PM: Well this is a good day for defence housing, a good day also for an injection into the Australian economy. You see in response to the global economic recession what the Government has done is embarked on a strategy of nation building for recovery. What does that mean? It means building and supporting jobs, apprenticeships and small business today by investing in the infrastructure we need for tomorrow.
Part of the infrastructure we need for tomorrow is defence housing, part of the infrastructure we need for tomorrow is broader social housing, part of the infrastructure we need for tomorrow is to upgrade our schools for the 21st century, as well as ensuring that our homes have proper energy insulation as well. Roads, rail, ports, national high speed broadband, solar energy - these sorts of initiatives.
What we're trying to do, and our objective is this, is for government to step into the breach while the private sector is in retreat because of the global economic recession. If you go to the facts here what we have is an investment in this estate of some $10 million for the construction of more than 40 defence homes. Across Brisbane, an investment of some $32.5 million to support 103 additional defence homes. Nationwide the Nation Building for Recovery plan supporting 802 additional defence homes, an investment of $256 million. And that is before you add the existing base project of defence housing which is running out at a further 1000 homes on top of that as well.
What we have done in partnership with our friends in defence is to bring a whole lot of construction forward, funded now, providing jobs for tradies in this local area while providing necessary quality defence housing for our men and women in uniform in the here and now as well. This is good stuff.
On the jobs front I am told that this overall program of ours for defence housing will result in an additional 680 direct jobs, 1700 indirect jobs; that's about two and a half thousand jobs coming about as a result of this sort of investment. That I think is what it is all about, making a difference at a time when across the world we have rising unemployment, and the reason Australia is doing better than most countries is because we the Government have stepped in to try and fill the gap left temporarily by the private sector, in addition to the great initiatives out there in the private sector itself.
So today it is my great privilege to take this set of keys and to announce that the first two defence homes funded under the Nation Building for Recovery plan are now complete and to hand over the keys to this home behind us, to the Brigadier, on behalf of the Government to the Australian Defence Force, and may whoever occupies this house enjoy it.
Now I think that is enough from me, I think it is over to you folks to ask any questions.
JOURNALIST: [inaudible] Couple of different topics if we can Prime Minister.
PM: You can ask me about this one.
JOURNALIST: Oh do you want me to ask you about this one?
PM: No, no that's fine. Off you go.
JOURNALIST: I think you summed it all up beautifully. The education revolution spending, The Australian reports this morning that some of that money is going towards schools that are being either demolished or moved. Are they mistakes or is that something you're investigating?
PM: The bottom line is this. We are proud of the fact we're investing $15 billion in the biggest school modernisation program this country has ever seen. We are proud of the fact that we are ensuring that every one of Australia's seven and a half thousand primary schools has the opportunity to invest in a state-of-the-art 21st century library, a multipurpose hall, other forms of classroom modernisation and our secondary schools have the opportunity to compete for a program which would fund about 500 of our 2500 secondary schools to have state-of-the-art science centres, state-of-the-art libraries.
Go to communities like this. What is our local primary school here?
ARCH BEVIS: Ferny Grove and they just had approval for a $3 million assembly hall announced last week.
PM: So there you go Ferny Grove. [inaudible] So I imagine the good defence folks who are going to be living in this house behind us, built as part of the Nation Building for Recovery plan, they have kids who will go off to the Ferny Grove Primary School where for the first time in the history of that school they will have a multi-purpose hall. That's terrific. Go to your specifics - your specifics are this. If you've got two previous existing schools merging, then the money dedicated under our Building the Education Revolution fund is combined to go to the new school where those schools are being merged. If a school is being closed period and there is no replacement school, that is it is simply being shut down with no planned merger, then of course funding doesn't go to that project and that has been the case all throughout.
We're proud of this project, it's the right thing for education, it's the right thing for building the education revolution. I want the kids whose mums and dads will occupy these sorts of houses to have the best quality local primary schools possible and we the federal Government for the first time are investing to make sure that they've got decent, first-class facilities of the type that Arch has just described.
