PM: It's good to be back at Mansfield High. This school used to be in my electorate some time ago. It's now, of course, in Kerry Rea's electorate, the Federal electorate of Bonner. It's good to be here with Phil Reid, the State Member for Mansfield.
And I thank (?)and the staff and students here at Mansfield High for making me feel welcome here today.
We are in the business of preparing for next week's Budget. Next week's Budget presents the nation and the Government with three sets of challenges.
First of all, how do we fight the war against inflation. Second, how do we effectively help working families under financial pressure. And thirdly, how do we invest in the future, including the future of education, skills and training, including, into the future, of the training our young people in vocational education, the skills shortage which the nation now confronts.
I'll say one or two things about each.
First challenge we face is fighting the fight against inflation. We must dedicate every arm of Government policy to prosecuting a war against inflation. And inflation is the enemy of the economy, the enemy of businesses, the enemy of working families. And families know this through the increase in prices which they now face through groceries, through other consumables, which are making it harder and harder for them to make ends meet.
Secondly, if we don't fight the fight against inflation what happens is it goes through to higher mortgage prices for working families. Therefore, we must fight the fight effectively. That means, cutting Government spending. That's what we intend to do in the upcoming Budget.
I contrast that with those on the other side of politics who are saying there is no case to decrease Government spending, that there is not an inflation problem. We disagree and disagree completely. Responsible economic management means fighting the fight against inflation and that means cutting Government spending.
The alternative is simply to light a fire under inflation which damages everybody.
Second challenge is to help working families under financial pressure and that's why we are determined to honour our pre-election commitment on tax cuts as well as providing additional childcare tax rebate assistance to working families.
And the third area, is how do we invest in the future. And that means, what are we going to do for the future requirements of the nation in education, skills and training. In health and hospitals. And also, in critical economic infrastructure.
In education, skills and training, over in Western Australia just two days ago, and here in Queensland again today. The skills shortage is still alive and well. People can't find skilled labour, particularly in the trades. It's not just the mining boom in WA and Queensland. It's right across the national economy.
You have a large skills deficit which has been building for many, many years. And not enough has been done about it.
Part of the response lies in adding the 450,000 plus additional training places that we're putting into operating in the coming year. But part of it also lies in what we do in making greater opportunities available to our young people in vocational education and training and trades training in schools.
In this Budget, we will be providing funding for the Government's overall investment plan for trades training centres in Australia's secondary schools.
This is an important $2.5 billion plan for the future, and it means that for secondary schools in Queensland, all 493 of them , that we will be allocating something in the order of half a billion dollars over time to make sure that we've got proper funding provided to ensure that these trades training centres are what the young people need for the workforce demands of the 21st century.
At a practical level, it means that schools like Mansfield will be eligible for grants of between half a million dollars and $1.5 million, to make sure that you've got the training equipment necessary for these young people to have the skills they need for the 21st century.
Metal and wood workshops, commercial kitchens, hairdressing facilities, automotive workshops, plumbing workshops, graphic design labs. These are the practical areas where we're prepared to invest.
And we begin that investment program with this upcoming budget. And I repeat unless we are investing in the future, unless we are looking at the skills needs of the future. By providing practical training in the trades, then we're not properly preparing the nation for the challenges of the 21st century.
If we do this well, we are then able to compete with the world and anything the world throws at us. If we fail to do this well then frankly our future is much less assured. One last thing I will touch one before taking your questions is this.
The international community is horrified at developments in Burma. The fact that the Burmese regime continues to obstruct the efforts of the international community to provide assistance to the Burmese people who have suffered this terrible natural calamity in recent days is I believe obscene. The obstruction by the Burmese regime to these efforts is objectionable. Therefore the international community must work together as a matter of urgency to push back this resistance from the Burmese authorities.
On my way here this morning to Mansfield I was speaking to our ambassador in Rangoon and the ambassador reported to me that the there is still high level resistance from the Burmese to allow international aid agencies into the country to do their work.
Our ambassador was speaking yesterday with Tim Costello from Australian World Vision who's in the country and frustrations are still being experienced by the agencies at an on the ground practical level to roll out assistance to those Burmese who, as we speak, are dying through the absence of effective medical and other forms of physical assistance.
We therefore as a community of nations, need to work with the UN that's why in the coming days I'll be speaking with the Secretary General of the United Nations to accelerate global pressure on the regime in Rangoon. Secondly we'll be working with the senior Korean's given their leadership role within ASEAN and thirdly we'll also be working with the Chinese given their particular relationship with the Government in Rangoon. Through these efforts and through what we'll being doing through our own mission in Rangoon. We will be making sure that every effort is applied to trying to push down these barriers of resistance.
We've already allocated $3 million in immediate humanitarian assistance to the international agencies.
