Perth
E & O E - PROOF ONLY
PM: It's fantastic to be here in Western Australia. I'm joined by my ministerial colleague Chris Evans and I'm joined by another great West Australian, Melissa Parke the member for Fremantle. Thank you for having us in your electorate.
I'm here in Western Australia for two big reasons today, and the first big reason we're actually standing in. This is the $100 million GE Skills Development Centre. And I'd like to thank Steve and the team at GE for inviting me here today for the official opening. And I'd like to thank them for everything they've done to create this facility.
This $100 million training facility is telling you the story of the Australian economy today and tomorrow. Just a few weeks ago I delivered our blue print for Australia's economic future. For the future of the resources industry and for the future that we will share in the days beyond the resources boom. For the future that we can build together.
I think Australians know our economy is resilient. And unlike so many nations around the world, we've come through the global financial crisis with low unemployment, with good growth rates, with strong public finances.
But the future is up to us to make. Nothing about the future is ever assured. But what we do know about our future is it can be an era of opportunity and prosperity for Australians if we make the right decisions now. The economic blueprint I've outlined charts us a path to ensure that Australians have high skill, high wage jobs. That people on average are earning $11,000 a year more. That our nation is one of the top 10 economies on earth. That our kids go to school in a schooling system that is one of the top five on earth.
That's the future we can realise, but it's going to take making good decisions now and a focus on skills, which is where this remarkable centre comes in.
This centre is telling you that there are long-term high-skill, high-wage jobs available to the people of Western Australia if they are trained with the right skills. That the oil and gas industry here offers people high-skill, high-wage jobs for the next 10, 20, 30, 40 years.
We've got to get the skills right and GE is investing in those skills. So people can come into this industry and make their future. My big congratulations go to GE. It's been a real privilege to be here this morning.
Secondly, I'm in Western Australia today to participate in Ausmin, in the event where Australia and the US sit down and talk about foreign policy and defence issues.
This is held every year, every two years it's in Australia and the other year it's in the US. And I'm so pleased that it's being hosted here in Perth.
What that means is that during the course of today I will meet Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, I will meet with Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta and I will participate this evening in discussions about the shared security arrangements we have with the United States.
The United States is the oldest of allies. We've been in an alliance for more than 60 years and we are good mates at every level. We share a strategic partnership and defence relationship. We share strong economic bonds with the US being a huge investor in the Australian economy. We share strong people-to-people links. We share values and similar cultural outlooks on the world.
During the course of the discussions today I will be focusing on the outlook for the East Asia Summit. Next week I will be in Cambodia at the meeting that will also be attended by President Obama.
This East Asia Summit is an important vehicle in our region, an important discussion point in our region, and we are working patiently with the US and others so that the East Asia Summit can realise its full mandate of being a regional body that works on political issues, economic issues and security issues. So I will be focusing on the talks to come in the East Asia Summit.
I will also be focusing on the future of our mission in Afghanistan. We have continuing work to do in Afghanistan. We are there as part of the NATO ISAF forces. And I will be keen to exchange views on the outlook of that mission and this time of transition in Afghanistan to the leadership of the security of the nation being done by local Afghan forces.
And as we come on to the UN Security Council, having been successfully elected, I will want to share views on some of the big challenges our world faces, including what is happening in Syria, and the nuclear issues involving Iran.
These talks will also deal with discussing what President Obama and I agreed last year about military cooperation between our two countries. Last year President Obama and I announced that we had agreed that US marines would be training on deployment in the Northern Territory. These talks will stocktake that progress and further Defence cooperation.
So I'm very pleased to be here in Western Australia for what's going to be a big day. And I'm very happy to take questions.
JOURNALIST: (Inaudible)?
PM: The big decision we made last year was about marines coming into the Northern Territory for training. We are involved in further talks for what will be medium-term plans, not short-term plans, about cooperation on ships and also cooperation on aviation.
But I do stress these are medium-term plans. This meeting will be very focused on stocktaking where we've got to after last year's major announcement with President Obama.
JOURNALIST: (Inaudible)?
PM: We're talking a number of years.
JOURNALIST: (Inaudible)?
PM: It's us that would make decisions about the deployment of our Special Forces, so that is a matter for the National Security Committee of Cabinet, for Cabinet and for me.
Of course, we will be talking about the outlook for Special Forces, and counter-terrorism needs in Afghanistan after transition. So after transition, after the end of 2014, we know that we will be a continuing participant in the NATO train, advise, assist mission.
We have left the door open to a continuing presence for Special Forces should that be necessary and the work of those Special Forces would obviously be on counter-terrorism questions.
But decisions haven't been taken at this stage about what our engagement would be beyond 2014, on Special Forces we've left the door open.
The strategy for Afghanistan is to find at NATO ISAF meetings of course the outlook of the Americans is incredibly important to that and I should say that these Ausmin talks come at a critical time with President Obama having been re-elected and with his administration now making and getting ready to put in place their views and policies for the next four years.
JOURNALIST: On the Royal Commission, (inaudible)?
PM: I think it's about working it through in detail and cooperatively with each jurisdiction as to how they best relate to the Royal Commission. So I don't think there is a general answer about that.
The Attorney-General has already started to communicate with her counterparts, so the Attorney-General Nicola Roxon talking to State attorneys-general about the best way of working together with a focus on those jurisdictions that have inquiries in progress.
