PRIME MINISTER:
It’s good to be here in Adelaide and it’s good to be at the Make-A-Wish Foundation lunch. It says something about the quality of South Australians that they have turned out in such numbers and with such enthusiasm for this excellent cause and I’m really pleased to be here in Adelaide for the next couple of days. I’m pleased to be talking with the Premier. I’m pleased to be talking with my own colleagues about what we can do to ensure that South Australia’s economic future is stronger and more prosperous than the recent past.
It's interesting listening to the people at the Make-A-Wish Foundation talk about the difference that confidence can make and certainly everything that this Government is about is about building confidence and optimism in Australia's future.
As I said in my speech earlier today, we can't banish death or disease, we can't banish the business cycle, we can't necessarily change international markets, but what we can banish is pessimism and defeatism. My message to the people of South Australia is that we can do it here, we can build things here, we can make things here, we can do it here, and that's what I'm very excited about.
Some of you know that I'll have more to say in the next day or so about naval ship building here in South Australia. I am confident that we can build good ships here in Australia. We've done it in the past. We can do it again in the future. The problem was that for six years under Labor, not a single naval ship building order was placed with an Australian yard. That means that the ‘valley of death’ is upon us. The announcements that I will make in the next day or so will ensure that never again do we have this problem of the ‘valley of death,’ that we do, in the future, have a continuous build of major surface warships here in Australia so that we have a viable and dynamic naval ship building industry here in Australia, particularly here in South Australia, that provides secure, long-term jobs for the great ship building workers of South Australia in particular.
So, I'm full of optimism about the future. I really am full of optimism about the future. This is a great state. We are a great country. We can get things done and I know that we will get great things done in the months and years ahead.
QUESTION:
Prime Minister, what about submarines for South Australia? When will that decision be made?
PRIME MINISTER:
There is a separate process, obviously, for surface warships to the process for submarines. The process for submarines was announced quite a few months ago. I'm hoping that towards the end of the year, or very early next year, we’ll have more to say about submarines. What I can definitely say about submarines is that whatever happens, there will be more submarine jobs here in Adelaide in the future than there have been in the recent past.
QUESTION:
Prime Minister, have you effectively sunk constitutional recognition of indigenous people through your letter that you’ve written?
PRIME MINISTER:
No, I am determined to ensure that we do get constitutional recognition. What I want to ensure is that it is worth doing and that it is doable – that's what I want to ensure. Now, plainly, it is important that there's a bipartisan approach. It is important that it's something that can be supported not just by indigenous people, but by Australians generally, because, while it is vital that we do acknowledge and recognise indigenous people in the constitution, ultimately our constitution has to belong to every Australian. It has to belong to every Australian, not just to any one section of our community.
QUESTION:
Given what's happened with Adam Goodes, though, do you expect that there will be some kind of consensus reached over this?
PRIME MINISTER:
That's certainly my hope and what I announced with the Leader of the Opposition just a couple of weeks back is an agreed process for going forward. We want to see a very large series of community conferences take place. Some of these community conferences obviously will take place in indigenous areas. We do need to have a strong and deep national conversation about this and my hope is – spurred by this process – that by the middle of next year we can have something approaching a consensus on what the desirable change might be.
QUESTION:
Prime Minister, South Australia is currently dealing with its highest unemployment rate in 15 years. In your time in the top job we've obviously seen the departure of Holden from South Australia. We’ve got a naval ship-building industry and the submarine building industry which is teetering on the precipice pending announcements which you’re going to make. What are you going to do to try and help this state arrest this jobs issue that it's got?
PRIME MINISTER:
We've already done a lot for South Australia and I'm determined to build on that in the next few days. You know that we've put more than a billion dollars into transforming the North-South Road Corridor and this is a really important infrastructure project for the State and I announced back in 2013 that as far as this Government in Canberra is concerned, within a decade the North-South Road is going to be an expressway standard the whole length – and I'm continuing to discuss further major projects with the Premier.
Jamie Briggs is continuing to discuss further major projects with the South Australian Roads Minister, so there will be more to say in the not-too-distant future about roads, but obviously, there is a problem with naval ship-building that the former government created because in six long years it made no decision to place any naval ship building order with an Australian yard and it made no decision on the next generation of submarines. Because of the procrastination of the former Labor government, we cannot entirely avoid the ‘valley of death’, but by doing intelligent things, which I will have more to say about in the next day or so, we can minimise this problem and by doing further intelligent things – like a commitment to a continuous build of major surface warships – we can ensure that never again do we get into this problem.
