PRESENTER:
It’s not every day that we have a news story on 5AA in Adelaide that leads with the line that thousands of jobs are being created in South Australia and tens of billions of dollars are being spent. But so is the case this morning $35 billion has been expended for the future frigate program the tender has been awarded to BAE and the work will be done here in South Australia.
The Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull with us live in the 5AA breakfast studio Prime Minister good morning to you.
PRIME MINISTER:
Great to be with you.
PRESENTER:
You come bearing gifts PM.
PRESENTER:
Well I come bearing great news, great news for Australia, a great national enterprise to build our future frigates and to build them here in South Australia here at Osborne. You know this this is about the jobs of the future it's about the security of the future.
This is what we need to keep Australia safe and you know what? It is part of our commitment to jobs and economic growth right across Australia. We're not trying to wreck business and attack small business the way Bill Shorten is doing we're making the decisions whether it's relating to tax or whether it's relating to naval shipbuilding that is going to secure our future economic growth. And you know the jobs of your listeners’ children and grandchildren, because this is all about the jobs the future. The jobs of the future are not somewhere else there right here in South Australia.
PRESENTER:
How many jobs? The headline figure is 4,000.
PRIME MINISTER:
Yeah well there's 4,000 jobs for the frigates nationally are direct and indirect of 1,500 will be in the shipyard here in South Australia 2,500 in the supply chain some of which of course will also be in South Australia but also around the country.
Overall the total direct number of new jobs associated with our shipbuilding program here in Adelaide is about 5,000 - that's across the subs, the frigates, the offshore patrol vessels first two of which will be built here and of course the work that's going on right now on upgrading the infrastructure.
PRESENTER:
The French prime minister made the announcement when the French company DCNS won the tender for the future submarines. Boris Johnson has been on Twitter this morning, the British Foreign Secretary, lauding the fact that BAE have got the future frigates tender for an investment of some near $90 billion of Australian taxpayers money. Can you foresee a time in the near future where an Australian minister or potentially prime minister is lauding the fact that an Australian made product has been exported to another country?
PRIME MINISTER:
Yes, absolutely and that's what this is all about. My commitment is to establish a national sovereign defence industry in Australia and in this context a national sovereign shipbuilding industry. Now this is what we're doing with this particular project here.
BAE will take charge of ASC, right? And ASC, under BAE’s control, will build the frigates. The government, the Commonwealth Government will retain a sovereign share in that company and at the end of the project in late 2030s when the last ship is built, ASC will come back to wholly Commonwealth Government owned ownership and that will then have the skilled workforce and the IP.
And my expectation is that the plan is that the next generation of frigates that comes after the ones where we're about to start building that will be designed by ASC. It will be an Australian design and it will be designed and built in Australia.
So this is a big long term plan. It is a plan, for the first time, to have continuous shipbuilding in Australia but to transform it into an Australian national enterprise.
PRESENTER:
Just lastly on the ship building, are you clear in your mind how much work could be done by Austal in WA on this project?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well Austal has the opportunity to contract with BAE and I know they've been in discussions with BAE. They're a very capable firm whether it's from construction or design. So there are an enormous number of opportunities. You know there are over 500 contractors or companies that are qualified to be in the supply chain for this right around the country. Austal is one of the largest.
PRESENTER:
But that doesn't eat into the 1,500 jobs that will be created here in South Australia?
PRIME MINISTER:
No the, 1500 jobs will be in the shipyard here in Osborne. The balance of the estimated jobs that are part of this, the 2,500 additional jobs, they'll be in the supply chain around Australia some of which obviously will be also be in South Australia but they will be across the country they'll be in Tasmania and Queensland, NSW, WA just as they will be with the submarines.
PRESENTER:
Mr Turnbull your opponent Bill Shorten has had a difficult couple of days trying to establish any clarity around what Labor's corporate tax position is. In terms of the government's position, you still have what in the light of the banking Royal Commission is still a bit of a hard sell explaining to lower income people why it is that the really super big end of town, particularly the less liked end of town that does involve the AMPs and so forth, why they deserve a corporate tax cut too. Would you consider particularly now that Bill Shorten is going to be fiddling around with his own position, would you consider making any changes to your corporate tax plan to make it more sellable by taking them out?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well David, what we are seeking to do is ensure that we have a competitive tax rate.
This is all about Australian jobs. I mean you've got to work out whether you're for Australian jobs or American jobs and European jobs. Now Bill Shorten wants Australia to have an uncompetitive tax rate. He wants every business apparently above $2 million dollars turnover, which is a pretty small business, to be paying an uncompetitive tax rate.
He is actually going to jack up the tax on small and medium Australian owned family businesses many of which by the way are in the supply chain for the frigates and the submarines. I mean we know these are these are small businesses, generally family owned, they've been built out of retained earnings and you have seen the outrage across Australia when they've been presented with the news that Shorten is going to jack up their tax.
PRESENTER:
So for your package you going to stick to your guns, keep fighting in the Senate, leave it as it is?
PRIME MINISTER:
Yes, look, it is a competitive thing David. I mean you cannot get away from the fact that if you want to win you've got to be competitive.
It doesn't matter whether you're, you know, a national economy or a football team. You've got to be competitive and we have at 30 percent our company tax rate is the second highest in the OECD, only Portugal slightly higher than us and we have got to have a competitive tax rate and that means more jobs.
And look our economic plan is delivering. We said jobs and growth was the goal in 2016. We've had record jobs growth in Australia last year, highest in the country's history. We've got 3.1% GDP growth - that's higher than any of the G7, the seven biggest developed economies.
So it's going well but we are not complacent and we are doing everything we can whether it's in naval shipbuilding or whether it is in taxation reform and look what we've done with personal income tax reform that we did last week. We are determined to ensure that Australians can win and they win by being competitive and Bill Shorten is constantly with his politics of envy and class war.
PRESENTER:
A lot of that is directed at you too isn't it? They seem to think that you know you're some sort of, because you have the audacity to go out and make a quid.
PRIME MINISTER:
That's right. Bill Shorten has a go at me every day because I have, in my life with Luce, we've worked hard, we've had a lot of good luck by the way. You know, you’ve got to remember that. There's plenty of people that have worked harder than me and have not been as financially successful. But you know the harder you work the luckier you get, actually is my experience and we've worked hard we've made a quid. We’ve paid a lot of tax, employed plenty of people, created businesses given back and that's apparently that's he wants to have a go at me.
And you know what? There are there are thousands of businesses around the country, thousands of people who look at Shorten’s bitter, envious, destructive assault on jobs and business and they say well he might be talking about Malcolm Turnbull today but he's going to be coming after me next.
PRESENTER:
If you're that convinced he's done himself such great damage on this right now, are you tempted, I mean you're on the record as saying that the election will be held next year, but it must be tempting to pull the trigger sooner rather than later mustn’t it?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well the election is due in the first half of next year David and that's when it will be held.
PRESENTER:
Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull thanks very much for joining us here this morning.
PRIME MINISTER:
Thank you.
[ENDS]