PRIME MINISTER:
Wow, it’s hot!
[Laughter]
Well I’m here with Ann Sudmalis, the Member for Gilmore and with John Lamont. Now this company, Nowchem, was founded by your parents 40 years ago?
JOHN LAMONT:
Correct.
PRIME MINISTER:
A great Australian company. A family business that has been creating jobs here in Gilmore for all those years. And it’s an exporting company. Talk about the markets you’re moving into with your baby products.
JOHN LAMONT:
We’re in the organic baby care markets. So we’re moving into Hong Kong, Malaysia, Singapore, now Thailand. We’re looking forward to using the Free Trade Agreements that the Government’s organised to move into Korea, Vietnam and other markets.
PRIME MINISTER:
And it reminds us of how important our big export agreement, our big trade deal policy, is for jobs, particularly in regional Australia. Because what John needs is bigger markets to sell his fantastic products. You know, the other thing John needs - we were talking about this, Ann, weren't we?
ANN SUDMALIS:
Yeah we were.
PRIME MINISTER:
It’s the vital importance of energy, electricity. Just talk about that, John, and what it means to your business here.
JOHN LAMONT:
We use a lot of electricity, obviously, to produce our goods and services. The power supply, the availability of cheap and reliable power is really, really important for the company to keep going and keep moving forward. As is gas. So the ability for our suppliers to source natural gas at cheap and economic rates in Australia is really, really important, to make sure that people who supply our business are able to do so on an internationally competitive footing.
PRIME MINISTER:
That's right. And so, everything we're doing - everything Ann and I are doing and all of our colleagues in the Government and Canberra - is designed to ensure that businesses like John's can get affordable and reliable energy.
We know what the Labor Party's all about. Their policies lead to - as we have seen in South Australia - unaffordable and unreliable energy. South Australia, it's where everyone's struggling with a heatwave today. But in South Australia, they have the most expensive and the least reliable electricity in Australia. It is entirely a consequence of Labor's reckless approach to energy policy.
At the same time, we have Bill Shorten out there opposing free trade. And what does John need? To build this business up, to expand it, he needs more markets. You've had great support.
JOHN LAMONTE:
We've had great support from the Government. The export marketing development program has been very, very positive for our business over the last five or six years, as we've really gained momentum in those markets.
Yeah, the Free Trade Agreements will make a significant difference to the markets now that we can enter, and not have tariffs on Australian-made goods as we enter those large, booming, middle-class Asian markets that's increasing to great benefit for our company.
PRIME MINISTER:
So this business underlines the very clear difference between our approach and Labor's. We're for affordable and reliable energy - meeting our emissions reduction targets - but affordable and reliable energy. Labor stands for unaffordable and unreliable energy and that is a job killer. At the same time, we want to open up more markets, more opportunities for great Australian businesses large and small. Family businesses like John's, big companies as well. Bigger companies, companies like John's that his parents founded that will get bigger and bigger as they have more markets to enter. But they need a government that backs them, and backs the jobs and the investment that they're going to deliver.
Of course, this week, Ann, we've been presenting our child care plans, our child care reforms. The biggest reforms in years and years. What this will do, is make so many families here in Gilmore and right around Australia - particularly those on lower incomes - give them more access and more affordable access to child care.
A family with a household income of $65,000 would have 85 per cent of the child care cost, that hourly rate paid for, picked up in the subsidy. $15 a day, it would cost. What a difference. Making it possible for more families to stay engaged in the workforce, to keep working, to keep mum and dad both in the workforce, and ensure that their children are getting all of the benefits of early learning.
So it's a great proposal, a great reform. It’s one that is going to make child care more affordable and more available and, above all, more available to families on lower and lower-middle incomes.
JOURNALIST:
Prime Minister, while we're talking about electricity, do you agree that South Australia's investment in wind power was actually driven by Commonwealth renewable subsidies and not in fact the state’s renewables target?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well South Australia has the largest percentage of renewable energy in the country. It's been driven - aggressively - by the State Government. Look, renewable energy is very important. It's a very important part of the energy mix. John's got 120 solar panels on his roof here, right above us. This is not an issue of whether you're for or against renewable energy. It's whether you are for or against competent government.
