ANGUS TAYLOR:
Welcome everybody to beautiful Yass. The country is looking absolutely fantastic and it is a real pleasure to have the Prime Minister, the Trade Minister and the Agriculture Minister here, in Yass, to talk about agriculture and the extraordinary things we are seeing in this region, the extraordinary benefits we are seeing in the region from Agriculture and the absolutely unprecedented opportunities we’re seeing in agricultural markets at the moment that we must realise in the coming years. Regions like this are dependent on it, our investment, our jobs are dependent on it and so we want to see much more of it.
I also want to thank Rowena and Brendan Abbey for having us here today, who are the hosts here and as you see it is a wonderful place, with their cattle which are being exported right now into markets around the world. They are exactly the sort of opportunities that they are chasing that we want to see much more of in the coming years.
So, on that note I will hand over to the Minister for Agriculture, Barnaby Joyce.
AGRICULTURE MINISTER:
Well, thank you very much Angus, Prime Minister, Andrew, one and all. It is great to be back here at Yass. It is great to be back, actually it is a distant cousin’s place so obviously we are in good breed stock on both occasions. Agriculture is doing its job. It has been an incredible turn-around in this term of government.
If you just have a look at those cattle there, they are standing there at about $1,400 a head. What does that mean for Australia? Let’s just go through some simple numbers. There are about 45,000 – 50,000 people that are employed in the processing sector for cattle. That is real jobs, that is real opportunity, that means it is not just the Abbeys on this property that are making a buck. It is all those meat workers, it is the IT people, it is the people who are in trade – all making a buck. It is about another 150,000 people on top of that who are also added to that job component. So, you have about 45 – 50,000 people plus another 150,000 people added to it. It is in excess of between $7 and $8 billion take home income in wages and salaries that is going through the economy because of the cattle industry.
Our nation, and we should be proud of it, turns over in around about between 7 and 9 million head a year. We are getting record prices, this is in dollar terms, it's as high as it's ever been – as high as it's ever been. So, this really does show you that a difference in Government makes a difference because I can assure you that, if we didn't have a Prime Minister, such as Tony Abbott, and we didn't have a Trade Minister, such as Minister Robb and if we didn't have that acumen, then we wouldn't have the capacity to deliver this return back to the Australian people. So, we are just going to keep working as hard as we can and we are going to keep making sure that money flows back not only on to this property but flows back through Yass, flows back through Roma, back through Coonamble, flows back through Cunnamulla and flows through the streets – flows through Collins Street and flows through Martin Place. This is how you get an economy going. This is how you make a difference.
TRADE MINISTER:
Thanks Barnaby, PM, Angus, Rowena and Brendan, congratulations on so much of what you have done here and also the plans you have got – saleyards and all the rest – it's a great sign of the confidence that is starting to emerge again in the rural sector. I just want to say a couple of words about the importance of the free trade agreements. These cattle behind us have gone up in value every month for the last seven or eight or nine months.
The Free Trade Agreements for Korea and Japan came in at the start of the year, took off tariffs immediately, significant tariff elimination in Korea, 10 per cent, we got a 10 per cent margin over our biggest competitor in Japan which is the U.S. already. This is the competition that is driving the prices up. Now, we're in prospect of the big one. China will take that to another level, that competition. Already Barnaby has been successful in getting a health protocol concluded recently, we are getting cooperation on so many fronts because of the signing of that deal. That health protocol for live cattle will put a floor in the market, competition for Indonesia and others and it will continue to increase the price of cattle and this is true across all of agriculture. That deal is a very special one for agriculture. It will put literally billions of dollars into this economy, it will create literally many thousands and thousands of jobs. It will start from day one when this thing enters into force but we have to get it through the Parliament.
At the moment the union movement is playing a political game and they're trying to protect their own union jobs at the expense of the workers and it's a xenophobic, misplaced, misleading, lying campaign. All it's going to do is cost good Australians who are making these sorts of investment, taking these risks, employing Australians. We have to get this thing through, in the next couple of months, through the Parliament and the Labor Party has to front up and support this deal.
This is a test for Bill Shorten and his colleagues about whether they are truly in that place in Canberra with the intent of helping the Australian people and the workers that they claim to represent as well. We had sold 60,000 tonnes of meat to China two years ago. Last year we sold 260,000 tonnes of meat to China. They went from our 12th biggest meat market to our third biggest meat market. That is only a start. You put that sort of confidence and that sort of market size and the growth they've got in the middle class – the future is spectacular for Australia but we have to be able to seal these deals. The Free Trade Agreement for China is fundamental to the success of Rowena and Brendan and the thousands of other farmers across the country in all sorts of areas of agriculture.
