Queenstown, New Zealand
E & O E - PROOF ONLY
PM: I'm delighted to be here in Queenstown in New Zealand.
When I spoke to the New Zealand Parliament in 2011, I made the point that whilst Australia has many friends in the world, the relationship between Australia and New Zealand is one of family.
So it's good to be here, as part of the annual leaders' exchange in that very close relationship.
I also made the point when I spoke to the New Zealand parliament in 2011 that I didn't want familiarity to slide into forgetfulness. This is still a relationship that requires focus and work, even though it is such a close family bond.
As Prime Minister, I have instituted annual leaders' dialogues between Australia and New Zealand, and tomorrow will participate in the third such dialogue between me and Prime Minister Key.
This exchange comes at a time when we are celebrating and marking the anniversary of our Closer Economic Relationship.
It is a relationship over three decades that has brought two liberalising economies closer together.
It's an economic relationship that means that there is free movement of people and ideas.
There's trade, there is exchange between our two countries that enhances jobs and growth for both of our nations.
Whilst the mechanics of the Comprehensive Economic Relationship between our two countries may not be transparent to the people of Australia and New Zealand day to day, the benefits are present with us each and every day.
As part of this special anniversary, Prime Minister Key and I authorised our Productivity Commissions to work together and to provide a report on how to even deepen our Comprehensive Economic Relationship - the close economic relationship between the two of us.
We will be considering the work of that joint Productivity Commissions approach tomorrow. It's the first time it's been done: getting our Productivity Commissions to work together.
Whilst I don't think we will be able to respond at depth and in detail to all of the recommendations of that report, I'm looking forward to discussing that report with Prime Minister Key and what work we can do based on it.
In addition, I'm looking forward to talking to Prime Minister Key about a set of challenges and issues that Australia and New Zealand face in our world, including the challenge of people-smuggling in our region, the future outlook for Fiji, the work that we are doing in Afghanistan, the challenges and opportunities we face in this Asian Century and also the work that lies beyond the RAMSI drawdown in the Solomon Islands.
So there is a lot to be working through and talking about.
Tomorrow too, I will have an opportunity to pay my respects at the Queenstown Memorial Gate.
The centenary of Gallipoli is fast approaching, and this is a centenary that we will share together - the Anzac spirit being celebrated and marked in both of our nations.
I will be able to announce who has the winning design for the Australian memorial that will be constructed in Wellington as part of the way in which we mark 2015.
I think we will also be able to spend just a little bit of time talking about the opportunities from the Cricket World Cup in 2015. So there's a lot to do, and I'm looking forward to it.
JOURNALIST: Will you be telling John Key or alleviating any concerns about New Zealand citizens treated as second-class in Australia when it comes to social welfare benefits and the like?
PM: Well, because of our special relationship we have arrangements for New Zealanders that have a generosity associated with them, that is not given to any other nationals from any other country when they come to Australia.
First and foremost, New Zealanders can come to Australia and access our labour market without restrictions; we don't confer that benefit on any other nation.
New Zealanders who live in Australia are also entitled to a range of benefits: things like the Family Tax Benefit, Baby Bonus, access to Medicare, the pharmaceutical benefits scheme-
JOURNALIST: So the status quo will remain though?
PM: Well, I'm just going through in relation to the terminology of your question.
I think it is important to understand that New Zealanders in Australia do get access to these benefits: Medicare, PBS, Family Tax Benefit, Baby Bonus, to name just a few.
So it is a relationship we don't accord to any other nationals from any other part of the world.
JOURNALIST: (Inaudible) pay for its promises, when the receipts from mining tax are so low compared to the estimates? And why weren't these figures released yesterday?
PM: Well, I think the Treasurer's dealt with all of this in Australia.
As you know, we were in receipt of some advice about taxpayer confidentiality, and the Treasurer has taken appropriate advice about whether or not these figures could be released.
The MRRT is a profits-based tax, and we saw a big reduction in commodity prices last year. In some sectors, commodity prices are now starting to track back up, but there was a big hit to commodity prices last year.
As a profits-based tax, you'd expect that to show in the figures.
JOURNALIST: What's your response, Prime Minister, to the sports scandal that's erupted back home, and also what will you be telling John Key about the involvement, if any, of New Zealand teams and players.
PM: I don't have any message for Prime Minister Key.
JOURNALIST: He has asked for a briefing, has he not?
PM: Prime Minister Key of course can have a briefing, but I personally don't have any message for Prime Minister Key on this matter.
On the question of the things that were revealed, I think all sports fans, including me, find this pretty sickening.
We are people who go and sit at grounds or watch sport on TV and marvel at amazing sporting prowess.
We cheer on the deeds, and the sense that anything we've seen has actually been fuelled by banned substances I think would be pretty sickening for sports fans. It's pretty sickening for me.
JOURNALIST: Do you think (inaudible) the details should be released though? Because at the moment, there are concerns on both sides of politics that all sports in Australia are being tarred with the same brush at the moment.
PM: Well this is for the expert agency involved to deal with and work through. Of course I understand people want more information.
We've had the Crime Commission working with our Anti-Doping Agency, and they will need then to take the next steps to get all (inaudible) people the rest of the information.
JOURNALIST: Would you like to see it released though?
PM: I don't think it is for me - when we were talking about agencies, like the Crime Commission and an anti-doping agency - to be issuing instructions.
I think they need to get the work done the best way they can with all of the expertise that they bring to bear.
JOURNALIST: If Prime Minister Key needs or asks for assistance from the Australians in terms of identifying New Zealanders or New Zealand sports teams that have been affected by the doping scandal, will that be made available to him?
