PRIME MINISTER:
Happy Australia Day.
This is a great cause here, BARBECURE. I want to thank you, Zed, for the leadership you have shown in establishing this barbecue here today and, of course, right around the country. We are committing more money than ever to medical research and we'll continue to do so.
Can I also say, again, as I said a moment ago at the citizenship ceremony, how important it is to celebrate the remarkable achievement we have made as a nation. The most successful multicultural society in the world.
We have the oldest continuous human culture of the First Australians and all of the richness of the cultures that come from the migrants who come to Australia to share their lives with us, who choose to be Australian citizens and enrich us.
Today, right around Australia, 16,000 new citizens at over 400 citizenship ceremonies, from 150 countries.
Our harmony in the midst of diversity is a remarkable achievement and one for which we should be very proud here in Australia, the land where anything is possible if you have the will, the optimism, the imagination and the belief to do it.
JOURNALIST:
Prime Minster what are your views on changing the date of Australia Day?
PRIME MINISTER:
I believe we should maintain the date. Everyone is entitled to a point of view but I think most Australians accept January 26 as Australia Day. It is a day where we celebrate the rich diversity of all of our cultures - from our First Australians as we saw with Tina's beautiful welcome to country on behalf of her people, the Ngunawal people of this region here in the Canberra area, to the new citizens, migrants who come from such diverse range of countries. We are a very successful multicultural society. I would say the most successful in the world, at a time in the world's history where harmony and tolerance are less frequently found. So it's a remarkable achievement.
JOURNALIST:
Just on that, the explanation given by many advocates for change is that it remains a roadblock to reconciliation. Ian Macfarlane has made exactly that point this morning. What's your response to that argument?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well, I believe the road to reconciliation is a process, it's a journey. I believe that the date of Australia Day, you know, there are many bigger and more profound issues, including Constitutional recognition, to deal with than the date of Australia Day. Changing the date does not have my support but it is a debate and I know Ian - he is a good friend of mine and respect his point of view - but I think it is a debate everyone is entitled to have, but it is not a change that the Government supports.
JOURNALIST:
Prime Minister talk out of the US that the President might, at the very least, suspend immigration and settlement for up to three months. What are you hearing? Do you fear it may have an impact on the deal that you signed with Barack Obama?
PRIME MINISTER:
Obviously, with the change of Administration, all of these issues are ones that you have to revisit with the incoming Administration and we have done that. We're in extensive discussions with the new Trump Administration, with whom we have very strong links and ties at many levels, right through - political, diplomatic, administrative, military and so forth. I am confident that we will maintain the arrangements that we have entered into with the previous Administration. They are in the interests of both parties.
JOURNALIST:
You are pushing ahead?
PRIME MINISTER:
Of course. We are certainly pushing ahead.
JOURNALIST:
Have those assurances come from the State Department or the Trump Administration itself?
PRIME MINISTER:
I am not going to elaborate any further. We have extensive, continuous discussions with our friends in Washington at all levels.
JOURNALIST:
Is there a plan ‘B’ at all?
PRIME MINISTER:
Speculation is your line of business. Administration and government is mine.
JOURNALIST:
What do you make of Kevin Rudd’s comments in New York about persevering with the TPP and including China in the fold?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well look, let's be clear about this. The Trans-Pacific Partnership was an American-led initiative. It actually grew from an arrangement with New Zealand and Singapore, in fact, originally but America showed great leadership with the TPP.
It is a trade deal that has strong support among the TPP countries, but there has been a change of Administration in the United States. We respect, absolutely, the decision of the new Administration to withdraw from it. Clearly we regret that but that is President Trump's decision. So it's not for us to run a commentary on that.
Free trade is manifestly in Australia's interest. Free trade means jobs. It means opening up more and bigger markets for our exports, both of agricultural products, physical goods and services. Of course, services is becoming more important all the time.
