PM: It is good to be here with Tanya Plibersek, our Housing Minister and the Victorian Housing Minister Richard Wynne and Parliamentary Secretary Bill Shorten, where are you Bill? And our local members as well. And we are here at Tulla', Tullamarine today to announce the completion of the first units of social housing delivered under the nation building economic stimulus plan for Victoria.
This project itself involved some $650,000 through the stimulus plan, providing affordable housing for three tenants and we have just seen that and it is really good to see the difference it is making in people's lives.
I am told from Tanya just before that we have had -
MINISTER PLIBERSEK: About 110 people on site and 19 apprentices.
PM: About 110 people on site and 19 apprentices and that is a good thing. And these projects are now, with the Government's support and the State Government's support, springing up right across Victoria and right across Australia. When you put this together with the Building the Education Revolution program, we are making a difference to the economy but we are also making a difference to people's lives and to the education of our kids as well.
Right across Australia now we are investing in 20,000 units of new social housing, 20,000 units of social housing. So apart from the ones you have seen here today, that is another 19,997 and Tanya will be going to each of them.
The important thing is that with the, each of these constructions, there is a number of trades that are concentrated on the site. Tradies such as carpenters, electricians, brickies, carpet layers, painters, kitchen manufacturers and the lot. That is, working hard, working together to build these projects and supporting local jobs.
Here in Victoria, our social housing initiative is worth $1.6 billion and is on schedule to meet the objective of completing 75 per cent of properties by the end of 2010. Stage one involved 667 dwellings at a cost $171 million. Stage two, 992 dwellings worth $218 million and they have already been approved and are ahead of the August deadline. The stimulus plan also involved some $99 million investment in the maintenance and repair of 5600 in Victoria. This is actually an important addition to what we have done. Let me restate it: we are investing in 20,000 units of social housing (inaudible)
Putting it in context, 20,000 new units of social housing, secondly we are also investing in the maintenance and repair work on a further 50,000 units of existing social housing. Tanya was advising me before that of that 50,000, 10,600 would be lost to the total stock of available social housing were it not for these repairs. Put those numbers together, it actually makes a big difference in terms of overall demand for social housing in Australia. So these are important investments for the future.
Can I say that for us as Government it is good to partnering with the Victorian Government on important national reforms like this. What is our strategy? Nation building for recovery, nation building for the future. That is investing in jobs, small business and apprenticeships today while investing also in the infrastructure we need for tomorrow.
That is making a difference and that is why we are here today. (inaudible)
MINISTER WYNNE: Just to say Prime Minister, that it is fantastic that you are here today with Tanya and our local members. This is an unprecedented investment and an unprecedented partnership by both levels of Government in public and social housing.
Just by way of scale this is the biggest build of public and social housing that has happened in Victoria since the 1956 Olympic Games. So this is a wonderful journey that we are on here. This is our, we are turning our first three units over to our residents here in Tullamarine and it is a great time to be the Minister for Housing in Victoria because we are going to achieve the goals that the Prime Minister has set for us. It is great challenge but to achieve both the economic stimulus that is evidenced from this investment and also the social outcome that we are getting here, these are wins on both counts.
PM: And just before taking your questions, this Nation Building for Recovery plan of ours is good for the economy. Remember, Australia at present, of the major advanced economies in the world is the fastest growing economy with the second lowest unemployment, with the lowest debt, the lowest deficit and the only economy so far not to have gone into recession.
Secondly, it is not only good for the national economy, it is good for the community and it is good for families and we have seen three families lives changed somewhat by the investment we have made here in these units of social housing. So I am very pleased today to be here in Melbourne launching the first three units of social housing commissioned under the Nation Building for Recovery Plan. Over to you folks.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, yesterday you wrote that, you warned about a lag between the recovery and unemployment (inaudible)
PM: Did you read it all? (inaudible)
JOURNALIST: Yeah, well I read the précis. Having said that, wouldn't the union movement push for a 20 per cent Australian made component in all Government purchasing orders go somewhere to helping the unemployment problem?
PM: The global economic recession is the worst global economic downturn in three quarters of a century. That is why we have a nation building for recovery plan, a nation building for the future plan.
In the essay I have written, what I have said is this: the road to recovery will be tough. It will be very tough and that is why we need to lay in place the building blocks for long term sustainable economic growth for Australia.
