have talked about this for years – quote, “it is beyond dispute that wind turbines emit infrasound and low frequency noise. It is well established that inappropriate levels of infrasound, regardless of the source, cause adverse health impacts. Since 1987,” he wrote, when Neil Kelly and I spoke about this a million times, “identified a direct cause or link between impulsive infrasound and low frequency noise had adverse effects on people.” He said, as part of the inquiry, “I have met these effected people, they tell me they mainly suffer from chronic sleep, some suffer from sinus pressure, tinnitus, pains in the chest, headaches, nausea and vertigo.” Prime Minister, these people are refugees in their own homes. You have done a deal on Renewable Energy which includes wind power when there is a Senate Inquiry highlighting the deleterious effects these turbines are having on public health. When will someone in Government listen to these poor people and the problems they face? I mean if it didn’t effect health put them on top of parliament House, put them on Macquarie Street, put them on Parramatta Road.
PRIME MINISTER:
Well, there are two issues here, Alan. One is the proximity of these things to people’s dwellings and I think that is a very important issues and the state government here in New South Wales, as I understand it, has increased the distance that these have got to be kept away from dwellings...
ALAN JONES:
Not really.
PRIME MINISTER:
… and the former Liberal Government in Victoria did likewise.
ALAN JONES:
No.
PRIME MINISTER:
Well, Alan, look, I do take your point about the potential health impact of these things. When I have been up close to these windfarms there’s no doubt not only are they visually awful but they make a lot of noise…
ALAN JONES:
So, why are we allowing this? We have done a deal. Why are we allowing this? Leyonhjelm wrote yesterday, he said, “this all reminds me of big tabacco’s denials 50 years ago that cigarettes caused lung cancer.” They denied it. This is having deleterious effects on people’s health and no one, they have written to you, they have written to Sussan Ley, they don’t get an answer.
PRIME MINISTER:
Well, I hope they get an answer from me because I do try to respond to the letters that I get.
ALAN JONES:
So, what are you saying to these poor people?
PRIME MINISTER:
The sites of these things is a matter for the state government.
ALAN JONES:
It is!
PRIME MINISTER:
What we did recently in the Senate was reduce, Alan, reduce capital R E D U C E, we reduce the number of these things that we are going to get in the future. Now, I would frankly have liked to reduce the number a lot more.
ALAN JONES:
Good, well you are the boss.
PRIME MINISTER:
We got the best deal we could out of the Senate and if we hadn’t had a deal, Alan, we would have been stuck with even more of these things.
ALAN JONES:
Isn’t it fair to say, Prime Minister, if it such a good thing, I mean there are people listening to you now and they have got up at 5 o’clock they are only going to make $900 a week if they are lucky. They have rolled their sleeves up. You are not subsidising their little business whether they are breaking bread. Why are we subsidising China’s windfarm at Gullen Range which is illegal? Why?
PRIME MINISTER:
Alan, this particular policy was a policy that was put in place in the late days of the Howard Government. Knowing what we know now I don’t think we would have gone down this path in this way. At the time we thought it was the right way forward. Sometimes you have got to deal with the situation that you have got rather than the ideal and what we have managed to do through this, admittedly imperfect but better than the alternative deal with the Senate is reduce the growth rate of this particular sector as much as the current Senate would allow us to do.
ALAN JONES:
Ok, I haven’t got time to raise with you foreign ownership I might write to you about that. You must understand, I’m sure, the massive anger. I was just going through a list last night where magnificent Australian properties have been sold to foreign interests; whether it is Canada, Hong Kong – I am looking at the list here – Chinese, Indonesia buying dairy farms and all the rest of it. Perhaps we can discuss that at another point because in the limited time that is left I just want to ask you, as the Prime Minister, don’t you see yourself responsible for letting the workers of Australia know whether Mr Shorten who wants to be Prime Minister as Secretary of the Victorian AWU did deals – plural – with employers which dudded his workers and their entitlements? Shouldn’t you be making sure the public know where the truth lies here?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well, this is why we have got this Royal Commission into Union Corruption and misgovernance going on. There was pretty startling revelations at the Royal Commission in the last week or so about that Australian Workers Union which Mr Shorten used to head up and what has been happening in that Union is that companies have been dudding their workers as part of a sweetheart deal with the unions. The Union has been padding its membership, it has been boosting its power at Labor Party conferences at the expense of workers. Now, I think this is pretty scandalous, we have got one Labor member of Parliament in Victoria who has had to stand down from his position and he was Bill Shorten’s successor as the…
ALAN JONES:
Mr Shorten signed off on the first of these deals in 2004.
PRIME MINISTER:
Well, these are the questions that Mr Shorten needs to answer because we have got one senior Labor figure who has stood down from his position in the Victorian Parliament obviously these are matters that Bill Shorten is very, very familiar with.
ALAN JONES:
So, you will be getting some answers I hope. Look, we are running out of time. What I want to ask you very quickly, I heard you address an answer in the Parliament on this inborn error of metabolism. I know that is complicated and this is for children born with this inborn error of metabolism and the parents are writing to me and I know that you have some questions about this. They were getting $250 a month to help with extra costs because they have to have special food for a medically prescribed diet. Now, in the 15 seconds that are left are you happy that they know exactly the kind of changes you made and that they are not worse off?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well, I am never happy that the information is getting out accurately given that it is so easy to run scare campaigns. We are spending a lot of money on drugs for this condition. The problem that that payment was designed to address in the Howard era is not as acute as it was. The Health Minister Sussan Ley is talking to the families, is talking to the representative groups to see if we can come up with a satisfactory way forward.
ALAN JONES:
Ok, good on you. Thank you for your time as always. Good luck today.
PRIME MINISTER:
Thanks so much, Alan.
[ends]