PRIME MINISTER:
Well said, Andrew. Look, it's terrific to be here with Angus Taylor, the local Member. It's good to be here with Ministers Joyce and Robb. I want to thank the Abbeys – Brendan and Rowena and their friends – for making me and my colleagues so welcome today. And, yes, as Minister Robb has pointed out, the China-Australia Free Trade Agreement is all about jobs, it's all about prosperity, it's all about trying to improve the lives of people like the Abbeys and all the other people who depend on this business. It's absolutely four-square with this Government's total focus on jobs, growth and community safety.
So, yes, I am really pleased to be here to support the China-Australia Free Trade Agreement. I am very pleased to be here to remind everyone that trade means jobs and more trade means more jobs, and also to remind people that unions like the CFMEU are running a dishonest campaign against the China Free Trade Agreement, and Bill Shorten is protecting them. The CFMEU every day is claiming that this will cost jobs – wrong. This will create jobs. The CFMEU is claiming that there is some kind of a backdoor deal that will import Chinese workers into this country – dead wrong. Dead wrong. There is no change to workplace relations laws required by the Free Trade Agreement.
There is no change to investment facilitation agreements required by the Free Trade Agreement. Labor's workplace laws stay, Labor's investment facilitation agreements stay, it is an absolutely dishonest campaign by the CFMEU and the CFMEU, as always, are being egged on by Bill Shorten. This Government knows where it stands, we stand for jobs, for growth, for investment. Where exactly does Labor stand on this? Where exactly does Bill Shorten stand on this? We saw it with the Carmichael Mine in Queensland yesterday. An investment of $20 billion. The creation of 10,000 jobs; the supply of coal that will power up the lives of 100 million people in India for 50 years. This Government supports that. The green movement with Bill Shorten's connivance is trying to sabotage it. Wherever you look the Government is supporting jobs and growth; and Bill Shorten is sabotaging jobs and growth. I just want to assure people that this Government will always be on the side of the workers. This Government will always be on the side of jobs and growth. Trade means jobs, investment means jobs, this Government wants to see more trade and more investment in our country.
QUESTION:
Your Senate Leader this morning called those people leaking against your Government gutless. What is your message to them?
PRIME MINISTER:
My message is that the Government is getting on with jobs and growth and community safety every day. That is what we are on about – jobs, growth, community safety. Whether it's removing the activist charter from the EPBC Act, whether it's getting on with getting the China-Australia Free Trade Agreement through the Senate, this Government is always focused on jobs and growth.
QUESTION:
Mr Abbott, how confident are you that the crossbenchers will support proposed changes to environmental laws? Glenn Lazarus has already said he won't, others have shown reservations.
PRIME MINISTER:
Look, this isn’t an issue for the crossbench, this is an issue for Labor. The only time that the crossbench have power is if the Labor Party are standing in the way of the Government's proposals. So, forget the crossbench, where does Labor stand on this? Why is the Labor Party supporting the green movement in its sabotage of investment, jobs and growth in Queensland? Why is the Labor Party supporting the CFMEU in its dishonest campaign to sabotage your future? This is an issue for Labor, not for the crossbench and I say again, where does Bill Shorten stand? Does he want the Carmichael mine to go ahead? Or does he not? Does he want the China-Australia Free Trade Agreement to go ahead or does he not?
QUESTION:
I appreciate that you want to focus on jobs this week, but how hard is it to be getting that traction when you've had to discipline your Ministers twice in as many months? Backbenchers are saying they have got nothing to fight for and you have got people saying that your rivals are sounding like your colleagues. Are you worried about your Prime Ministership?
PRIME MINISTER:
What I am worried about is jobs and growth and doing what the Australian public expect of us, which is to make the changes necessary to produce more jobs and higher growth. So I am fighting to ensure that this big investment, this $20 billion investment that will create more than 10,000 jobs in Queensland and that is just the immediate jobs, then of course there are all the jobs in Gladstone, and Mackay, and Rockhampton, all the other opportunities that flow from this. So I am fighting to ensure that that Carmichael mine is given a fair chance of going ahead. I am fighting to ensure that the China-Australia Free Trade Agreement actually passes through the Parliament and passes through the Parliament quickly, and so are all my colleagues.
QUESTION:
Have you had any discussions with Philip Ruddock about the environmental law changes? He seems to have some concerns about them? Have you had any discussions?
