PRIME MINISTER:
Well ladies and gentlemen, thank you very much for coming. Senator Lees and I are jointly announcing a Government initiative which is a commitment of $36 million to provide a support for programmes to help what we call biodiversity hotspots around Australia where there is a threat to habitat, threat to species around Australia. And Senator Lees has been advocating this programme with me for some time, and we had some lengthy discussions a little while ago and the Government has decided to allocate an additional sum of $36 million. It is very much a result of the strong advocacy that Senator Lees undertook. She is very committed to the preservation of our environment, she's very concerned about the biodiversity hotspots in this country.
Today we're announcing as part of that $36 million programme $1.5 million for farm land remediation in the Mount Lofty ranges area and that of course explains why we have come here today and chosen this beautiful location for this announcement. This commitment by the Government of an additional $36 million of course comes on top of our long running and major commitments through the Natural Heritage Trust, the money that we're making available in co-operation with the states to tackle the problem of salinity around Australia. I'm delighted of course to remind you, particularly as I'm in South Australia, that as a result of the historic agreement reached at the last Premiers Conference meeting, that $500 million which was the first instalment to get the Murray Darling Basin remediated and proper flows returning to the Murray River, that money will now begin to flow as a result of the Agreement that was reached. So this is another step along the path to further protect and restoration of our environment and I do want to pay particular tribute to Senator Lees who is a patient and sincere and balanced advocate of environmental causes in Australia and what I would like to do, particularly as this initiative is very much come at her urging and her advocacy, I would like her to say something about the whole programme and also something about the particular programme so far as it effects properties and activities in the Mount Lofty ranges.
SENATOR LEES:
Thank you Prime Minister. And if I could begin by saying thank you for this additional money. The programme overall is a total value of $36 million and it will be spent on habitats that are endangered and in this case here habitats that have largely gone. We only have in the Eastern Mount Lefty's some four per cent of the original vegetation left and gradually we have under existing programmes such as Landcare and money from the Natural Heritage Trust seen some trees going back but we now need to take it a lot further, we need now to get biodiversity back, old habitats back, original habitats back, with not 10 or a dozen or 15 species but 170 species which is what we used to be able to find if we went out into a patch of natural bush here in the Eastern Mount Lofty's.
So this is, for the Eastern Mount Lofty's, a chance for those farmers who have already been through the basics, who've done a lot of the ground work, who are prepared to put conversance and protection orders on their land, to now tender through the process to get additional support to help them on working farms to protect biodiversity.
In the bigger picture we envisage that this money will go to some pretty special places, probably in some fairly large chunks. We've seen a lot of money have to go fairly thinly because of the need out there. But we're now looking at a fund that will be looking for the hotspots that are most at risk and not just putting in $1.5 million but maybe $3-4-5-6 million to save some areas once and for all.
So perhaps we can take some questions?
QUESTION:
(inaudible).
PRIME MINISTER:
Well I don't know whether all of the people Senator Lees is trying to attract would necessarily be attracted by a reference from me. But let me very sincerely say that I think she's been a wonderful Senator for South Australia, she is genuinely committed to the environment, she's genuinely committed to a lot of causes that I support. There would be many issues where she would very, very strongly disagree with me, I understand that, and I respect that. But I admire her as a person, she's a person of her word and she's a person who I think is a sincere representative of a very strong progressive but sensible environmental position. And if that is what you support and you want good environmental policies, but you don't want the radically intolerant approach to the environment that is adopted by some of the Greens, then I would suggest you support Senator Lees. But I say that with a heavy trepidation that a lot of people who might be disposed to support her would disagree with the idea that I should give her a reference, but I'd be a hypocrite if I didn't say what I've just said. Look, I mean this is, politics is often a case of respecting difference in other people and I respect sincerity and consistency in people and I have certainly found that in Senator Lees and I hope she gets re-elected.
QUESTION:
Are there any other hotspots around the country that you can think of at the moment that the money will go to?
SENATOR LEES:
We are not in the position to actually announce any others. There are a couple of others, a very long way down the track, to be ready to be announced. But we are looking at those areas where there are immediate threats, some of that is to the north of us, up in (inaudible) wetlands, some of it is actually in Queensland and Western Australia. The money is not endless, we're going to have to spend it very, very carefully so we are also looking at the best results for the money that we've got. So we are not ready as yet unfortunately to announce any other things today.