Where does that lie? Of course strong management of our public finances on the one hand but laying out the building blocks of long term productivity growth for the future as well. That is our strategy for the long term recovery. That is the direction we are going in: acting now, supporting the economy in the sorts of measures that we are launching here today, but putting in place the building blocks for the future as well. I believe that is where our concentration must lie. They are really important measures.
JOURNALIST: But wont a 20 per cent purchasing component of made in Australia support -
PM: Let me just say this, the important thing is this: so much of Australia's national wealth depends on the fact that we continue to be able to access export markets abroad. Secondly we need to avoid any form of protectionist measure which invites retaliatory protectionist measures from economies around the world. And that is what would happen. And as a result -
JOURNALIST: (inaudible)
PM: (inaudible) and as a result what we are trying to do is to make sure we boost our economy at home, keep our export markets open abroad, that is what the Government is committed to. This Government, throughout its time in office and for the future, will be committed to open markets abroad. The mistake of the Great Depression in the early 1930s was this: economies believed that the way to get themselves through was to shut their economies down and close their borders to imports from abroad. What happens with that, the entire global economy shrinks.
What happened in the '30's - that depression resulted in a negligible economic growth throughout the 1930s. We are not about to repeat those mistakes here.
JOURNALIST: So is the Government rejecting the Buy Australia campaign that the unions have?
PM: We believe that there is a strong role for effective Government procurement policy. There is a strong role for industry policy. We are here in Victoria, let me talk about industry policy for a bit. The automotive industry, $6.2 billion plan which goes out for more than 12 years, it has been instrumental and fundamental in the decisions taken in Detroit about the continuation of the Australian automobile industry. That is because we have been active partners intervening through industry policy with key and critical industries such as automotive which employs more than 200,000 Australians in one form or another.
That is where our emphasis lies, that is where we are going to be going for the future.
JOURNALIST: (inaudible) interest rates (inaudible)
PM: I think the challenge which we all face is this: the road to recovery will be tough therefore we need to put in place the building blocks for the future. The road to recovery will not just be tough, it will be long, it will be hard and there will be bumps in the road. And I just think it is important to be upfront with people about those bumps in the road, because we are dealing with a global economic recession, the likes of which have not seen in three quarters of a century. And this Government, with policies such as we have here at the moment, are aimed at making a difference.
JOURNALIST: (inaudible) can never afford to buy a home (inaudible)
PM: On Friday I addressed the Housing Industry Association National Awards in Brisbane which brought together the entire housing industry from across Australia. It was a really good gathering because it enabled us to reflect on not just our work in social housing, though this is important - 20,000 units of new housing by way of support to those in need, 50,000 units of repair and 10,000 which are being prevented from falling out of the housing, the social housing stock nationwide.
But the Minister Tanya Plibersek has been actively engaged in all the other arms of housing policy as well, around housing affordability - the housing affordability fund, the first home owners deposit scheme. These are measures which we have implemented, in the 18 months we have been in office, with one objective, to make sure that we make, that we have in the future the living possibility of Australians owning their own homes. And secondly, where that is not possible, that we are out there with a decent strategy on social and public housing and action on homelessness which makes a difference for those in need.
JOURNALIST: Do you think Australian house prices are too high though and that it will only get worse?
PM: Well these things obviously follow a market but can I say our job as a government is to intervene through measures to help first home owners, not just through for example the trebling of the first home owners' boost which is what we have done. And if you look at the figures which have been produced about the assistance which has been provided to first home buyers in particular from that scheme, it has been significant.
Secondly, the First Home Savers Account scheme which the Government has introduced, thirdly the (inaudible) National Rental Affordability Scheme and fourthly our direct investment to social housing and fifthly our first white paper as a Government, ' A place to call home' on the great challenge of homelessness.
100,000 Australians who have no place to call home is, I believe, unacceptable. That is why the Minister and I and the Government took that challenge up with our first white paper commissioned not long after the Government took office. It was delivered at the end of last year. And we embraced that strategy and have funded it and supported it.
JOURNALIST: (inaudible) youth unemployment is rising in areas like this particularly, outer suburban areas. What is the Government doing about this, are you worried that it is going to get back to a situation (inaudible) where youth unemployment was one of the fastest rising sectors?
