MATT WILLIAMS:
Good morning everyone and welcome to Cibo down at picturesque Glenelg. It is great to have the Prime Minister here with the Small Business Minister Bruce Billson and in particular I thank our great hosts this morning Tony and Tanya for doing a great job and helping me make coffee for the PM.
Tony and Tanya were telling me that small businesses have benefited greatly from last week’s Budget. The asset depreciation and also the company tax rate for small businesses. They've been very upbeat about it as have other businesses I’ve talked to on Jetty Road, Glenelg.
In addition to small businesses, South Australia has benefitted by the South Road infrastructure in terms of the Torrens Road to Torrens River project where $80 million is coming through to help that project. The Prime Minister and I have been speaking a lot about the upgrade of South Road. It is one of my priorities.
South Australia has benefitted in a few other ways; hundreds of millions of payments to South Australia that can help local roads, local emergency services and hospitals and also tourism projects. The Mayor, Stephen Patterson, from Glenelg was just here recently and I was talking to him and the Prime Minister about the Glenelg foreshore redevelopment, the $500,000 going from the Federal Government to this project.
So, we are very excited about it. Welcome PM and over to you.
PRIME MINISTER:
Thanks so much, Matt.
It is terrific to be here. I want to say thank you for Tony and Tanya Beatrice for making Matt Williams and Bruce Billson so welcome here at Cibo in Glenelg.
This is one of the 135,000 small businesses in South Australia that will be eligible for the instant asset write-off.
If every one of those businesses invest $20,000 in improving their business, that will be a $2.5 billion plus shot in the arm for the South Australian economy. This is a Budget which has been good for confidence, good for jobs, good for growth, good for South Australia and ultimately good for Australia.
This is a Government which understands in the marrow of its bones you can't have strong communities without a strong economy to sustain them and you can't have a strong economy without strong and profitable private businesses.
For six years under the former government in Canberra, they were trying to make it hard for business. What people understand well and truly now is that business has a friend in Canberra because, if we have a government trying to say yes to business, that's what we need to create jobs, to boost prosperity and generally to make our country hum. That's my message to the people of Australia. Our best days are ahead of us. There are always difficulties but while we have faith in our future, we can overcome any difficulty. That's what I see so many small businesses here in South Australia doing all the time.
So, while the Budget from this Government was about cutting tax, I notice yesterday that we had the Labor Party recommitting to a carbon tax. So, you've got a very clear contrast between a Government which wants to help business and help jobs by cutting tax and an Opposition which wants to hurt business and hurt jobs by increasing tax. This business has noticed a cut in its power bills by about 15 per cent since the carbon tax has gone. Obviously, that 15 per cent comes straight back on should the Labor Party be re-elected.
There is a clear contrast between a government which is out there to help by cutting taxes and an Opposition which wants to hurt by increasing taxes. It's absolutely crystal clear that if there were to be a change of government in this country, the carbon tax comes back, the people smugglers come back, a superannuation tax comes on and, frankly, as soon as the iron ore price goes up, they'd hit the mining industry with a mining tax as well.
I'm not here today to criticise, I'm here to let the small businesses of Australia know – of South Australia know – that this is a Budget for them. This is the best Budget ever for small business. That's particularly good for South Australia and, again, I want to thank the Small Business Minister Bruce Billson for his advocacy on behalf of small business and for his analysis of what will be best for small business which has certainly driven the decisions we have made in this Budget.
SMALL BUSINESS MINISTER:
PM, thank you. Matt, thank you. This is a great success story of Australian entrepreneurship. Tony and Tanya are scion of entrepreneurs, their children are entrepreneurial in their outlook. This is the story of success for so many communities; men and women having a go, creating opportunities for themselves and others. That's why we have had such a positive response to the Budget. What it aims to do is to energise enterprise, to give support and encouragement for businesses like this one with plans to grow, ambitions to do more. Not only in the business but for the jobs they offer and the contribution they make to the community.
We have heard how the gelato machine can be expanded, improvements and renovations in terms of the décor, another coffee machine to delight customers. This is what this package is about, to take the ambition and goals of enterprising people and turn that into action and opportunity for our economy and for people looking for livelihoods. That's the difference; the Abbott Coalition team energising enterprise, Labor penalising enterprise.
They don't need higher electricity bills in this business or any small business. Let's not have the positivity and the optimism and the really, I think, encouraging outlook about what's possible and how we are supporting that ambition, let's not place that at risk by going back to the old Labor Party that seemed to think small business didn't matter much. It means everything to our economy. It is central to our planning.
Prime Minister, I want to again thank you and Joe in a difficult task of repairing the Budget, also being able to find the resources to give support and encouragement to the men and women of small business and all they do for their community, our economy and the livelihoods that depend on their initiative and their endeavour.
PRIME MINISTER:
Thanks Bruce. Alright, do we have any questions?
QUESTION:
Why is it so difficult for you and your government to get on with Jay Weatherill and Tom Koutsantonis?
PRIME MINISTER:
I'm not here to pick a fight, I'm here to make a difference. I'm hoping to talk to the Premier later today and obviously I am very keen to talk to the Premier about how we can actually get the North-South Corridor fully upgraded to expressway standard within a decade. I am pleased and proud the Commonwealth is putting $1 billion in to get the Torrens to Torrens section done, to get the Darlington section done. Torrens to Torrens is under way. Darlington should kick off in the next few months. Let's get cracking. The sooner we can get this done, the better for everyone.
QUESTION:
Does Australia have any role to play in assisting our neighbours in the refugee crisis in South East Asia?