QUESTION:
Prime Minister, could I ask you about Mr Cameron, Ross Cameron? Do you think that he has endangered his standing in Western Sydney?
PRIME MINISTER:
I don't want to say anything further about a matter which is essentially private. He is a good, strong local member, the reference to a poll in the newspaper this morning is news to me, there has been no such poll. Beyond that I don't talk about people's private lives and I don't have any further comment to make, except to say that he will be our candidate, he has been a good hardworking local member, issues of a personal private nature are precisely that and they will not elicit or draw any comment from me.
QUESTION:
Do he has your full support then?
PRIME MINISTER:
Yes.
QUESTION:
And there's no question that he will be a candidate?
PRIME MINISTER:
He will be our candidate.
QUESTION:
Have you had to explain to the Americans what Alexander Downer meant when he said Australia might not necessarily come to...
PRIME MINISTER:
I'll talk to you later about that issue, we're having a news conference on this.
SENATOR LEES:
Any other biodiversity questions or questions about, this is after all also part of the Murray Darling Basin and for me in South Australia, as we looked around areas of need, there are obviously many of them, particularly out on the west coast. But also being part of the Murray Darling Basin and we are waiting on the State Government now to step in and really put protection, water protection, in this area, ... were to fully declare it. We know there can no more dams but there has to be a reallocation of water so that we can see some more water flowing off this area, as it used to, and into the lower end of the Murray. So part of the reason for choosing this as the priority in South Australia was also because it's part of the Murray Darling Basin.
QUESTION:
One of the land holders was telling the Prime Minister that there is an issue, insurance coverage?
SENATOR LEES:
The same with a lot of community groups, a lot of community groups now are from local sporting clubs, through to groups such as Landcare, are struggling with the whole issue of insurance and some of them are slowly working it out, even midwives are struggling with insurance, it goes right across the board.
QUESTION:
Is that something that the Commonwealth needs to address further?
SENATOR LEES:
Well again it goes back to the Commonwealth and the States, there has been some addressing of the issue but I don't think it's sorted the problem out and that's something that we will need to discuss also, hopefully, at another time.
QUESTION:
Prime Minister, could you comment on that? You were the...
PRIME MINISTER:
Yes I had a discussion about that a few moments ago and my understanding is that the immediate situation is containable, but there still could be a medium to longer term problem and I will examine that. There are obviously responsibilities at the state level in many of these areas, there could be a further role for the Commonwealth, as Senator Lees has said. We have encouraged and achieved big changes to the tort laws which have produced the problem, but it's one of those ongoing things which is a sad product of a more highly litigious society that we now have and we do need to address it. It would be a terrible shame if the activity of small, volunteered community groups were impaired because of the burden of public liability insurance. But equally we have to work our way through these things and not make big ad hoc commitments that can't be met.
QUESTION:
Is it an issue for the insurance companies? Would you appeal to them to do...
PRIME MINISTER:
Well they could well have a role, but I would like, the issue having been raised with me, I would like to investigate it further without being specific about what our response would be.
QUESTION:
Prime Minister, how important do you think the environmental vote will be in the upcoming election?
PRIME MINISTER:
Oh I think very important, the environment is a big mainstream political issue, but it's a mainstream national issue. The big challenge that this country has is a sustainable future, to get a balance between the environment and its care and development. And part of that of course is water, the sustainability of our water resources - I see it as a very big issue and I'm very proud of what the Government has done in the area of the environment, we brought in the Natural Heritage Trust, we have the water initiative, what John Anderson has done there, the national initiative on salinity. We will, although we for reasons I've explained, do not support at this stage signing the Kyoto protocol, we will meet our greenhouse gas emission target set by Kyoto. So we have a very strong record but we have to do more, everybody has to do more in relation to the environment, it's no longer the preserve of the fringe of Australian politics, it's dead in the centre of Australian politics and I've felt that for a very long time.
QUESTION:
Your Government has put a lot of store in making sure that people who can afford to have private health cover do so. Should Mark Latham, who earns a (inaudible) money as Opposition Leader, be in hospital as a public patient?
PRIME MINISTER:
I do not choose to comment on that.
Thank you.
SENATOR LEES:
Thank you. Thank you very much.
[ends]