PM: I'm joined today by Ministers Roxon and Shorten and we are here at the Braybrook-Maidstone Neighbourhood House. I've had the opportunity to have a tremendous morning tea with people in this neighbourhood house and to answer their questions about the impacts of carbon pricing on them. I'd like to thank them for the opportunity to share some conversation and some very good cake, we've all enjoyed that, and to give them some of the information that they need to work out the impact of carbon pricing on them.
Here in Braybrook and Maidstone and in many parts of Melbourne's west, people are of lower income compared with the Australian, and I've been making the point to people today that as we price carbon, our 500 biggest polluters will be paying the price. There will be some flow through impacts, less than 1 per cent on the CPI, that's less than a cent in a dollar, and people will see assistance, with around 4 million households actually coming out better off, with more assistance than they need to meet the average impact of carbon pricing on them and their family.
So we've talked today about the tax cuts for Australians earning less than $80,000 a year, and that the vast majority of them will see a tax cut of around $300. We've talked about the increase in the tax free threshold, meaning a million Australians will no longer be in the tax system, no longer have to file a tax return and will see a tax cut. So for example someone on $20,000 a year will see a tax cut of $600. We've talked today about the increases in family payments of up to $110 per child, and we've talked as well about the impact for pensioners, will pensioners seeing an increase in their pension and on average pensioner households coming out $210 in front.
So it's been a good discussion, I very much enjoyed it, and we're very happy to take your questions.
JOURNALIST: (inaudible)
PM: On the current economic climate can I say this, obviously Australians are seeing some turbulence in global financial markets and in local markets, in the share market. It's not my intention to engage in running commentary on share market movements. But I do want to say something about the Australian economy. We are not immune to global events, but I think we should have confidence, we should have confidence that our economic credentials are amongst the best in the world, we should also have confidence that we have handled in the past global instability. This Government has a proven track record of handling global instability. And we should also have the confidence of the strong fundamentals of our economy. We have low debt, low unemployment, the budget coming to surplus in 2012-13, a AAA credit rating, and we are looking to strong economic growth. And we are in the right part of the world, a part of the world that continues to grow, that means we will continue to see economic growth in our region, we've got a strong pipeline of investment, more than $400 billion of investment in the pipeline, and that means our economy will continue to experience economic growth.
Now I understand that many Australians will looking and this news and be thinking what it mean for them, I would say to Australians look to the strong fundamentals of our economy.
JOURNALIST: (inaudible) how concerned should retirees be about their super funds?
PM: People did see impacts on their super funds during the days of the global financial crisis and many Australians will be looking now on impacts here on super funds and on their direct share investments. It's not my intention to have running commentary of movements on share markets, but I would say to self-funded retirees that of course they have the ongoing support of the various benefits that we provide to self-funded retirees, many of them are part pensioners too, so they've seen the benefits of the flow through from the historic pension rise that we put in place. So people will continue to work through themselves what all of this means for them, but I would say to Australians the fundamentals of our economy are strong - low unemployment, low debt, a budget coming to surplus, we are going to continue to experience economic growth, that is what will happen in our economy.
JOURNALIST: But can you understand though why this kind of thing does make people nervous?
PM: Certainly, I can understand people watch TV and they wonder what it will mean for them, and then they reflect back to our economy and they say what's happening here, and when they do that reflection back to our economy people would see that we've got a low unemployment rate, I mean if you compare our unemployment rate with the US or the UK or parts of Europe people can see the huge stark contrast. We've got an unemployment rate of less than 5 per cent, we've got low Government debt, we've got the budget coming to surplus in 2012-13, we live in the part of the world that is continuing to grow and demand the things that we have for sale. We've got a huge pipeline of investment and we will continue to experience economic growth.
JOURNALIST: Regardless of the relative strength of the Australian economy in global terms, there have been mixed messages out of the States overnight. There was some small fall in their unemployment rate, but Standard and Poors has just downgraded long-term US debt which might be said in some circles is bordering on catastrophic, is it still the case that if the US sneezes Australia catches a cold despite the strength in our region?