PRIME MINISTER:
We have always been a good international citizen. We want to be a good neighbour to our friends and partners and obviously if we are asked to help – we are happy to do so. You might have noticed that yesterday the Foreign Minister Julie Bishop increased our commitment to humanitarian work inside Burma because part of the problem is the difficulties that some ethnic groups face inside Burma. There is work that we can do. We are doing it. One fundamental point I want to make is that there is no future for anyone in encouraging the people smuggling trade. Australia will do absolutely nothing that gives any encouragement to anyone to think that they can get on a boat, that they can work with people smugglers to start a new life. I'm sorry – if you want to start a new life, you come through the front door, not through the back door.
QUESTION:
So, you believe Australia should be at the table for these conversations in finding solutions?
PRIME MINISTER:
I'm saying a very clear message to people: If you want a better life, you've got to come through the front door, not the back door. Don't think that getting on a leaky boat at the behest of a people smuggler is going to do you or your family any good.
QUESTION:
But does Australia need to be part of finding a solution?
PRIME MINISTER:
We have a very clear position and that is that the people smuggling trade is evil. It kills people and the only way to keep people safe at sea is to stop the boats. That's what we are determined to do.
QUESTION:
Will you be looking at Australia taking on a leadership role at the meeting next week in Bangkok?
PRIME MINISTER:
This is quite properly a regional responsibility and the countries that will have to take the bulk of the responsibility are obviously the countries which are closest to the problem. Now, in the end, the culprit is Burma because it is Burma where there is an issue. Our role is to do everything we humanly can to stop people smuggling. The best way to do that is to make it absolutely crystal clear that if you get on a leaky boat, you aren't going to get what you want, which is a new life in a Western country.
QUESTION:
Will you be offering resettlement to any of the asylum seekers?
PRIME MINISTER:
Nope, we have a very clear refugee and humanitarian programme. It's a refugee and humanitarian programme which has been modestly expanded because we have stopped the boats and we are not going to do anything that will encourage people to get on boats. If we do the slightest thing to encourage people to get on the boats, this problem will get worse, not better.
QUESTION:
Prime Minister, do you think that George Pell should be coming back to answer allegations that have been levelled at the Royal Commission? He is a friend of yours after all.
PRIME MINISTER:
Indeed, look, these are properly matters for the Royal Commission, properly matters for the Royal Commission and for him.
QUESTION:
For him to say that he just brushes it off as a misunderstanding or denies it, just to say that in a written statement, is that good enough or does he need to front the Royal Commission, in your eyes?
PRIME MINISTER:
My understanding is that he's offered to do that in the written statement.
QUESTION:
But what about coming back in person to face it?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well, that's ultimately a matter for him, but my understanding is his written statement…
QUESTION:
A moral obligation, though?
PRIME MINISTER:
My understanding is his written statement has dealt with all those issues.
QUESTION:
Prime Minister, the big increases in the PBS safety net threshold will effect some of the poorest and sickest people – how is that fair or reasonable?
PRIME MINISTER:
There are some issues which were raised in last year's budget and some of those are still before the Senate, including the matter that you raise. As far as this year's Budget is concerned, what we have done is massively expanded people's access to high cost but highly effective drugs on the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme and that's a very good thing. We made a commitment when we were in opposition that we would not impede the access of our public to important life-saving drugs and that's exactly what we've done in this Budget.
QUESTION:
Did Gina Rinehart ask you to scotch the mining inquiry?
PRIME MINISTER:
I have had various conversations with various people over months and months about our iron ore industry. We haven't made a decision about an inquiry. What we don't want is any inquiry which turns into a witch-hunt against some of our most important businesses and what we will never do as a Government is regulate this market because it is a market which has been free, which should be free and whose freedom has been good for our country.
QUESTION:
[inaudible] there’s a report suggesting that people who retire soon could be more than $5,000 worse off – is that the case? Do you agree?
PRIME MINISTER:
I'm not aware of the report you refer to. All I know is that under this Government, your superannuation savings are safe. Under the Labor Party, your superannuation savings will be treated as a piggy bank to be raided at will by the government. It is becoming absolutely crystal clear through the statements of senior Labor shadow ministers that if Labor were ever to get re-elected, the carbon tax comes back, the superannuation tax gets slapped on and the people smugglers come back.
QUESTION:
Prime Minister, yesterday the South Australian Government announced a hike in the emergency services levy here for the second consecutive year. What’s your response to an increase like that for small businesses and for property owners?
PRIME MINISTER:
Look, a lot of state Labor governments are in the business of giving gratuitous advice to the Commonwealth. I don't propose to play those games. Yes, I have a strong view about projects which are joint enterprises between the Commonwealth and the state. That's why I was so incredibly disappointed on behalf of the people of Victoria when the incoming Victorian state government decided to spend up to a billion dollars to cancel the East West Link and in so doing, destroy 7,000 jobs. But matters which are wholly and solely the preserve of the states, I let the states get on with it, just as I expect the states to let us get on with what is our business and our business right now is this Budget.
As I said at the beginning, there are 135,000 eligible small businesses in South Australia and if each of them invests up to $20,000 in making their business better, in serving their customers better, in employing their staff more, that's a $2.5 billion plus boost to the economy of South Australia. That's the good news. That's the good news. This Commonwealth Government wants to work with the small businesses of South Australia to produce a better life for them and their customers. The great thing about this is that we are not taking money off you to spend it on what we want. We are saying to the small businesses of South Australia, "You invest your money in the things that you want and you'll pay less tax". It is a very intelligent and constructive way of boosting the economy of South Australia.
Thank you.
[ends]