PRIME MINISTER:
It’s terrific to be here for the launch of Legacy Week. Legacy does a marvellous job as we heard from the Governor-General and from that wonderful woman who spoke of her experience with Legacy. There are some 90,000 widows and children that Legacy is working with. They kept their commitment and now we have to keep our commitment to them. So, it is really good to be here.
Obviously, events like this are an important part of my life, they are an important part of the life of anyone who has a senior position in our public life but this is a Government which is totally focussed on jobs and growth every day. Every minute of every day we are focussed on jobs and growth, and the best thing we can do to promote more jobs and more growth right now is swiftly pass through the Parliament the Free Trade Agreement with China Legislation.
I have got to say about this agreement that it doesn’t require any change to workplace laws. It doesn’t require any change to immigration laws. All that it requires is a change to our tariff laws. Existing workplace protections stay. Existing immigration protections stay, and it really is a little contemptible that some unions – aided and abetted, it seems, by the Leader of the Opposition – are right now are attempting to undermine and maybe even sabotage this Free Trade Agreement which is setting up this country for a generation.
This is quite possibly the biggest economic development in a generation.
We must see it actually delivered and that is what this Government is utterly focussed on.
QUESTION:
Why is Joe Hockey’s job at risk?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well, it’s not. It’s not. This is a matter of almost no account whatsoever. No one has even raised it with me. The Treasurer is doing an excellent job. He has my full confidence and he has the full confidence of the Cabinet.
QUESTION:
Is Arthur Sinodinos helping when he publically berates his colleagues and will you heed his advice and sack anyone caught backgrounding?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well, again, this Government is focussed every day on jobs and growth and the best thing we can do for jobs and growth right now is to get the China Free Trade Agreement through the Parliament and I call on the Leader of the Opposition to stop conniving with the CFMEU, to come down off the fence and say exactly where he stands on this agreement which is vital for Australian jobs and Australian prosperity for decades to come.
QUESTION:
Prime Minister, Fairfax is reporting two Ministers – Cabinet Ministers – have said you have canvassed getting rid of Joe Hockey and going to an election in March. Have you considered either of those and would you?
PRIME MINISTER:
Not a single person has raised this issue with me – not a single person has raised this issue with me. It is a matter of so little moment that not a single person has raised it with me. He has my full confidence. He has the full confidence of the Cabinet. He is doing a fine job.
QUESTION:
Is the Trade Union Royal Commission finished if Dyson Heydon steps down today?
PRIME MINISTER:
That Trade Union Royal Commission must go on – it absolutely must go on. Obviously, what the Commissioner does today is quite properly a matter for the Commissioner, but we’ve seen rorts, rackets and rip-offs exposed by this Royal Commission. We’ve seen an abundance of evidence of corruption and criminality exposed by this Royal Commission. The work of the Royal Commission is absolutely vital, not just for our country as a whole, but it’s vital for the future of the union movement, it’s vital for the future of the Labor Party and as Martin Ferguson has said, this is not a political plaything, it is something which is doing very good work for the union movement and, ultimately, even for the Labor Party.
QUESTION:
Just on negotiations between Medibank Private and Calvary, would you expect or would you be concerned that it might lead to further exemptions in terms of what private insurers will cover going forward?
PRIME MINISTER:
I’m just not going to get involved in something which is a matter for commercial negotiation between various parties.
QUESTION:
Prime Minister, Cambodian interior ministry says they won’t take – or don’t have any plan to take more than four refugees. Does this mean that the Federal Government has essentially secured a deal to take four refugees at $13 million each?
PRIME MINISTER:
We have an arrangement with Cambodia under which the Cambodians have agreed to take a number of people who have been found to be refugees from camps in Nauru. This is an important agreement and it’s an agreement which indicates Cambodia’s readiness to be a good international citizen. As everyone knows, when Cambodia was in trouble some years ago, the world rallied to Cambodia’s help. Cambodia is happy as a good international citizen to do its part now that it is in much better shape than it was a couple of decades ago.
[ends]