JOURNALIST: I believe in one specific example, I believe it is Bremer School, the money allocated was going towards a running track and some revegetation but that school is merging or- [inaudible]
PM: As I said to you before, if two previous schools are merging then the funding which would be dedicated to each of the previous schools will be combined into the new school. That is fair and right. If a school is closing down, period, with no replacement school then of course funding doesn't go to that.
JOURNALIST: There is no mistake here, it is quite simple?
PM: We are absolutely confident in the strategy we are implementing and can I say nationwide if you are going to roll out a modernisation program in every one of Australia's seven and a half thousand primary schools, and 500 of our two and a half thousand secondary schools, and having a maintenance and repair program in every one of our ten thousand primary and secondary schools, from time to time there is going to be a bit of controversy about a school here and a school there. That is life, but you know something? This Government is proud of the biggest school modernisation program in the country's history, ask any P and C, any P and F in Queensland whether they want a new multi-purpose hall, whether they want a new state-of-the-art library, whether they would like a new science centre, whether they would like a new language centre, I think there will be a pretty strong response they'd like to see Government step into this place.
But what it's also about is I was talking to our, some of our mates who are tradies here today. I mean it is providing jobs on the way through. Providing jobs like the ones which come off the back of this housing construction project here. I mean look around here, you've got folk working on each of these houses. This estate has basically I would say doubled in size and a bit more because of the stimulus strategy and a lot of these blokes working on it are coming from as far south as the Gold Coast and other parts of South East Queensland, because there is work here and we've made that work happen.
JOURNALIST: On swine flu, the World Health Organisation has now declared a global pandemic, does that change your or Australia's response?
PM: Our preparation for the swine flu epidemic has been among the best in the world, our stockpiling of antivirals, Tamiflu and Relenza, in terms of the amount in the stockpile relative to the size of our population is one of the best in the world. We have about 10 million doses available.
This is still going to be a challenge for both the World Health Organisation as well as national health authorities around the world. But our response throughout has been to respond calmly and in a measured way to the medical and scientific advice given to us daily by the Chief Medical Officer of the Commonwealth and of the States. We will work our way through this systematically and we will continue to do so in the future. Officials are meeting again today as they would normally do and of course in response also to the decision by the World Health Organisation to upgrade.
JOURNALIST: There has been a lot of controversy, I guess speculation about public events and community safety. This doesn't change your mind at all about having to close down any public events?
PM: Again our response as a Government is always to act in conformity with the advice of the health professionals, the Chief Medical Officer and his counterparts around the States and Territories. This is where elected Government officials should be responding directly to the professional advice of the medical experts, we've done that so far and we'll do so in terms of any future decisions on school closures, on quarantining, or any other event but we do that on a very systematic basis. Calmly, methodically.
JOURNALIST: May I ask Prime Minister are you going to the Broncos tonight?
PM: I've unfortunately got to be back in Canberra so once I have given a speech here in Brissy today I'd be, I'll be on a plane back there. I wish I was still in Brissy, I'd prefer to go to the game and as patron of the Broncos I hope they win.
JOURNALIST: Were you following the controversy in the last couple of days? The Broncos were a bit upset that they were in essence forced to play when they'd had no preparation.
PM: Oh look there has been a bit of confusion about all that, I understand, and I heard a bit of that on radio this morning, I was [inaudible] earlier on. I think this is a great team, I am sure they will rise to the challenge - we had a few difficulties last week, didn't we?
ARCH BEVIS: We did.
PM: We won't talk about that.
JOURNALIST: Do you think Karmichael Hunt should play?
PM: You know something? Nice try. I am not the Chief Medical Officer, nor am I the State Medical Officer, nor am I the medical adviser to the team. Next question.
JOURNALIST: I think I'm done.
PM: OK thanks folks, I appreciate it.