PRIME MINISTER:
Look, there was very enthusiastic support in the Cabinet on Monday night and in the Party Room yesterday for these changes because everyone wants jobs, growth and community safety. Everyone wants to give the Carmichael mine in Queensland a fair go. Yes, it's got to pass strict environmental stands, all projects in this country have got to pass strict environmental standards, but once they've passed those standards they should be allowed to go ahead. They shouldn't be subject to endless legal sabotage because the law gives green groups an unusual level of access to the courts. We just want to normalise the standing so that people have got to have a real interest in the matter before they can bring an action.
QUESTION:
Prime Minister, the new Indonesian trade minister has been quoted in the Jakarta Post saying that Indonesia will take around 200 to 300,000 head of cattle this year – well below half of what they accepted last year. Given the concerns that they have had with Australian cattle in the past, how confident is the Government that Australia will get the lion’s share of that market?
PRIME MINISTER:
I might ask Barnaby to add to this response. But, look, we are here to serve the Indonesian market. We are here to supply as many cattle as we can, provided it's what Indonesia wants. But Indonesia's growing middle class has an increasing appetite for beef and the best place for Indonesia to get beef is Australia because our beef is very high quality and it's readily available. Now, yes, there have been some hiccups in this particular trade, starting from the former Labor government's catastrophic – absolutely catastrophic – decision to cancel the live cattle trade in panic at a TV programme. Thanks to the good work of Ministers Robb and Joyce, the trade is back on track and I am confident it will expand in the future.
AGRICULTURE MINISTER:
Thank you, Prime Minister. We welcome what the new minister – Thomas Lembong – and his announcement that he is now looking for more cattle. We know that this is vitally important to the people of Indonesia, vitally important to families in Jakarta. We know that we must work in a partnership to keep protein affordable to them because that is almost the sacred connection, we supply the protein, they consume the protein, they make a dollar, we make a dollar and it's a very strong working relationship that we should never ever put at risk. What I think is very important is we end up with a longer term window to supply in to and we’ve said this publicly and we’ve said it privately so that we can plan properly, so people such as the Abbeys and people in North Queensland and people in the Kimberley can be part of the process of delivering to the requirements of Indonesia, as well as delivering to the requirements of Vietnam, to China, to the Middle East. And this goes to show you how close our economies are becoming, how we are getting a real return back to our nation by reason of the burgeoning middle class in these areas. That also underpins exactly what the Prime Minister said, we have got to have fluid relations in regards to our trade and we can't have peculiar impediments. The Labor Party had a very bad record of these sort of 180 degree turns in the middle of the night which created massive turmoil and now they've all said they're better and they will never do it again. Yet what are we hearing right now – they’ve done it again. Now they’re talking about the China Free Trade Agreement. So help me God, don’t they ever learn their lesson?
QUESTION:
Barnaby Joyce, can I ask you, do you have any concerns about changes to the EPBC that are flagged this week?
PRIME MINISTER:
Look, I was Senator for Queensland and it was an incredible honour to be a Senator for Queensland for eight years, seven months and one day. And one of the biggest things is that coal is a major driver of that economy, a massive driver. And the idea that whatever it is, a special snake and a skink is going to put at risk the working men and women of Central Queensland I think is perverse. Now the question that you ask is about standing in the courts, farmers still do have standing in the courts but how someone can have standing in the courts when they are not actually standing in the mine is beyond me.
QUESTION:
Prime Minister, many of your backbenchers are saying that the Canning by-election will be the ultimate test of your leadership and your voter appeal. Do you accept that?
PRIME MINISTER:
There is a sense in which every day is testing for governments, for prime ministers, for ministers and we will be going to the Canning by-election with a tremendous candidate, a Captain in the Special Air Service Regiment. A really outstanding young man with a lovely family, someone who is going to be more than capable of fighting for the people of Canning, someone who is more than capable of contributing to good Government in this country. So we have a great candidate, we’ve got a great record. Let's not forget our economy is growing at just about the highest rate in the developed world right now. We have had 335,000 more jobs created since the election. We have scraped the carbon tax and the mining tax. We have stopped the boats. We have got these three Free Trade Agreements finalised. We are open for business and sure there's a bit of sabotage from the Labor Party but we are determined that this country of ours will be everything that we can be in the years and decades to come.
QUESTION:
Prime Minister, what are the consequences for ministers who speak out publicly and breach the rules?
PRIME MINISTER:
Everyone knows what the rules are. But the important thing is that every day this Government is focused on jobs, growth and community safety. And whether it's driving the China-Australia Free Trade Agreement through the Parliament, whether it's ensuring that projects that meet the strictest standards can go ahead without the kind of ‘lawfare’ which the Labor-Green alliance is now waging against them, every day that is what we are on about. We are on about jobs, growth, community safety and that is what the people of Canning will be judging.
Thank you.
[ends]