The United Nations is currently framing what we believe will be a new UN flash appeal for the Burmese people. Australia will make an appropriate contribution to that once that appeal is launched formally and we will not be in any way minimal in our response to this call for assistance.
But the immediate practical need now is to bash the doors down in Burma so that people in critical need can get that assistance now. And we need to bash those doors down diplomatically and that's where the pressure must come as of today.
Over to you folks
JOURNALIST: Will you be sending additional aid to Burma? (Inaudible)
PM: Yes, this $3 million payment together with comparable payments made by most other developed countries at this stage is purely a first instalment. When the UN flash appeal is formally launched, by the combined UN agencies in New York, we will be making another significant contribution. But one thing at a time. Access is critical, we must get access to Burma and therefore all of our diplomatic efforts must be directed towards getting that access now.
JOURNALIST: Inaudible
PM: Well let's cross that bridge when we come to it, but I've got to say everyone in the international community now needs to be leveraging all of their relationships with those who have closer relationships with the Burmese regime than we do. And that includes working with our friends in China, our friends in ASEAN and our friends elsewhere.
This is not a question of politics, this is a question of helping people who are in dire humanitarian need.
JOURNALIST: Inaudible
PM: These matters have been raised already and we'll be continuing to raise it with them, and out other friends in South East Asia as well. Multiple points of diplomatic pressure are necessary, because there are so many people, tens of thousands of people who are depending on our success.
JOURNALIST: (inaudible)
PM: there are have been discussions at multiple levels and they will continue into the days ahead with, as I have said, the Chinese and South East Asians and the United Nations. I note, for example of the Americans, as I understand it through the Secretary of State, have already been dealing directly with the Chinese Foreign Minister, our Foreign Minister is in the process of doing the same.
JOURNALIST: Chief of staff is vetting all FOI requests (inaudible)
PM: We said prior to the election that we would be implementing to the letter, the commitments we gave in response to the Right to Know Coalition, and that includes FOI reform.
Those commitments I reiterated yesterday in a speech I made in Sydney and we stand by every one of those commitments and we will be introducing appropriate legislation for example for the reform of the particular objection which news organisation have which is the previous government's use of conclusive certificates. On the question of individual FOI decisions within Departments, as it has been in the past and it will be in the future, that lies with individual FOI decision makers within the bureaucracy within each Department.
JOURNALIST: Has the Government softened it's stance on the Japanese whaling plan?
PM: Our attitude is that we should use every diplomatic, mechanism available to us to end the commercial whaling, because that is what in effect it is, in the Southern oceans. We are working on that diplomatically with our friends in Tokyo and we continue to examine the legal options which are available to us as well.
We will take this systematically, but out end point is as we have always said, to do everything humanly and diplomatically and legally possible to bring about an end to commercial whaling in the Southern ocean.
JOURNALIST: On the (inaudible) you mentioned mortgages and interest rates and inflation. The NAB made a profit of 2.7 billion dollars for a year and they have increased their interest rates outside of the Reserve Bank, what are your thoughts on that.
PM: That's one of the reasons why we have brought in bank switching arrangements so that if you have money in one bank and you discover that the bank in which your deposit lies is making too much by way of profits and not providing enough by way of services to you, then it's easier to transfer your (inaudible) from one bank to another. In the past that has been very, very difficult.
We have put now a set of measures to the commercial banks to make that possible. We intend to move decisively in that direction so that consumers can vote with their feet if they are not getting proper services from their banks or they are finding that the profit levels of those banks are excessive against the services and the loan arrangements which they provide.
JOURNALIST: In the budget (inaudible) means testing the baby bonus.
PM: Well look, can I say, our challenge is first of all to produce a budget of responsible economic management to fight the fight against inflation. That means cutting government expenditure in contrast to our opponents who say there is no inflation problem and they we should increase government expenditure.
Secondly, if you are going to cut government expenditure, it means also that you have got to look very carefully at welfare arrangements for the wealthiest. We have always said that and we stick by that principle and I am surprised that anyone would actually actively argue against it. Why baby bonuses are necessary for millionaires, frankly, defies my imagination.
JOURNALIST: (inaudible)
PM: Well we could go through the Budget item by item, line by line. I know that would be of interest to many of you. But I don't intend to do that today. There is a budget document to be released next Tuesday night.
What I have been speaking about today is general principles.
One, responsible economic management, fighting the fight against inflation.
Two, helping working families under financial pressure through bringing around tax cuts and an increase to the childcare tax rebate so that the take home money for families struggling to balance the family budget can be made better in achieving each week's and month's and years, funding budgeting process.
And the third is investing in the future in places like where we are this morning. And having said that, and the bell having gone, I better zip.