In addition to that, the acting Minister for Families, Minister Brendan O'Connor, as well as the public service, has commenced to reach out to the groups that represent survivors and victims of child abuse.
There is an ability for people to register their interest through an email address that is available to people on the Prime Minister and Cabinet website. So for anybody who's interested, that's pmc.gov.au.
And my Chief of Staff has been in contact with the Leader of the Opposition's office because they will be involved in these consultations too and we will reach out over time to other parliamentarians.
JOURNALIST: (Inaudible)?
PM: As long as it takes to do it right.
JOURNALIST: (Inaudible)?
PM: I made it very clear yesterday we are talking about what could be an extensive period of time and we should not set artificial limits on getting this done properly.
JOURNALIST: Would you expect (Inaudible)?
PM: This is going to be a set of questions for the Royal Commission about how they want to take evidence, who they want to take evidence from and I'm not going to pre-judge any of that and I don't think anybody else should.
Where we are is I've announced we will have a Royal Commission, we will work in a very consultative and cooperatively way about getting the terms of reference right, we will then appoint a Royal Commissioner or a number of Royal Commissioners to work on this job for us.
It will be a big thing to do, an extensive inquiry, and consequently there will be a set of issues for them to work through about how to gather evidence, how to take evidence, how to deal with people, how to deal very sensitively with people who may be in quite distressed circumstances. So all of that will be the work of the Royal Commission itself.
JOURNALIST: (Inaudible)?
PM: I'm not going to pre-judge a time frame. What we've got to do here is get the terms of reference right. I think it's very important we work collaboratively on that and we are prepared to do so and we've hit the ground running on that today. We're already reaching out to the people we need to have discussions with.
We'll work to get the terms of reference right. Then the Royal Commission itself will be constituted and we will take continuing advice from them about what is necessary in terms of time to get this done and get it right.
I think it's not the right approach to say, let's do it quickly, and not do it thoroughly. It's also not the right approach to be hypothetically war-gaming how long it could take. Let's just take a step at a time, and do it.
JOURNALIST: (Inaudible)?
PM: I'm looking forward to meeting again with Hillary Clinton. We've had the opportunity to meet on a number of occasions and spend some time together just her and me, so that's been very valuable for me. And I'm looking forward to having another chat. We will have the opportunity to have some discussions one-on-one as well as the more formal discussions about our defence cooperation and our cooperation in foreign affairs questions.
JOURNALIST: Tony Abbott's quoted this morning talking about his backbencher Ken Wyatt saying (inaudible) he's not a man of culture. He then went on to talk about (inaudible) he said, I think it would be terrific if as well as having an urban Aboriginal in the Parliament, we had an Aboriginal person from central Australia (inaudible).
PM: I think the best thing is for me to say, the only person who can really explain those comments is Tony Abbott.
JOURNALIST: (Inaudible)?
PM: I don't comment on opinion polls. I've had cause to say that to you in the past when I've been in Western Australia, so I don't comment on opinion polls. I am very happy to say this though, and I said it when I spoke at the opening of this great centre; not precisely in these words but you will see in my speech how we're talking about our plan for the nation's future.
There's only one political party in this country that has got a clear plan for our nation's future and there's only one political party that is delivering the policies to realise that plan, and that's the Labor Party, that's the Government.
JOURNALIST: (Inaudible)?
PM: Once again I'm not going to engage in continuing commentary around a matter that's been before ICAC. Anybody who has done the wrong thing whilst in public office should obviously be held to account. But I'm not going to pre-judge matters involving individuals that are the subject of an inquiry right now.
JOURNALIST: (Inaudible)?
PM: I think you are confusing two things. If there's any suggestion that anybody in public office has done the wrong thing, then proper accountability processes, including work of bodies like ICAC, should happen and that work is happening now.
I don't think any of us can properly pre-judge what will happen out of those inquiries and indeed I don't think ICAC itself would want continuing commentary from me as Prime Minister on its workings.
So anybody who has done anything wrong should be held to account. That's not a matter of political argy-bargy, that's a matter of values. And for all of us, we value the honesty of people who are serving in public office, it's one of the things that our nation prides itself on; having a system that is very corruption-free. That doesn't mean you can never let your guard down, you've got to be constantly vigilant and the proper processes always have to work through.
JOURNALIST: (Inaudible)?
PM: I don't want to be involved in a commentary about the words of Cardinal Pell, they're a matter for him. The reasons I announced the Royal Commission were made plain by me yesterday when I made the announcement.
JOURNALIST: What does it mean for hundreds of thousands of Australians (inaudible)?
PM: I think for Western Australians who are looking for work, the very existence of a centre like this should give them a cause for optimism and hope about their ability to find an opportunity in the economy in Western Australia.
This economy in WA is strong, our national economy is a very resilient economy and we should be proud of what we've achieved together in our national economy during some very dark days in the global economy.
For an individual who's looking for work, what this is telling you is that there isn't a short-term need for people with high skills engaging in the oil and gas industry here in WA; there's a very long-term need. These are going to be high-skill, high-quality jobs for decades and decades to come.
So there are great opportunities here in the Western Australian economy, and indeed in the resources sector across the Australian economy.
So thank you very much, thanks to everyone.