PRIME MINISTER:
Obviously, it’s good to be here at Manuka Oval to help launch the Prime Minister’s XI for the coming season of cricket, but I have to say that the Government’s focus remains absolutely on jobs, growth and community safety.
As you know, the China Free Trade Agreement is all about jobs and growth because trade means jobs and more trade means more jobs. I am very pleased that overnight we’ve had the former Labor foreign minister, the former Labor premier of New South Wales, Bob Carr, call out the Labor Party on the China Free Trade Agreement pointing out that this is a very good deal for Australian jobs, it's a very good deal for Australia and it certainly doesn't need to be reworked or in any way renegotiated and I call on the Labor Party to stop playing xenophobic games here and actually pass the China Free Trade legislation unhindered through the Parliament.
We’ve also seen overnight news that we have stopped at the airport seven young Australians who were planning to travel to the Middle East it seems to join terrorist groups over there. This indicates the continuing allure of this death cult. It shows the importance of the most vigorous action at home and abroad to disrupt, to degrade and to destroy this menace to the freedom and the security of the world.
QUESTION:
Prime Minister, just weeks ago you ruled out indigenous-only referendums in the lead up to the con rec referendum, indigenous-only summits, and now you are meeting with the authors of the very proposal you rejected. Why the about-face?
PRIME MINISTER:
There hasn't been any about-face. What I want to do is to ensure that we have a unifying and unified process which will produce, I hope, a national consensus towards the middle of next year that can then go to the people in the next term of Parliament and what we want to do is to have a unified process which certainly will involve indigenous people talking, it will involve the wider community talking, and what I want to see is not some kind of ‘them and us’ process but a ‘we the people’ process – but as part of a ‘we the people’ process, obviously, it's important for indigenous people to have a chance to talk this through as thoroughly as possible.
QUESTION:
Prime Minister, the $2 million allegedly stolen from the Victorian Liberal Party, does that validate Phil Higginson' calls for more transparency?
PRIME MINISTER:
It’s just a matter for the Victorian division.
QUESTION:
Prime Minister, what are you going to do to stop your colleagues from leaking against you?
PRIME MINISTER:
What I am doing every day and what my colleagues are doing every day is focusing on jobs, growth and community safety, and obviously, other important national priorities and it is good to be meeting later this morning with Noel Pearson, with Pat Dodson and with others who were part of the meeting that I had along with Bill Shorten just a few weeks ago with the senior indigenous leadership. And, of course, next week I will be spending a week in the Torres Strait as part of the commitment that I made pre-election to spend a week every year in a remote part of Australia dealing substantially with indigenous issues from the ground up because while we are a big country – 23 million people – and I want to bring our country together, I don't think it's too much for a Prime Minister to spend a week a year with a priority on indigenous issues.
QUESTION:
Can you give us a little bit more information about the people stopped at the airport – when was it, who were they, what ages were they, what sexes were they?
PRIME MINISTER:
Look, Chris, I’m not going to go into what is effectively an operational matter, just to say that our Australian Border Force is vigilant and our counter-terrorist units operating at all international airports have an important job to do and just recently they did their job in this particularly important and significant way.
Thank you.
[ends]