HEALTH MINISTER:
Good morning. It’s lovely to have the Prime Minister here in the electorate of Indi. May I recognise my former colleague, Sophie Mirabella, who understands this community extremely well and it’s great to have her along this morning.
Prime Minister, we’re a little bit funny on the border. We always, if you come from the north side like I do, say Albury-Wodonga! It’s lovely to have you in Albury-Wodonga, recognising, commemorating and really giving a fantastic start to this Spirit of Anzac Centenary exhibition. To walk through it this morning was to realise what an extraordinary job those who have put it together have indeed done. I’m very excited, I know Sophie’s excited, PM, I know you recognise the role of regional and rural Australians in our contribution to the Great War and to have this exhibition begin its commemorative journey here in regional Australia and then go to some 23 other locations around the country is something that we’re very, very proud of.
So, without further ado, welcome and I’d love you to say a few remarks.
PRIME MINISTER:
Thank you so much, Sussan, and thank you, Sophie. It’s great to be here in Albury-Wodonga on this important occasion: the launch of the Spirit of Anzac Centenary travelling exhibition and having been through it, I would say to people: don’t miss it. Don’t miss it. This is a really marvellous recreation of the lives and times and struggles of our grandparents and great grandparents. This was a crucible in which our nation was forged and it would be a pity if people were to miss out on seeing this. I’m certainly going to come back when I’ve got a bit more leisure because it is a truly remarkable piece of work that the Australian War Memorial and everyone has done to put this together and I think it’s going to be of great interest to people in all of the towns and cities that it visits over the next couple of years.
As you know, this is a Government which is focused on jobs, economic growth and community safety. Our armed forces are a very important part of keeping our nation safe. Yes, this is an exhibition which focuses on the work of our armed forces in the Great War, starting with Gallipoli, but obviously, there is a continuing job that our armed forces do and that’s acknowledged and recognised by this travelling exhibition as well.
So, it is great to be here. It’s good to be with Sussan today representing the Minister for Veterans’ Affairs and also with my friend and former colleague, Sophie Mirabella, and it would be nice to have her back in the Parliament. I’ve known Sophie for well over a quarter of a century. She’s a great comrade and I hope to welcome her back to the Parliament.
QUESTION:
Will Sophie get a Cabinet post, PM, if she gets in?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well, you’re asking all of us to get a bit ahead of ourselves. It’s always a tough fight to win back a seat – always a tough fight to win back a seat. Certainly, if you want a very effective Member of Parliament, I think it’s important to have someone who is part of a government or a potential government, but it’s always tough to win back a seat and so we’re not taking anything for granted.
QUESTION:
Did you think she would put her hand up again given the disappointment of two years ago?
PRIME MINISTER:
I know Sophie and Sophie is someone with a deep yearning to represent her community. She’s been the Member for Indi for the best part of 15 years. There’s unfinished business, obviously, here in Indi and, no, I was always expecting Sophie to want to have another go and I support people who have a go.
QUESTION:
Prime Minister, are you contemplating taking an increased GST to the election?
PRIME MINISTER:
I am contemplating doing the right thing by the people of Australia and the right thing by the people of Australia is to have lower, simpler, fairer taxes and the only circumstances upon which we would even contemplate that kind of change is in the context of lower, simpler, fairer taxes overall. As you know, there’s a tax white paper process now in train. We are carefully considering all options – carefully considering all options – but any option that we ultimately embrace is one that would go to the people at an election.
QUESTION:
Will you be on the campaign trail with Sophie Mirabella later this afternoon?
PRIME MINISTER:
Look, I’ve got a number of events here in Albury-Wodonga and Sophie will certainly be part of some of them.
QUESTION:
Just on the terror citizenship bill, can you explain the reasoning behind having a retrospective effect and do you have any sense of how many people that would apply to or who you would want it to apply to?
PRIME MINISTER:
Our position is that if you are a dual national and you have committed terrorist crimes against our country, you don’t deserve to be part of the Australian family – simple as that. If you are a terrorist, you have committed crimes against the family of our nation and if you have another citizenship, good luck to you, you’re welcome to it, but you are no longer entitled to Australian citizenship.
QUESTION:
When are those new citizenship laws likely to be introduced to Parliament?
PRIME MINISTER:
I’d certainly expect them to come into the Parliament in the next sitting fortnight.
QUESTION:
What do you think of Barnaby Joyce’s call for Australia to take more Syrian refugees?
PRIME MINISTER:
We’re already doing that. When Scott Morrison was the Minister a year or so back we announced that because of the crisis in northern Iraq and Eastern Syria we were going to take an extra 4,400 I think it was people under our refugee and humanitarian programme from Syria and Iraq. So, we are doing exactly what Barnaby has suggested and it’s precisely because we have got much better border controls in place, we’ve established much better border security, that we are in a position to increase our refugee and humanitarian intake.