QUESTION:
Prime Minister, can you categorically rule out that either you or your office offered Bronwyn Bishop a position – a job – either now or into the future if she vacated the Speakership?
PRIME MINISTER:
Look, Bronwyn did the right thing yesterday. Obviously, she had done the wrong thing on a number of previous occasions, but she did the right thing yesterday and she did the right thing unprompted. Yes, there had been a number of conversations that I'd had with her over previous days and weeks, but she did the right thing unprompted after having done the wrong thing before and the important thing now is to ensure that we swiftly move to choose an effective new Speaker – a Speaker who can command the confidence of the House, and I'm sure that that will happen shortly, and then we've got to ensure that we do have root and branch reform of the whole system of MP’s expenses so that never again do we find ourselves in the position that we have found ourselves in with a number of Members of Parliament lately; that they have used expenses in ways that are within the rules but way outside community expectations. My mission here is to ensure that we do restore public faith in our Parliament, we do ensure that the public can have confidence that Members of Parliament are working for the Australian people and not simply off on frolics of their own.
QUESTION:
So you’re not categorically ruling out that she was offered another position if she stepped down?
PRIME MINISTER:
There has been no offer. Bronwyn came to the right decision. She came to the right decision and while she obviously had done the wrong thing in a number of significant respects, she abundantly did the right thing yesterday.
QUESTION:
Who will make a decision on the Speaker? Will it be yourself or will it be the Party Room?
PRIME MINISTER:
This is always a matter for the Party Room. Sometimes there’s only one nomination – there was only one nomination just after the election – but it's always a matter for the Party Room. The Party Room will choose a nominee and, obviously, the Government's nominee then goes before the Parliament and the Parliament ultimately determines who the Speaker will be.
QUESTION:
Prime Minister, do you have a preference of who the next Speaker could be?
PRIME MINISTER:
Look, I'm confident that there will be quite a number of good people who will indicate some interest in the job and then it will be up to the Party Room to make a decision. Whether there's a range of candidates who offer themselves to the Party Room, whether a consensus develops behind a particular candidate, well, that's a matter that will unfold in the next few days.
QUESTION:
Has the office of the Speaker or Parliament been damaged by this?
PRIME MINISTER:
Look, as you know, there was a monumental controversy involving a former Speaker in the last Parliament and I think this is a qualitatively different thing and, again, it’s been resolved by the Speaker standing down. It’s going to be improved by this root and branch reform of politicians’ expenses which frankly is long overdue – it’s long overdue. This Government did make some important changes back in late 2013. We stopped MPs going overseas in first class. We banned MPs employing immediate family members in their offices. We reformed family travel both in Australia and overseas. These were some very significant changes, but obviously, a lot more work needs to be done and that’s what this root and branch reform process is all about.
QUESTION:
Prime Minister, will there be any conditions added to the ship building programme in South Australia? Are you going to be applying any conditions to that?
PRIME MINISTER:
Plainly, we want to ensure that everything that is done with taxpayers’ dollars is good value. I’ve always made the point that, in the end, procurement decisions – military procurement decisions – have got to be made on the basis of military criteria rather than industry or regional criteria, but I’ve also made the point time and time again that under the right circumstances Australians can do this. We can do it very well. The Anzac frigate programme was a highly successful program. Austal in Perth are making, very successfully, warships, not just for Australia, but indeed Austal are making warships for the United States, partly in Australia, in fact mostly overseas, but nevertheless, they’ve certainly produced warships for export as well as vessels for the Australian Navy.
So, I am confident that we can have a viable, sustainable long-term naval ship building industry here in Australia, centred in South Australia, and we’ll be making announcements in the next day or so which will give South Australians, will give the naval ship builders of this country, confidence that they have a strong and dynamic future and that's what I'm on about: I am about ensuring that we have a better future than the recent past. The former government was a monumental shambles when it comes to naval ship building, as with so much else. Things can and will be better – and they can and will be better because this Government will make the right decisions.
Thank you.
[ends]