PM: Yesterday I was talking about the future of the Australian economy and I said then that the fundamentals of our economy are strong, that we have a very strong Australian dollar, and that that strength is driving transformations in our economy, including transformations in manufacturing.
I said yesterday in a formal speech about the economy that I am very confident that we can build a new Australian economy where manufacturing has its place. That it can be high-wage, high-skill, high-productivity, at the forefront of innovation and research.
I'm here today at Boeing and they are showing us how you get that done, making a component for the Dreamliner aircraft, manufacturing it right here in Australia so that it joins the global supply chain and creates this aircraft of the future.
They're doing that even though the Australian dollar is strong by being smart at what they do, by staying at the forefront of innovation and research, by making sure that they're bringing high skills to bear as they go about manufacturing.
So it's been good to be here today with the Minister for Manufacturing Kim Carr and the local member, the Member for Melbourne Ports, Michael Danby, to see what this great workforce is doing.
Manufacturing currently employs around a million Australians and I want our new Australian economy to have people employed in manufacturing for our new economy to have many sources of strength, including manufacturing.
Making cars is a vital part of the approach to manufacturing. Interestingly, a number of the workers we met today got their skills working in the car-making industry, and the robotics we've seen today is robotics technology that comes from the car industry. There's pressure on Australian car-making today because of the high Australian dollar, and we have seen some job loss announced by Holden.
Of course, for the people who are involved those job losses that makes it a very difficult period as they go about looking for a new opportunity for themselves and their families.
But I am determined and Labor is determined that whilst ever Labor is here, we will be making cars in Australia. It comes down to a very simple proposition - are you for jobs or not? We are for jobs, and I reiterate that I believe it is entirely wrong for Mr Abbott and the Opposition he leads to be anti-the jobs of car workers and to be determined to rip money out of industry, co-investment with the car industry.
We will continue to work with the car industry. We have a package available of the right size to work with the car industry through our new car plan, to make sure that we continue to manufacture cars in Australia.
The new Australian economy is going to be built on high skills. It's going to be built on a clean energy future, it's going to be built on new technology like the NBN. It's going to be built on making sure that we harness the strength of mining, but we are also working with other industries so that we continue to have a diverse economy with many sources of strength, including manufacturing.
I'm very happy to take questions.
JOURNALIST: (Inaudible) from Toyota says he has real problems with productivity due to the industrial relations situation in this country - he's got (inaudible) taking rampant sickies it seems. Care to respond to his comments (inaudible)?
PM: Well I want to be very clear about my economic strategy for this country. I am not going to take Australia in a race to the bottom, which is about cutting wages and cutting penalty rates and cutting benefits for workers. That's Mr Abbott's way, that's not my way.
On Toyota, they have had a long history of very cooperative relations between management and the workers there. Of course, there is no excuse for unnecessary absenteeism; people should be going to work. But our future, our new economy should be one where people can have high skills, high-wage jobs in a productive industrial culture. The Fair Work Act is about that productive industrial culture, rather than the days of WorkChoices which was about rip-offs of working people. We are committed to that productivity industrial culture. Of course on the other side of politics, there is a very clear choice here - they're still committed to WorkChoices and the rip-offs.
JOURNALIST: (Inaudible)
PM: I understand that there are reports around about job losses at Westpac. I don't believe a formal announcement has been made, so I won't deal specifically with Westpac until a formal announcement is made.
But I would say this: for anybody to lose their job or to be confronted with a redundancy is a very tough moment for them and for their family, and they have all of our thoughts and all of our support, and we work with people in circumstances of job losses, to make sure that we can assist them to find a new opportunity and a new way of supporting themselves and their family.
When we look at financial services, there pressures on now in part because of some of the things we've been talking about here today at this great manufacturing establishment, but when we look at the future, we can see a bright future for financial services. We live in a region which is growing. We live in a region where the middle class is growing. The middle class in China, the middle class in India, the middle class in countries in our region and that burgeoning new middle class will want sophisticated financial services that can be provided by us right here in Australia. So I believe our financial services sector has a very bright outlook.
JOURNALIST: (Inaudible) Isn't that a problem? If you want a flourishing car industry that's something you can fix isn't it?
PM: Well let's be very clear about the industrial relations framework in Australia. Our framework is about treating working people decently. It is about cooperative industrial relations. It's about bargaining between working people and their unions and employers and their associations to get a productive outcome for that workplace.
Now, I understand an issue has been raised about absenteeism, and let's be very frank, I don't think anybody can suggest that taking a sickie is something that has only occurred since the creation of the Fair Work Act. I think anybody who knows anything about Australian history might know a little bit more about that. Now, of course, there is no excuse for taking a sick day without justification.
JOURNALIST: (Inaudible)
PM: Have a look at this place behind me. Have a look at this place behind me, which is competing, despite the strength of the Australian dollar and the pressure that it puts on, is competing against the world to make a part of an aircraft here so that it can be exported around the world. High productivity, great work culture.
JOURNALIST: (Inaudible)
PM: We are in discussions right now with Holden and I will get Minister Carr to comment as well, but we are in discussions right now with Holden about co-investment to keep Holden manufacturing cars here beyond 2015.
I'm very determined that we continue to see car manufacturing in Australia. Now it's not going to be the same as the past, it is going to be different from the past. For us to keep up with manufacturing, then you've always got to be doing what you do better, and that means that you will be doing it differently.
But we are in discussion with Holden about the future beyond 2015, and let's be very clear about the contrast here, too. We are working with the car industry to keep Australian jobs. I'm absolutely determined, as Prime Minister, as a Labor prime minister, that we keep car manufacturing here. What we see on the other side of politics is cutbacks which would destroy jobs.