PM: Look this is a really tough time and I have been upfront and straightforward with the Australian people saying the road to recovery will be tough and unemployment will continue to rise. Look at what is happening around the world, at the global economic recession where unemployment has gone through the roof.
In Australia because of the measures we have taken, we are doing better than most other economies and we have the second lowest unemployment of the worlds' major advanced economies.
However, stimulus strategy and investment nationwide is one thing, and that, the Treasury advises will help keep more than 210,000 Australians employed who would otherwise lose their jobs were it not for the stimulus strategy of which these three houses are part.
Second point, in terms of local unemployment and youth unemployment in particular, that is why we have also implemented our Jobs and Training Compact with Australia. What is that? A compact with young Australians, a compact with retrenched Australians, a compact with local communities.
For young Australians under 25 it is a nationwide policy of earn or learn and therefore what we have done through the provision of productivity training places to make sure that any young person who cannot enter the labour market, has an opportunity to obtain skills which they can then deploy once the private economy recovers.
It is all these things taken together which make a difference and that is why we are active not just on direct stimulus, but supporting people who can't get a job or who have lost their job at the same time.
JOURNALIST: (inaudible) Gen Y are a little bit too lazy to get out there and flip burgers and wash dishes is that a concern to you -
JOURNALIST: Is Mark Arbib right when he says Gen Y shouldn't be job snobs?
PM: Let me read you what Mr Arbib said on the record and then I will come in and completely support everything he has said. '12 months ago, employers were struggling to find workers but in a short time the job market has been turned on its head. In tough economic times, many people, especially new entrants to the job market with limited experience have to adjust their thinking to be more adaptive and flexible.'
That is what Mr Arbib has actually said as opposed to what has just been said. So let me just say this, Mark Arbib is absolutely right to say that the road to recovery is tough, that unemployment is going up and it is important for us all to be practical about that in terms of the jobs that are available in the economy.
JOURNALIST: (inaudible)
PM: Can I say that, let's be very clear about one point and that is that we have said that when it comes to the report of the National Health and Hospitals Reform Commission that we would be releasing that report before Parliament resumes and we intend to do so. Secondly, this is a big challenge for the future and we intend to embrace that challenge.
Thirdly what we have said also is that the States and the Territories have a responsibility with us to work together on a national reform plan for health and hospitals and we would seek to do so cooperatively and if the States and Territories choose not to do that cooperatively, then we leave open the option of going to a referendum to seek a mandate from the people.
We stand by each of those undertakings, have to be very clear about that. That is what we said. We have also said, commissioned this report on the health reform commission which has reported to the Government at the end of June. We have said we would release it by the time Parliament resumes in August and we intend to roll up our sleeves and get on with the job.
JOURNALIST: (inaudible)
PM: Can I say that the challenge in the midst of tough economic times brought about by the worst global recession in three quarters of a century is to work with the new opportunities that the Government's economic stimulus strategy is delivering, work with the support that is provided to young people through our compact with young Australians and to accept the practical challenges of an economy which has been buffeted by events around the world.
Government is out there extending a hand in partnership with communities and with young people and those who have been retrenched and by our investments in necessary infrastructure. But it is going to be tough and I see no point in gilding the lily about the fact it is going to be tough. The road to recovery will be tough, long, hard and bumpy.
JOURNALIST: Malcolm Turnbull says he won't propose amendments to the emissions trading scheme but he says he wants to negotiate. Is the Government going to negotiate with him?
PM: I saw those remarks this morning and I am a little bit surprised by them. Firstly the Government produced its white paper on the Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme last December. Secondly, the Government released its legislation in March. Thirdly it is now 18 days to go before it is voted on in the Senate and now Mr Turnbull says there is not enough time to frame amendments for that legislation.
Let's just be you know, fair 'dinkum about this. Mr Turnbull is simply looking for an excuse to avoid taking a decision on climate change because his party is fundamentally divided on climate change.
There has been plenty of time since March of this year for Mr Turnbull to frame amendments which the Government has always said they would consider.
Mr Turnbull's problem is that he can't get any unity within his own party to frame agreed amendments to put to the Government for consideration. That is the bottom line here. The nation requires leadership on climate change. Mr Turnbull is only concerned about propping up his own leadership through to the end of the year, hence his most recent excuse today.
And having said that folks, I have got to run, I have got to get back to Canberra. Thanks.