PM: I'm here in Sydney today and I've met with the Governor of the Reserve Bank, Glenn Stevens and received a briefing from him and I'm here at the Stock Exchange and I've been briefed by its chairman and CEO.
In each of these briefings we've discussed the global economy, the economy of our region, and of course Australia's economy.
We live in a world with a number of economic challenges and people would see the news from Europe very frequently and also the news about the US economy. We also live in a world of opportunity as we are in the part of the world that continues to experience strong economic growth and looks more to that growth as time continues, as the Asian region continues to grow.
Having received these briefings today I just wanted to say a couple of things about my approach to managing the economy. Managing an economy and keeping it strong isn't enough. You've got to make sure that you're managing that economy in the interests of working Australians so that they're getting their fair share.
Looking at the Australian economy today, we are a pillar of strength in the world. The envy of the world and looking directly at what is happening in our economy we see more jobs, lower taxes and lower interest rates than we saw under the Howard Government.
We do of course have challenges in our economy; we live in a time of economic transformation. We are seeing a major resources boom. And that is a good thing for our nation but it but it also means our Australian dollar is very high, putting pressure on other sections of the economy including manufacturing and tourism. And so as a Government we are working right across the economy so that there are opportunities for all and that our economy continues to have a number of sources of strength, not just mining.
During the course of 2012, we'll be very focussed on what we need to do to keep strengthening our economy today and building our economy for the future, including by delivering our clean energy future. By making sure Australians get a fair share of the mining boom, by making sure that we are harnessing the skills and attributes of Australians right around the nation so that they can fill the skilled jobs that will increasingly become available.
These are all important economic challenges for us, I'm focussed on them as Prime Minister, and I thank both the Stock Exchange and the Reserve Bank for providing me with some briefings today.
I'm very happy to take your questions.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, has any of your staffers been questioned by Federal Police over the Australia Day protest?
PM: No.
JOURNALIST: (Inaudible)
PM: The Government is very determined to return to surplus in 2012-13 as promised because that is the right strategy for our economy. I've just referred to our economy as a pillar of strength. Or economy is in a very different position from the economies of the United States and from the nations in Europe. We are experiencing growth. We've got low unemployment. These are such important things important things for Australians, the opportunity to get a job, the opportunity to work in a growing economy and in our growing economy it's the right thing to have fiscal discipline and to bring the budget to surplus which is why we are determined to do it.
JOURNALIST: (Inaudible) Kevin's Rudd's challenge. The story in today's Daily Telegraph looks, if it's true, to be quite damaging to you, Prime Minister.
PM: Look, my focus today is on the Australian economy and making sure that the Australian economy is working in the interest of working people. That they can get a job, that they can get the skills they need to get an even better job, that they can make a life for them and their families. I understand that as people look at their TV screens and they see all of the uncertainty around the world, they wonder what it means for us.
The Australian economy is in a very different position than economies overseas, we came out of the global financial crisis strong, we live in the growing region of the world economically and we have huge opportunities for the future, if we make the right decisions now.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, what was the message from Governor Stevens on the current state of the economy?
PM: Well Governor Stevens and I obviously discussed the circumstances of the global economy and Australia's economy. So we did talk about the opportunities and challenges. It's not my intention to go into specifics about my discussion with the Reserve Bank Governor.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, have you asked your senior advisers why it took them three to four hours on Friday to tell you about Mr Hodges' behaviour even though they told him - well Mr Hodges told them the night before?
PM: Look I've answered these questions I think twice before so let me answer them for the third time. The approach that my staff took was to make sure that every allegation that had been made by various journalists, and there were various stories running around, was fully investigated and that they were in a position to brief me comprehensively on the full facts and so I received that briefing and then dealt with the matter publicly.