MINISTER CARR: Can I just indicate that our discussions with General Motors are going very well. I am confident, absolutely confident of a future at General Motors in Australia and the strength of the automotive industry in Australia through the second half of this decade.
As a result of the Government working with the companies we have already seen very, very big changes in the automotive industry, and we will see more changes. We have to adjust to a much lower volume environment as a direct result of the changes that have occurred with the value of the Australian dollar.
The Australian dollar has increased in value in real terms by 40% above its historic levels, and so we have to work within that environment to produce a strong manufacturing sector which employs high-skilled people well into the future, and that's exactly what we're doing.
It's very disappointing that today we've had to see some reductions in the number of people employed. That comes in Holden's case as a direct result of the changes in the level of exports that's been able to be achieved. That in turn is a direct result of the changes in the value of the Australian dollar. We are simply not exporting as many cars to the United States as we would have hoped to.
I'm absolutely confident, however, that we will be able to maintain our abilities to not only manufacture cars here, but to design and engineering work that the global automotive industry needs can be done in Australia.
JOURNALIST: (Inaudible)
MINISTER CARR: It's not about sacking people. No-one is being sacked. What we're seeing here is a situation where every company has to face the great difficulties of managing their plants to meet the economic situation as we currently face.
We cannot - we cannot say, as part of any part of any negotiations, that every single job will be secure forever. It's about ensuring, ensuring that we employ the overwhelming numbers of Australians that are employed in manufacturing which is nearly a million people.
Now, that's been the case now since 1960. The levels of productivity and manufacturing have been huge over that period, and they will continue, continue to see significant improvements in our productivity levels. What we want to see, however, is the new investment that allows us to bring in the new technologies, the new industrial processes, the new products, and that's what we're doing. We're securing the future of the automotive industry through new investment, and that's what we will likely be able to make some positive announcements on in the very near future.
JOURNALIST: Any new cash to Holden come with strings attached for job guarantees?
PM: Let me be very clear about the way that we work with the car industry. We co-invest with the car industry and we reach agreements about the future. We reach agreements about manufacturing in Australia and of course that means Australian jobs.
The choice here and there is a very clear choice, is whether you stand for jobs in this country or whether you don't. That's the choice. And there couldn't be an issue in Australian politics that is clearer today than this one. Labor is standing up for manufacturing jobs. Mr Abbott is determined to cut back government assistance to manufacturing. That means he is determined to cut back manufacturing jobs in Australia.
JOURNALIST: (Inaudible)
PM: No I'm not, but there is a clear process under the Fair Work Australia Act for resolving demarcations. So I'm not in a position to comment specifically on the case.
JOURNALIST: (Inaudible)
PM: Well let me address that because I understand there's discussion about that today.
Mr Chalmers who represents the chamber, the automotive chamber nationally has been very clear today, that the pressure on the shoulders of the car industry is the Australian dollar.
Now, there is a figure of $400 per car floating around, and that figure isn't right. But Mr Chalmers, who is in a position to assess what is really driving change and putting pressure on in the car industry has made it very clear that it's the high level of the Australian dollar, and I understand that.
Of course, Minister Carr understands that. The Labor Government understands that. Because the forces at work in our economy and in the global economy which means this is a time of strength in the Australian economy, it's a time of a strong dollar. We're going to see that strong dollar sustained and that's going to drive a change in manufacturing, which is why during this period of transformation, we've got to stand with manufacturing, stand with the car industry and stand with those Australian jobs, and that's what we're determined to do.
JOURNALIST: (Inaudible)
PM: Look this is old news which the then Minister dealt with last year. So I'd refer you to when it was first new, which was during the course of last year.
JOURNALIST: (Inaudible)
PM: It's old news which was dealt with by the Minister last year, the very thing you're referring to came out and was dealt with by the Minister last year.
JOURNALISTS: (Inaudible)
JOURNALIST: Does something need to be done about the culture of the sickie in this country? You've referenced it -
PM: Look, I think we've just got to be a little bit sensible here and being a little bit sensible requires this: a recognition that, yes, there are times when people take sick days that they shouldn't have.
I could have made that statement in 1960, I could have made it in 1970, I could have made it in 1980, I could have made it in 1990. I could have made it in the year 2000 or I could have made it today.
For anybody to suggest that that is a result of our Fair Work Act, therefore as a matter of just basic logic is obviously wrong.
People should not take sick days without justification. But when it comes to looking at productivity in manufacturing, well I would like you to look behind you, I would invite you to actually think about the things you've seen here at Boeing today, and I would invite you to think about the productivity levels that enable Boeing to make a component, a vital component for a new aircraft right here in Australia and ship it out in crates that have got "Made in Australia" stamped all over it, the thing that enables them to do that whilst our dollar is strong is high productivity.
JOURNALIST: (Inaudible) is demanding the full email be released over the Craig Thomson saga. Is that going to happen?
PM: That was dealt with last year.
JOURNALIST: What about sick days on days after weekends? Public holidays?
PM: Well I've just dealt with that as well. If I can deal with another matter.
There has been a boat go down in PNG with, as we understand it, 350 people on board. So this is obviously a major tragedy, 350 people on board a ship that has gone down.
We have been asked to provide assistance to PNG and we are providing assistance to PNG. We are also working to urgently ascertain whether or not there were any Australians on board.
But given the likely very high loss of life here, I think when this news comes to the attention of Australians around the country, they will be thinking about the people of PNG as they respond to this tragedy.
Thank you very much.