PM: Well let me just talk about events in the US and then come to the strength in our region. First let's look at the facts here, it is true that Standard and Poors have downgraded their rating of the American economy, now Standard and Poors had been signalling for some time that unless they saw a certain figure of budget cutbacks out of the discussion that there's been in Washington about the American budget and fiscal consolidation, that they were intending to do that downgrade. At the same time, the other two major ratings agencies, Moody's and Fitch, continue to have the American economy rated at AAA. So I think people just need to look at all of the facts.
On our own economy when we look at our own economy, people I think understand now that a quarter of our exports go to China with its huge demand for our resources, that what we are therefore seeing are the best terms of trade in 140 years, and as a result of those best terms of trade and the profitability of the resource sector, we've got a pipeline of investment of more than $400 billion. This is the circumstance of the Australian economy.
And let me just say again very clearly, people should look with confidence at our economic credentials and fundamentals and people should look with confidence at the ability of this Government to deal with global instability, we've done it before, we came out of the global financial crisis without having gone into recession, the only advanced economy in the world to have achieved that. We achieved that because of the Government provided economic stimulus and because of the hard work and resilience of the Australian community, and now of course we've got economy with strong fundamentals, growth, low unemployment, low Government debt.
JOURNALIST: Just on the issue of asylum seekers do you reject claims that it's a breach of the UN Convention of the Rights of the Child to send unaccompanied children to Malaysia?
PM: Look we've worked through all of this and made the determination that we would enter the agreement with Malaysia. As you have seen from the arrangement we struck with Malaysia there are protections for the asylum seekers returned.
JOURNALIST: What have you been told (inaudible)
PM: Look I've seen reports that effect, obviously our Immigration Department officials will handle any issues, but as we've made clear all along, the returns to Malaysia aren't a question of volunteering, this will be done.
JOURNALIST: Is three days long enough to properly assess those arrivals before they're sent on to Malaysia?
PM: When the system is in full operation we anticipate 72 hour turnarounds, we always said that the first turnaround would take slightly longer than that and it is taking slightly longer than that, and yes it's a satisfactory amount of time to do what needs to be done for pre-transfer assessment.
JOURNALIST: Despite criticisms of the UN that it's too short?
PM: Well we've made determinations on the best of advice from our officials about what be achieved in that time period. And let's be clear, our aim is to smash the people smugglers business model, our aim is to not see people put themselves in boats and be at risk of losing their lives. At Christmas time this year, the Christmas that's just gone, that we saw those tragic scenes off Christmas Island as people including children drowned, we do not want to see people getting on boats, we want to smash this evil trade. At the same we will take 4000 genuine refugees from Malaysia and of course included in that number will be children.
JOURNALIST: It's been commented upon in Canberra in particular, that you seem more confident in your public performance in the past week, do you agree with that?
PM: I'll let the commentators do their commentary, that's what they get paid for.
JOURNALIST: You've got a few things that you've rolled out now, you have an agenda, a program that you're pushing hard, Tony Abbott's been out of the country (inaudible) the phrase relaxed and comfortable-
PM: Look I'll let the commentators do what they do.
JOURNALIST: Do you think public sentiments changing with regards to the carbon tax?
PM: With carbon tax what I've said all along is we're doing this because it's the right thing for the nation's future, I want us to have a clean energy future, I want us to have the jobs and investment that go with that. Carbon pricing will start on 1 July next year and it will mean that from 1 July next year we are embarked on the same sort of economic reform, hard economic reform, which this country has fronted up to in the past and which explains today's prosperity. So we need to continue to engage in hard economic reform so that we can enjoy prosperity into the future, and a big part of the prosperity is going to be a clean energy future with new investment and new jobs that will flow. As I've talked to people about pricing carbon, I've just been wanting to make people have got all of the information to judge for themselves, and I've talked about that here this morning, and people can get that information from our cleanenergyfuture.gov.au website.
JOURNALIST: As a footy fan do you have any thoughts for Jim Stynes at the moment?
PM: Look I've had the very great privilege of meeting with Jim Stynes and talking to him about the remarkable work he does for young and disadvantaged Australians, and I've been very pleased that the Government's been able to partner with him in some of that remarkable work, which is so close to his heart and which he's continued to do even as he's confronted illness. So I think we're all thinking about Jim, he was a tremendous footballer, he's a great Australian, and a person of remarkable courage, just amazing courage, to keep coming out, being there with his beloved football team, and doing so much great work amongst the Australian community, so our thoughts are certainly with him and his family.
Thank you very much.