What you've seen from the Labor Party is sheer mindless incompetence and complacency. They have driven the introduction of a massive amount of renewable energy into the South Australian grid. They have done so with no planning. They have not taken into account the need to provide backup for it. They haven't put in place any energy storage. They haven't done anything on pumped hydro, for example. That's a big part of our agenda going forward, I can assure you. They've done nothing to ensure there is the backup power in South Australia. They've closed down coal-fired power station there. They've got gas-fired power stations that aren't working. They pin all their hopes on importing more and more energy from the La Trobe Valley in Victoria. This is a shocking failure of Labor ideology leading to incompetent government.
You know, Mark Butler, who is a South Australian - he's the shadow environment minister in the Federal Parliament – he’s described what's been happening in South Australia as a series of “hiccups." Well, I've been in South Australia recently, and I can tell you, whether you're talking to families or whether you're talking to businesses, they don't regard this as a hiccup. They regard this as a disaster.
The idea that you would have to, if you're a business in South Australia now, you've got to have your own backup generators. Some of the businesses in Port Lincoln were saying to me just the other day: “it's like being in a Third World country, where you can't rely on the energy supply”.
JOURNALIST:
Prime Minister it’s fair to say though that people are sick of political bickering, they only care, as you say, about whether their lights stay on or off. So what is your plan? How are you going to fix an energy market which is clearly not working at the moment?
PRIME MINISTER:
What it needs is a non-ideological approach to energy policy. We've got to have a policy, as I set out in my speech in the Press Club, that is ‘all-of-the-above’. That doesn't treat this as an issue of belief or philosophy. This is about a practical approach to energy.
What you need to have is, if you want to have a large percentage of variable renewables in your grid, like wind and solar, then you need to have the backup. That is why I've asked ARENA and the Clean Energy Finance Corporation to get moving on getting more pumped-hydro projects up and running, and other storage projects, because clearly that's one solution.
We can't fall into line with the Labor Party and their hatred of fossil fuels. Clearly, if we are the biggest exporter of coal in the world - and we are - nobody has a bigger vested interest than us in demonstrating that the latest state-of-the-art clean-coal technology has a role to play. We have got to be hard-headed, clear-eyed, pragmatic about this.
The problem with the Labor Party is they're putting households, they're putting families, they're putting businesses at risk by their left ideology on energy, which is delivering the disaster that you've seen in South Australia.
JOURNALIST:
On ideology though, wouldn't the simplest way of fixing this, in terms of having variable renewable energy targets, is for a price on carbon or an emissions-intensity scheme? Let the market actually fix the problem.
PRIME MINISTER:
You've got a number of big obstacles to the market, actually, right at the moment. Gas is not available. We've got masses of gas in Australia, but you've got bans on exploration and moratoriums on exploration in many parts of the country. Gas is more than twice as expensive here, as it is in the United States. It's more expensive here than it is in Germany. Think about that. They're importing it from Russia.
So we've got a big problem with the availability of gas. Again, Josh Frydenberg's working with the COAG energy ministers on that.
The other reality is that there hasn't been any planning. What they've done in South Australia is a good case of what would happen to the rest of the country. They have just mindlessly, complacently, negligently introduced more and more renewables into their grid. They have not put in place the backup gas-fired generators to come into play when the wind isn't blowing. They have done nothing on storage at all.
What they have done is assumed, in a rather lazy, ‘she'll be right, mate’ sort of way, that they can keep on importing more and more energy from Victoria. Of course, the absurdity of that is, the energy they're importing from Victoria is coming from the La Trobe Valley, which is the most emissions-intensive coal-fired energy in Australia.
This is ideology, it is politics, where what you need is planning. You need a plan. Again, we've got nothing against renewables at all. This is not a question of belief. All of these forms of generation have got different characteristics. If you're going to have more renewables in the grid, you need a plan.
So that's the big difference. We are for more affordable, more secure electricity. Labor - look at South Australia - unaffordable, unreliable electricity. We're for trade, that means jobs. Labor is now for protectionism, that means poverty. We're for more affordable, more available child care. Labor knows the system is broken. They don't want to lift a finger to do anything about it.