So as Prime Minister Abe said in the Japanese Diet yesterday, we will be consulting with the other countries that have agreed to the TPP and we will seek to secure, from Australia's point of view - obviously, trade deals that are in our interest, we don't enter deals that do anything other than promote our interests - but we'll be looking to see what new arrangements can evolve from the TPP. A great deal of work has gone into it. There is another big regional trade deal that does involve China called RCEP. Work on that is progressing at the same time.
Our position is very simple. It is not an ideological issue, it is not a philosophical issue, it is not even a political issue other than the fact that the Labor Party - remarkably - now appears to be against trade. But we know that more opportunities for Australians to sell what they make, whether it is a physical good or an intellectual good or a service, means more jobs in Australia.
More trade means more jobs. That's what we're about. That's what we are seeking to do, Zed and I all of our colleagues. We want to make sure that more Australians, more hard-working Australian families, have better jobs, better paying jobs, their businesses have bigger markets to address with what they produce.
JOURNALIST:
There was a report out of Japan that Abe was no longer interested in some sort of TPP without the US.
PRIME MINISTER:
There is no question that the United States, as the biggest part of the TPP, its loss is a very big loss. That's obvious. The TPP would need to be renegotiated among the remaining countries to continue without the US. So that's plain also.
Now Japan has ratified the TPP and urged us, encouraged us, to complete our ratification process, as indeed, have other countries. Because everyone would like, in the future, the United States to rethink its position and join the TPP. Nothing is impossible, but I don't think that's likely in the foreseeable future.
So what we have got to do is remain very agile, focused on Australia's interest. This is all about Australian jobs and Australian businesses, Australian exports. What I've got to do, my job as Prime Minister is to keep working - not throw in the towel on trade like Bill Shorten would do - but keep working using every connection, every angle, to open up more opportunities for Australian exports, in big countries and in smaller countries. Because every time there is a greater opportunity for Australian exports, there is going to be more employment in Australia. It isn't rocket science.
We are a very trade-dependent nation. We are much more dependent on trade than other comparable countries, like the United States for example. We’re much more dependent on trade than the US. So getting those markets open is the difference between having a job, having a better job, having a successful business right around Australia. So that's what we've done. That's why Zed and I were talking about how strong cattle prices have been, with the gentleman who made the sausages for us. They’re great sausages, I recommend them to you. But why is that?
There are more markets that have been opened up to sell agricultural produce. Who opened them up? The Coalition Government did. We’ve opened them up. We’ll continue to do so. Wherever there is an angle to get Australian exports into a new market or get more exports into an existing market, we'll be working on it. That's what this is all about. Again, this is not something we picked up in an economics textbook or some political handbook. This is about jobs. We'll be relentless.
JOURNALIST:
Will you introduce legislation for ratification when Parliament returns, of the TPP?
PRIME MINISTER:
We will make the decision as to when legislation is introduced based on continuing discussions with other countries and, of course, the position in the Senate. It's not my practice to introduce legislation into the Parliament that isn't going to be passed. So we'll assess that on its merits.
I know Labor wants to turn this into a political issue about trade. They think, Bill Shorten thinks, that he can get on a populist bandwagon and be against trade. The absurdity of it is he is going around, in its fluro vests, going to businesses which depend on trade. I mean, he had the rich sense of absurdity and irony recently, to go to a container logistics business whose whole enterprise is based on trade and sing his protectionist song. I mean, if he had the opportunity to implement it, people there would start getting laid off.
The reality is that what you need is markets to sell your goods. They can be domestic of course, but it's a big, wide world out there. We're 24 million people here in Australia. We need more markets and bigger markets. That's what it's all about. Shorten's conversion to populist protectionism, from Australia's point of view – and I make no comment about other countries, that's for their leaders to deal with - from our point of view, that will put a lot of Australians out of work, if he ever had the chance to implement it. He is a threat to jobs, believe me.
JOURNALIST:
Is Trump a threat to jobs in the United States?
PRIME MINISTER:
You know I have successfully resisted your temptations to make comments on politics in other countries consistently. I'm not going to change it now. Thank you all very much.
Have a great Australia Day.
[Ends]