PM: Prime Minister Key can certainly get all of the information he wants, and if there's any assistance Australia can provide, of course we would provide it.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, the Government has talked a lot about sharing the benefits of the boom. Isn't the reality now that you've spent money that you simply don't have?
PM: Let's just be very factual here about what is happening in our economy. I spoke extensively about these matters at the National Press Club last week.
We came out of the global financial crisis strong. We all pulled together to get that done - that's a good thing.
We're in a phase of economic change now where the high Aussie dollar is bearing down on a number of industries and affecting corporate profitability and we need to keep working to make sure we've got jobs and growth and a diversified economy for the future.
What we've seen in the resources sector, we are moving towards the peak of the investment boom, and then beyond that we will move to the peak of the production boom.
Profitability is at its highest when people are in peak production. Profitability is obviously impacted by volatility in commodity prices.
What we said to the nation with the Minerals Resource Rent Tax is that we wanted to tax profits in our minerals sector in the most efficient way, that is, to take tax when they are at their most profitable.
There was always going to be volatility in the MRRT as a result, but I still think it's absolutely fair that at the peak of the profit cycle, Australians see tax from mineral wealth that is dug out of the grounds we all own and the grounds we all share.
JOURNALIST: So if you factor in the royalty rebates and the cost of administering the tax, then could it come back down to zero in terms of revenue?
PM: Well the figures have been released today, and the architecture of the tax is as I've described it.
JOURNALIST: But do you now concede that you'll need almost a miracle to reach that $2 billion predicted profit that the mining tax was going to get in the first year?
PM: Well, the figures have been released today.
JOURNALIST: It's a long way from $2 billion though.
PM: The tax works as a profits-based tax - that's the appropriate design.
We've always said we wanted an efficiently based tax, and that is a tax that takes when mining is at its most profitable.
Now I'd remind people - if we just want to go through this debate. When this debate first started, what we were told in the national discourse - and let's remind ourselves of it - we were told by the other side of politics that the existence of a profits-based tax in mining would destroy the mining industry and everybody would be unemployed.
That was what we were told. It's an irresponsible scare campaign which once again has been proven to be an irresponsible scare campaign.
We deliberately designed a profits-based tax.
Last year we saw some volatility in the global economy; we saw some concerns at thatpoint about the economy of China; it had an impact on commodities prices.
Now as we move into this year, I think all of the doomsayers about China have been proved wrong, and we are seeing good economic conditions and growth in China and we're continuing to see good demand for our resources exports, and we've seen some recovery in commodities prices.
A profits-based tax is purpose-designed so that when you get these cycles, including very quick-changing cycles like the one we've seen over the last six to nine months, it can respond.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, we're told that asylum seekers will be on the agenda when you talk with Prime Minister Key tomorrow. Will Australia be asking New Zealand to take the asylum seekers out of Nauru as happened under the Howard Government?
PM: Look, we'll have something to say when we've actually had the leaders' discussion, but certainly people-smuggling is on the agenda for the discussion.
JOURNALIST: Just back to the issue of New Zealanders' entitlements when they're living in Australia. Will you entertain the idea during the bilateral meetings of any changes at all to those entitlements?
PM: I anticipate Prime Minister Key will want to raise this matter with me, so we will have a discussion in the room.
But I would remind that close relationship with New Zealand and that close relationship is reflected in current arrangements for special category visa holders from New Zealand in Australia.
No other nation on earth has its citizens come to Australia and enjoy those entitlements or benefits.
JOURNALIST: Could I just take you back to the sports and drugs scandal at the moment. Would you agree with some of the commentary made today that the release of a report which did not have a lot of detail in it has cast a cloud over the entire sporting fraternity in Australia, and do we need to get a quick resolution to it?
So people who have done nothing wrong can be assured that they're not going to be caught up in the muck of it all?
PM: I think it's important that the Crime Commission and the Anti-Doping Agency go about the work and public release of the work in the way that they think is best.
I can understand people involved in sporting codes who are now anxious to see the next bit - I can well and truly understand that. But I think we've got to let the experts get on with the job.
As an individual I'd have to say I've been pretty shocked by this material. If you'd asked me to make a guess about doping in Australian sport, I wouldn't have intuitively come out with the work that the Crime Commission and the Anti-Doping Agency have.
So we've already benefited from their hard work, their expertise, and they'll bring that to bear for the next bit.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, can we have a couple of words on the relationship with New Zealand, just to describe your relationship with New Zealand?
PM: The best description, I think, of the relationship with New Zealand is the one I used when I had the very distinct honour of addressing the New Zealand Parliament in 2011.
It is a relationship of family. There is a bond between Australia and New Zealand that is different to any bond that we share in any other part of the world.
The very fact that it's fundamental to our soul and how we perceive ourselves; the legend of Anzac is part of us and it's part of New Zealand.
That is, I think, showing us the depth of the bond that we feel together. So, forged in history, here in contemporary times, and always here for the future.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, was your Government's decision about the Tarkine just about winning votes, or what do you say to the Greens and other groups who are outraged by what's happened today?
PM: Well, first and foremost, these decisions are taken by Minister Burke as the appropriate decision-maker under legislation, which is very specifically done.
There are legal obligations here that Minister Burke has to acquit, and he exercises his judgement against those legal obligations.
JOURNALIST: Does it help you though to win (inaudible) support in Tasmania?
PM: I'd remind you: this is legal obligations; an appropriate decision-maker having exercised that decision-making power.
So it's a decision of Minister Burke under a piece of federal legislation properly informed by the best of research.
Thanks very much.