QUESTION:
What was your response to the image that I guess shocked the world yesterday of that Syrian boy on the beach?
PRIME MINISTER:
Look, it was an absolutely heartrending photograph – an absolutely heartrending photograph – and I don’t think any parent could see that photograph without being devastated. So, obviously, there is a humanitarian disaster taking place. It’s being driven by the security catastrophe which is the rise of this death cult in Syria and northern Iraq and the important thing is to do everything we can to disrupt, degrade and ultimately destroy this death cult so that the people of those countries can get their lives back And when it comes to border security, obviously, if you can stop illegal immigration, one of the beneficial side effects is that you don’t have deaths at sea. We had – as you might remember – the harrowing business of people dying on the rocks of Christmas Island just a few years ago as part of that evil people smuggling trade and thank God we’ve stopped it, because when you stop the trade, you stop the deaths.
QUESTION:
Prime Minister, what do you make of the criticism in the New York Times overnight about you asylum seeker policies? The word is ‘unconscionable.’
PRIME MINISTER:
Look, I haven’t read the article in question. I know that there has been quite a bit of interest in the policies that Australia has put in place, because if you do stop the people smuggling trade, if you do close down the people smuggling trade, obviously you end the deaths at sea. And the most compassionate thing you can do in the medium and long term is to close down this evil trade, because as long as this evil trade is operating, as long as people are taking to the sea in unsafe boats, we will see the drowings. Now, this is a very serious problem, it has been a very serious problem in our part of the world. Under the wrong policies it could again become a very serious problem in our part of the world. It’s obviously a crisis right now on the borders of Europe and I think a lot of people right around the world are looking at what we’ve done and said “Well, if Australia can stop the people smuggling trade, if Australia can end the deaths at sea, perhaps we can learn from them.”
QUESTION:
What do you make of Rupert Murdoch’s call for a snap election?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well, our job is to do what we were elected to do and I’m very pleased that so far we’ve had an additional 335,000 jobs created in our economy. That’s due to the good work of Australian businesses, the hard work of Australian workers. It’s due – at least in part – to successful Government policies to repeal the carbon tax, repeal the mining tax, get regulation down and if we can do things like get the Free Trade Agreement with China through the Parliament as quickly as possible that will add to jobs, growth in our economy. And the disappointing thing right now is that some people who say they want more jobs are actively sabotaging a Free Trade Agreement which will bring more jobs about. I’ve often said that trade means jobs and more trade means more jobs. The whole point of the China Free Trade Agreement is to give our exporters a boost and if you are exporting more to China, obviously you can expand your business and you can employ more people. So, this Free Trade Agreement is critical – critical – to our whole future, not just tomorrow and next week and next month, but for years and decades to come. And the tragedy right now is that Bill Shorten appears to be a puppet of the CFMEU. Every time he moves it’s the CFMEU that’s pulling the strings and every time he opens his mouth it’s the CFMEU’s voice you hear.
QUESTION:
Mr Abbott, could I just about ask you – the departure of Andrew Southcott from politics, are you worried about that given that he’s been in the seat so long?
PRIME MINISTER:
Look, he’s been a fine local Member, he’s been a great contributor to the Coalition Party Room in Canberra. Andrew has been a good friend of mine over the years. Just on a personal note, it was in Andrew Southcott’s office one night late in 1997 when the idea for my annual Pollie Pedal bike ride took shape and Andrew’s been a participant in many of those bike rides over the last 16 years. In the last parliament, obviously he was someone who led the attack on Labor’s wasteful super clinic idea – an idea which produced a lot of billboards, but not too many extra doctors and nurses on the ground. So, look, Andrew’s been a great contributor to our Parliament, to our Party Room. He’s been a fine local Member. He will be missed. I’m confident that we’ll have an excellent candidate to replace him and I’m looking forward to campaigning with the new candidate as soon as possible.
QUESTION:
Should you be spending time with the Liberal candidate in Indi when there’s a by-election underway in Canning?
PRIME MINISTER:
Obviously I’ve been spending quite a bit of time in Canning. I was there earlier this week. You can be confident that I’ll be there again between now and by-election day. Obviously, the Leader of the Opposition is taking this contest very seriously because he’s also been in Canning quite a few times. But this is a good opportunity for the people of Canning to pick someone who is going to be a great representative for them. Yes, a good contributor in Canberra, but a great representative for the people of Canning and we have got an absolutely outstanding candidate in Andrew Hastie, we’ve also got a very good record, we’ve repealed the carbon tax and the mining tax and these were anti-Western Australian taxes, we’ve committed to fund the Swan Bypass, the Perth Gateway, the Perth Freight Link. So, we are doing very good things for the people of Canning, for the people of Western Australia and I am confident that they will make a very strong decision in a few weeks’ time.
[ends]