JOURNALIST:
Prime Minister, this morning on radio, you admitted that private health fund premiums rising will absolutely hurt families. What is your Government going to do about it? Why were they signed off on in the first place?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well these are the lowest rises for many years, I believe for nearly 10 years. That is a consequence of the strong influence that you've seen from the Government, indeed, from the new Health Minister, Greg Hunt. But these are the lowest, less than 5 per cent.
I acknowledge and, of course, families that are doing it tough are under pressure from rising energy prices, among other things, will feel it. But this is a much lower rise than we've seen for many, many years.
JOURNALIST:
But Prime Minister, in 2008, when they rose roughly the same rate, you called it bad policy. Is this bad policy as well?
PRIME MINISTER:
This is a lower rise than in that year. This is 4.84 per cent, as I recall, from today's announcement.
JOURNALIST:
Just on energy, Prime Minister. You've been focusing a lot on South Australia, but today is a heatwave across the east coast of Australia and other states, potentially facing power outages. How do you explain that in terms of threats to load-share? Have you been advised by the AEMO that they're standing ready to pour extra capacity into the system?
PRIME MINISTER:
Let me say this; the heatwave is right across Australia. The state where you have had the biggest disruptions, the biggest blackouts, the biggest damage to industry and, of course, the biggest impact on family budgets, because their electricity is the most expensive, is South Australia. That has been a shocking example of Labor mismanagement. But you've got to remember that what they've done in South Australia is what Bill Shorten wants to do to all of Australia.
Bill Shorten wants to have a 50 per cent renewable target, which is more than they've got in South Australia. He wants to more than double the emissions reduction commitment we made in the Paris Treaty. But he has no plan of how to do it.
This is my point. Labor has not got the businesslike approach to government that would enable anyone to trust the management of the Australian economy in their hands. You've just got to look at South Australia, this is not a theory. This is not a political proposition. It's a fact.
If you allow ideology and politics to drive your energy policy, you end up with the situation you've got in South Australia.
JOURNALIST:
But Prime Minister with the heatwave today, have you been advised that other states face shortages today? Or load-shedding?
PRIME MINISTER:
The AEMO, when I last checked it, AEMO said there may be load-shedding in New South Wales, but as long as it is controlled and planned, that can be done without impacting on households. Time will tell, the electricity market is very complex. As long as load-shedding is planned, so that it's shared in a way that doesn't impact on vital services on households and so forth, then it can be managed.
But you've got to remember, what you've seen in South Australia, repeatedly, are these unexpected blackouts and interruptions to service, which have done enormous damage, not just to household budgets and to families, not just in terms of inconvenience and discomfort, but has done enormous damage to that state's ability to attract and retain investment.
Because, as John was just saying earlier, if you're going to be in business, you need to have affordable and reliable energy. That's critical.
That's the difference. We are for affordable and reliable energy. Labor's policies lead, inevitably - as they have done in South Australia - to unreliable and unaffordable energy. So, more expensive and less reliable electricity is what Labor has. What we have is more reliable, more affordable electricity. That's the big difference.
JOURNALIST:
A Nowra specific question, if I could. I guess, have you brought your chequebook for the Shoalhaven River crossing at Nowra? If not, I guess, why is the Government yet to make a contribution to the Princess Highway more generally?
PRIME MINISTER:
As you know, we've already made a $10 million contribution to the very elaborate planning and design work on the bridge. When that is complete and there is a proposal that is properly costed, obviously we'll consider it. Nowra and the south coast and Gilmore have a very persuasive and passionate advocate in Ann Sudmalis. We know all about the bridge, don't we?
ANN SUDMALIS MP:
[Laughter]
All the time.
PRIME MINISTER:
Yeah, it is foremost in her advocacy, and we're very aware of it. But you've got to do the homework first. It's a lot of money, and you wouldn't expect any government to be committing funds to a project, until it has actually been planned.
But the money we need at the moment is there. The work that needs to be done is being done. And it's being funded by us. On that note, thank you all very much.
[Ends]