JOURNALIST: But your senior adviser knew about these allegations the night before and then went on to tell certain radio programs, for example, that nothing was going on. Are you going to be asking for his resignation as well given Tony Hodges-
PM: The way in which you've put your question is factually incorrect, it assumes things happened which did not happen. My office received an inquiry about an allegation made by Mr Ray Hadley. Mr Hadley's people were advised that allegation was untrue and it was untrue.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, should the RBA (inaudible) try and ease pressure on the Australian dollar for example?
PM: The Reserve Bank sets interest rates independently of Government.
JOURNALIST: Do you have view of Newspoll at the moment that things haven't improved for you?
PM: The important thing I'm focussed on today is the Australian economy. And what matters to me is the numbers of people who have got jobs. Whether or not we're going to see growth in the Australian economy and how high that growth is going to be. The fact that interest rates are lower now, the fact that taxes are lower now. They're the kind of numbers that I'm focussed on.
JOURNALIST: (inaudible)
PM: Kevin Rudd is doing a great job as Minister for Foreign Affairs. It's very important for a nation our size that we do have our voice heard around the world. We've got a proud tradition of punching above our weight when it comes to making our voice heard around the world and Kevin Rudd as Foreign Affairs Minister is doing a good job in making sure that our voice is heard.
JOURNALIST: (Inaudible)
PM: Look I've dealt with that I think in answer to a question over here.
JOURNALIST: Do you agree with Mr Crean though that he's not a team player?
PM: I've just given you my answer.
PM: We'll just take a question here and then we'll come over. Yes?
JOURNALIST: (Inaudible)
PM: Look, we each and every time we come to do a budget or the midyear economic and fiscal outlook, take a prudent approach. And we do make sure we look at the dollars being spent and we make cutbacks. But budgets are about choices and in order to deliver a surplus, in order for us to make sure we are doing the right thing by our economy and delivering fiscal discipline, then we do have to make room for new spending by making cutbacks.
I'd refer you to last MYEFO, I'd refer you to last year's budget, I'd refer you to the budget before that and the budget before that and what you'll see is we've taken a very prudent approach to making room. Now sometimes that means that there are very hard choices, but we will keep taking that approach because it's not in Australia's interest to end up, for example, in the position that the Opposition is now where they need to make $70 billion of cutbacks before they even get to the starting line. $70 billion of cuts to even make the first starting approach to what they'd need to do to make a budget add up.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, will you be travelling to Queensland to help out Anna Bligh in her election campaign?
PM: Look I've spoken to or been in contact with Anna Bligh, of course she's there fighting her election campaign. I said to Anna and she certainly said to me that, you know, we'll work in on the campaign, like all State campaigns it will be focussed on State issues and Anna Bligh is very determined to fight hard for her vision of Queensland. Of course I and a number of Federal colleagues will be playing some role in the campaign.
JOURNALIST: Can I ask a question about the vegetable growers raising concerns about Coles lowering their prices. Is there anything the Government can do? There's concerns that they're going to be undercut and go out of business because of that.
PM: Look, we've always said that our big retailing chains should treat our farmers, vegetable growers, all of our farmers, fairly and appropriately.
Sorry, last question - you were-
JOURNALIST: I was going to ask Prime Minister, are you concerned about the strength of the Australian dollar?
PM: The strength of the Australian dollar is a reflection of the strength of our economy. It is the world knowing that we are economy seeing incredible growth in resources. It's the world knowing that our economy is strong. But the strength of the dollar does mean that other sections of the economy, tourism, manufacturing, international education, face some pressures.
We understand that and that is why we're working with sections of the economy including manufacturing and tourism and we've made changes in international education.
On the working with these other sections of the economy, it's very important to me as Prime Minister that during this time of economic change as we see such a huge resources boom, that we don't allow that resources boom to hollow out other sections of the economy. So we are working with manufacturing, we are working with the car industry, which is why I find it so disappointing that the Opposition is publicly advocating basically the end of jobs making cars in this country. A million Australians work in manufacturing, car making is important to the skills across our manufacturing sector and it is the wrong thing to do to be saying that people who work making cars should be tossed out of work and our economy should lose those skills.
Thanks very much.